Yes! We should do followups to this podcast and talk more about other dangers and oversights.

Thanks for listening Joan. Did you meet Tracy at PCMA?

Mike

And then could we talk about scents and the danger for some of us?

Thanks.

Well that is to bad. Its a quick trip for me and I need to now record a bunch of podcasts for you!!!

Happy Holidays Traci

Mike

Mike

In my opinion, Pond 5 is a decent alternative to iStockphoto and the rest of the microstock gang. Another tool that I rely on is StockFuel at http://stockfuel.com, plenty of decently priced videos and photos there.

Thanks for listening!

Mike

I always love chatting with Greg. Such a funny smart cat! Thanks for listening!

Mike

Couple of remarks on the content:
Elling Hamso is based out of Norway and you can find him here: @ehamso and on http://www.eventroi.org

The content will be available post event for the sessions you missed on http://www.eventcamp.eu/live and we will be publishing news capsules around the specific sessions.
More links can be found on Lanyrd (who were also present onsite in Down Hall) and I’ve taken the liberty of adding your podcast there as well… http://lanyrd.com/2011/eceu/

Thanks for the reviews and feedback and look forward to further comments. We will be doing a full survey on the ROI of this event including the explanations of why certain questions are being asked. Appreciate your help in spreading the word on that once it comes out later today to get the benchmark of the 3 audiences!

Best regards,

Ruud Janssen
@ruudwjanssen
co-founder Event Camp Europe

Thanks for the comment

mike

Mike

As I say in the article it makes me sick to think that any of the sponsors names might be tarnished by the experience. I can’t remember if it was Mike or John (I was listening at 250% speed) but you guys even touched on this. “Who wants to hire a production company from an event that had issues?” and “I run a production company and I would have fixed it” (paraphrasing). Yeesh. So now what are we supposed to do? We supported this event because we want to support cutting edge meeting production. We performed IMHO amazingly well, and the guys pulled stuff out of you know where that they didn’t even know they could do. We fixed what we could fix, and you can testify that in the end I made a solution that would have worked on a pod by pod basis, only to run out of time (we had a hard out at 2pm and struck that biznatch in an about an hour). I’m not looking for a pat on the back, I’m just trying to be clear from my perspective.

The guys tried a lot of things, and an unfortunate amount of them went south. It could have just as easily gone the other way and I could be kicking myself right now for not getting our name out more, but it didn’t. Now all we can do as sponsors is hope that the positive outweighs the negative.

As for malice, you’ll get none from me. And if it’s something I can take away and make better in the future, you can be damn sure I will. BTW in my original draft for that post I digressed into the Philly Pod and the Silicon Valley Pod in a cage match. Ready? FIGHT!!

As the Philly Pod leader I completely agree about the game confusion. We spent most of our time trying to figure out what to do with the game that we didn’t have time to actually play it. There was no one we could ask questions of because Emilie didn’t have access to the speakers while they were on stage or in the main room. We found that the game was taking away not only from our time to socialize and network and reflect on what we were experiencing. It was also taking us away from the “virtual” experience with Emilie and her speaker interviews. On day two we just bailed on it because we could see no value or make any connections to any learning experience. Without access to the game designer to ask questions, your virtual pod host should have instructions given days in advance so we know how to access and understand the point of the challenge. Also, take into consideration the fact the pod is 40-60 seconds behind when you give a three minute challenge.

Our POD was very disappointed in the fact that we didn’t get skyped in at any time. I also put a lot of time into planning this and Jeff Halligan from Dyventive put in time and donated their expertise and equipment (camera, laptops, screens, etc.) but they were never put to use other than us waving at the camera. However our participants did each pay $50 to attend to cover basic costs for the event. The common sentiment even on the first day was that we were abandoned. We ended up being 12 people in a room watching TV.

We definitely learned a lot from this and I do hope the organizers are willing to listen to our feedback (without malice) to learn from the experience.

Totally agree that it was confusing and a bit of an overload, especially at first. But all that confusion and overload actually worked for me. I was like a lab rat running from place to place trying to earn some cheese–totally addicted to jumping from challenge to badge to Twitter feed to my team’s Twitter feed to actual sessions. Though for all that activity, I’m not sure how much I actually learned. Hmm.

I wanted to check out (virtually, alas) the Silicon Valley EventCamp the day before, but I just couldn’t take that much time out of last week. Maybe if you had spaced it a little differently, it would have drawn more virtual folks, anyway. The timing made sense for locals, of course.

Thanks for sharing the pod experience. I think my experience (and my expectations) probably would have been different if I had been in a pod instead of sitting in my office with just my dog for company.

I am absolutely agree interactive videos definitely engage the visitors

Yet, I wonder how do we better define and demonstrate what we add to an event since everyone out there has a slightly different definition of “quality” or “value” in the services that we provide….And at the end of the day, do the final clients even notice or understand what you and I might define as our personal level of value and quality in the work that we do?

So, I now ask myself if “good enough” is now okay with planners as long as the price hits the target for them?
And if that’s reality now…what does that mean to all of us in the industry over the longer-term?
Thanks again!
Jon

I have not had any experience with PCMA, but as far as choosing between them, MPI is very meetings specific, while PCMA is convention/trade show specific. I am biased, so my first recommendation would be MPI, but if someone is deciding between those two organizations, I would recommend they check them both out. Go to a couple of events (MPI allows you to attend two without joining), talk to the members and talk to the Board of Directors and see which association fits your needs more.

I would love to start a conversation about different certifications and industry associations because there are so many out there! I started with MPI because Corporate Meetings was my focus at a former company. Since then I have moved more into special events and away from meetings, but my roots remain in MPI. Sometimes I do wonder if I should branch out more, given my current position, so I am also starting to explore other organizations/certifications. Maybe that can be a topic of a future podcast! Maybe we can gather some industry leaders from other organizations with different certifications and discuss each in more detail? I would find that incredibly interesting!

First off, thank you for listening to the podcasts and taking the time to comment back. It’s very appreciated!

I would agree that the test is somewhat planner-centric, however I could see there being some big challenges to trying to add in supplier based questions.

It’s challenging enough to find questions that are fair across the various types of planners because as we both know, planner jobs can encompass a wide range of skill sets. The experiences and tasks of an association planner, a non-profit planner and a corporate planner often looking nothing alike.

To me the CMP says that you have a broad base of knowledge of many facets of the meetings industry and the role of the planner is kind of a central hub into most of those areas. A planner needs the basics of an area to make informed decisions, even if they don’t get into the deeper levels of something like contracts, catering or AV.

As a supplier taking the test, I looked at it as a way to get a better overview of my industry and to better understand the needs and problems faced by my customers (planners). So, passing and adding CMP as a title doesn’t demonstrate my AV knowledge but is shown as an illustration that I’m experienced in the meetings industry and have a broader knowledge of other areas beyond my speciality.

As far as MPI, I’ve been a member for 18 years, so that’s why I fall back into using them as a reference so often. I’ve only recently explored PCMA and some of the other organizations (ASAE, ISIS, HSMAI, etc) so I’m just not as familiar with their structure and offerings. I’ve begun to make a real effort to broaden my horizons this year. So, hopefully you’ll hear Mike and I talking more about other organizations this year as well as MPI.

Thank you once again for listening and commenting!
Jon

My question is MPI was the only industry association mentioned, no mention of PCMA or other groups, is there any reason? Being unemployed for 3 years, I’m not a member of either, but just curious. Thank you.

I really do enjoy the podcasts.

A big thanks to Ananda of the House of Blues Anaheim and to Elizabeth of Building Blocks Social Media for making the event happen!

Where are you based?

Mike

If I may add to this, we also capture conversations, when it’s not just the speaker talking but groups of people so that everyone can make connections and spark new ideas. We also use templates to more actively facilitation a group process such as planning, visioning, or any kind of business (or personal)) analysis (or reflection).

I’ll share this link widely, appreciate the time and creativity you put into it!

All the best!

Claire

I enjoy attending tradeshows and value the face-time I have with meeting planners and would love to know how to make the best of these events!