Communicate More Good

“In the time honored tradition of email, just ignore the question.”
- John Dobbin

So while I love Xobni, I like this idea better.

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Remember: Events ARE Marketing

“When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.”
- Chinese Proverb

Seth Godin has a great post today about event/meeting planning. I think he's accurate on everything except the 30 x 80 meeting room setup - and I get his point, but I disagree with it.

They Travel in Packs

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean."
- Ryunosuke Satoro

And how many times do oceans need to register for something? Most of the time. I am seeing more and more instances where either I need to register an entire room block or my customers need to register multiple attendees to an event, and the technology piece does not allow for it. Does anyone really have the time to sit around and individually register 32 people? Probably not. If you are building out a reg site, make sure you consider the poor administrative assistant or event planner who is going to have to waste half a day entering everyone's names into you system one by one.

Appreciate Out Loud

“Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.”
- G.B. Stern

Thank you notes have always been touted as the most sincere way to personally thank someone for something they did for you. Today, this is still true, but why not go above and beyond? Follow Andy's lead. I always include about $50-100 in my event budget to use for appreciation gifts. Maybe its an Edible Arrangement to the housing bureau manager who miraculously found me 5 extra rooms the day before the deadline. Maybe its a bottle of chocolate dipped wine to the hotel event manager who found me two meeting rooms even though the conference is less than a week away and the hotel truly had no space left (I still don't know how she did that)! Even a couple of restaurant.com gift certificates to the event planners on my team who have bent over backwards to deal with ambiguity and get an amazing event planned. In the grand scheme of a $120k+ event, $100 to thank some folks is so very worth it.

Chit-Chatters Unite!

Word-of-mouth is not created, it is co-created. People will only spread your virus if there’s something in it for them.
-Hugh MacLeod

The hottest (and most cost-effective?) trend in marketing is Word of Mouth marketing. Always on the hunt for inexpensive demand generation tactics, Word of Mouth programs are ideal for events. According to Andy Sernovitz's blog, the National Restaurant Association knows how to use WoM quite well to promote their show, and we should all take notes!

I Love E-mail!

"God help us, we're in the hands of engineers."
- Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

Who knew I would ever get excited about opening Outlook? Thanks to Xobni, I do. This third-party Outlook add-in is the coolest thing since sliced bread. It adds a toolbar to the right side of your Outlook that shows a profile of the person you are emailing. At a glance, you can see their phone number, schedule time with them (without looking through both of your calendars), see your conversations, see attachments you've shared, and more. It has made my e-mail life so much more efficient. And the fun part is the analytics. I can actually see, on average, how quickly I respond to emails, when I receive the most email, what time of day I send the most emails, and even how many unique people I have exchanged thoughts with. I'm enamored. Check it out - its free.

Time to Move On?

If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.
- Brian Tracy

Have you ever heard of the Dead Sea Effect? The article referenced is talking about the IT industry, but I believe the same can be said for the event industry. It's a little cruel to think that a tenured, experienced event person might just have no other place to go, but without turnover, new ideas tend to get squashed. Moving on can be a good thing.

Best seat in the house

Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
- Mark Twain

Why do most auditorium-style meeting sets have the aisle in the middle, right where prime viewing of the screen would be? Why do we cram so many chairs together that the middle of the rows are empty because people can't get to them without climbing over each other? Why do we make a vague attempt at helping people see the screen by herringboning the side rows, but we still make them crane their necks for an hour?

A few years ago, I attended the SGMP National Conference in Nashville and had the pleasure of participating in Dr. Paul Radde's session on audience-centered seating. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this has not become the standard for meeting room sets. No more aching necks. No more empty seats in the middle because people do not want to crawl over each other. MORE room for chairs. It really is a no-brainer. Also check out his ideas on optimizing narrow rooms.

If you see Dr. Radde on any conference agendas discussing audience-centered seating, don't miss that session -- you'll never be more amazed by someone talking about chairs!

Let's give 'em something to talk about

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
- Oscar Wilde

I'm trying really hard to care about Twitter. Stories of non-events like flash-mob parties thanks to twittering are enthralling, as are stories of how people network at events via Twitter. Is Twitter the next level of Facebook/MySpace when it comes to keeping up with friends and colleagues, or will it just further crush our youths' ability to communicate in actual full paragraphs and words by encouraging one-sentence microblogging?

It's easy to label this one "passing fad" simply because it seems that only the technically savvy will truly latch on to it, where something like a blog is a little more open to the masses. But I will admit that I follow a few people on Twitter (Andy Sernovitz, Wil Wheaton, and my husband who posted once - 11 months ago). You should at least log on and check it out - you know, see what the kids are up to! Sidenote: all of the people I currently twitter are over 30! Perhaps "the kids" are not the young'uns you're imagining. For a quick reality check of how ubiquitous this is becoming, check out twittervision.

The point is, you should keep an eye out for this technology's usefulness at your next event. Can you tweet your attendees to alert them to news, session changes, or evening events?

But we've always done it that way!

"Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. "
- despair.com

Quick nod to one of my favorite sites for co-worker gifts. Despair.com is a blast to explore!

Now on to the topic at hand - why do you do the things you do? Is it because you've always done it? A legacy ritual inherited from those who came before you (a la the monkeys and the bananas)?

Or do you do it because you "should"? i.e. post-event surveys? Don't get me wrong, surveys are absolutely vital to measuring the success of your event and attendee ROO, but that's contingent upon someone in your company actually taking the time measure the success of your event and attendee ROO. If everyone looks at the survey results PowerPoint you send out and then sends a note back to you saying "Thanks for pulling this together," and you never hear from them again... well, it's time to reevaluate the need for and the usage of those surveys.

In my organization, we are going through some sacred cow slaughtering at the moment and it's pretty exciting to witness the morale increases first-hand.

Here's one that we can't seem to kill, though (in fact, I have been laughed at for even suggesting it) - why must event personnel stand behind a registration desk? Isn't there a more inviting way to welcome attendees to your event rather than placing a large table between you and them? Perhaps you have some ideas?

What's in a name?

"Responsibility is the thing people dread most of all. Yet it is the one thing in the world that develops us."
- Frank Crane

I would probably not name my business "Blow Me," however in this case, it seems to fit - they're breathalizers! From the latest issue of Springwise:

In the US, alcohol-related car crashes kill someone every 31 minutes, according to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the problem extends around the world. Blow Me is a UK-based company that hopes to reduce such statistics by bringing its mobile alcohol breath-testing service to private and corporate events.

Event organizers can hire Blow Me to attend any party or other happening where alcohol will be served. With the same equipment used by police forces throughout the UK, Blow Me's trained team conducts unlimited alcohol breath tests for event guests in a non-threatening and professional manner. Both branded and unbranded packages are available, and Blow Me's staff will follow any dress code to suit the occasion—tux and ties if needed. They can offer custom promotional materials, if requested, as well as information for guests about local transport options. The result, Blow Me hopes, is that more people will think twice before getting behind the wheel.

Launched in 2006, London-based Blow Me serves clients all over Europe; by January of this year it had stopped more than 1,000 people from unknowingly driving drunk, founder Sam Rose says. Undoubtedly it has also enhanced many a company's corporate image.

Are you a CMP and on LinkedIn?

"We will surely get to our destination if we join hands."
- Aung San Suu Kyi

Just discovered this a few days ago:

If you have a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation, please considering joining the Certified Meeting Professionals group here on LinkedIn.

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/82316/5DA7E210A54C
* Reach out to fellow CMPs
* Get to know more than just a name in a directory
Clarification added 16 days ago:

This group is designed ONLY for those that have the CMP designation issued to them by the Convention Industry Council.

I also discovered that MPI has a student group on Facebook that I encourage you to join. It seems to be relatively new, so the traffic is a little light at the moment. Perhaps we can fix that by getting the conversations going!

2010: the year of comfy air travel?

"Being a philosopher, I have a problem for every solution."
- Robert Zend

An actual innovation in air travel for coach class! The first class cabins have been the recipient of many nice upgrades (fully reclining seats, anyone?). And now we poor cows in coach will actually have a pleasant experience, too, thanks to Delta's new design.

Though it seems like it would make conversation among passengers a little more difficult...oh, and:
No more laying down across 3 seats when they're empty.
How do you see out the window if you're in an aisle seat?
How do you get your hot coffee from the stewardess if you're in the window seat?
Potentially disgusting germs on the "cozy" shield area...

Hmm...

Are events the savior of social media?

“We live in the best of all possible worlds.”
– Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

As the online community becomes ever-more isolating, events may become to the key to truly allowing people to connect. So says Spike from Brains on Fire in this post.

And I quote, "...joining forces with offline opportunities to get flesh and blood together to celebrate one another (no, not celebrate your brand) will amplify – and trump – anything you could ever do online."

Know any college students?

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."
- Max DePree

If they have *any* interest in social media as a career, they need to apply for this job.