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Today we have an interview with Kevin Richardson who is a friend of the show and a social media maven. We talk about the explosive change in the landscape of events and hybrid events.

The Meeting Planners podcast source for what’s new and exciting in meetings and events industry!

Transcripts:

Mike McAllen:    Welcome back to Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen with Grass Shack Events and Media and today we are talking with Kevin Richardson from Freeman, my friend from Twitter and in person friend. Hi Kevin. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Kevin Richardson:    My pleasure Mike.

Mike McAllen:    Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are and how you got into this – this crazy business that you’ve got yourself into.

Kevin Richardson:    Sure. Well, my name is Kevin Richardson and by day I am the CRM director for Freeman, working primarily with sales and marketing to understand – get a better understanding of who are clients are and what our customers are doing and what really got me into the social game was starting to understand what our customers, customers are interested in, getting those exhibitors and attendees together and finding out what they have in common and how they can better collaborate and communicate and so I spend my time education our people here at Freeman and also using the social networking channels out there to provide some education, to collaborate and to learn.

Mike McAllen:    It’s fantastic. Now – and we met at PCMA at a tweetup which is a great media.

Kevin Richardson:    That’s right.

Mike McAllen:    I don’t know if people have been to twits ups but they’re a great thing to check out. It’s a little meet up of like minded person, persons, people for whatever your niche maybe and our niche is meetings and events, so we meet there for a little while. We didn’t really talk that long but which – there were so many people there too.

Kevin Richardson:    They really were, there what 50, 60 people there.

Mike McAllen:    Yes and that small area so it was really great. I really had a great time doing that, hanging out there. It was a real neat little add on to the whole PCMA, in fact it was – one of my favorite things from the whole because it’s great to meet people that you’ve been on – on the Twitter’s with or the event.

Kevin Richardson:    And those social media channels break the ice to so speak, so you see someone’s handle and you already know a little bit about them, you know what they’re in to and it creates a very interesting set of conversation starters, you’re not starting cold. In fact you’re starting conversation very warm with – with lots of different ways that that conversion can go.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I just had lunch with a friend who owns a video post house in Emeryville down from Pixar here and we were talking about just that, that you know, he just cut off all his sales and marketing the normal kind the cold calls, e-mail kind of blast kind of things and now he is wanted to do more relationship building stuff and because he says, I never have gotten any – any business really from doing and added a magazine, he said but from people that I meet and build relationships with his getting more business which is – I mean and that’s not the only reason for this social media stuff but it’s …

Kevin Richardson:    True.

Mike McAllen:    … it’s interesting to find out about new meeting resources, new everything or just – just to make those connections.

Kevin Richardson:    Absolutely.

Mike McAllen:    I know that you are a big proponent of the Event Profs chat group that happens twice a week. I have interviewed Laura or Lara, I can’t remember it now. Someone screwed me up on that, Lara who started the whole thing. Its Lara isn’t it? I think its Lara.

Kevin Richardson:    It is, it’s Lara.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, yes I should know I talked to her but it was like – I talk to her a long time ago about it but she – she started that whole event profs by weekly chats and I know you are every involved with that which is very cool.

Kevin Richardson:    And I came late to the game to that, it’s just been recently the last few months that I really got involved with that group and there again a perfect example of social media tools allowing someone to do some research, find out that there is this group of event professionals out there who are interested in learning what this – what this social revolution can do for the meetings and events industry and very quickly hop on board and I kind the thought about it when I joined – and this is happen with a few different online groups that I’ve join. You’re always nervous when you join any group. I think what’s the group going to be like and how will I be accepted and event profs in particular, along with some of the other groups I’ve joined. It’s very much like walking into the bar cheers because you first start talking online to this people and by the time your introduce yourself, you know, it’s like they’re screaming norm.

Mike McAllen:    Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And you’re just a part of the group and you accepted your thoughts are accepted just like any – just like any other peer. So, it’s really been fascinating to be a part of that and also quite enjoyable to both learn and share.

Mike McAllen:    Yes and kind the backing up with your job at Freeman and I think it’s really great that Freeman is now just kind of jump in to this stuff because they are a very large company. Someone like myself has a very small company, like four of us and this was very easy for us to kind the just started rolling around in but for big company like Freeman, I think it’s really awesome that they have and the people that I’ve meet from Freeman in this, yourself, Andy are really fun great people and perfect for the whole mix. So – when you came on board did you kind the push them to do this or did – was it a thing that you fell into?

Kevin Richardson:    It was – there was some pushing along with – and not really pushing there was some coercing. Andy and I in particular just started when we meet each other after coming to Freeman, we knew that individually we were involved in the social network and so we started talking about how we bring the social network aspect to Freeman and really what we were interested in is how do we get involved at work with something that we’re doing personally that’s a lot of fun and there has to be something out there, there have to be groups out there in our industry and no one behold you know, we found some – and started to get involved and it really didn’t take off until we took the work that we were doing online in terms of meeting people and connecting and then brought that to an event like PCMA, to a specific event at PCMA like the Twit Up where we could enhance that online conversation – that online relationship and shake hands in person, put a face with a handle, with thought and have it all come together. So, the two mash together very well, the face-to-face part and the online part. It’s interesting to me how there area those within the industry that feel like one will kill the other off. I just – I don’t see that happening, they place so well together.

Mike McAllen:     Yes I agree. So, what other – what other groups are you in, are you like Event Pep’s and those on the LinkedIn and what’s your favorite one, I’m just wondering what’s – where are you hanging out online?

Kevin Richardson:    Well, for the – there’s a couple different places because not only am I involved in social media here at Freeman but I’m also like I said doing everything CRM. So, there’s actually a group out on Twitter called CRM and what they’re professing is the – the combination of classic CRM and this social space into social customer relationship management. So, I spend a lot of time there and just recently have pulled some people from that group and gotten involved with the – there’s a tradeshow executive group on LinkedIn and been spending more and more time hanging out there, there’s a group of people who are – who are taking off with some social – social thoughts and social ideas in that group. I’d say though the majority of your time related to the event industry itself. I’m hanging out with event profs, event peps and then following the major industry – the major industry shows, IEE, PCMA, MPI, just to keep up with what’s going on with all of those – with all those channels.

Mike McAllen:    Are you going to that MPI Cancun trip?

Kevin Richardson:    I would love to do that, are you inviting me?

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I’ll find my jet down there and pick you up.

Kevin Richardson:    Good deal, good deal. Well, everybody in California has a jet right?

Mike McAllen:    Oh, yes, yes of course, yes. No, it is interesting because I did – I had the choice, I was going to go to MPI or the event – event camp, I kind of – I was – I kind the cut back that and you know, like Midori Connolly, the green AV from Twitter, she – I think she picked the other way around which is interesting because I was planning on going out there to the Cancun one with the podcast I go, as a media person which is kind the cool.

Kevin Richardson:    Oh yes, yes. You would had – you would had better whether in Cancun probably then at – then we had at the event camp.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, yes, with a little bit different kind of situation. It was harder.

Kevin Richardson:    No snowmageddon in Cancun.

Mike McAllen:    No, no, no and it would have been a little harder to pass that by my wife too to go down to Cancun for a couple of days though I tried to get her to come along with me but it just didn’t work out but anyway, so let’s talk a little bit about even camp because …

Kevin Richardson:    Yes.

Mike McAllen:    … I think most to the listeners know about event camp and if they don’t go to eventcamp.org which is the main website, we did a little – we did a flip flop on the normal event community, online community event. We actually started with the online event profs Twitter chat and we made a event out of it and hopefully we’ll do a lot more of them but we did it in New York the beginning of this month, yes this month, beginning of this month just couple weeks ago and you were virtual attendee.

Kevin Richardson:    Yes.

Mike McAllen:    And which was interesting because Andy was there your, not your partner but your co-worker and he was a great help to me, I have to tell you that too. I don’t know if I told you that before but we had some serious issues with the [indiscernible] [0:12:31] and the Roger Smith Hotel which was fantastic to let us come in and have our event there and they sponsor a rooms but it’s quite challenging venue to try to stream, stream the event is what we did and honestly I’ve – whenever I’ve done this kind of thing I’m hiring people to do it and not really getting my hands dirty. I really realize [indiscernible] [0:12:54] this days, you know, owning my own company and of just showing up, kind the shaking their hands and being with that guy and I think [indiscernible] [0:13:04], I just – it was not – it could have been much – but then again we did to have budget so that was sort of  challenge but we got this thing going but we want to work until 3:30 in the morning, the night before you know, kind [inaudible] everyone with the whole thing getting it to work but it was – it was [indiscernible] [0:13:25], we have someone like yourself watching and I just kind the wanted to hear your hear experience of the whole – the whole virtual audience should be.

Kevin Richardson:    Sure, well – and I guess the back story on my side that was something that I was really interested in going to. Andy and I were talking about going together and really being excited about that, like just work out that I couldn’t go and heard about the online stream and – so what I said was well then you know, I’ve got to check that out and two fold, number one I want to make sure that I’m involved in the content and certainly I had heard that you all were planning on recording this. So, I could have just said, “You know what they’re going to record them. I’ll take that in when my schedule allows and that would have been fine but I knew that the – one of the things about Event Camp was going be involving the back channel and I saw this is a great opportunity to be that involved person” and just see what happens, it seem to me to be a great chance to, you know, put the lab code on and play around and see what happens. So, thankfully my wife gave me a whole Saturday and I literally watch the stream come online that morning and turn it off when I think when you guys headed to dinner that night. The only thing I really couldn’t take part in was lunch which I understand I missed quite a show there.

Mike McAllen:    Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    But.

Mike McAllen:    Yes the three waiters we had upstairs, we host a little surprise for the attendees.

Kevin Richardson:    And I think there’s – I think there’s even some YouTube video on that out there for people to see.

Mike McAllen:    You know you talked about like watching it afterwards. I have this hard drive next to me, this gig of all the videos from the – from the show or the ones that we happen to get and I had a camera that I put up and also was attempting to record them through the live stream and I feel bad because I’m still you know, this giant HD files and I – I just been working, I don’t have time to – so I put up like three of them up there. You can – you can see the three waiters if you just plug, you know, plug in three waiters but I have a video of them also but I have them all, it’s all just – it’s staring at me here, next to me. I thought on the desk you know, hi. I look at it like oh God I’ve got it, I got to get more of those up there but you know how it goes.

Kevin Richardson:    Oh yes.

Mike McAllen:    I got a business first and then the stuff and the of course I have family obligation myself, so when I’m trying to get down here on the weekend or something my wife is, “Get away from that computer”.

Kevin Richardson:    Sure, sure. But to be able to be a part of the event and be in a seat although my seat was at my own computer, at first the feeling that I had was, well at least I’ll get the take in all this content and there is some people that I haven’t had an opportunity to meet but I’ll at least be able to hear what they’re thoughts are around the subject that we’re talking about and that was exciting enough and it didn’t take long before I realize that the Twitter back channel was being displayed in the room for all to see that I started twitting out both just twitting to the people that following me, interesting things that I was hearing but then also engaging with you folks that were there.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I feel like you were there, to tell you the truth. I mean – I mean because you were asking more questions and it was a very – it was an interesting dynamic. It really was. It was – I learned so much from you really being you and some other people like Midori and some other people that were watching that there is a whole other audience that you could have and getting you excited about coming to the next one really.

Kevin Richardson:    That’s the thing that as meaningful as that online experience was and certainly one that I will take part and again what I walked away most from the experience with was the thought of, I will not miss the next one and that in of itself was a lesson that here’s an event that the event planners gave away to me for free. I didn’t have to fly, I didn’t have to register. I didn’t have to do anything except provide my own computer, my own bandwidth and out of that they now have someone who is already talking to the people that he needs to talk too to make sure that I do not miss the next one and you’re right, in a way I was there because I was asking questions that because the folks at the hotel there in the event where ready, my questions were getting asked to the presenters and there was even one – there was one time that it was during Jason Falls presentation that I ask a question and there wasn’t someone prepared to facilitate the questions from the back channel but somebody just pointed up to the Twitter fall and said, “I think Kevin Richardson has a question” and that was the first time in any event that I’ve been too that I’ve seen a presenter turn to the wall engage the question and answer the question as if I was there in the audience.

Mike McAllen:    So interesting, yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And that – just being recognized in that way. He didn’t know my name, in fact he just called me by my handle but he was speaking to me 15,000 miles away and I was totally engaged in what he was talking about.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, it is interesting – to me when after this experience from myself I could see having two separate show flows for the virtual audience and the audience there, you know, because we tried to you know, after the presenters to bring them over and have Emily interview the presenters to …

Kevin Richardson:    Yes.

Mike McAllen:    … that was something we tried to do, sometimes it didn’t work out and but looking back on it, I could really see where you know, you could really even more engage the audience and maybe you know, collect some of those questions to that they didn’t get too and just you know, address them with the presenter right then you know.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, and even you know, you have the presenter in a room with a group of people and just being in that room you’re a part of a select group. So, Emily engaging the camera if you will or the online community after the session was over made us feel special and then one thought I had on the experience was maybe there’s – maybe there’s five minutes or ten minutes after a – after a session that is exclusive to the online attendees.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And knowing that those online attendee are going to turn around and take that content that gets share and share that with their – with their social network which is going to get right back around to the attendees who are there in the room.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I agree. I agree. It is interesting to think about it also too because then I was just thinking about like the MPI things that’s going to go on Cancun as we just talked about but you have to be a member of MPI to watch or you have to pay something and I thought to myself you know, that they’re really – my opinion is they’re kind the missing the boat on that. They should really be, you know, looking to get more membership from this virtual audience who doesn’t know what it’s about really or like you know, or you know, to get excited about it to go.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, and I fall in that category. I know personally very little about MPI. I know why they are there but one of the reasons that PCMA meant so much for me or to me is that I was able to be there. I’m not a member of PCMA but I will be shortly because I was able to go to the event and it meant something to me. So, I’m thinking about MPI and not being able to be there and the question running around through my mind is, if that content were made available to me as easy as the ec 10 content was made available to me and those connections where easy to make, is there a possibility that I walk away from the MPI Cancun event as a member of MPI as well and if not I’ve certainly made connections with lots of members through the – the social communities and maybe the event itself doesn’t have an impact on me but I’m meeting a lot of really smart people and I want to hang around those smart people more often and one of the places that all those smart people going to hang out is the next MPI event.

Mike McAllen:    Right. It is interesting to me too because I have been, I’m in my little silo of a business like I have never done really – really done any association work ever. I’ve done just you know, pharmaceutical and medical and software stuff but I’ve never – working with Mike McCurry and Jeff Hurt, Jessica and Christina. It was interesting to me to learn all about this whole other, you know, conference because I always think about streaming, okay well this pharmaceutical company is not going to do that because they don’t want anyone to see this stuff, you know, we’re going all the security stuff, all the time or actually all this companies they don’t want everybody – I always work on internal sales meetings or product launches that kind of thing.

So, it is interesting to me. I’ve learn so much just from Event Camp, hanging out with all this people like just smart people like Jeff Hurt, I can’t tell you how much I learn from him just in his little time. He is a really wiseass of a guy but his one of the smartest people you know, I meet in a long time that know his stuff education and actually Mike McCurry and I we’re talking about that last night. He just knows education. Now Mike McCurry is just – says, “I’m going to be more education”, so he is really you know, going that way but just as you said a lot of smart people you learn so much from this – from this whole new landscape I guess.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, and the thing that it excites me the most about the social channels is I can get together with Jeff and with Mike and with you and with lots of other people, we can fly somewhere and go to an event together and spent three or four days together and cram in a whole bunch of great, you know, thought and some fun and then what happens is we break that bond and we go back to our lives and we – we’re remembering those things and we’re talking about how much those things mean or meant to us and we’re talking to make an impact on those things and what the social channels have allowed me to do is meet a guy like Jeff Hurt and then continue that conversation on a daily basis if both of us are up for it and it can – we can have smaller more meaningful conversation around a single topic rather than I’ve got to wait till the next time I can get on the phone with Jeff or where is he, I’ve got to wait till the next time we’re on the same city and then we just beat each other to death because there’s a lot of stuff we want to talk about.

Mike McAllen:    Right, right, right.

Kevin Richardson:    And the – the final aspect to that is then now Jeff and I are having this – this really great conversation maybe I’ve asked an educational question and Jeff is pointed me to a resource maybe Mike pointed me to a resource, there’s – potentially and infinite number of people that can latch on to that conversation since it’s transparent and they can join in, they can learn from it, they can connect to us and give their two cents and the pull of knowledge of and the pull of learning just grows exponentially every time we share that openly and something that is possible to do in person but much easier to do online and then supported by that – that face to face encounter.

Mike McAllen:    Yes I agree, I agree and then it’s also interesting too it even more than this chats and groups that you can join there is the blog, blogging because you could really …

Kevin Richardson:    Oh yes.

Mike McAllen:     … dive in to people and I know that you have a blog yourself Collaborative Engine is that, that’s the name of it and to tell us a little bit about – about what you’re doing with your blog.

Kevin Richardson:    Well and you know, it’s funny, blogging is been around – it’s one of the oldest social mediums and I have spent the last several years wanting to blog. I’ve got all kinds of thoughts rolling around on my mind that I want to get out. It’s – you know, you talked about having all that video contents sitting on a hard drive and no time to do it. I have found it really difficult to get the time to sit down and write but after – it was actually Event Camp that spurred me to write some more. I had a blog out there, in fact Christina Stallings who – we and I had – she and I had – we’re playing dueling banjos on Twitter during Event Camp and she through my Twitter page found my blog and direct message me and said, “I hope you’ll do more of this. I really like what you have to say”.

Mike McAllen:    Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And you know, sometimes it’s just that elbowing that someone gives you – that forces you to go off and try something. So, the idea behind the blog form the beginning was to focus on collaboration and how – how social collaboration is and let’s find some examples and write about just good collaboration and how technology plays into that and how much meaning that can bring to work and to relationships and I’ve had a lot of fund couple of posting last week or so, a lots of more plan. I actually throw one out yesterday about Jason Falls and presentation he gave or session he had at Event Camp on listening and it’s been interesting to see the responses to that.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I loved it. I read it too it’s very good.

Kevin Richardson:    And for me that fun part getting back to the social aspect is you have to throw yourself out there and give your thought and as long as you’re open to what other people have to say then your one way message becomes a multi way discussion very quickly that moves from a critique of what you said to much like what you and I are doing here on this podcast, just a back and forth around a central idea and I have enjoyed even more than I thought I would the comments that I’ve been getting back and forth.

Mike McAllen:    Yes on our blog, here at this podcast blog that we use. I’m always amazed that anyone reads it. When I get a comment I’m like, holly molly that’s fantastic you know, I’m all like thank you so much for reading it you know but with this whole little community we have I guess it’s not so little but it is amazing, people retwitting your stuff back and forth and you can really get in to some good conversations and I do really enjoy your blog and you should be writing more.

Kevin Richardson:    I appreciate that.

Mike McAllen:    Yes. Okay, well I guess maybe we should – we should stop now and I’d love to have you back to talk some more maybe you know, month or so come on back and we could talk about some different subjects.

Kevin Richardson:    This was a lot of fun Mike and I would enjoy anytime we can get together and chat and I hope that – I hope that this provide some chances for people to comment and collaborate around the discussion that we’ve had online. I look forward to being engage with that.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I think it would be fun and I wouldn’t mind bringing other people in and having little dialog, I think it might be kind of fun to do a few where we got – or like I do with John and Tom on this podcast. It’s been difficult getting us all together because they’re travelling and busy which is a good thing, which we had so much time before and now we don’t have time which is a good sign but I like to get some more, talking about more you know, collaboration and just what where out there trying to talk about so.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, with Skype and Wifi on airplanes now, travel isn’t even an excuse.

Mike McAllen:        Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    We could do podcast from 30,000 feet.

Mike McAllen:    That’s a great idea. I have a friend who does a podcast, actually he is pilot for Delta and he does podcast. I don’t think he does it from the air yet but he talks to the other pilots through Delta. It’s kind of interesting but I think his already taking that 30,000 feet but we should do it, you’re right.

Kevin Richardson:    Absolutely.

Mike McAllen:    Alright Kevin thank you so much for your time and oh before you go where can people find you if they want to get a hold of you?

Kevin Richardson:    You bet. You can find me on Twitter, my handle is @KLRichardson and if you want to check out the blog its www.collaborativeengine.com.

Mike McAllen:        Great. Alright, thank you very much and I will talk to you soon.

Kevin Richardson:    Alright thanks Mike. Bye-bye.

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Mike McAllen:    Welcome back to Meetings Podcast. This is Mike McAllen with Grass Shack Events and Media and today we are talking with Kevin Richardson from Freeman, my friend from Twitter and in person friend. Hi Kevin. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Kevin Richardson:    My pleasure Mike.

Mike McAllen:    Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are and how you got into this – this crazy business that you’ve got yourself into.

Kevin Richardson:    Sure. Well, my name is Kevin Richardson and by day I am the CRM director for Freeman, working primarily with sales and marketing to understand – get a better understanding of who are clients are and what our customers are doing and what really got me into the social game was starting to understand what our customers, customers are interested in, getting those exhibitors and attendees together and finding out what they have in common and how they can better collaborate and communicate and so I spend my time education our people here at Freeman and also using the social networking channels out there to provide some education, to collaborate and to learn.

Mike McAllen:    It’s fantastic. Now – and we met at PCMA at a twit up which is a great media.

Kevin Richardson:    That’s right.

Mike McAllen:    I don’t know if people have been to twits ups but they’re a great thing to check out. It’s a little meet up of like minded person, persons, people for whatever your niche maybe and our niche is meetings and events, so we meet there for a little while. We didn’t really talk that long but which – there were so many people there too.

Kevin Richardson:    They really were, there what 50, 60 people there.

Mike McAllen:    Yes and that small area so it was really great. I really had a great time doing that, hanging out there. It was a real neat little add on to the whole PCMA, in fact it was – one of my favorite things from the whole because it’s great to meet people that you’ve been on – on the Twitter’s with or the event.

Kevin Richardson:    And those social media channels break the ice to so speak, so you see someone’s handle and you already know a little bit about them, you know what they’re in to and it creates a very interesting set of conversation starters, you’re not starting cold. In fact you’re starting conversation very warm with – with lots of different ways that that conversion can go.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I just had lunch with a friend who owns a video post house in Emeryville down from Pixar here and we were talking about just that, that you know, he just cut off all his sales and marketing the normal kind the cold calls, e-mail kind of blast kind of things and now he is wanted to do more relationship building stuff and because he says, I never have gotten any – any business really from doing and added a magazine, he said but from people that I meet and build relationships with his getting more business which is – I mean and that’s not the only reason for this social media stuff but it’s …

Kevin Richardson:    True.

Mike McAllen:    … it’s interesting to find out about new resources, new everything or just – just to make those connections.

Kevin Richardson:    Absolutely.

Mike McAllen:    I know that you are a big proponent of the Event Profs chat group that happens twice a week. I have interviewed Laura or Lara, I can’t remember it now. Someone screwed me up on that, Lara who started the whole thing. Its Lara isn’t it? I think its Lara.

Kevin Richardson:    It is, it’s Lara.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, yes I should know I talked to her but it was like – I talk to her a long time ago about it but she – she started that whole event profs by weekly chats and I know you are every involved with that which is very cool.

Kevin Richardson:    And I came late to the game to that, it’s just been recently the last few months that I really got involved with that group and there again a perfect example of social media tools allowing someone to do some research, find out that there is this group of event professionals out there who are interested in learning what this – what this social revolution can do for the meetings and events industry and very quickly hop on board and I kind the thought about it when I joined – and this is happen with a few different online groups that I’ve join. You’re always nervous when you join any group. I think what’s the group going to be like and how will I be accepted and event profs in particular, along with some of the other groups I’ve joined. It’s very much like walking into the bar cheers because you first start talking online to this people and by the time your introduce yourself, you know, it’s like they’re screaming norm.

Mike McAllen:    Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And you’re just a part of the group and you accepted your thoughts are accepted just like any – just like any other peer. So, it’s really been fascinating to be a part of that and also quite enjoyable to both learn and share.

Mike McAllen:    Yes and kind the backing up with your job at Freeman and I think it’s really great that Freeman is now just kind of jump in to this stuff because they are a very large company. Someone like myself has a very small company, like four of us and this was very easy for us to kind the just started rolling around in but for big company like Freeman, I think it’s really awesome that they have and the people that I’ve meet from Freeman in this, yourself, Andy are really fun great people and perfect for the whole mix. So – when you came on board did you kind the push them to do this or did – was it a thing that you fell into?

Kevin Richardson:    It was – there was some pushing along with – and not really pushing there was some coercing. Andy and I in particular just started when we meet each other after coming to Freeman, we knew that individually we were involved in the social network and so we started talking about how we bring the social network aspect to Freeman and really what we were interested in is how do we get involved at work with something that we’re doing personally that’s a lot of fun and there has to be something out there, there have to be groups out there in our industry and no one behold you know, we found some – and started to get involved and it really didn’t take off until we took the work that we were doing online in terms of meeting people and connecting and then brought that to an event like PCMA, to a specific event at PCMA like the Twit Up where we could enhance that online conversation – that online relationship and shake hands in person, put a face with a handle, with thought and have it all come together. So, the two mash together very well, the face-to-face part and the online part. It’s interesting to me how there area those within the industry that feel like one will kill the other off. I just – I don’t see that happening, they place so well together.

Mike McAllen:     Yes I agree. So, what other – what other groups are you in, are you like Event Pep’s and those on the LinkedIn and what’s your favorite one, I’m just wondering what’s – where are you hanging out online?

Kevin Richardson:    Well, for the – there’s a couple different places because not only am I involved in social media here at Freeman but I’m also like I said doing everything CRM. So, there’s actually a group out on Twitter called CRM and what they’re professing is the – the combination of classic CRM and this social space into social customer relationship management. So, I spend a lot of time there and just recently have pulled some people from that group and gotten involved with the – there’s a tradeshow executive group on LinkedIn and been spending more and more time hanging out there, there’s a group of people who are – who are taking off with some social – social thoughts and social ideas in that group. I’d say though the majority of your time related to the event industry itself. I’m hanging out with event profs, event peps and then following the major industry – the major industry shows, IEE, PCMA, MPI, just to keep up with what’s going on with all of those – with all those channels.

Mike McAllen:    Are you going to that MPI Cancun trip?

Kevin Richardson:    I would love to do that, are you inviting me?

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I’ll find my jet down there and pick you up.

Kevin Richardson:    Good deal, good deal. Well, everybody in California has a jet right?

Mike McAllen:    Oh, yes, yes of course, yes. No, it is interesting because I did – I had the choice, I was going to go to MPI or the event – event camp, I kind of – I was – I kind the cut back that and you know, like Midori Connolly, the green AV from Twitter, she – I think she picked the other way around which is interesting because I was planning on going out there to the Cancun one with the podcast I go, as a media person which is kind the cool.

Kevin Richardson:    Oh yes, yes. You would had – you would had better whether in Cancun probably then at – then we had at the event camp.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, yes, with a little bit different kind of situation. It was harder.

Kevin Richardson:    No snowmageddon in Cancun.

Mike McAllen:    No, no, no and it would have been a little harder to pass that by my wife too to go down to Cancun for a couple of days though I tried to get her to come along with me but it just didn’t work out but anyway, so let’s talk a little bit about even camp because …

Kevin Richardson:    Yes.

Mike McAllen:    … I think most to the listeners know about event camp and if they don’t go to eventcamp.org which is the main website, we did a little – we did a flip flop on the normal event community, online community event. We actually started with the online event profs Twitter chat and we made a event out of it and hopefully we’ll do a lot more of them but we did it in New York the beginning of this month, yes this month, beginning of this month just couple weeks ago and you were virtual attendee.

Kevin Richardson:    Yes.

Mike McAllen:    And which was interesting because Andy was there your, not your partner but your co-worker and he was a great help to me, I have to tell you that too. I don’t know if I told you that before but we had some serious issues with the [indiscernible] [0:12:31] and the Roger Smith Hotel which was fantastic to let us come in and have our event there and they sponsor a rooms but it’s quite challenging venue to try to stream, stream the event is what we did and honestly I’ve – whenever I’ve done this kind of thing I’m hiring people to do it and not really getting my hands dirty. I really realize [indiscernible] [0:12:54] this days, you know, owning my own company and of just showing up, kind the shaking their hands and being with that guy and I think [indiscernible] [0:13:04], I just – it was not – it could have been much – but then again we did to have budget so that was sort of  challenge but we got this thing going but we want to work until 3:30 in the morning, the night before you know, kind [inaudible] everyone with the whole thing getting it to work but it was – it was [indiscernible] [0:13:25], we have someone like yourself watching and I just kind the wanted to hear your hear experience of the whole – the whole virtual audience should be.

Kevin Richardson:    Sure, well – and I guess the back story on my side that was something that I was really interested in going to. Andy and I were talking about going together and really being excited about that, like just work out that I couldn’t go and heard about the online stream and – so what I said was well then you know, I’ve got to check that out and two fold, number one I want to make sure that I’m involved in the content and certainly I had heard that you all were planning on recording this. So, I could have just said, “You know what they’re going to record them. I’ll take that in when my schedule allows and that would have been fine but I knew that the – one of the things about Event Camp was going be involving the back channel and I saw this is a great opportunity to be that involved person” and just see what happens, it seem to me to be a great chance to, you know, put the lab code on and play around and see what happens. So, thankfully my wife gave me a whole Saturday and I literally watch the stream come online that morning and turn it off when I think when you guys headed to dinner that night. The only thing I really couldn’t take part in was lunch which I understand I missed quite a show there.

Mike McAllen:    Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    But.

Mike McAllen:    Yes the three waiters we had upstairs, we host a little surprise for the attendees.

Kevin Richardson:    And I think there’s – I think there’s even some YouTube video on that out there for people to see.

Mike McAllen:    You know you talked about like watching it afterwards. I have this hard drive next to me, this gig of all the videos from the – from the show or the ones that we happen to get and I had a camera that I put up and also was attempting to record them through the live stream and I feel bad because I’m still you know, this giant HD files and I – I just been working, I don’t have time to – so I put up like three of them up there. You can – you can see the three waiters if you just plug, you know, plug in three waiters but I have a video of them also but I have them all, it’s all just – it’s staring at me here, next to me. I thought on the desk you know, hi. I look at it like oh God I’ve got it, I got to get more of those up there but you know how it goes.

Kevin Richardson:    Oh yes.

Mike McAllen:    I got a business first and then the stuff and the of course I have family obligation myself, so when I’m trying to get down here on the weekend or something my wife is, “Get away from that computer”.

Kevin Richardson:    Sure, sure. But to be able to be a part of the event and be in a seat although my seat was at my own computer, at first the feeling that I had was, well at least I’ll get the take in all this content and there is some people that I haven’t had an opportunity to meet but I’ll at least be able to hear what they’re thoughts are around the subject that we’re talking about and that was exciting enough and it didn’t take long before I realize that the Twitter back channel was being displayed in the room for all to see that I started twitting out both just twitting to the people that following me, interesting things that I was hearing but then also engaging with you folks that were there.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I feel like you were there, to tell you the truth. I mean – I mean because you were asking more questions and it was a very – it was an interesting dynamic. It really was. It was – I learned so much from you really being you and some other people like Midori and some other people that were watching that there is a whole other audience that you could have and getting you excited about coming to the next one really.

Kevin Richardson:    That’s the thing that as meaningful as that online experience was and certainly one that I will take part and again what I walked away most from the experience with was the thought of, I will not miss the next one and that in of itself was a lesson that here’s an event that the event planners gave away to me for free. I didn’t have to fly, I didn’t have to register. I didn’t have to do anything except provide my own computer, my own bandwidth and out of that they now have someone who is already talking to the people that he needs to talk too to make sure that I do not miss the next one and you’re right, in a way I was there because I was asking questions that because the folks at the hotel there in the event where ready, my questions were getting asked to the presenters and there was even one – there was one time that it was during Jason Falls presentation that I ask a question and there wasn’t someone prepared to facilitate the questions from the back channel but somebody just pointed up to the Twitter fall and said, “I think Kevin Richardson has a question” and that was the first time in any event that I’ve been too that I’ve seen a presenter turn to the wall engage the question and answer the question as if I was there in the audience.

Mike McAllen:    So interesting, yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And that – just being recognized in that way. He didn’t know my name, in fact he just called me by my handle but he was speaking to me 15,000 miles away and I was totally engaged in what he was talking about.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, it is interesting – to me when after this experience from myself I could see having two separate show flows for the virtual audience and the audience there, you know, because we tried to you know, after the presenters to bring them over and have Emily interview the presenters to …

Kevin Richardson:    Yes.

Mike McAllen:    … that was something we tried to do, sometimes it didn’t work out and but looking back on it, I could really see where you know, you could really even more engage the audience and maybe you know, collect some of those questions to that they didn’t get too and just you know, address them with the presenter right then you know.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, and even you know, you have the presenter in a room with a group of people and just being in that room you’re a part of a select group. So, Emily engaging the camera if you will or the online community after the session was over made us feel special and then one thought I had on the experience was maybe there’s – maybe there’s five minutes or ten minutes after a – after a session that is exclusive to the online attendees.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And knowing that those online attendee are going to turn around and take that content that gets share and share that with their – with their social network which is going to get right back around to the attendees who are there in the room.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I agree. I agree. It is interesting to think about it also too because then I was just thinking about like the MPI things that’s going to go on Cancun as we just talked about but you have to be a member of MPI to watch or you have to pay something and I thought to myself you know, that they’re really – my opinion is they’re kind the missing the boat on that. They should really be, you know, looking to get more membership from this virtual audience who doesn’t know what it’s about really or like you know, or you know, to get excited about it to go.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, and I fall in that category. I know personally very little about MPI. I know why they are there but one of the reasons that PCMA meant so much for me or to me is that I was able to be there. I’m not a member of PCMA but I will be shortly because I was able to go to the event and it meant something to me. So, I’m thinking about MPI and not being able to be there and the question running around through my mind is, if that content were made available to me as easy as the ec 10 content was made available to me and those connections where easy to make, is there a possibility that I walk away from the MPI Cancun event as a member of MPI as well and if not I’ve certainly made connections with lots of members through the – the social communities and maybe the event itself doesn’t have an impact on me but I’m meeting a lot of really smart people and I want to hang around those smart people more often and one of the places that all those smart people going to hang out is the next MPI event.

Mike McAllen:    Right. It is interesting to me too because I have been, I’m in my little silo of a business like I have never done really – really done any association work ever. I’ve done just you know, pharmaceutical and medical and software stuff but I’ve never – working with Mike McCurry and Jeff Hurt, Jessica and Christina. It was interesting to me to learn all about this whole other, you know, conference because I always think about streaming, okay well this pharmaceutical company is not going to do that because they don’t want anyone to see this stuff, you know, we’re going all the security stuff, all the time or actually all this companies they don’t want everybody – I always work on internal sales meetings or product launches that kind of thing.

So, it is interesting to me. I’ve learn so much just from Event Camp, hanging out with all this people like just smart people like Jeff Hurt, I can’t tell you how much I learn from him just in his little time. He is a really wiseass of a guy but his one of the smartest people you know, I meet in a long time that know his stuff education and actually Mike McCurry and I we’re talking about that last night. He just knows education. Now Mike McCurry is just – says, “I’m going to be more education”, so he is really you know, going that way but just as you said a lot of smart people you learn so much from this – from this whole new landscape I guess.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, and the thing that it excites me the most about the social channels is I can get together with Jeff and with Mike and with you and with lots of other people, we can fly somewhere and go to an event together and spent three or four days together and cram in a whole bunch of great, you know, thought and some fun and then what happens is we break that bond and we go back to our lives and we – we’re remembering those things and we’re talking about how much those things mean or meant to us and we’re talking to make an impact on those things and what the social channels have allowed me to do is meet a guy like Jeff Hurt and then continue that conversation on a daily basis if both of us are up for it and it can – we can have smaller more meaningful conversation around a single topic rather than I’ve got to wait till the next time I can get on the phone with Jeff or where is he, I’ve got to wait till the next time we’re on the same city and then we just beat each other to death because there’s a lot of stuff we want to talk about.

Mike McAllen:    Right, right, right.

Kevin Richardson:    And the – the final aspect to that is then now Jeff and I are having this – this really great conversation maybe I’ve asked an educational question and Jeff is pointed me to a resource maybe Mike pointed me to a resource, there’s – potentially and infinite number of people that can latch on to that conversation since it’s transparent and they can join in, they can learn from it, they can connect to us and give their two cents and the pull of knowledge of and the pull of learning just grows exponentially every time we share that openly and something that is possible to do in person but much easier to do online and then supported by that – that face to face encounter.

Mike McAllen:    Yes I agree, I agree and then it’s also interesting too it even more than this chats and groups that you can join there is the blog, blogging because you could really …

Kevin Richardson:    Oh yes.

Mike McAllen:     … dive in to people and I know that you have a blog yourself Collaborative Engine is that, that’s the name of it and to tell us a little bit about – about what you’re doing with your blog.

Kevin Richardson:    Well and you know, it’s funny, blogging is been around – it’s one of the oldest social mediums and I have spent the last several years wanting to blog. I’ve got all kinds of thoughts rolling around on my mind that I want to get out. It’s – you know, you talked about having all that video contents sitting on a hard drive and no time to do it. I have found it really difficult to get the time to sit down and write but after – it was actually Event Camp that spurred me to write some more. I had a blog out there, in fact Christina Stallings who – we and I had – she and I had – we’re playing dueling banjos on Twitter during Event Camp and she through my Twitter page found my blog and direct message me and said, “I hope you’ll do more of this. I really like what you have to say”.

Mike McAllen:    Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    And you know, sometimes it’s just that elbowing that someone gives you – that forces you to go off and try something. So, the idea behind the blog form the beginning was to focus on collaboration and how – how social collaboration is and let’s find some examples and write about just good collaboration and how technology plays into that and how much meaning that can bring to work and to relationships and I’ve had a lot of fund couple of posting last week or so, a lots of more plan. I actually throw one out yesterday about Jason Falls and presentation he gave or session he had at Event Camp on listening and it’s been interesting to see the responses to that.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I loved it. I read it too it’s very good.

Kevin Richardson:    And for me that fun part getting back to the social aspect is you have to throw yourself out there and give your thought and as long as you’re open to what other people have to say then your one way message becomes a multi way discussion very quickly that moves from a critique of what you said to much like what you and I are doing here on this podcast, just a back and forth around a central idea and I have enjoyed even more than I thought I would the comments that I’ve been getting back and forth.

Mike McAllen:    Yes on our blog, here at this podcast blog that we use. I’m always amazed that anyone reads it. When I get a comment I’m like, holly molly that’s fantastic you know, I’m all like thank you so much for reading it you know but with this whole little community we have I guess it’s not so little but it is amazing, people retwitting your stuff back and forth and you can really get in to some good conversations and I do really enjoy your blog and you should be writing more.

Kevin Richardson:    I appreciate that.

Mike McAllen:    Yes. Okay, well I guess maybe we should – we should stop now and I’d love to have you back to talk some more maybe you know, month or so come on back and we could talk about some different subjects.

Kevin Richardson:    This was a lot of fun Mike and I would enjoy anytime we can get together and chat and I hope that – I hope that this provide some chances for people to comment and collaborate around the discussion that we’ve had online. I look forward to being engage with that.

Mike McAllen:    Yes, I think it would be fun and I wouldn’t mind bringing other people in and having little dialog, I think it might be kind of fun to do a few where we got – or like I do with John and Tom on this podcast. It’s been difficult getting us all together because they’re travelling and busy which is a good thing, which we had so much time before and now we don’t have time which is a good sign but I like to get some more, talking about more you know, collaboration and just what where out there trying to talk about so.

Kevin Richardson:    Well, with Skype and Wifi on airplanes now, travel isn’t even an excuse.

Mike McAllen:        Yes.

Kevin Richardson:    We could do podcast from 30,000 feet.

Mike McAllen:    That’s a great idea. I have a friend who does a podcast, actually he is pilot for Delta and he does podcast. I don’t think he does it from the air yet but he talks to the other pilots through Delta. It’s kind of interesting but I think his already taking that 30,000 feet but we should do it, you’re right.

Kevin Richardson:    Absolutely.

Mike McAllen:    Alright Kevin thank you so much for your time and oh before you go where can people find you if they want to get a hold of you?

Kevin Richardson:    You bet. You can find me on Twitter, my handle is @KLRichardson and if you want to check out the blog its www.collaborativeengine.com.

Mike McAllen:        Great. Alright, thank you very much and I will talk to you soon.

Kevin Richardson:    Alright thanks Mike. Bye-bye.

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