Top 5 event things I'm ready to see evolve

All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.

 - George Bernard Shaw 

5) Registration websites: you know me, you know my company. Why do I have to fill out the same information again?

4) Registration lines: They are the first impression of a conference. Why are they so hard to get right? Why do I have to wait so long, only to get something I then have to go into a corner alone to read and figure out what to do next next?

3) Plates and cups and not enough places to put them: The conference grab-and-go breakfast; the evening reception with appetizers. Never enough high boys, and no event venue uses those AWESOME plate+cupholder things that I can take to a tailgate party! Come on people! I need a free hand to shake/eat/social media with!

2) QR codes: I tried to like them. Really, I did. But I'm convinced they are mostly useless.

1) Badges! I hate where they hang, I hate waiting in line to get them, I hate that they flip around and do not serve their purpose for identifying people 100% of the time!

What do you want to see evolve?

Does social media make you feel old?

"Facebook is for old people."
   - 14-year-old when asked if she uses Facebook

I was recently at a board of directors meeting for the Corporate Event Marketing Association and attempted to give an overview of my recommended social media plan for the association. For the most part, I was met with blank stares. As I mentioned in a previous post, it seems that many of my high tech event marketing brethren are unschooled in the ways of social engagement.  Meaning they don't know how to tweet, rarely use LinkedIn except to update their resumes, and may not even be on Facebook. Most haven't the slightest idea how or why to be on Google Plus (honestly, I'm still working that one out myself...more to come...).

Social media is no longer simply a shiny object that people use to tout their lunch plans. Social media is another vehicle in a full marketing portfolio to communicate with customers and have a two-way conversation. It's a way to share content and allow customers to generate content of their own. Social media isn't just Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. It's YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare. It's Digg, Wikipedia and Google Docs. It's Four Square, Chatter and Yammer. It's Groupon, Skype, and Yelp. Only heard of a few of those? Yeah... it's tough to keep up. Makes you feel old, doesn't it?

The thing is, if you ask "the young people," they'll tell that you they don't hang out on all of those all day long. They'd never get anything done! But here's a real-life case study of what they do:

They send a birthday party invitation through Evite, and track the potluck foods in Google Docs. They may post to Facebook and Twitter through FourSquare that they're picking up 3 dozen cupcakes from Hey Cupcake, which they bought through Groupon. They might even throw a photo of the delicious 36 cupcakes onto Flickr and post the link on Facebook and Twitter. Videos from the party are quickly uploaded to YouTube from the dozens of smartphones carried by partygoers. And finally, they might Skype their parents to get Happy Birthday greetings from 4 states away.

Even thinking about this is exhausting. But digital natives don't even bat an eye when they read that.

So how do you use this for your events?

You can use social media to drive attendance, and you might even get 2% of registrants from there. But better than just sharing registration links, you can encourage conversation on LinkedIn or Facebook groups. Put teaser videos on YouTube. Set up viral ticketing through your registration site (this encourages the event invitation to be shared by discounting registrants for every shared registration). After the event, put the full presentations on SlideShare. Edit recorded sessions down to a 5 to 8-minute clip or interview speakers to put on YouTube. Create a Flickr stream that people add their photos to and share their experience.

It's not as overwhelming as it may seem when you realize that you can use the social media content channels as they're intended to be used, and not have to assign 24/7 staff to sit around watching a Twitter feed.

Now excuse me while I locate a 14-year-old to explain Google Plus to me...

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What I learned from the first-ever, global eTouches User Conference, Aug 16-17, Norwalk, CT

At the point of commitment, the universe conspires to support you.
  - Anonymous

I have been an eTouches user and advocate for going on three years now. My company has implemented the tool globally as the standard, registration system for the majority of customer and internal events. Having taken the plunge three years ago with a relatively unproven company (in the mind of corporate America), and forming a great long-term partnership with them over the years, I had full faith and trust that spending two days at the conference would be well worth my time. I was definately going to go.

Before I had a chance to register, I got a call from Leonora, the eTouches CEO, asking if I would present our case study at their conference. “Of course!” I said. I was more than happy to share my story with 20 people in breakout sessions. As I think back on it now, she gave no indication that it would be just 20 people in a breakout session...

Then one day, a colleague passed me in the hall and said, “CONGRATULATIONS! I see you’re keynoting the eTouches user conference! That’s AWESOME!” I said (very eloquently, I might add), “HUH?” I ran to my computer and scrolled through my inbox to find an announcement that I would be keynoting the conference, followed by 4 more emails from other colleagues congratulating me on my keynote spot.

So I called Susanne Carawan at eTouches and said, “Yeah, hi… so what’s this about me keynoting?” She said, “I know! Surprise! Awesome, right?” Of course, it was totally awesome, and I give presentations all the time at work, speak to hundreds of people frequently by conference call and webinar format…but I had never actually spoken “for real” in front of an audience in any kind of “she’s our featured presenter” sort of way.

So the first thing I learned about eTouches at their user conference was that they were willing to show me the same level of trust that I’ve shown them. They trusted that I would come up with a story that would kick off their conference in a meaningful way. They trusted that I had some sort of ability to stand in front of people and speak coherently.

Only the survey results will truly tell how I did, but I sincerely thank eTouches for giving me the opportunity to share, learn, and grow. And I hope I didn't suck.

But about that conference… I really did learn actual useful stuff. So here’s my recap:

My first awesome moment was when I arrived at the offices. I was on a conference call about an event I have coming up, when a man entered the room - I'd never met him, but after three years of talking to him pom the phone, when I heard him say hi, I knew instantly who he was. Julian Ward!

I told the folks on the phone, "Hold on a sec - I have to put you on mute and hug someone." I know it sounds cheesey, but It was a magical moment!

A colleague of mine from Dell attended with me, and then I got the pleasant surprise of another colleague of mine from another Dell office showing up to attend – I had never met her in person, either!

eTouches CEO Leonora Valvo kicked off the conference with some great “burning questions”… and let me tell you that a crowd of 75 software users have tons of questions and ideas. The eTouches team graciously answered the questions, shared the solutions that already exist, and took in the ideas for consideration.

We learned about upcoming roadmap plans, new mobile features, and got some great demos of modules that many of us see in the tool, but have yet to use. The agenda was jam-packed minute-to-minute with great stuff.

One of the eTouches board members presented an industry perspective on content, sharing some best practices and ideas on how to generate and syndicate event content. Personally, I have no shortage of content at my events (and in fact find that we have to curate it down to the really important points before launching an event), so I would have liked to see a little more from him on the reuse of the content. I have other commentary on The Long Tail of Content, and I think his presentation could have been shaped to expand on that a bit – maybe next year!

On the evening of the first day, we attended a clam bake at the beach… but this was no ordinary clam bake… after getting some clams and clam chowder, we were each served AN ENTIRE LOBSTER. I have never seen anything like that at an event. I was blown away!

I have a mantra that when I attend conferences, the experience is whatever I make of it, so I officially designated our dinner table as “the fun table,” and hilarity ensued. Great conversations that ranged from the naming of grandparents to Facebook privacy to the death of email. We ended the evening with a surprise afterparty at a local dive with an AMAZING band call Tangled Vine. If you’re in the northeast, you must book this band. I’m from the Live Music Capitol of the World, and I was very impressed with this Greenwich, CT, group!

Our previous Death of Email conversation from was put aside the next day when we got a presentation from eWay talking about email marketing. Relevant points, great statics, and reinforcing metrics behind why email is still a viable marketing tool for events.

We had an interesting conversation about mobile apps for events… I think the topic still stumps everyone. Should we build? Should we buy? Should we ignore? No right answer has emerged.

We had an exciting and energetic conversation about social media and extending the life of an event community, led by Susanne Carawan, and the eTouches team announced their eSocial platform (replacing eConnect), and featuring a full private community portal for attendees to connect before, during, and after the event.

Finally, we ended the conference with some Meet the Experts and advisory-type sessions, which were extremely valuable and ton of fun (attendees love to provide input and ideas, and it turns out, I’m no exception!).

As a self-professed disruptor and early adopter, I was absolutely thrilled to be a part of eTouches first-ever global user conference. The people I met, the stories I heard, the experiences I shared will be with me for life.

Thank you to eTouches and to the loyal user-base for making my two days in Connecticut so very worth my while!

Virtual gatherings

Internet:  absolute communication, absolute isolation.  

  - Paul Carvel

When I saw Botox, Skype, and face-to-face meetings in the title of this post, it was a must-read. Then when I read it, it was a must-respond. 

It takes me right over to my little soapbox about virtual event environments with their little static fake people standing around. Some looking like they’re talking to each other, some standing alone, even some illustrated holding a cell phone to their ear. Really? This is how I’m supposed to engage and experience a virtual event? By pretending I’m there in person, when I'm really alone at my cube or in my home office? 

I think we’re all mentally stable enough to know that we’re not physically there. I also think that we go to virtual events for a specific purpose, not to create a cartoon avatar to show up in our profile. At least for me, I attend a virtual event to either watch presentations I couldn’t get to in person, or download content that will help me on my quest to solve a problem. If I engage with other people in the environment, it was to ask a question about a product or solution from a vendor. Sitting in a chat room with 3 professionals and one kid who snuck in and randomly types profanities is not my idea of a good use of time. 

So why do we continue to see virtual event platforms that try to mimic in-person events? They are a different kind of engagement and should be included in the customer journey planning for virtual audiences as a parallel path to the in-person experience. 

Online should be viewed as a content channel. If you’re going to have breakouts online, then plan for it and use something like Skype or Google+ to have a 5 to 8-person web breakout. The virtual event can no longer be project managed as separate entity. It must be folded into the entire customer journey and experience strategy so attendees, whether in-person or online, leave your event happy that they acquired the knowledge they hoped to gain and satisfied with the connections they made.

In other news, Why Virtual Events Fail.

Are you a disruptor?

Change before you have to.
   - Jack Welch

I caught this link on a Twitter feed on the #eventprofs hashtag and identified with it immediately. Sometimes I get frustrated trying to implement and manage change at work and revert back to the easy path of "follow the rules, do what your boss says, and don't make waves." But my nature is to push the envelope. I'm no Richard Branson or Steve Jobs, but in my own little world, I'm known for making people think beyond what they are comfortable doing. I want to find efficiencies and foster creativity.

In events, this means making more meaningful engagements happen in more surprising ways. Like I mentioned in a previous post, it's important to create memorable moments throughout your engagement.
People are at your event for the session content and the networking, so taking opportunities to surprise and delight them in unexpected ways is what disrupts their view of "yet another business conference."

I'm a huge advocate of disruption for the sake of breaking status quo (not disruption without purpose). I was an early adopter of eTouches registration tools, for examples, because I believed they were truly thinking from an event marketer's perspective, with a software hat on, rather than thinking from a software perspective with an event marketer's hat on. They get events, they get social, and they get the need to customize things for each customer. They are disruptors like I am.

Innovation is the buzzword of the moment, and it's a good one. Disruption is the activity we must do to pave the way for innovation.