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I have talked to my writing group The Professioanl Bullwriters Association and we are going to gear up to do some creative writing. I already wrote the first assignment.

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Congratulations!

To Grass Shack Events and Media Senior Account Director Jon Trask on gaining his certificate in meeting management. (CMM) Jon earned his CMP designation in 2003.  Jon has also been a member of MPI since 1994.   Jons focus has been on the production aspects of meetings and media and he put this to use plus his CMP to understand the needs of meeting planners and organisers he works for.  The tools he learned in the CMM program have already come to action for our clients!  Jon wrote a business plan in the class for a meetings startup company to help planners save time and money called Avforplanners.com.  We are really proud of him here in the Shack!!

What does the Certificate in Meeting Management (CMM) do?  It educates, and certify management-level meeting and event professionals. The focus of the certificate is to provide strategic decision-making ability of these leaders to manage and deliver exceptional meetings and events that drive organizational success.

You can congratulate Jon yourself at Jon @ grassshackroad.com   or on twitter @jontrask

Other articles

• CRM tools for business owners in the meetings industry Show 254
• Reader, Listener Feedback help for AVforPlanners.com
• Brandscaping for Events with Andrew Davis -Show 255
• Launch Festival Startups- Instaplayer – Luis Hervella – Show 253

Unleashing the Power of Partnerships

Mike McAllen interviews Andrew Davis author of Brandscaping Unleashing the Power of Partnerships Drew talks about how event planners and organizers can use partnerships to extend the value of their events and meetings.  Andrew shares stories and options on how you can make your events content grow legs and keep attendees excited before, during and after your event and get them looking forward to the next event.

Please forward any questions to over to us. meetingspodcast@gmail.com   Also, let us brainstorm ideas for your next event and Drew will come back on the show to discuss real world ideas for brandscaping your next event or meeting. meetingspodcast@gmail.com

Drew is also a great option to keynote or to speak at your next event.

Follow Drew on Twitter at @TPLDrew  or call him at 617 286 4009 (really? yes really!)

Get the physical book Brandscaping on Amazon.com here.

Get the Kindle addition of Brandscaping on Amazon.com here.

Get the Audio version of Brandscaping on Audible.com here (meetingspodcast link)

Jon’s Link to How Social Media is Changing CRM

Since the meetings and events industry is full of freelance workers I thought this video was particularly interesting. Some swearing takes place so if you are sensitive to some bad words I would not watch it.

2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*ck You. Pay Me. from San Francisco Creative Mornings on Vimeo.

I have often said getting business for Grass Shack Events & Media or producing the meeting is not the hard part. Often is is just getting paid. I have one client from two years ago from a successful show we are still working to get paid from. (Lawyers are now involved ) But often creative work is difficult to quantify for some clients, procurment departments and for overall budgeting. I have spent many an hour chatting with a procurment department explaining line items. Actually, it is why Jon and I have started AVforPlanners.com as a startup. Helps planners explain why things cost what and how they showed due diligence in picking vendors.

Great Walk In Video Option

Luis Miguel Hervella  from CHIPOTLELABS is an indie app developing company that builds “apps to spice up your life”.

They take this motto very seriously and have made it our mission and philosophy. Luis talks with Mike about his experience at the Launch Festival.

Twitter: @chipotlelabs

Personal Twitter:  @LMHervella

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chipotlelabs

Instaplayer: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instaplayer/id539683067?mt=8

Contact email: hervella@chipotlelabs.com

Event Technology

MeetingsPodcast This Week in Meetings show features one of the Launch Festivals event startups. Mike McAllen talks with Michael Balyasny of Attendify.com formally Kitapps.com about their new Event App solution for meetings and events.  We have run across many event apps but this one really caught our eye at the recent Launch Festival in San Francisco. Attendify might be a great cost effective, intuitive solution for most meeting planners and organizers. You can easily build the app online and try before you buy.  :)

Mike McAllen:                     Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events & Media. Today, we have Michael Balyasny. Did I say that right?

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. That’s perfect. You got it.

Mike McAllen:                     [Laughs)

Michael Balyasny:            Thanks for having me on.

Mike McAllen:                     Thank you. You are from Attendify?

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. Attendify.com.

Mike McAllen:                     Attendify.

Michael Balyasny:            We’re a mobile app platform for conferences and events.

Mike McAllen:                     Very cool. We met recently at the Launch Festival. I was there volunteering, running around helping people, and came across your – you were in the demo pit. It was very interesting. It stopped me. I stopped and talked. There were 250 something demos there going on.

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. Probably a little more.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes.

Michael Balyasny:            They were close to selling those out, and then they did, and I think they even added a couple more tables.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes. There was just a lot, a lot of stuff. But it was very interesting. So we had a little chat, and then I really wanted to have you on the podcast, and here you are. So thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate it.

Michael Balyasny:            Sure.

Mike McAllen:                     What did you think of the whole Launch Conference? First of all, how did you get in to the Launch Conference

Michael Balyasny:            So I attended last year’s event and kind of had my eye on a table in the demo pit for this year and we applied to launch onstage. So my company is going through kind of a rebranding and relaunch phase right now. We’re currently known as KitApps relaunching as Attendify later this month. We have a new social app and a bunch of new stuff that we wanted to feature and be onstage. So we applied to do that. We didn’t get in because we were running a little bit behind on our development and just didn’t have the demo ready on time. We only showed a couple of screenshots and I think there was sort of some concern on the part of Launch as to whether or not we’d be ready on time. So we ended up just being part of the demo pit. We did get the product ready and it was a great experience for us.

Mike McAllen:                     So what happened there? Were there some really good things that happened or bad things? What was the outcome of the whole thing?

Michael Balyasny:            It was great because on the one hand, you have a lot of great companies around you who are kind of in the same stage - about to launch either for the first time or relaunching their products - and talking to them is really valuable because they’ll give you great feedback and ideas. So that’s helpful and that’s something that I think most companies don’t realize is going to be a benefit. When they’re planning to attend the event, everyone’s thinking about investors and partnerships and working with bigger brands. We found that feedback from other entrepreneurs was really valuable and we got some really great partnership opportunities as well, and even some interest from investors. So we really couldn’t have asked for more and this was our second experience at an event like this. We also did TechCrunch Disrupt back in September of last year and both events were topnotch and the launch was just really great and so much bigger than it was last year. So I think Jason’s done a great job to take the event to another level.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes. I kind of had your experience from last time this time because I have a little startup called AV for Planners and I went for that exact same reason. It’s just I don’t understand this whole startup world, and talking to the other people that are in it was just so beneficial.

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. It really is. I mean there are a lot of great people – a caliber of startups of what is topnotch. The ones launching onstage and many of the ones in the demo pit were great. There were a couple other startups that were event-focused and it was great to talk to them and see how we can help each other out. It was just a really good experience overall, and for any entrepreneur at any stage, you really want to connect with others and bounce ideas off each other and just get feedback for what you’re doing. That’s really valuable.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes. Because it seems like if you ask your friends and people, they are all, “Oh, it’s great!” But you can really get some honest opinion from people that are in the same boat.

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. It’s hard for them to relate to what you’re going through and know the challenges that are up ahead because if someone is launching their product for the first time, they want to get some ideas from someone who launched a couple of months back, and there was a great mix of people and a really great exchange of ideas. I think that’s one of the special things about the tech space, is that everyone is pretty open, everybody is sharing ideas. That fear of someone’s going to take my idea has gone away. It doesn’t exist anymore. That’s one of the first things, and the masters will tell you this, that look, you’ve got to be open, sharing your ideas and really be collaborative about it, and that spirit was alive and well at Launch.

Mike McAllen:                     That’s great. That’s really great. That’s great information too for people who are trying to get out there and do things because I know I’ve kind of pushed mine along because I started the company – my Grass Shack Events & Media – about 12 years ago. I left a big company, a production company, and started my own. And I get that feeling from other people like you’re going to fail, basically, and that gives you that driver. I didn’t really have anyone else to talk to about that actually, now that I think about it, but that was 12 years ago. So now I kind of have to bug myself to do it again. It’s like, okay, this is kind of fun. I mean, it’s horrible, but it’s fun [Laughs].

Michael Balyasny:            Right. It can be very lonely.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes.

Michael Balyasny:            That’s one of the big problems, yes.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes. Very interesting, very interesting. So what kind of people – when you say for a collaboration, do you mind me asking what other, or do you want to talk about any of the other companies that you were kind of talking to that are event style?

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. There were a couple. I think the one that sort of sticks out is a company called Acteva that some of your listeners may be familiar with. They do event registration and event management and they’re looking to do more mobile. So that was an interesting connection. I just found that there’s a lot of interest around mobile in the events space. Everyone’s sort of looking at how mobile apps can improve the event experience and how to do that more affordably to make it more accessible to events of various budgets. I think that was really interesting just to see other people sort of working on those ideas and giving feedback because they’re great context obviously for a company doing something with events because everyone who comes up to you is literally, they’re at an event, so they’ve got that mindset of what could be better if this event had an app.

A lot of the people were actually sort of surprised that Launch didn’t have their own app. They had an app for kind of angel investing, but they didn’t have an app to manage the schedules and help people network. So a lot of people who came up saw the app we were demoing. They were all asking, “Can we download this? Is this available? Is it in the App Store?” It was just a demo, but we got a lot of great feedback and ideas just from people attending who would’ve loved to have some of these functionalities available to them.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes. I agree. I think there was another app. I think we talked about this at the show. There was another one that was onstage that did it and he kind of railed on them a little bit. I don’t remember their names. But he kind of railed on them because their branding was all over the app.

Michael Balyasny:            Right.

Mike McAllen:                     And then he didn’t like that at all. He goes, “I’m not going to pay you a bunch of money to sell your thing at my conference.” He kind of got into it a little bit and I thought, huh, I wonder what that’s all about? So the app they had was just one of the sponsors, right? It was just to invest in different companies or pretend invest or something?

Michael Balyasny:            It was made by a company called Sourcebits and they sponsor Jason’s podcast, This Week In Startups, and got involved with the event. They basically are a design-focused development shop. What they did is they custom-developed an app that would connect angel investors attending with the startups demoing and launching onstage. So if you were an investor and you had to kind of confirm that you were accredited, and then you could go ahead and say, “I want to put $5,000 into this startup.” And then basically, the app would just exchange contact info between the two parties. But the deal, obviously, that happens offline. There are all the due diligence and so forth. I thought that was a great idea for an app and a great fit for Launch. I’m curious to hear more about how many deals actually were done with the help of the app, and I’m sure that’s something Jason is going to go over in his upcoming episodes of This Week In Startups, so I’m looking forward to that. But I thought it was a great idea, a good initiative.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes. Well let’s get into your app. Let’s talk a little bit about it. So what does it do?

Michael Balyasny:            So we are an app platform. We help event companies create their own apps. This is a native app. This is your own app. It’s meant to be the official app for your conference, your event, your expo. We’ve built this really easy to use app platform. We call it our Event App Wizard because it’s a step by step process for creating your app. You choose the features you want, you add your content, you customize the appearance, and before you know it, you’ve got a conference app with everything you need to replace your printed guidebook, ready to go. And because you’re managing the content, because you’re the person kind of driving the process, we can deliver the app at a really low and affordable price point and very quickly.

So those are the big things about what we’re doing right now and we’ve been selling the app platform and the apps for the past six months via KitApps.com, which has been our brand thus far. And now, we’ve decided to focus completely on the event industry and we’re relaunching as Attendify. We’re going to be also launching a social app, which is also created on our app platform. The same easy experience, step by step, really no guesswork at all, and you’re going to get sort of a social network for your events. So not only is it going to give you all of the schedule and speaker profiles and all those sort of guidebook replacement features, but you’re also going to give people attending a great way to connect with each other and message each other, have profiles, pull in all the social content from Twitter and Instagram and really just improve the event experience.

Mike McAllen:                     Yes. It’s really neat. I know I talked to you a little bit about QuickMobile who is the sponsor of this podcast for a long time.

Michael Balyasny:            Sure.

Mike McAllen:                     There are really great guys there and nice people. I really like them. But the people I sent them to, sent there from the podcast and in other places, really didn’t have that great of an experience with them because maybe they grew so fast or something, but they were very expensive and to make changes was a really difficult thing.

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. We hear that a lot.

Mike McAllen:                     That was the one thing with theirs that was just like to make a change, and you know how events are. I mean everything is changing constantly. That keeps me in business, all these changes [Laughs].

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. Exactly. That’s something we hear a lot and we’ve had quite a few customers who came over from QuickMobile and had used their apps in previous years and they are very expensive. I mean, we’ve heard, tens of thousands of dollars, and in most cases, it really depends on what you want, but the apps are definitely at a much higher price point. And you have to email them and kind of get in touch if there are any changes, and a lot of events that are happening on weekends, then it’s going to be hard to get a hold of them. We’ve heard that from a lot of our customers as well. Not only QuickMobile, but a lot of the companies who have been doing event apps, take sort of a custom development approach where they’re literally building out each app one by one for their customers. That’s expensive. It’s time consuming. It takes a couple of months to do. It’s just not going to be a great fit for a lot of events. We think that obviously the price point is going to keep a lot of people away from having an app and we really wanted to make apps as much more just democratized access to event apps via an easy to use platform.

Mike McAllen:                     Now is this app, if it’s a conference that happens every year, they can use the same app each time? Like just the date change on it or something? How does that work?

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. You can use the – basically, we charge for an annual subscription. If your event happens multiple times a year, you’re welcome to update content within the app or reuse the same app for your different events. When next year’s event comes around, you can update content. The other great thing is that we’re going to resubmit and update the app for you as we release new features. So you’re always going to have access to the latest version of what we’re offering. So you’re not stuck at some version that we had six months ago. You’re going to be able to update it and make sure you have access to all the latest and greatest stuff.

Mike McAllen:                     Very cool, very cool. And so, where do you think media organizers can really benefit from your product?

Michael Balyasny:            So I think at this point, it’s possible to totally replace your printed guidebook. That’s one side of it where you can save a lot of money. You can go paperless. And virtually everyone attending your event has a smartphone. With our platform, you get an iPhone, Android and also a web app version, so you’re covering pretty much everything and anyone who’s going to attend. Not only is it great to not print and save money, but it’s also more convenient for people attending because they always have the latest version, content is updated instantly at any time. So it’s a better experience for people attending. And now with our social app, I think we’re going to add a lot more value to events because we all know that networking is really why most people are there and our app is going to help people be aware of who else is there at the event, connect through the app, set up meetings, and really just have a better sense of what’s going on at the event and be more productive.

Mike McAllen:                     So there is a way on there to set up meetings?

Michael Balyasny:            There’s a way you can direct message people using the app. There are privacy settings also, so if you don’t want people to message you, you can turn that off and they won’t be able to, but I think the vast majority of people are going to want to keep that on and want to see who they can connect with. They can set up meetings and along with just the profile of each person, you can see all the content they’ve created, the tweets they’ve sent, the photos they’ve posted through the app. So not only do you know their name and company and kind of position, but you also kind of see what they’re interested in, what are the sessions they’re responding to, what photos they’re posting, so it becomes much easier to break the ice.

Mike McAllen:                     That’s great. What a great idea. I used to love those old – they used to before have those websites you could go on and really set up things beforehand too. This is just even better because it’s right in your hand.

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. I went to a couple of events that had the pre-event kind of website, matchmaking and networking, and I always found that harder to use because I wasn’t in the mindset yet. When you’re at the event, that’s when you really start thinking about the connections you should be making. That’s when you’re really tuned in to what’s going on. I think before the event, you’re still focused on other things. Everyone’s got a lot going on and aren’t fully tuned in, I think, before the event. So making it mobile and having it with you at the event, interacting with people in real time, engaging with the social media, is really valuable.

Mike McAllen:                     Very cool. Alright, Michael. Where can people find you and find out more information if they wanted to talk to you about it more?

Michael Balyasny:            Sure. You can go to KitApps.com. That’s still up and running until the end of March. After that, we’re going to be at Attendify.com. If you start creating your app today on KitApps, all your content, all your information, is going to be transferred over to Attendify. It’s free to register and start building your app. We don’t require any credit cards or anything upfront. It’s really easy. Just the email and password and you’re set up and you’re building an app. If you like it, you can publish it. It’s just very easy and fully guided, so nothing to be intimidated about at all.

Mike McAllen:                     Well, that’s great. That’s really great to be able just to go in and fool with it, to start out with.

Michael Balyasny:            Yes, yes. A lot of customers will build their app – we actually have an app that lets you test it on your phone before you publish it so you know exactly what you’re going to get. And all that information is up on KitApps.com and it will all be up on Attendify.com as well.

Mike McAllen:                     So that’s “KitApps.com.”

Michael Balyasny:            That’s right.

Mike McAllen:                     Because I remember when I first talked to you, the first time I walked by and said hi, you said, “Oh, we’re KitApps,” and I thought, “Oh, you do kid apps for children.” I don’t hear very well, but it’s “kit.”

Michael Balyasny:            No, a lot of people make that mistake. It’s kind of hard to hear, yes. It wasn’t the best choice.

Mike McAllen:                     [Laughs]

Michael Balyasny:            But Attendify is a little bit easier, and obviously, it makes it clear that we’re focused on events and we’re going to keep working on the platform and making it better.

Mike McAllen:                     I think it’s great, Michael. Really great. I encourage everyone to go over and take a look at the site right away and try building an app. I mean, that’s pretty cool.

Michael Balyasny:            Yes. Thank you.

Mike McAllen:                     Alright. Well, let’s talk again another time. We’ll see how you’re going once everything is moved over and you’re rich and famous.

Michael Balyasny:            Oh, I’d love to.

Mike McAllen:                     [Laughs]

Michael Balyasny:            I’d love to. Thanks for having me on.

Mike McAllen:                     Thank you so much.

Roberta Boucher

How to get into the event management industry with Roberta Boucher who has more than 20 years of event industry experience. Most recently with Wells Fargo Roberta supported internal communication events for more than 270,000 team members.  Roberta is excited to talk to people interested in getting into the meetings and events industry.  Email Roberta

Linkedin Groups for Event People

- BizBash

- AV Industry Professionals

- CEMA

- Event Marketing Pros

- Event Peeps

- Event Production People

- Event Service Professionals

- Event Planning & Event Management – the 1st Group for Event Professionals

- Virtual Events & Meeting Technology

- International Center for Event & Exhibit Marketing

- Who’s Who in Events

Professional Organizations

- Meeting Professionals International (mpi.org)

- International Special Events Society

Find Roberta:

linkedin.com/robertaboucher

about.me/robertaboucher

AvforPlanners.com Free Event Solution

I would love to get your feedback on Avforplanners.com It is designed to help Event/Meeting organizers with AV equipment and labor decisions   We released the first portion of the service as a set of simple questions about your event or meeting which spells out an easy to use request for proposal (RFP) wizard to email users a concise PDF to give to your in house AV provider, outside audiovisual provider or production company.  This PDF will tell them what you need for your event or meeting.  This alone will save you time and money on making a decision on a Audiovisual provider.

We also offer a service to take that PDF and give it to 3-4 audiovisual vendors of your choice and get back proposals from them.  AvforPlanners will put those 3-4 proposals side by side and give you a one page summary  of all three so you can make a educated choice on which you would like to use.  AvforPlanners will not have any stake in who wins the Audiovisual contract.  We want you to make the best choice possible for your meeting or event.  Less time trading emails and answering questions over the phone and more time planning an engaging unforgettable meeting or event.  We will ensure you save time and money on planning and organisation of the program.    AVforPlanners is a totally seperate corporation from Grass Shack Events & Media but I know our listeners and readers might get some great use from AVforPlanners.com.

Please take it for a spin and send me your feedback at  Mike At GrassShackRoad.com.   Thanks so much!

Mike

CRM for meetings & events

On this weeks podcast, Jon Trask of Grass Shack Events & Media and Elizabeth Glau of Building Blocks Social Media continue their discussion of CRM tools for small business owners and entrepreneurs in the meetings industry.  This programs focus is on social media connections to you CRM system and some ways to integrate social media into your customer relationships.  While there are many tools and systems for larger businesses, they cast an eye toward inexpensive or free tools and ideas that small organizations can use to engage their customers as well as their potential customers. 

LINKS!

Outlook Social Media 

Gohachi

Hootsuite

SproutSocial

Commun.it

Klout

Raven Tools Slides

How Social Media is changing CRM

Jon:                                             Welcome back to the podcast. I’m here again today with Elizabeth Glau of Building Blocks Social Media. The last time Elizabeth was on with me, we were talking about CRM and software and small businesses. So we’ve come back to do kind of a follow-up on that and talk a bit more about some other things. I think today we’re going to focus a little bit on social and CRM.

Elizabeth:                                Yes. Thanks for having me again. I’m happy to be here.

Jon:                                             Good to have you back.

Elizabeth:                                Yes. We felt like last time, we had so much more we wanted to talk about at the end of our CRM podcast and we started getting into a little bit of social CRM topics, so we kind of just decided maybe it’s better to do a follow-up on that topic.

Jon:                                             Kind of worth a whole show, I think.

Elizabeth:                                Yes, exactly. Now that we’ve sat here and talked about some ideas and had a good time conversing about it – hopefully, we can keep it to one show.

Jon:                                             Yes.

Elizabeth:                                And not need another follow-up to the follow-up, but we’ll see how it goes. I guess the idea, kind of where we left off, was we were talking about CRM, which in case you didn’t hear the other one, is Customer Relationship Management. So basically it’s your database where you keep all of your customer contacts and things. Where we had started to kind of talk about was integrating social data into that CRM database. So potentially, and I think some of these systems will get better at integrating, and a lot of them say that they’re social now.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                However, as I kind of alluded to last time, the research that I have done has shown that none of them really are truly social. They say that they’re social in the sense that maybe it’s got a field where you can enter somebody’s Twitter handle into it or something like that. There is one that I mentioned last time. It’s called “Nimble,” that really does have a full integration, but they just aren’t doing – they’re just not ready yet. I don’t know.

Jon:                                             [Laughs]

Elizabeth:                                They’re in alpha or beta or something, but it’s been glitchy every time I’ve used it. So they’re the only ones that have potential, but I can’t quite fully recommend them…

Jon:                                             They’re not quite there.

Elizabeth:                                …yet for that. So I think what we wanted to talk about today was having this social data like when you need it and where you want it. So one of the great examples that I like giving in presentations is say I’m about to email somebody and wouldn’t it be great to actually mention something that I saw on their online profile about what’s new with them or the last thing they tweeted or the last thing that they were talking about on Facebook and things like that. I can actually reference that in that conversation in an attempt to reference something that I really care about like as a person.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                You should tell the story you had about how we used to kind of build those relationships and keep those relationships going and how that’s changed.

Jon:                                             Well, when we were chatting beforehand just putting the material together for this, I was telling Elizabeth a story about having a phone call come in like late in the day. This was probably about 15, 16 years ago, so it was really before there was social media and before there was a lot of Internet activity than just email. It was a potential customer who I had cold called on and said, “Can I talk to you a little bit about what you guys can do and what your capabilities are?” and I ended up on a conference call with her whole team, and as a result of that, getting an RFP and then doing up to 40 meetings a year for them for a while. It was a pharma group. And so something like that.

Actually, something that also comes into this conversation was I’ve had a lot of discussions with other people even outside of our industry who work in sales, and it is one of the challenges today. I mean we had a brief call on the example that I’m using and we were able to have some sort of relationship and it came through a recommendation, which I found out later where it came from. Information like that used to be shared on a phone call and you’d have an introductory chat and you’d get to know the person over time and ultimately get opportunity.

Elizabeth:                                But if I can interrupt, the trust – the relationship started because of the trust because you were referred by somebody else.

Jon:                                             Right. Absolutely.

Elizabeth:                                So you weren’t just starting from scratch there. So yes.

Jon :                                             So yes, I wasn’t just a cold call that had come in and they randomly picked out. But building those relationships take time and take an exchange of information and talking about what you like and what that person likes, and all of that builds up over time and there are a lot of people who try and sort of shortcut that with the process and it doesn’t really work. At the same time, what I was heading around to on people outside our industry, we’ve talked about the current economy and the way that people are buying. It’s very challenging because you don’t have time to build a relationship. I mean, 20, 30 years ago, people would go play golf for the afternoon and would go to a lunch.

Elizabeth:                                A free martini lunch, nonetheless.

Jon:                                             Yes. Not the quick run through the sandwich shop.         

Elizabeth:                                We’re really getting to know each other.             

Jon:                                             [Laughs]

Elizabeth:                                That’s the idea, anyway.

Jon:                                             So those all have their place, but now those aren’t really available tools. I mean, I can’t call up most of my customers and say, “Oh, do you want to take the whole afternoon off and go play golf with me?”

Elizabeth:                                Right. Exactly.

Jon:                                             Not going to happen.

Elizabeth:                                Yes.

Jon:                                             So how do you build those? The real crux of this is how do you start to build those relationships with people when people don’t have time to build relationships?

Elizabeth:                                Exactly. So that’s great. Yes. I loved it when Jon brought up that story about that salesperson he was talking to and the whole golf tie-in and everything because it made total sense with I think what we are trying to talk about today, is what are the ways in today’s world and today’s society with information overload and everybody on these social platforms are talking about themselves. We all love to talk about ourselves.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                Right? So a savvy networker is going to start listening. Talk less about yourself, right? Which is just good, basic social or sales skills anyway.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                Right? I had actually seen something the other day that said introverts are better salespeople because they shut up and listen, right?

Jon:                                             Because they listen.

Elizabeth:                                What a concept! Like who knew? No, it was people that were in the middle of being introvert and extrovert.

Jon:                                             Okay.

Elizabeth:                                Like people that are right in the middle. That’s who it was because that’s where I am. That’s where I owned in on it. I was like, “Hey, that’s me! I got it. That makes sense.” So anyway, people are just talking about themselves all over social media. So you have the opportunity to engage in these conversations. It could be a potential client, it could be just someone else that is within your professional network. Whatever it is, start listening to what people are saying about themselves because they’re sharing the same type of information that you would maybe talk to somebody about on the golf course.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                They’re talking about their kids, they’re sharing pictures of their kids.

Jon:                                             Their vacation.

Elizabeth:                                Right. Yes. So instead of saying, “Did you go on vacation this year?” Instead, you can start the conversation with, “How was your vacation in Hawaii?” I mean you saw the pictures that they posted. If you can even be more specific than that, it’s even better. But the idea – and this is one of the things, Jon, that we’re talking about before – was clearly, you actually have to be authentically, genuinely interested. If you just start stalking people online and referencing their vacations and stuff and it feels like it’s kind of out of the blue to them and a bit random…                                

Jon:                                             It could be a little creepy.

Elizabeth:                                Right. They may not take it that way. So again, I think it’s think about the whole relationship cycle. Do you already have that trust? And I would point out – and this is why I pointed out in your story about you were referred by someone, which means in that scenario, you kind of had some of that trust without having to build it yourself.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                That’s another reason that these social media channels are so important for you to instead of or less so talking about yourself, but putting out good information – sharing good ideas, sharing industry articles and things like that – because you don’t realize how many people are actually seeing what you post.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                So you may start a conversation with somebody that you think is a little bit out of the blue. You haven’t talked to them in person too much, but you may be surprised to learn that they know all about you. If you’ve done a good job with your social media and you’ve made a positive impression on them, you might be able to call them and they feel like the relationship has already started. And then for you to say, “How was your vacation in Hawaii?” they might think that’s great.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                They might just think like that’s fantastic that you’re paying attention to me because I know I’m paying attention to you.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                So it’s being interested in each other.

Jon:                                             As we talked about, it could be a little creepy or a little “stalkerish,” but at the same time, people are adapting to this and they’re adjusting and starting to understand that you’re putting public information out there. I mean, I’m always very cautious with what I put into my Twitter, into my Facebook, into my LinkedIn streams. So that information I know is going out into the public and it never goes back into the bottle.

Elizabeth:                                Yes. Yes, exactly. The Internet is written in ink [Laughs].

Jon:                                             Yes.

Elizabeth:                                That’s a line from The Social Network, by the way.

Jon:                                             So you had a couple of different ways to integrate this, and we’re kind of looking again at ways that somebody who’s more of a small business because there are these great tools that you can pay lots of money and have whole teams monitoring, but we know a lot of the people that we’re kind of addressing this specific topic to don’t have those resources. So what could an individual do?

Elizabeth:                                Exactly. Again, our kind of goal, our track for the year, I think it’s going to be focusing on small businesses, independent players. So certainly you can’t afford a large social media monitoring system, and you may not even be aware that these types of things exist. But yes, there are huge computer systems that are set up to just monitor who’s talking about you. Of those people, who are the most influential? All kinds of crazy stuff. We have found a couple of tools for you that are better just kind of on an individual basis. A, they’re free.

Jon:                                             Right. Which is always good.

Elizabeth:                                Right. These are free or cheap, and they really are things that are set up more towards small businesses and just individuals. Again, when we’re talking of B2B sales, business-to-business, I always have to remind people that business-to-business is more relationship-based. It’s more that person-to-person interaction and engagement than it is when you’re buying from Target or some big company.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                So one of the tools that you can look at is if you’re using Outlook, definitely and right away, you should look into the LinkedIn Outlook Connector, or it might just be Outlook Connector because I know you can also integrate Facebook in with that. Basically, all it does is you’ve got to start a new email and you type in – say I’m going to email Jon. So it will pull up a little picture of him on the bottom. There are ways that I can, once I’ve pulled him up, I can see. Again, like what the last thing was that he tweeted – or not tweeted. In this case it would be Facebook or LinkedIn.                                   

Jon:                                             Right. The last status update on those.

Elizabeth:                                It also has some other good features too. I can see all the emails that we’ve shared. Basically, things that are specific to my relationship with him. Again, referencing something that he might have just said I think goes a long way in continuing that relationship when I’m going to email him anyway about something.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                Another suggestion I have is if you are getting savvier with your smartphone, I would sync all of your contacts. So you’ve got your list of contacts in your phone and there are ways that you can sync them with those people’s Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and everything else. This has really come in handy for me because sometimes I might not have an email address handy for somebody, but if they’ve made their email public on their Facebook profile, I can actually just pull it out right up with my phone under their contact. I’ve often also sent a message to somebody through Facebook if for some reason they didn’t make that public or whatever, I can’t find it.

Jon:                                             You can’t find their email, yes.

Elizabeth:                                Then I can always just message them through Facebook, but they’re easy to find. I’m not going through one platform at a time to try to figure out, like how can I connect with this person? That kind of thing.

Jon:                                             Well, and from the Mac perspective, there’s that integration now as well. Like in the mail program, iCalendar, all of those pieces do work together if you’re on a Mac and share that same sort of information. I even get notifications on my laptop – like you made an update about us recording a podcast that came through, I got a notification on my laptop while I was working that you mentioned me, basically.

Elizabeth:                                Right. Exactly. Something I just thought of actually is really a smart way to use Facebook these days. I mean you really should kind of separate people into different lists and groups and things anyway if you are at all concerned about privacy settings and who you’re sharing with who. Yes, it takes some work to do that and I know it’s not as easy as say it is on like Google+ where you’re forced to do it when you’re adding contact. You’re forced to put them in a circle.

Jon:                                             In a circle, right.

Elizabeth:                                Right. Whereas on Facebook, you have to kind of go back in and make sure you do that, but make sure that you’ve got the people that you really want to make sure that you see their updates on. You can get notifications whenever they post a new update. Again, yes, that’s semi-stalker, but you may just do that like for your close family and friends and those kinds of groups.

Jon:                                             You can also do notifications when there’s a mention of you. In the situation again that we’re sort of addressing here, it’s not like you’re a major company. So there aren’t going to be hundreds of tweets about you in a day, very likely. So set up those notifications in the areas so when you’re mentioned, you can hop on it and you can respond. When somebody says, “Hey, you did a great meeting in Las Vegas,” then you can respond back to them and thank them and engage them at that point. That’s where this whole CRM stuff comes in too.

Elizabeth:                                Yes. Exactly. So it’s being proactive in that case.

Jon:                                             Yes.

Elizabeth:                                So when people are giving you some goodwill and giving you some love on these social media channels, you definitely want to at least thank them, if nothing else. Thank you for the mention or the retweet or whatever. Best case scenario, you can make that message get more traction by quoting it instead of just replying or whatever. There are different ways to give it legs or whatever you want to say with that.

Jon:                                             Sharing it and doing other things.

Elizabeth:                                Yes. I mean there are large corporations that have, again, these monitoring tools that give them the heads up, and a lot of these stuff can be automated as well. However, still, at the end of the day, you need that human element to it, right?

Jon:                                             Yes.

Elizabeth:                                There’s lots of good stories in hotels specifically, right? Scott Stratten had told this good story about hotel wake up calls are usually automated, but he was at this one hotel and he actually got a person on the line. They not only just scheduled his wake up call, which is what you would expect, but they asked him if he wanted breakfast or coffee or whatever it was 15 minutes after the wake up call, which he said you probably don’t want the person knocking on the door right when you wake up. You might need a few minutes to kind of gather yourself or whatever. There are so many good stories out there of how you can take this data that you’ve accumulated and maybe you’ve hooked into your CRM system and that kind of thing, but give that human element to it and you’ll really surprise somebody in a good way.

Jon:                                             Right. I was in a marketing session late last year that talked about that, how generic advertising and generic contacting of people is really kind of dead. People want a personalized experience. There’s a huge challenge in personalizing that experience because like if I go into a store, sometimes I want to talk to somebody because I have a specific need, and other times, I want to just wander around, and how does that store know that? They don’t know which day they’re getting me, unless I tell them. So the CRM part of this too is maybe finding some of those clues that tell them how I want to be communicated with on that day or in general.

Elizabeth:                                I think there’s an app that I tried. Again, this might have been when they were like still in beta with, kind of, because there was this app that I tried using for a while. It’s called “shopkick.” What it was supposed to do was it would know when I walked into a Target, specifically, and it would send like coupons to my phone for things that it thought I wanted to buy.      

Jon:                                             Okay.

Elizabeth:                                So this is kind of taking this to a new stream a little bit. Again, most people will be thinking like that’s crazy and I don’t want them stalking me in that way, but again, I think we’re just going to get more and more bombarded. It’s information overload. I want to see the messages for things that I want to buy. I want personalized advertising that’s geared towards me because it might be something I actually need or want. I do want to see those ads or do more research on them as opposed to some car that I’m not even in the market for or whatever, something I’m not going to buy.

Jon:                                             That’s wasted on their part too.

Elizabeth:                                Exactly.

Jon:                                             It’s not really helping the situation.

Elizabeth:                                Nobody wants that.

Jon:                                             It’s funny because there was a really interesting article that I pulled up from last year out of Businessweek. Let me get the author’s name. It’s Steven McKee and it’s from June 8^th of 2012. He went through a lot of this idea of social connection to CRM and had a couple of funny ways of sort of defining it because he said some of it is like customer relationship manipulation and some of it is minimization. I remember the example of that one specifically was these phone trees that you bury yourself into. The companies love them because it saves them time…

Elizabeth:                                And money.

Jon:                                             But people don’t like them. I don’t know anybody who says, “Wow! I want to call an automated desk” instead of a person at a hotel who’s going to take your wake up number.

Elizabeth:                                If they found a way to make it funny or something, and then maybe somebody might actually like that, but for the most part, no.

Jon:                                             The mechanization was one of them as well, and that mechanization one kind of speaks to what you’re saying about the shopkick in the sense of you go on Amazon and while it’s good, sometimes, it still doesn’t understand you. So if I go on and I buy a gift, for example, for my niece’s kids. I bought a couple of toys over Christmas that I had shipped to their home. And so suddenly it starts suggesting things for me about kids.

Elizabeth:                                Right. It assumed you have kids.

Jon:                                             I don’t have kids who are four and six years old and I’m not really always buying stuff for that. And so this automation part is good, but it still needs a human element. It needs somebody to look at it and say, “You know, that doesn’t fit at all with the pattern.”

Elizabeth:                                Yes, exactly. Yes, he did buy those toys at one time. However, if he really didn’t have kids, maybe he’d be – whatever.

Jon:                                             If it were really smart, it would recognize that I’ve bought toys in December every year.

Elizabeth:                                There you go. Right. So in December it might suggest…

Jon:                                             It might remind me.

Elizabeth:                                Something for the next age group or whatever, yes.

Jon:                                             Maybe they’ll be doing that soon, and that’s one of the things that was crossing my mind as we prepped for this whole podcast, was probably the stuff has changed while we were recording this.

Elizabeth:                                [Laughs] There you go.                    

Jon:                                             It’s such a moving target.

Elizabeth:                                Right. All of a sudden, this just in, there is an amazing social CRM tool now on the market!

Jon:                                             Yes. It’s like you just have to keep up with it.

Elizabeth:                                Literally, right.

Jon:                                             So I always tell people – a different topic. I had a conversation on a LinkedIn group about AV and someone was asking about oh, where do I find the neatest, coolest stuff? And it’s like yes, where here are some places you can find that, but you got to keep to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter on the AV stuff was how are you engaging the audience. The heart of the matter on the CRM stuff is how are you engaging the audience. It’s relationship, it’s building, it’s talking. All of these things we’re talking about are just tools. They’re just ways to maybe try and do it more efficiently or effectively. So don’t get lost in that part of it and lose sight of the ultimate goal.

Elizabeth:                                Yes. There are tons and tons of tools, whether they be for the big enterprise level clients, corporations or even these little freebies here and there, which by the way, they’re free in the beginning. Nothing gets you hooked on well, if you just paid us this amount of money a month, you get these features.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                So I, of course, get suckered into those, but it is my job to kind of know what tools to recommend and what the latest things are out there. So speaking of tools, I’ll mention just a couple more.

Jon:                                             Absolutely.

Elizabeth:                                We’ve got “Hachi” – and of course I’m going to have to spell all these because they all have funny names with funny spellings, right? So Hachi. That’s how I would say it. I don’t even know if that’s the correct pronunciation or not, but it’s basically a program where you can get successful introductions to people that you might want to meet. Ask the best person in your network for an introduction to somebody that you want to meet and things like that.

Jon:                                             Okay.

Elizabeth:                                So it kind of seems like taking LinkedIn to the next level maybe, but it combines different profiles – Facebook, Twitter and all that stuff together. I mean LinkedIn is great for that just by itself, but clearly we’ve got other networks that we can use too. Just for social monitoring, we kind of alluded to quickly you want to know when somebody mentions you and talks about you and things like that. HootSuite has become a pretty basic tool. I used to, and even on the webinar today, I kind of introduced it as more of an intermediate level tool because it’s definitely not something that newbies are going to use, but really, anybody that’s kind of familiar with using Twitter, and Twitter specifically, but Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and just kind of wants one tool to put them all in one place and see different streams and be able to post in one place, HootSuite is great for that.

There’s another one called “Sprout.” Well I guess I should spell HootSuite for the people who don’t know that one either. So it’s HootSuite. I mean they have it as one word, but whatever. If you googled it with two words, I’m sure it would come up. I’m sure their SEO is accustomed to that. There’s another one that does a lot of similar stuff called “Sprout Social.” So two words. Actually, now that I’m looking at their website, it kind of looks like one word too. They just like to make two words into one word and call it a brand name.

Jon:                                             Or put a period randomly in the middle.

Elizabeth:                                Yes, actually. Right. The one that you had written down.

Jon:                                             Commun.it.

Elizabeth:                                Right. It’s like Commune It, kind of, but it’s Commun.it. So another tool to play around with. Check it out, definitely. I think we could probably do a whole show on “Clout.”

Jon:                                             Yes.

Elizabeth:                                Klout is this whole other – in theory, that will tell you who’s influential as you are maybe looking at your contacts, your customers and things like that. That’s more of an advanced I think marketing strategy and social strategy, is really identifying who the influencers are.

Jon:                                             So let’s save Klout for another one.

Elizabeth:                                That’s right. That’s a little bit controversial too. So we might save that one for later. There was a great presentation that I had seen at a conference I went to and the presentation was actually given by someone at a company called Raven. Raven as themselves, they’re Internet marketing tools. So they’re one of these companies that has these huge monitoring capabilities, but what was great about their presentation and what we don’t see a lot when we have suppliers give presentations is they gave a whole slew of other options, other platforms that you could use. So if you do want to look for that presentation that I’m referring to, you can actually find – they have it up on their SlideShare. So all you have to do is go to SlideShare.com/raventools. So just look for that presentation there. I think the bottom line really is it’s not about you.                           

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                And you cannot be in a relationship with yourself. So as much as we’re guilty of just talking about ourselves on these networks and stuff, it makes sense to be listening and engaging and using these conversations when we actually speak to someone or email someone as opposed to thinking of it as a crazy stalker kind of thing.

Jon:                                             It’s really at the end of the day just about communication. When you mull it all down, it’s finding out how to connect with people and talking to them and providing good information and not just chatter. It’s no longer one-way communication. It’s a two-way communication so you need to develop a dialogue with people, and that’s what the CRM is all about.

Elizabeth:                                Yes. I think people that are in marketing in any capacity, they’ve started to learn that when it comes to a brand. They understand that oh, okay, as a brand, I shouldn’t just be saying, “Hey, buy my stuff” or “Hey, look at me” and calling out specifically people and saying, ‘Hey, I want to sell you something”, but we also have to remember that even as just independent business owners or small businesses – and again, with B2B, it’s about that relationship and building that trust. So putting out the good information on your networks, just sharing good articles that you’ve come across that are related to what you do, related to it or just good information. I mean you don’t have to be so strict. I mean I think some people are worried that every article they need to post is about meeting planning, for example.

Jon:                                             Right.

Elizabeth:                                I mean sometimes, something that you find interesting, someone else might also find interesting. Again, that’s where they may comment on that later. Next time they may remember that, and then they may say, “Hey, I really liked that article you shared about CRMs.” Something that’s different, like just a business kind of related thing as opposed to just meeting planning. So feel free to share the things that you find interesting because that’s what makes you you. Unique and it sets you apart.

Jon:                                             And what will connect you to people in the end.

Elizabeth:                                Exactly.

Jon:                                             Well, I think we’ll wrap this one up for today, but a lot of good information. Thank you for coming back on, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth:                                Thank you. It was fun!

Jon:                                             We will basically say goodbye for now and we’ll talk to you next time on the podcast. Thank you for listening.

We are here to help you bring your vision to life!

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A great example this is when Grass Shack Events & Media produced an amazing event from a simple idea, was the Jazz & Wine Festival. The Montclair Village Association partnered with Grass Shack to take care of everything from coordinating and booking entertainment, to full production of the event. To appeal to the upscale demographic of the Montclair area (the surrounding median household income is $177,000), Grass Shack aimed to produce a high-end event. With only 3 months til the event, our Grass Shack team hit the ground running. We started by creating a CAD drawing of the event layout and main stage design. The Festival look and feel reflected Montclair’s intimate village setting featuring a “Village Vineyard” wine tasting area. With the Festival blueprint secured, Grass Shack identified, auditioned and booked live entertainment for the main stage events, arranged for booths, organized concessions and orchestrated promotional support including posters, t-shirts and banners. Grass Shack also developed “Kidstown” with face painting, free games and prizes to attract the large number of young families in the area.

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The Special Event

The Special Event completed their annual meeting in Chicago this past January 15-18. Tahira Endean of Cantrav Services Inc in Vancouver Canada gives you a taste of the buzz at this popular industry event.  Tahira talks to different types of attendees, vendors and speakers from the show floor. Guests include Ray Gobberg, Dan Berger, Karl Heitz, Lenny Talarico, Lars Erickson, Emma Fortier and Bryan Bell.

Event Technology

PCMA or the Professional Convention Management Association completed their annual Convening Leaders meeting in Orlando this past January 13-16. Tahira Endean of Cantrav Services Inc in Vancouver Canada gives you a peek at what was going on in the meeting and event technology space.  Tahira talks to different types of attendees, vendors and speakers interested in the event technology.  The proliferation of mobile devices is changing the way events are thinking about content and communities and how they can be involved before, during and after meetings and events.  Guests include Bob Vaez, Jordan Schwartz, Corbin Ball, Michelle Bruno and Steve Short.

Mike McAllen:                     Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events & Media. Welcome, welcome, welcome! If you’re a first time listener, welcome! In today’s show we have Tahira Endean. She is from Cantrav Services. She went out to PCMA, which is out in Orlando for their annual meeting, the Convening Leaders conference. She concentrated on Event Technology for this podcast. She interviewed a lot of people all about Event Technology. About how mobile is changing the way we are thinking about doing events. I think you might find this podcast pretty interesting in the thinking around how you’re getting your content and communities for your events before, during and after your meetings all year round. It’s a quite interesting podcast and I hope you enjoy it. Please give us any feedback. I’d love to hear from you and I know you would love to hear from me too. So let’s get on with it!

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[Music]

Tahira Endean:                   Meetings Podcast. Tahira Endean, roving reporter. I’m here with Bob Vaez from EventMobi out of Toronto. We are at the PCMA Canada reception. Very exciting. We’re going to talk a little bit about technologies. Bob is, as you know, one of the leaders in mobile technology. So what’s going on in the world of mobile technology? What’s exciting and what’s new? What are people looking for?

Bob Vaez:                                So the most exciting part of mobile technology right now is that it’s becoming more affordable and it’s becoming a lot easier for event planners to actually build these mobile platforms. So they don’t need a pretty massive team, they can control the amount of time they spend and they can get a really good ROI on actually building a mobile event app for the conference.

[Music]

Tahira Endean:                   Alright, Bob. So you were saying that it’s more affordable, which is great, because I think that was definitely one of the barriers to entry with our people not wanting to try mobile apps, but obviously they’re so ubiquitous in our world that it’s going to be something that people really need to start, if they’re not already using it.

Bob Vaez:                                So not only it’s more affordable, I think the value proposition has increased because more people, as you just said, actually have these devices. So we are actually seeing a trend that a lot of event planners are completely stopping to print any material for their conference, which wasn’t really feasible just two years ago or about a year ago when you had only 50%, 60% adoption. So now we are actually crossing that 70%, 80% adoption for mobile event apps and it is feasible and realistic to actually stop printing. I think as soon as you cross that point, then you can easily offset the value they get from all apps versus their cost, and also they’re becoming a lot easier to develop and a lot easier to use by attendees so you don’t normally need an on-site rep to teach people how to use these apps so there is no cost from that end. And the fact that more people are using it and it’s easier for event planners to do it, it makes it all around better.

Tahira Endean:                   Well, I think there are some really great features. Like this particular mobile app that they’re using at PCMA where you can message people easily. I think that that will make it really great.

Bob Vaez:                                That’s fantastic.

Tahira Endean:                   I know one of the barriers that you’ve run into in the past is the platforms. So are you finding that people are still wanting to build obviously for multiple platform and how are you finding it? Is that easier for people now?

Bob Vaez:                                It is. So what we actually focused on is a new technology called HTML5. The beauty of HTML5 is that it actually allows you to build a cross-platform. So that barrier for a lot of vendors that they had to put a lot of resources to build multiple apps and multiple platforms, and actually for event planners to test it out when they get these apps back, has gone away. Not only that, it actually takes less than five minutes to actually generate one of these apps. So you could literally have an event tomorrow and start tonight. You could have an app and you could deploy it tonight and send an email out and everybody could use it. It’s really as simple as the online registration these days.

So that HTML5 technology actually bridges that gap and it also allows the application to work offline, which is Internet connectivity is still an issue. So it reduces that fear from an event planner point of view that Internet connectivity might actually hinder the performance of these apps. So it’s not a perfect solution yet, but it does bridge that gap between a web-based application and native applications. So it’s a good solution for majority of the event, but not for every event.

Tahira Endean:                   That is great information, Bob. Thank you so much. Is there anything you’d like to leave us with before we sign off from our Meetings Podcast?

Bob Vaez:                                I’m so excited for PCMA.

Tahira Endean:                   [Laughs] Excellent! Me too. Thanks.[Music]

Tahira Endean:                   Hello. It’s Meetings Podcast roving reporter, Tahira Endean. I’m here with Steve Short. Steve is with PSAV Interactive Services and he just did a fantastic session here at PCMA Convening Leaders on how to use iPads more smartly for events. So I’ve nabbed him. We’re going to sit down and talk about how you can do that. So maybe Steve you could just give us a bit of background on PSAV and how you guys started and how you became so great in this space.

Steve Short:                          Yes. Absolutely. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to do this. It was an exciting presentation. So I was talking today really about using the iPad as a presentation tool. So PSAV really has a full mobile solutions-oriented team which supports our events through a centralized team which supports our entire organization. So really globally, we provide the iPads and iPod Touches. We’d provide the devices in support of events and we also provide mobile apps.  The mobile apps have obviously been exploding and a tremendous number of events that we’re involved with have been enriched and kind of made “smarter,” to use your great term for it.

So it’s the blend of the devices and the applications to enhance events, but it’s also really – like the presentation today was all about is how can presenters leverage the iPad because it really is a phenomenal tool. Everything from creating presentations directly on the iPad or using the iPad as a remote control device to drive content on their computer, and in doing so, also have access to their speaker notes in a device that’s right there in their hand, and also be able to see their presentation without having to look over their shoulder or glance the other way. So it’s a very comfortable and intuitive device, and all of it really made very elegant and very seamless by Apple. It’s built right into the products and really just purchasing a couple of very reasonable applications can allow people to really enhance their events and enhance their experience as a presenter and provide just a more comfortable presenting experience.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes. I thought it was actually really good, what you were talking about some of the applications were really interesting, and I love that as both a presenter and then someone who plans meetings, what we’re certainly seeing on one side is a lot of how can you use it to download all your documents and go paperless. That’s great. I think that that’s one really great tool because that just makes it easier as a planner, but I think that when we start to get into now you’re planning your event, how are you actually enhancing the end user experience. A lot of the end user experience comes from presentations. If you can make presenters, as you said, more comfortable and not that awkwardness of oh, I don’t have my notes because some people have great information, but aren’t as comfortable presenting. So if you can give them a tool to do that and make it really simple for them, that makes so much sense to me.

Steve Short:                          Yes.

Tahira Endean:                   Maybe you can just tell us about a couple of the tools that you were talking about in your session?

Steve Short:                          Sure. Absolutely. I certainly talk about Keynote as an application. Keynote being Apple’s equivalent to PowerPoint. Keynote has been around for a very long time on Apple computers as that Powerpoint equivalent, and really very early after the iPad was rolled out, Keynote on the iPad became available. So now, people that don’t even have an Apple computer but have an iPad can author presentations in Keynote. They can actually import PowerPoint presentations and just through some very easy steps – say tap on the PowerPoint file and say open in Keynote, and Keynote literally just converts that file and creates a native Keynote file at that point, which can be manipulated. I run into people all the time that have been doing what, quite honestly, even I was doing early on, is taking their PowerPoint, converting it all to PDFs, putting the PDFs onto their iPad, and then just scrolling through. You lose any animation potential, you lose the ability to make a change.

Tahira Endean:                   And they’re not in the same order anymore.

Steve Short:                          They’re not in the same order. Yes. Generally, it’s not even easy to take out one of the pages, right? Because you’ve created this 14-page PDF document. So by literally just opening PowerPoint in Keynote, which is like a $15 app available on the App Store, you then have a file which you can manipulate, you can change, you can share with people, you can email it directly out from there. So that’s one solution which is fantastic. Also, as I mentioned, there’s another app called Keynote Remote. Keynote Remote allows you to use the iPad to drive a Keynote presentation on your computer, which in the live event environment, that’s really the solution that I use on a regular basis because of that sort of peace of mind index, if you will, right?

People can be unnerved about having their entire presentation rely on high speed. PSAV is in the high speed provider business as well, but I know that that can be unnerving and it can also be expensive. If you use Keynote Remote, you can, using a simple device like a MiFi device, create a wireless connection between your iPad and your computer, but your computer is connected via a wire to the display, either the flat screen or the projector. So if you have a problem with that connection between the iPad and the computer, the computer is still what’s driving the presentation. You can always walk over, tap the spacebar and you’re good to go. So it has kind of a built in backup to it.

It is also the case that I find, that a computer, an Apple computer, is just a more robust machine to be driving that presentation. So depending on your animations and so forth. So those are a couple of nice ones. There are also the ability to use your iPad as a remote to drive PowerPoint applications on a PC. A couple of those apps that I particularly like are Doceri and there’s actually one called NiceMeeting, which is actually fairly new and we’ve actually just been utilizing that a little bit. That’s interesting because it does utilize the web, but there are some ways of utilizing it in a local cast environment. So you can just create a wireless network in the building that doesn’t need the Internet itself. That actually can be also a really nice experience, depending on people’s sensitivity around security or…

Tahira Endean:                   Right. Yes. It’s going to depend on your meeting, like anything.

Steve Short:                          Exactly.

Tahira Endean:                   It’s great that there are so many options now because for a very long time, it was very much like you showed up with your one presentation and you had one way of doing it and you had to operate, “The next slide, please.”

Steve Short:                          Right.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes, you might forget your notes or if you’re not seeing your notes page, it’s easy to, when you finish your presentation and you’re like, “Oh, there is that one thing I wanted to say!” So when you can start to take out some of those elements just through something that so many people now have.

Steve Short:                          Right. And then it’s built right in. I mean that’s what’s so fantastic, is about this sort of airplay which streams the content from an iPad, or an iPhone, for that matter, to a display that’s built right in. The Keynote Remote, being an Apple product, and connecting to Keynote, which is an Apple product. It’s just so buttoned up, as you would imagine. It provides a great experience. To your point, I always enable the speaker notes and it makes me feel better that I have them. I don’t use them, right?

Tahira Endean:                   No. But it is just that peace of mind.

Steve Short:                          Exactly. What I have found is that when I used to literally have a pad with notes, I referred to it and I fell into the trap of reading it, but because on the iPad, I’ve got my notes and the image of what’s onscreen, I’m glancing down at it and I have that peace of mind, but I’m not really ever reading it. Some people would maybe feel differently about just putting the keywords that need to prompt them and what have you. It depends on if you’re more of a literal or…

Tahira Endean:                   But that’s I think because you’re building your own, right?

Steve Short:                          Exactly.

Tahira Endean:                   So you can make it as robust as you need to make it for yourself.

Steve Short:                          It’s your presentation.

Tahira Endean:                   Well those are great tips, Steve. Thank you very much.

Steve Short:                          Absolutely. My pleasure.

Tahira Endean:                   So that’s Steve Short, PSAV, for Meetings Podcast. Thank you. We appreciate it.

Steve Short:                          Absolutely. My pleasure.

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Tahira Endean:                   Hey! It’s Tahira Endean, roving reporter with Meetings Podcast. I’m here with Jordan Schwartz of Pathable. Pathable is a very interesting event community platform. So we’re going to talk a little bit about community engagement and how Pathable can support this. So welcome, Jordan.

Jordan Schwartz:               Thank you, Tahira.

Tahira Endean:                   So tell us a little bit about Pathable.

Jordan Schwartz:               So Pathable provides communities, online communities for events. The idea is that people are going to events to network and meet each other. If all I wanted out of an event was the educational material, I can go online. Especially today with the Internet and online learning becoming so prevalent. But I’m going because having face-to-face conversations with people is important to me. That’s where the real value of the meetings for so many people come from and it’s just really hard today.

Tahira Endean:                   That is true and I think it’s interesting. We’re here at PCMA. PCMA has 3,800 to 4,000 – there are a lot of people here at Convening Leaders. So first of all, it’s difficult to find people, but one of the ways that we’re starting to find people is by finding people that we’re already connected to and on our social platforms, whatever the variety of that social platforms is, and then now we already have a little bit of a build-in community here. So we’ll see some of that say at the [tune up] tonight, but what I love about Pathable is that particularly for the smaller groups, is that you can create a community that starts before the event so that when people arrive, they feel already connected and not walking into a room of 150 strangers. So how are you using that sort of philosophy to get people engaged in Pathable and to get people really understanding the power of that?

Jordan Schwartz:               Yes. Yes, exactly. So we’re recognizing that people want to be connected at these events and they want to find out who they know and who they should know. So we do a few things to make sure that everybody is included, including the newcomers. It’s funny, when I talk to event planners, I’ll often hear them say, “We don’t need this because everybody at my event already knows each other.” And of course, if you’re in charge, you know everybody.

Tahira Endean:                   Right. I was going to say that never happens, but okay [Laughs]. Yes.

Jordan Schwartz:               But I hear it. That’s their mindset. I know everybody so I assume that everybody else knows everybody. Of course it’s the newcomers who lose out on this. So we tie in to registration systems to make sure that if you’re registered for the event, you can have a profile in the community by default. So we make it very simple. We also tie in to Facebook, to LinkedIn…

Tahira Endean:                   Well, I’m going to go back to that a little bit because one of the things that I loved when Pathable worked with us on EventCamp Vancouver, was that I actually didn’t have to do anything other than say we were working with [each other] for registration, and all of that was taken care of. That was, to me, the most beautiful thing because if I would have had to actually figure out technologically what that meant – and I think most meeting planners feel that way. It’s like we don’t want to have a community because it sounds like it’s going to be one more thing that we have to do, without actually understanding just how easy you’ve made the process by using the technology that already exists, which I think is really interesting.

Jordan Schwartz:               Yes.

Tahira Endean:                   But you can go back to what you were saying… [Laughs]

Jordan Schwartz:               No. Well, that’s worth a point because what has been found online is that as people get access to more information more quickly, they become really lazy and intolerant and impatient. I know Google did some famous studies where they found that if a page took three-and-a-half seconds to load instead of two seconds to load, they were losing 30% of their visitors who just they weren’t willing to wait that second-and-a-half extra. And so for us, what that means is if we’re able to tie in to the registration system, so right when you register for the event, you’re in the community and you’re engaging with it, we’re accessing people when we still have their attention.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Jordan Schwartz:               That’s a big difference from sending them an email, telling them, “Oh, when you get a chance, go sign up for the Facebook page.”

Tahira Endean:                   Well, and that is the challenge. Somebody made the comment that because PCMA Convening Leaders has a great app that they’re running, but there’s no photos. And so somebody said yesterday wouldn’t it have been great if you could have just linked with a LinkedIn picture or a Gravatar picture, or something on that backend that would have just made it so simple to be able to visually recognize the people that – I got lucky this morning. I happen to be sitting across the table from somebody that I’ve never met and I’m co-presenting with tomorrow. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have known what she looked like ahead of time with actually no effort on my part? I think that’s what makes Pathable so interesting, is that the amount of effort versus the benefit is really high. So how do we get that message out there?

Jordan Schwartz:               Right. Well, it’s interesting. Just a quick point on the photos, it is so, so critical. Humans, for millions of years, have evolved to place a lot of emotional value on photos. In terms of the evolution of social networking, there were social networks for decades. I mean back in the 1980s, I ran an online bulletin board out of my house on two 2600 broad modems, right? I mean this technology has been around for a while. Friendster was the first big breakout social network, and the thing that it did that no social network had done before was include photos.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Jordan Schwartz:               The human mind is tuned to react to that.

Tahira Endean:                   That’s true. We’re not tuned to look for people’s feed, but for a notebook, we are. We want to see the faces of the people, for sure.

Jordan Schwartz:               Yes. It gives meaning and it gives emotional connection to the network.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Jordan Schwartz:               So we make sure that we make it very easy for people. After they’ve registered, they’re right in the network, they’re uploading their photos. We place those strategically throughout the network because it creates that emotional engagement and attachment, and then we tie in to the other social networks. So Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, you can go onto a Pathable community and say, “Who do I know that’s attending?” We’ll go out to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. We’ll compare it to who you know and we’ll tell you, “Here are the people you know that will be there.” That, for me, is so fantastic. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been in an event and I haven’t realized till I was in a cab back to the airport that there was someone that I knew who I wanted to connect with.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes. That is exceptionally true. And especially, the bigger the meeting grows, the more that that is true. So 100 people in a room, you can probably find who you’re looking for, but when that absolutely starts to get to 500 to 1,000 people – and you’re probably exactly the same – I have five people that we’ve tweeted and we know we’re here. It’s going to be a little while till we see each other, but at least we know we’re here. So we’ve already made that first start. It is just about just really this next step. I also think one of the other great things about what you’re doing is making it scalable. So small versus big.

Jordan Schwartz:               Right.

Tahira Endean:                   So it’s great.

Jordan Schwartz:               Yes. So that’s one of the things that we’re changing right now, is up to this point, we’ve really been focused on the 800 person meeting, the 2,000 person meeting, the 5,000 person meeting.

Tahira Endean:                   Jordan, I think it’s great, the whole – and how you are changing where you were focused on larger meetings, and now you offer your community capabilities to smaller meetings on a totally different basis than when you get into the larger meetings. I think that’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for people. I know it’s something Mike is going to follow up with you on, which will be great. We are now heading to the PCMA Convening Leaders lunch where we’re going to go find some of those people that we’ve talked about. So thank you very much, Jordan. I really appreciate it. Jordan Schwartz of Pathable. Tahira Endean, roving reporter, signing off…

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[Music]

Tahira Endean:                   Tahira Endean, roving reporter, live from PCMA Convening Leaders. Mike McAllen, you said you want great content and you want things like technology and meetings and event design, and guess who I found? Corbin Ball. He needs no introduction. And what we’re going to talk about today is the impact that mobile is going to have on our meetings and events coming up. Corbin, thank you for stopping by. I really appreciate it.

Corbin Ball:                           My pleasure. I’m happy to be here today. I’ve been an analyst for the last 15 years, looking at meetings technology fulltime, and I’ve never seen a more exciting time than right now in terms of what’s developing. I think things are going to change in events more in the next five years than they have in the last 20 years due to the impact primarily of mobile technology. It’s really changing events, but it’s just changing society in general.

Tahira Endean:                   Absolutely. You’re right when you say from 20 years ago. I remember those carousel slides. You turn them upside down and backwards, and that wasn’t really that long ago.

Corbin Ball:                           No, it wasn’t. No.

Tahira Endean:                   And fax machines and registering people by hand, basically.

Corbin Ball:                           It’s so last century.

Tahira Endean:                   It’s seems like so last century. Especially, we see so much in mobile and everybody’s walking around here with their tablets and their smartphones and I would say just starting to tap into some of the potential. So where do you see it going?

Corbin Ball:                           Oh, I think so. I think we’re just starting to do that. We’re at the point now that if you don’t have an app for your event, people are asking why you’re behind the times. It’s becoming expected. But the next step is the really exciting step, is that you take it from just a mere conversion of a paper program into a digital form of the same thing into a very interactive tool that can manage it. You can use it for lead exchange, you can use it for [WiFi needs], for audience polling and for survey capabilities, to be able to pick up conference literature and course notes. The list goes on and on and on. It can be a much richer experience with interactive videos and full feeds and the social media links in that it’s a completely different animal than what we used to have. And not only we’re not cutting down trees to make it and it goes out unprinted the instant it’s been printed…

Tahira Endean:                   And you don’t have to store it. Like where do you keep all of that paper?

Corbin Ball:                           Yes. And then what about the changes that happen? There are always changes. So those are the things. The ability just for an app that does all these things I think has great potential.

Tahira Endean:                   I would say that even just talking to some of our app providers that are onsite here in the last couple of days, that technology is there, the ability to do what you’re talking about is there, but we just haven’t actually – the organizations aren’t just tying it altogether. They’re really seeing an app still as this separate entity to we have our program, we have our website, we have our content on our website, and then we have this app that’s, like you said…

Corbin Ball:                           A standalone, kind of. Yes.

Tahira Endean:                   A standalone and it really is just an electronic brochure.

Corbin Ball:                           That’s right. First of all, I think the associations are going to be doing this well, and the other corporations, establish a 24/7, 365 presence with it. It’s not just about the event. You’re running multiple events. It’s not just about the contacts at that event. It’s about all the members. It’s about distributing this content to all your members in a way that’s really exciting and engaging.

Tahira Endean:                   And maybe starting some dialogue between the members and really building the community that is backed behind that so that people can – you’ve got that content. Now, let’s talk about it and start to get some innovation.

Corbin Ball:                           And market next year’s meeting as well.

Tahira Endean:                   And market next year’s meeting.

Corbin Ball:                           What they found is that your concerns about virtual meetings and hybrid meetings cannibalized in existing meetings. Well, the statistics indicate that that’s not. They’re doing research on it and it’s not. In fact, in more cases than not, it…

Tahira Endean:                   It’s building attendance.

Corbin Ball:                           It’s building attendance because people see how great it is and they want to come next year.

Tahira Endean:                   I had that conversation this morning in the session where two people with associations who still felt that there would be cannibalization and were quite scared of it still. And so we talked around those things. So they’re still quite a ways away from having a mobile app. So they’re sharing their content with their association members, but they’re doing that through their website, whether it’s some audio or some video. But for them to get to even that hybrid stage, they were just like, “Oh, that’s a bit scary.” And so I said like, “Look at some of the research that PCMA has been doing in particular because they too were scared of it two years ago.” Like we need to try it, but what if it doesn’t work? You’re right. I’m the perfect example. I attended virtually twice. And now here I am, wishing this app was just a little bit more robust, but a year ago, I wouldn’t even have expected an app.

Corbin Ball:                           The sky’s the limit here. I’m really excited. I did a session this morning and we were talking about office technology. I asked how many people are carrying around a smartphone and virtually everybody in the room, business travelers and people going to meetings. Then I asked how many people are carrying around a tablet computer of some sort. About half the audience.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Corbin Ball:                           That number is just exploding and that opens up a whole new area that you can really do document management when you’re on the fly. I used to call meetings the black hole of event-catered management because you had computers before and after, but you’re flying blind during the event. Now, you have access to all these information and all the people’s activity and every click on a mobile app is trackable, for example, and there are all these different things that you can really have a precise measure of what’s working and what’s not and what you want to do to improve it.

Tahira Endean:                   I think that’s the other sort of interesting side of it, is so now as a planner, we have these apps and we’re completely underutilizing that backend data. So I think that there might also become sort of an emerging market for the data analysis, and people who are really specializing in tracking that data and being able to give a contextual report back to an association about here’s what you can do now. I think that is kind of the next step.

Corbin Ball:                           Oh, I completely agree. I mean that’s why these times are so exciting, because it’s all so new. I mean the iPhone is only five years old. The iPad is only two-and-a-half years old.

Tahira Endean:                   And we’re on version what? 17 of that now?

Corbin Ball:                           Yes. Right. And people are walking around saying, how did we ever get along without these stuff?

Tahira Endean:                   That’s true.

Corbin Ball:                           It’s like we’ve never always had it, but what the big step that’s happening now is we’re just trying to figure out all these backend stuff. We’re figuring out. We’re trying to make the shift over from just thinking in paper into a really full content multimedia. So there’s just a lot of learning that we have to do, both just at development, but the medium design is going to be changed by this as well. So it’s really exciting, I think.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes. For me, that’s what really excites me. What a concept that we actually are creating meetings for the people to leave the meetings actually feeling connected and feeling innovative and creative, and it’s just now they’ve sparked it. They just haven’t heard of ideas, but they’ve had the opportunity to make them relevant and to spark ideas, and now to connect instantly to people that if you didn’t get their business card, who cares? I’ve got their information and I know about them. So I think it’s really fascinating.

I thank you so much for sharing your insights. I don’t know if you have any sort of final words you’d like to share about the future of where you see it going?

Corbin Ball:                           Well, I would end with one of my favorite quotes because what we did on this change – actually, it’s my favorite quote. It’s from Charles Darwin on this. He said, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It’s the one that’s most adaptable to change.” I think that’s what we need to do now, is we need to embrace that mode of change. But the good news is it’s getting easier and cheaper to do all the time. I’d add on to Charles Darwin’s quote with digital Darwinism is alive and well. If you don’t adapt to technology change, you’ll lose business to those that do. So [it involves] all of us to be excited about this and to think about how we can use this new technology to improve events.

Tahira Endean:                   I love that! Digital Darwinism. Thank you so much, Corbin Ball. I really appreciate it. This is Tahira Endean, roving reporter, signing off for Meetings Podcast.

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[Music]

Tahira Endean:                   Tahira Endean, roving reporter for Meetings Podcast. I’m here with Michelle Bruno. She’s kind of famous. I’m not sure she needs much more introduction than that.

Corbin Ball:                           [Laughs]

Tahira Endean:                   So Michelle did a fantastic session here at PCMA Convening Leaders on digital disruption, but we’re going to talk today about disruption of all kinds and how that’s impacting our meetings industry. So should we start with digital disruption and talk a little bit about how we see that impacting the meetings community?

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes. So that’s a good starting point. It was the panel that I moderated. So there were six panelists, mostly from trade associations. There was one person from an agency, and then there was the final person from a platform developer company. So we tried to get perspectives across the board of digital disruption. When we defined it, it was really what we were talking about was virtual technologies, virtual events, but also mobile, and even to a certain extent, social media. So it was pretty interesting, the responses to different questions. For example, defining digital disruption. It seemed like they felt most of the disruption had already occurred, and in my mind I’m thinking, are you kidding me? This is like a fluid, dynamic thing. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much that’s already happened, but there’s also far more that’s yet to come.

Tahira Endean:                   I agree with that.

Michelle Bruno:                 My concern really is whether we’re prepared for it or not. So that was one aspect of disruption.

Tahira Endean:                   So my sense would be that, if we just continue on the digital, is that no, we are barely starting to see the disruption that’s going to happen and we’re starting to see how world events have been impacted by the hyper-connectivity of the world and social media and really big world events, but we’re not really taking any of that into our meetings and translating it down to how that’s going to impact what we’re doing.

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes. I think in the face-to-face meetings industry – I know it’s true in the tradeshow sector – we’re mistaking digital technologies for new marketing channels or new advertising channels. We’re not really understanding their importance in the flow of information and the actual engagement using these channels. They just think, oh, if I read a blog, I’m going to really write about everything that’s happening at my event. So it’s like the same thing that they’re going to put out in their newsletter or online, all the different details about their event. What they’re missing is the ability to use digital channels to really create knowledge and information that’s actually insightful and causes people to want to participate more and actually attend the meetings and things like that. So that’s one sort of area that I think we’re at fault, a misunderstanding of that with digital.

Tahira Endean:                   I think if we look at – and I’ll use the mobile app as an example because we have a mobile app for this. Let’s just use this meeting just as an example. So we have a mobile app, but really it’s only targeted to what’s happening here. So you could go in ahead of time and you could populate your schedule, and then your schedule would appear on the app. But other than that, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to really figure out how to create a community around that or even to distribute information through that. So it’s just really a printed brochure on a different platform.

Michelle Bruno:                 Right.

Tahira Endean:                   Which is that’s great. It is a good start, but it’s not taking advantage of that technology at all. But that is a disruptive technology. It’s that we have these mobile apps and they have all of this capability. It tells you where you are and we tie it to our Instagram and it says, “Here you are in Orlando taking a picture of something,” but we’re not…

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes. Mobile is a good example because we’ve done a really good job in this industry of using mobile, as you said, to sort of nail down the behavior at the event. But nobody’s cracked the nut, let’s just say, about how do you then take that same mobile platform and use it year round.

Tahira Endean:                   I don’t understand that, even though I’m someone who’s creating events and creating conferences. So then people say, “Well, we need to have a mobile app,” and I’m like, “You don’t need a mobile app for this event. You need a mobile app for your organization or for your association.” If you already have one for your organization or your association, then how are you going to just build off of that so that yes, you can still get your mobile brochure of this event, but that you have that ongoing engagement. You’re investing in that as one of your technologies and one of your streams, much as you would invest in a website or as much as you would invest in having people in your office to answer members’ questions.

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes. I think just because we haven’t figured out how to harness the power of mobile after the event or before the event necessarily, I don’t think that it’s going to go away and that all the value will diminish. Let’s just say we just haven’t figured out how to create something that’s so compelling that someone would want to be tuning in year round, but I heard yesterday at our Reimagining the Tradeshow lunch, so Microsoft had this presentation in that it’s kind of related where they were reimagining their tradeshow as more of an urban landscape.

Tahira Endean:                   Nice!

Michelle Bruno:                 And they had different – the same way we had here at PCMA for the different lunch themes and it was color-coded.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Michelle Bruno:                 So Microsoft sort of color-coded different areas, and rather than create this rigid floor plan sort of situation, they actually created sort of like content areas, and then they built their tradeshow environment around the content areas. But what was even more interesting than that is during the year, they have these same content of subject matter areas flowing through to their clients and the people that would come to the conference, and they color-code them when they…

Tahira Endean:                   So you know when it’s – right.

Michelle Bruno:                 Right. So that when you get to the event, you understand that this area of the physical event is not going to relate to that piece of content that I saw that was blue or whatever beforehand. So the corporations are starting to understand the value of all of that content stream.

Tahira Endean:                   And the continuum of content and the continuum of context.

Michelle Bruno:                 Right.

Tahira Endean:                   Right? So as we start to do that. Do you think that part of the real issue isn’t that there’s disruption because there is disruption and we talked a little bit earlier, not only is there digital disruption but climate disruption about the reality that we’re just simply not adapting. So whether it’s because we’re [off stretching] about it, whether it’s because it’s time and it’s like oh my God, that’s one more thing to learn about, I really feel like, especially with digital, we don’t really have that big of a learning curve because I think most meeting professionals are already incorporating that into their lives. So their kids and their grandkids have tablets. They have, for the most part, mobile phones. They’re certainly working on computers most of the day. So I’m seeing how it’s impacting, but there is a gap between what we’re seeing in the world and how we’re extending that.

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes, which is kind of crazy because we’re also gaga over our iPhones. And then we come to an event where they have some wonderful content or a wonderful platform for engaging and learning, and we look at it like it was the first time we’ve ever seen it. It’s just so weird to me.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes. It is.

Michelle Bruno:                 Maybe as meeting professionals, we have to do a better job of transitioning people from what they know and love in their personal lives to what they know and love in meetings. It’s no longer separate worlds anymore. I think that’s the big lesson of disruption. It’s that everything is blended into one thing.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes. Thomas Friedman’s point this morning about really, we have this type of connectivity that it’s all around us. People on the podcast can’t see me. I’m waving my hands like it’s all around us, but it is something that’s ubiquitous and it’s something that we can’t say, “Oh, this is happening to other people.” It’s not happening to other people. It’s happening to our people.

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes. And listening to you just made me think about the fact that we’re called “planners.” It sort of indicates that we like things orderly and we like to be able to anticipate something and have a plan for it.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Michelle Bruno:                 And with disruption, there are all these uncertainly. So I think frankly, we’re just a little freaked out and we don’t know what to do.

Tahira Endean:                   We can’t have our Plan A, B, C and D because we don’t even actually understand what our Plan A should be.

Michelle Bruno:                 Right.

Tahira Endean:                   So what are going to be some logical next steps that as organizations – when I say organizations, I’m thinking sort of meeting and planning PCMAs of the world. What are some things that they can start to do for their members to start to get some of that training and to get some of that understanding for people?

Michelle Bruno:                 I think that we need excellent leadership, which I think PCMA has.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Michelle Bruno:                 Because I don’t think it’s really about surveying the gibbers out of your membership. It’s about at some point deciding, after you’ve done sufficient research, about which direction to take an organization. So I think starting with leadership. I think we need to do more and more experimentation or recognize the groups that are outside of this association, for example, like the event camps and the pod camps and whatever. Recognize the fantastic work they’re doing, support them and fund them so that we can take some of that work into the more organized associations.

Tahira Endean:                   That’s true. So take some of the things that we’re scared of, test them in those real life environments. We did that. I can speak to Event Camp Vancouver because we did that. We took all of these things that people were like, “Well, we can’t.” If we do a soft seating [weekend balls] into the environment, people won’t like it. If we have a game, people might not engage in it. What if we try and we Skyped [Mary Boone] in to a breakout session and had her on our table. Well, that’s not going to…

Michelle Bruno:                 Right. So the difference was you just did it.

Tahira Endean:                   We just did it.

Michelle Bruno:                 It’s just like let’s stop talking about it and just do some of these stuff.

Tahira Endean:                   So do we start to do some of those things so that people can start to see, you know what? This actually is how we can take some of these – what we consider disruptions – and start to actually mainstream them because this is the reality.

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes.

Tahira Endean:                   Also, the capabilities of the technology are so phenomenal and how we can actually use the technology to the benefit of every single person who is going to be there. I think just a little bit tying in to that is that people are still a little bit scared of hybrid and virtual events.

Michelle Bruno:                 Right.

Tahira Endean:                   In the cannibalization and the – again, we talked a little bit about this – that face-to-face isn’t always going to be the current reality. Right now, we love face-to-face. We’re humans, we love touching. But if you look at one of the disruptions, is airline travel and fuel are getting more and more and more and more expensive.

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes.

Tahira Endean:                   On the one hand. So the reality of face-to-face is going to be that it is a very good potential that will become diminished, I think. And so then, how do we then embrace those virtual communities and bring them in so that they are more a part of? You and I are a great example of we’ve been having conversations for three years. We met face-to-face yesterday.

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes.

Tahira Endean:                   So to say that you can’t have a valid conversation or a real relationship with somebody in a non face-to-face environment, well we can stand here and say it’s not true.

Michelle Bruno:                 Right.

Tahira Endean:                   So for getting down to just thinking of a business deal, that’s a great time for face-to-face. So if we’re really trying to do collaborative solution-building, great time for face-to-face. But as we look at the practical realities of climate change and you can’t get there because of weather and fuel prices have doubled and so your airline ticket is $7,000, then you need to be able to come up with, again, how is that disruption going to affect our industry and what are we going to do about it?

Michelle Bruno:                 Yes. Well I think it just sort of circles back to a point that you made at the beginning of our discussion, and that is there are two worlds that are colliding here. There’s the real world and there’s a digital world and there’s kind of two realities, or at least people think there’s two realities, when, in fact, there’s really one reality. What we need to do to prepare for what we’re afraid of is to start in very maybe small ways, blending the two environments together and seeing what we can make and build on top of that blend of things, but no longer thinking about it’s either physical or virtual because it’s going to be the experience and the experience will be both.

Tahira Endean:                   Yes.

Michelle Bruno:                 It will be all of that and it will probably be more things that we haven’t even though of.

Tahira Endean:                   I agree. I think that this is a great time to say thank you very much, Michelle Bruno. This is Tahira Endean, roving reporter, signing off for Meetings Podcast from PCMA Convening Leaders in Orlando. Thank you.

More about Tahira: Tahira eats, drinks, breathes and lives events. Since receiving her diploma in Event and Convention Management in 1993, she has worked with a PCO, in destination management and with an incentive house producing meetings and events on three continents; so far! With a primary focus on creative event production, from how it fits into the bigger landscape of the meeting or conference, to the smallest detail of notepaper, floral, pillow or menu design, Tahira considers how to maximize the supplier relationships and deliver a unique design and memorable moments for each event. An instructor of event planning at BCIT, a recent hospitality management degree grad and an avid student of pop culture, trends and people – Tahira brings a passion for creation that has no bounds.

I was watching this commercial the other day “Samsung Galaxy Note II – Office Upgrade“ and it got me to thinking, why do we all multitask? If you haven’t seen the commercial yet, it’s about 2 coworkers talking about their new split screen notebook. 1 co-worker is watching a movie and texting, while the other one is watching a report for work and taking notes. While the commercial was promoting multitasking, it make me think about how much I multitask on a day-to-day basis. Does it help us, or simply put us back?

I did a little research to see what other people thought on the matter and if they believe it makes them more productive (like I felt). In one article called “What Multitasking does to our Brains“, from lifehacker.com, the author said “When we multitask, we feel more accomplished. Now most studies all point towards the fact that multitasking is very bad for us. We get less productive and skills like filtering out irrelevant information decline”.

Technology now-a-days are making us more multitaskers and less efficient workers. I miss the good ol’ days when I was a child and focused all my attention on 1 thing. When it was arts and crafts time, I would center my attention on making my bracelet and nothing else. Now that I’m older (and technology has taken over our lives) I can’t just sit and do 1 thing.  If I’m watching tv, then I am also on my phone txting/playing a game/Facebooking. It has become so difficult to concentrate on simply 1 thing at a time!

In the article “How to Relieve Event Planning Stress” (from eventmanagerblog.com), multitasking was one of the main points. Event Planning is ranked number 6 as one of the most stressful jobs (just to put this into perspective, number 5 was a police officer). With having to plan every little detail of an event/tradeshow/conference/meeting it’s almost impossible to NOT multitask. But, like it says above, you become a more efficient worker and actually get more done when you become a single-tasker and focus on 1 thing at a time.

With that said and done, I want to challenge all you event planners/manager out there to try and become a single-tasker for 1 event this year and see how it all works out and let us know! Were you more efficient/productive? Did you feel more accomplished then if you were multitasking? Contact me at christie@grassshackroad.com and we can have you guest blog after your “single-tasked event” takes place!

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) – data is the basis of your relationships. Do you have all the data on your clients that you have access to in one place? Jon Trask and Elizabeth Glau review the various platforms – free and paid – cloud and software.

Cassandra Phillipps of FailCon is interviewed by Mike McAllen for MeetingsPodcast

San Francisco’s Cassandra Phillipps from WebWallFlower Events talks to Mike McAllen about running successful startup event.  Her successful event FailCon has been called a “breath of fresh air” by NBC, a “resounding success” by Wired, and an event that “set a better tone for the coming era of entrepreneurship” by attendees. Cass shares some tips and tricks she has learned to keep audiences engaged, connected and informed year after year.  Learn how she took her local event to a global audience and much more. You can find her on twiiter @webwallflower

Mike McAllen: Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen with Grass Shack Events and Media. And today, I’m a big fan of our guest. I’m not a kind of stalker type fan but I’m a fan of her work. I think our audience can also learn a lot from her and her yearly failures. Welcome to the show, Cassandra Phillipps.
Cassandra: Hey.
Mike McAllen: You are with WebWallflower Events. I think I need a sip of coffee because my mouth is dry all of sudden from our laughing before we started this. Okay. So Cass, do you like to be called Cass or Cassandra?
Cassandra: I generally like Cass.
Mike McAllen: So Cass, let me read a little bio about you to get us started. Cass has been a startup event producer for over five years producing and managing conferences like SF MusicTech Summit, Inside Social Apps and the Unleashed Conference. She works with clients to ensure each has a high quality and profitable event connecting them with the best partners, sponsors and speakers for their topics. However, she is best known for the unique conference she started in 2009 called FailCon. The event has been produced in almost a dozen cities around the world with many more in the works and focuses a hundred percent on the failures we are likely to encounter in our business lives. I first heard about Cass and her work years ago from a friend of a friend named Christian and I have lunch with him and he said I had to meet this awesome event producer who put on tech events with him in San Francisco. I finally met you, Cass at one of your events with FailCon in which I attended and it was a really great event and I always wanted to get you on the podcast. And when I first asked you, you said, “No, I don’t have time.” [Laughter]
Cassandra: Do I really?
Mike McAllen: It was during…it was during the event and you were full on –
[Crosstalk]
Mike McAllen: …and I was like, “Oh, I am sorry. It was kind of bad timing to ask you.”
Cassandra: [Laughter] Oh my God, I’m glad I had a good reason.
Mike McAllen: [Laughter] And I thought it was funny and then the next time I asked you, you were like, “Oh yeah, that’d be great.” So –
Cassandra: Yeah.
Mike McAllen: …anyway, you know, I know how that goes. So you got ahead in the game. There’s no getting out. Anyway, so tell me…let’s stop hearing me talk and let’s hear [Laughter] about your story and how you got in to event planning.
Cassandra: Sure. So this is a little bit of a convoluted story but I tend to think that’s where a lot of event planners come from and shouldn’t come from. I actually went to college at the University of Chicago and there I studied Human Development just a little like Anthropology as well as Theater Management. So, doing a lot of stage management along with a little bit of acting inside. I moved out to San Francisco in 2006 actually to take up a stage management position. So, it’s a little like doing events where, you know, working with the team of actors and designers and making sure the whole show runs smoothly. I love the feeling of control that that gave me. I love the team work and the camaraderie but theater is probably the lowest paying jobs out there for kind of a growing professional. And so after a couple of years, I realized I didn’t like that lifestyle of the late night hours and the long hours.
Mike McAllen: Right.
Cassandra: And then at that time, Christian, who you mentioned, was just starting up his events. He’s been doing SFbeta for about a year, a year or two and wanted to start doing a series of conferences. He knew that his weakness was in management that he was a great kind of big thinker, look at the big picture and great at networking but didn’t know how to get all the pieces together. And so, he knew I wasn’t thrilled in all my theater work and moved me in to those events. So, he and I worked together for about two years. He moved to Boston and we’ve since stayed friends but it didn’t made sense for us to stay business partners. So, he took SFbeta with him and I took an event that we just been starting to think about producing, FailCon, and decided to produced that on my own.
In that time just to kind of keep finances coming in, I also did as you mentioned event management for a number of great startup events in the city. So…so that is something I focused only on startup events. I only do events that reach young entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurial community and discuss those sorts of topics. FailCon then started in 2009 and it came from my actually working on my own startup that didn’t end up failing but realizing that while working on a startup, I would attend even my own events and be a little bored by them. Listening to someone speak on their entrepreneurial successes can be very inspiring but this little that you can take from it and apply immediately to your own company.
[0:05:00]
For example, you couldn’t do exactly what Mark Zuckerberg did every single step and get Facebook because a lot of it is just the right time, knowing the right people, usually one of the same product. You could, however, make sure that you didn’t make his mistakes that if he did something wrong, that’s probably something that if it didn’t worked for him, it probably won’t work for you. And so it’s a lot more immediately relevant to what you’re working on to hear someone discuss their failures. So from that, we spinoff FailCon in 2009 as you mentioned. It was produced in San Francisco the first four years and we continue to produce it here. And now it’s about I think we did six cities in 2012 and we’re looking at about a dozen in 2013. So in somewhat longish nutshell, that is my history getting in to events.
Mike McAllen: Wow, that’s really great. I know…I thought he moved to Minnesota or something. I –
Cassandra: He did. So, it was Minnesota and then Boston and now, it is Portland, Oregon.
Mike McAllen: Oh, really, huh.
Cassandra: Yeah.
Mike McAllen: Yeah, he’s a nice guy. I just…I totally just have lunch with him the one time and we went to that Gratitude place in Berkley.
Cassandra: Yeah, yup.
Mike McAllen: Yeah. [Laughter] A vegetarian place.
Cassandra: How did it go?
Mike McAllen: It was really great. And then I was thinking too, so you start out as a stage manager.
Cassandra: I did.
Mike McAllen: Yeah and you know, in…in the corporate world, that pays very well.
Cassandra: Oh, I’m sure in the corporate world –
Mike McAllen: [Laughter] Just FYI, if you need, you know, ever needed to do, you know, some freelance gigs, call me some shows or something…anyway, sorry. I know you don’t want to do that because you have…you’re very successful at what you’re doing. [Laughter]
Cassandra: Yeah.
Mike McAllen: So, where did the name WebWallflower Events come from?
Cassandra: Sure. So, it actually was people frequently commented on just, you know, extroverted community is and you need to be an extrovert to get out there your networker and my whole life I was been an introvert. I don’t define an introvert as someone who is shy but I define an introvert as someone who loses energy in the crowd as an extrovert is someone who gained energy in the crowd. It doesn’t mean that the extrovert is necessarily super, super social and no, it doesn’t mean that the introvert is shy or reserved. So, I think it’s a slightly better definition of the two terms. By that definition, I’m definitely an introvert. I was shy until essentially I started doing events. When I realized that you can’t get ahead in the world being shy, it’s really, really hard. So, you need to kind of toughen up, stick it do the networking thing and get it done.
But I like actually speaking at about that and…and being kind of a representative of the introverts in our community that there are people who don’t want to go to six parties with you and it’s not because they don’t like you, it’s just that by the end of party number one, they’re really tired, a lot of work to socialize. And so the WebWallflower can become a little bit of a spinoff on that. I thought it sounded really me. I like iteration. But essentially representing [Audio Glitch] on the web and helping them kind of get a little bit ahead through the way events are structured, through how you create that networking experience because extroverts don’t need help at networking. Introverts definitely do.
Mike McAllen: Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. I’m terrified of speaking in front of people but I have to go and do these sessions sometimes and I just hate it. And then I don’t…I get tired too. That’s funny you said that. It’s particularly great…great analogy and a great name for your company.
Cassandra: Yeah and it’s got…it’s a little bit funny because we’ll do comment that although I really want an event that has a bunch of wallflowers at it, it’s like well, if you’re thinking that way and maybe you actually do, right? Maybe you should learn kind of what wallflowers bring to the…to the experience.
Mike McAllen: Yeah and there’s such a big push to get interactive with the audience, you know…I mean you guys do a good job with FailCon in like at lunch time, you know, putting everybody in to groups. Talk, you know…that was part of it too that I’m…I’m not a startup person though I have a startup but it’s not like…I have a job too but then I have the startup but we just need to be around other people that I could talk to about it. And I was kind of forced in to it very much [Laughter] because I kind of sat by myself there and then I was like pushed. So, it was great.
Cassandra: But introverts need those lunch meetings and they need those kinds of structure things to help them get the most side of the event. And so  leave during lunch but I like if something there or someone like me would…would feel better sitting down with these people.
Mike McAllen: Yeah, I agree. I agree. So one of the things I love about the FailCon is once I was…once I went to the first one, I was in your kind of, I want to say web of how you communicate with your audience like I would get e-mails but they were not just e-mails and I struggle with this with my company is like sending out newsletters that are actually interesting.
Cassandra: Uh huh.
Mike McAllen: You have a really good system that you how you…how you’d stay in touch with your audience.
Cassandra: Oh, thank you.
Mike McAllen: With your newsletters, do you want to talk a little bit about your newsletter?
Cassandra: Okay.
Mike McAllen: And I don’t know if you have more than one because I get the one…the one with the calendar stuff on it.
[0:10:03]
Cassandra: I was thinking about branching it off to some of other cities that we’ve been doing FailCon. But right now it’s just San Francisco. It’s not really a paying position. So, it’s really just kind of me –
Mike McAllen: Yeah.
Cassandra:  So that’s kind of where why it only stays in San Francisco. Three years ago, also probably back in like 2008 and it wasn’t response like you said to my feeling like I kept writing these completely a relevant e-mails. When…and I know people do…do it often with their events. People have this event brand and once every three months or four months or five months, you get an e-mail that’s also just about their event and what they’re working on for their event and for their event. And it’s kind of like I don’t remember who you are, I don’t remember if I event went to this event and why am I on your newsletter and I don’t know why this event might be relevant to me now. So, I’m just going to delete your e-mail because I have a lot of e-mails to read. And so years ago, I wanted to get over that by making a reason to send e-mail every week or every other week to make up a pretty regular e-mail. It wasn’t just me repeating everything else that’s going on in my life and so that’s when we get this idea to put every other startup event that we knew about, essentially every competitor to our event. Put them all in this newsletter.
And so it started off weekly where every week we’d send out all of the events, all the conferences. And specifically what we do is we’d go to them and ask for discounts. We’d say, “Hey, can we get a discount to all of SFbeta attendees,” “Can we get a discount to all the FailCon attendees?” There was…now it’s going to do about 6,000 San Francisco readers. And so now it’s more than events will come to me and give discounts. And so, it’s every other week now we send out this newsletter of kind of the upcoming, all the upcoming events that are relevant to the FailCon audience and discounts that we’ve received to all of them. And this is great because it means that when FailCon is coming and I want to send just FailCon promotional e-mails, they got a pretty high open rate and we have a larger audience that receives them rather than if we just send them once or twice a year and you know, the audience wasn’t growing at all.
Mike McAllen: Yeah, it’s really, really good and I’ve been struggling with that for such a long time about how to do something and you have a niche, a really good niche for your…you really concentrated on your audience. And I think a lot of people have that problem of kind of branching out and trying to get everyone to, you know….you know, trying…what is it? Shotgun it out to everybody and hope people like it.
Cassandra: Yeah. I think what helps in what I’m doing is a lot of people are trying to do blog post like what a relevant blog post I found which is just way too much research. What’s great about this  going to people just e-mail me events they put in. And so the work itself is very, very quick.
Mike McAllen: That is very, very…it’s brilliant. How do you manage your e-mail list? So, just what do you use to do it?
Cassandra: On my mailing program? People can sign up through my website or they can e-mail me the sign up whenever we do an event that was added to the newsletter lists and then we just use MailChimp as a management software.
Mike McAllen: Nice, yeah. That’s what we use too. That’s a great one. I don’t know if the listeners know that but that is really great because it’s free for how many –
Cassandra: Great –
Mike McAllen: …how many users, I can’t remember how many e-mails.
Cassandra: And then just because I focus on startups, they’ll also give me number of deals if I…if I help get new users there or if I promoted my newsletter. So, they work really closely with a lot of people and they have a lot of deals always running.
Mike McAllen: And so along with these discounts, that’s…those are affiliate links too. So, you make little money off those, don’t you?
Cassandra: Some of them I do, yeah and that’s actually every one I push for, most of the money I’ll make is from the very first paragraph on one advertisement in it. So, you’re kind of like how harder does it  they’ll do an exclusive advertisement at the newsletter and also about each week too either someone doing an event that they want to get a very special focus on or startup product that’s being launch that people want  need to know about. But it’ll just be one advertisement per e-mail. So, that’s actually where most of the profit for these e-mails comes from.
Mike McAllen: Yeah. No, it’s great…it’s a great way of making a little money on doing the stuff and it’s okay and I think a lot of event producers and people putting events think sometimes that’s bad, I don’t know why, but they, you know, it’s great. It’s a great learning experience to be able to give…you’re giving something to your audience. You should be able to get something back for your time.
Cassandra: And I actually frequently think I undercharge for it because the size of the e-mailing list and how target it is but it’s also that most of the people judge me are people like, you know, they support my event . But for me it’s more is can I at least recover the cost of my MailChimp subscription and the four hours I spent on it. It’s like let’s say I charge, you know, $75 an hour or $100 an hour and I have my $50 MailChimp subscription and I get $450 a month for [Audio Glitch] newsletter, yes? Right. That’s, you know, worth my time.
[0:15:00]
Mike McAllen: Yeah. And so…okay, so then along those lines I think you do a great job of getting sponsors for your event.
Cassandra: Yeah.
Mike McAllen: And I wondered if you could talk a little bit about, you know, some tips on sponsorship, finding them or you know, how that works for you.
Cassandra: It’s funny you bring that up because I actually feel that sponsors are  tend to be very friendly and with these people that I have attracted the sponsors and they’re almost always people that have  which is definitely a first step in getting a sponsor is the networking you’re doing in that community ahead of time so that when you e-mail those people or you call them  I don’t know but it’s that I just really want to keep them happy. And so I keep my cost  and I keep my sponsor pitches really low and I just make sure that everything we sign there are really happy with. So, definitely I think sponsors are my…my weakest part because I can get those conversations but closing high numbers is very hard for me.  do it the very first thing is just…just being really active in the community that I’m working in which is why when running my own events and this was different obviously than managing people…people’s events. But you are managing events, I would only manage events in the startup community. I only attend events in the startup community. I only produce events in the startup community and it means that I’m really closely tied all the people that are working in these events, who are the people that are…that are selling sponsorships that the company is that are…they are sponsoring, who are the big speakers at any given time, where are they speaking and what have they spoken on?
And it makes me a character in the community that the sponsors are willing talk to and willing to trust right away because they know that I produced a number of successful events in the past where if I divided my effort, if I did some medical events and some legal events and some startup events, it’ll be tougher for me to find those sponsors for those events. After the conversation with the sponsor, it’s really just making sure…I am not a fan of sponsorships that are you get your branding on the website and on our signs at the event. I don’t understand what the sponsor gets on to that and frankly, I don’t understand why event gets out of that. It’s more just a headache dealing with someone who’s not paying a lot of money just to get some branding on a sign. So, I do spend a lot of time with sponsors trying to figure out what are they hoping to get out of the event and actually work with them to design custom packages that reflect that.
We do have predesigned packages because some of the bigger companies like Google and Microsoft just want a package handed to them. They don’t want…they don’t want to spend a time on that work. They don’t need that much attention. Because a lot of our sponsors are kind of mid-staged startups, we really want to make sure the experience they’re getting is what they want. And so we do like you mentioned that lunch, the round table discussions, actually three or four have been there were hosted by Microsoft because Microsoft bought lunch for people. And so we have very Microsoft-targeted conversations at four or five of the tables. We have them from great branding on near the food. They had a specific thing they were providing at the event and that was what they really like and so that…that is kind of a big way to bring the sponsors back.
And about the third piece advice I give is after every event, I’ll e-mail the sponsor and not just thank them, we invite them to do a phone conversation to talk about what they enjoyed about the event and what they wish could have been improved. And I think that shows that I still care about their experience in the future. And if they didn’t like something, I want to hear their complaint on it and I want to be able to address it. So, even someone, you know, has an experience they don’t like, I can frequently work to get them back the next year because they heard that I’m caring about it and heard that I’m trying to improve it for the next event.
Mike McAllen: Yeah, that is amazing and it’s so important just to do that. I mean I think about that with clients. You know, we get…just always on to the next thing so important to have that conversation.
Cassandra:  best on what went well with the quick thank you call and it is hard to spin it. So, it’s like I don’t want you to just  and you just ask, “I want you, you know, I’m curious to hear what you didn’t enjoy about the event.” They’ll leave us in their mouth. The funny way to do both where it’s like, “Well, I want to hear what you think could improved. Okay and now things that you liked.”
Mike McAllen: Yeah, yeah and do you that with the attendees? Do you do…I can’t remember but if do you send out like as –
Cassandra: We…oh, we don’t do a personal outreach to attendees because –
Mike McAllen: Sure, sure. [Laughter] That’d be hard.
Cassandra: In an ideal world, I’d love to but we do do…we do send out like a poll after the event and something they actually have  and I would probably continue to do is we do individually and personally e-mail any attendee who attended the conference a year before but hasn’t signed up for this year’s conference about two weeks ahead of time. So, any attendee that we saw attended FailCon 2011 will get some volunteers and we’ll have like a form letter that they can fill out to everything  and hasn’t signed up. And it’s not pushy. It’s just a quick paragraph of like, “Hey, I noticed that you –
[0:20:02]
Mike McAllen: Yeah, I got that and I went.
Cassandra: Yeah.
Mike McAllen: [Laughter] That’s great.
Cassandra:  we can improve to get you back next year and it’s actually this year, we didn’t put any assumption even asking that you come again. It was purely if there’s a way we could get you back in the next year if we improve something this year. And I see a really high turnover of ticket buyers from those. And so I think that if you can personally e-mail all of your attendees, it’s a really nice thing to do.
Mike McAllen: Yeah, that’s fantastic. So, tell me a little bit about the conference websites because I really like your website also.
Cassandra: Oh, thank you. It’s a new web designer that we brought in that I wish I had his last name here but  e-mail me after work. I don’t know that I have a lot of great professional things to say about websites. I feel like they’re really  landing pages. This is a personal opinion but I feel that a lot of event landing pages when I look at them, I land and there’s a couple of very simple questions that I don’t get answered right away. I want to know who is this event for like what…what is your target audience and this is where you’re talking about the shock [0:21:12]  landing effect. I feel like a lot of events say it’s for business professionals. You know, well, that’s everybody in the world. So, I don’t even know this is going to be relevant to me. Where actually the most successful events I have seen say, “This is for indie mobile game developers on the Apple platform.” And you’re like, “Oh, okay. Now I know exactly it’s not for Apple designers. It’s not for giant companies. It’s for indie mobile developers on the Apple platform.”
So, I think that a website needs to say immediately. Right when I land, it needs to be right in my face. And even if it is the biggest text on your site and this is where I think a lot of the event web designers do wrong, you then surround it with 30 speaker photos and 7 sponsor logos and you know, this ad here and this ad here and this longer paragraph of text about one of the keynote speakers and then there’s other paragraph of text about the producer and then these three lines about the location and why it’s so beautiful. And it’s like I don’t…even if your audience sentence is right there on the landing site, it’s fill…their landing page always has all of the stuff on it for event…for events that I’ve seen. So a big thing we want to do with FailCon was really [0:22:30] [Inaudible] and it’s like you land and it is literally the only text on the landing page is one sentence that says something like, “FailCon is a conference on startup failure targeting entrepreneurs in the online technology world.” That’s it. That’s the only like chunk of text on the entire homepage. From there, we show maybe four speaker photos which is a little link that says, “You know, to see more like click here.”
We’ll show our sponsor logos relatively small but they’ll all be right up…right before the cut off of the page at the very bottom. And then we’ll have tabs on the top to get more information on various sponsor of the conference. I’m a big fan about layout. Me as a producer is nowhere on the landing page. I don’t think it matters that I’m producing the event. If you really want to know who’s producing the event, you can go to the About page and read more about it. I don’t put any testimonials right on the landing page because I don’t think you need a testimonial. I think the event can speak for itself. We have testimonials in the About page if you want more information. And so, personally, I’m a big fan of really working to clean up these event pages and give a nice user experience when you first land on them.
Mike McAllen: Yeah and I think that along those lines that your WebWallflower site is really…I mean we already talked about it a little bit but it’s really…when I go there I was right away notice oh, it’s so informative and helpful. It’s not like, you know, this is what we do kind of a thing. I don’t know. It was…I really like that you’ve gone on with that, with the website because, you know, it’s the Bay area tech events and advice. So –
Cassandra: And it’s funny actually the WebWallflower page have pretty much no designer. It was just a WordPress template and I think what helped with that in what you’re saying is I never use it to get clients. All of my clients were just through word of mouth. And so I could really just use that website for advice and it’s like I don’t really need to pitch myself on this website. I don’t need more clients. So, I’ll just focus on things like we’re on the long the way event I know are coming up, things like that.
Mike McAllen: Well and it also, you know, your events e-mail that comes out, your newsletter e-mail that, you know, they’re all there too so someone can always go and have this as a destination –
Cassandra: Yup.
Mike McAllen: …do you wealth…and I think that’s fantastic.
Cassandra: Yeah.
Mike McAllen: So, why don’t you…where can people…well, first off, when’s the next FailCon?
[0:25:00]
Cassandra: So, the next FailCon here in San Francisco will be next October. So there is one in the works if you’re on in…other half of America. A team in Charlotte, North Carolina will actually produce our first new American event and they’re I think targeting the summer. The next FailCon line up is actually going to be in India and that is looking at February 23rd. So anyone there, listeners are in India –
Mike McAllen: [Laughter] Yeah, they might be. You never know.
Cassandra: [Audio Glitch] FailCon, we do once  also in…we always do it in France. We’ll do France again in September. We’re looking at kind of ten [0:25:39] [Phonetic] European, one in London this fall and then Ireland, Israel…not Taiwan, Saigon, Tokyo. Sydney, Australia and Brazil are also…working at events kind of as we speak.
Mike McAllen: So how did that…how did that come up? How did you go about like licensing this or how…do you have a main…is they’re on your main FailCon site and then they go from there and they go out to the other sites for these different areas? Tell me a little bit about…more about –
Cassandra: Yeah, so it’s…the licensing started in 20…I guess I can say it’s 2012 that we were about 2011. We did do our Paris event in 2011. And it was then I noticed that FailCon was drawing a really huge international ground and also that San Francisco doesn’t really need FailCon anymore. I still produce it. It’s a lot of fun. We hear really great speakers and I do enjoy the show. But San Francisco is one of the cities that really understand that failure has to be part of the discussion from an early stage like you can’t shy from your failures and the mistakes that you made. Internationally is where they really need to see more FailCon. The more traditional cultures, more risk averse…a business environments and governments really can stagnant startups because startup needs to fail. A startup needs to encounter failures. They’re doing something entirely new and they’re going to make mistakes along the way or maybe the community that supports the mistake they’re making.
So, I was getting these huge international attendees from all over the world and just started to kind of reach out and say, “Hey, if you want to produce something like this in your country, just let me know. I don’t know what it’s going to look like but we can work together about that is.” And so our first international event was in Paris. It wasn’t licensed. I actually helped to produce it but real life, I didn’t really have the bandwidth to do that. Event production…despite this long interview…event productions actually are not my passion. It is something that I kind of fell in to based on the talents I have. And so I’m trying to do less and less a bit. And so licensing seemed like the right step to me. So, for all of the other international events, we do a licensing agreement. They get their own website that is kind of a spinoff of the FailCon website. So, it’d be like France.thefailcon.com or Germany.thefailcon.com. They are listed on our main site as well.
I do want to reassess that and see if there’s a way that we could get those events more featured on the website when they’re maybe a week from production or from their actual date. So, it’s something we’re working on and they get access to our social media with our Twitter handle and our Facebook page and I’ll advice them along the way on who to invite and how to train up the speakers, how to promote and find promotional partners but a lot of the individual work is done on their own. And so those are just the licensing agreements that I’ve worked out with, you know, legal team. And all the countries that are chosen are people that have come to me wanting to produce it there.
Mike McAllen: That’s fantastic. It’s really interesting how you grown it and it is more interesting that like you said about this podcast when I look at the stats. There are just so many people from other countries that listen to…I was putting the other media kit for this…for the Meetings Podcast and it was amazing to me how many people, you know, are listening and you know, in the U.K. and Germany and Australia which –
Cassandra: Yup.
Mike McAllen: …which was a big one which is interesting to me. So –
Cassandra: That we’re becoming a more global society with the internet and it’s so these are people all  get information from anywhere else.
Mike McAllen: Yeah. So…so what are you working on now? I know you said this isn’t your passion and that’s fine. I mean we all…I don’t really have a big passion for the meetings [Laughter] and events industry. I kind of fell in to it myself. I mean I have other things. So, what are you doing nowadays?
Cassandra: Yeah. And so following in the path of odd backgrounds and interesting histories –
Mike McAllen: [Laughter]
Cassandra: …a game design, the game designer industry and the gaming industry which is…which has been a lot of fun with that transition. I mean at least stage management, event management made a little bit of sense and event management to startup failures made some sense because there’s folks in startup events. Event management with the gaming has been a very interesting transition. I have, you know, played games and been a bit of a game for most of my life and I was lucky enough just to find a startup Pocket Gems that may have a great kind of hiring policy that I wish more people would have.
[0:30:01]
I don’t know if it’s formally written down this way but certainly how they talk about it is they’ll teach you the basic skills that are learnable but you need to come in with passion and with an obvious drive and you know,  and so aligned with the company have non-gaming backgrounds where its people who have just done really interesting passionate things because you can learn how to properly insert, you know, CSVs in to a game or how to properly create the systems management of the weapon system or whatever but you can’t learn how to be self-motivated to figure it out how to drive the fun-making of something. One I’ve spin kind of what I’m working on now, I’ve come in pretty entry level because I’ve just never done it before. But out balance, I’m inside of that is still my production of FailCon. So FailCon, we actually hired a team for our San Francisco event and we are working on…on making these license events easier to run with the more kind of organization process, organizational process behind them.
Mike McAllen: That’s awesome. It’s really awesome you’re doing that. And my wife has been in the hotel business since she got out of high school and she’s…she worked with me too with my production company but she has been working in a hotel business forever, you know, for since high school. I shouldn’t say forever, she’ll get mad at me. But she’s just started going to school for fashion design because she’s always wanted to do it. So goes to the…the…what’s the one in the city now blank, you know, that’s a big…what’s the big one in San Francisco, the big fashion art college? Academy of Art, Academy of Art. And she does it all online when she comes home every night and she’s getting straight A’s in fashion design because she has a passion for it.
Cassandra: Amazing, good for her.
Mike McAllen: I know. It’s amazing and it’s so inspiring to me. I just, you know, what…well, I’ve…now, I’ve learned to cook and stuff because likes to cook too but she’s doing her homework. So, now I’m cooking vegetarian meals and things but it’s so neat for me to see, you know, like you’re doing this and like she’s doing that. You know, you don’t have to stay with your, you know, your job or whatever. You can always branch out and we’re so lucky to live here. Well, I guess anybody can now with the internet to do anything, you know.
Cassandra:  a nice place if they ever want to change jobs because I mean half of also why I even got connected to Pocket Gems was that it was one of the events that I did was a gaming startup event. And just meeting CEOs through that event and you…especially event producers can make changes a little bit more easily because our networks are nationally so large where there are so many people that you can just say, “Hey, you’ve seen that I’m good at doing something, can you give me a shot at doing something else?”
Mike McAllen: Yeah, yeah. All right, Cass. Well, where could people get a hold of you? Where can people find you if they wanted to talk to you?
Cassandra: Sure. The easiest way to find me is at the Twitter. My handle is WebWallflower. They can also find me at my website, WebWallflower.com and then just my e-mail just my name cass@ WebWallflower.com. It’s pretty much if you remember the word WebWallflower and Google it.
Mike McAllen: [Laughter] That’s great and thank you very much for talking with me this morning.
Cassandra: Thank you for having me on the show. It’s been a lot of fun.
Mike McAllen: Yeah, I really appreciate it and maybe…maybe when you’re…when you’re one of these gaming…gaming, you can show me how that works now too. I haven’t…I’m not really a gamer.
Cassandra: All right.  it’s fun.
Mike McAllen: [Laughter] All right, Cass, thank you so much.
Cassandra: Thank you. It’s great talking to you.

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I was reading an article this morning from the fabulous Liz King (from The BusyEvent Blog) called “Forget Losing Weight – Make These Tech Resolutions“, in which she mentioned 3 great new year’s resolutions that event planners show look into. One of which was to “Be Photo-Centric”…

“Be Photo-Centric

One of the trends that I see coming in 2013 is the consolidation of products to serve event planners in the planning process. Right now, planners are subjected to using a different app or software for virtually every aspect of the planning process, but that is going to change in 2013. Products will be developed that give us a better way to manage the planning from A to Z from one platform. This is really exciting!

Liz King

Tamara Mendelshon VP of Marketing at Eventbrite.com joins Mike McAllen for another installment of Meetings Podcast. Tamara dives into EventBrite and how it saved the marriage of founders Kevin and Julia Harts    to the way it has helped thousands of meeting organizers easily set up events and understand their audiences through simple analytics to improve, share and build great experiences for their events and meetings. The Eventbrite Story with Tamara Mendelsohn is the first show of 2013.

Mike McAllen:          Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. It’s Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events & Media. And today as the first guest of 2013, we have Tamara Mendelsohn. Tamara is the VP of Marketing with Eventbrite. Is that correct, Tamara?

Tamara:                     Yes. Hi, Mike. Thanks –

Mike McAllen:                      All right.

Tamara:                     …for having me on the show.

Mike McAllen:          Thank you for coming and it’s…we were just talking about before we started this it’s freezing cold and I wish I could be running to place. Actually I have a treadmill in my office which I do my e-mail on and I was on it this morning that was like nice and warm and then once I sat down, I’m freezing again. Anyway, [Laughter] why don’t you…you work with Eventbrite and why don’t you tell me a little bit about how you got to Eventbrite because I was…did a little research on you and your background? You are an Analyst with the Forrester Research.

Tamara:                     Yup.

Mike McAllen:          How did you choose to pick Eventbrite as your place to spend all your time at?

Tamara:                     Yeah, so…so for those of you who aren’t familiar with Eventbrite, Eventbrite is an online website that lets anybody sell tickets online to their events. So, you know, whether you are a hosting a non-profit gala or a conference or a 5K or 10K run or literally any type of event you could ever imagine, you can use Eventbrite to manage your event, to spread the word and promote your event and collect online. And I made my way to Eventbrite actually from Forrester. I spent a lot of time there thinking and working on e-commerce with various retailers and studying how people were integrating and incorporating the internet in to their shopping behavior and their sort of purchase process. And became fascinated with how social media actually was beginning to influence e-commerce more and more.

And what I saw with Eventbrite was this really amazing opportunity, this industry of events and ticketing that are really not been transformed yet by e-commerce. And this sort of magical thing that happens with events which is that people want to talk about them, people want to share them and social media was having a great impact on the space and so was, you know, when I found Eventbrite and met the founders which is really excited about the business and the opportunity there and didn’t waste any time diving right in.

Mike McAllen:          Nice. And so, can you tell us the story of Eventbrite? I’ve heard it before and I really liked how it all went rolling.

Tamara:                     Sure, yeah. So, Eventbrite was found in 2006 by a group of three, Kevin and Julia Hartz who actually are husband and wife team. They were just recently engaged at the time and decided to start a company together, right? And they’re starting  So…so decided to…to start Eventbrite with their third co-founder Renaud Visage really set about to, you know, really transform one of the last e-commerce which isthis online ticketing space. And I think being here in Silicon Valley at the time, you know, we’re constantly surrounded by technology innovation, we see all the great things and great transformations that technology brings but at the same time we were seeing how, you know, people were spending more and more time in front of their devices, in front of their screens. And I think, you know, there’s this always sort of depressing New York Times articles that said married couples spend or three out of five married couples spend more time with their computer than they do with–

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter] Nice.

Tamara:                     And so…it went like Kevin and Julia and Renaud recognized was the value of meeting in  and of gatheringwhat happens, the magical things that happens at events was really powerful and would only become more powerful. And so they really devoted their time and their mission to using technology, using online technology to bring people together offline and that was really best start of Eventbrite was empowering anybody to be able to create events and promote it online as at the time, you know, you really only had…had some of the very, very biggest technology vendors like Ticket Master or something and really can only afford them if you are a big venue or if you’re a stadium or something like that and for everybody else, you know, people were sending out e-mails and sending RSVP and bring cash to the door or mailing their check and there really was no…not a technology solution.

Mike McAllen:          Wow. So, what you’re saying is they designed it to save their marriage so they could make meetings with each other?

Tamara:                     [Laughter] Yes.

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter]

Tamara:                     The first reason were yeah, with –

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter]

Tamara:                     to each other but [Laughter] –

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter]

Tamara:                     …you know, they created this technology. You know, Kevin had some great experience in the payment side and really understood e-commerce and Julia had much more of a media background and together with…with Renaud really created this really easy to use technology that literally anyone could use to create events and start gathering more people together.

[0:05:10]

And I think this is sort of where social media began to have an impact. I think when they first built Eventbrite, they were really not to get super jiggy [0:05:22] [Phonetic] but they were optimizing for Google SEO, right? So, when someone typed in, you know, developer conference in San Francisco, that the links…the Eventbrite events would come up first in Google searches and Google really…I mean it still does dominate the search space. And so they were really kind of optimizing the business for that and Google was the number one driver of traffic to Eventbrite. But what…what we begin to see in sort of late 2008 was that all of sudden Facebook started driving more and more traffic to Eventbrite and you know, we [Audio Glitch] our Google Analytics dashboard and they’re…you know, and know that the…the number one driver was Google and the number ten driver was Facebook and then the number nine driver was Facebook and Facebook began to sort of climbed up the charts. And when they looked in to what was happening, they really saw two…two main interesting things occurring.

The first was event organizers where republishing their events in Facebook so that they could invite all the groups and all the friends that they were connected to for whom they may not have had individual e-mail addresses but they could invite to through Facebook and they would include a link back to Eventbrite and say, “Hey, buy tickets here or register for this event here.” And so people would click on that link and that was driving a lot of traffic. And the other thing that they were seeing was that when people would discover really cool things on Eventbrite to do like maybe an interesting band or an interesting speaker or a cool, they would copy and paste the URL in to Facebook and say, “Who wants to go to this event with me? I just bought tickets. Who else is in?” Right? And their friends would click that link and drive, again, drive traffic back to Eventbrite.

And so, what…what I think we were seeing was not a new behavior at all, right, because events are inherently very social people tell their friends abut them. The greatest sort of driver and promotional tool for events is word of mouth, right? And all that…that social media was…was kind of an amplification or like a megaphone for that. And so people were doing the same thing they’ve been doing for hundreds of years but now they just had a new tool to do that and it was a very effective tool with that. And so what Kevin and Julia sort of recognized very early was that they needed to build this in to the product and so we were the first company to really reach out to Facebook and have them open up their events API. And so what we took that behavior that we saw and we made it very easy for anyone to do. So, even if it hadn’t occurred to you to do that to post your event to Facebook as an event host, now, we made that very simple and easy to do.

As soon as you created your event on Eventbrite, we prompted you by saying, “Hey, with one click, you can post that to Facebook.” And on the attendee side when you discovered a cool event to do, with one click you could share that event with your friends and then Facebook just roar to the top of the charts, right? All of a sudden Facebook was our number driver of traffic and it really changed the game of promotion for events because all of a sudden you didn’t need, you know, thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars to be able to promote your event and draw an audience. You could use social media free to reach a very targeted specific group of people who are going to be interested in your event because one of their friends is going.

Mike McAllen:          That’s so interesting because that is such the big…well, listening to this podcast there are basically meeting organizers and that is the biggest question that always comes up is like how to get the word out and if you already have your audience, you know, that’s…that’s brilliant that they thought of that.

Tamara:                     Yeah, absolutely because the…I mean there is that sort of shotgun approach that you can take and many people do in terms of, you know, buying space in newspapers or online ads or things like that but with social media, you’re reaching, you know, you already have an engaged audience and if you use that audience to then reach other people that they think would be interested in that event, you all of a sudden are getting very, you know, targeted and very specific with who you’re reaching and seeing much better conversion rates from that type of marketing. There is that really that really important credibility that comes from a recommendation, right? If my friend recommends an event or if I know my friends going to an event or if I know a colleague of mine is going to a certain, you know, professional event, that credibility really enhances or influences my decision to purchase a ticket as well.

Mike McAllen:          Right. Yeah, it’s very interesting. And so now I see like does in Facebook now that they see that and that they’re doing their own event’s thing on there, when I see something like that that they do event they have an event.

Tamara:                     So Facebook has always had sort of an event component to Facebook and that that is what integrated with very early on. We’re the first company that they opened up their events API to so that you can publish your Eventbrite event in to a Facebook event.

So the Facebook event is really powerful because you can connect it to groups that you’re part of, friends that you’re connected with, you know, you can hunt down, you know, pages that are focused or talking about the topic that is relevant to your event and things like that and share it that way. And that’s how social media can be really well event. There is no, you know, Facebook doesn’t have the ability to sell the tickets and so, it’s a great promotional to us, a great complement to our service and that’s why we built that strong integration and they continue to be a great partner for us.

Mike McAllen:          Yeah and it also seems to me that you guys are everywhere. So, you know, you have a presence like every meeting [Laughter] it seems like I go to or in the meetings and events industry, I’m sorry, or meetings and events industry you’re always there in such a presence. Is that you doing all that? You’re the…you’re the VP in-charge.

Tamara:                     A talented team.

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter]

Tamara:                     But yeah, I think that we’ve realized that there was just a huge meet in the market for a tool like this, a tool that, you know, we really approached the problem that we’re solving from a technology stand point. We are a technologist. We sit here in Silicon Valley. We totally, you know, geek out about technology everyday and we’re really excited about the improvements and the innovations that are occurring all around us and try to really leverage them and bring them to people who may not consider themselves as tech savvy by making it super super simple and accessible and that is really always been our mission on to make it as easy as possible to help people gather more people together.

And so we’d love being a part of the conversation and are really thankful for the way the industry has embraced us but I think the focus on really providing visibility and access to your data as an event organizer to help you better understand, you know, how your promotions are working, how your own marketing campaigns are working, where…you know, the influence of different social media channels for your event because some of the event organizers we talked to really find that Twitter is where their audience is and they have the most successful promoting on Twitter versus others, you know, Facebook or even LinkedIn. And so giving people the visibility and the data to help them understand where to best spend their marketing dollars and efforts is just really powerful for folks and we’ve seen some people do amazing things with our platform.

Mike McAllen:          Yeah, I think that’s a main thing to hit on because a lot of people don’t look in to the, you know, what happened this year and let’s look back on how we did it. They always kind of just shooting from the hip constantly and it’s nice that you have so much, you know, reporting and tracking and the analytics that people can look at and actually people listening to this should, you know, put that on their list of their post-con is really to look back and see what they did because it’s so important to figure out where their audience is.

Tamara:                     Yeah.

Mike McAllen:          Because a lot of people don’t know it over there on Facebook or Twitter or, you know, they’re on the, you know, the local bulletin board. [Laughter] They need to figure it out, you know, and that…it’s really neat that you guys have those…those analytics and I know I’ve used them in the past and they’re fantastic.

Tamara:                     …and through…through that those analytics, we were able to publish some broader numbers who give people some benchmarks as well. For example, when…when the user shares an Eventbrite event on Facebook or when…you know, until he finds an event and they show it on Facebook. On average, it will drive $4.15 back to the event organizer and 14 visits back to their event page. If that makes . So, that’s an average but we’ve seen certain types of events, certain categories of events drive much higher dollar values or higher clicks. And you can compare that to something like the Twitter where for everytime somebody shares an Eventbrite event on Twitter, 33 people click on this. So, you know, more than double that at Facebook. But the dollar value is lower on average. So, even though 33 people will click on that link, it drives about a dollar and eighty five in…incremental sales for the event organizer compared to that $4.15 share on Facebook will drive.

And that I think just goes to show, you know, there is a lot of difference in and while that’s the average maybe for your particular that you find that Twitter actually drives a higher dollar value but we share all that data…all that data is sensible to you as an event organizer in the back end. And if you know that and understand that, then you can choose to spend, you know, more of your time and attention on Twitter than Facebook or vice versa.

Mike McAllen:                      Right. Oh, that’s brilliant.

Tamara:                     Yeah.

Mike McAllen:          Yeah. So, it’s so important. So, what’s the future look like? Is there anything coming up or anything to report that’s happening in the future?

Tamara:                     Oh, there always happening in the happening. [Laughter]

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter]

Tamara:                     You know, currently  the trends and one of my favorite quotes about the future, I try to remember I think that goes to something like, you know, the future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed. [Laughter]

[0:15:02]

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter]

Tamara:                    It’s coming in the future we see hints of just as, you know, before we build all the formal integrations to Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, we saw that behavior happening, right? People were already doing that and we…we really put a lot of focus and emphasis in to watching how our users use our products and what their…what new technologies they’re adapting and that really influences are road map as well and I think right now, we’re very focus on mobile. You know, as I was sort of explaining before we watched Facebook kind of go from the tenth spot to the number one spot in terms of drivers of traffic. Now, we’re watching mobile Facebook rise through the ranks. I think it’s number five or six now in terms of drivers of traffic which is really interesting, right?

So more and more people are…are coming to Eventbrite via mobile devices and we spend a lot of time and attention over the last year optimizing our site for…for mobile usage because, you know, as more than, you know, bigger and bigger majority of folks are searching for things to do on their mobile devices. You have to make sure that the experience that you deliver to them is easy and friction-free and delightful. And so, we’ve been, you know, really spending a lot of time understanding those behaviors and what people are looking for in their…at being sure…being sure to be able to deliver on that.

Mike McAllen:                      Wow, yeah. So true, I mean I’m on my phone all the time now. [Laughter]

Tamara:                     Yeah and…and we optimized from, you know, a regular website on the mobile device to actually of a mobile specific experience for buying tickets. We saw conversion rates rise by more than 50%. So, I think it just goes to show that –

Mike McAllen:                      Wow.

Tamara:                     Experience that’s in the context of the device that they’re using or the context of the way they’re…they’re searching for things that it can have a very big impact on your business. And I think as an event organizer they think more and more about how they reach their audiences and how they get them to attend their events, mobile has to become a greater and greater part of the conversation.

Mike McAllen:          I agree, I agree. Well, Tamara, thank you so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it.

Tamara:                     Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Mike McAllen:                      And I love to have you on again some time.

Tamara:                     Absolutely.

Mike McAllen:                      Okay, and please stay warm. It’s freezing.

Tamara:                     I’ll do my best. I’ll…and see if I can get a treadmill in my office.

Mike McAllen:                      [Laughter] All right, thank you. Bye-bye.

Related articles

• Learn To Surpass Your Event Registration Goals With Women 2.0?s Sepideh Nasiri (Free Eventbrite Webinar)
• Eventbrite: $1 Billion in Tickets and Counting

Eat Healthy Food: Prepare a more health conscious catering menu for your event. One of the top New Year’s resolutions is to eat healthier. By taking away the choice of fatty foods and replacing them with exciting new nutritious meals, you are encouraging your attendees to live a longer, healthier life.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Use of more sustainable venues, create more hybrid meetings, and start using more locally grown produce for your catering needs. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is not only a great New Year’s resolution, but it is also a way to continue the commitment of responsible sustainability practices in 2013.

Exercise More: During long events/meetings/conferences your attendees are constantly sitting (and let’s be honest, those seats aren’t very comfortable). A great way to add exercise into the day is to add more breaks throughout the event. This gives your attendees time to stretch and possibly get a quick walk around the building.

Take a Trip: Go to that Trade Show you’ve been wanting to go to, but haven’t gotten a chance to! For example, EIBTM was held in Barcelona, Spain. How amazing would it be to attend such a huge conference in such a great location? Splurge a little this year and travel some place you’ll never forget.

Manage Stress: Hire Grass Shack Events & Media to take care of all your event and meeting production needs.  Grass Shack Event’s & Media is a full-service corporate event planning and production company geared to handle projects of any size. The company handles the full scope of event planning from conception to completion. Grass Shack is a one-stop shop for meetings, events, trade shows, road shows, product launches, user’s conferences, sales meetings, incentives and celebrations.

If you have meeting or video production programs or projects coming up, please consider adding your name to this list of happy customers.

Email: Mike@GrassShackRoad.com
Phone: 510-595 6921

Grass Shack Events and Media would like to thank Wells Fargo, Vantage Score, Kubota, Avon Foundation for Women, Thompson Rueters, The IMEX Group, Amazon and The American Securitization Forum for making 2012 a wonderful year.

*Top 5 Blogs in the Meetings and Events Industry:

1) Midcourse Corrections
2) Icon Presentations – ‘Sound n’ Sight’
3) Event Manager Blog
4) Conferences That Work
5) Fork in the Road Blog

*Favorite Podcast: Meetings Podcast

Leave the event production to Grass Shack Events & Media, so you can focus on the fun stuff! Hope you enjoy these great holiday entertainment ideas!

Book an appointment with Grass Shack Events & Media today!

mike@grassshackroad.com

How about offering your conference attendees the gift of great production for your next meeting or video project?

Anyone out there watch the 12-12-12 Concert last night? This was such a cool event, with such a great concept, that I just had to share with all of you. Those of you who missed it, here’s an overview of the event from their website www.121212concert.org…

“12-12-12”, a fundraising concert to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy, will take place on December 12 at Madison Square Garden. The concert will feature Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Dave Grohl, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Eddie Vedder, Roger Waters, Kanye West, The Who, Paul McCartney plus more artists to be announced!

The concert is being presented by Chase, and the proceeds will go to the Robin Hood Relief Fund. Robin Hood, the largest independent poverty fighting organization in the New York area, will insure that every cent raised will go to non-profit groups that are helping the tens of thousands of people throughout the tri-state area who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The concert is being produced by James Dolan, Executive Chairman of The Madison Square Garden Company; John Sykes, President of Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises; and Harvey Weinstein, Co-Founder and Chairman of The Weinstein Company‹the same group that produced and sponsored the historic 9/11 benefit “The Concert for New York City”.

Here are some video’s from YouTube of the performances. Enjoy!

Nirvana Reunion Song: “Cut me some slack”

Adam Sandler: “Sandy, Screw Ya!” Song

Bruce Springsteen talking about Sandy Relief

Ways to connect:

Twitter: #121212concert

Instagram: #121212concert

Facebook: 121212

The video production for this event must have been AMAZING! We wish we could have been there to help produce such a great event! For those of you out there that have any meetings or events coming up we’d love to help produce you’re meeting and video production. Book an appointment today by contacting us at mike@grassshackroad.com

Doc Hendley – Subaru Commercial from See Agency on Vimeo.

Here is Doc doing his Keynote.

Doc Hendley – keynote presentation at LinkedIn Talent Connect – October 2012 – Las Vegas from See Agency on Vimeo.

To subscribe to Grass Shack Events & Media newsletter, contact Mike McAllen at mike@grassshackroad.com or visit our website at www.grassshackroad.com

This morning I checked my Twitter lists.  I now use Twitter lists to curate my information. One post I saw was my friend and contributer to the MeetingsPodcast Greg Ruby was watching the eibtm conference from 4am earlier that morning.  It peaked my interest and I checked out the Hybrid stream.  I found the hybrid website service they used to be very easy to navigate. Nice welcome message and then a hybrid connector (host, virtual host, virtual emcee etc) and Paul Cook.

I reminised about our EventCamp.org hybrid streams that I produced in New York and Chicago.  Around the time we were thinking up EventCamp I did an interview with Doug Keeley from Mark of a Leader.   I thought it might be a good time to do a rewind of this interview for a post today.  Of the more than one hundred interviews I have done for MeetingsPodcast his sticks out in my mind as the great use of video in presentations.

I am in Pacific time so I am around 9 hours behind Barcelona.   I think you can still sign up for all the hybrid sessions here at the eibtm website

I enjoyed watching Doug Keeleys session  and Mark of a Leader is something you should check out to inspire your audience.  ( I reposted this audio interview  and transcripts below.  It might be a little funky sounding, the bit rates in 2009 were different.  It sounds okay to me but ping me if you run into any problems.)

09:00 – 10:30 Agency Programme – Stories of Great Leadership in Times of Challenge and ChangeConference Room 5.1 Speaker Doug Keeley, CEO and Chief Storyteller, Mark of a Leader

Transcripts-
Mike McAllen: Welcome back to Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen with Grass Shack Events and Media and today on the phone we have – or on the show I should say, on the show – on the phone is Doug Keeley, CEO and Chief Storyteller of The Mark of a Leader and hi Doug.

Doug Keeley: Hi Mike. How are you doing?

Mike McAllen: Good.

Doug Keeley: Great.

Mike McAllen: How are you today?

Doug Keeley: I’m fabulous. Thank you. Really good.

Mike McAllen: Excellent. Can you tell the audience and me a little bit about yourself and how you got into this crazy business that you are in?

Doug Keeley: Well my background is production. I started a production company and its called Multiple Images when I was 25 years old and I had been working my way through college working on the staging of events and back-end slide – multiple image slideshow production. And all of my life since then, I have as part of what I’ve done, produced meetings and events and my company in the 90’s, ICE was also a big player in the internet. We did a lot of brand meeting core and other corporate communications and you know, the truth is, I had a dream one day where I saw my gravestone and it said, “Douglas, a one-trick pony” and I decided I needed to do something else and the circumstances are on the business made that a good decision in the early 2000.

And my observation was that nothing has changed in the speaker business in hundreds of years and you know, if someone stands up and talk, and they talk about you know, what their expertise is or they talk about their experience climbing the mountain or sailing around the world or you know, whatever and that’s it. They talk for an hour. And I thought there’s going to be a better way to do this and I was passionate about leadership and wondering why some companies successfully breed leaders and others don’t and create cultures of leadership and others don’t. And I’ve always been a storyteller because my business has been communication so I put the two together and that’s The Mark of a Leader.

Mike McAllen: It’s fantastic. So how did you come up with the idea behind using – well tell us a little bit more about how The Mark of a Leader works.

Doug Keeley: Well the premise of The Mark of a Leader is very simple that today, leadership is the secret sauce that everyone can and must be a leader in a business. And we talked about something called five-level leadership at The Mark of a Leader and that’s it to truly engage people to work to peak performance. They have to be engaged on all levels with their spirit, their imagination, their intellect both sides of the brain, their heart, and their hands. And we – and as I mentioned a second ago I’m passionate about storytelling and I believe that stories are the glue that holds cultures together and we decided that we build a product that was story-based that dealt with how people can become better leaders and did it by telling stories of how others have done that successfully. And our thinking was there’s got to be a way to break that one hour mold and there’s a lot of conferences right now that particularly because production budgets had been cut, you know, and people are brought together and it’s dealt by PowerPoint for a day or two, you know, and you sit there …

Mike McAllen: Right.

Doug Keeley: … with the awful charts that have words on them and you know, and people are expected to be, you know, transformed or invigorated and it doesn’t work.

Mike McAllen: Yes.

Doug Keeley: So our thought was let’s do something that uses multimedia, that uses video and audio throughout and so I went out and I got a piece of software written which allows us to build all these stories that are all built in video and they all have music under them. And basically, I narrate them live and I have another storyteller who wonders if the two of us does it. And you can either build a keynote out of these stories, you can intersperse them through a conference, you can – we can build workshops out of them, they’re kind of like Lego blocks and you can fit them to your agenda or fit your agenda to them. It’s very flexible.

Mike McAllen: It’s very cool. And it’s such a great idea. I can see – what I – actually, your website, themarkofaleader.com is a really – I mean, it’s hard to kind of visualize this with – I’m thinking if someone is listening to this, how it works if we really go to your webiste themarkofaleader.com because there are some great videos that shows how it works and it actually, you know, at a conference or a meeting. How did you get all these video footage? That was one thing.

Doug Keeley: Well I’m building stories all the time so we went out and it depends. So some of the video that we used is public domain, most of that we buy from libraries, Getty Images or NBC or BBC or whomever. The corporate stories that we tell very often will be given the footage by the corporation. So we approach companies and say, hi, we’d like to feature you in The Mark of a Leader and all we need is we’ll write a script. You can approve the script and we just need some video footage which everyone has, you know, the corporate video footage and we build it from that. And we’re constantly building the story, some of them are historical, some of them are corporate, some of them are about people, some of them are about moments and time, I do – and one of my most popular thing, it’s just something that I do with my guitar and a bunch of audio sample about The 12 Notes of Music. So, we’re really trying and mix them up.

And again from my production background you know, I’m thinking what is the most successible conference we did – have done in my career are once were number – there’s interstitials, things happens through the conference to break it up and that may you know, that can be anything. So, we try to build the library of stories that are all different, they’re all inspiring, they’re all make you think but some are funny, some are tear jerker’s, some are kind the live interactive things, other are video and you can pick and choice based on your audience, your message and your business and how you want to use the stories throughout the conference.

Mike McAllen: So, you have some of that – or for a better lack of term but it’s like can do ones that you already have but then you also do not can, I guess, you what I mean, like you already have a bunch of them setup for an events that you could just plug in but then you also do, you would do it, you do – you’ll create them too for …

Doug Keeley: Well, we will create them but – and I invested an event recently where I created a bunch of them because it was a second year with the client and they wanted to talk about something different. We about 30 of this stories and the story range from sort to five to 10 minutes, there – on average of 10 minutes each. The only challenge when creating new ones is – then you’re into while, you know, you’re going to go produce the show, so you’re going to go buy the video and …

Mike McAllen: Right, right.

Doug Keeley: … pay someone to edit it and write it and so at that point and you’re back to the model of we’ll hire a production company to create costume modules for you, which is a great model but I think we’re solving a different market problem which either people can afford to do that because it’s very expensive, I pay a lot of money in the footage rights every year and I can only afford to do that because I amortize it over 50 plus events but to do it as one off, it would be prohibited expensive for most …

Mike McAllen: Right.

Doug Keeley: So, I neither solving that problem or I’m solving the problem because we do a tonic keynotes, tradition 60 minutes and I’m solving the problem of people have hired you know, some are like – all the great speakers out there you know, they’ve had the up-lead and they’ve had you know, I won’t name names, I just – they had those people and they want something different than just the person standing up and talking about their experience or doing their typical 60 minutes thing. So, what is unique, I think about The Mark of a Leader is, you can put together something that, that’s really focus on what your massage is and because my background is communication. What I love about spreading the story through a conference rather than just putting them in a one hour slot, is that I have fit through the conference and hear what else is going on and I’m the glue that holds all the messaging together and that’s very, very powerful because frankly 99% of the conferences that are going on out there, there is no glue holding the massage in together.

Mike McAllen: Right.

Doug Keeley: When I ask the client, what do you want people to walk away with? Often the result is did silence.

Mike McAllen: Yes …

Doug Keeley: Or you know, what we want them really prompt, well you know, and then give them 10 grain because I don’t get so much value too.

Mike McAllen: Yes, [00:08:48] as they walk out the door.

Doug Keeley: Exactly.

Mike McAllen: That’s funny. So, you can do a keynote or you can do a keynote and then have it interstitial in between days, your videos but are going up on stage each time with that?

Doug Keeley: Yes.

Mike McAllen: Is that how it works?

Doug Keeley: Yes.

Mike McAllen: Okay, so that’s very cool. That’s a great idea.

Doug Keeley: My result from my other guy, Don. So, we’re you know, that’s why we’re thread, so it’s narrated live so we can tailor the message of any story to the audience and you know, I just came of at two event that I was doing down in Pittsburg and you know, through the course of the even people – I get to know the people and I really understand what their business is about and what they’re going through, so – as I say, I’m connecting what their presenters are talking about, their company presenters are talking about – I’m really directly connecting that to the stories and sometimes we’ll pick stories in advance of a conference and then when we get there, I’ll say that’s the wrong story, you know, and that happened yesterday actually, the guy got – first he was talking about something specific and I went to my client and said, I’m going to switch story, I’m going to do something totally different here and they you know, the client usually say, “I trust you, that’s why we’re here” and that’s the beauty of this, it’s not just a stock, I’m coming up, I’m doing my 60 minutes and I hope you love it, go to go.

Mike McAllen: Yes, I see you know, as you know, as I know – having a production company is that, you know everything changes you know, to – they always coming on the executive with there you know, somebody they’ll talk first like the CEO will come in and then all the other guys that are speaking after him, I have to change all their PowerPoints because of what he said.

Doug Keeley: Right.

Mike McAllen: So, that’s actually so great that you’re sitting there because that it can be an organic thing and keep changing, it’s fantastic, I think it’s great, great idea, fantastic. So, let me ask you, so let say, because most of the people listening are our people in production or meeting planners, what – are we kind the touch on this before we got on – pitch this to a meeting planner to their executive without feeling like you know, they’re going to loss their job, you know what I mean like – what’s – what were the process be for somebody to pitch this, I mean …

Doug Keeley: Well, I think you can come out – there is two ways to come out, the – a different, remember I said, I’m really solving two problems, one is I’m giving you a difference spin on the traditional keynotes speaker and two, I’m solving the problem if we don’t have enough money to go a production company and pay for a bunch “interstitials” you know, a little – there, little video or little circus, the lady acts or (sector) CD or whatever is it.

So, you know I think if you’re pitching the traditional keynote then you know, I would say to a meeting planner, should pitch this at, number one the overall method is leadership and if we’re not focus leadership we’re probably not in business and this is a totally different presentation style because instead of someone just taking basically it’s a storyteller telling stories of leadership and how other people have been successful using video and music throughout it, so you got a complete audio visual experience out of it but its highly customized to us and our message. So, it’s a really powerful opening or it’s a really powerful closing and basically you get all the AV stuff that Doug spent you know zillion dollars making and continues to make, you get all that as part of the package.

Mike McAllen: Right, so instead of one story, I climb the mountain and crave my arm off with the penknife, you’re getting a selection of stories and my point of view is throughout those stories we’re going to connect with everyone in the audience because it’s not all just one story, it’s bunch of different stories and we tie them all together. So, that’s the pitch against for a traditional keynote, the pitch for the kind the interstitial is – listen we now have the money to go to a production company and so this thing is going to be dealt by PowerPoint for a day or two and there’s this guy, this product called, The Mark of a Leader and the storyteller comes in and they do this mini acts and they’ll do kind of a traditional keynote or 30 minutes to 60 minutes off the top then another story after coffee, before lunch, after coffee, at the end of the day and so on and these are kind of reinvigorating the audience every time with another inspiring story but more important maybe that or in addition to that the storyteller Doug is linking all of the messages that we’re delivering through the stories and through the conference, so you get someone this kind as a glue or the thread that holds the whole thing together.

So, I think that’s the two pitches and ultimately the prefect pitch is listen, instead of getting the keynote guy doing one hour and the other six hour or just us with our PowerPoint, you know, The Mark of a Leader guys will do – will break it up anyway we want, you know, we can do 60 minutes, we can do a workshop, we can do interstitials or any combination, you basically pay us by the day and you can use this for as long as you want.

Mike McAllen: Very cool. So, if they were going to pitch, so they could send you the agenda basically and say – when would you come into the process for this? I mean, when is the best time?

Doug Keeley: Well, absolutely …

Mike McAllen: To give you an agenda and say, you know, hey how we do, what do you think you can do with this?

Doug Keeley: Absolutely, we do that a lot and because I’m in the Toronto area, I’m asked all the time to you know, go in and demo a story to executives so they can see it and I think you know, I’m safe in saying it – this pretty close to a 100% of the time when I do that executive go, “I got it, this is great. Let’s do it”

Mike McAllen: Yes.

Doug Keeley: So, that’s the way to do it, I get on calls a lot with group of clients because I do so much work in the US were I can’t do that demo thing and I – you know, walk them through the website, explain who it works, I look at their agenda, sometimes the agenda dictates the format because there are a lot of conference were there is you know, a morning keynote and then everyone is in breakout through the whole afternoon and they don’t come back together and they’re on breakout the next day, so there is a control to put on what we can do by just the number of time and places people together as one big group.

Mike McAllen: Right.

Doug Keeley: But, yes absolutely and I think the earlier year bring us in the better and you know our promises – our things called The Mark of a Leader if you want to use that as the theme of your conference, great we’ll give you the logo, instance conference theme.

Mike McAllen: Nice, that’s great idea. So, again I think people should head over to themarkofaleader.com because you can actually see it in action. It’s a very cool website too.

Doug Keeley: Well, thanks again – there’s a lot of stories samples on there. We don’t – there’s not any false story but there’s a little demo when you get on and it shows how it works and …

Mike McAllen: Yes.

Doug Keeley: … the reason we don’t have false stories on there is because we buy the footage that we use for use inside ballroom and you know, the way it works this days is as soon as you want to put the whole thing on the internet then you know, the price quintuples.

Mike McAllen: Yes.

Doug Keeley: So, we’re allowed to put samples on but that’s about it.

Mike McAllen: So, tell me about the book, The Mark of a Leader, how does that fallen from (adult) list?

Doug Keeley: Well, the book is companion piece, it is the book of stories that sets up the premise of The Mark of a Leader and there’s a couple of dozen stories in it which are some – in some cases there are stories that are part of the live event and in other cases there are stories in the book that aren’t in the live event and the reason for that is you know some of the things that we do live and interactive don’t work in a book and what’s a good example, Florence Nightingale, the story that’s in the book and finding good Florence Nightingale video is very, very difficult. So, it’s not a great event story and a lot of clients, so you know the way it typically works and how I think it works ideally is that you know the book is used as a giveaway to attendees in an event or sold that in an event, you know, and I’m again one of those guys have – we have client you know, I don’t remember any thousand of pens with the clients names on them that’s been giveaways or t-shirt of coffee mug and I’m one of those people that thinks you know, give them something a value that whether actually going to learn something out of it.

Mike McAllen: Right, right, right.

Doug Keeley: And the books design for attention deficit people like me, it’s all stories, you can read it on flight between Toronto and Los Angeles, you can probably read the whole book, you can skip and you know, flip around and hopefully they’re all inspiring, they’re all challenging and our promise is – my goal of every story is I want people to say at the end of it, “I had no idea, I did not know about that” and I love doing stories like I did The Oprah story and it’s popular story and you know – I think is I got to find out some things about Oprah that everyone’s doesn’t already know and tell it in the way that people go, “Wow, that’s the niche spin on” someone everybody knows about it, you know.

Mike McAllen: Yes. So, also you a have blog [00:18:30] is really fun to read them because I start reading them more often I did.

Doug Keeley: Well, yes, okay confessional, the blog is pretty out of date, I going to find it very difficult to keep up with the blog, so I have to confess – we have a monthly meeting that we send out and I do that really in place with the blog now.

Mike McAllen: Yes.

Doug Keeley: And we just send out a story once a month if you’re on our list, there’s no sales pitch. We just going to find a cool story about somebody or something and send that out a you know, brief little read, I have a – just I miss one of those guys, I’m traveling so much and I’m trying to build new stories all the time that I find that the discipline of blogging is something that I’m not good at.

Mike McAllen: Yes but if people understand that to, it’s the good thing about blog, so people know, you don’t have too do it everyday, you know, you can do it once a month or something too.

Doug Keeley: Yes.

Mike McAllen: That’s – I mean, I’ve notice that about people I have a bunch of them that I read that some of them I’m always like e-mail it and would you post something.

Doug Keeley: Yes. Well, I will be one of those guys, “Oh Doug, are you there?”

Mike McAllen: That’s great.

Doug Keeley: But I think people are more use too, you know, I’m not sure that the meeting planner community are heavy bloggers yet and so I …

Mike McAllen: No.

Doug Keeley: … probably work on the basis of you know, what once a month you got a story in your inbox and you’re able to read it then which will take you five minutes or you know, you’ll fill it somewhere and come back to it and go, read you know the Mary Kay story and it’s a quick read and hopefully at the end of it, you go, “Wow, that’s (mean). I didn’t know that”.

Mike McAllen: That’s great, I figure it out.

Doug Keeley: And as I jokingly say, you know, if nothing else with The Mark of a Leader, you’re going to be more interest in your next cocktail party because you’ll know a bunch on this stuff.

Mike McAllen: That’s great. Okay, so how would someone get a hold of you? If they wanted to get more information or hire you or.

Doug Keeley: Well, you can contact us directly at the website there’s an 800 number there or 866 …

Mike McAllen: Great.

Doug Keeley: … 703-9098, there’s an info at themarkofaleader.com the e-mail address or you can e-mail me directly at dougk@themarkofaleader.com. You can contact Roma in my office which is roma@themarkofaleader.com. We’re really easy to find.

Mike McAllen: Okay, great and I’ll have all the links on our Meetings Podcast site too, so …

Doug Keeley: Great, thanks.

Mike McAllen: … and click on over and I want to thank you a lot for talking to me today Doug and maybe we can talk again some other time to see what you’re up to.

Doug Keeley: That’s a great. Mike thanks. I appreciate it.

See full story on eibtm.com

Image courtesy of by Credit eibtm.com

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Top 4 Tools Event Planners Should Be Thankful For 

Do We Need a TV Channel for Events?

Possibly

What we surely need is media generated by event professionals. Independent media productions need our support. Whether they are a blog, a Webinar series or a book.

Why? Because independent productions are out of the usual influence circles. They provide unbiased information and compete against each other to deliver real value.

This create a virtuous cycle that eventually forces also traditional media to offer free content. That is amazing disruption for an industry.

I have seen that happening with this blog.

I thought this was a thoughtful post by Julius Solarus about our industry.  We have talked about putting together an internet video show for a couple of years here at Grass Shack and MeetingsPodcast. But it usually falls into the cost of doing video that is highly watchable.  Cost meaning time.  It cannot be as simple as turning on a camera and recording it.  I watched a little of
Kevin Van Der Straeten and eventplanner.tv  and thought it was really well done.  I just couldnt understand what they were saying.   I think it might be a good idea for the industry.  Looks likes from Event Manager Blog Kevin is trying to raise money to produce these shows in English.  If you think it is a good idea head  over to this Kickstarter sponsor page by Indiegogo and donate.

See full story on eventmanagerblog.com

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Grass Shack Event & Media and Meetings Podcast! Hope you are all having a great and EVENTful holiday!

Top 4 Tools Event Planners Should Be Thankful For:

Evernote: This free software is designed for note taking. These “notes” can be regular texts, webpages, photographs, voice memo’s…the list goes on and on. Not only is this a great tool that you can use on your computer, iphone, ipad, andriod, blackberry, and many other smart devices. (Mike’s favorite app)

Google docs: A free Web-based office suite and data storage, very similar design to Evernote, but Google Docs focus’ on Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. You won’t ever have to work about losing your work or forgetting you laptop. You’ll have access to your documents 24/7. (Jon loves using Google tools)

Calendar: The use of your calendar on your Outlook, Google Calendar, smart phone calendar, etc. is one of the most useful tools for any professional (especially when planning and scheduling is your main task in your job).  (Christie keeps track of all her appointments using her Outlook Calendar)

Social Media: Social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest) have completely changed the way we connect with others in our personal lives, along with our professional lives.  This can be a life line for many busy meetings professionals to keep connected.

]]> http://grassshackroad.com/top-4-tools-event-planners-should-be-thankful-for/feed 0 http://grassshackroad.com/reaching-your-audience-through-festivals http://grassshackroad.com/reaching-your-audience-through-festivals#comments Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:57:17 +0000 Mike McAllen http://grassshackroad.com/?p=7336 Continue reading →]]> Check this out:

I came across this David Binder TED talk called “The arts festival revolution” and was inspired.

I was in a rut with work and this talk lifted me out of that rut.

Being creative, engaging audiences, taking chances, new enviroments are so important.

I have produced one large festival and it was so fun.  This talk made me want to get back at it!!

To see more of Davids work check out his website.

Informal rating of the 5 top meetings and events blogs.  Mike McAllen asked his events and meetings network what blogs are they reading and these are the top 5. If you want a full list of all the blogs he received then check out Events and Meetings Industry Blogs

Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media. And I am back in the country. I was out on a little quick vacation to Spain which was a wonderful experience, Barcelona and Madrid, wonderful places. If you ever get a chance to get out there, please do. What else is going on? We are very, very busy at Grass Shack. We had a couple of Wells Fargo shows last week which went really well.

I was in Barcelona for them so I didn’t get to attend either of them, but our teams were out there working on them hard and the client very happy, so that’s good. Jon went out to Toronto. And he’s working on his CMM with MPI. I think it’s MPI he does that with, so he is now Mr. Strategy, so it’s interesting. He’s too busy to be on the podcast. I’m kidding. He is actually right now, actually he is studying more. I guess he’s taking a test for it. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it when he’s done. It’s going to take him a little while to get that done.

And of course we have the … our Avforplanners.com is rolling along. We are changing the website, making it work. We did a little – we’re working with developers to get the whole back end working. And it’s pretty, pretty fun. It’s fun to be part of a start up. I don’t think we really talked a lot about it on here on the Meetings Podcast but I thought we might just start. Basically it’s a simple survey service for audio visual.

We have worked with it with Wells Fargo and Association and a couple of other companies. Basically we get three bids from Av companies and we give the client a simple survey of the equipment and the price and of course the labor, so they can see exactly what they’re getting. We are on their side. We have nothing to do with who gets hired. We just are part of the whoever is the organizer or planner, we are on their side to make sure they’re getting the best deal possible for their meetings so they can concentrate more on the engagement of the audience and the content. So that’s kind of fun coming down the line. So let’s get today’s show.

Today’s show, I put out – to my network, I put out a push to see what events and meetings, blogs are out there and who’s reading what. I spent a lot of time over the years now working on the Meetings Podcast for Grass Shack and Meetings Podcast when it was a standalone podcast, but it’s really our blog also. And I was kind of wondering what other people are reading these days. And so I sent it out. I got probably around 80 different sites.

And they are on the Grass Shack blog if you want to look them up. I asked a lot of people, their names and who I got it from, who I got the different names of the different blogs from are on the site too so you can go back and check it out and ask questions of those people about the blogs if you want to. So I came down with the top five meetings and events blogs. I was thinking this should probably be an end of the year thing, the top blogs of 2012, but I think it’s probably good just to get it out there.

So if you are interested in reading up on more blogs, check out that blog post. And then here’s the top five. So the first one which got the most votes by not many, but it got the most votes is MidCourse Corrections . And that is our friend Jeff Hurt. I haven’t talked to Jeff in a long time but Jeff and I worked on the Event Camp stuff when we started the event camps. And I see him once in a while. He’s a presenter. He, when I met him was doing this MidCourse Corrections . And then it was bought by Dave Lutz and I think they started Velvet Chainsaw which is a company that helps improve meetings, conferences and education. The blog itself is a very, very popular, it’s a great one to read. Jeff’s a great writer. He’s opinionated and he’s very Jeff. So check that one out. That is the Jeff Hurt – the URL is jeffhurtblog.

Number two is from a company called Icon Presentations and it’s their blog, it’s called Sound n’ Sight. It’s headed up by Jenise Fryatt who’s been on the show here couple of times. And I think she’s set up to be on it again coming up next week which is kind of cool.

What they do, Sound ‘N’ Sight is — basically Icon Presentations is an audio visual company that is owned by Jenise and it’s in Palm Springs. I think I already said that. The blog is kind of like a cross section of lots of different things. They have a lot of guest posts and a lot of different topics, very interesting blogs, so check that one out.

The next one is The Event Manager Blog, Event Manager Blog is Julius Solaris’s blog. He’s also been on the show I think a couple of times. He does a lot of – he has a very interesting template on his site. If you want to go check it out, it’s eventmanagerblog.com. He talks a lot about technology startups and very popular also. And I think he is in – gosh, I don’t know where he’s living right now, but I think he lives in Italy. I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. But check that one out. Julius has a lot of cool – a very cool stuff to read about. The last one I just read was about all these new startups for the event industry. So, that of course interests me with our Av For Planners stuff, so check that one out.

Number four is Conferences That Work . Conferences That Work is Adrian Segar’s blog. It goes along with his – he has a book called Conferences That Work . Check that one out. He has a different way of doing meetings to facilitate meetings, kind of interesting, so check that out.

And the fifth one is a tie between Planner Wire – Planner Wire is done by written mostly by Keith Johnston. And he’s written for all kinds of magazines, but it talks a little bit – he’s an interesting guy. I don’t know him personally. I’ve never met him in person but I’ve read his blog for a long time, so that’s a very popular blog, talks about the industry and check that one out.

And it was a tie, the fifth place with Fork in the Road which is Michelle Bruno’s blog and website. She talks a little bit about innovation and meetings, social … she talks about social media, social networking, so check her blogut. She was tied. So that’s the top five, actually six.

There’s three honorable mentions I wanted to point out. There’s Liz King Events . Liz King Events is out in New York City. Liz has been doing a lot of speaking as of late. She also does a little – not a little – she does a event camp type thing called PlannerTech which is a smaller talking about event technology, pretty interesting. I just watched her on hybrid – talking about hybrid meetings on with John Pollard of Sonic Foundry on for a webinar. She did a very good job. Her blog has a lot of guest posts also, so check that one out. That is Liz King Events .

The other one I wanted to point out to an honorable mention was Sue Pelletier’s Face2Face . I’ve been reading Sue’s blog for a long time too and people really liked it.

A new one that I haven’t really read is I might butcher his name but it’s Jeffrey Cufaude and his blog is called Idea Architects. Check that out. That’s one of the honorable mentions he talks about. He’s kind of I want to say kind of a Jeff Hurt more of that kind of leaning towards talking a little bit about learning innovation, learning in the community around events, so check those out.

So that’s it. Those are the five big ones and the honorable mention. I wanted to get a quick podcast out so people could hear it. If you have any ones that I haven’t mentioned, please share them with me. Put them in the comments or shoot me an e-mail at meetingspodcast@gmail.com. You can always catch me at @mmcallen on Twitter. And I’d also like to hear if there’s anybody you’d like me to interview for the podcast. Got to get back into interviewing a little bit. Those seem to be the podcast that get the most hits, downloads. We had several hundred – a little over a thousand something downloads which is for the IMEX podcast which we did.

We went out there and we were sponsored by IMEX to go to the IMEX show. And we got more than a thousand downloads which is kind of deceiving because of the that nowadays like applications that are on the mobile devices which a lot of people listen to the podcast from, they download it once. Like Stitcher is an example. They’ll download it once and then they stream it from their own service. So it’s deceiving, so we got a lot of, lot of hits on those. And it was mostly the ones that we did the interviews with, so check those out if you haven’t too. They’re posted on iTunes and on our feed if you want to take a look at it.

So thank you again. And I look forward to talking with you all in the future. Not all of you, but if you can give me a call, I’ll talk. So, thanks and bye-bye.

I noticed that this week is “World Kindness Week” brought to you by The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. After I read a few stories from their website of people’s kindness, it inspired me to do the same.

This morning as I drove through the Starbuck Drive-Thru I was thinking about different ways I can help out others with “random acts“. As I pull up to the window to pay for my delicious coffee, I noticed the car behind me and thought “hey, here is my chance to start my day off right”. I ask the cashier in the window to put the person’s order behind me on my credit card and had the Starbucks cashier to tell them it was a “random act of kindness and to simply pay it forward“. Obviously I drove off before getting to see their reaction, but hopefully my random act of kindness put a smile on their face and made their day. The smallest things can make the biggest differences!

Check out The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation website and read the stories of these amazing people who took the time out of their day to help someone else out. Here are some anonymous stories that really touched my heart. Please feel free to leave your stories in our comments section, we’d love to hear them!

“Craigslist Christmas Tree

We had posted on Craigs List an artificial Christmas tree for $50.00. I had communicated with lots of people, none of which worked out. Then, there was this woman, who sent me a message to let me know she was still interested in the tree, but that she had an unexpected bill come through. She told me should could buy the tree in a few weeks, if it was still available. My boyfriend and I aren’t hurting too bad for money and I decided I would just give this woman a Christmas tree. I don’t know if she has children or a family, but I felt that she or someone she knows would have a better Christmas because of our kindness. Giving to others when they least expect it, is what it’s all about and I am thankful that my mother showed me how to help people.”

“The Debit Card

One Saturday, I was walking through the mall with a bunch of friends. We came down the escalator and I happened to find a debit card with a man’s name on it. I picked it up and thought, wow, if I dropped my debit card and someone with bad intentions found it, I would be pretty angry. I went down to the mall office and told the lady at the desk what had happened and handed the lady the card. Even though it was such a small act, it made my day a little better knowing someone would get a call saying that their debit card was found. You never know who could have found it.”

I’ve noticed that many people have been asking “what is podcasting“, along with many podcasting questions and so I thought i’d take a moment and explain what podcasting is and what Meetings Podcast does.

Podcasting is a form of audio and/or video broadcasting on the internet. A more detailed response from Wikipedia says “A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. The word is a neologism derived from “broadcast” and “pod” from the success of the iPod, as podcasts are often listened to on portable media players“. Meetings Podcast is here to talk to event planners, event managers, event attendees, Trade Show coordinators, Keynote speakers, etc. trying to get their thoughts on events and meetings!

Do you have a meeting or event coming up? We’d love to pick your brain your about ideas and resources about your events and meetings! If you are interested in talking to either Mike McAllen or Jon Trask (our 2 podcast specialists) contact us today! We’d love to hear from you, learn, and share to others!

Also, if any additional Podcasting questions come to mind, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll chat with you about it!

I was surprised that when I asked my network of industry folks that many don’t read blogs at all. So I followed it up with “What blogs do they read?”  (Please feel free to add any worthy meetings industry blog in the comment section)
Do you think it is worth the time to do some blogging? I do understand that most websites are just that, blogs. So the line has blurred between a traditional website and a blog. The main reason is that your company or product can be found via organic search and if you can turn those eyeballs into clients it is the real bonus. Just recently we recieved an RFP for meeting production because they found us through a Google search. So blogging can pay. I would love to hear what you think? Blog or not to blog?

So below is some answers from my email. Thank you to everyone who responded!
You might find a gem in someones list, so take a look:

Jenise Fryatt
I no longer read events blogs everyday. But when I do read them, my favorites are usually:

Fork in the Road – Michelle Bruno
It’s All Virtual – Denis Shiao
Conferences That Work – Adrian Segar

My fave blogs in general right now are:

DIY Blogger
V3 Integrated Marketing
Socialable

Brandt Krueger

Is a podcast guy   (I love podcast people – Mike)

Traci Browne

Event blogs I read (but not every day…as they are not updated every day but when they are they are good) are
Michelle Bruno’s – Fork in the Road
Joyce McKee’s – Let’s Talk Trade Shows
Keith Johnston – Planner Wire

General Blogs I read
Huffington Post
Erika Napoletano - Readhead Writing
Johnny B Truant -  (Great writing kick-in-the-pants advice)

Traci is also a podcast person!!!

Donna Sanford

Mine are probably same as everyone’s
BrainZooming
Feverbee
Copyblogger
Social Media Examiner
eModeration

Dave Lutz

Meetings –
Sue Pelletier
Jeff Cufaude
Julius Solaris

General, but high relevance to our business –
Content Marketing World
Feverbee
Power Sponsorship

Sue Pelletier

I’d say my must-reads for meeting blogs are:
LizKingEvents
ConferencesThatWork
MidCourseCorrections
For general blogs, I love:
TheBloggess (she cracks me up)
MentalFloss (strange and interesting and funny stuff)
Wired/Slashdot/Gizmodo (have to check all three for gadget stuff)

But I have about 225 more that I also try to check daily…

Patti Shock

http://blog.cvent.com (disclaimer – I blog for them)
Face2Face
Velvet Chainsaw

General:
Boing Boing
Neatorama
Mashable
Jaunted

Dennis Shaio

Events and Meeting Industry Blogs:
• http://jeffhurtblog.com/ – because Jeff constantly thinks differently about things – and eloquently shares his thoughts with us.
• http://forkintheroadblog.com/ – because Michelle touches on interesting aspects of the industry and communicates them quite well.
• http://icon-presentations.com/blog/ – because Jenise covers great topics – and, brings in an all-star cast of guest bloggers to complement her original writing.
Other Blogs I Read:

• http://www.rocketwatcher.com/ – April Dunford provides some of the best product marketing insights in the blogosphere.
• http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/ – I have an interest and curiosity in EdTech (technology for education) and this blog fills that need.
• http://funnelholic.com/ – Great insights and case studies on demand generation and online marketing.

Joan Eisenstodt

Jeffrey Cufaude’s blog .. I do read it when it comes out.

Christina Dunham

Here are my Top 3 Event Blogs:
• http://blog.eventchocolate.com/. Tons of great stuff on there.
• www.theeventguys.com/blog/
• I also selfishly nominate FroomzBlog.com
As for Top 3 General Blogs:
• http://www.copyblogger.com/blog/
• http://danzarrella.com/
• http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Dana Freker Doody

http://theexposure.theexpogroup.com/
http://projectdistinct.com/
http://www.socialfish.org/
http://tradeshowinstitute.com/blog/
http://blog.iceem.net/
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/

Tahira Endean

Bizbash has been my home page forever

Jeff Hurt
MeetingChange
Icon Presents Sound ‘n Sight
Planner Wire

Acronym soup
Eventtwist and Deborah Pannell’s
Greg Ruby
Jeff Cudaude

John Pollard

General:
1. Study Hacks
2. HBR.org
3. Gapingvoid

Kristi Casey Sanders

Nothing I read regularly. I tend to skim twitter and g+ 1-2 times a day and just read what’s interesting. I find those links tend to lead back to
Julius Solaris
Jeff Hurt
Mashable

Tim Sanders

Hmmm…don’t shoot me, but for business value I really don’t read blogs…I read books.

But for fun or in my role at Net Minds:
• Tech Crunch
• Flipboard (which aggregates all the blogs)
• Fab (for fun T Shirts)

Tyler Davidson

Well, I’m biased, but I think our Joan Eisenstodt blog is great: Here’s the latest….

Jason Falls

(The very first Keynoter at EventCamp. Now eventCamps have been held all the way around the world)
I don’t really follow meetings or events blogs. BlogWorld  would be about the closest I come.

But, here are some gems I read that a lot don’t:

adcontrarian.com – CEO of an ad agency who calls BS on social and a lot of other things. Very smart, if not frustrating
zenhabits.com – We all need a little tranquility now and then
http://engage.tmgcustommedia.com/ – Engage (TMG Custom Media) – D.C. based content marketing and digital shop’s blog. Just good stuff

Paul Cook

Liz King Events
Jenise Fryatt blog
Jeff Hurt blog

Johanna Walsh

I don’t read event blogs often but I read a few others:
http://www.thesartorialist.com/
http://sweetpaul.typepad.com/
http://www.davidstarksketchbook.com/ (I guess david is a blog but feels more designy).

Liz King

These are three I Love!

Jeff Hurt’s blog
Event Manager blog
Plannerwire

Cameron Toth

Liz King Events
Jenise Fryatt blog
Jeff Hurt blog

Altitude Branding Blog http://altitudebranding.com/ (link does not seem to work??)

Miguel Neves

Brain Pickings
Conference Basics
Conferences That Work
Emile Barta
Engage365
Event Manager Blog
IMEX Insights
The LinkedIn Blog

Gerrit Heiljkoop

Jeff Hurt blog

Mitchell Beer

Sound ‘N’ Sight (Jenise Fryatt)
Conferences That Work(Adrian Segar)
Sustainable Destinations (Shauna McKinley)

Thank you again to everyone who responded and I hope you (the reader) can find something that is helpful or just fun!

Book an appointment with us today!

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Do you use graphics or animations at your meetings and events?

4 Ways Firefighting is like Meeting Production

1) Always a new place to work – everyday is different

2) Bringing in the right resources

3) Putting out fires

4) Helping people

Transcripts to come

Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media. Today, been watching the news, a little about Sandy back east. And I know a lot of our listeners are form the east coast. And I wanted to say I was thinking about you. Looks horrible, I know my sister lives in New York and some massive trees fell in her yard crushing her neighbor’s car. And I know a lot of power are out of power.

 

And just wanted to say I was thinking about you out there. Hang on. Seems to be over now but it seems like the aftermath is pretty horrible. It got me thinking today after watching a lot of the firemen on the news and the rescue workers, the police, about my experiences in the past. I used to be a fireman myself for a lot of years. And I wanted to kind of tell a story. I started thinking about the difference between meeting production and firefighting, and I wanted to do a little podcast about it. So, I hope you enjoy it. If not, I’m very sorry, but here we go.

 

So when I graduated from college, I looked out at the workforce. And what I really wanted to do was help people. And I chose the fire service. So I enrolled right away in the local fire academy. And I learned all about firefighting, emergency medicine. And then I was hired by a department in Carson City, Nevada right after that which was pretty fun. The place to go was very different from going up from the San Francisco bay area to be out in Carson City, but it was good, good, experience; a great experience actually.

 

The department was kind of a firefighter’s dream department because we were a multifunctional department. We ran tons of medical calls like every other fire department. But multifunctional is where we both had structure which was structure fire like the city fire engines and trucks. And we also had a full wild land arsenal. We also had a couple of local prisons which meant that we had inmate crews for working on the wild land fires which is really helpful.

 

And also we had a helicopter which was really fun to work on; playing in a helicopter is just fun, playing into fired is actually really fun. I worked in the fire service for about six years. And then actually I got out broken. I broke my knee on a fire really badly. And it basically kind of retired me in my 20s which is kind of interesting. I then poked around doing some other things until I fell into the meetings and events business which I found to be very similar to the fire service. Mine is basically the heat and the blood.

 

So I wanted to kind of go over some of the similarities and I have four of them. So the four similarities, first of off, I have – first of all, first of off, I have both of them, they’re always called the strange places to take care of business. No matter what happens, you have to get the job done. So in the fire service for example, you had to have a plan of attack. When you first see [0:03:28][while in fire], you basically send the world. So, meaning, everyone is sent to that fire. Then as the fire’s assessed, you start to cancel things.

 

So how many times have you seen a fire engine raised by your house only to see it like, creeping back 5 minutes later. And that’s what happened. They were – everybody was sent to this thing. And then as they assess the situation, stuff was cut back. As a new firefighter, when I first got started there, I came across a lightning struck and it was burning up and up. It was pretty far away. And so I started calling the world from my radio. I had my own little fire one ton fire truck. And I started calling the world. And so it was very interesting and scary to be calling in helicopter and those slurry drop in planes inmate crews. I felt like I was going to get in trouble like I was doing the wrong thing but that’s what I was told to do. When my battalion chief got there, he patted me on the back and said, great job.

 

And then he ended up cancelling everything. And we just sent out an inmate crew. They cut down a couple of trees and then cut line around it and then waited for it to burn out. Kind of a funny situation. But I look at meeting production and meeting, creative for meetings the same way. Basically you look at the meeting’s message. What is the reason you’re bringing all these people to the city; you’re bringing all these people to one city and I hate to hear, we just do it because we do it every year.

 

[0:05:02]

 

You really should have a reason for this. What’s the main message to those attendees needs to hear and how do we tell it best. The budget is unlimited at this point. At that point the budget is unlimited much like you’re sending in the world. It doesn’t matter how much it cost to send in all the stuff to this fire. You want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to start the process in the right way. Then you work backwards to fit it in to the budget.

 

So if part of the message is flying elephants into the room, first of off, you have, you know, rigging really elephants flying in the room. And then obviously it starts to scale back to where maybe it’s animation on the screen of elephants flying in. So you kind of get my point. This way you can concentrate on the message of the meeting and what you want the attendees to experience. And most of all, what are they going to walk away with after they leave that meeting.

 

OK. The second similarity. Bringing in the right resources. When you have a structure fire, you need the right equipment and labor. It seems pretty obvious you wouldn’t send a dispatcher or a police officer to fight a fire. There is a proper way of doing things much like at meetings which I’ll get to. There’s a chain of command at the fire scene. There are trucks and [0:06:28][Inaudible] trucks usually take care of the venting and they pull the smoke out of the building and they rescue people. The engines come in, they pump water and then those firefighters go in.

 

They all fight over who gets the nozzle in the front to put out the fire. And they are the ones that put water on the fire and put the fire out. Of course, these are all intermixed because people usually are trained in everything, but that’s the way the system goes on a fire. A captain will run the operations, give the order to everyone on the fire ground and keep assessing the situation unless somebody higher up in the rank arrives and then they take over up maybe if the situation grows.

 

So meeting production is the same way. A creative director will work with the producer to make sure the creative message and production could work. A technical director will be brought in to advise the technical stuff, the solutions for that. They all work together in that way. They make sure they have the most efficient equipment on site much like a fire department, they sometimes have to work with what they’re given which is situation we run into sometimes.

 

I was thinking about this too and I was thinking I didn’t want to associate the labor to inmates and volunteer firefighters, but you know, sometimes the union and non union laborer, you kind of – it’s kind of sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to get. There’s a lot of unions which are a good thing in some times, and sometimes they’re a bad thing.

 

If you have to have a union, [0:07:56][Inaudible]somebody who can actually do the job, I feel that’s kind of a waste, but I understand that unions protect people and that’s why they’re there. So I never actually ran into a bad inmate on a fire. Inmates are always good because they have such a choice of people who – I think at the time when I was working there, those inmates got a dollar a day for being on the fire and a day off their sentence. They’re usually really – these crews would be together for years because once they find good people, they don’t want to let them go. So they would keep good crews. Actually I’ve never run into a bad inmate on a fire, working at fire.

 

And actually I haven’t run into many inmates besides that. Volunteer firefighters on the other hand, I’ve really run into some bad apples. The Department at Carson City had a huge volunteer that were supposed to committed to help us when we’d be on fires or on scenes and they would show up in all states. And then they would have a party afterwards which is kind of a sideline here. But they would have a big party after fires at their firehouses and at the volunteer little stations they had out.

 

I remember going in there, opening up these fridges, and they were full of beer. And I’m all like, what is these things? And the full time people would say, oh, that’s where after fires, they come back and they have a big party. And so then, after, we had a couple of times where the volunteer firefighters would have their big party after a fire. And then we would have to go out and find them; they’d be pulled off the road and stuff, driven off the road and stuff. Not a good thing.

 

That was a long time ago. So I figure I’m in my 40s now, that was in my 20s, so things have changed I think probably out there. Anyway, so with the meeting production, obviously, you want to have the best lighting techs, audio techs, stage managers, riggers, video techs, graphic operators. It’s essential to have a good meeting, so you want to make sure you have the right resources there.

 

Third thing, putting out fires, basically, the fire service, it’s all in the name, firefighter, you put out fires. That’s why the position was started, to put out fires.

 

[0:10:00]

 

Let’s expand it to other things. You know, in most cities, it’s the first or only medical attention people can get. The emergency medical medicine now has saved many, many lives. Hazardous materials management, vehicle accident, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes; all these are assessed by the fire service and dealt with accordingly. Also the police, also have a big part in this also.

 

And putting out fires also in meeting production. I’ve owned a meeting production now for more than ten years. And we take care of the creative and then the production. We’ve moved in – you know, we go into venues all over the world. And that’s always a test and [0:10:42][assessed in] you know, before you arrive for the preproduction and then when you get there because there’s always surprises. And those are fires, as the term goes, putting out fires. Every venue is different and some meetings are held on usual spots.

 

Of course it’s never life or death situation, but many people’s livelihoods depend on the outcomes of the great production or just the meetings itself. So it’s very important. So the normal and also what we’ve run into for years is that the normal production were often asked by companies, perform the task of the meeting planners because not every company has a meeting planner.

 

They want someone to take care of everything. So we’ll do the room negotiations, the food and beverage logistics and transportation. We’ve done a lot of that which is interesting. So we are – we can be full service meeting planners if it comes down to it.

 

The fourth thing, helping people. In the fire service, I always loved being a firefighter. It was really a great job. Honestly, it could be extremely boring sometimes if there were no calls, it was just insanely boring. We would train, we would clean, we would do, you know, go and do stuff in the community, fix hydrants, paint red around the hydrants. We would do all kinds of things like school programs. But most of all, it was sitting around the station, but also could be extremely exciting, so you never knew when something was going to happen or when it did it was you know, it was really fun. But the main thing was helping people. That was really what I liked. And I wanted to tell a story about one of the first call I went on was a medical emergency.

 

And we pulled up and there was a man laying down on the sidewalk. It was really hot. It was like middle of summer and it was in Carson City which gets hot, it was like 100 something. It was dry heat though, but it was hot. There were two older women who were standing screaming for this man to hold on. They were like screaming at him, he was laying on the sidewalk like out. And the captain told me to start doing compression.

 

So in my mind I was trying to recall. I just gotten hired and I was trying to recall what you do thru my MT book and what you know, the compressions to breaths and that kind of thing. I was thinking about it in my head. And then the captain just, you know, he just said, you know, start doing compression, so I lined up the spot and I started to push down. And the guy’s, the man who I did compression, suddenly all his ribs broke with the first one I pushed down.

 

He’s older man. I remember hearing it in the book – I mean reading it in the book and I’m telling this in class that you know, this could happen, you can break the ribs, it’s pretty easy especially with elderly people. But it was just a sickening crunch. It was just so vivid in my mind. But then my captain said, keep doing it, you know, keep pushing. And I pushed. I kept doing the compression and it was kind of making a [0:13:33][gratey] noise.

 

Sorry if I’m getting too graphic but it was really – you know, I was pushing away at it. And then we switched up and because I was exhausted immediately. It was crazy how tired I got immediately for doing this. I think it was just the whole emotions running thru you too. But we had been – we switched up. We were there for a little while. Ambulance arrived and then they took the guy away. We went back to the station and everything was business as usual. So a few months later, a man walked in the department and wanted to talk to us all and he thanked us for saving his life. And I was kind of confused at that time. I didn’t remember him.

 

And I thought, it was some other call because we went on a ton of medical calls as a department and a station. And I looked around at all the guys at the station when he was talking to us. And I worked for these guys who were heavy, heavy duty redneck firefighters. And they all had the mustaches that cover their whole mouths and just big, big rednecks. And a lot of these guys were tearing up. And it was kind of neat to see. And the guy left and then I started to talk about it with the captain. He said that that had never happened in his crew that the guy had come by back. And he told me that that was the guy that I broke his ribs. And I will never forget that moment.

 

And one of the things about helping people is that sort of a thing is that you get those moments in your life. You even get those in the meeting planning business. You’re really helping out people. You’re obviously you’re not saving their lives but you’re helping people. And a lot of that captain told me too that rarely happens where somebody gets saved from the firefighters or from the emergency responders doing CPR. But this guy did. And I hope he’s doing well these days.

 

[0:15:14]

And how I correlate that to the meeting production too is that you know, I had recently left my position at InVision Communications which is production company out here on the west coast. And I had started my new company, Grass Shack Events and Media. And I landed one of my first clients, and it was Siemens Medical Solutions. And my client was actually in Germany; great guy, great friend of mine now. But at that time, I didn’t speak any German, he didn’t speak English, that great. He does really well now. But I remember him not speaking it very well then and trying to get things across this production that they were doing. They were coming out and launching a new CT machine. And they had hired us to produce several meetings, two big client events to produce. And one of the client events was a giant one at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

 

I’m not sure if you’ve been there, but it’s a huge building, actually moving now to another building, but it’s this old, where they had the world’s fair. If you ever come to San Francisco, go check it out; beautiful area, but it’s a giant place and old.

 

So most of the meetings were pretty straightforward. I produced everything myself which was new because at InVision I was basically staffing all the jobs and handling the proposals and helping with the creative, doing that sort of thing. So this was I was thrown into producer role which was really kind of fun. I enjoyed it.

 

And so I worked with my client who was out in Germany with the time difference. And we put together all these, all the meetings. And then the client event was the big thing. The client event, actually, we had to get the logistics of the buses to bring all the people down there. I can’t remember how many people, it was like … I don’t remember. It was like 800 people maybe or something like, a thousand people, a lot of people.

 

But the client event consisted of two stages, full lighting, AV, a life-size replica ice sculpture of the CT machine that actually the table slid back and forth. There’s links – I put links in here that I have some pictures of it that you can look at if you want to. You know, it was all catered. We had actors; we had a band; we had a walk of CT where we had built this whole kind of educational walkthrough that they would look and read and go thru. And it was all in this working museum, the Exploratorium, which wouldn’t close until five o’clock.

 

So that threw a [0:17:42][wrench] in everything. We had all this labor, all this stuff to load in. And we had I think it was two or three hours to load it all in. That was ten something years ago. Sorry I can’t remember how long ago. So we had everybody lined up outside the building. So once they emptied all the people from that were visiting the museum, then we all pushed in, built the stages.

 

There was a mass of skylight at the group that had – you know, it was a crazy old building to get up on the roof. We had to cover the skylight, put the lighting in, set up the stages in like two hours. So it’s amazing what you can do when you have to. It all worked out.

 

And so when that director of CT from Germany, he came up on stage and started walking the guest, I actually got kind of teared up and I was you know, I remember hugging my client that we had done it, we had finished it up and we had done, I think it was like five meetings and two, one giant client event, one higher end client event and videos and animations and all the things that go along with it when we had finished it. I’ll never forget that moment either.

 

So it’s interesting. You’re helping people in different ways. And that’s kind of my podcast for the day. I hope you enjoyed it. it’s kind of combining the two. I thought it was kind of apropos with all the emergency workers out there in the east coast helping all those people out there. If you’re in the east coast, I hope all is well. And I am thinking about you and I want to thank you for listening to the podcast.

 

And please, if you get a chance, e-mail me, call me, love to talk to you about anything. If you want to hear somebody on the podcast or if you want me to interview somebody or trying to interview somebody or you want us to talk about something, please contact me. And of course, contact us if you need some production done; video production, animations, anything you need to make your meetings that much better. So thank you and I’ll see you next time.

 

It reminded me of the story arch of many other movies like Will Smiths “Hitch” , Mel Gibsons “What Women Want” and the 2005 movie called “Wedding Crashers“  starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn who sneak into weddings and take advantage of the romantic air and mood of the wedding to sleep with different women.

Ryan Gosling,  Steve Carell, Will Smith, Mel Gibson, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn all find that one night stands are an easy, empty way to live and in the end building a lasting relationships will bring true happiness.

So what does this have to do with meeting planners you might ask?  I do not think meeting planners are more promiscuous then the average professional. But I do see the correlation of the instant satisfaction of working with their vendors.     Where most meeting planners I have worked with have sought and built great relationships with our company, the last few years I am finding most are looking for that great one night stand which they can just get through that show with a smaller budget that they can bring to their bosses.  The relationships are secondary if the immediate satisfaction is not met.
This ‘two ships in the night’ relationship is not the planners fault,  it is also the entitlement of vendors who do not convince their clients what a great relationship they can offer planners in the long run.   Instead of the one flash in the pants they need to convince and show the beautiful years of the good stuff.    Vendors hem and haw that they never used to have to do this convincing. But as most good companies know ,things have changed; obviously, the economy craziness.    But as any married person knows, you have to keep things fresh and make and effort to keep the magic alive.  So those vendors that build solid relationships keep everyone satisfied.

But more and more RFP’s that come across my desk are looking for a quick one night stand.  I do have to say, I am tempted by these requests as I am only human, but almost always I am left feeling used and unfulfilled.

But I am on the other side of the equation sometimes.   Last Thursday, I was asked to turn around a proposal which had a budget of around 300 thousand dollars.  As we went through it, it really was more of a 500 thousand dollar show,  depending on factors of equipment, venue, labor, rigging charges.  I put it out to two of our favorite vendors, Core Staging – a boutique company who I have worked with for years, particularly with one pharmaceutical client to provide production for a National Sales meetings, and their global sales meeting; very large productions, and very happy client.  I also sent it to a national AV company we have worked with for several years but mostly on a one night stand capacity.  Core Staging told me Friday morning they would get me a quote back, Saturday morning I had a list of questions and concerns and Sunday I had the finished Core Staging quote in my inbox.
The other national company sent me an email Monday afternoon and said, “Hurricane Sandy made their computers go down.”  Yet, Core already hit my email box on Sunday before the storm.  This one vendor who I have a relationship with satisfied me; they know how long term relationships work.  The numbers don’t really even matter to me at this point; we can work it out with the client if they want to start a relationship.  We, like Core Staging, knew this might be a one night stand but Core put that aside to build our relationship and try hard for the long term relationship.

So as in Crazy, Stupid, Love. Like Ryan Gosling I learned once again that a great relationship with a great vendor is a very valuable commodity. Meeting Planners should keep this in mind.  The one night stand is fun, exciting and for a short time very satisfying.

What are your thoughts? Are you a promiscious planner?  Or do you like a good long term relationship?

IMEX America sets records and excites attendees in 2012 in Las Vegas.  Mike McAllen and Jon Trask talk about what they saw and experienced on the show floor.  The show broke records for the size and attendees.  Mike and Jons new company AVforPlanners.com launched at the conference and found the Hosted Buyer system really worked well.  IMEX Group Chairman Ray Bloom said in the IMEX closing press conference explained that the show hosted 2,400 hosted buyers, up 400 from last year, its first year.  The Sands Expo is getting started on a multimillion-dollar improvement program to be completed before IMEX comes back, October 15–17, 2013. Future show dates are October 14–16, 2014, and October 13–15, 2015.

What’s done is done.- William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Transcripts coming:

Mike:                          Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media. And I am with Jon Trask from Grass Shack Events and Media. Hi, Jon.

Jon:                           Hello there.

Mike:                          So we are both back from the IMEX America Show in Las Vegas last week.

Jon:                           Back and trying to recover.

Mike:                          Yeah, it was pretty exhausting, pretty fantastic show though. Overall I really had a fantastic time.

Jon:                           I would agree. I would say too having gone last year, I could definitely see some things that I thought were improved. So I did after having talked to Carina in the sort of off season, and then now seeing it come back in action, I do feel like they were really taking steps to make the show work better overall. And so there were a lot of things about it that I did like. A couple of things that I still didn’t but overall, I thought it was a great experience.

Mike:                          So a little bit of background about what happened, I kind of did a little search on how many people were there, that kind of thing. They had 2004 hosted buyers, an increase of 20% to last year’s. They also had 1700 meeting professionals attend on their own which is a lot. I met a lot of those there which is interesting.

So that was a big increase. They basically had 4,000 plus attendees they think attended all three days; 2,413 exhibitors and 40,000 appointments which is an increase of 15,000 compared to last year’s. They are next year going to be moving into the larger hall at the Sands Expo to allow the show to grow which is kind of cool.

Jon:                           Very cool. Yeah, it definitely was bigger than last year. And you can sort of see that arc that they’re going thru.

Mike:                          Yeah. And I know we had a booth there. We launched our new company Av for Planners. And we had hosted buyer  which I found were fantastic.

Jon:                           Yeah. You know, I was a little dubious about the concept of hosted buyers having not really experienced it from either side in the past. But I would tend to agree with you. I thought that they were really informative. They were really interesting and the people who came to meet with you, it was a good appointment. It was a good chance to talk about the product and it didn’t just feel like you were flagging somebody down in the isle. It was somebody who was actually interested in what you wanted to present to them

Mike:                          And I know we had several people come by and say “I had heard about this and I wanted to come over at the show” that and it’s such a massive show. It was pretty cool. And that didn’t happen just once or twice. That happened several times. And I did was reading up kind of what other people were saying about the show and a lot of the exhibitors found that they weren’t just focused on, you know, everyone’s always talking about the economy globally and in the US.

They weren’t really talking about the shrinking budgets but they were really looking for innovative ideas and technologies and things. So they were out there looking for things which is great because you know, for us, because we are a new technology basically, we’re web based, it was a very great show for me. I really had a great time

Jon:                           Well, and there was an international component to it that I think took both of us a little by surprise because it was much larger than we anticipated which seems ironic considering that IMEX started in Frankfurt and I should have realized, but just compared to a lot of other shows that I‘ve gone to within the US in the past, this just seemed to bring people from every corner.

I mean I had some great conversations. I talked with a fellow from Beijing, I talked with a fellow from Dubai and there’s components of business going in both directions. I talked to planners who have business who are going international and I talked to planners who are bringing business to the US. And so those conversations were not exactly what I sort of expected going in but they were amazingly interesting. And you find out that people have some of the same challenges around the world and it just really opened my eyes quite a bit.

Mike:                          Yeah. They also had a lot of good ways of contacting people. I know we — with the new digital focus on the show – well not really new but you met with, I’m blanking on this name, about the whole scheduling?

Jon:                           Right.  I believe it was.

Mike:                          Yeah. And I know we had a little challenge with that but we’re a new sort of company Av For Planners, so I think that was kind of us just launching and getting out, get the word out there. But I think they’re going to hone that even more because I know a lot of people really liked it because they could talk about things before the show. And then of course the mobile app too was very helpful for people getting around in that giant show floor.

Jon:                           Well, we were actually located right across from Quick Mobile who did the app. I thought it was fascinating, like just the range of people who were around us. I mean we had Quick Mobile across from us, we had other mobile app companies near us; we had staging companies.

Mike:                          Cvent was next door.

Jon:                           Cvent was right behind us. But then PCMA was close by, there were some publications. I mean, it was a very diverse floor. There was a lot to see there that wasn’t just like destinations. But some of the destination booths were really amazing. I mean, you know, huge, huge places to have meetings, multi-station and just fascinating at the commitment that some of these are countries made coming here to present to the US audience.

Mike:                          Right, yeah, I agree. Amazingly huge. Well, that was the funny thing that I was talking to people in our booth and then I was looking across was Egypt. It was kitty corner from us. It’s like the whole country was like, you know pretty amazing. But you’re right, like the Holland booth was there, that fun little guy throwing paint on people and then the Vancouver booth, they had the whole Vancouver Bay was there, giant – you know, their booth was a giant, you’re in the harbor, the Vancouver Harbor there. So just fantastic.

Jon:                           The Swiss booth was pretty nice too. I know we talked to some folks there.

Mike:                          Yeah, they had a lot of stuff going on. They had like a whole bar set up there, so it was kind of fun, yeah. And they were doing like games, like they were having games where they would sit around and they would, you’d guess, you were learning the cities I guess of Switzerland. There’s a lot of things that we didn’t see obviously because we were tending to our own booth.

Jon:                           And the podcast.

Mike:                          And the podcast which was fun, yeah. Well, that’s what went on. They had a big sustainability area. I know IMEX is very big with the Green meetings Industry Council. They’re working with the Apex Standards I guess they’ve set. And they’re using IMEX as kind of a roadmap. So IMEX is partnering with them to try and save money plus be more green as they evolve here and probably in Frankfurt also. I know they’re teaming up with that Meet Green company that does the Oracle shows and they’re kind of the I guess they’re the leaders in the Meet Green area for meeting planners.

Jon:                           Well, that kind of touches on something that I realized that I think this show may have done and it maybe by design, but it’s brought a lot of the industry together in one place. Because you know, we’ve talked before back on the podcast about how many different diverse organizations there are and how there’s sort of some overlapping and things like that. But it seems like they all came and joined in with the IMEX show, they’re all kind of cooperating with that. And it ended up being this place where everybody came to.

Mike:                          Yeah, like the MPI, Smart Monday. PCMA was giving all those sessions in their booth.

Jon:                           Right. And so you know, the sustainability and all of the – Apex, all of these different organizations getting involved seems like a really positive thing to me. I was over at the MPI booth talking with some of the folks there. And actually we had a couple of them on the podcast even. But it was just, it was a really interesting experience overall because I think it’s good for the industry. And I think it really demonstrates to governments and people like that, the size, the diversity and the strength of the meetings industry overall.

Mike:                          Yeah. And they did have the advocacy and politics forum that we talked about on another podcast for IMEX before their show, the Travel Association put that on I think or they brought in – I know the mayor of Las Vegas was there and the Travel Association guy Roger Dow was there.

But they had a whole talking about how their efforts to ensure that you know, that the political as you were saying, understand the value of meetings which was it’s a great thing to add too.

Jon:                           Yeah. Well and that’s like I say, they were parts of the overall concept that when I first heard about it a couple of years ago, I was a little dubious about, but now having experienced it a couple of years, seen the growth, seen the changes, improvements and certainly there are things that can be tweaked and improved just like any business model, but I came away from it feeling really energized, really optimistic about the industry and at the same time I made a ton of connections, had great appointments, ran into friends from across the whole spectrum of planners and suppliers. And so, it just – it was a really good way to spend a few days for a variety of reasons.

Mike:                          I know. I have a million calls to make for this. And so I guess people should mark their calendars for next year. So it’s October 15^th thru 17^th back again at the Sands Expo.

Jon:                           The expanded Sands I believe.

Mike:                          Yeah, it’s pretty exciting. And so I think we’ve kind of covered it. And thank you Jon, thank you for all your time with the podcast.

Jon:                           Happy to do it. Happy to participate and always having fun.

Mike:                          Yeah, nice talking to them about it, I think we’re going to be back again next year. We might even be going over to Frankfurt and hopefully we’ll bring in some podcast in from there. And I think to close out, I have a few more interviews that I’ll put up. So you can hear what other people thought about the show.

Jon:                           All right. Well, I’ll look forward to hearing those and from my side of the world, thanks for listening.

Mike:                          Thank you. And if anybody has any questions or comments, please send them to meetingspodcast@gmail.com and feel free to e-mail Jon or I at grassshackroad.com. Jon is J-o-n and I am M-i-k-e, Mike. So thank you Jon.

Jon:                           Thank you. And we’ll talk soon.

Mike:                          OK, bye

Female 1:                  My name is Nancy Nohearhername. I’m from Las Vegas, Nevada here working the Japan Pavilion at the IMEX Show 2012.

Female 2:                  My name is Kayo Namura from Tokyo, Japan.

Female 1:                  It’s been very, very excellent. We’ve known a lot of people. A lot of people are very interested in Japan, in coming to Japan, so we’re hoping to accommodate them. As compared to last year, I think the booths are a little bit more spectacular. They’ve got a lot more posses and I think people have been very, very impressed. It’s also been a little bit user friendly as far as people finding their booths, finding their appointments and getting around. I heard no complaints at all.

Mike:                          Awesome. All right. Well, thank you guys and have a great show. I’ll see you around on the floor.

Nadia:                  Oh, it’s We’re providing a structured assessment of the sustainability performance for hotels, resorts and also for attractions. We provide actually a sustainable management plan. And yeah, that’s what we do.

Mike:                          Very cool.

Nadia:                  Yes, exciting because I’m from Germany, actually and as my first – no, it’s actually my second time in Vegas, but yeah.  And we enjoy it, yeah.

Mike:                          Cool. Well, thank you for talking with me and have a great show.

Nadia:                  Yeah, you too, thank you.

Lucie:                            My name is Lucie Bayonne. I’m with the Monaco government tourism office in New York . The show is going really well. We have a lot of appointments. The quality of the buyers is amazing as usual. We’re really happy. We have group appointments, a couple of no-shows but nothing major, and everybody, all our partners, we have eight partners on the stand on the booths this year and they’re all happy.

Lucie:                  The Germany booth is incredibly huge.

Mike:                          There are some really nice. I think it wasn’t here last year but the booths are seem to be like –

Lucie:                  They are bigger than last year first of all, all of them, ours included, much bigger. I like the way that we are next to France, Switzerland. We have a little fun going on. The Euro party is going on tonight and I’m excited about it. I like the London, what London did last night with John Lennon singing a few tunes. There as a prince impersonator.

Mike:                          I didn’t see him.

Lucie:                  Very Vegas. We have AVMan, AVMAn here with us, it’s amazing.

Mike:                          All right, well, thank you so much and I’ll see you on the floor.

Lucie:                            Thank you, Mike.

Leanne:                       My name is Leanne Calderwood. I’m at Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I’m Director of Global Accounts Helms Brisco and we’re the world’s largest site selection company. So the reason I come to IMEX is to help find destinations and resorts for my clients. It’s the best show of this caliber in my opinion that’s being produced right now; was doing IMEX Frankfurt for a lot of years.

I find the IMEX Vegas Show has a lot more of the US and Canada destinations which right now for my client base is extremely important. From what I understand, the show has grown from last year and the plans are for next year to even procure more trade shows base because they’re predicting more growth for next year as well.

Mike:                          Awesome. Well, thank you very much and look forward to seeing you around the show floor.

Leanne:                       Sounds good.

Mariela:                     I’m Mariela Macllwraith. I’m from Vancouver. And I’m with a company called Meeting Change, meeting sustainability consulting and I just help organizations look at how they can integrate different aspects of being more sustainable into their operations. It’s been wonderful. I’ve had an opportunity to talk about a few different areas of interest for me.

I’ve been doing some sessions with MPI on both sustainability and gamification and helping out at the sustainability as well. This is my first time here at IMEX and I’m just amazed at the volume and the caliber of all of the exhibits that are here and the exhibitors; a lot of interests as well in the topics that tie that we’ve been talking about, gamification, a lot of interest in finding out how to incorporate gaming applications and theory into how to enhance events.

And also a lot of interest in sustainability and I’m happy to see a broad range of interest in sustainability not only environmental but also social considerations and how people can get more involved with community service projects at the event.

Mike:                          Very cool. All right, well, thank you so much. I look forward to see you around at the show floor some more.

Maiella:                     Perfect, thanks.

Trevor:                        Yeah, hi. I’m Trevor Roald. I’m with Quick Mobile. We are the global leaders in mobile event technology. The show is fantastic. Not only do we have – we’ve already greatly exceeded the number of meetings we planned on having, but the quality of the buyers and the meetings we’ve been having has just been phenomenal.

Mike:                          Yeah, I’ve noticed your booth which is a very beautiful booth actually.

Trevor:                        Thank you very much.

Mike:                          Very nice. It’s been just crazy busy. Every time I walk by, you’ve got people sitting there in meetings.

Trevor:                        Green shirts, orange shirts, blue shirts. Yeah. We’re mixing up the shirts, keeping it interesting, keeping it livelier in the booth. And yeah, it’s been all business. Many times we’ve five concurrent meetings going on in our little 10 X 20 over here. It’s our little piece of the world over here.

Mike:                          And how about the app?

Trevor:                        Oh, the apps are wonderful. We’re having – we’ve developed the apps that are our fourth IMEX, we’ve developed the app four, both at the US and Frankfurt. And the feedback’s been wonderful. We really worked – work really closely with IMEX this year to push the functionality, especially the ability to sync your schedule, your personal meeting schedule with the live system that they’re providing and having the two way connection has been valuable to hosted buyers.

Mike:                          Yeah. I’ve seen a lot of people using it walking around.

Trevor:                        Yeah, it’s been very, very popular. The trend for mobile and events has is really just starting. It’s an exciting place to be.

Mike:                          All right Trevor, thank you much. And I’ll see you around the floor here.

Trevor:                        See you around Mike.

Glenn:                        Glenn Thayer from Denver, Colorado. I am a Conference Moderator and a host for live and televised events. Love the show. IMEX is wonderful. This is my second year at IMEX. The greatest thing about it is that you could just walk the show floor and you run into everybody. You would run into exhibitors that you’re looking for.

You would run into other colleagues, the conversations that you can have on the trade show floor are unbelievable. The greatest thing is the thought leaders that are here around the world, in one place, you can’t beat it. I’m here on behalf of my – as a third party, on behalf of my clients to look at all the new event technologies that are here and how they can utilize it with their conferences and meetings.

Mike:                           All right, well, thanks Glenn, and I’ll see you on the floor.

Glenn:                        Thanks so much, Mike.

Natasha:                    I am Natasha Korofkova from Nice Meeting. I think it’s fabulous, so many people. We are so busy with people and seems like they are really interested in what we do, so thank you organizers, that’s a real great job.

Mike:                          Yeah, I saw your booth over there. You’re like a little technology area. It’s very cool.

Natasha:                    Yes, it is because it’s easier for people to, it’s easy to find, all of us, all technology people.

Mike:                          Yeah. All right, well, have a great show and I’ll see you later.

Natasha:                    Thank you, Mike. Thank you.

Todays MeetingsPodcast is a recap of Imex America in Las Vegas at the Sands Expo and Convention Center last Wednesday from the show floor. Reactions from exhibitors, stand mascots, attendees, hosted buyers and morning keynote Doc Hendley.

Mike:                          Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media. We are on the floor once again at IMEX America. It is Wednesday. And here’s a little recap from some of the people out in the show floor.

Hi, Heather.

Heather:                    Hi, how are you?

Mike:                          Great. So why don’t you tell your audience what your name is and where you’re from.

Heather:                    Heather Miles. I’m with the Double Tree by Hilton, San Jose.

Mike:                          Nice. And how are you enjoying the show?

Heather:                    It’s a great show. I’ve been wandering around a little but today; visit a few clients already. Actually I’m already putting together a contract.

Mike:                          Really?

Heather:                    Yeah, very exciting.

Mike:                          That’s fantastic.

Heather:                    We’re good to go.

Mike:                          Awesome. Well thank you very much and enjoy the show. I hope to see you around more.

Heather:                    Thank you. Thank you, Mike.

Mike:                          Hi, Jessica. Tell me your name or tell the audience your name and where you work.

Jessica:                      Hi, I’m Jessica Levin and I’m with Seven Degrees Communications.

Mike:                          Excellent. How are you liking the show?

Jessica:                      Loving it. There’s not enough time to see everything and everyone. Like, every time I walk down the hallways, I’m stopped, running into somebody I know which is great but there’s still a lot to see on the flow.

Mike:                          Right. And how many sessions did you do? Usually I want to come to one of the shows. You have like 19 sessions you’re do.

Jessica:                      Five.

Mike:                          Five. Wow. And how are those going?

Jessica:                      Good. Really good. I did a session of productivity apps yesterday and w have like 30 people there standing remotely. So it was really good.

Mike:                          Congratulations.  You and Midora there. So are you doing them tandem or you’re doing your own?

Jessica:                      We did joint sessions. We told the story of the social media tours and symposium. We did a case study. And then the rest are just campfires that I did on my own.

Jessica:                      Yes. That would be a wonderful day.

Mike:                          All right. Well, thank you so much and I’ll see you around the floor.

Jessica:                      Yes, for sure.

Jon:                             OK. So we’re here at the MPI booth. We’re talking briefly with Doc Hendley who spoke at the keynote this morning. I just wanted to say hi again.

Doc Hendley:            How’s it going?

Jon:                             Doing great, really loved your talk today. I think the audience had a really good response too. And I was curious of your impressions of how things went.

Doc Hendley:            I had a blast today. I think I was so excited to have the opportunity to come and speak here because I do really feel the connection between the media planning industry and I’ve never thought about it much. And so late just last week I started thinking about getting the chance to come here and have this opportunity.

And really in the beginning I really fell in love with wine to water before I even gotten to go in the field because of hosting an event that did more than just have good time, I got to give back and raise funding to fight this water crisis. And so thinking about how much that just brought life to me and enjoy to see the people at the events that we first started, maybe really feel this connection between all the event planners out there who they such a passion for their events that they’re doing.

And they want it to be more than just, hey let’s just start an event because it’s our job and get out of here. They want it to be a success. They want their customers and clients to be happy and have an amazing inspirational time. And if they can add this element of giving back to it as well, that’s always. I see with this group. So I’ve had just such an awesome day to be able to come around the trade show as well and meet some folks that are wanting to add that extra element today or their own events, you know.

Jon:                             Yeah. I know we talk a lot like on the podcast about audience engagement and getting people to be passionate about things. And that’s so much of what you do. I do see the connection that you’re talking about and kind of how the planners who really love their jobs, really enjoy watching. I know for me having worked in the industry, it’s always a buzz seeing a room fill up with people and knowing you had a hand in creating that sort of experience.

Doc Hendley:            I couldn’t agree more. Yeah, that’s really what it’s all about. You know, it’s making that personal connection. And for me it’s all about whether it’s donors that help us do what we do. We had a great – the meeting plan industry has been huge getting behind us supporting us or the people in the field that we’re working. It’s all about relationships. It’s all about that relational tie.

Jon:                             We definitely linked your information on the podcast so people can get more information about wine to water. And hopefully you’ll get some traffic coming in from the couple of people who listen to us once in a while.

Doc Hendley:            That’s awesome. I’d love it, that’s great.

Jon:                             So we appreciate you taking time to talk with us. We know you got a tight schedule, but thank you very much.

Doc Hendley:            Thanks so much, Jon.

Jon:                             All right. Have a good day.

Doc Hendley:            Good to see you again.

Jon:                             All right. Hello. And tell me your name and who you’re working with.

AVMan:                     I’m AV Man and I’m currently working with AV for Planners.

Jon:                             Awesome. How are you liking the show?

AvMan:                      It’s amazing. I’m getting a full diverse cultural experience walking around meeting all the different nationalities and explaining to them what we do and what our company service provides.

Jon:                             Awesome. And has anything here, you’ve seen anyone that pokes out in your mind that you’ve enjoyed seeing the most, a booth or a person or …?

AVMan:                     I think the Switzerland booth is very nice. All the girls are really lovely. And …

Jon:                             I saw you got a little tussle with the Mr. Holland guy. He was throwing

AvMan:                      Oh, yeah. Yeah he was trying to throw paint on me but I sorted him out. He’s now Mr. Germany. He’s left the country. He’s crossed the border running away.

Jon:                             All right. Well, thank you very much.

AVMan:                     You’re welcome.

Jon:                             And enjoy the show, look forward to seeing you more.

AVMan:                     Thank you.

Jon:                             OK. What’s your name?

Kristine:                     Kristine.

Jon:                             And how are you enjoying the show?

Kristine:                     It’s going very well, meeting some very interesting people.

Jon:                             Are you getting a lot of meetings did you guys get from this?

Kristine:                     Yes we are.

Jon:                             Awesome. What have you seen here that you’ve really enjoyed?

Kristine:                     Holland and all their orange.

Jon:                             Yes. Very orange. All right. Well, thank you very much and I’ll see you around the show floor.

Kristine:                     Thank you.

Jon:                             OK. Hi Katie. Tell me your name and where you’re from?

Katie:                          I’m Katie. I’m from the DMC based in Monaco.

Jon:                             Awesome. And how are you enjoying the show?

Katie:                          I love it. There is so many people. There is so much business coming on. I just think it’s an amazing show.

Jon:                             Yeah. All right, well enjoy the show. Thank you so much for talking with me.

Katie:                          Thank you.

Jon:                             Yes. What’s your name and who you work with?

Mr. Holland:              I’m Mr. Holland and I’m working for the Dutch for the Holland stand

Jon:                             Excellent. And so what are doing out here throwing paint on people?

Mr. Holland:              Yeah. I’m the spokesman or the face of Holland, so I’m representing Holland. And today, I’m adding some orange to the life of people. And orange is a Dutch color. It’s the national color of Holland. So we’re making pictures with everybody and I’m throwing paint to them.

Jon:                             Awesome.

Mr. Holland:              Ten liters of paint.

Jon:                             Nice.

Mr. Holland:              And I like to do it.

Jon:                             Very good. It was very nice meeting you and I look forward to seeing you around the floor more.

Mr. Holland:              For sure we will

Jon:                             OK.

Mr. Holland:              Have a nice day.

Brad:                           Hi. Brad Bebell Director on Marketing and Communications for MPI.

Jon:                             Great Brad. Glad to come by and talk to you here.

Brad:                           Hey Jon. Thanks so much.

Jon:                             Good to see you again.

Brad:                           Good to see you.

Jon:                             Last time we talked I think was at MPI WEC where we had a great time.

Brad:                           MPI WEC, yes. A little crazy but good.

Jon:                             So how is this one going for you? How do you feel about IMEX America so far?

Brad:                           Oh we love IMEX America. They’re a great partner for us. And I think the show is going really well. We’ve had great traction in our booth. We’ve gotten to talk about MPI to lot of people; put our brand out there to a lot of folks. And of course Smart Monday was a resounding success. We had close to or right at or maybe even a little bit over a thousand folks that came thru Smart Monday for us so we’re excited. It was great.

Jon:                             Well. And it’s so amazing what they’ve been able to do with the show. And the fact that people could come to Smart Monday at no charge and be able to experience all this education and all of those wonderful things and just register and just walk in and have these great sessions the MPI partner.

Brad:                           Absolutely. When IMEX and MPI, when we first started talking about what it is that we wanted to accomplish here, we looked at MPI being the global association of meeting professional and IMEX America being the global organization for meeting professionals in the marketplace. And we just saw a tremendous opportunity to enhance the value of not only what we can do for our members but also what we can do for the community.

Of course, a lot of the folks who attend Smart Monday are MPI members and it’s a great opportunity for us to give them exposure to the type of professional development industry, leading professional development, the marketing guy in the to put that out there Jon. But really, industry leading professional development and education really see what we’re all about. And it’s such a great fit for us, very complimentary. Like I said, the IMEX team is great to work with. And we really enjoy putting this on.

Jon:                             Well, it’s been a great show for us. We’re loving being here; just people from all over the world. And I’m sure that’s great for MPI too connecting with those people.

Brad:                           It was great. I got to spend some time with some folks from China who are very excited about what we’ve been doing in China and the memorandum of understanding that our international board of directors has with the Chinese Ministry of Tourism while we were over there. And they were just very excited. They had no idea so I was able to pull it up on our webpage which is in their language. And so no translation was needed. It was a really great experience that you wouldn’t have had that anywhere else but IMEX America.

Jon:                             Right, right. Well, great. It’s great to talk to you and get a little bit of an update here in the middle of the show.

Brad:                           Great. Nice to talk to you Jon.

Jon:                             And I’m sure we’ll talk to you more.

Brad:                           All right. Sounds good.

Mike:                          Hi Judy.

Judy:                           Hi.

Mike:                          Tell the audience who you are and who you work for?

Judy:                           My name is Judy and I’m from British Columbia of Canada. And I’m a third party planner, an independent third party planner specializing in sustainability.

Mike:                          Awesome. And are you enjoying the show?

Judy:                           I’m really having a good time. I’m getting to meet a lot of people that I’ve actually only known thru social media. So it’s been really great.  Like yourself, exactly. I’m so excited.

Mike:                          That’s great. Well, it’s great seeing you and I’ll see you around the show floor.

Judy:                           Yes, thanks so much.

Mike:                          Bye-bye. Here we go. OK, what’s your name?

Jon:                             OK, Hi.

Female Speaker 2:   Hi, I’m  from Frankfurt Convention Bureau.

Jon:                             Awesome and you are working at the ….

Female Speaker 2:   Convention Bureau in Frankfurt.

Jon:                             And you work at the booth.

Female Speaker 2:   Yes, yeah of course.

Jon:                             How’s it going?

Female Speaker 2:   Yeah, good. Well, it’s very good.

Jon:                             You’re having lots of meetings and –

Female Speaker 2:   Yeah. We had a lot of hosted  coming by talking about Frankfurt.

Jon:                             Awesome. Well, thank you so much.

Female Speaker 2:   You’re welcome.

Mike:                          Hi, Jenise. Tell me your name. I know your name but the audience doesn’t and where you from and let’s start there.

Jenise:                       My name is Jenise Fryatt and I live in Palm Springs California. And I do a number of things. Is that what you wanted to know?

Jenise:                       I’m a co-owner of an AV company called Icon Presentations.

Mike:                          Yes, I know them well.

Jenise:                       And I also work as a social media strategist for the conference publishers soon to be known as Smarter Shift which we provide professionally created content for businesses with social media marketing to drive traffic to that content.

Mike:                          Very cool. And you’re here, what are you doing here?

Jenise:                       I’m actually here speaking. I did a session on social media for attendees who don’t do social media and also one on blogging.

Mike:                          Excellent. Yes, we talked about it on the podcast the other day.

Jenise:                       Yeah, thank you for doing that.

Mike:                          All right. Well, I’ll see around the floor and thank you very much for stopping by.

Jenise:                       No problem. Glad to do it.

Mike:                          Bye-bye.

Jenise:                       Bye-bye.

Mike:                          Hi, guys.

Female Speakers:    Hello.

Mike:                          Why don’t you tell me what your names are?

Carol:                          My name is Carol. I’m with the Hilton in San Jose.

Mike:                          Excellent. And?

Jenna:                        I’m with the Double Tree by Hilton in San Jose.

Mike:                          Excellent. And where are we sitting right now? Where are we standing? We are in the …

Carol:                          You are in Team San Jose’s booth.

Jenna:                        Team San Jose’s booth.

Mike:                          Awesome. And how is the show going for you guys?

Carol:                          Fabulous.

Jenna:                        Excellent. We’ve got a lot of appointments today and we had a lot yesterday as well.

Mike:                          Awesome.

Carol:                          Really good traffic, great ratio. I’m finding it’s a really engaging show.

Mike:                          Yeah, you have a great spot here.

Carol:                          Thank you.

Mike:                          A lot of people coming by in your booth.

Carol:                          It’s really bright, isn’t it? Very attractive from there and I think we’re coming back next year.

Mike:                          Awesome. Yeah I think we will too. I got a great – when I came in here, I really liked it. I was – immediately people were very nice to me, complimenting me.

Carol:                          Yes, of course.

Mike:                          Well, thank you for talking with me. And I look forward to seeing you around on the show floor.

Carol:                          Thank you

Jenna:                        Thank you very much.

Mike:                          Thank you.

Mike:                          Hi there.

Richard:                     Hi there.

Mike:                          Tell me your name and where you from?

Richard:                     My name is Richard Knight and I’m the Marketing manager for Scotland North American market looking at business tourism  travel.

Mike:                          Awesome. And how is the show going for you?

Richard:                     The show has been very good. We’ve had very good range of clients. We met lots of new people. I think the most exciting thing is we’re actually looking at new business and we’ve attracting new corporations in thinking about Scotland. Scotland is a country at the moment which is going thru a really, really state change in the amount of business tourism we’re attracting. We’ve got a program called the Winning Years at the moment which is attracting lots of people, so it included things like the Olympic Games, the Diamond Jubilee this year.

But looking forward, it goes into such big events as the Ryder Cup, the Commonwealth games and things like that. So we’re very heavily promoting the Ryder Cup 2014, the Gleneagles. But we’re also telling people about all the development around Scotland which total $3.2 billion at this time. It’s a great time to be coming to Scotland. And we really look forward to welcoming you soon.

Mike:                          And you guys have a fantastic booth.

Richard:                     Thank you very much.

Mike:                          Yeah. And thank you for talking to me.

Richard:                     That’s great. The booth is actually a step change from last year where we had seven partners on the stand. This year we have 17. So that shows the commitment for Scotland in the North American market.

Mike:                          All right. Well, thank you so much.

Richard:                     Yes, thank you.

Mike:                          Hi guys.

Females:                   Hello.

Mike:                          Why don’t you introduce yourselves

Shawna:                     I’m Shawna Suckow, Founder and President of SPIN, the Senior Planners Industry Network.

Sara:                           I’m Sara Vanderbilt, Vice President of SPIN.

Mike:                          Nice. And so how’s the show going for you guys?

Shawna:                     It’s been fantastic. We’re running around from place to place. We’ve got a hosted buyer group, we’ve got a booth, I’ve been doing some speaking and just reconnecting with a lot of old friends in the industry. It’s been really great so far.

Mike:                          Yeah. Having a good time and ….

Sara:                           And we’re getting a lot of new members to join the organization. We’re getting a lot of existing members stopping by and saying hi and it’s really great.

Shawna:                     Was just talking with someone who said this is the “it” show.

Mike:                          Yeah. This is the show I think that I’ve ever been to really that I’m really have a good time.

Shawna:                     It’s fantastic. And I hear they’re expanding next year which I think is needed because they’re busting at the seams now. It’s fantastic, really good show, good effort, good show.

Mike:                          Well, thank you guys. And I’ll see you on the show floor.

Shawna:                     Fantastic.

Sara:                           All right.

Shawna:                     Thanks.

Sara:                           Bye.

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Mike:                          Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media. We are at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas for Smart Monday at IMEX America. I’m having a pretty good time. Jon and I have been a ton of time at an expo floor. And it’s crazy massive trade show. Everybody I know seems to be here which is pretty fun. This morning I caught the Deborah Benton keynote. And it was a really great keynote.

I just interviewed her recently so I really made the effort to get there early in the morning to see it and she really was great. But I would like to maybe share, I got some interviews from some of the planners that were in the audience about what they got out of her keynote. And I actually got to talk to Deborah afterwards too. I caught up with her and she’s going to share a few things too. So let’s get ride into it. Thank you.

DeShawn:      My name is DeShawn Wynn. I’m from Los Angeles, California. I’m with Wynning Touch Event Design. I love the keynote speaker today. She was very energetic, she was funny. And the topic that she – just the things that we take for granted as far as our facial expressions, as far as how we appear to other people, just put that in perspective to be a little bit more conscious about when I approach people, how I approach them. So it was a great session.

Mike:                          So did you get something in particular that you were going to use? I know she had like the Cheese Whiz which I thought that I have to start saying cheese whiz.

DeShawn:      Yeah.

Mike:                          Still trying to figure that out for myself anyway.

DeShawn:      And I know that I have the tendency to not smile when I’m not directly talking to somebody. And so being more conscious of even when I’m not actively in a conversation being aware of my body language and being aware of my facial expressions because people are still looking at me and watching me, so being aware of that. So yeah, I did like that point very much.

Mike:                          All right. Well, thank you very much and have a great show.

DeShawn:      Thank you. Thank you very much.

Mike:                          HI Elizabeth. How are you?

Elizabeth:                  Doing well, how are you?

Mike:                          Did you enjoy the keynote?

Elizabeth:                  Yeah, I really did. She was very inspiring and sort of made me be a little bit introspective and do the, OK, I need to do that differently; I haven’t thought of it that way.

Mike:                          Yeah. It was really fun. And why don’t you say – tell me who you are and where you’re from too.

Elizabeth:                  My name is Elizabeth Brazil. I’m from California and I own Gerbera Daisy Events

Mike:                          Oh, very cool.

Elizabeth:                  Yeah.

Mike:                          So did you have a takeaway from Deborah’s perfect music up in the background?

Elizabeth:                  Yeah. Really it is, it works well. After a fight.

Mike:                          What was the takeaway? Are you going to go home and do something?

Elizabeth:                  Yeah, it’s really I think I generally approach people with a smile but it may not come across as genuine even though I think it does. So it’s probably being more self-aware and really being more cognizant about asking more question rather than I guess judging someone based on what I think they’re communication.

Mike:                          Right. Yeah. I got a lot out of that too about the whole hands being at the same level with people because you do work with all sorts of people, you know, even actually said Like a panhandler or somebody –

Elizabeth:                  Yeah.

Mike:                          I do live in San Francisco so I come across these panhandlers all the time. And I’m like, oh, gosh.

Elizabeth:                  Yeah. Same thing in Los Angeles, yeah.

Mike:                          It’s true.

Elizabeth:                  But it is certainly it’s a situation where everybody has their own unique come from and you kind of have to remember that just because you’re perception is one thing, it’ s not that they’re completely on a different level. They just have a different place that they come from and it may affect how they approach you.

Mike:                          Yeah. That’s great. OK, well, thank you Elizabeth. Have a great show.

Elizabeth:                  Thank you very much.

Mike:                          Hi, Tracy.

Tracy:                          Hi.

Mike:                          We just came out of the keynote, the Deborah Benton keynote this morning.

Tracy:                          Right.

Mike:                          And why don’t you tell the folks who you are and what your company name is and how you like the keynote.

Tracy:                          OK. I’m Tracy Stuckrath with Thrive Meetings and Events out of Atlanta, Georgia. And I educate our industry on how to accommodate dietary needs at events. And I thought Deborah’s presentation was phenomenal. The one line that made me really think really good about it was that her mom told her when she asked her, “What do you do for a living?”

She goes, “You teach people how to be good to other people.” And that completely relates to what I’m doing with my job is because I’m trying to provide better equity in what we serve food to people who have different dietary needs. So that really resonated with me and I just had to thank her for it.

Mike:                          That’s awesome. And so do you have a takeaway from something she said that you’re going to do? Because I know for myself I just  sorts of things, the cheese whiz.

Tracy:                          The cheese whiz, yeah, not frowning all the time. But I talk to – I can just talk to a wall. So I love talking to people. So the other part of that was that just continue to do that and make friends. You never know who you’re going to meet and what you’re going to get out of that relationship.

Mike:                          Fantastic. All right, well, thanks Tracy. Have a great show.

Tracy:                          Likewise, you too.

Mike:                          Hope to see you around.

Tracy:                          Yes, sir. I’ll see you on the floor.

Mike:                          Deborah, fantastic job. I really enjoyed your keynote this morning. I interviewed quite a few people that loved it. So I wanted to get your take on it. How about for you because you were up on stage?

Deborah:                   Well, I like the audience and for this early they were very awake, alert and alive which makes it wonderful for a speaker. But you know why I like this audience? These members worked so hard putting on spectacular detailed, every I’s dotted and T’s crossed events where they worked so hard, but they don’t get the respect for their work lots of times because people say, oh, that’s a meeting planner. And it’s up to you and I to make sure we get a seat at the table, figuratively speaking. And people give us the respect too. And even if they don’t, we’re not bothered by it, but at least we act that way. We walk and talk that way. And that’s what I hoped to impart with somebody’s ideas today.

Mike:                          Perfect. And I was also – I had a funny thing. I was sitting next to a planner. Obviously they were all planners here. And you told the story about the Nastech –

Deborah:                   Uh-huh. Nastech CEO.

Mike:                          CEO and that you got the job to do. You stayed and you did the talk and then she goes, oh my gosh, I would hate that because it would ruin my budget is what she said because she was like, oh my gosh, now, you know, that would go into her budget. That’s what she thought  I just thought it was a funny take. But I don’t know if you’ve thought about that because they spent all these months planning that event probably. And then here you come rolling in and …

Deborah:                   And you know what, the reality is this was a smaller company. It probably wasn’t a professional planned meeting. But also, it just shows you the latitude that CEOs have, there’s money there often if it’s something they have interest in. You know, life’s not fair.

Mike:                          That’s always the case. Yeah, but that’s part of the meeting  job. Anyway, fantastic job, really enjoyed meeting you and really enjoyed the keynote, thank you.

Deborah:                   Thank you very much and I hope our paths cross again, Mike.

Mike:                          I do too.

Deborah:                   All right.

Mike:                          So we’re back live now. I’m here with Elizabeth Glau from Social Media Building Blocks and of course Jon Trask from –

Jon:                             Yes, hello.

Mike:                          — Grass Shack Events and Media. Elizabeth, why don’t you talk a little bit about your session you went to with Janice Fryatt.

Elizabeth Glau:        I would love to. There as a lot of good sessions to choose from today at MPI Smart Monday. But of course I would choose to go to my friend Janice’s session on social media. And she did a great job with an overview for planners who maybe want – they see the value in using Twitter in their events and they see the value in their attendees tweeting and doing other social sharing of information of their events because it’s promoting their events and you know that turns into dollars.

She’s done a great statistics that event to advertise the value of a tweet and a LinkedIn share and that kind of thing. So it was lots of good statistics and information as far as the value of your attendees sharing the information right there, that they’re learning at your conference. And the attendees of that session were vast and varied from people that were literally not on social media at all for the most part to you know, experts. Even though the session was you know, pretty much advertises kind of – it’s been social media for attendees who don’t do social media, right?

So the idea of what is, hey, hiring a social media concierge was one of her ideas so that in the use of this term in the way that she was using it is a person who would come into your conference and help your attendees get on to Twitter and send their first tweet. And really it’s more instead of taking the approach of oh my gosh, my attendees are all tweeting and I need to do something about it, it was more like, well, maybe you have attendees that aren’t doing this stuff.

And hey this is valuable information and it is good for you if they do share. So if you bring in an expert, people call them different things, but if you bring in an expert that can help your attendees get set up and share, that’s a good thing to do if you have got the resources to do that. She had a lot of interesting and again, diverse questions and stuff from the audience because I think people are just, you know, all over the map as far as social media goes.

Mike:                          Right. It is confusing though for people.

Jon:                             Yeah.

Mike:                          But that’s great. That’s a great point.

Jon:                             And I think for planners it’s one more thing to worry about that they’re kind of looking at it that way right now. So maybe bringing in somebody who is an expert to kind of take that away from their responsibility and just help out would be an excellent idea.

Elizabeth Glau:        She did a great job though. She had you know, parts of the sessions that were interactive. You know, we worked in groups and just talked about how are you using social media, how we found it and stuff.

Mike:                          How long was the session?

Elizabeth Glau:        I think it was like an hour.

Jon:                             Yeah, they were like an hour, an hour and a half, something like that.

Elizabeth Glau:        It was an hour but it was a good length for that topic. It was a good amount of time. Again, putting into little interactive beds of course helps, right?

Jon:                             Right.

Elizabeth Glau:        She’s a good presenter so she knows.

Jon:                             Keep people.

Elizabeth Glau:        You’re up in front and talk to people. She kept it interactive and like I said there was a lot of great questions from the audience and stuff too, so people learning from each other.

Mike:                          And there was a full day of session. Unfortunately Jon and I we hanging out in the trade show area which was massive and it’s pretty exciting to see the different booths going up. It’s madness in there right now. So it’ll be a great thing tomorrow to see what’s going on and …

Jon:                             I did read a stat that it’s 25% larger than last year.

Mike:                          Yeah.

Jon:                             I mean last year was a big show floor. And there’s some very impressive booths going in right now, I mean lots of activity and buzzing around of people. But it’s just really amazing to see the people from all over the world.

Mike:                          Yeah, it is.

Jon:                             And so many different countries exhibiting and things like that.

Mike:                          Every country, it seems like.

Jon:                             Yeah, it seems like, yeah. So you know, I’m going to really enjoy having a chance to kind of look around in the next few days.

Mike:                          Yeah, I talked to – fortunately I met some friends since I’ve been down here form the Swiss and the French. Actually they came, one of them came by our booth today. It’s very interesting to have you and I walk in thru the booth and go, where is France? Anyway, and that we really – you’re going to France, you’re going to Germany.

Jon:                             Right.

Mike:                          Pretty fun. Pretty fun. It’ll be great tomorrow to see what happens. I look forward to podcasting again about it, seeing what we see and how it worked. And I guess we should talk a little bit about social media since Elizabeth is here. Elizabeth, what is happening in the social media?

Elizabeth Glau:        The world of social media?

Mike:                          Yeah.

Elizabeth Glau:        The hashtag in case any of you are wanting to tread along over the next couple of days is hashtag IMEX 12, the official hashtag. And my friends over at Refyner told me that the three weeks leading up to IMEX, there were already 4,000 tweets. And we’ve definitely seen a lot of activity today. Of course there’s a spike today as people start to arrive and a lot of people are really are here for the Smart Monday and sharing all the good things that they’re learning.

I love seeing – even one of the tweets that I sent out was somebody that I met in person that I of course had known on social media. And we got to take a picture together. SO that kind of thing is fine. And a lot of us that are on social media, you know, we always have these experiences.

You know, part of me thinks that one of these days, we’ll all just know each other. But I think, you know, right, like, at some point we all have met but maybe not because there was always new people coming to and that kind of thing. So potentially, we can always come to events like this and meet people in person that we’ve maybe met over social media at first.

But I will give some shout-outs here because I see that the top users of the IMEX hashtags so far have been the IMEX group of course. They are doing a great job of being involved with retreading all the good information and sharing tips of what’s going on and stuff like that. So IMEX group is first. There’s a twitter user called wwwcoach. That’s in there in number two and our very own, Mike McAllen.

Jon:                             Oh, how nice.

Elizabeth Glau:        So Mike McAllen is at number three on this list that I’m looking at right now. I mean this is a constantly evolving list of course because you got to stay on your Twitter game and keep tweeting away, sharing good information to make it on to the list.

Mike:                          I’ve been trying to get on that list and I have achieved it now.

Jon:                             You might just fly home now. You don’t even really need to stay.

Mike:                          Yeah. My bucket lis.

Elizabeth Glau:        You know, somebody, it was interesting Jon pointed out somebody had tweeted their Hootsuite. And I see actually from this dashboard I’m looking at that Hootsuite has been the most used platform for tweeting. So maybe that’s why.

Elizabeth Glau:        Maybe they’re just getting so much activity, you know. I don’t know if it’s from the hashtags specifically or not but …

Mike:                          It is a cool way too for people who are like home and couldn’t come to kind of get a really, get a sense of what happens here.

Elizabeth Glau:        Oh, I do that all the time.

Mike:                          Yeah. Just to get a sense of what’s happening.

Elizabeth Glau:        If I can attend the conference, fine.  There’s been conferences where I almost felt like I was there. Obviously you’re missing the face to face piece of it. But you know, I almost felt like I was there just from watching the hashtag and participating in those conversations.

Jon:                             Yeah. And I was thinking about something that you said, talking about meeting somebody for the first time and how you think we’re all going to sort of know each other eventually. But the purpose of the face to face meetings, that’s why we’re in this industry, is to put people in the same room because things happen that way. But at the same time, you have a different conversation with people that you know thru social media because you kind of know them already when you’re walking up to them. And so there is an element to that that’s sort of an icebreaker and sort of an interesting thing. It’s like, you already know this person. Now you’re just getting their face. And I think that’s a cool thing really.

Mike:                          Yeah. And that was in Deborah Benton’s keynote this morning. She was talking about that that a lot of people, the audience, the questions were all about social media because she’s all about the face to face talking about how things. And her new book actually is about using social media and how to be in line with other people and do this type of thing. It is that it is evolving. It’s interesting to see how it goes. I mean, I’ve been tweeting a lot about this stuff. I haven’t had a chance today to kind of connect with anybody because we’ve been so busy but I’m really looking forward to tomorrow to tweet in more.

Elizabeth Glau:        Exactly.  You’re going to make it to number one.

Mike:                          Because I mark my words. Everyone is listening, but no, they’ll be, it’s great now that I will be in one spot tomorrow all day, so I’m interested to see if I can get people to come.

Jon:                             Yeah.

Mike:                          I mean, we’ll see what the power of Twitter is.

Elizabeth Glau:        Exactly.

Mike:                          But thank you, Elizabeth for your update.

Elizabeth Glau:        M-hm.

Mike:                          And I can talk to you all day tomorrow, all right, guys. And we will reconvene and fire another podcast.

Elizabeth Glau:        We’re looking forward to another great IMEX.

Mike:                          Yeah. So thank you for listening and thank you to IMEX and we will see you all there. Bye-bye.

Related articles

• Doc Hendley Turns Turn Customers Into Crusaders- Show 237
• Politicians what does Advocacy have to do with Meetings? – Tom Hulton IMEX Group -Show 232
• Debra Benton- Leaders Needed: Apply Within – Show 238

Transcripts:

Mike:                          Welcome to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media. I am out on the floor here at IMEX America. I’ve been popping around talking to different people, planners and exhibitors, trying to get their take on what’s been happening today, Tuesday at IMEX. And so I will let you listen to them and thank you again for listening to the podcast and I will see you next time.

Hi, Julie.

Julie:                          Hi, Mike.

Mike:                          Why don’t you tell the audience what your name is, who you work for?

Julie:                          I’m Julie Hewett. I’m with JulNet Solutions which is an association and event management company out of Huntington, West Virginia. This is my very first IMEX, so I didn’t know what to expect. It’s been quite an experience, very different from any other trade show that I’ve gone too and I think far more productive.

Mike:                          Yeah. And so you went to Smart Monday yesterday?

Julie:                          I did. I went all day. Phenomenal. I had so many notes, so many good ideas, so many different things that I can’t wait to go back to the office and try.

Mike:                          What was something – what takeaway that you got? What’s the one you’re totally happiest about, can you think of one?

Julie:                          Whole long list of technology apps that are going to make my life easier, more productive.

Mike:                          And anybody you saw in particular you like speaker that you would recommend?

Julie:                          Midori always a good one.

Mike:                          Midori Connolly!

Julie:                          Yes, yes,

Mike:                          Interesting. OK. Thank you so much.

Julie:                          Thank you.

Mike:                          And I look forward to seeing you more around the show floor.

Julie:                          Perfect. Thank you.

Mike:                          All right. Hi, Martin, first, why don’t you tell people who you are and who you’re with. And why don’t you tell me a little bit about what you’re looking forward to here at IMEX.

Martin:                       Yes, thank you, Mike for this opportunity. My business is called Abitt. And I started the company 30 years ago. It’s an audio visual production meeting design company. And so what I’m doing here is mainly meeting American clients and friends but also hoping to meet new and potential clients, Americans that come to Europe because we do production and audio visual for meetings and conferences all over Europe. And so lots of our clients are from America. And we are looking forward to meet some of those that are coming to Europe and love to help them with their production.

Mike:                          Awesome. And so where is your booth?

Martin:                       We are – I’m actually at the Belgian booth. My company is based in Belgium but we work all over Europe. And so we have several appointments. So the IMEX appointment system is working well. I have a busy schedule. But if someone is listening to this and is going to come to Europe and looking for a reliable partner for audio visual and production, I’d love to talk to them. And so I’m on the Belgian booth and look forward to meeting those people.

Mike:                          Awesome. Thank you so much. And I look forward to seeing you the whole week.

Martin:                       Thank you, same here.

Mike:                          OK. Bye-bye.

[Background Music]

Mike:                          All right. Hi, John. Why don’t you tell us who you are and what you work for and we’ll start there.

John:                           Hey. Thanks, Mike. John Pollard Sonic Foundry Events Services or also known as media site events in some circles. And I work with partners there to help them understand and execute hybrid events, successful hybrid events hopefully. So that’s what I do.

Mike:                          Nice. And so tell me a little bit, are you enjoying the show?

John:                           Yeah. Thanks. So far, very much enjoying the show. This is my first IMEX experience and coming here to sort of get the feel for what’s going on. And I got to say it’s pretty exciting. There’s a lot of energy here. There’s a lot of breadth in the types of exhibitors. I’m impressed with how the people that are hosted buyers seem to be having a lot of meetings. It seems like people are getting their value out of this.

So I mean, I think it’s definitely something for organizations like my own where you’re considering is there something we want to be involved in. It seems like it’s something that there’s a lot going on; obviously a lot of destinations here. But that’s what’s interesting. It’s not just destinations but it’s also, you know, there are the technologies around the events industry. There are a variety of vendors, but yeah, It’s just I think a great place. If I were a planner trying to hit a lot of things in one space, I think this would have to be on one of those must attend circuits.

[0:05:07]

Mike:                          Yeah. All right. Well, thank you John.

John:                           Thanks, Mike.

Mike:                          And I look forward to see you more on the floor.

John:                           Yeah, will do

Mike:                          Hi, Gerrit. Good to have you here. Thank you for talking with me. Tell me who you are or tell the audience who you are and where you’re from.

Gerrit:                      Yeah. I’m very glad to finally meet you in real life, Mike. My name is Gerrit Heijkoop. I’m from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, running an agency which is called How Can I Be Social. And we’re into social media, new media in events and conferences. And we’re here at the IMEX doing several different projects on that subject.

Mike:                          Nice. Like what? Tell me a little bit about it in very small pieces.

Gerrit:                      Very small pieces. First of all, we’re leading the IMEX social team. So we’re reporting on the show floor and we’re helping people with their questions on social media. Secondly, you see scattered around on the show floor, you see the what’s on screens showing the educational program alternated with the Twitter feed, what’s going on in Twitter. Third thing we’re doing is we’re running two little campfires on these subjects. And our projects we’re doing, we’re supporting the Dutch National Convention Bureau with their Meet Mr. Holland Campaign. And we’re actually here as his PA making sure all his online activity is going on.

Mike:                          I need to meet Mr. Holland. I haven’t been over there yet.

Gerrit:                      You definitely need to meet Mr. Holland.

Mike:                          I’m kind of married to this booth right now but I’ll go over there.

Gerrit:                      I’ll bring him over here at some point.

Mike:                          So have you – what have you seen? Seen anything that really stuck out or you know, I mean you’ve been very busy and working.

Garrett:                      Exactly. It’s been crazy. First of all I noticed, there’s a great vibe here. There’s a lot of people, a lot of stands, it’s sold out, so that’s a lot of fun. And you feel that. And obviously, what was noticeable was the AV man walking around the show floor. Yeah, definitely.

Mike:                          I know. He’s over there taking a picture. You got a picture with him and Mr. Holland had to have that.

Gerrit:                      Exactly. We did.

Mike:                          All right. Well, thank you so much and maybe we can talk again before this thing is out.

Gerrit:                      Sure.

Mike:                          We can talk a little bit more about social media maybe on Thursday or something.

Gerrit::                      Would be fun

Mike:                          If we’re doing a daily podcast it’d be great.

Gerrit::                      Good

Mike:                          OK. Thank you.

Mike:                          Hi there Nate. Why don’t you tell the audience what your name is and who you work for?

Nathan:                      Sure. My name is Nathan Horne and I’m the Business Development Manager for Song Division USA.

Mike:                          Great. And so you’re exhibiting here. And so how’s it going so far? Are you having a good time?

Nathan:                      Yeah. It’s been a great day so far. We’re exhibiting this second year at IMEX and I’m just really impressed by the level of qualified buyers that we’ve had appointments with today, so it’s been great.

Mike:                          And you have like, you’re making money? Are RFP’s flying to thru the door?

Nathan:                      Exactly. Kicking ass and taking names, so excellent.

Mike:                          Well, thank you so much and I hope to see you around tomorrow,

Nathan:                      Thank you, Mike.

Mike:                          OK, tell me who you are and where you’re from.

Thorsten:                   Thorsten Meier, CEO with the Life and Motion Group; running over the show, doing as many appointments as I can.

Mike:                          Great. And are you enjoying it?

Thorsten:                   Very much so. One in a year opportunity to meet the suppliers who want to and this year especially trying to catch new suppliers and new companies or destination management companies around the world we don’t know yet.

Mike:                          Yes. That’s fantastic. So how’s it going? You are …

Thorsten:                   So far, yeah. For the first day first of all I think it’s very, very busy which is a very good sign. And second of all, qualities of supplier, quality of suppliers actually rather big this year. And so far I’m actually very happy.

Mike:                          Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much and I look forward to seeing you on the floor.

Thorsten:                   Will do, will do. Thanks.

Mike:                          All right. Hi, Cindy. Tell me your name. I mean I know your name but tell me just what your name is and where you’re from.

Cindy:                         Cindy Romanello and I’m from Monterey, California.

Mike:                          Excellent. And how’s the whole show going for you?

Cindy:                         The show’s fantastic. It’s just walking around this place is incredible. It’s going well.

Mike:                          Yeah. And so are you guys having a lot of meetings today?

Cindy:                         Having a lot of meetings today. We have a lot of meetings all week.

Mike:                          Awesome.

Mike:                          So your booth is Monterey County.

Cindy:                         Monterey County. We’re with the CBV.

Mike:                          But you’re from?

Cindy:                         The Carmel Mission Inn.

Mike:                          Well, thank you so much.

Cindy:                         You’re welcome. Thank you.

Mike:                          All right. Tell me your name and who you’re with.

Caroline:                    Caroline Pidroni and I work with the Switzerland Convention and Incentive Bureau by side of New York.

Mike:                          And what are you doing now? What’s going on here? I’m sitting somewhere. Where am I?

Caroline:                    You’re on the Swiss booth, at the Swiss bar enjoying some Swiss Wine with some Swiss cheese, Swiss chocolate.

Mike:                          So how is the booth going? Is it going good?

Caroline:                    The booth has been very, very busy this morning. And then it quieted down a bit, got busy again. And I guess now it’s time to go enjoy Vegas.

Mike:                          Awesome. All right. Well, thank you very much,

Caroline:                    You’re very welcome.

Mike:                          And I will see you around the floor.

Caroline:                    Totally.

Mike:                          Hi. How are you. Tell me your name and where you’re from?

Carolina:                    Hi. How are you? My name is Carolina. And I’m from Costa Rica, Central America, nice country.

Mike:                          And you’re at the booth right now.

Carolina:                    Yes.

Mike:                          And how’s it going? How’s the day?

Carolina:                    Well, at the moment, everything is very well. All our 26 companies, they are very, very happy. I think we need more movements tomorrow I think to see what happen better. But at the moment everything is well. I think everybody has appointments or had appointments already but I think tomorrow is going to be better I hope. And we have our presentation and destination area, so very well too. And we are happy. I think everything is well but we need more movements. We need more appointments.

Mike:                          I think everybody says that always in any business here.

Carolina:                    Oh, yes. We need more and more.

Mike:                          All right, well, thank you so much and see you around on the floor.

Carolina:                    Hi, Jim. Why don’t you say your name and where you’re from

Jim:                             Jim Kelly from the Washington DC office of PRG.

Mike:                          Awesome. So how are you liking the show?

Jim:                             We’re having a great experience here. Last year was our first year at IMEX and we had a very small presence. We’ve increased our presence this year and we’re very pleased with the outcome with the quality of the attendees not only the prescheduled appointments but also the welcome traffic that we received and it’s only day one.

Mike:                          Yeah. It is. How are you feeling? Are you feeling good about or are you exhausted yet? I mean I feel it.

Jim:                             I’m a little tired. I think Vegas does that in a combination of this industry. Certainly it’s an industry that is involved in face to face meetings which involves entertainment which sometimes includes adult beverages and you know, but all in the appropriate manner. So it’s been really a great event

Mike:                          And you do see a lot of that around the show floor right now. Actually there’s a lot like people have a lot of bars going on at their stands. It’s interesting.

Jim:                             You know I haven’t done a number of events outside the domestic US. It’s very, very common. It’s not something that’s as accepted in the US. But with the international flair in favor of this show, I don’t see how you cannot have it. And I don’t think in this show I think there’s anything wrong with it.

Mike:                          No, I don’t either.

Jim:                             We’re all adults.

Mike:                          Yeah, we are.            Well, thanks Jim. And I look forward to seeing you around on the floor the rest of the week.

Mike:                          Tell everybody who you are or where you’re from.

Paul:                           Hi, Mike. I’m Paul Salinger. I’m a Vice President of Marketing at Oracle. And I also am Past President and a Board Member of the Green Meeting Industry Council.

Mike:                          Awesome. So how are you enjoying the show?

Paul:                           I’m enjoying it. I’m only here for a short period of time. I got a lot going on at Oracle right now. And but you know, great opportunity to catch up with a lot of friends and a lot of people in the industry here and do a talk at the sustainability hub which is one of the primary reasons I’m here.

Mike:                          Awesome. And have you been to IMEX before.

Paul:                           I have. I was here last year as well.

Mike:                          So what did you talk about? What was your story?

Paul:                           So I was talking about communicating sustainability. So lots of issues obviously about just doing sustainability. But in a lot of cases people forget that we need to communicate what we’re doing. So I was trying to tell people here’s some strategies for how you communicate both before, during and after an event; making sure that we publish things to our website; making sure that we tell our attendees what we’re doing; announce our intentions. And then come back and test those hypotheses if you will. So we know that we actually accomplish something; not really any different than what you’re trying to do with an event ROI.

Mike:                          Awesome. All right. Well, thanks. And I’m sorry you’re leaving. I thought to see you again more, but thanks for coming down and thank you for being on the podcast.

Paul:                           All right. Thanks, Mike.

Related articles

• Politicians what does Advocacy have to do with Meetings? – Tom Hulton IMEX Group -Show 232
• Planning an Event? Then head to IMEX America- It’s free! -Show 231
• 4 Local Sustainability Projects at IMEX America with Dale Hudson- Show 233
• Where do event managers go to learn about meeting planning? IMEX America -Show 230
• Debra Benton- Leaders Needed: Apply Within – Show 238

Listening to Doc Hendly talk about his efforts with “Wine to Water” has really got me in the mood to become a more sustainable person. There are so many easy and simple things that anybody and everybody can do! I have decided to do a post every week on 1 easy and simple thing for people to focus on, whether its cutting back on water, donating your old soap to “Clean the World”, the list can go on and on. Being that we just came back from iMex America (one on the largest u.s meetings industry trade shows), we are going to focus on Event Planning Sustainability this week. Here are 5 ways to create a more sustainable event…

Event Venue: Many event planners are now looking for venues that are more sustainable. A facility, amenities, practices and policies should go hand-in-hand with your event’s sustainable needs. Another question you should ask yourself is…”Is it an easy location for our attendees to get to?”. A destination that is walking and cycling distance and/or has access to easy public transportation to prime.

Accommodations: Are there certified-sustainable hotels near the venue? Many hotels have jumping on the sustainability efforts, so take a look at hotels around the area and make sure they are helping the environment as well.

Audio Visual: Conserving as much energy as possible is crucial when it comes to your event planning. Grass Shack Events & Media have great equipment and knowledge when it comes to saving time, energy, and money.

Food and Beverage: Try and use local business’ and sustainable organizations. Your support to these local businesses will save money on environmental costs of shipping and transportation.

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse: A well known saying that is useful in every situation! Make it easy for your attendee to recycle by placing recycling bins in various parts of the venue. Offer bulk water dispensers with glassware instead of plastic water bottles. The list can go on and on!

If you need additional help with your sustainable needs, contact Grass Shack Events & Media. Great event production with great sustainability efforts. Check in next week for another post on being more sustainable in your everyday life.

Other great booths at iMex America was the Meet Mr.Holland, with their “add some orange” paint bucket. Such a great booth with great people!

Another great booth was the Vancouver Booth (aka the Sustainable Margarita Booth).  They had bike’s set up to a blender, so when you pedaled it would give energy to the blender and create a delicious Sustainable Margarita (check out pictures here). Above we have Kiki L’Italien and AVMan right before they did a podcast on “what is avforplanners?”.

Transcript:

Mike:              Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events and Media, and on today’s show, we have Debra Benton, who is a speaker, consultant, author. Debra has been in business successfully for over 30 years having founded Benton Management Resources in 1976. She’s helped professionals worldwide design subtle changes in their presentation added to in leadership style that ultimately result in an increase in their personal and professional effectiveness and their financial status. Hi, Debra.  Leaders Needed: Apply Within

Debra:            Good morning.

Mike:              I read that all without making one mistake.

Debra:            You read it well.

Mike:              So thank you very much speaking with me and good morning to you.

Debra:            You know, as I listened to letting you say I started my business in 1976 that’s probably before a number of the audience was even born, but in fairness to me, I did start it at a very young age. I was only 22 years old so you can do the Math.

Mike:              Well I was thinking you must have been like 2 years old or something when you started that.

Debra:            You’re generous, but I think – It was closer to 2, right, now that I think about it, yeah, uh-huh.

Mike:              So you’re going to be the first keynote speaker at IMEX America, which is coming up in Las Vegas.

Debra:            I’m excited, yes.

Mike:              Yeah, it’s a big, big conference. I’m going to be down there also. I’m excited to meet you in person, and I wanted to first ask you how you got into business. How did you start Benton Management Resources?

Leaders Needed: Apply Within

Debra:            Well, it really applies to the subject that I’ll be speaking about, and that is I started my career with a very successful high-tech company. Doing extra interesting work in a management trainee program and pretty much thought I was a hot shot doing good work on time, on budget according to appraisals, but a couple of years into it, my boss called me into his office and very uncomfortably, nervously, flat out fired me, and of course I knew to ask why. He says, “Not that you’re lazy or ignorant or dishonest or anything like that, but you don’t deal well with the good old boys, and the fit’s not good, and the chemistry’s not right,” and I was let go. And that’s a lot of people who succeed in lies resulting from an overcompensation of some insecurity and pretty much I set about the path to find out what these intangible people skills, leadership, the it-stack during business is all about, and did years in research, ended up writing 9 books, and that brings me to IMEX.

Mike:              Yeah, I saw you. A lot of books. A lot. That’s great. And so what is your – What’s your keynote going to be centered…?

Debra:            Well, what I found from my research to be more memorable, impressive, credible, genuine, trusted, liked, comfortable, confident, competent, you have to think, act, and relate in a way that controls the effect on others versus leaving it to chance. I know that’s a mouthful there, but the whole point is you and I have more ability to control the effect, the impact that we have on others so that we get recognition, appreciation, and reward. You know, the truth is, in any walk of life, being brilliant at what you do is necessary, but it’s not sufficient. You also have to affect people in the way that makes them want to work with you, trust you, like you, have confidence in you. And so what I try to impart in my presentation and will in IMEX is some examples of how you think and act and relate to accomplish that goal, and it makes life a whole lot more fun, and you feel the satisfaction in your work and not a frustration, which too many of us can feel.

Mike:              Yeah, that’s very interesting. It kind of hits home with me because I have a business, which I’ve had for 10 years now, and then, I’m starting a new one. Actually, we’re launching it there at IMEX, but I have always – I always find it interesting in the last 10 years after starting the business that it isn’t – It’s always trying to – like I can do the work fantastically, but it’s the relationships that I build that really gets us business. It’s not…

Debra:            Right, it’s everything.

Mike:              It’s never like – I mean the job itself is easy.

Debra:            Right, right. It’s like I had a female engineering client one time. Her company, her boss had sent her to work with me in a coaching capacity, and she kind of stomp her feet so to speak and she said, “You know, I don’t want to work on all these intangible things. I just want my work to speak for itself.”

And her boss leaned over and whispered to me and said, “Well then it better speak louder.” You get the point?

The point is, you know, as good as you are, and I’m sure you’re great at what you do, others are too. So what separates you is how people feel about you when they deal with you and expecting competence is necessary and they get it, but they also want someone that they feel good around, that they feel they can trust, that they’re willing to talk to, they’re willing to take good or bad news from, and as complicated as all that sounds, it really is quite simple. It’s in your attitude and your physical comportment, and when you open your mouth, how you cooperate the things we’re talking about. So I tried to make the complex simple because I need it simple for myself, and that’s what I’ll try to get across in our time together at IMEX.

Leaders Needed: Apply Within

Mike:              That’s great. And I know that will help a lot of the meeting professionals because obviously, I’m in this game of the meetings and events business, and I know that that is a huge portion of…

Debra:            Well, you know, you think of the Meeting professional, you guys work so hard to bring everything to the table well, and yet, you don’t often get the respect at the table that you deserve because you’re not CEO or senior vice presidents and such and such…

Mike:              Right.

Debra:            …and I believe it’s your personality, your competence that gives you that feed at the table, and you have the right and you’re happy and you deserve it, but you have to do things to show them. You belong there…

Mike:              Right.

Debra:            …and in a confident comfortable way, not an arrogant way, of course.

Mike:              And you’re so right too from – I have a production company so I just kid of step into a company for a little while and then I step out, so just exactly what you’re saying, I can totally see the successful meeting planners and the ones that are not successful because of just that that they demand the respect, kind of, and then the CEOs, these big powerful people, really turn to them and look at them, you know, as a great piece of their puzzle of their company. It’s fantastic. I’m looking forward to your keynote.

So tell me. You’re an executive coach also, so tell me about what that entails. What do you do for people?

Debra:            Well sometimes, companies send people to me. Sometimes individuals come in themselves, but it’s always someone who is really bright. You know, off-the-chart bright in their specialty, but they need to take advantage of the – They need to step up to the bat and take advantage of the power that can be theirs. And you know, one of my longtime mentors said to me, “Debra, you teach people that they can behave different than their mom had taught them. You teach people they don’t have to defer to others.” And I thought, you know, that’s pretty cool. That’s cools. I’m always for giving respect and praise and admiration for others, to others and their accomplishment, but if you don’t give it to yourself, if you don’t effectively toot your own horn, you know, you can do it with self respect, and you have to self promote, but with self respect, if you don’t do it, no one else will…

Mike:              Right.

Debra:            …and then they’ll lose out on all that you have to offer. And again, what I try to do is make it simple so people sit there in the audience and they listen, and they’re almost nodding their head like uh-huh, I can see where that could work for me, and that’s what makes me happy. That’s what makes success, and that’s my goal to have people sit there and say uh-huh, I’ve got new tools, new skills to walk away right now and change my life even for the better.

Leaders Needed: Apply Within

Mike:              That’s fantastic. And so are you – Do you do more speaking or more coaching? What’s your…?

Debra:            You know, I’m in New York City speaking this week, and then I return home, and then I pack all my money to go to Las Vegas and lose it after the speak, but I’ll do it after the speak so that I won’t be in a bad mood, okay.

Mike:              Or maybe you’ll win huge. You never know.

Debra:            Yeah, I’m thinking it’s not going to happen, but thank you for that optimistic… But no, I travel a great deal. That’s what my life is. I’m happy doing it. I love what I do. I get to work with great people, you know, really hardworking, good, down-to-the-earth people, and help them get better, and I mean what…

You know, one wonderful thing that I get paid for doing it. I travel to nice places and get to do it so how lucky am I? So that’s my story and actually, I think a client said to me the other day. He said, “Debra, you don’t just love this stuff, do you?” He said, “You marinade in it, don’t you?” That’s a good way of putting it because, you know, until I die, I’m going to be doing this, and really, helping people be better, get more what they want in life, you know. There was an old country western song about this woman. It’s a Johnny Cash song, and he said, “His sister is a beautician and she makes money making other people look good,” all right, and I always liked that song because I make money making other people do well, helping other people do well.

Mike:              That’s great.

Debra:            And so that’s kind of cool.

Mike:              Very cool. So tell me a little bit about your latest book. It’s The Virtual Executive. Is that… I was looking

Debra:            Right. Thank you. How to think like a CEO online and offline. The purpose: a lot of the things that I talked about, when you see me, for example, at IMEX, certainly, I demonstrate and talk about it in terms of what works in person, but we don’t just work in person anymore. Tremendous amount of our work is done on the phone, online, you know, text and email, etcetera. And so several of my audience noticed over the recent years would say, “Debra, I love everything you’re telling me, but how do I do it online? How do I do a virtual handshake? I do I connect and bond with someone through an email?” And I thought, you know, that’s the future, and so I tried to translate all the good advice I learned in the research and given over the years, and translate it into what works online, what works when you’re not in person.

Mike:              Yeah, and that is so important these days, isn’t it? I mean just so much is done on the computer. I’ll sit here in my office all day and never see anybody.

Debra:            Right. There was an expression that somebody said to me in China. For example, the new snail mail is email. So I mean the world is going to text. Even then, who knows where we’ll go to next? But yes, that’s our world. The good thing is we have a broader reach. You can send in your office or you can reach the world, and you can do business instantly all over the world. The bad thing is they don’t get to see your tall, handsome face, your tall, good-looking body, handsome face. Since I haven’t met you, I’m sure these all fits.

Mike:              You clearly haven’t met me.

Debra:            I’m imagining you in my mind. That’s still an advantage. See, I can imagine what you look like.

Mike:              Well maybe we shouldn’t meet then really. I don’t want to ruin it for you.

Leaders Needed: Apply Within

Debra:            Like my friend said, she said – My girlfriend said, “I can’t get on Facebook until I get a facelift.” She said, “I need 6 inches in botox.” But anyway – And you know what? Regardless of looks, it’s one’s personality, one’s presence, and one’s ability to make the others feel good around them. That’s what makes you handsome by the way anyway.

Mike:              Yeah.

Debra:            And humor. You have a great sense of humor. I’m all for appropriate humor. The best leaders use a good-natured humor. It’s that they’re joke tellers, but they have an attitude of good cheer, and that’s part of what we’ll talk about too.

Mike:              Yeah. All right, Debra, well, thank you so much for speaking with me, and I look forward to your keynote and meeting you, of course, down there.

Debra:            I look forward to meeting you, and we’ll have a great time, and I’m still happy I’ll get your addresser’s group, and hopefully, we can make a difference.

Mike:              Yes. And I will put links up to your book, and you know, your website and everything so people who want to do a little more research before going to see you speak they can.

Debra:            Great.

Mike:              I want to thank you again, and I’ll see you later.

Debra:            All right. Thanks Mike.

Mike:              Bye-bye.

Leaders Needed: Apply Within

Doc Hendley, the founder and president of winetowater.org visits the podcast and previews his upcoming Wednesday keynote talk as well as the work that his organization is doing to bring water those most in need around the world.  Be sure to catch him in person at IMEX America to hear even more….

Doc Hendley

[0:00:30]

Jon: Welcome back to the Meetings Podcast. Today, we have a special guest. We were talking with Doc Hendley. Doc is the founder and leader of an organization called Wine to Water, and he’s going to be speaking at IMEX America, and we’re going to be talking a little bit about what he’s going to be doing there and just a little bit about his background, and history, and his story. I know he has a new book out and a couple of things like that. So Doc, welcome to the show.

Doc: Yeah, thanks for having me man.

Jon: As I said before we went on the air, I had a chance to hear you speak last year in Cancun, and I actually think if I remember correctly, I talked to you about a little bit on the podcast back then, and just recommended as a speaker that I thought you did an excellent job. So I’m looking forward to hearing you at IMEX. I know you’re doing the key note on Wednesday.

Doc: Right.

Jon: Now you’ve been traveling. I was reading your website a little bit. So tell us what you’d been up to most recently first.

Doc: Most recently, I actually just got in from Turkey. We are working with a partnering organization there to reach out to Syrian refugees that are fleeing the fighting there.

Jon: Okay.

Doc: So we’ll be distributing water filters too. There’s a camp – It’s actually in Syria, right near the Turkish border that’s about 7,000 people that haven’t reached at all, and one of the biggest needs that the kids are extremely sick, a lot of them from no access to clean water, and so we got a hundred filters sent to them this week, but that was just a small portion of what we needed for the 7,000 people. That would cover about 700.

Jon: Wow.

Doc: And it was really cool. I was actually also there for a conference that was going on as a group called Entrepreneurs Organization, and when they’ve found out that we were only able to reach 10%, the whole conference decided to get together, and I did a little fundraiser, and they raised them up for us to get another 900 filters in. So we’re putting those, getting that together now and get ready to send over so in total about a thousand filters to reach the 7,000 people in this camp across the Syria borders. I’m super excited about that opportunity.

Jon: That’s one of the things that I know from having heard your talk is it’s very inspiring. I can understand how a group would have heard that, and you’ve been doing this now for a number of years. Maybe go back in time a little bit and just give us a little bit of the background because you go into some really, really rough areas to help people out with water, a very basic need that a lot of people don’t have access to.

Doc: Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. Well, when I got into this back in – You know, I had the idea late 2003, and you know, in a few weeks at IMEX I’ll get into the details of how it all happened and how it all came about, but in the beginning, I didn’t really know that I would even have the opportunity to travel and do this work hands on. In the beginning, I had to begin hosting events to raise funding and my plan was just to donate that money to another organization that was doing great work, and just continue to do it all volunteer, and then I had the opportunity to travel with the organization that I was actually donating to. They actually gave me a job, and I actually found myself for half of 2004, and then the rest of 2005 in Sudan, in the dark core region working there, and yeah, it was pretty – There were some pretty rough spots there, some tough times that I’ll also touch quite a bit on in my speech in Vegas here in a few weeks, but it was quite difficult, but really, even aside from the insecurity and all that, one of the more difficult things for me was to actually physically see firsthand what lack of water does to a family, and more importantly, to children. It’s one thing to read about it. It’s one thing to see pictures on Google images of women and children walking in the dessert to get water, but it’s a whole another world to be there, and witness it, and see it, and hear the heartbreak in a mother’s voice when she talks about, you know, losing children to something that’s actually quite simple to fix. You know, I’m not an engineer. I had a communications degree when I got into this, and all it took was just some resolve, you know, to get out and get something done, and a lot of the fixes that are out there are quite simple.

[0:05:07]

And so for me to see the despair in a family, in a mother, or in these children, and then to see that the fix needed is actually quite simple, it’s really what I think fueled the passion to come back home at the end of my time in Sudan to continue, you know, growing this organization.

Jon: And now you’ve been to, I believe, 9 countries. Is Turkey now a 10^th country?

Doc: Oh, actually, we’ve grown our website – We’re a little behind. We’re looking for a new web guy right now. So we’re actually in 14^th countries, and so once we’re able to get into Syria there, that will be our 15^th, yeah, this week.

Jon: Wow, that’s – Yeah, I was on your website last night just reading, and – I mean the numbers and such are staggering when you talk about the need out there because when you’re talking about nearly a billion people and you have some very graphic things on your website to show how many billion people are compared to, you know, like the residents of Chicago or something, and it’s just staggering to think about it.

And another organization we’ve had on the podcast before is a group called Clean the World, and I know they’re involved in IMEX as well, and both of these are just kind of the most basic simple straight ahead ideas that you’re just amazed that there isn’t more access to this worldwide. Clean the World actually distributes soaps and things. What they do is they collect them from hotels, and they send out the bars of soap that people basically leave behind. They sterilize them, they clean them up, and they send them out to places so that people can have sanitation facilities in these remote areas as well. So kind of something along the lines of what you do, and…

Doc: Right, right, right, and hygiene is actually a huge, huge thing like – I mean people might think that’s a simple thing, just gathering soap and sending it out, but we’ve actually found that if you provide clean water to an area, you can decrease diarrhea disease in the children there by 40%, and if you do something as simple as tagging along with a hygiene promotion program, which includes soap and hand washing techniques, and teaching the mothers better hygiene practices, you can actually double that decrease in diarrhea disease to over 80% decrease. And so, it’s a huge piece to the puzzle of trying to keep these children alive.

Jon: Well, it’s nice because it’s nice to see the meetings industry that we’re connected to here with the podcast doing something positive and then bringing you in with your message. It’s, to me, some of the better giving back that I’ve seen within our industry so I just really – I really like watching it myself and I really like seeing what we’re doing as an industry to try and give back to communities locally and around the world.

So now I was also reading on your blog. First off, you have a book that came out this year, correct?

Doc: Yes, it came out in January of this year, and the paperback comes out actually December 31^st of this year as well.

Jon: Okay. And does that both talk – Is that a little bit of an inspirational book or is it more about the kind of nuts and bolts of your experiences, or talk a little bit about what’s in there for us.

Doc: Yeah, it was really crazy. I never thought I’d have the opportunity to write a book or my story, so it’s really cool to have that chance, and throughout the process of it, the way I wanted it to read was basically like if I was meeting somebody for the first time, and hanging out for a few hours over a beer and just kind of sharing the journey of how it all got going, I want it to be very, just very organic and real. And so that’s pretty much how it’s written. It kind of just goes through a little bit about my background, who I was growing up, and why it’s – It’s almost quite miraculous that I even got into this because I was headed complete opposite direction in my life for a long time, quite reckless, and then to learn about such a huge problem, and then to get involved, and then all of a sudden, things just start happening, and you know, it was just a really fun thing for me to be able to sit down and kind of hash out on paper, and so yeah, that came out in January. It’s really helped us get, you know, obviously out to even a broader audience to share our passion as a team at Wine to Water, and what we’re all about, and what we’re trying to do.

Jon: How large an organization is Wine to Water grown to now?

[0:10:01]

Doc: That’s a great question. So we – One of our goals was, in the beginning, has always been to do a lot with a little, and so, we’ve been able to really stay quite small and organic as a team. So all together, there’s five on staff right now. We have Annie who came on at the very beginning to help me get this thing launched off the ground, and she basically runs the show. She now hosts anything and everything that’s going on at any given time, so Annie.

We have Jessup who is running our wine set of things because we have without our own label for a while, and we do partnerships with other groups, so the wine has been a big portion of who we are as an organization.

We have Kyle who’s helping me out in the field. Once we got up to about 8, 9 countries, this became overwhelming. This is also the same time that, you know, CNN and stuff started coming out and the books, so he’s come onboard to really help with the travel and manage the international program side of things, and he’s doing a phenomenal job of that.

We got our two newest folks are Josh. He’s for all of our education program as far as universities. We’re trying to get a lot of like Wine to Water camp chapters and clubs going, so he’s over that, but also with all our media and marketing side.

And then the newest person we just brought on is a guy named Allen, Allen Peterson. He was on our board for years, and he was also the CEO of a company here in North Carolina that have done very well, and instead of retiring, we convinced him to come onboard and help us that really just help with the business side of what it means to grow an organization and reach out to even more people and help reach more people to clean water, and he’s done – so he’s just come onboard actually as a CEO to help us really continue to grow and reach our bottom line, which for us, isn’t monetary. Our bottom line is more people to get water. And so he’s just in the first month actually that he came onboard. We had our biggest month since we started.

So we’ve got a great team. That’s five of us, but I’m sixth, and I’m also – I run the organization. I volunteer. Because of the book opportunity that we had coming up and that the different opportunities actually with this industry with the reading industry and being able to do some public speeches and stuff like that, I’m able to cover all my needs for my family too. That was two things. So I’m president of the organization on a volunteer basis.

Jon: Oh, that’s awesome. It’s interesting because I was thinking that you probably have faced a lot of the challenges that any smaller organization does of trying to be effective on a tight budget, and you know, be able to expand and have a larger reach. And so I’m just saying is that kind of part of what you speak to as well is sort of going through these growth things with the organization?

Doc: Oh, for sure, yeah. And you know, for us, you know, having that – to my mind, it’s a very effective team that we have, but it’s a small team in comparison to the fact that we’ve worked in 14 countries now, almost 15, and in the last year, we’ve been able to pretty much double our reach beneficiary wise of what we have been able to do all in the last 8 years before, and it’s because it’s just something that I do touch on a lot of times is being able to use, utilize local people on the ground that are already there, and teaching and training them using the resources that they have available to them.

So because we use locals in each one of these countries to actually do the work and teach and train them, that allows our tight team to be able to have a much farther reach instead of sending groups of people over or engineers or whatever to go, and throw the wells, and do the work, and come back where we’re spending man hour and plane tickets and hotels, and you know, all these stuff. We’re able to have such a greater reach by having that model. And so yeah, that’s one of the things I’ll talk about and even things that we started doing different, you know, as charities really have a hard time, especially in 2008 when the economy kind of went down, so we talked about it. That time, it was just, you know, Annie and I in the office like what in the world are we going to do, you know, to keep from dying here, and so I did touch on those things as well with, you know, depending on the audience and what the message, you know, direction needs to be.

Jon: Well I think there’s obviously a lot to talk about, and I know you’re going to cover quite a bit in detail with IMEX because I think you have like an hour or so to talk there.

Doc: Uh-huh.

Jon: So good. So you’ve got time, and I know for anybody who’s coming to IMEX, I would highly recommend coming in and hearing you speak in person.

[0:15:07]

As I say, I had an opportunity to last year, and really, really appreciate your message, and really appreciate what you’re doing and accomplishing out there. So I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas, and thank you for spending some time with us today.

Doc: Well, thanks so much for having me Jon. I’m super excited about it and here right on. The meeting/planning industry has, you know, really just now that, you know, in the last few months and last year have really got behind our organization and gotten passionate about what we’re doing, and so I can’t wait to see where IMEX takes us to, you know, maybe a whole another level with them.

Jon: Well, we look forward to seeing you. It’s just a few weeks away now, and so I guess we’ll leave people wanting a little bit more. Hopefully, they’ll come hear you at IMEX, and if they don’t have an opportunity to come to IMEX, they can find you on the web. It’s WinetoWater.org, and I know you probably got ways on there for people to become involved and do something if they’re passionate about this as well, right?

Doc: Yeah, for sure they can get online. I mean obviously, there’s a place they can donate, but also, there’s a whole tab where people if they want to host their own event or tie an event and with the meeting that they’re having or a conference that they’re having, there’s ways that we have for that to happen as well.

Jon: Great. So maybe some of the event planners out there listening would like to host an event or tie an event in to one of their larger events. So I think there’s some really good opportunities there, and once again, thank you so much for being on today. We really appreciate your time, and we look forward to seeing you a lot soon. So thank you very much…

Doc: Yeah, thank you Jon. I look forward to seeing you again in Vegas, buddy.

[0:16:52] End of Audio