Nov 21
maureen-pickellTrade Shows imex, Las Vegas Hotels
I am looking forward to IMEX America 2012 but could not help share a few photos with you from the 2011 show last month – the show was worth a visual revisit.
Sales Team member Julie at our IMEX America stand
The ConventionPlanit.com Booth was a welcome resting spot for our Hosted Buyer group, who were off making business connections much of the day.
CP.com supplier member ACC Liverpool - talking to CP.com hosted buyers at IMEX America
Thanks to our great supplier members and hosted buyers, ConventionPlanit.com’s philosophy of putting buyers and sellers together was at work in the truest sense! See you next year, IMEX America!
Nov 16
Ashley ChalmersMember News, Tips for Meeting Planners, Trade Shows Event Industry Networking, meeting experiences, meeting ideas, national conference center, social media, Twitter
Please enjoy the following guest post from our friend Sarah Vinning with the National Conference Center, who hosted Event Camp DC earlier this month!
Seven. It’s the total number of Event Camp conferences that have been held in the past year.
The Event Camp series is a concept that first started with Jessica Levin, a meeting planner, and a few friends on Twitter who had the idea to host a bar camp for event professionals in New York City. Its intention was to offer meeting and event professionals an opportunity to come together in an unstructured format without a pre-planned agenda and “just be,” as Levin describes it.
The main selling point behind every Event Camp is that each one is different in its own unique way.
Conference organizers make decisions such as venue selection, conference format, if there’s a virtual component and the content (unless the organizers follow the peer conference concept in which attendees determine what happens).
“I’ve been to one, they’re all the same,” is not applicable to these conferences. Over the first weekend in November, there were two Event Camp conferences held over the same dates across the globe – Event Camp Vancouver and Event Camp East Coast (also referred to as Event Camp DC due to The National Conference Center’s proximity to the Nation’s Capital).
Event Camp East Coast was a genuine peer conference where the attendees reveal in a round table discussion their area of expertise, what they want to learn during the conference and how they hope to get there. The purpose of a conference like this is to ensure attendees learn what they intended to get out of the conference.
On the first night of Event Camp East Coast, we wrote topics we were interested in learning based on our own interests and expertise. Then, the conference committee established an agenda that was posted on GoogleDocs that night. Sessions included improv for eventprofs, exploring why some events sell out and others don’t, online community management, hybrid events and the impact on attendance and face to face shyness epidemic – making events warming.
For Event Camp Vancouver, the conference ball-game was another story. Their agenda was established prior to the conference and posted on their website, which can be an easier sell for someone when approaching their supervisor about attending. It also helps them set personal expectations prior to arriving.
Vancouver had a virtual component like Event Camp Twin Cities did for attendees who couldn’t attend. The pre-determined sessions at Event Camp Vancouver included the future of hybrid, what does fair trade mean and how do we find it in our sourcing, room for thought, think before you eat, defining yourself and your brand in the age of social media.
Throughout the entire conference, attendees played Get Your Green On, a gaming app based on sustainability that was initially built for GMIC’s 2011 conference; the app presents attendees with green challenges and they can earn as many points as possible by performing different acts of green.
The Room for Thought at Event Camp Vancouver, a green space designed for participants to have a place to reflect and rejuvenate. Photo provided courtesy of Greenscape Design & Decor.
The sessions in Vancouver and in D.C. had differences but prove for an interesting case study.
Session topics at Vancouver were pre-determined while those at D.C. were created on-site, yet there was clear overlap: brain-friendly food for meetings, where we’re going with hybrid and the future as well as improv.
With unique organizers for both Event Camps and unmatched conference formats, it’s fascinating to see perhaps we’re all influencing each other through social media in the #eventprofs community and as a result, we’re interested in similar topics within the industry.
To find out more about Event Camp conferences, visit EventCamp.org.
Thank you to Sarah for writing this post for us! To contact Sarah with questions about these events or the National Conference Center, please call 703-724-6263 or email her at svining@conferencecenter.com.
Nov 03
Ashley ChalmersPlaces to Stay affinia hotels, guest-friendly hotel tips
Affinia hotels have been working hard this summer to beef up their customer service skills in an unusual way – with body language training.
USA Today reports that staff members at these hotels learned to better ‘sense’ guests needs without having to ask!
For example, a guest frequently touching their face may be anxious from traveling or work. The staff member can then provide a higher level of service by offering the guest an extra pillow or a yoga treatment.
Affinia staffers were also instructed to pay attention to where a guest’s eyes are focusing and the tempo and level of excitement in their speech. It is important to match the level of excitement in a person’s speech to make them most comfortable. If the individual is avoiding eye contact, they may be too busy to engage.
These are helpful tips for all of us to remember when communicating with others!
Have you stayed with Affinia lately? Did you notice a higher level of customer care? What does good customer service mean to you as a guest?
Nov 01
Ashley ChalmersTips for Meeting Planners ASAE & the Center, green meetings, meeting education, Washington DC
Here is an exciting, free learning opportunity for association professionals in the Washington, DC area that sounds too good to pass up! It is also being put on by our industry partner, The Convene Green Alliance:
What: Carbon Footprinting Made Easy 
Learn about today’s green meeting trends and define and explore renewable energy credits, carbon offsets, and other resources that meeting professionals can use to reduce the carbon footprint of future meetings.
When: November 8, 2011
Where: ASAE Headquarters Conference Center
Cost: FREE to association professionals
Registration and Additional Information: www.convenegreen.com
CP Director of Communications, Al Rickard, CAE, will be attending the event (and sharing the highlights with us). Say hello if you see him there!
Oct 31
Ashley ChalmersTips for Meeting Planners florida hotels, Marriott, meeting experiences, meeting ideas, team building
Do you roll your eyes at the thought of participating in a team building activity, or do they send you into a planning frenzy to find an out of the box activity for your group? 
Us too…until we came across a unique idea from the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort.
Now your group can participate in a customized flash mob!
Flash mobs have become the latest craze and are popping up everywhere from TV shows like Modern Family and Glee to YouTube videos. (In case you are wondering what a flash mob is, it is a large group of people in a public place who suddenly break out into a synchronized activity, usually a dance).
The reasonably priced packages at the resort range from a choreographer to teach a dance to some or all of a group (maybe the Executive Committee learns a dance to surprise their group!) to inclusion of a videographer and even customized t-shirts.
If the video becomes a viral success, Marriott will even invite the guests back for a free stay!
Interested? Post a comment for more information.
Oct 26
Ashley ChalmersMember News, Places to Stay anchorage meetings, meeting ideas, unique activities
This gorgeous photograph was sent to us by our friend (and CP member) Julie Dodds with the Anchorage CVB:
The Northern Lights shown over Anchorage at the end of September around midnight. Can you imagine seeing such a sight in person?
This would surely make for a memorable meeting setting!
Oct 12
Ashley ChalmersTrade Shows imex, meeting experiences, meeting trends
This week several members of the CP team have headed to Las Vegas for the first ever IMEX America! We can’t wait to hear about all of the networking and learning going on at the event.
Until our staff has time to send us some updates, the IMEX team has shared a few updates with us from the 2020 Fast Future Research session. Director of the study, Rohit Talwar, shared the following popular trends among Gen Y and Gen Z conference attendees:
- short keynotes and breakouts: kept to 15-20 minutes followed by breakout opportunities with the speaker
- action-oriented formats like speed networking and meetings
- more time spent in Q&A with presenter (prefer this to occupy majority of session)
- shorter sessions repeated more frequently
- one-on-one access to creators of new products and services
Are these methods appealing to you as an attendee? As a show organizer, have you incorporated any of these practices into your meetings or do you plan to?
More on IMEX throughout the week!
Oct 03
maureen-pickellNews meeting industry, technology
How do you get 240 meeting planners and suppliers to take time out of busy schedules to attend a luncheon event? Combine the Rocky Mountain Chapters of both MPI and PCMA in Denver to listen to Bruce McMillan and Deborah Sexton discuss the state of the industry and how it affects their membership.
It was hard to be optimistic on a day when the Stock Market plummeted 390 points before lunch – but the panel did their best!
Here are some of the highlights:
Hybrid Meetings – will drive attendance, broaden the brand and encourage global connections.
Advocacy for the Meetings Industry – Value of Face to Face meetings is still not clear, so everyone needs to become a “lobbyist” for the cause.
Technology – replacing old models. Planners need to understand how technology will help take job performance to the next level (i.e. using online search engines as RFP portals)
Staffing Concerns – we all need some time to turn off and avoid burn-out. The increasing pace of the job requires keeping company talent from being overworked.
Publishing – Is print advertising working? Many suppliers are opting for fewer print ads because it is difficult to measure ROI. Digital ads take a lot of guesswork out of the advertising equation.
A la Carte Options for Membership – both MPI and PCMA see the traditional model changing to offer individual options that are relevant to the specific interests of their member demographic.
Design your own Annual Meetings – no longer a fully programmed event; future annual conferences for PCMA/MPI will be developed around interactive participation where the attendees design the content.
Miscellaneous facts cited by the panel:
- The Chinese can build a 2.5 million square foot conference center in less than a year and a 15 story hotel in 6 days. We can’t get a Washington D.C. Metro (subway) line repaired in 9 months. The message here – Just get out and do it! There are too many obstacles in the U.S. to getting the job (any job) done.
- Extent of the growth of mobile technology: there are more cell phones in the U.S. than toothbrushes. (This could explain people choosing to phone or text rather than meet face-to-face – or breath to breath!)
What are some industry trends you have noticed? Where do you expect the industry to head in 2012?
Sep 20
Ashley ChalmersMisc Tidbits, Trade Shows cvbs, hsmai affordable meeting, town crier
If a town crier sounds like something straight out of an historical novel, you may be surprised to know your town or city may have one! The American Guild of Town Criers is spreading the word about this ‘honorable position’.
The Annapolis, MD town crier (Squire Frederick) even made an appearance at HSMAI’s MEET National show earlier this month!
Katherine Markham, CHME, ConventionPlanit.com's Co-Founder, poses with Squire Frederick at HSMAI's MEET National
Historically, the role of the town crier was to spread the news of the day. The job has changed a little – according to Squire Frederick’s website, town criers celebrate a city’s rich history, achievements and struggles for liberty and civil rights for citizens.
Town criers across the country are available to make appearances at events. They’ll pose for photos, too. Check out Squire Frederick’s website for more information.
Sep 16
Ashley ChalmersContests Peppermill Reno, refer a meeting professional
Meeting planners, it’s contest time again!
This time, just for referring colleagues to use ConventionPlanit.com, you could win a trip for two to the Peppermill Resort in Reno, Nevada! The prize includes a two night stay, airfare for two, spa treatments and dinner!
To enter the contest, refer colleagues here or you can also comment on this post. When commenting, be sure to include full contact information for you and the planner you are referring. The more meeting planners you submit, the more chances you have to win!
Tell us – what kinds of contests and prizes would you like to see from us in the future?
This contest is only open to meeting planners referring other meeting planners. For full contest details, please click here.
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