Next Generation Event

Didn't Make It to MeetDifferent this Year? You Don't Have to Miss All the Fun.

There are still ways to keep real-time pace with the discussions they'll be having this year.

1. Tune in to the opening general session today at 10:00 am EST (information on Meet Different's website).
2. Follow it on Twitter. Several attendees are talking about it and you can easily track their comments because they mark them #meetdifferent (take a look at the screen shot below). If you're on Twitter, consider following people like @mcallen and @jkhewett who are really pumping out the updates.

If I come across other ways I'm tracking the event as it proceeds, I'll be sure to update you.

It's More Than Online Reputation Management (and Why "Podunk" Blogs Matter)

Meetings and Conventions Magazine has a great article this month on online reputation management for event planners. Most of the experts interviewed agreed that you should both be monitoring and responding to online conversations (whether glowing or scathing) about your event or organization.

By doing so, you get the obvious benefit of having your response right there in the conversation--this can be especially helpful in the case of criticism. But even more importantly, you get the opportunity to elicit more constructive feedback from attendees and potential attendees that you can use to make the event better. Not to mention that you also get a unique opportunity to build closer relationships with the very people you hope will come next year.

I think the term "online reputation management" falls far too short of the actual benefits you can reap from responding to and learning from the feedback that is out there. The term implies to me an almost obsessive need to control the message and bring it back to the corporate brand you penned in an office of executives during an all-day branding meeting.

Guess what? You can't control that message anymore--at least not in the traditional sense. Maybe you did once, back when information was a one-way street. (Remember those days? When public opinion was limited to a few opinion letters that were chosen by the editorial boards of newspapers and magazines?). Maybe you even had control for the eight hours you spent in your branding meeting. Now it's out there and you've lost it, but you've gained something far more powerful.

At least that's my "Podunk" opinion.

And that leads me to the other notable portion of this article. "Podunk" isn't my word. It came from the director of communications for the American Society for Microbiology who says her staff monitors for mentions of the organization's events online, but notes:

[G]enerally, if there's misinformation on a blog, we tend to ignore it... The New York Times is one thing. Somebody's blog in Podunk is another.

People, and especially directors of communication, who view blogs with this type of disdain seem to have their heads in the sand.

For one thing, your event is probably not going to be mentioned in the New York Times. Your group may be cited in the Times frequently as the leading group with expertise on your topic (and the American Society for Microbiology, the leading society on germs, definitely gets some well-deserved coverage), but you're unlikely to get New York Times exposure for your upcoming conference.

And even if you did, you're not reaching your specialized, target audience. I read the Times, but I won't be going to a microbiology conference just because the Times mentions it.

Who can reach that specialized audience? Trade publications, certainly. And blogs. Your members are reading niche blogs in their areas of focus. If you're not building relationships with those bloggers (and monitoring and responding to what is being said about your event and your organization), you are squandering great opportunity to promote your event and make it better.

"But Our Model Doesn't Work Online"

Image by kevindooley

Last Friday, I started a new position with the continuing legal education arm of our state bar association (more on this to come but, generally, I'll be working on online strategy for CLE programming). When I saw this post from Seth Godin today, it was a reminder--not that I've needed one--about why I chose to take on this position. From the post:

People look at PCWorld magazine and they say, "that will never work online." And they're right, it won't, because the business is organized around print and monthly or weekly editions and display ads and a sales force and ...

"Our business will never work online."

And they're right.

My new organization knew that taking things online was a whole new game. But they also knew they had to (and wanted to) do it. The combination makes it a pretty good place to be.

Your Event Should Be a Catalyst

If everyone had @DaVinciDeb's view on events, we'd be in pretty good shape.

Early Bird Registration for GMIC's Annual Conference Ends Friday!

Are you interested in a supportive, informative, and collaborative forum to learn about and discuss the best sustainable practices for your meetings and events?

Run [don't walk] to sign up for the Green Meeting Industry Council's Annual Conference. This year it will be in Pittsburgh, February 24-26. Early bird rates end Friday!

Here's to An Exciting New Year

I stayed in Denver for the holidays this year, but thanks to technological advances, I still managed to be the center of attention at my family's gathering back in Lansing, Michigan (if only for the duration of a phone call). That's me on the screen with my cousins--one now lives in the Twin Cities and the other in San Jose.

I miss my family and would have loved to see everyone in person, but as we talk about all the time on this site, sometimes that's just not possible. As you can see, my family decided that wouldn't stand in the way of some family pictures.

Thanks for joining me this last year. I'm looking forward to exploring all sorts of new ideas and opportunities with you in 2009.

Tips for Avoiding Greenwashing from the Green Meetings Master

From Nancy J. Wilson, a pioneer in green meetings, these tips on making sure your green efforts are more than skin deep:

1. Be informed
2. Understand the terms
3. Be clear on the criteria
4. Participate
5. Be transparent

Hotel Incentives Are an Opportunity to Enhance Attendee Experience

Conference planners who have been around the block know that when hotels are doing well, they take everything they can, and when things slow down, prices start to fall. According to iGroupNews, hotels facing the crunch of this economy will be providing incentives, rather than dropping room rates.

Smart planners will seize on the incentives that make the conference experience better for attendees (and not just the ones that help planners trim costs), like free internet access, free parking, and waived resort fees for attendees.

Your attendees don't care that you got the meeting room for free or lowered the food and beverage minimum (unless, of course, you take the saved money and use it to enhance the event). And "Now with lower F&B minimums!" doesn't make for the best brochure copy. Instead, try using the incentives to make your event stand out from the rest.

You Wish You Did Conferences Like These Guys

And maybe you do, but you should still take a look at their blog. Like so many organizations, 360Conferences offers specialized tech conferences to developers. But unlike so many organizations, they do it really, really well.

How?

By putting customers first.

By focusing on content.

By building community (both in their conferences and beyond) into their model.

And to think--they just started out as attendees who wanted to build a conference they would like to attend.

Do You Poken?

Or so asks the URL of a new company that is sick of business cards. I was turned on to Poken by Streamlined Mind, a great productivity blog for students. The author, Hugo, used Poken at a recent conference in Amsterdam. The device allows users to exchange social networking information instantaneously.

I hate business cards. They take up space. They needlessly use paper. I have to manually enter the contact information I receive from them. They don't change automatically when a person's contact information changes. People always seem to be patting their pockets and realizing they forget their cards. I could go on.

I want a tool that makes exchange of information easy and instantaneous. And I want more than your phone number and email. I want to connect with you on networks, as well. I am glad to see companies like Poken moving in that direction, though I agree with Hugo that the more ideal solution would be a build-in on my phone. With Poken, I still have one more gadget to remember when I head out the door.