The Meetings Innovator by The Meetings Innovator

VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 1

October 2011

FEATURES: • The Changing Landscape of Events • SEO in the Event Planning World • Generation Y and Z’s Introduction to the Events Landscape USA $12.99 • UK £7.99 • Europe €8.99

ISBN 978-1-105-17118-5

90000

9 781105 171185

CONTENT 4 Events are Getting Faster and Smaller 8 The Business Value of Mobile Apps for Meetings 10 SEO in the Event Planning World 12 Attendee-Generated Content 16 Cvent interview with Mr. Dan Lapus 18 CMS: Manage Your Content, Boost Your Event 20 Interview with Asher Epstein 22 How Social Media Hijacked the Event The Meetings Innovator is driven to deliver you the most in-depth and informative knowledge centered around the ever-changing events industry. In this new, hi-tech era, let The Meetings Innovator be your guide. Chief Editor: John Sofrin Designer: Josh Bugosh John@themeetingsinnovator.com +44-(0)-20-315-00-779 CopyrightÂŠ 2011 The Meetings Innovator

Wo r d f r o m t h e e d i to r : Dear colleagues and readers, It is with great excitement and pleasure that we launch the first issue of The Meetings Innovator Magazine - The first of its kind being totally dedicated to the fields of technology and innovation in the meetings industry.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a place where the Meetings Innovator can be both the initiator and the end-user. The first issue lying before you brings the essence of our goals. You will find interviews with managers, innovators and mentors of the highest level, some articles on how simple yet smart technological tools can change the way your business works, and a first glimpse to the Future Experience Zone concept, to be debuted in the coming EIBTM 2011.

The Meetings Innovator Magazine aims to bring new observations on the way technology can serve and shape the So, with belief that this is the beginning landscape of the meetings industry. It will address C-Level and Event IT managers by of a beautiful friendship, I take off here, both updating on the latest developments and and welcome you to have a taste from your by offering a vision on the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future. future. We welcome an open conversation, the birth John Sofrin - Chief Editor of new ideas, and the sharing of both content and technological trends. At the same time, the Meetings Innovator Magazine can be of great value for technology companies dabbling in the field of events and interested in learning the current and future needs of the industry.

W RI T E T O T H E E DI T O R Have something to say? Want to contribute an article or publish a comment? Feel free to write John Sofrin, chief editor of The Meetings Innovator.

John@themeetingsinnovator.com

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Events are Getting Faster and Smaller A glimpse into the coming EIBTM Future Experience Zone

The event industry is working with a whole new group of people called Millennials or Generation Y, and everything we thought we knew about how to run an event is steadily being turned on its ear. No longer will people sit and listen for an hour at a time to “someone else’s” expert. Today’s young people, also known as tomorrow’s leaders in business and politics, want to decide for themselves who the experts are and how long they should be sitting and listening. They even want to take an active role in the presentation, making it into a discussion. Nowhere is this better referenced than during the Future Events Experience Zone at the upcoming EIBTM, where an entirely new set of technologies will come into practical use. No longer will past models of events work as well as they did for prior generations. Today, delegates attending events want to be engaged actively and play a role in what is being said. They won’t sit idly by while a speaker belabors a point. After all, this is a generation that’s used to instant messages, texting and getting what’s being said immediately. Sitting still for long periods of time is okay, but the most recent generation won’t sit for someone to talk about the same thing for an hour or more at a time. Slides and presentations need to take a back seat to feelings and experiences.

Bloggers draw attention to themselves by “...the most recent sharing new, generation won’t p r o v o c a t i v e sit for someone and sometimes to talk about the s h o c k i n g l y same thing for an c o n t r o v e r s i a l hour or more at a opinions in an time. Slides and open forum presentations need where anyone can to take a back seat read what they’ve to feelings and written. The fact that literally experiences.” anyone can start a blog makes some traditional-minded people cringe at the potential for poorly developed opinions and abysmal grammar. Blogging isn’t central to EIBTM, but the theme of sharing held by most bloggers is in the same vein as the Future Events Experience.

This is why SyncPartners recently unveiled the Future Events Experience, a group of technologies integrated into a room designed to grant a taste of how events will soon become. Technology allows a lot of things to happen that aren’t yet commonly addressed on the exhibition floor, and Sync is leading the charge into a brave new world of events technology. While technology is not the end being sought, it is both a means of more effectively reaching Millennials and a more effective way to share the information presented at events.

SyncPartners’ Adi Ben-Nesher was quoted on the EIBTM homepage as saying, “Our goal is to create a collaborative environment that simulates an event which can then operate as a template for other event organizers to learn from.” Through creating a microcosm of possible future events, SyncPartners is taking technologies that already exist and allowing them to find eminently practical applications right on the exhibit floor. All types of technologies are represented, from social networking interactivity all the way up to “posters” that can be changed based

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on information you put into your t e c h n o l o g i e s smart phone. This does a lot for include advanced the entire event experience. communications software aimed at Of course, there were some allowing attendees challenges to overcome in getting to communicate with so many exhibitors to cooperate. presenters during According to Adi, one of the their presentations; hardest parts was to “... ensure interactive “posters” the attendee journey is smooth that change based and tells the right ‘story’ without on an individual’s compromising on quality.” preferences, and stages where one can First, in this future possibility digitally sign up with a events aren’t centered on getting basic topic and in some knowledge from a particular cases be on stage mere source. In many cases, the sharing minutes later. Getting put forth by open stages, the so many technologies chance to contact speakers during to work together and flow seamlessly is an almost artistic marvel, and it requires a lot of different companies working together and sharing the feedback they each receive from both attendees and the event organizers who use the a presentation and the benefits of technology itself. According to other programs allows participants Adi, “Events in the future will be to do more than just find great focused on accelerated conversion information -- they can bring of opportunities into benefits, and that great information to bear that technology needs to be used themselves. After all, what better in a more effective way to create person to share their expertise tangible value for the attendee.” on a topic than a person battling on the industry’s front lines every Getting the exhibitors to work day? Sharing information is about together so seamlessly was a far more than just venting about a challenge. To do this, Adi had to bad day at work, though. understand what each individual contributor’s business incentives Some of the featured advanced were. Then he had to emphasize

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the benefits to each one, and keep communication and engagement with them all. Part of how he did this was making sure everyone was involved in the design and architecting of the experience, using a holistic approach. He also had to be very bold in instilling a spirit of collaboration. Part of doing this was getting the exhibitors into their attendees’ heads. The goal was “to provide an experience... by enabling the EIBTM visitors to experience it as attendees in their own event.” It’s very easy to get caught up in a new gimmick and perceive it as the only thing that’s important to an event. While a lot of exhibitions require some advanced technologies—imagine trying to speak to an entire auditorium without a microphone and projector—much of today’s most high-end systems can seem overwhelming to us “old” Generation Xers. If you don’t have

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any idea how the Internet gets into and out of your phone, you aren’t alone. Truth be known, some of this technology almost seems magical. But we have to steer clear of thinking that the technology itself is reason enough to use it. Every technology represented in the Future Events Experience Zone has a reason beyond just “looking good.” The underlying purposes are to make the attendees feel engaged and excited by the topics being presented, and to then use that comfort to share their insights with others. With today’s technologies as their tools, events managers are working hard to dig the nuggets of expertise out of everyone who comes to an event. No one should just walk through passively, because everyone has something of value to contribute to their respective industry. As a matter of fact, this concept is nothing new. If you’ve ever been to London, England, you may have taken a stroll through Hyde Park. In a particular, unassuming part of this park, for hundreds of years ordinary people have been taking up their proverbial soap boxes and making speeches about topics that they consider to be important. While there are naturally a goodly portion of people preaching bizarre ideologies and sounding as if they’ve taken some powerful drugs, the great thing is that even they may speak their minds and reach out to other people. The first person who ever randomly spoke at Hyde Park may have been a crackpot, but he or she was also an innovator.

into “chit-chat,” you understand that today’s younger workers are the royalty of multi-tasking and quickly understanding topics presented to them. In pecha kucha, a speaker gets to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each. A lot of event planners are jumping on this band wagon because it really works for today’s attendees, who don’t need to listen to a speaker go on for an hour to get the point. These young people can often pick up the point in a matter of seconds, and only rarely take more than a few minutes to understand what’s being said.

It may be tempting to think that events of the future will take place entirely online or be replaced by something completely different, but nothing could be further from the truth. Events are evolving from massive dinosaurs into smaller, sleeker creatures that can stalk the business world just as aggressively as their elders. SyncPartners’ Future Events Experience may not feature every trend that’s just now taking root, but they’re definitely on the right track in some ways. Tomorrow’s attendees are going to be well taken care of by the event planners who are willing If you’ve ever heard of the modern presentation to make the best kinds of changes. technique of pecha kucha, which literally translates Today’s event-goers are innovators, too. True, they might not be doing something entirely new and different, and there are no literal soapboxes to be found and used as impromptu stages. But the idea that any person can contribute is plain to see. But it isn’t just about letting everyone have their turn to speak their minds. Another great feature of future events is going to be how efficiently they’ll be run, and how much will still get done in a shorter time frame.

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The Business Value of Mobile Apps for Meetings by Corbin Ball

Recent data from MPI’s FutureWatch 2011 Survey and others indicate that more than 80% of meeting professionals are using smartphones and other mobile devices in their jobs. Yet, with this high adoption, relatively few have used mobile applications yet for their own meetings. This is about to change. • Agenda management, building and sharing for attendees • Alerts / conference messaging / updates • Analytics (tracking attendee interests and activities for business intelligence) • Appointment scheduling for attendees • Attendee list distribution • Audience polling • CEU tracking • Concierge and local area information • Conference program and schedule • Content distribution -- paper replacement (session handouts, course notes, exhibit literature) • Content distribution -- video (YouTube, conference streaming media) • Cyber café replacement • Evaluations of speakers, sessions, overall conference and other activities/services. • Exhibit guide with interactive floor plan • Exhibitor management including interface with exhibit service contractor • Housing management (with interface with housing provider) • Hybrid and virtual meeting access • Lead exchange / integration with contact managers • Marketing and advertising of events and subevents

Meeting professionals and attendees are crossing the chasm of early adoption and are entering into the early majority phase. We will see a very rapid adoption of mobile applications for events during the next two years. There are many ways that mobile applications can assist events. Here are some of the features found in many of the full-featured mobile applications for events and tradeshows:`

• Meetings logistics management while onsite (including attendees management, housing management, budget tracking, meetings specifications, and meeting spend tracking) • Membership management • Messaging for events (SMS, email, group announcements, etc.) • Networking / social media / friend finding (event and location-based) • Product and merchandise sales with micropayment capabilities • Registration • Revenue generation from exhibitor, sponsor, and local business advertising • Mobile team building exercises at events • Show contractor /supplier communication and logistics • Site inspection check-list • Social media onsite integration (for white label apps, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) • Sponsor ad revenue (with full tracking) • Surveys • Ticketing and access control • Transit tracking (flight tracking, light rail times, etc.) and other business travel tools • Treasure hunts and other games to stimulate exhibit hall flow • Way-finding and mapping (through exhibit hall, venue, nearby attractions, city)

Beyond these features, however, there many tangible benefits that mobile technology will bring to event organizers, exhibitors and attendees. Here are a few of them: Real-time distribution and access to all conference information: Paper conference programs, exhibition guides, and announcements go out of date almost immediately after they are printed -- conferences are fluid and things change! Mobile guides and other conference information can be changed on the fly assuring that attendees have instant access to the current information in a manner that is faster, lighter and easier to access. Event managers can send alerts of significant program changes as well. Better way-finding through interactive maps, floor plans and location-based services: Attendees often need assistance in finding their way around a venue, an exhibit hall and the neighborhood surrounding the meeting venue. There are a range of mapping and GPS tools that can help. Some of the advanced mobile

exhibit applications (such as Core-Apps.com and SherpaSolutions.com) can even pinpoint attendees locations in the exhibit hall and guide them through the hall finding the most efficient path between exhibit booths. Adding to this will be augmented reality applications (such as Google Goggles) which will layer additional information on phonecam screens simply by pointing the phone camera at places where attendees want to know more information about. Environmentally friendly: Events are often awash in paper: program guides, session handouts, course notes, exhibit directories, exhibit brochures, surveys, events specifications and more. These documents can be accessible more efficiently in mobile platforms. With the upsurge of iPads and other tablets, people will annotate these documents as well. Mobile devices documents are lighter, easier to use, quicker to access, cost nothing to print/ship and are much more environmentally friendly that paper documents.

in-depth Enhanced onsite networking: Social mobile networking apps (meeting industry-specific apps such as Pathable.com and Dub Events), the big three social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) and the location-aware apps (such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places) provide completely new networking channels for events. One good contact can often be worth the entire price of the meeting, and these tools will help bring people together to make these contacts. Also, savvy meeting planners and venue managers are now monitoring the event tweet stream (Twitter comments around a specific event) as the fastest way of being notified of a problem during an event. Real-time feedback through surveys and polling: Paper surveys for speaker and meeting evaluations are laborious to tally – so much so that they usually are done after the event. Web-based surveys sent via email links also are usually sent after the event. In either case, the data received is too late to make mid-course corrections during an event. Mobile surveys are automatically tallied in real-time while the information is fresh. If a session bombs, or if there are other problems, there are opportunities for corrections during the rest of the meeting by using this survey feedback during the conference. Audience polling keypads, although they are very helpful feedback tools, tend to be expensive ($3-12/person/ day). As mobile polling apps (such as PollEverywhere.com, Validar.com, Zukuweb.com, and others) move into this space, attendees can use their phones to vote or respond to speaker questions via text messages, mobile-web based polling tools or even Twitter. Additionally, there is the ability to send questions to the speaker, allowing input from audience members who are not ”brave enough” to ask questions aurally. Often, these tools are at a fraction of the cost of keypads and sometimes for free. Enhanced branding: Mobile apps are hot and give the

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impression of being up-to-date exhibitor); location based (at the technologically -- they are a great booth); it costs the exhibitors substantial way of event branding! It won’t be sums; and is not standardized in terms very long where, if an event does not of data collection. Other methods, such use mobile applications, attendees will as business card exchange have paperbe wondering why the conference is based inefficiencies. behind the times. Cost reductions and new revenue streams “We will see a very rapid from sponsorships adoption of mobile applications and advertising: As has been mentioned, for events during the next two there are many ways years.” mobile apps can cut costs while providing enhanced onsite services. In additions, Why can’t all attendees collect there are many potential revenue important contact information from sources from exhibitor and sponsor any other attendee in a standardized advertising. Several mobile companies method electronically anywhere have business models where there at the event? There are several are no direct costs to the show/event mobile apps providers (such as Dub organizer. They rely instead on revenue and BusyEvents) that are working in from exhibitor sponsorship. this direction. The next generation of iPhone, it is rumored, will have near Better analytics: field communication (NFC), a crossMobile apps have the ability to track mobile platform that will allow quick, page views and other attendee activity. standardized exchange of contact Some mobile application provide information as well as micro-payment extensive data analytics of attendee and mobile commerce capabilities. behavior, which can be invaluable for This will likely push this technology improving future events. Page view to wide-spread usage providing much data regarding specific exhibit products more efficient ways of business contact can also be invaluable for exhibitors exchange at events and tradeshows. providing connections to attendees who are specifically interested in a Enhanced attendee and exhibitor product or services. experiences The bottom line is that mobile Better onsite management tools: applications are offering a wealth of Gone soon may be the days where new capabilities that will increase the you can identify the meeting planner business value of events. It will make as the person who is carrying around the lives of meeting planners easier; a 4” 3-ring binder full of paper it will reduce costs; and will provide specifications and event orders at the richer experiences for planners, venues event. Event-related apps for iPads and managers, exhibitors and attendees tablets may change this. Ootoweb.com alike. offers a “paperless meeting binder” Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP is a for meeting planner to carry around professional speaker and consultant related documents converted to .PDF focusing on meetings technology. files on an iPad and iPhone. Future With 20 years of experience running versions will include other tablet international citywide technology operating systems and will have ability meetings to change, annotate and easily share he now helps clients worldwide use these files. technology to save time and improve productivity He can be contacted at Better CRM his extensive web site: www.corbinball. The current barcode lead retrieval com and followed on Twitter: www. model used at many tradeshows is twitter.com/corbinball. broken. It is one way (attendee to © 2011Corbin Ball, CSP, CMP

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SEO in the Event Planning World SEO Defined SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the technique used by website administrators when creating or updating a company’s or an individual’s website. The idea behind the concept of optimizing web pages within a website is to enhance the ranking of the website in the top search engines. A higher ranking means more visibility and more visibility means more traffic to the website and ultimately more business as a result. Optimized websites will be among the first to show up in a search engine list when specific keywords are searched by Internet users, which generally means that they will be the first to attract the user’s attention. Any site can be search engine optimized, and should be in order to direct traffic to the site and promote the products and/or services being offered.

Why use SEO in the vents Planning World? Essentially, search engine optimization is marketing, and any good company needs an even better marketing approach. As with any other type of business that utilizes SEO, the reason for using SEO practices in the events planning world has to do with getting more people to notice you, or at least notice what you are offering to the world. By having your event planning website search engine optimized, you will be putting your business at the front of the line and providing a path for your customers to head straight for the door, or the page anyway. Of course, in this day in age, reaching prospective clients through the Internet is not only wise, but an actual necessity if you are to build the kind of clientele that will allow competing in this

much larger and everexpanding world. In the end, this can result in a significant increase in sales, which is likely your ultimate goal. How SEO Can Be Used to Promote Conferences, Meetings, and Other Events The important thing to understand about search engine optimization is that there is not just one technique that is used to optimize a particular website, but rather a number of techniques that are utilized to rank

a page. One of the most well-known SEO practices is developing content relevant to your event planning website in order to submit it to search engines that will use it to rank your page. Keywords related to your specific industry, and ideally even your specific events, play a large role in developing relevant content to be submitted to the various search engine sites. While many events planning businesses tend to have their SEO content focused on their respective companies themselves, there is

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benefits that result. This is often referred to as “organic search engine optimization,” because the ranking that results is based on the content of the website and the information that you provide to potential customers who visit it. Content that is relevant to your actual site will rank higher as far as the search engines are concerned, and you and your business website will be well-rewarded by being more noticeable.

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writing with the standard text that you send. 5. Be sure that your website does not entirely consist of Flash imaging. 6. Provide content and images that are relevant to the industry and the events that you will be dealing with. 7. Stick to specific keywords that are relevant to event and meeting planning. 8. Give each website page a title in order to inform visitors of the purpose of the page. 9. Build your website with the visitor in mind rather than the search engine you are trying to rank on. 10. Be sure to test your own site often in order to ensure that it works properly.

value in focusing the content on the events and the speakers as well. By doing this, your event planning business will not only be noticeable to individuals searching for a planner to employ, but your The Ten Commandments of business will also be noticeable to SEO/Making SEO the Most those who are searching a specific Effective speaker or a specific event as well. 1. Include in website’s texts the This sums up to a greatly increased names of events you will be Not so long ago, the concept of chance of your event planning promoting every three lines search engine optimization was business being noticed, which will in order to better promote not nearly as important as it is also result in an increased clientele. events. today, with the Internet endlessly Another commonly-used SEO 2. specific U se original texts and avoid obscuring the boundaries of the practice that also has the potential from others. world. These days, though, it is to increase your event planning 3. copying Make good use of hyperlinks important to use such practices in business’s clientele involves by turning an event name order to reach as many potential updating the content located within into a link each time that it customers as possible throughout your company’s website. Keyword is used in the website text the globe. If you have an event focused content can also enhance and connect it to the specific planning business and want to the online presence of your event website. expand your horizons, you can planning business’s website as well, 4. event B e sure to make certain that help your business significantly and many innovative businesses different websites write their grow with the use of SEO. are taking advantage of the own unique text, rather than

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b u s i ne s s w i s d o m Attendee-Generated Content

Welcoming Generation Y & Z into a more attendee-centric events world by Shuli Golovinski

To begin, let us clarify the different generations which we will be talking about throughout this chapter. They consist of Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z. The Baby Boomers began immediately following World War II, and their goal is to build a stellar career. Generation Xers were born between 1965 and 1980, and value having a portable set of skills within their career, regardless of where their current employment leads. Generation Y were born between 1981 and 1999. While they are still new to the workforce, they value the idea of having multiple careers simultaneously, so as to circumvent the possibility of becoming obsolete. While Generation Z has only been born since 2000, they will most likely have a completely different set of goals than the previous generations. Meetings today are a lot like they were a hundred years ago. Typically, they consist of a set of exhibitors showing their offerings, and speakers presenting their ideas with slides. Often, this would be coupled with vendor exhibits in the spaces adjacent to the speaking areas, where attendees could check out what is being offered. These presentations are broken up by short networking sessions that are strictly informal. Traditionally, the attendees of these meetings have been completely satisfied with the overall nature of the meeting, which has brought them back again and again. However, there has been a sort of “changing of the guard” in regards to who the most likely attendees are in this generation. And this is going to change once again, sooner than anyone would like to admit.

Where we Have Been

Let’s start out by revisiting the typical business event model that we have briefly gone over. A group of speakers is invited to the meeting. After setting up, they each take their turns on stage. Traditionally, the

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attendees have listened patiently, fascinated by all of the information to be gained from the speakers. After the “lecture,” there is typically a short Q&A session on the topic at hand. For a previous generation of individuals, this was ideal, as they were used to having their entire information spoon fed to them by authoritative sources of information. Following any given set of presentations, there would be an informal coffee break session. This could prove to be a great place to network, but the previous generations of people ultimately found equal (if not greater) value in the actual information being presented. Traditionalists and Baby Boomer attendees have typically kept to this trend reliably, and have seen little to no problem with the standard flow of meetings as they are. With the currently dominant Generation X, meetings tend to be more of a balance between attending the presentations and networking with fellow professionals

Where we are Right Now

Keeping with the recent trends, Generation Y is a significantly more technologically savvy group of people who generally follow in line with the Gen X mindset. However, Gen Y also has access to the kinds of tools that previous generations might literally have killed to possess. At any moment, millions of people can access information on literally any topic they desire to learn more about. With only a few clicks of one’s mouse, search engines and public knowledge sites will tell you just about anything you could ever want to know. In a world like this, hearing all of your information from someone in a presentation space seems merely optional. It is in the shadow of

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this pressing call to upgrade the structure or our meetings for Gen Y that we come upon a whole new generation, who fortunately has not reached the age to attend business events: Generation Z: a generation literally raised on technology.

emerges, they will most definitely information quickly to be the equal be the first ones to not only of what may have been a life time understand it, but also to exploit of conglomerated experience. its full range of uses. This speed While this, to an extent, may be the at picking up new information typical overconfidence of youth, it is going to be beneficial as the is also a completely serious fact of world continues to become more life; Generation Y (and to a lesser complicated. However, it will extent Gen X) have a very powerful Gen Z has been on social also add a further complication degree of knowledge absorption, networks since they were able to the meetings we put together. to an extent which would quite to form friendships, and possibly Consider the likelihood of a Gen possibly boggle the minds of the before they were even generations which came old enough to walk. They before us. can express their hopes, “...there has been a sort of ‘changing dreams and feelings in of the guard’ in regards to who It has been estimated that a Twitter messages of 140 single issue of the Sunday characters or less. For the most likely attendees are in New York Times contains the rest of us above their this generation. And this is going more information than a age group, there has to change once again, sooner than typical person in 1850s London would have taken been a period of “catch- anyone would like to admit.” up” with all of these new in over the course of an technologies. But this is entire life time. While this the only world that Gen Z may or may not be the has ever known. Z person sitting there for 45 case, it is definitely food for thought No one is completely certain what minutes, listening to someone go that all of the information a person will happen once Generation on and on about a concept that might have taken in during their Z completely takes over. A they already had “locked down” entire life has now become the world where digital everything within a couple of minutes. That makings of an ordinary afternoon’s is unavoidable has already come is a presentation where a lot of read. One could definitely be about, and where it could go from people will quietly skulk out during taken aback at how much times here is literally anybody’s guess. its run, knowing what they need have changed. We would also be But as for the meetings people to know. The emphasis will then wise to remember that times will attend, there are some reasonable shift to finding out who they need continue to change, and the level expectations we can put forward. to know, and finding that missing and speed of that change may not piece. slow down.

The People and Technologies Taking us Forward

For one thing, the speed with which people can take up new information is going to continue to increase. Whereas a lot of Boomers still have difficulty with all but the most easily laid out computerized challenges, Gen Z tends to be able to text as quickly as they can talk. And when a new technology

The technology which disseminates information to us is generally more effective at it than the “computers” in our own heads. This fact, while at first seemingly unrelated to events, is already having a serious impact on meetings and conferences with the current Gen Y. You might consider it arrogant for a group of “young punks” to consider their ability to absorb

Condensing the Content

Modern people have become accustomed to filling in the “gaps” that normal presentations and conversations leave in the information which we are presented with. When a speaker makes mention of something which a Gen Y person has never heard of, they can instantly whip out their phone and look it up, while

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still passively listening to what the speaker says thereafter. Within a few minutes, the term or concept typically has much greater mental context for the Gen Y person, and the entire presentation has just that much more traction as a result of this new knowledge

So they may not even attend these meetings, once they have come to understand what they are about and how they are structured. And while this is not a big deal today, it will certainly become a big deal when Gen Z steps into the meetings of a decade from now as active participants and paying It can also be generally said that attendees. Generation X has reluctantly conformed (for the most part) to So unless you are getting ready the old-fashioned way of waiting to retire, it would be worth your for things to happen at a speed that time to pay very careful attention Boomers are more comfortable to the patterns of our newest with. As Boomers eventually demographic. Remember that for retire, Gen X may end up finally about 20 out of the next 40 years, moving at their fastest comfortable they are going to essentially rule speed. This will still only be about the entire landscape of meetings second gear for Gen Y- and that and conferences, so what they says nothing about Gen Z. want is what we are all going to want to provide them with. After all, Gen Z lives (and they have always lived) in a world in Where we are Going which changes happen overnight, As Gen X takes over and Gen information is dispensed and Y really gets into the meat of its processed instantly. In a sense, career lives, the meetings we go to we may very well be turning are going to have to accommodate into a hybrid of humanity and the growing desire we each have technology—and Gen Z is on to network with people who will the front lines of this societal help us cut into transformation. They may very well the prime meat of be hungry to embrace such a quick, our careers. efficient lifestyle of information Since Generations sharing and cooperation. X and Y grow So why would a person who into their new comes from a generation in leadership roles, which information is delivered and Generation Z is processed in a span of seconds going to come up want to sit there for the better part into the beginning of an hour, listening to someone era of its career life. drone on and on about a topic In their new roles that they were picking up on in as college student the first couple of minutes? The interns, entry answer is: they do not want this in level employees the slightest. and sales people,

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Gen Z is going to take all that the previous generations have created, and they are going to take it to a speed and a level of connection never heard of before. The best the rest of us can do for them is provide the best, most efficient venues humanly possible, and then get out of their way as they make their own brand of magic. If we try to impose too much of our older, “proven” ways on Gen Z, they will simply work around us through their increasingly sophisticated network of websites, forums and social networking. If ever there has been a generation which conforms to the notion of “six degrees of separation,” it is most certainly Gen Z. So the backdrop of Gen Z’s young lives is them feeling as much at home with technology as they do with other people in the “real” world. We need to adapt our meetings and conferences so that they facilitate substantially more of this highly desired “face time” in

T h e Meet i n g s Innovato r

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order to work with Gen Z when they begin coming to our events.

How we can Adapt

The following is a brief model of what a meeting of the future may end up looking like, if we work to correctly address the “wants and needs” that Generation Z is going to bring to the table. The event will start with a brief keynote speech, and it will move at a pace that might leave people from previous generations struggling to grasp its core concepts. The idea is that the keynote, while being the longest “sit down” portion of the conference, will still be roughly 30 to 45 minutes in duration. A keynote is designed to “kick off” the meeting, and simultaneously set its tone and energy level- not become a source of boredom for those in attendance. In many cases during the keynote speech, more topics may be covered in few minutes than a traditional meeting or conference could deliver in an entire day of multiple slide presentations. Following the keynote, the day will be broken up into two basically matched segments: structured networking and AGC (Attendee Generated Content) on the Pecha Kucha model developed earlier this century. If you have never heard of structured networking, it is the process by which people are matched up online based upon the stated interests and goals on their meetings-specific pages. From there, they can schedule and prepare for their individual meetings as they desire.

having a large number of people simply bopping around, hoping to make a connection with the right people and wasting potentially productive time. The greatest power of this new conference model will be that it will serve the people it is designed to serve, by providing them with the resources they need to accomplish their goals... and then stepping out of their way.

Some people say that democracy is a great idea, and that someone should try it some day. With the technological resources at our disposal and an upcoming generation who will happily make great The further extension of Pecha Kucha, use of them, we who guide the event business might ”Chance2Speak” or Attendee Generated Content, just end up giving democracy the chance no nation will be the greatest departure from the current ever has. event model. In this, we won’t be inviting speakers anymore. The attendees themselves will submit Shuli Golovinski is the founder and CEO of their topics of expertise, and their short abstract, Newtonstrand Limited, and the author of “From generating a bottom-up alternative to the currently Gimmicks to Values – The Future of the Events known agenda, and giving those presentations after Industry”. A full version of this article will appear the audience votes on who will be speaking. in Martin Venneste’s coming book, “The Tweeting Meeting.” The greatest strength of this conference model is not that it will end up saving money on hiring in expensive speakers. It also has nothing to do with

one - on - one

Cvent interview with Mr. Dan Lapus

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professionals who add venues from around the Cvent is one of the world’s largest providers of events management technologies, with clients such world to the CSN database and as the Coca Cola Company, MPI and the Hilton international chain of hotels. Mr. Dan Lapus is one keep the venues’ profiles of the company’s two VPs for Product Development free up to date. and one of Cvent’s founders. We talked to Dan about the company and the industry’s present and We have over 150,000 venues future under the technological umbrella. in the system, Hi Dan, maybe start with telling us a bit about and more than the role of a VP for Product Development in 50,000 meeting planners use it CVENT. for sourcing. It I’ve been with Cvent since the company launched in has taken a lot 1999, and have guided the evolution of our products of hard work, but since the first beta release of our Event Management now CSN is the software. Today, I help lead a technology department most comprehensive and accurate database of its of over 150 full-time engineers, dedicated to kind, and I’m really proud of our entire team for this delivering new products and software enhancements accomplishment. while ensuring the overall success of our existing Another major milestone was the recent $136 million investment that we received from New Enterprise product lines. I work closely with my team to make sure we’re Associates and Insight Venture Partners. This was regularly tapping the insight of our clients and the the largest investment ever in an event technology industry at large to develop solutions that really company, and the biggest investment in a U.S. eliminate the pain points meeting managers are software company since 2007, according to the Wall Street Journal. We’re putting this investment towards experiencing. It’s an exciting role because the meetings industry is enhancements for all of our products. evolving so rapidly and there is so much opportunity Would you say that your products brought a in the meetings technology space in particular. difference to the meetings industry? What, from your point of view, was the company’s When Cvent was launched in 1999, most organizations biggest achievement since its foundation? were still sending out paper invitations for their From my perspective, one events and collecting of Cvent’s most significant “Be excited for the future. New RSVPs through mail accomplishments was technologies are coming out or fax. Our Event the launch of the Cvent Supplier Network, our every day, and I know it can seem Management software product eliminated many free online marketplace overwhelming and difficult to of these tedious manual for connecting meeting keep up, but technology is really planners with venues. We shaping the future of the meetings tasks by allowing meeting and event planners to invested years of research collect registrations online, into this tool to make sure industry.” and ultimately changed the it’s easy to use, provides way companies approach all the functions and information planners need to find just the right venue, event planning. and makes doing business with venues extremely Today, our products bring flexibility to the meeting efficient. Today, we have over 60 market research planner and streamline the entire meetings lifecycle

by John Sofrin

one - on - one – from meeting requests and authorization, venue sourcing, event marketing, online registration and payment processing, to preand post-meeting web surveys and detailed reporting for business intelligence. Because we consoli date meeting management all under one roof, meeting managers can focus on strategic goals, like ensuring an exceptional attendee experience and generating business results, rather than completing time-consuming tasks. When looking upon the industry today as a whole, what changes do you think technology in general brought in, and what are the trends you’re recognizing in this regard for the future? Meetings technology has allowed companies to take a strategic approach to their meetings and events. Companies can now use software to gather and manage meetings data, so they can make the right decisions. This business intelligence wasn’t readily available prior to advances in the meetings technology space. Meetings tech has also made meeting planning much more efficient. Looking forward, it’s obvious that social media and mobile will continue to gather steam. Society in general expects to have constant, easy access to information, and meeting planners and attendees are no different. Whether it’s through a more streamlined check-in and lead retrieval process; the ability to send notifications directly to attendees on their mobile devices; real-time feedback collection during live conference sessions; or even increased use of emerging technologies such as augmented reality, people expect technology to make their lives easier.

T h e Meet i n g s Innovato r

That was actually my next question. How is CVENT taking into account the increasing role of social media with its products development and strategic thinking? Social media has fundamentally shifted the way people share information, and is a natural fit for the meetings industry, since it combines the two core elements that typically draw attendees to events: networking and education. At Cvent, we’ve integrated social media into our products to make it easier for meeting organizers to share, promote and build communities around their events. For example, among many other features, we enable both meeting organizers and registrants to promote their event through their social media networks directly from their online registration page, and enable registrants to follow an event or entire series of events through Real Simple Syndication (RSS). We’ve also developed a number of event widgets for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that allow planners to stream feeds and content from those sites directly to their event web sites. We also recently authored a free eBook, called “Event Marketing 2.0: How to Boost Attendance through Social Media,” that helps planners get the most out of social media for their meetings and events.

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In general, what measures do you take in order to make sure you’re on track with the latest developments? We attend more than 150 tradeshows and conferences around the world each year to meet with other industry experts and customers, and we hold over 700 seminars where we meet inperson with meeting and event planners to hear about their needs and get feedback on our products. We also regularly survey our clients, and hold focus groups to ensure we keep our finger on the pulse of the industry. In addition, we have a team of 10 people in product management that ensures we’re up to speed with all the latest developments. What products and concepts are out there just waiting to be mass-discovered and to lift the face of events management?

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In - De p t h

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CMS

The benefits of using a CMS are to help control the data and produce an outstanding product: Manage Your Content, Boost Your Event information. This information can be transformed planning events; whether it is something similar The trend of using content management systems into to something more complicated. A CMS will (CMS) has exploded all over the world. Whether make it easiermuch to store and retrieve data, reduce you are planning an event at a physical location or producing an event online, you could use a CMS to help manage all of the web content that is required to succesfully kick off an event successfully. All your “The benefits of using a CMS data can be managed online through a CMS: the are to help control the data and research phase, the details of what is required, the cost produce an outstanding product: comparison, the needs and wants of various clients, information.” the promotion of the event and even the aftermath of the event are all difficult to maintain. You can do all of this much easier online through a CMS. information, and improve communication Managing data has become a challenge by far repetitive among each user of the CMS. The data that can be since the information highway is a speedway of gathered is endless. of data that a CMS data rushing with millions (or even billions) of users. manages are phoneExamples numbers, statistics, The time has come to jump on the bandwagon and documents, etc. The scope of a pictures, CMS depends begin using a CMS. It can be a difficult to determine the purpose of it. If the purpose is to only use it on as which CMS is the best one for you. Currently, on the a phone book, for instanc, the data will be limited market today, the top three major players are Drupal, to addresses and phone numbers. If the purpose is Joomla and WordPress. This article will offer an in- to be used for information about a specific topic like depth comparison of the three different programs. event planning, all the data that is collaborated on the But first – What are Content Management CMS will be solely about event planning. Other CMS Systems (CMS)? are broader and can include anything and A CMS is a way to manage a collaborative websites everything. Let’s say you are planning an employee environment and ease the managing of collecting, event for Nike at the same time as an event for a New storing and producing data. A CMS will have multiple Year’s Eve party and an online event for Microsoft. users that contribute and share information. The You can do all of this one central location. You can users may have different roles in this collaborative even have the online inevent through the CMS. environment: Some may only be able to view the Why Does an Event Producer data and others submit the data, and you’ll then have CMS for Web Marketing Trends?need to use a those that edit and publish. original use of a CMS was to publish web content How will this be related to an event producer? onThe websites allowing access to unlimited amounts of You may have data for multiple clients and you will data. However, are now exploring more have multiple people assisting with this project. You ways to use a CMSthetousers their advantage. abreast will be able to assign everyone to specific pages of the most current web market trends isStaying by far one of your CMS and allow them to add to the project. In the biggest advantages of using a CMS. addition, each person on the event planning project - Accessing and providing data on a mobile device will be able to see or where everyone else is on the is exploding. Some people use their phone to access project. Everything is real-time and you won’t have the web more than they use their personal computer to wait for a conference call or an email. Using a or laptop. One of the fastest moving trends is to CMS makes the collaboration much smoother and exceed the end users’ expectations of using a CMS quicker.

Real-time interactivity between speakers and their audience Allow your speaker to receive immediate feedback from their audience, integrate the information into the flow of their presentation, and create a truly memorable experience for attendees info@newtonstrand.com

Value Beyond Gimmicks for Your Next Event

In - De p t h with ease from their mobile phone. It is predicted that by 2012, people will be accessing the web to use a CMS from their mobile phone more than their laptop. With people on the move, it is going to be a necessity to include a mobile app as part of the grand scheme of web marketing for any business. For example, say that you are planning that major online event for Microsoft and the employees are scattered all over the world. Many of them may want to attend the event through their mobile device. With a CMS you can make this happen. You may even want to send text message reminders to different event planners and attendees. - The ability to engage with customers is a primary priority and there is no better way to do this than through social media sites. Businesses big and small are finding out that consumers use social media sites frequently for many different purposes. One of those purposes is to share information. In order to keep up with this trend, each website will need a way to keep the flow of customer engagement to and from social media sites, and this can be done through a CMS. - Promoting your event just got easier with a CMS. Creating quality content and optimizing traffic to your website is a continued trend and is the foundation of a CMS. The enhancement of obtaining and delivering these two expectations will always continue to benefit any website. The Three Major Platforms: Drupal, Joomla and WordPress Drupal Drupal is a free, open-source content management system where people and organizations

T h e Meet i n g s Innovato r

from all over the world are able to develop interactive websites. You can include community features like blogs, contact forms and forums. You can use Drupal for the entire behind-the-scenes action when it comes to planning an event. It will enable you to gather information with one location to drop this information off for careful consideration and review by other users. You can also use Drupal as an event management system. Drupal has the capability of doing the following for event management: Customize a complete conference

or event site. Full e-commerce for both purchasing attendance tickets and/or products. Collect data from the users in different sessions. The attendees can even vote to give you an idea of how well the event went or determine if improvements are needed. Event scheduling that can be configured in multiple ways. You can collect and display a

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company’s logos in the sidebars or footers. You can also link to the company’s website through their logo. Each event that you have planned can have either a pre-designed theme or a customizeable one. One of the strengths of Drupal is that it has thousands of free plug-ins. A plug-in is a program that is “plugged-in” to your current program to add different functionalities that the original software was not capable of performing. Drupal is also highly optimized for social networking. Social networking allows for blogs, forums and memberships allowing for an easy flow of communication, e-commerce and publication. One of the downfalls of Drupal is that is known as the ‘developers CMS’ meaning that it isn’t designed for a beginner. Drupal is not a userfriendly platform but has been known to be the best choice for an experienced developer. As a developer, the ease of changing code has been one of the compliments of Drupal. Joomla Joomla is the world’s most popular free, open source CMS. Currently, 2.7 percent of the web is running on Joomla software. Joomla is used by corporations’ intranet and extranets, online magazines, newspapers, e-commerce, reservations, government, small businesses, nonprofit organizations, schools, churches and family homepages. Joomla features RSEvents! RSEvents is a popular extension and is an ideal tool for planning all types of events from household parties to concerts or corporate meetings. RSEvents allows you to

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one - on - one

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Interview with Asher Epstein by John Sofrin

Asher Epstein is the MD of Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in the University of Maryland. He has extensive experience advising, growing and managing emerging firms in the United States and internationally, including works in China, Israel, Egypt and Serbia with a focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. As an expert in the field of innovative thinking, Mr. Epstein was Meetings Innovator Magazine’s natural choice for a conversation on the relations between technology, entrepreneurship and the future of the meetings industry. Hello Asher and thank you very much for this interview. I’d like to start with some general questions on your field of expertise – entrepreneurship and innovation. So, first of all, based on your wide experience in this field in general, what is in your opinion the meaning of “being innovative” in these technological times, and—very generally—are there any “big” advices, or more accurately modes of thinking, that in your opinion might help business owners and managers to bring a change, even a small one, to the way their industry’s working? Innovation is always about coming up with a new and better solution to a problem. You can say that innovation is the creative side, and entrepreneurship is the execution. Just coming up with a new idea doesn’t solve a problem. Getting the solution into the market is where the value is created. As technology evolves faster than ever it is important to assess what will stick and what won’t. What are going to be the tools that get adopted by the market and how can these be leveraged to solve industry specific problems? The iPad is a great example: Once people saw that this

was going to stick around a bit, the developer market exploded. When you can figure out how to leverage an existing asset in your market you usually can gain a leg up because the customer already understands how the products/ service might work in a separate opportunity. No one needs to explain how to use web-video anymore and lots of people are benefitting from a new medium to broadcast their message. As for your second question, the best mode of thinking is constant evolution. You can sit tight and expect these innovations to work overnight. You need to encourage trial and error within the organization and make additional bets when the feedback looks encouraging. Supporting those who try and fail is probably the best first step assuming they did the work properly. Staying with the concept of opportunity recognition, and your example of the iPad, it seems today as if answers and solutions for the market needs are almost totally identified with technology. How do you see the relations between technology and the market it serves, and are there still fields of businesses that were left untouched in this respect? There are definitely still untouched fields but not for long. The technology curve is getting so flat that the cost of new technology and developing solutions shouldn’t be out of too many peoples’ reach. It is still a challenge in a variety of fragmented markets to

Extend the life of your event and increase your revenue Attendees can now review and share the valuable information and education they gained by creating integrated rich media packages post-event. And you can continually generate revenue from your conference and extend your marketing reach for months after the event.

info@newtonstrand.com

Value Beyond Gimmicks for Your Next Event

one - on - one

T h e Meet i n g s Innovato r

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figure out the best solutions and get the accepted by the industry, but this continues to happen. However, Let’s say a word or two on innovative thinking remember technology is never the solution by itself. in the meetings industry. One of the interesting It is a tool that facilitates a better solution. I mean, directions that this environment took—in the hammer doesn’t care if it is being used to hang a my opinion—is the increasing emphasize of Monet or finish up a deck. Technology is agnostic to content and the renewing thinking on the form the market, but the application of the technology is of its business and professional value. One side market-specific. Making sure that the application is of this that can be explicitly unfolded is the deeply integrated into the market is critical but doing appearance of writers, such as Martin Vanneste, so in a way that the next technological innovation can Corbin Ball and Shuli Golovinski. What in your be incorporated is important as well. Technology can opinion can we conclude from this? shape your reality when you lock into an approach that We can conclude that the doesn’t allow for flexibility industry is in transition and improvement over and smart people are time. You don’t want the trying to lead the way fastest stagecoach around “...there has been a sort of when everyone else is ‘changing of the guard’ in regards with innovative solutions. It isn’t clear yet what driving automobiles. to who the most likely attendees events will look like in 15 in this generation. And this In this context, it is are years but my guess is that is going to change once again, also widely accepted they will be very different that in the current sooner than anyone would like than they are today. The technological landscape to admit.” broadcast approach of it is easier than before one-size-fits-all is no to be innovative. Do longer relevant and each you agree with that, and if so, what are, in participant, whether there are 5 or 50,000, will need your opinion, the conditions that enabled it? to feel a completely custom experience to justify the What further steps—both organizationally effort of attendance. and technologically—can be taken in order to achieve this goal? Back to the question on the relations between technology and the market it serves. In your It is easier, and the reason is that the access to words, “Technology is agnostic to the market, technology is much less expensive. Commodity but the application of the technology is market Servers, cloud solutions, developers in India etc., are specific”. In fact, you’re saying that—in the all available now and at a fraction of the cost so that abstract—a server or a CRM system “doesn’t someone with a good idea doesn’t need millions to care” if it serves an event management company move it forward. The flip side is that at the same time or the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. you are working on a solution there are probably But what would you say about the future of others in China, India and elsewhere working on the meetings industry? Can we separate the similar solutions, so the opportunities don’t stay innovative idea from the innovative application available as long. that will shape the way we will experience

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Value Beyond Gimmicks for Your Next Event

B u s i ne s s w i s d o m

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How Social Media hijacked the event by Håkan Söderbom

First, let it be clear that meeting online will never replace meeting in person, but online engagement certainly adds a lot to the mix, both good and bad. Let’s look at what might happen when you don’t anticipate the impact of social media. Recently a large non-profit organization in the US held its annual convention. As usual, members flew in from all around the continent expecting to learn about the latest advances in the topics covered, catch up with old acquaintances and network with new colleagues. The event was set up as most other conferences with keynotes, breakouts, sponsors, dinners, meet-and-greet opportunities and so on. However no one had thought to pro-actively include social media as a core component. They should have… As a side note—you have probably already noticed that I don’t share the name of the organization. That is because they are a dear customer of mine and it wouldn’t do to embarrass them. Let’s just say that they are big, influential and that the learnings from this event will have long lasting effect on how they do business. As the convention kicked off and people started participating in the different activities, a small number of attendees began sharing their experiences and the conference proceedings with short 140 character tweets. Though no official Twitter handle had been communicated it didn’t take long for the few tweeters to find each other and informally agree on a #handle to identify what event they were tweeting about. Many of the tweets expressed positive notes and the excitement over some of the announcements, some tweets were indifferent and expressed the typical “me too” sentiment that is common in online communication. A few tweets were cynical, expressing the lack of big juicy news, but they were few and far in-between. Needless to say - the online conversation was started. That said, at this point there isn’t a lot to say about the events online impact; It wasn’t benefiting the attendees, the speakers or the event experience overall, but neither was it a bad thing. It just “was,” kept alive by a small but loyal Twitter crowd. On the second day, something happened that would eventually become a bad experience, but great learning, for the conference organizers. We have all experienced the situation when a speaker who really shouldn’t be in front of a large crowd takes to the stage. The reasons the person shouldn’t be there can be many; maybe he or she isn’t prepared, doesn’t have an interesting topic, or just doesn’t have enough personality to make people

notice when the delivery has started. In this case, the person taking to the stage was no less than the chairperson of the organization. The audience’s expectations were high; news was coming, new business would be staked out and direction would be given. In this unfortunate event the senior leader was ill prepared, lacked the energy for a good keynote presentation, didn’t share any news whatsoever and completely failed to excite, inspire or even engage the audience. Well that wasn’t quite true. The presenter managed to move the audience from being expectant to being bored, to being disappointed, and wanting to express it! Within a few minutes a slow stream of tweets expressing malcontent started trickling through the Twitter timeline. As some people in the audience caught on and began sharing what was said on Twitter with their neighbors, more people got online using their smartphones, tablets and laptops. There were snide remarks shared, expressions of discontent blurted out and eventually feelings of resentment emerging. All the while, the keynote speaker droned on, none the wiser. By the time the keynote came to an end, a majority of the audience was sitting with their mobile phones and computers following the Twitter comments in live replay of what was going on. At this point, the speaker had not only long lost its audience but worse, made enemies of them. How could things go so wrong? You might think that it is only the millenials (below 35) who live an online life but the truth is that online presence and social engagement is now abundant everywhere. While most of us may not be as active as the younger generation it should be known that the fastest growing groups using social media are the elderly and retired. With the ability to speak up during the presentation, speak up online that is, it was natural for a few to do so, and they did. Like a cork out of a bottle, when the notion spread,

B u s i ne s s w i s d o m so did the sentiment of the audience. Many who normally wouldn’t be on Twitter in the middle of a conference caught on and joined in, and so spread the sentiment further. So what is the learning? What could have been done differently? Let’s explore two alternative scenarios that could have reduced the impact or maybe even prevented it. In the first alternative scenario the organizers would have monitored the online ether (or Twitter-verse) and been able to jump in, both into the online conversation to moderate, as well as intervene in the presentation (ok, the last may never have happened - how often do we actually interrupt a speaker due to audience discontent?). By having an online monitoring and answer function the organizers would also have been able to feel the pulse of the audience, field selected questions to the speaker, and created a more connected experience. In the second alternative scenario the organizers would have taken a bigger step towards embracing social expressions by creating a separate forum for discussions and sharing feedback in real time. By proactively setting up such a channel (via Twitter or through other tools), directing people there and encouraging their participation and contribution, the organizers would have made it easier for people to find and engage each other. But more importantly, they would have made the audience into contributors of the overall event experience. The beauty of engaging the attendees is that instead of having a small number of content contributors, i.e. the official speakers, you now have a sea of contributors to make the event come alive. However, there is one overarching reason to why the second alternative approach would have given the event

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organizers a valuable tool; the ability to maintain some level of control. What do I mean by control? Consider how people act. If given a choice they usually choose the most convenient solution and if told to use that solution, few will stray off the given path. If this event team would have implemented a strategy for online engagement, set up and communicated the rules of engagement (also called online etiquette) and invited the audience to communicate on (what would be perceived as) their domain, it is unlikely that the tweets would have gone completely haywire. Going one step further, if the event organizers had gone through the effort of setting up a cordoned off solution (basically an onsite Twitter) the data stream could even have been filtered through a moderator. This would have provided a level of control that while respecting the crowds need to communicate, could have changed the sentiment completely.

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The main take-away from this conference experience is that online social media is like a heard of wild horses on a stampede that cannot be controlled, unless reigned in and controlled from the very start by the event organizers. Håkan Söderbom is the Chief Conversation Starter and Co-founder at Konsult Partners, where he helps organizations of all sizes grow their business and improve their online presence by leveraging new online marketing techniques including social media marketing, inbound marketing, search engine optimization and reputation management. Previously, Håkan was the Director of Partner Business Development at Microsoft. At Microsoft, he successfully built and ran worldwide partner recruitment programs and in doing so had the opportunity to refine his expertise in digital marketing and community engagement. These experiences now allow him to act as a trusted advisor for internet marketing and online engagement.

T h e Meet i n g s Innovato r

CMS cont’d from page 19

integrate with YouTube, Flickr photo albums and more. Here are a few things that you can do with Joomla for event planning: • Elect different themes for different events. • Enable people to comment on upcoming or past events by integrating with JomComment and JC Comments • Embed photo albums from Flickr. • Embed YouTube videos. • Chat through the social network site: Meebo. • Embed Google Maps so everyone can find their way to the event. • Enable attendees to pay through PayPal and track for limited seating. • Create custom registration forms. • Include a calendar that can be filtered with different categories. • Use a subscription manager to assign specific controls with denial and approval process. • Import contacts through Yahoo and Gmail. • Add folders and allow specifics for who can view the folder and when. • Import data from different event planning programs such as Evenlist, JCalPro and JEvents. The strength for Joomla is that it is user-friendly and you do not need to know HTML. You can simply download, add your content and then upload to the server. It is an easy task when it comes to adding a logo or changing the color scheme on the preselected themes. The downfall of Joomla is that it does become more complex with different cosmetic updates and would require an experienced web developer. It also has a reputation of having complications with search engines, such as Google. However, they have improved their programming and this is no longer an issue with their latest version. WordPress WordPress started as a place you could go read and write blogs. Since then, it has transformed into one of the most popular CMS available worldwide. It is a free, open source community and it has been designed and created by its users. WordPress uses a plugin called Events Manager for WordPress. You can do a number of event planning duties through this program. Here are a few of them: • Create single or recurring events • Add simple or complex descriptions with pictures • Pre-approve event registration

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• Get assistance with earning your events the best Google rankings • Make small or full-sized calendars with filtering capability • Flexible booking • Automated emails • Enable attendees to pay through PayPal • Manage Attendees by viewing, editing, and canceling bookings • Integrate Google Maps • View users and search by location • Manage by location The strength of WordPress is that it is user-friendly. WordPress’ philosophy is keeping it simple. Ranging from the download process, interacting with the interface to using the SEO functionality, the everyday Internet user should be able to use WordPress with little to no problems. The downfall with WordPress is that it is known to have issues with different plug-ins. You may spend some time debugging (getting rid of) these issues. Final Comparison and Conclusion As an overall CMS, Drupal has much more capability than Joomla and Wordpress. However, Drupal falls short when compared to Joomla and Wordpress when it comes to event planning. With Drupal you would have to use several different programs to get the same functionality that you could with Joomla and Wordpress, as they each have their own single plug-in that manages all of the necesarry functionalities. If you have a sophisticated web developer, I would consider Drupal because it does have a lot more functionality as a CMS. A web developer would be able to freely set up your websites to match with all of the events that you plan. Even though you have to use more plug-ins than the others, it wouldn’t matter as an end-user. The web developer would be able to streamline everything to run smoothly for planning any event. Both Joomla and Wordpress are known for being user-friendly programs and they have similar functionalities when it comes to planning an event. The one capability that may win you over for Joomla is the ability to integrate with websites such as Flickr and YouTube. On the other hand, Wordpress has the ability to transfer current event planning data from popular programs to its own which would make for a smooth transition.

T h e Meet i n g s Innovato r

Dan Lapus Interview cont’d from page 17

I think electronic venue sourcing is still not fully leveraged in the marketplace. Manually researching meeting destinations and venues, and reaching out oneby-one to see if they’re the right fit for your event, is not only timeconsuming; it’s also an ineffective way to get the best deals. Fortunately, many planners are embracing online sourcing tools and electronic RFPs to simplify the sourcing process and reduce costs. These tools, like the Cvent Supplier Network, provide meeting planners with easy access to all the venue-related information they could need, eliminating the frustrating tasks of weeding through thousands of Internet search results and making site visits to find a venue. Since venues know they are blindbidding for the business and that planners are comparing their response side-by-side with other venues, planners get very competitive pricing and perks right off the bat. But we haven’t reached the point of mass adoption for online sourcing tools. This will change as more and more planners recognize how much of a difference online sourcing can make to the success of their events and to their

budget. I also think that the true power of Strategic Meetings Management hasn’t been recognized. Many corporations are implementing SMM practices, but I think we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of adoption. Most companies can benefit from SMM, and it’s a matter of continuing to educate the market and getting more C-suite executives on board with the notion that meetings and events are an area of spend that need to be managed strategically through technology. And lastly, what message do you have for those Event and IT Managers outside, on the future of the industry? Be excited for the future. New technologies are coming out every day, and I know it can seem overwhelming and difficult to keep up, but technology is really shaping the future of the meetings industry and all these new tools can really make your life easier. Embracing new technology will ensure you’re holding more powerful, effective and efficient meetings that really deliver business value.

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Asher Epstein Interview cont’d from page 21

events in the future? The big question that an event will need to answer is “why am I here?” what content am I consuming that isn’t available in a virtual world? Taking a trip, paying airfare, hotel etc, is a big investment and the ROI needs to be much greater since there are other offerings that provide some of the experience and value at a fraction of the cost. The event needs to place a premium back on the “live” component so that there is a true sense that you are missing something if you aren’t’ there. Also, it is important not to lose focus on the key value add of the event. Whether it is making sales, or partnerships etc., the event should refocus on clearly delivering that value rather than assuming the networking will take care of it all. The world of events management is somewhat unique in the sense of combining two different needs: on the one hand, to be innovative and updated with technology. On the other hand: staying focused on bringing people together, delivering them a certain experience and keeping the individuals at the center of the stage. An entrepreneur C-level Manager in this industry, intending to steer the ship and not only follow it, is therefore trusted with balancing those two different needs. What advice can you give such a manager, regarding the equilibrium of innovative thinking, delivery and technology? The challenge is always to figure out how much technology to adapt while keeping focused on the core business. You don’t want to be too quick to jettison what has worked in place of what might work. I recommend that you always try to use the 80/20 rule….keep 80% consistent since you know it works but use the other 20% to aggressively innovate. Also, don’t just try one big initiative but try 3-5 new things, as some will work and some will not, but the following event will then take those that worked and move them into the 80% while innovating with a fresh 20%..... Thank you very much for your time Asher, and for sharing your wide experience with us.

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