Meet Your Business Success

Advert|sement
After more than a decade of transformation, St. Louis has more to explore than ever before.
See for yourself at explorestlouis.com
Proud host of
MPI-WEC 2012
A GREAT MEETING
CAN INSPIRE A WHOLE COMPANY.
SO CAN A GREAT CITY.
Fresh thinking requires a great location. And you wont find one more inspiring
than Denver. Our state-of-the-art facilities and walkable downtown area give
you the setting your meeting needs, with affordable options that will make
your accounting department happy, too. There are many reasons the Mile
High City should be your first choice. See them all at DENVERMEETINGS.COM
Design of this supplement was created
by Meeting Professionals International
(MPI). The content featured in this
supplement is a combination of new
stories and content previously pub-
lished in MPIs One+ magazine.
For more information on MPI, visit
www.mpiweb.org.
The Strategic Value of
Virtual Meetings and
Events
A new study reveals the realities of
meetings going virtual.
BY JENISE FRYATT; ROSA GARRIGA; RUUD
JANSSEN, CMM; RICHARD JOHN; SAMUEL
J. SMITH
State of Play
Integrating social media and gami-
cation into event strategy.
BY ELIZABETH HENDERSON, M.E., DES.
Perception Vs. Reality:
Measuring the Business
Value of Meetings
The economic value of meetings and
tourism revealed: $263 billion.
BY JOHN NAWN
The Path Less Traveled
Emerging destinations arent just
charming; they actually help draw
more attendees.
BY TARA SWORDS
Great Thanking
Business professionals must show
gratitude to garner the trust of their
communities.
BY TIM SANDERS
Floor Show
After several down quarters, the trade
show industry is making a comeback
and theres good reason for it .
BY JENNA SCHNUER
Finding Fiscal Friends
The SEO of securing sponsorships in
tough times: specicity, exclusivity
and originality.
BY ELAINE POFELDT
Big Ideas, Small
Meetings
TEDx has become the model for re-
gional meetings. Heres how 5 local
organizers pull it off.
BY TARA SWORDS
6 14 10 12
18 16 20 22
24 26 28
CONTENTS
4 MEET YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS A Business Supplement from Meeting Professionals International
Venue Essentials
Seven event venue must-haves for 2012.
BY ELAINE POFELDT
Finding Value in
Foreign Places
Enhanced cultural understanding, bud-
getary benets and new perspectives;
taking your meetings or events abroad
can reveal all these things and more.
BY DALIA FAHMY
Social Media is Not
Social Control
Far from making us more predict-
able, social media gives us a new
landscape to develop uniquely
human interactions.
BY DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF
Editor in Chief
DAVID BASLER
Managing Editor
BLAIR POTTER
Lead Editor
MICHAEL PINCHERA
Editors
JASON HENSEL
JESSICA STATES
Creative Director
& Lead Designer
JEFF DAIGLE
Cover Design
JASON JUDY
MFFT YUIJ JI-INF-- -IttF--. BOOSTING THE BOTTOM LINE IN CHANGING TIMES
THE WORLD IS NO LONGER BLACK AND WHITE.
Too many global variables now impact even
the smallest business, and the real world now
often resides somewhere in the grey. No one
is exempt from feeling the strains of strug-
gling economies, impacts of political changes
or technological advancements. Businesses
and business professionals around the
world must stay exible and nimble
to work within the greythey must
innovate.
Innovationstemming from the
Latin innovates (literally into the
new)isnt always easy. Part of
our promise to the marketplace and
business professionals is that well
deliver unique ideas and demonstrate
something that will take you into the
new. Thats why we brought our 2012
European Meetings & Events Conference
to Budapest, Hungarya place we had nev-
er been, but a place where innovation breeds
invention. Its in this zone where I believe
success as professionals can be found.
And as a business leader and profes-
sional, you know that its not
only nding that zone, but
staying in it. The challenges
coming at us daily from economic shifts,
politics and operational changes can often
pull us out of that very zone thats vital to
our success. This is why its more important
than ever to stay connected to the people and
resources that can keep us there, to maintain
human connectivitythe very cornerstone of
successful businesses, meetings and events.
Your big ideas rarely mean anything
without the relationships you have that can
make them happen. Yet with digital barriers
and greater demands, we must nd new ways
to create and maintain those vital relation-
ships.
Innovators and thought leaders can point
the way towards new discoveries, remarkable
ideas and forward-thinking solutions, but
each and every one of us has to take our own
steps into the evolving new business frontier.
And often those steps mean meeting, face
to face, with the partners, innovators and
teams that can help us get there. And when
we meet, a willingness to explore new ideas
helps build better solutions and keep you in
that innovative zone. When we build better
solutions, we build better business practices
that build stronger businesses that help us all
evolve and help our economies recover.
This is why I, my colleagues at
Meeting Professionals International and
our 22,000 members around the world
believe in the power of meetings and
events to sustain successful businesses and
maintain relationships. You can look at
the hard numbers of why meetings are
importanttheyre there. A 2011 study
by PricewaterhouseCoopers found the
economic signicance of meetings and
events to the U.S. economy was $106
billion to GDP, including $11.3 billion
in combined revenue and 1.7 million
American jobs.
Or you can follow your gutthat
innovator deep inside that knows when
to make the move and to connect great
people to great ideas and make something
happen. Its the power of human connec-
tions bringing great business ideas to life.
Its quite simply the power that comes from
the commitment to keep meeting and stay
in the zone.
Finding the Innovation Zone and Staying There
THE W E ORLD
Too many
the smalles
often reside
is exempt f
gling econo
or techn
and bu
worl
to w
in

L
n
o
bu
deli
some
new.
Europe
to Budap
er been, bu
invention.
success a
And
Bruce MacMillan, CA, is president and CEO of MPI.
He can be reached at bmacmillan@mpiweb.org.
Follow him on Twitter @BMACMPI.
Philadelphia
L I F E L I BERT Y AND YOU
City of
TM
MAYOR MI CHAEL A. NUTTER
@PhiladelphiaCVB facebook.com/PhiladelphiaCVB
With 1 million square feet of usable space, the newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center has taken its place as one of the countrys
premier meeting facilities. And to complete the package, weve put it in the heart of the countrys most dynamic, walkable and historic downtown.
COMPLETE
(
AND COMPLETELY

Magnificent
)
PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION CENTER EXPANSION
A new study reveals the realities of meetings going virtual, from the variety of formats and
sourcing to measurement and comparisons to face to face.
TIe -trategIe VaIne oI
VIrtnaI MeetIng- and Fvent-
JY TFNI-F IJYATT, JU-A tAJJItA, JIID TAN--FN, tMM, JItHAJD TUHN, -AMIFI T. -MITH
THE ROLE OF VIRTUAL MEETINGS IS EVOLVING.
Previously perceived by many industry professionals
as one-off event experiments, they now seek entry into
strategically managed meetings portfolios. And, accord-
ing to new research from the MPI Foundation and Max-
vantage, some organizations are managing hundreds of
virtual meetings each year.
But the virtual event is still in its infancy; its a child
of the new millennium. And most organizations are
still trying to understand just exactly what a virtual
event is.
The researcha combination of online survey and
qualitative interviewsshows that industry profes-
sionals agree in principle on the denition of a vir-
tual meeting, but the details of each event are variable.
There are eight major virtual event formats, each with
six or more vendors. And the planning, execution and
benets of each format are unique such that switching
vendors requires a learning curve for all stakeholders.
Virtual meeting technologies continue to expand and
can now even capture content and track participant
data in ways live events cant.
Anecdotal data shows that travel budgets are still
driving the adoption of virtual meetings. In several
interviews for this very report, meeting professionals
reported that their internal clients had the necessary
budgets to hold meetings, but their target delegates
didnt have the travel budget to attend. Virtual meet-
ings programs allowed these groups to continue to
meet.
But virtual meetings wont just be emergency bud-
get stopgaps for long. Organizations are beginning to
add virtual meetings to their core business processes.
IBM, for example, has tied its virtual platform into its
lead management system and post-event lead follow-
up procedures. As a result, it knows how much rev-
enue its virtual event center generates.
As the industry continues to experiment and de-
velop more experience with virtual meetings, event
professionals will nd new and innovative opportuni-
ties to use this format to deliver business value and
accelerate the pace of commerce.
KEY FINDINGS
VIRTUAL MEETINGS OVERVIEW
1. Meeting professionals lack a standard denition for
virtual meetings. More than 75 percent of respondents
didnt think their organizations had a standard denition
or policy for virtual meetings.
2. There are many technology formats for executing vir-
tual meetings. The virtual meeting technology market-
place offers eight types of technology solutions, each one
offering a different virtual experiencewhich means there
are multiple answers to how a virtual meeting works.
3. Of these, online meetings and videoconferencing are
the most popular formats. More than 90 percent of meet-
ing planners prefer online meetings and videoconferenc-
ing systems, and 70 percent said they would recommend
online meetings as a virtual event platform.
4. Organizations make virtual meetings shorter than oth-
ers, because of limited networking opportunities. Meet-
ing planners are convinced that virtual meetings are not
suitable for networking.
STRATEGIC VIRTUAL PROGRAMS
5. There is no one-size-ts-all virtual meetings ap-
proach. Organizations take different approaches to
managing their virtual meetings strategies. Some offer
2-D virtual worlds, others online meetings or online-
video conference combos. The scope depends on or-
ganizational needs, resources, maturity of process and
internal staff capabilities.
6. Meeting departments help drive the adoption of
technology. In some organizations, meeting depart-
ments wrap good event processes (objective setting,
planning, speaker training, measuring) and consult-
ing around technology to drive adoption and format
success.
7. Meeting professionals recommend virtual meetings.
Three-fths (61 percent) of respondents recommend
virtual meetings in place of face-to-face meetings, most
often when travel budgets interfered with a meeting.
One organization enacted a default virtual meetings
policy; face-to-face meetings occurred on a case-by-
business-case basis.
8. Success in virtual meetings depends on internal
support and integration. Meeting professionals know
what helped them start their virtual meetings strategies.
Leadership support, setting up an internal support team
and integrating with other business processes helped
adoption.
9. Key barriers include user adoption and technology
and organizational challenges. Technology and percep-
tion of technology challenges from skeptics put virtual
meetings teams on defense early. And many meeting
professionals say that success requires strong cross-
functional partnerships among their meetings, travel,
learning and development and IT departments.
STRATEGIC SOURCING
10. Organizations are strategic sourcing, but dont
know why. Some organizations have strategic sourcing
in place for virtual meetings, but lack a denition for
virtual meetings or formal virtual meetings policies.
11. IT leads purchasing decisions. IT traditionally
sources virtual events technology and manages pro-
curement. In some cases, rst-wave virtual arrived via
IT to combat early adopters who were sampling tech-
nologies by trial and error.
12. Cost savings were the primary incentive for virtual
meeting adoption. Given the current economic climate,
cost savings were a huge driver for virtual meeting
adoption. In some cases, organizations have meetings
budgets, but no travel budgets.
13. Virtual meetings offer more than just cost savings.
While cost savings are important, organizations also use
virtual meetings to reduce out-of-ofce time, diminish
demand on executives and backup last-minute meet-
ings. For marketing, organizations use virtual meetings
to move prospects through the sales pipeline.
PEOPLE
14. Virtual meetings create a new vocabulary for meet-
ing planners. The virtual meetings vocabulary is full
of words: semi-live, bandwidth, player, synchronous,
asynchronous, switcher and streaming. Virtual meeting
planners dont have to be tech experts; they just need
to feel comfortable around technology and its language.
15. Virtual meeting planners are more content-focused
than their peers. Content delivery for virtual meetings
is much different than face-to-face events, and so plan-
ners tend to get more involved in the former, including
virtual speakers, presentations, content recording and
repurposing, moderation and curation.
16. Virtual meeting planners need good organizational
and customer services skills and a fearless view of tech-
nology. Respondents agree that virtual planners need
to be comfortable with technology, but none of them
thought planners needed to be technology experts.
17. There are few resources for developing virtual meet-
ing planners. As organizations staff up and scale up their
virtual meetings strategies, they are having problems
nding qualied people. Most planners get their knowl-
edge from attending virtual meetings, talking with other
planners and training with technology suppliers.
MEASUREMENT
18. The wealth of data in virtual platforms is under-uti-
lized. While virtual platforms provide detailed delegate-
level data, most organizations only use basic reporting
and measurement capabilities.
19. Virtual meetings can segment an audience into a unit
of one person. Sophisticated virtual meetings planners
segment data to the individual level, compared with
most face-to-face planners who look at data in aggre-
gate. Some companies use the former for lead nurturing
and education.
20. Performance metrics help virtual meeting planners
assess success. In much the way that sports use metrics
to assess athlete performance, measurements (registered
versus attended, repeat versus new, percent in-platform
time versus total content available) help sophisticated
planners calculate performance and identify opportuni-
ties for improvement.
JENISE FRYATT; ROSA GARRIGA; RUUD JANSSEN, CMM; RICHARD
JOHN; and SAMUEL J. SMITH constitute The Strategic Value of Virtual
Meetings and Events research team.
VIRTUAL PLATFORMS
Meeting professionals consider the following formats as
virtual meetings.
VIRTUAL OR FACE-TO-FACE?
Heres where meeting professionals fell in the virtual
vs. face-to-face question.
Networking
Sensitive issues
Incentives
Celebrations
Client meetings
Team building
Company
updates
Product updates
Internal meetings
Project meetings
Daily meetings
Staff meetings
Recruitment
meetings
Updates for eld
sales or regional
ofces
Most virtual platforms
have limited network-
ing capabilities.
These issues are best
discussed in person.
Strength of response
depended on industry.
Simulation workshop
exercises must be
done in-person.
One-way presenta-
tions can be made on
corporate TV, web-
casts or other formats.
Meeting Purpose In-Person Virtual Notes

Travel budgets
are driving the
adoption of
virtual meetings
as organizations
seek cost savings
that still permit
meeting.
VIRTUAL
MEETINGS
TOOLS
Visit www.mpiweb.org/research to
read The Strategic Value of Virtual
Meetings and Events research
paper, which is accompanied by an
in-depth how-to guide that demon-
strates how planners can establish
virtual events strategies. Also, read
through a concise lessons-learned
paper for quick tips.
M E M O R A B L E G A T H E R I N G S
The Salamander Hotels & Resorts family embraces its Founder and CEOs
passion for providing her guests with luxurious meetings and events.
GrandResortsAtCapCana.com | 540.687.3710 GrandGolfResorts.com | 727.942.2000
Sheila C. Johnson
Successful Entrepreneur,
Philanthropist &
Documentary Film Producer
ASK ABOUT SUMMER PACKAGES FOR
GUESTS FROM 10 1,000 PEOPLE
JereeptIon V-. JeaIIty.
Mea-nrIng tIe Jn-Ine-- VaIne oI MeetIng-
JY TUHN NAWN
THE ECONOMIC CRISIS IS ONE OF THE GREAT-
EST CHALLENGES FACING BUSINESSES TODAY.
And its exacerbated by a crisis in leader-
ship when it comes to articulating a clear
business value proposition and executing
on that vision.
Nowhere is this more evident than in
the meeting industry, which has struggled
to justify its business value well before
the public heard about AIG junkets or
Mufngate.
As industry veteran Tony Lorenz of
event strategy rm bxbonline noted,
If organizations had been measuring
the business value of their meetings,
there never would have been an AIG
effect. At the time, no data existed to
refute the criticism that meetings didnt
matter.
We knew the problem was bad. Turns
our its much worse.
Recent MPI research nds that less
than 1 percent of organizations at-
tempt to measure the business value of
their meetings. And the research points
to more serious questions of responsi-
bility and accountability when com-
panies are allocating limited resources
without knowing what theyre getting
in return.
The good news for businesses that
truly want to understand what theyre get-
ting for their investment, from a nancial
and human capital perspective, is that the
process exists. The bad news is that there
seems to be a conspiracy among the vast
majority of meeting stakeholders, profes-
sionals and even attendees to maintain the
status quo.
WHATS AT STAKE?
As a reaction to threats posed by spend-
ing cuts and the bad publicity, the meeting
industry has released a couple of studies at-
tempting to justify its existence.
The U.S. Travel Association, along with
the Destination & Travel Foundation, is-
sued a report in September 2009 on the
benets of business travel. Among the key
ndings:
For every dollar invested in business
travel, companies realize $12.50 in
incremental revenue
Curbing business travel can reduce a
companys prots by 17 percent in the
rst year alone, taking years to recover
Both executives and business travelers
estimate that almost 30 percent of
current business would be lost without
in-person meetings
Impressive stats, but the relationship
between business travel and business
outcomes is not that obvious. Travel is
certainly a means to an end, but so is
the telephone. You dont see AT&T tak-
ing credit for sales volume or customer
satisfaction. And Twitter is certainly
not claiming responsibility for the Arab
Spring.
Another industry initiative that received
widespread support, something the indus-
try is not necessarily known for, was the
Economic Signicance of Meetings to the
U.S. Economy study, led by the Conven-
tion Industry Council and conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The research quanties the economic
contributions made by the 1.8 million an-
nual U.S. meetings, trade shows, conven-
tions and incentive events. Direct econom-
ic contributions of the industry:
$263 billion in spending
$106 billion contribution to GDP
1.7 million jobs
$14.3 billion in federal tax revenue
$11.3 billion in state and local tax
revenue
$60 billion in labor income
Once again, we have impressive stats.
Whats missing is the value of those 1.8
million meetings to the organizations
spending all that money. What are meeting
stakeholders getting for all their economic
activities? Can you name another industry
where so much time and money is spent on
faith? Theres too little measurement for an
industry our size.
WE KNOW THE ENEMY
There are several conspirators who con-
tribute to the lack of measurement in the
meeting industry: the meeting owner, the
meeting professional and the meeting del-
egate. Each presents unique barriers that
must be overcome if were going to calcu-
late the business value of our events.
The vast majority of meeting owners
are not aware that there are tools for mea-
suring business impact, said Ira Kerns of
MeetingMetrics, a leading online measure-
ment rm.
Traditional meeting owners (such as
chief marketing ofcers) dont have a
strong tradition of measurement, much
less the quantitative skills required to de-
termine business impact. In fact, some re-
search claims that only 50 percent of mar-
keting initiatives are evaluated for results.
We already know which half meetings fall
into.
Marketing professionals can track rev-
enues and prot per customer, but the met-
rics for evaluating marketing programs,
such as meetings, are not as robust or well
known. Marketing professionals perceive
their discipline as more art than science
and have asked us to trust that the results
will be there. Marketing pros who realize
they should be more proactive dont know
where to start. Others argue that a key rea-
son marketing professionals dont measure
the business value of meetings is that they
are afraid of what they might nd. That
wouldnt be the rst or the last time fear
contributed to business indecision.
Finance professionals represent another
key owner invested in determining meet-
ing outcomes, but they typically dene the
issue narrowly from a cost-savings per-
spective. CFOs have struggled for years
to incorporate more non-nancial perfor-
mance metrics into their models. They tell
us whether a particular meeting made a
prot, loss or broke even, but cant explain
a meetings ultimate value to the business
beyond the bottom line.
Driven by this bottom-line analysis,
meeting budgets have been slashed in re-
cent years, in some cases by more than 50
percent.
The problem, notes measurement ex-
pert Skip Cox of Exhibit Surveys, is that
often these decisions to cancel meetings are
made without any data regarding the im-
pact on the business. And in many cases,
cancellations are doing more harm to the
overall business than good.
THE MEETING PROFESSIONAL
Meeting professionals share the blame for
the lack of measurement beyond the sat-
isfaction surveys or smile sheets that
too often pass for actionable data. These
simplistic metrics are often where meeting
measurement begins and ends. Like the
vanity metrics marketing professionals
use, they are quick and easy measures that
favor efciency over effectiveness. They
make meeting professionals look good but
add little to understanding the true value
of meetings to the business. For example,
its nice to report record meeting atten-
dance, a common industry metric, but
how do you determine if it consists of the
right people?
Meeting professionals are typically
logistics experts accustomed to mov-
ing armies of people through mazes of
buildings and leaving no level of detail to
chance. You wouldnt hold any meeting of
importance without one.
But they have no stronger tradition
around measurement than the market-
ing professionals they often report to or
collaborate with. Theyre not sure what
to measure, and they dont know how to
measure it even if they did. And in the in-
terest of fairness, theyre not being asked
about measurement by meeting owners,
who are ultimately responsible for gener-
ating business results. Thats not an excuse
for their lack of initiative.
There are those meeting professionals
who are very good at what they do and
are content to continue doing it. There
will always be a demand for these indi-
viduals. But for those meeting profession-
als who seek a more strategic role in their
organizations, measurement is that strat-
egy. It relates directly to driving business
results, process improvement and better
decision-making. Measurement is an issue
of professional respect and credibility and
represents a real barrier to and opportu-
nity for greater recognition.
A seat at the executive table isnt easy
to come by. It doesnt come from banging
on doors and demanding access based on
intuition. It has to be earned. Learning
(and living) this new vocabulary is a pass-
word that may open a stake in the c-suite.
Just ask your IT department.
Given this context, meeting profession-
als are doing what others did before them
with regard to measurement, making in-
cremental changes. Only recently has the
profession started to come to terms with
the importance of effective measurement
as a means to determining business value.
The Certied Meeting Professional (CMP)
designation, the standard of professional-
ism in the industry, just introduced metrics
and measurement as part of its curriculum.
Thats a step in the right direction, but it
doesnt begin to address how to close the
lingering attitudinal barriers and skills
gaps.
THE TOP TWO REASONS
According to decades of industry re-
search, the top two reasons people attend
meetings are education and networking,
and, in most studies, these two are inter-
changeable. In the language of learning
professionals, educational programs and
networking translate into formal and in-
formal learning.
Unfortunately, most formal and in-
formal learning experiences at meetings
arent designed for retention or knowledge
transfer. As a result, theres a lot of time
being wasted at meetings and events. And
everybody knows it. Its unconscionable
that more learning professionals are not
involved in the content and design strategy
of meetings given how important learning
is to the attendee experience.
For not speaking up (even when asked),
for settling for mediocre meeting experi-
ences, for not voting with their feet, for not
demanding meetings be designed for their
benet and not the benet of the meeting
professionals, meeting delegates are also
accountable for the lack of meetings mea-
surement.
THE BUSINESS OF MEETINGS
Theres an old adage: What gets mea-
sured gets done.
Measurement is at the heart of all
business imperatives. We set goals, assess
performance, report results and make ad-
justments. Its time to apply this same dis-
cipline to meetings. Given the signicant
resources companies dedicate to meetings
and events, they can no longer afford to
not measure their business value. To do so
is irresponsible.
There is precedent. IBM, HP, Cisco,
Microsoft and Oracle are all known for
their data-based, decision-making cultures.
Their leaders depend on this to keep the
organizations focused on whats impor-
tant. Its no surprise that thinking mani-
fests itself in how these companies conduct
the business of meetings.
continued on page 31
Measurement is at the heart of all
business imperatives. We set goals,
assess performance, report results
and make adjustments. Its time
to apply this same discipline to
meetings.
125,000 SF. OF NEW, FLEXIBLE SPACE
25,000 SF. OF FLEXIBLE MEETING SPACE
35,000 SF. OF FLEXIBLE BALLROOM SPACE
SAN JOSE
CONVENTION CENTER
EXPANSION & RENOVATION
O P E N I N G 2 0 1 3
Book your event now!
Open during construction.
Great deals available.
800.SAN.JOSE
www.sanjose.org/expansion
SAN FRANCISCO
SACRAMENTO
LOS ANGELES
SAN JOSE IS THE
DELIVERY ROOM
W
hen the Association of
Residential Cleaning
Services International
(ARCSI) looked for a
company to sponsor its
annual meetingpart of the ISSA/INTER-
CLEAN Las Vegas 2011 trade show in Oc-
toberno one was beating down the door,
according to Derek Christian, volunteer
vendor relations chair for the group.
The premier, top-level sponsorship
didnt sell, Christian said.
That didnt mean the show was a wash
for his group. Indeed, the association took
in almost double the amount of sponsorship
money from the previous year. The ARCSI
teams up with two other cleaning industry
groups to hold the larger event, which at-
tracts about 15,000 attendees.
Sponsors showed up at the same dollar
level, but sponsored a lot of little things, he
said.
For instance, there was great demand
for sponsorships of gift bags, roundtable
discussions and awards. And a bidding war
broke out over sponsorship of the members
lounge. The winning sponsor, Clean Team,
got the exclusive right to set up a table in
this gathering spot, where its representatives
offered samples of its cleaning supplies and
talked with attendees one-on-one.
They were looking for things that had a
much more direct ROI, Christian said.
He understood their point of view. He
owns a cleaning business in Cincinnati and
Dallas, following a career at Procter &
Gamble.
I know what they want, he said.
They want people in their booth. They
want people trying their product. All of
our sponsorship opportunities were tied to
that.
After a few disappointing years, theres
some good news for organizers selling spon-
sorships these days. Sponsorship spending
is up around the world, according to IEG
Consulting, a Chicago rm that tracks this
information. Spending by North Ameri-
can companies grew 3.9 percent in 2010
to $17.2 billion. Globally, spending on
sponsorships rose by 5.2 percent to $46.3
billion.
But as the ARCSI discovered, the spon-
sorship landscape remains considerably dif-
ferent from what it was before the global
nancial crisis. Many sponsors are watch-
ing their budgets closelyand when they do
spend, theyre continually evaluating how
well their efforts are helping them to achieve
company goals.
Its a combination of the economy and
recognizing that some of the old ways we
used to market dont work as well as they
used to, said Shannon Cherry, a marketer
who advises businesses on promoting them-
selves at events and teaches an online course
called Sponsorships Made Simple.
Indeed, corporations are increasingly
demanding the kind of one-on-one con-
tact that translates into sales, conversions
of prospects into customers and media ex-
posure they can track. Otherwise, theyre
likely to walk away from the table.
Everybody has, since the recession,
looked at everything in their budget and
started to weed out things that arent re-
ally delivering an ROI, said Gail S. Bower,
president of Bower Consulting, a rm that
advises nonprot organizations on raising
their prole, and author of the book How
to Jump-Start Your Sponsorship Strategy in
Tough Times.
One reason, notes Bower, is that many
sponsors are facing shorter sales cycles
in concert with greater difculty in reach-
ing prospects by phone and email in a
crowded marketplace. As a result, sponsors
are looking for events that will help them
cut through the clutter and reach these
prospects.
The sponsorship program needs to
generate clear results and have some pretty
solid outcomes, Bower said. [Corpora-
tions] want to partner with organizations
with which they can make a difference and
make money for their investment.
Addressing these needs can require a lot
of creative thinking by organizers. However,
theres a silver lining. Sponsors are willing to
pay well for what they want.
Sponsorship pricing is based on value,
Bower said. The stronger the value, the
more the sponsor is willing to pay.
CLOSING THE DEAL: 2012
One essential way to close deals with spon-
sors now is to offer category exclusivity on
options that provide the ability to reach
small subgroups of attendees at an event in
meaningful and memorable ways.
Were a very segmented society now,
Cherry said. They want to be in front of a
specic niche.
That may mean they want to reach ev-
eryone at a conference who uses Facebook
or all of the folks who happen to be moth-
ers, so its important for organizers to be
able to deliver options like this, she says.
Once theyve secured such opportuni-
ties, more sponsors are looking for chances
to send representatives to speak directly
with attendees in a setting they may not
have tried before, such as lounges, private
lunches or a single discrete presentation at
the event.
Sponsors are going to be investing in
FINDING
FISCAL
FRIENDS
The SEO of securing
sponsorships in tough
times: specicity,
exc|usivity and origina|ity.
BY ELAINE POFELDT
more intimate spaces, Cherry said.
That holds true for the ARCSIthe
association sold its largest sponsorship
to Moody Insurance, for an individual
speech on customer service by an execu-
tive at online shoe retailer Zappos, by of-
fering a deal in which Moodys rst got to
talk with attendees individually.
Our members had to get a ticket from
their booth on the trade show oor,
Christian said.
Many sponsors want direct contact
with attendees that continues after the
event is over. Cherry says some sponsors,
for instance, appreciate the opportunity to
have attendees complete brief pre-event
and post-event surveys, to measure what
attendees have learned about their com-
pany.
Here is where technology is great,
she said.
Sponsors are also expecting organizers
to give them exposure outside of the im-
mediate world of the event. Thats helped
to sell sponsorships at Nolcha Fashion
Week New York, an event that showcases
up-and-coming fashion designers, accord-
ing to Arthur Mandel, president of Nol-
chathe company that runs it.
When Mandel approaches sponsors,
he offers them traditional options such as
having their names on VIP goodie bags
and giving out product samples, in ad-
dition to putting their logo on the press-
board that serves as a backdrop for photo
shoots. But, on top of this, he does the
legwork to make sure the event is well at-
tended by journalists and fashion bloggers
and has arranged coverage by its media
partner, the celebrity-centric cable network
VH1. Result: The show, going into its sixth
year, has attracted sponsors such as Ameri-
can Airlines, Glaceau vitaminwater and
Vitabath, he says. The show typically sells
seven or eight sponsorships in the $15,000
to $25,000 range.
Its very important for sponsors to
meet people who are going to write about
their products, Mandel said.
Many sponsors track the media men-
tions and online readership that result
and share that information with him, he
says.
Also essential to sponsors is being able
to reach the community around an event
through its social media channels.
Sponsors denitely want more of an
online presence, Mandel said.
To that end, he has built a combined
following of about 20,000 people on Face-
book and Twitterand, along with event
information, he tweets information about
sponsors to this group, which consists
mainly of those in the fashion industry.
They inuence so many others, he
said.
Being willing to customize sponsor-
ship options in this new environment is, of
course, essential. Sponsors expect organiz-
ers to be ready to slice and dice their of-
ferings to meet their specic goals in a far
more collaborative way than ever before.
Gone are the days when [organizers]
can offer the gold, silver and bronze pack-
age, Bower said.
Today, the focus has to be on what the
event producer and sponsor can co-create
to help the sponsor achieve its business
goals, she says.
Its not a one-sided approach, Bower
said. Its got to be a two-way street.
Mandel says that even when working
with the largest corporations, he cultivates
a very close relationship with frequent
phone conversations.
You treat them almost like a fam-
ily business, like a family pharmacy, he
advised.
Customization has worked well for the
Simmons Leadership Conference, an April
event that has attracted sponsors such as
Goldman Sachs, Novartis and HP, accord-
ing to Nancy G. Leeser, corporate relations
ofcer for Boston-based Simmons College.
For instance, while many sponsors respond
well to offers of tickets to the 2,500-attend-
ee conference for their employees, some
nd that they must limit the number of
in-person attendees because of tight travel
budgets.
They send employees to the conference
but cant send everyone, Leeser explained.
For the two top levels of sponsors, Sim-
mons has, for the past two years, offered
the option of having their employees back
at the ofce attend the event virtually via
live streaming or with an on-demand web-
cast available for 60 days.
They really like that benet, Leeser
said.
And for Simmons College, being ac-
commodating pays off in more than spon-
sorship dollars. Many of the attendees
come from sponsoring companies. And at
the last event, sponsorship opportunities
were sold out.
Many sponsors are facing shorter sales cycles in
concert with greater difculty in reaching prospects
by phone and email in a crowded marketplace.
As a result, sponsors are looking for events that
will help them cut through the clutter and reach
these prospects.
ELAINE POFELDT is a former senior editor for FORTUNE
Small Business and a regular contributor to One+.
E
x
h
i
b
i
t
i
o
n

H
A
L
L
B
IIoor -Iow
JY TFNNA -tHNIFJ
Y
es, todays technology
makes it easier than ever to
reach out and meet some-
body newall it takes is
a tweet, right? So it seems
like trade shows would go the way of the
traveling salesman: out. But, amidst all
the tweeting and Facebooking and on-
line contact collection, giving organiza-
tions, exhibitors and buyers the chance
for some face time, esh pressing and the
chance to wear out some shoe leather is
more vital than ever.
Nothing will replace face to face,
said Joyce McKee, CEO of Lets Talk
Trade Shows. Yes, social media can aug-
ment it butdots are connected on the
trade show oor. Inspiration is born on
the trade show oor.
Former trade show producer Megy
Karydes now turns to trade shows as part
of the mix to build up the business she
founded in 2004, fair trade retailer World
Shoppe.
Trade shows allow that interaction
with a customer that you cannot get as
easily online or in print, she said.
Karydes and McKee arent alone in
their belief that theres a great deal of val-
ue to be found at trade shows. Though
the industry took it on the chin during the
recession, the numbers are back on the
rise. After nine consecutive down quar-
ters through the second quarter of 2010,
there have been ve quarters of positive
performanceand, says Doug Ducate,
president and CEO of the Dallas-based
Center for Exhibition Industry Research,
its outperforming the GDP right now.
Professional attendance is leading the
way. The overall outlook is very bright,
Ducate said. He adds that exhibitions
are the No. 1 marketing expenditure for
companies in the United States, outpacing
print and online advertising. According
to the Changing Environment of Exhi-
bitions study, conducted by CEIR on
behalf of MPI, modest growth should
continue in the exhibitions space. Of those
surveyed, 85 percent said the number of
exhibitions will hold to current levels or
will increase.
North America remains the undisputed
hub of trade show activity. There are more
than 10,000 B-to-B shows in the U.S.
and 15,000 B-to-C shows in the U.S. and
Canada. Thats nearly half the total shows
held around the world, Ducate says.
The Changing Environment of Exhi-
bitions study reinforces the importance
of trade shows in todays business world.
Of those executives surveyed, 60 percent
said that, unlike other marketing chan-
nels, exhibitions offer them the chance
to see a large number of prospects and
customers over a short period of time
and 51 percent said that exhibitions do
the job over other channels for face-to-
face meetings with prospects and custom-
ers (relationship building). Considering
another stat from the study, nearly 80
percent of the executives surveyed said
cultivating customer loyalty is more
important [today] than it was prior to
2008, in-person time is clearly more pre-
cious than ever.
The great thing about trade shows
is that face to face is highly valued, said
David Weil, vice president of event ser-
vices for SmithBucklin. Its the killer app
that will never go away.
After several down quarters, the trade show industry is
making a comebackand theres good reason for it.
Four trade show trends worth
working into your plan:
1) GO BEYOND THE SHOW FLOOR. Hybrid events, which feature live streaming of trade show
events from the oor to industry insiders who chose not to attend, are becoming a powerful
tool to help boost future years attendance. Some show organizations are offering streaming
to exhibitors while, at other shows, exhibitors who are non competitiors can team up and
share the costs, McKee said.
2) TECHNOLOGY GIVES FACE TIME A BOOST. RFID has been used in some interesting ways
as a trigger for when a VIP enters an exhibit. The idea is to do pre-event surveys to see what
prospects like or are looking for, and then provide them with an RFID badge or wristband,
said Malcolm Gilvar, executive vice president of sales for The Trade Group. When they arrive
at your booth you are able to give them a VIP experience based on how they answered the
survey questions. For example, you can launch customized video thanking them for com-
ing to your booth, and provide them with relevant content at kiosks based on there survey
answers. They can also get information sent directly to them by merely tapping a screen with
their wristband. This technology can also be used to launch Facebook likes and pictures
automatically, greatly increasing impressions and exposure.
3) EXHIBITION ORGANIZERS STARTING TO THINK RELATIONSHIPS, NOT REAL ESTATE.
Historically, exhibition estate sales have been a real estate transaction, Ducate said. There
was no need to develop a personal relationship, people would buy space, you would send
the contract. It wasnt relationship selling. But Ducate says more trade show organizers
have started to see that, in order to keep exhibitors coming back, they need to help them
meet their goals. Theyre starting to ask, Why are you exhibiting? What can we do to help
you achieve that? I think youll see a lot more of that in the future.
This trend is becoming standard operating procedure at SmithBucklin. We are taking
ownership of the ROI for our exhibitors, Weil said. We are saying we need you to have a
good show. Heres how you need to prepare, which includes lessons in strategies for before,
during and after the show.
4) PRIVATE TRADE SHOWS FOCUS CLIENT ATTENTION. I think you are seeing more compa-
nies moving to private events (in addition to trade shows) that have multiple complementary
vendors in a trade show-like format, Gilvar said. This allows companies access to their
customers with face-to-face interactions, but keeps their prospects and clients focused on
them, and eliminates competitors.
Why Exhibitors Sign On
The CEIR/MPI Changing Environment of Exhibitions study asked potential exhibitors what
factors encouraged them to set up on a show oor. The top 10 reasons by percentage of
respondents who replied favorably
Factors that fell below 10 percentbut might have attracted more attention in the pastin-
clude is in a favorable city, is in a favorable venue and volume of orders written at the
exhibition/on the oor. That last one may surprise some organizers but many exhibitors
have come to understand that it can take time to turn oor time into sales. What were see-
ing is much more a shift in how theyre evaluating the show, Weil said. Instead of discus-
sions of crowds or how many business cards were handed out, theyre talking to us in more
of a strategic way about how the show went for them.
84% high quality of attendance
54% favorable return on investment
50% positive past performance
40% good t with corporate/organization objectives
34% focused, limited to specic verticals/business sectors
33% some or many of our competitors are participating
29% need to promote new product(s)/service(s)
21% geographic participation is broad
21% positive reputation of exhibition
10% is horizontal, spanning many business sectors
JENNA SCHNUER is a regular contributor to One+,
American Way and other business publications.
Pre-show webinars are an easy (and cost efcient) way to get to know your exhibitorsand
help them see their ofce space before they even get to town. Were targeting what theyre
interested in, said SmithBucklins Weil. Thats been helpful.
The No. 1 reason attendees go to a trade show is because of an exhibitor invite, said Lets
Talk Trade Shows Joyce McKee. So its imperative that exhibitorsespecially rst timers
understand that they should reach out to prospects long before the show. Organizers can pro-
vide guidance about the best ways to get prospects attention, including compelling emails
that will make the attendee go oh, I cant miss that. She adds: The exhibitor needs to put
themselves in the attendees shoes.
Education is key. While sexier topics may read better in the conference brochure, dont forego
the nuts-and-bolts deep-dive education sessions your conference attendees really need. Its
about technical discussions. Its not of the 101 variety, said Billy Craig, director of the Archi-
tectureBoston Expo. Craigs show goes one step beyond in an effort to pull in the architects
his exhibitors want to see on the exhibition oor: he offers the chance to get the CEUs they
need to keep their licenses current. While they can get the credits cheaper (and easier) online
or through magazines, the shows 90-minute sessions offer real education they can put to
work at work. Thats the carrot were dangling in front of these guys, Craig said.
Mix up the show oor to keep trafc moving (and the exhibitors in the thick of people). Its not
unusual to see a ghost town at the rear of a trade show hall. Bill Oakley, executive vice presi-
dent of Pizza Today, which runs the International Pizza Exhibition, thinks thats some serious
wasted space. My premium space in my show is at the rear of the hall, he said. What you
need to be is concerned with trafc in the rear of the hall and the perimeters. Oakley dedi-
cates show corners to games and contests so theres always something action-oriented (and
crowd-pleasing) going on. And he tries to keep new exhibitors off the perimeter.
Trade show organizers have to please many an audience. Or, at least, they should try. So, to help you
along, we collected some best practices from a bevy of organizers, researchers, exhibitors and trade
show guests.
THOUGH IT WOULD SEEM LIKE UNDER-40 (OR, IF YOU PREFER, GENERATION Y
or millennial) business types might think trade shows too old school, CEIR
research makes it clear that theyre pretty keen on the meet-and-greet way
but they would like to see things done a little differently. According to their
study, Power of Exhibitions in the 21st Century: Identify, Discover and Em-
brace Change from the Point of View of Young Professionals, up and comers
believe that exhibitions supply good ideas I can apply to my job; help with
career advancement, networking and generating new business; provide
direct access to experts; and, yes, offer entertainment and excitement.
But to keep them coming, its important that trade show organizers respond
to the millennial personality: theyre not keen on one-on-one interaction and
prefer a group environment, and, with 73 percent creating a must-see list
of exhibitors before attending the event, its more important than ever to
make sure younger conference goers get plenty of ahead-of-the-expo info.
from trade show organizers,
exhibitors and guests TIPS
1)
2)
3)
4)
The Next Generation
Proudly owned and operated by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
SCOTTSDALE | 877.724.4687 | TALKINGSTICKRESORT.COM
Work in style at Scosdales most accommodating event destination
with Four Diamond rooms and plenty of indoor/outdoor meeting
space for groups up to 2,000. Then play in style with our world-class
dining options, luxury spa, thrilling casino and championship golf.
The perfect meeting needs the perfect touch.
By Tim Sanders
Great Thanking
AFTER MY LAST TRIP, I FOUND TWO
THANK-YOU CARDS WAITING FOR ME
ON MY OFFICE DESK. One was from
a meeting planner, the other from
an event sponsor with whom I spent
time during the meeting. The event
had occurred a few weeks previously,
and both parties had been effusive in
thanking me for my contributions at
the time.
Class acts, I said to myself as
I read them. In our digitized world,
thanks often come via email, text or
tweet. These methods are fast, con-
venient and dont require stamps
or much effort. I admit, I fall prey,
issuing thanks into my recipients
endless stream of incoming informa-
tion. Problem is, these throwaway
thank yous are all-too-often deleted,
unread or quickly forgotten.
One bureau president I know
sends out dozens of thank-you cards
each week. Hes also teaching the
practice to his son, explaining that
being great at giving thanks is a
personal and professional accom-
plishment. Recently, I asked him
about why he puts out so much ef-
fort. I want my thanks to stand out,
be counted and make an impact,
he said. Thats why hes one of the
most respected people I know in the
meeting industry.
In my latest book, Today We Are
Rich: Harnessing The Power Of
Total Condence, I emphasize that
people must exercise the gratitude
muscle in order to garner the trust
of their communities. When we fo-
cus our attention on the assistance of
others, we are thinking about what
we have, not what we lack. The exer-
cise reminds us that we are not alone
in our missions.
Just the act of scanning our mem-
ory banks for reasons to be thank-
ful is a positive-thinking generator.
Think about all the people who
helped you succeed during your last
meeting. Team members, attendees,
partners and even total strangers
all exerted extra effort for you over
a short period of time. You always
have other people to thank. When
you consider their intentions, you see
how they are aligned to your objec-
tives and, moreover, that they want
you to succeed.
Years ago, author William Ward
quipped, Feeling gratitude and not
expressing it is like wrapping a pres-
ent and not giving it. When you ex-
press thanks effectively, you convey
a sense of appreciation in others, ful-
lling the norm of reciprocity. While
many people dont expect thanks,
when you give it, people gain satis-
faction in the fact that their contri-
butions were noticed and properly
noted. When you thank powerfully,
your relationship with the recipient
improves. Gratitude bonds people.
There are two keys to Great
Thanking: be physical and be spe-
cic. Buy a box of thank-you cards,
and each time someone does some-
thing thoughtful or helpful, write out
a quick note by hand. Mail it right
away, when the experience is fresh.
Make this a part of your post-event
wrap.
If you are saying thanks for a
whopper of a contribution, include a
thoughtful (and legal!) gift. Recently,
I was a guest on nancial analyst
Dave Ramseys radio show, which
exposed my new book to millions of
people. He rarely hosts guests, but he
made an exception for me. He invest-
ed most of his morning with me, eat-
ing and conversing prior to going on
the air. Later, I felt like a card wasnt
good enough, so I also included a
personal gifta 1940s mechanical
pen I found on eBay that Dale Carn-
egie would give his best students. It
says Best Speech on the side, and
I knew it would delight Dave. He is
a motivational memorabilia collector
and showed me some of his trophies
when I toured his facility. By giving
this gift and card, hell have something
to remember our experience by for a
long time, and will realize how much I
value him as a friend and supporter.
It is also critical to be specic if
you want to properly communicate
the why behind your thanks. Explain
exactly what someone did to help you
and how that action made an impact:
emotionally, nancially or socially.
The more you can document your
gratitude, the more it will resonate
with your recipient. The fact that you
took the time to break it down will
encourage similar help in the future.
A general thank you feels generic and
lacks the credibility to properly con-
vey your appreciation.
The multiple contributions of
your mentors and long-time business
partners are a different story. In these
cases, Dr. Martin Seligman (father of
the modern positive psychology move-
ment) suggests that you conduct a
gratitude visit. Heres how it works:
Think of someone who has helped
you, been kind to you, made a differ-
ence in your lifebut to whom youve
never expressed thanks. Write a letter,
clearly outlining what that person did
and how much it has meant to you.
Set up a meeting, and then read the
letter out loud. Make this the whole
point of the visit, and give the person
a copy of the letter to keep.
When Seligmans students and pa-
tients at the University of Pennsylvania
did this exercise, they were touched
deeply by the experience. In many
cases, both author and recipient cried,
moved by the spirit of gratitude. In
some cases, the experience had a rip-
ple effect, causing the receiver to think
of someone who deserved thanks and
leading to a powerful gratitude visit to
that person.
TIM SANDERS is the au-
thor of Today We are Rich:
Harnessing The Power Of
Total Condence. Visit
www.twar.com to read an
excerpt, buy the book or
connect with Tim Sanders
on Facebook.
Midori Connolly
MPI Member for 4 Years
San Diego Chapter
My Story: www.mpiweb.org/stories
JIg Idea-, -maII MeetIng-
JY TAJA -WUJD-
TED
conferencesthe
events that bring
together people
from the worlds of technology, enter-
tainment and designhave been hap-
pening since 1984. But it wasnt until
the last several years with the rise of
social networking and quality, easily
streamed online video that TED talks
went viral. The most watched TED talk
has more than 7 million views, sug-
gesting that the tagline ideas worth
spreading was well chosen.
Since 2009, those ideas worth
spreading have multiplied dramatically
with the advent of TEDx, the inde-
pendently organized/curated regional
variants of TED conferences. The or-
ganization grants licenses to individu-
als or corporations, based on location,
to play host to TED-like events for the
local community. Thousands of people
around the world have obtained li-
censes, and already nearly 2,500 TEDx
events have taken place in just the past
two years.
TED provides plenty of guidelines
for TEDx events, and the community of
organizers is as open and collaborative
as youd imagine. Still, organizers are
completely on their own when it comes
to nding the speakers and subjects
that will ignite a spark among audience
members, including online viewers.
Many have never organized events and
are unfamiliar with the litany of details
to tend and things that can go wrong
when the cameras roll. We spoke with
ve TEDx organizers to learn their mo-
tivations for taking on this challenge,
lessons theyve learned and wisdom
gained.
Charlie Wollborg, TEDxDetroit
When Charlie Wollborg applied for the
TEDxDetroit license, he couldnt wait
to get cool people in a room and see
what happens. What happened was
a daylong homage to ideas originating
in the city that has taken a beating and
comes back ghting every time.
If you read any media reports, it
was Detroit is dying, Detroit is dead,
he said. People had written Detroit off.
We were a fur trading capital, then a
military capital, then a timber metropo-
lis and then the iron stove capital of the
world. Furniture City, Motor Cityour
DNA is based on [a city] reinventing
itself.
Wollborgs goal during and after
TEDx events is to shine a spotlight on
the Detroit successes and progress that
few hear about: the local company that
pioneered bladeless wind energy; the
9-year-old entrepreneur who donates 10
percent of his prots to a no-kill animal
shelter; the documentary that attend-
ees crowd-funded by purchasing one
framefor one dollarat a time.
Hes now planning his fourth TEDx-
Detroit for fall 2012. Since launching,
Wollborg says he has learned a lot,
starting with the need for a sufciently
sized team. He started with just four
people but has grown to 20 volunteers
planning each conference.
Wollborg says nothing about plan-
ning the conferences has been particu-
larly difcult, but there has been one
frustration.
When I call people up to ask,
Would you like to be part of TEDx?
there is one of three responses: Whos
Ted? FedEx is coming to town? or
Oh my gosh, absolutely I want to be in-
volved, Wollborg said. It boggles my
mind that people havent heard of it.
Kat Haber, TEDxHomer
Since 2009, Kat Haber has produced
three TEDx events in her hometown
TEDx has become the model for regional meetings.
Heres how 5 local organizers pull it off.
TEDxRedmond Organizer Adora Svitak.
Watch Svitaks TEDx presentation here:
www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html.
of Homer, Alaska, and shes gearing
up for more. Her reason for getting
involved was two-fold: to bring the
world to Homer and Homer to the
world.
The idea was to take the juicy,
innovative ideas that I was tapping
into at TED and bring those to Alas-
ka through our little village, Haber
said. And how could I source the so-
lutions that had been created within
our small town and push those out to
the rest of the world?
The rst TEDxHomer was aimed
at adults. The second year, Haber de-
cided she wanted to bring the whole
community together, kids and adults.
So the conference was split into two
parts: a half-day aimed at adults and
a half-day aimed at youth.
The feedback we got from the com-
munity was that they didnt want to be
separated, she said. The kids wanted
to be included and have their voices
heard on the same stage with the same
respect as the adult speakers.
TEDxHomer found its equilibrium
in 2011, in an event that targeted the
entire community. Young organizers,
including Habers son McKenzy, also
became heavily involved. In 2012,
Haber predicts the youth organizers
will plan and run the entire show.
According to Haber, the most dif-
cult parts about organizing have been
the details: working out nances, set-
ting up technology and ensuring clear
communications among the team.
But she has found that the challeng-
esparticularly those involving com-
municationoften lead to personal
breakthroughs for the volunteers.
When you get down to the wire
and decisions have to be made, people
have to trust each other, Haber said.
Its a beautiful ow of letting go and
showing up in the moment and having
what you have and being grateful for
joining together all of these ideas and
people.
TEDxHomer Organizer Kat Haber (right)
with son McKenzy Haber (left) TEDxBasel and TEDxYouth@Basel Organizer Ruud Janssen
TEDxDetroit Organizer Charlie Wollborg
Contact us today.
sanfrancisco.travel/meeting-planners
Follow us on facebook.com/sfmeetings
With record-breaking meeting attendance, Moscone Center renovations underway, many hotel renovations completed, the
75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, the US Open Golf Championship in 2012 and the 34th Americas Cup in 2013 now
more than ever, San Francisco is Americas most exciting, convenient and beautiful city for your next meeting. Contact our Sales
and Services team for help with planning and scheduling your next event.
With nationally acclaimed meeting facilities, hotels, restaurants,
entertainment and sporting events why have a meeting any place else?
-tate oI JIay
JY FIIZAJFTH HFNDFJ-UN, M. F. , DF-.
I
ntegrating games into conferences,
meetings and events, often through
the use of social media and gami-
cation, is the latest sparkly idea
to take hold of the industry. It re-
fers to the integration of game de-
sign and mechanicstypically the
concepts used to create massive multiplayer
online games, such as World of Warcraft
into business activities to drive engagement,
increase participation and solve problems.
But event professionals shouldnt consider
gamication without assessing why they are
doing it and what the best options for imple-
mentation might be. Once they have, though,
there are social media platforms that can
guide successful integration of strategy into
an effective state of play.
Before the mention of online games turns
you off, understand this form of entertain-
ment crosses gender and age groups. Ac-
cording to the Entertainment Software As-
sociations 2011 Essential Facts about the
Computer and Videogame Industry, the
average gamer is 37 years old, and 82 percent
are over the age of 18. Women, the fastest-
growing demographic in the industry, make
up 42 percent of all players, and adult wom-
en, at 37 percent, outplay males under the age
of 18 (13 percent). A remarkable 29 percent
of players are over the age of 50. So statistics
tell us that gamers arewell, theyre you.
Games give purpose and allow people to
aspire to greater things in a safe environment,
and because of their richness and sometimes
complexity can inspire innovation and leader-
ship. For meetings and events, incorporating
gaming can be effectiveassuming there is
a purpose to the game that drives goals and
objectives, such as networking, learning or
behavior changeand, due to the widespread
accessibility of social media and smartphones,
both inexpensive and easy to do.
Samuel J. Smith, co-founder of EventCamp
Twin Cities in Minneapolis, decided to incor-
porate gamication into that event based on
the success of Game On!, the Green Meet-
ing Industry Councils Sustainable Meetings
Conference, which based its entire design on
gaming mechanics. A virtual attendee of that
event, Smith decided to see how the concept
could be integrated more fully into virtual
teams. To reach the largest and most diverse
number of people, he incorporated a number
of different social media applications into the
design of the conference, including Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Social Media, Gamication and How Events are Changing as a Result
tFTTINt JI-INF-- DUNF. How and why meetings and business events bolster your overall strategy MFFT YUIJ JI-INF-- -IttF--. BOOSTING THE BOTTOM LINE IN CHANGING TIMES
Is Gamication
Right for You?
The following are some key
questions event professionals
should ask when considering
a social media and gamica-
tion strategy.
1. Will social media and
gamication help me achieve
event and organizational
objectives?
2. What platform is best
suited to help me achieve
event and/or organizational
objectives without adding
unnecessary complexity?
3. What platform is a good
match for the type of partici-
pants at the event; for exam-
ple, using groundswell theory,
are participants joiners, crit-
ics, creators or spectators?
4. Is protecting or dispersing
intellectual capital more im-
portant to my goals? This will
help you choose between an
existing or custom platform.
5. What will bring the most
value to my attendees? What
will help them learn or in-
crease the value of their social
capital?
Applying these lters and
following these pieces of
practical advice can help you
harness not only the power of
social media, but also the add-
ed richness and complexity of
games. This state of play can
inspire innovation, leadership
and engagement and increase
the overall effectiveness of
your next meeting or event.
Smith selected these social media plat-
forms for multiple reasons.
Facebook was the 800-pound gorilla in
the room when we considered which media
to use, Smith said, adding that it was used in
order to reach the largest number of people.
Facebook also has the capability to widely
share information easily using the Like
button. Twitter was selected because it is the
virtual home of the EventCamp community.
EventCamp started on Twitter; we use
it as the base for an ongoing conversation,
Smith said.
Not stopping there, EventCamp also in-
corporated YouTube and LinkedIn.
YouTube reaches the creative people; it
is a rich communications tool tied to content
that can then be shared on Facebook and
Twitter, he said.
The EventCamp organizers, borrowing
from groundswell theory, recognized that dif-
ferent attendees were comprised of various
behavioral types. Groundswell theory, origi-
nating somewhat bizarrely from landscape
design, looks at people and technology as el-
ements of a virtual landscape. According to
the theory, there are four types of participants
in this virtual landscape: joiners, who like to
gather with those people of similar opinion;
creators, who originate the news and opin-
ions; critics; and spectators, who form their
own opinions based on what they observe.
EventCamp attempted to give these differ-
ent participants a way to interact, using so-
cial media, in a way that was most natural to
themYouTube for creators, Facebook and
Twitter for critics and spectators and all of
them for joiners.
Trevor Roald of Vancouver-based Quick-
Mobile denes social media as any mecha-
nism that facilitates a user to actively partici-
pate in the generation of relevant content. In
this context, he has seen social media used in
many ways, including the big four platforms
mentioned above but also with check-in net-
works such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Get-
Glue; niche networks such as Pathable and
CrowdVine; and closed corporate networks
such as Chatter. More events are using social
media because, according to Roald, they are
perfect pairs. Social media encourages specic
user behaviors (dened by event objectives) in
exchange for social capital, the currency gen-
erated by social networks.
By leveraging social media, event profes-
sionals increase the value of their social capital
in the event community, which can greatly in-
crease an individuals motivation to participate
in an event gamication strategy, Roald said.
One of the most successful events he has
seen using gamication was the 2011 Mountain
Travel Symposium, which was able to achieve
an 11-fold increase in the amount of user-
submitted photos to its photo gallery through
incentives embedded in an event-based game.
The end result was a signicant number of new
photos to be used for marketing purposes.
Like Smith, Roald sees benets to using
existing platforms. Some, such as Twitter, can
reach communities much greater in scope than
that dened by the attendees at the event itself.
Another benet is that participants are already
familiar with the platforms, reducing the learn-
ing curve. On the ipside, Roald sees advan-
tages to custom platforms in the areas of secu-
rity and exclusivity, which can be important to
What were
seeing now
is only the
beginning.
Social media
and gamication
are two
of the fastest-
growing
audience
engagement
trends.
REUNITE
MEET
CELEBRATE
WED
Southside to Downtown Seattle in minutes!
Looking for the perfect spot for your Seattle-area meeting or event?
Look no further than Seattle Southside. Its just minutes from
downtown without the downtown price. With more than 65 hotels
and many unique meeting venues, you will fnd what your event
needs.
Call today to get a copy of the new Seattle Southside Meeting &
Event Guide.
Seattle Southside: Your home base in the Pacifc Northwest!
TIe JatI Ie--
TraveIed
JY TAJA -WUJD-
If theres one thing you can say about
holding your next event in Las Vegas or
Orlando, its this: safe choice. Major meet-
ing and convention spots like those are ac-
cessible to everything you need to pull off
a world-class event: international airports,
bountiful hotels, reliable ground transpor-
tation and a tried-and-true infrastructure.
But if theres another thing you could
say about these cities, it might be this:
been there, done that.
Sometimes your event calls for a desti-
nation where everything is familiar: the cul-
ture, the facilities, the routes and the rou-
tines. But other times, looking further aeld
to emerging destinations can be worth the
extra time and energy. In fact, holding
events in such spots could actually contrib-
ute to an organizations bottom line.
ON THE CUSP
In this context, an emerging destination
is a place that hasnt previously attracted
much business group travel but is start-
ing to experienceor will soon experi-
encean uptick. Beyond that, variation
is enormous. Up-and-coming spots might
have brand-new facilities designed to at-
tract convention trafc, or they might lack
useful infrastructure. They might have
the ofcial backing of a local government
that sees the revenue potential of meetings
and conventions, or they might have few
local people who understand the massive
ground game required to organize and
host an event.
These destinations dont typically pop
up out of nowhere; they tend to move
through a maturation cycle.
What we nd is that destinations often
merge into the incentive travel world rst
because incentive travel is about seeing the
destination, said Carina Bauer, CEO of
IMEX Group. The rst step [for destina-
tions] is to get professional organizers
DMCswho are able to manage groups.
Thats very different to having the facilities
for 1,000 or 10,000 people for a confer-
ence or convention.
Heres why emerging destinations might
be ideal for your next event.
THE DRAW OF ADVENTURE
Emerging destinations, by denition, entail
more adventure than well-trodden ground.
Behroz Daroga, CMP, owner of MEC
USA, has organized outbound meetings
in far-ung locations such as Kenya, Bar-
celona and Taormina, Italy. Shes currently
organizing an event in Belgrade.
People are more interested to see
things theyve never heard of or have only
read in a book, Daroga said. Its exciting
because its different.
That can translate into increased inter-
est in your eventparticularly if your at-
tendees can take advantage of the region
to tack a personal vacation on to the begin-
ning or end.
Jane Behrend, who helps boutique
travel organizations market their offerings
to North American audiences, says its not
uncommon for business travelers to Ugan-
dahome to one of her clientsto turn
business meetings into opportunities for
adventure.
Normally when you go on safari in
other parts of Africa, you just meet tour-
ists, Behrend said. But in Uganda, you
also meet local people who are there for
a business meeting. I use it as a selling
point.
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
In some up-and-coming spots, the lack of
infrastructure might mean less distraction
for your event attendees. Kerry Prince,
vice president of Reed Exhibitions, says
Reeds aim to promote networking and
relationship building at events directs the
companys location choices.
Emerging destinations arent just charming;
they actually help draw attendees.
Looking further
aeld to emerging
destinations can be
worth the extra
time and energy.
In fact, holding
events in such
spots could
actually contribute
to an organiza-
tions bottom line.
Destinations
on the Rise
Looking to wow your attendees with an unex-
pected spot? Here are some destinations that
are on their way up.
EASTERN EUROPE
Over the last 10 years, Bauer has noted signicant
growth in Eastern European countries such as
Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Croatia and Poland.
Theyre fantastic destinations, all of them, she
said. In fact, Budva in Montenegro and Jurmala in
Latvia were 2011 winners of the IMEX Wild Card,
which awards emerging destinations that it feels
have demonstrated commitment to handling new
business.
Daroga says she has had good experiences
planning an upcoming event in Belgrade. Even
though they are not experienced, they want to
learn, she said. They are very aggressive and
dynamic in doing things the right way.
HONDURAS
In 2011, Honduras won the IMEX America Wild
Card. It features two convention centers in the city
of San Pedro Sula and is close enough to serve as
an exotic destination for North American attendees
without too much travel time or jet lag.
INDIA
Indias relatively new status as a hotbed of busi-
ness and technology has quickly put it on the map
for international meetings and conventions. Daro-
ga, for example, is currently planning a 2014 meet-
ing in Hyderabad. It has a state-of-the-art conven-
tion center, she said.
PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico is drawing quite a few events, accord-
ing to Daroga. Again, its location close to the U.S.
makes it a good candidate for North American
organizations.
OVERLOOKED U.S. CITIES
Daroga is happy to see planners checking out some
domestic gems in the U.S., typically mid-sized
cities that are accessible to regional audiences and
have plenty of infrastructure and local charm. Her
favorites include Newport and Providence in Rhode
Island and San Luis Obispo on the central coast of
California.
In all countries, there are things you dont know
about at all, she said. Because its Providence or
Newport, we sometimes dont even take it into
consideration. But Im glad that we did it because it
was one of the best meetings weve had.
Because our events are very busi-
ness focused, we tend to actually keep
them outside of the main cities, Prince
said. We try to keep our groups encap-
sulated.
The benet of relative isolation is that
youll have the opportunity to schedule
more of your attendees time the way you
want them to spend it. That translates into
more time for you or your client to deliver
a message and cement relationships.
EXPOSURE TO NEW MARKETS
Many organizations host events in emerg-
ing destinations for exposure to new mar-
ketswhether the organization is promot-
ing a product, service or simply an idea.
Cathy Ryan, senior director of global
meetings at the Healthcare Informa-
tion and Management Systems Society
(HIMSS), has spent the last few years
helping her organization expand into Eu-
rope, Asia and the Middle East. HIMSS
works to promote the adoption of tech-
nology in healthcare as a means to provide
better careand better outcomesto pa-
tients. The universal nature of this mission
makes HIMSS relevant in nearly any re-
gion of the world. And by being open to
emerging markets, Ryan says HIMSS can
respond to demand and attract interest.
[In the Middle East], theyre really
thirsty for the education and the informa-
tion, Ryan said. Our president and CEO
was hearing the need, and it was clear after
we got organized in Europe and Asia, there
was no question that the Middle East was
going to be the next place that we went.
Ryan has already helped HIMSS spread
its cause in Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, Saudi
Arabia and Abu Dhabi.
ACCESS TO NEW FACILITIES
When an emerging destination reaches
a certain point, local governments take
note and begin to invest. And when fa-
cilities are built from scratch, they can
utilize the latest technologies and even be
more advanced than those in established
locales.
Some of the facilities are very impres-
sive, especially if you look at South Korea,
Bauer said. Theyve grown so fast and
their facilities are so fantastic. They have
that benet because its from scratch.
State-of-the-art facilities often go hand
in hand with development in the rest of
the infrastructure, such as hotels, local or-
ganizers and ground transportation. That
means a more predictable, easily managed
event and a better chance of pricing suited
to your needs.
FLEXIBILITY
Where theres less of an established system,
theres also less rigidity.
Emerging destinations often are will-
ing or able to give cost-effective propos-
als, Bauer said, including new models of
pricing that may better t an organizations
budget.
Ryan says she found exibility when
planning events in the Middle East, Europe
and Asiaparticularly in making arrange-
ments with hotels.
Everything outside of the U.S. is less
contractual and less stringent, she said.
Were not at the point where were shak-
ing hands and making a deal, but its not
the level of intensity that you nd when
youre in the U.S.
PLANNER BEWARE
As with any locale, emerging destinations
come with their own set of caveats. Plan-
ning contingencies for those caveats will
help ensure that your organization or cli-
ent can make the event a protable one.
For example, the exibility that you
might nd on the path less traveled has an
obvious downside: Its hard to get guaran-
tees without a contract.
Also, less-developed spots can be prone
to political turmoil and poor execution
where risk management is concerned. Da-
roga says she would be hesitant to hold a
meeting in Kenya today because of the po-
litical situation. No matter where she goes,
she insists on having a local DMC and a
documented, mutually agreed-upon risk-
management plan.
I always convince my clients [of this].
I tell them the truth, she said. If you
dont want a local DMC, Im not the meet-
ing company for you.
If the cultural differences between your
attendees home country and the destina-
tion country are signicant, you may want
to spend extra time preparing attendees.
When in Saudi Arabia, Ryan donned an
abayaessentially a loose-tting robe over
her clothingand local custom dictates
that she could not touch or hug any male
friends or co-workers in public. She says
it took some getting used to.
We try and do research on the city or
the country and provide that to our staff
before they travel to the site, Ryan said.
Its advisable to do that beforehand so
theyre aware of the dos and donts.
But after youve gotten a feel for the
place, enjoy it. Theres magic to be found
off the beaten path. When she organized a
Barcelona event for a major medical orga-
nization, she also arranged an excursion to
nearby Valenciaan unexpected delight.
I found this little monastery about
40 minutes from Valencia where we did
the gala event. Everything we ate was lo-
cal, Daroga said. Valencia is so beau-
tiful. It has the avor and inuence of
Morocco.
TARA SWORDS specializes in business, technology
and travel topics.
Meets
Boarding Breakthroughs
From team-building adventures to inspiring venues,
the Paradise Coast is the perfect place to recharge and
motivate your team. Visit us online for great group deals.
Where it all comes together ParadiseCoast.com/Meetings
GIVE YOUR MEETING ATTENDEES
A BROADER PERSPECTIVE
CALIFORNIA PORTS SAN DIEGO NEWPORT
BBEEACH LOONG BEACH MMARRINA DEL REYY
SSAANN FRANNCISSCO BERKKELEY SSACCRRAMMEENTO
NEW YORK PORT NEW YOORK CITYY TTOOURSS
AALCATRAAZ ISLAND STATUE OF LIBBERTYY
EELLLLIISS IISSLLAANNDD NNIIAAGGAARRAA FAALLLLSS
hornblower.com
When you are looking for a way to inspire creativity
in a long meeting schedule, the best way is
with some fresh sea air and expansive horizons.
Hornblower is the perfect motivator for any meeting.
10
% OFF ANY
HORNBLOWER
PRIVATE CHARTER
for 2012 or 2013. Not valid wi th any
other offers. Charter agreement and
deposit received by August 30, 2012.
Use code MPi12
JY FIAINF JUIFIDT
W
hen Ron Johnson
planned a recent
conference for the
State Bar of Califor-
nia in Hong Kong,
the group wanted to minimize its
carbon footprint. Responding to this
concern, he arranged the entire event
so that attendees could get around
on public transportationsometimes
among four different locations in the
city in a single day.
Years ago, all of this schlepping
might have led to some grumbling
among delegates, outside of those fo-
cused on environmental causes. Today,
concern about sustainable meetings
and events has gone mainstream.
People are looking to be a little
greenernot just by recycling but even
in their transportation, said Johnson,
CEO of Mosaic Event Management,
which serves the corporate and foun-
dation market.
As Jim Collins notes in his new book
Great by Choice, the world has gone
through a shocking series of destabiliz-
ing events that deed all expectations
in the past 15 years, ranging from
dramatic technological change to the
global nancial crisis. This climate of
rapid-re change poses both challenges
and opportunities, he notes. It leaves
many professionals in the tough spot
of not knowing whats next.
We can be astonished, confounded,
shocked, stunned, delighted or ter-
ried, but rarely prescient, Collins
wrote.
In the meeting industry, all of this
change has made selecting the right
venue a greater challenge. A loca-
tion or destination that worked three
years ago for an event may be inade-
quate today. And theres a lot of variety
within different niches of the meeting
industry.
It all depends on the conference,
the industry and the number of attend-
ees, said Toronto-based independent
meeting planner Sandra Aaron.
To help meeting professionals zero
in on the qualities a venue needs to
have now, we turned to active industry
members for their insight.
1) EASY ACCESS
If attendees will have to take multiple
ights and then drive an hour to a des-
tination, its likely to be ruled out these
days, no matter how inviting it might
otherwise be. Factors that used to be
undesirable, like adjacency to an air-
port, are now selling points today.
Because of economic conditions,
the ease and availability of getting
in and out of a destination inexpen-
sively has probably never come more
into play than in the last few years,
said Mike Dominguez, vice president
of global sales for Loews Hotels, who
oversees 18 U.S. hotels for the brand.
It comes down to accessibility.
2) VALUE PRICING
This doesnt mean inexpensive or
cheap, said Mosaic Event Manage-
ments Johnson. It has to be commen-
surate with what theyre selling.
Many hotels have add-on charges to
stay protable in the tough economy,
but taking this too far can drive away
business, in his view.
Case in point: For one client, John-
son recently inquired about buying
out all the rooms at a small boutique
property for a full week, which would
have entailed purchasing what he calls
a very signicant amount of food and
beverage.
However, the hotel wanted the client
to pay an additional $25,000 to cover
potential revenue it might lose at its
gift shop and restaurant.
I started to laugh, said Johnson,
who walked away from the negotia-
Event
Venue
Must-
haves
for 2012
tionsand had no interest in resum-
ing them when the hotel called back
later. Theres still about 50 percent
of the hotel industry that does not re-
alize were in the middle of a global
recession.
Another no-no: Charging extra
for basic services.
I saw one hotel contract where
they were attempting to charge a
maintenance fee for the ballroom
restroom to be maintained by their
janitorial staff, Johnson said in-
credulously.
Hotels that have had to cut back
on extras to meet budgets can avoid
conveying a feeling that theyre cut-
ting corners by offering small but
high-impact extras, Johnson advises.
Make it a bowl of fruit in some-
ones room, something really mini-
maleven something you have in
inventory that you dont have to go
out and spend money on, he said.
3) SENSE OF PLACE
Even if a meeting organizer chooses a
venue in a local metro area, attendees
will want it to feel unique and special
to participants, Dominguez says.
If youre in Chicago, it has to
have a Chicago feel to it, he said.
One way to achieve this end is
through exible building architec-
ture that allows guests to enjoy local
views in open space. For instance, a
big city hotel will score points with
guests by offering a rooftop bar or
another open-air gathering spot.
That used to not be the big
need, Dominguez said. Today, its
what differentiates your hotel. [For
guests,] its about being able to enjoy
the venue whether its by views or
the weather.
4) LOCAL FOOD
Attendees dont want to dine on the
same thing they ate at the last event,
no matter how memorable it was.
More than ever before, Dominguez
says, delegates are interested in din-
ing on food grown by local farmers
or using local ingredients that they
wont be able to sample elsewhere.
Its all about being able to expe-
rience different types of food and dif-
ferent types of cuisines, he said.
5) WIRED MEETING ROOMS
The days when attendees showed up
with just one digital device are over,
as more people bring smartphones,
tablets and laptops. Venues must ac-
commodate this reality by offering
the connectivity thats needed, or
theyll fall behind, Aaron warns.
I need to know that the venue
and destination are set up so that
event staff, speakers and attendees
alike can have access to all the tech-
nology they need, she said.
Aaron looks for reliable Wi-Fi, a
strong digital and cellular network
and modern equipment for presenta-
tions. Its important to realize that
many participants will be multitask-
ing as they watch presentations and
will be frustrated if its hard to keep
in touch with the ofce, she says.
As many meeting planners and or-
ganizers have gravitated toward hy-
brid meetingsincorporating both
live and digital aspectsits essential
for properties to be prepared with the
appropriate technology, advises Ar-
nold J. Shaw, chief marketing ofcer
of MAP Digital, an event marketing
agency that works with large nan-
cial services companies, among other
clients.
Without these things, the notion
of being able to meet participants
needs is limited, Shaw said.
Its also important that a venue offer
the ability for the organizer to gather
information on how participants be-
haved at an event, such as the booths
they visited at a trade show.
A desirable venue, Shaw says, can
collect data based on how delegates
moved throughout the event and iden-
tify their interests.
6) RIGHT TECH STAFF
Given that each meeting is different,
hotels and conference facilities need to
be able to adapt to diverse technologi-
cal needs quickly.
More important than the tech-
nology itself is having competent and
well-trained professionals on staff at
a hotel that can deliver whatever your
tech needs, Dominguez said. They
become a partner for a meeting profes-
sional to try to give a unique experi-
ence to attendees.
7) ADEQUATE STORAGE
Many hotels have converted what
used to be closets into staff ofces
and even meeting rooms, as they try
to enhance the cost effectiveness of
the property, Johnson says. If there is
storage available, its now common to
charge so much for it that its cheaper
for the guests to rent a room to store
their materialswhich he sometimes
does. Johnson says offering reasonably
priced storage is a good way to stand
out.
Everyone knows that when you do
meetings, you bring stuff with you, he
said.
And if the hotel is inviting enough,
clients will continue to bring that stuff
back in the future.
ELAINE POFELDT is a former senior editor for
FORTUNE Small Business and a regular contributor
to One+.
More than
ever before,
delegates are
interested in
dining on
food grown
by local farmers
or using local
ingredients that
they wont be
able to sample
elsewhere.
ON A PEDESTAL
Well put you
just like you deerve!
OFFICE CELEBRATIONS BUCA-STYLE
Special Banquets & Party Packages Available

VISIT BUCADIBEPPO.COM
TO BOOK YOUR
OFFICE CELEBRATION TODAY
WHETHER YOU CELEBRATE
AT BUCA OR AT THE OFFICE,
WELL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOU.
AL
e!
STY
ailab
M
DAY AA
E
CE,
OU
L
YLE
ble
Y
,,
U.
Finding Value in Foreign Places
BY DALIA FAHMY
T
heres a blood disease
sometimes found in
Arab countries that
causes patients to
bleed to death from
minor injuries, some-
times without dis-
cernible injuries at all. In the West, the dis-
order is extremely rare, only affecting four
people in 1 million. So when the Interna-
tional Society on Thrombosis and Hae-
mostasis (ISTH) brought together 1,500
medical professionals from around the
world for a conference in Cairo, Egypt,
last year, it was a unique opportunity for
scientists from the U.S. and Europe to
learn more about the condition from their
Middle Eastern colleagues.
Thomas Reiser, executive director
at ISTH, says this type of knowledge
exchange is one of the most important
reasons his group holds international
meetings.
These types of meetings are tremen-
dously important to our eld, he said.
The meeting resulted in further research
collaboration and brought an improve-
ment of knowledge that benets patients
everywhere.
Passionate statements, such as these,
often accompany conversations about the
value of international meetings. While crit-
ics sometimes question the need for Ameri-
can companies to y their executives to ex-
otic locations, in an increasingly connected
world, international events are the most
effective way for professionals to solidify
relationships with peers and stakeholders.
Meeting planners point out that at-
tendees cant be expected to y to a com-
panys home country every year. Doctors
in developing countries, for example,
cant afford to leave their patients and
spend six days attending a conference in
the U.S. But holding a meeting without
these doctors would undermine ISTHs
mission to promote science worldwide.
An international meeting brings to-
gether people with completely different
mindsets. Having so many perspectives is
enriching by itself, Reiser said.
ISTH is one of many organizations that
count on international events to help them
achieve their mission. Companies and as-
sociations are spending more on interna-
tional meetings now than at any time since
the recession.
The value of international outbound
business trips from the U.S. is set to rise
9.1 percent from 2010, to $21.8 billion,
according to the Global Business Travel
Association (GBTA). Part of the increase
can be pointed to rising travel costs, but
even volume this year is expected to gain
3.9 percent from 2010. Additionally, in-
ternational business travel now represents
12.8 percent of total U.S. business travel
spending, the GBTA reports.
Planners say international events are im-
portant for many reasons. Wider oppor-
tunities for networking and a broader
exchange of ideas, as illustrated in ISTHs
Cairo conference, are two big reasons. In-
ternational meetings also allow organiz-
ers to prove their commitment to clients,
employees and partners around the world.
They help solidify organizers brands in
other countries. The simple act of traveling
to a foreign location and meeting different
types of people opens up minds and makes
attendees more likely to think outside the
box.
Patricia Kerr, CMP, director of distribu-
tion sales support at Manulife Financial,
says international events add a thrill to
her incentive programs that domestic pro-
grams dont. She organizes six incentive
meetings each year, one of whichthe
most highly coveted oneis always over-
seas. Top-performing Manulife Financial
advisers have been taken to Italy, Australia
and Turkey. Next year the winners get to
visit Russia.
The more cache a name has, the more
its going to drive business, Kerr said. Its
human nature.
MEET YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS:
Enhanced cultural understanding, budgetary benets, wow and new perspectives;
taking your meetings or events abroad can reveal all these things and more.
BOOSTING THE BOTTOM LINE IN CHANGING TIMES
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MATTER
GET PASSPORT, ADD SPARKLE
Why foreign travel has more cache
is difcult to pin down, but it has to
do with the thrill of discovering a new
place, especially if the organizer offers
experiences that are not accessible to
individual tourists. For the Russia trip,
Manulife has organized a tour of the
Kremlin presidential palace. In Italy, the
company rented a 14th-century castle as
a private venue for a gala dinner.
Its not about getting to play golf
or snorkeling in a foreign country. Its
about creating an experience that has
some connection to the history or the
culture of the place, Kerr said.
Ashely Muntan, CMP, global event mar-
keting manager at Symantec, says inter-
national meetings allow an exchange of
ideas on a level thats simply not possible
at domestic meetings. Especially for an
international companySymantec,
based in California, has a presence in
dozens of countries around the world
its important that every region has a
platform to discuss problems and solu-
tions.
As a result, Symantec organizes
countless international events each year.
Muntan is responsible for several of the
big ones that originate at headquarters,
including regional customer-facing as well
as internal sales meetings in Europe, Asia
and South America. Muntan says regional
meetings allow attendees to focus on specif-
ic business challenges that only affect their
geographic area, giving attendees a chance
to explore more specic details.
Leslie Zeck, CMP, director of meetings
at International & American Associations
for Dental Research (IADR), says building
conferences around regional themes helps
attract better speakers. She says her organi-
zation was able to book top lecturers for an
upcoming meeting in Rio de Janeiro, in part
because they are Brazilianeven though
they live in the United States.
You get a response from speakers when
they have a connection to the region, Zeck
said.
To anyone who has switched from morn-
ing tea to morning espresso after a trip to
Italy, it comes as no surprise that foreign
travel prompts us to break old habits and
think in fresh ways. Part of this can be at-
tributed to operating in a new environment,
where nothing is familiar and old habits
have to be put aside for practical reasons.
(Fish for breakfast? No problem!) Another
part comes from the natural creativity that
bubbles up when people with different
backgrounds start talking.
When you have people from different
countries you get different viewpoints, said
Mike van der Vijver, a meeting designer at
Netherlands-based MindMeeting. Thats
particularly important in a knowledge ex-
change, or when youre breaking fresh
ground on any subject.
International meetings dont just ben-
et attendees, they also help broaden or-
ganizers perspectives, says Symantecs
Muntan. Planning and overseeing events
in other countries has helped her put
on her global hat, and its now easier
for her to deal with partners from other
cultures on a wide variety of business
matters.
(On a related note, IADRs Zeck points
out that employees seek out companies that
hold international meetings because they
want to travel and learn from the experi-
ence. As a result, companies that have inter-
national meetings also have an easier time
recruiting smart, qualied candidates.)
There is no denying that taking events over-
seas can drive up expenses and pose chal-
lenges that wouldnt exist domestically.
Meeting planners complain about speaker
gifts that were conscated at customs and
cruise ships that departed without all at-
tendees on board. Then there are the cul-
tural differences. U.S. event planners must
make a big effort to adapt to different
communication styles and social norms in
other countries.
Cultural differences become especially
obvious during planning and negotia-
tions. For starters, in many countries its
difcult to secure vendors several years
in advance, the way its done in the U.S.
Planning meals can be an obstacle if a
countrys national cuisine is heavy on sh
salads. Unwritten rules that govern every-
thing from humor to gender relations can
quickly mar an event unless organizers do
their homework rst.
Nevertheless, international events can
be tremendously rewarding and event
planners say all it takes to achieve success
is patience and a willingness to learn.
If you try to apply the U.S. way of
doing things at international events,
youre going to be frustrated, said Man-
ulifes Kerr. If you want your program
to be successful, you have to be willing
to adapt to other peoples way of doing
business.
BETTER EXCHANGE OF IDEAS
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
HEDGING YOUR BETS
DALIA FAHMY is a veteran international business
journalist with previous experience writing for
Financial Times, Inc. and The New York Times.
Ron Behrmann
An authentic Albuquerque experience is a distinctive blend of cultural attractions, vistas, outdoor
adventures and cuisine. With our incentive packages individually customized to t your specic
needs, a meeting or convention here is truly extraordinary. ItsATrip.org/Meeting-Planners
By Douglas Rushkoff
Social Media is Not Social Control
IT SEEMS LIKE EVERYONE HAS SOME IDEA
(OR, MORE LIKELY, SOME FRIEND with
some idea) for how to use social media
to solve all their business, marketing
and communication problems. Its as if
theyve read the collected issues of Wired
magazine since 1993 and nally got
that something changed the way people
communicate with each other.
They dont get that social media
wont solve all their problems. Its not a
technique for inuencing beliefs and be-
havior the way traditional media did. If
anything, its a reinforcement of opposite
forcesthose that resist this sort of top-
down inuence. Worse, using social me-
dia as a traditional tool of media persua-
sion will likely backre on those who try.
This conversation began long before
Wired magazine or the Internet. In fact, it
began in earnest in the early 1940s, when
Norbert Wiener, a mathematician and
early computer scientist, worked on me-
chanical limbs for crippled war veterans.
To control the limb properly, the brain
not only needed to communicate with
the ngers, the ngers needed to commu-
nicate back to the brain. The user needed
to know when he was grasping a teacup
tight enough to lift it but not tight enough
to break it. Wiener realized that the key
to making a bionic armor any other
controlled devicework was through
feedback.
Feedback allowed the whole eld of
computer-controlled devices to blossom.
And, as it became better understood,
feedback explained all sorts of natural
phenomena, from the relationship of
oceans to rain to the chaotic patterns un-
derlying the stock market. The discovery
ultimately led to systems theory: Every
system features feedback from one part
to another.
Systems that once seemed unpredict-
able were mapped and studied through
non-linear equations and chaos math.
The weather, the economy, bacteria
which had always seemed so mysteri-
ousactually conformed to the underly-
ing patterns and motions of feedback.
Of course, the Holy Grail goal was
to understand human culture itself. The
big narratives (communism, capitalism,
consumerism and so on) that controlled
and predicted choice had already stopped
working. Advertisers clung to brand
and other big myths, but anthropologists
(see Gregory Bateson and others) already
accepted these concepts as pass. As so-
ciety got more complex, people seeking to
inuence its directionfor any reason
understood they would need to adapt.
A whole new generation of social sci-
entists saw in systems theory a new way
to understand populations. They dispensed
with their theories of Grand Narratives,
and adopted the new language of chaos
math.
But it wasnt until the emergence of the
Internet and, now, social media that these
folks gained the tools to measure all the
pathways of feedback owing through
culture. Polling and voting and consumer
behavior only showed how people related
directly to brands and politicians and in-
stitutionsbut revealed next to nothing
about how information and ideas passed
from person to person. Social mediaall
those tweets and re-tweets and Facebook
likesnally exposed the communica-
tions pathways between people.
By analyzing all this data, social media
enthusiasts understand society as a living
system. From marketing agencies to politi-
cal campaigns to government, top-down
organizations now look at social media
as the new key to understanding how cus-
HANO CN
A NINHTL...
Social media is not a technique for inuenc-
ing beliefs and behavior the way traditional
media did. If anything, its a reinforcement
of opposite forcesthose that resist this sort
of top-down inuence.
tomers, voters or populations think and
act.
Theyre in for a surprise. While peo-
ple may engage in systems that are like
the chaotic networks of plankton and
raindrops, were still human. Were not
logical actors, but highly contradictory,
paradoxical creatures. Yes, we are biolog-
ical entities behaving very much like our
evolutionary ancestors, but we are also
one step removed, engaging through lan-
guage, symbols and systems of meaning.
In short, human beings dont partici-
pate with one another as single points
of feedback in a giant system, but as
members of a lumpy, gooey culture.
Culture expresses the bottom-up agen-
da of people trying to create and sustain
their values over time. Far from making
us more measurable and predictable,
social media gives us a new landscape
to develop these uniquely human inter-
actions.
They help us to build
cultures and connections
that resist efforts to make
us malleable from above.
We become more con-
nected, interdependent
and mutually reinforcing.
We respond to one anoth-
ers feedback rather than
that of broadcasters, mar-
keters or propagandists. As a result, our
culturethe collectively negotiated vessel
for our humanitygrows stronger, more
resilient and less vulnerable to external in-
uence.
Ultimately, the social engineers are as-
tonishingly predictable. Inevitably, they
grasp at whatever story seems most plau-
sible to them for how to frame and then
direct human behavior. By abandoning
the grand narrative view of humanity
and adopting systems theory, they believe
they have transcended narrative altogeth-
erwhen all they have really done is ad-
opted a new story.
This is good news for those of us in
the people business, who are building and
serving real cultures and directly partici-
pating in the creation of tomorrows so-
ciety. Were the only ones who ever have
been.
DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF
is the author, most
recently, of Program or
be Programmed: Ten
Commands for a Digital
Age and Life Inc: How
Corporatism Conquered
the World and How We
Can Take it Back. He can
be contacted at www.
rushkoff.com.
Business
Meeting Guide
SADDLEBROOK - FLORIDAS
QUINTESSENTIAL MEETING RESORT
Saddlebrook was built to host meetings with 95,000
square feet of versatile space, 800 rooms, outstanding
outdoor venues for our award-winning catering and
service, and everything you need to make your meeting
an forgettable success.
For more information visit
saddlebrookmeetings.com
or call 813.907.4701
1-800-800-7832
VisitSeminole.com/Meetings
A meeting place thatll put
big smiles on their faces.
Get out of the boardroom and
into the wild in Seminole County,
right next to Orlando. Visit us
online for everything to plan a
productive, fun and affordable
meeting.
Floridas
60,000 sq. ft. of meeting space | 440 guest rooms | Championship golf
866-554-8113 www.woodlandsresort.com
Plant the Seeds
of Success
Nature has been hard at work here for thousands of years.
Imagine what your company can accomplish in a few days.
This is fertile soil.
control the distribution of intellectual
property and to create a sense of safety
in the community, which encourages an
open dialogue. Custom platforms also
reduce the spam factor, a concern that
irrelevant content might decrease social
capital in existing networks. He says
choosing existing or custom platforms
should depend on the objectives of the
event and the host organization.
FUTURE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA
AND GAMIFICATION MARRIAGE
According to Roald, what were seeing
now is only the beginning. He sees so-
cial media and gamication as two of
the fastest-growing audience engage-
ment trends.
Smith sees the future tied rmly to
event and organizational objectives and
the relative complexity of the gamica-
tion strategy.
If its about certain things, social
media and gamication isnt going to
be that relevant, he said. [However,]
simple games with simple rules stimu-
late learning and the achievement of
specic outcomes and can be remark-
able in their ability to reinforce learning
points. Social media is incredibly effec-
tive in spreading core messages.
Social media in the context of gami-
cation can be powerful, playful and
purposeful, but for meeting profession-
als wanting to play it safe, the primary
practical messages here are two-fold.
First, know what you are trying to
achieve with your event before plan-
ning a social media and gamication
strategy to support those objectives.
This might include anything from more
intense engagement to increasing so-
cial networks (and the value of partici-
pants social capital) to solving specic
problems. If social media isnt going to
help you achieve your objectives, dont
use it; just because its sparkly doesnt
mean its relevant. Second, assess the
best social media platform. This could,
of course, be one or many existing plat-
forms.
Ruud Janssen, TEDxBasel
and TEDxYouth@Basel
When Ruud Janssen became the TEDx
licensee for Basel, Switzerland, he
brought more than 15 years of events
experience to the table. He already knew
all of those details that other organizers
encounter for the rst time: obtaining
sponsorships, integrating technology,
repurposing content for later viewing
and preserving the feel of live action in
a hybrid live/prerecorded event. So its
no surprise that the rst conference was
a success.
The biggest obstacle that Janssen had
to overcome was a lack of understand-
ing of the altruistic spirit behind TED.
TED-related events are prohibited from
incorporating any commercial, religious
or political bias, and the people involved
are generally volunteers. But when deal-
ing with people who work with proprie-
tary informationin corporate research
and development, for examplehe met
resistance.
The format is so pure and simple,
Janssen said. Some organizations dont
understand why youre doing it. Things
that are larger than life can actually
be changed [through TED], which is a
strange phenomenon for people who
arent into that or havent experienced
that before.
More challenges came when Jans-
sen started planning the second event,
a Basel-based TEDx youth conference,
and discovered that audience engage-
ment for kids ages 8 to 16 is a different
matter altogether.
Their attention span is shorter and
the palate cleansers need even more di-
rection and curation than if you were
doing this with just adults, he said.
On the other hand, its about allow-
ing yourself to let go and let the kids do
what theyre really good at. The tension
between those two components drives
a meeting organizer absolutely berserk,
but its the best way of challenging
yourself.
Janssen advises other TEDx organiz-
ers to work only with people who dont
need convincing. And, he says, remem-
ber that TEDx isnt just about the day.
If all you want to do is put on a very
good TEDx event, then you miss the
point of ideas worth spreading, which
is more about meeting like-minded peo-
ple able to articulate ideas well and get-
with their lives, Jenkins said. Young
people are making important decisions,
and a lot of the outlets where they
would get information are not provid-
ing a vehicle that is very effective at giv-
ing them engaging, meaningful, exciting
things to pursue.
In September, hundreds of young
people came to San Jos for the daylong
conference, where they were exposed to
social entrepreneurs, nonprot found-
ers, technologists, environmentalists
and journalists. For some kids, it wasnt
just the rst time they learned about
these career options; it was their rst
visit to the city.
Jenkins got creative about audience
engagement by asking each attendee to
make a commitment. On a large white
board shaped like a comment bubble,
each attendee was asked to write a com-
mitment and pose for a photograph. The
pictures now populate the groups Face-
book page with promises of all kinds:
exercise more, launch a business, write
that thesis, stop thinking negatively and
smile more often.
Rather than charge for attendance,
Jenkins and his team decided to offer
free admission to young people who
sent in an idea via video. He says it was
a way to get kids involved before they
even arrived and to put them in the TED
mindset so they would be ready to think
about applying creative solutions to the
problems theyll face.
Theres a shift in new kinds of ca-
reers, Jenkins said. The problems
young people face are not solved by tra-
ditional careers. But these young people
will be the ones dealing with the chal-
lenges we face over the next 20 years.
Jenkins is already at work on next
years TEDxJovenPuraVida event. He
plans to improve the quality of the tech-
nical aspects, such as lighting, sound
and online streaming, and to work with
sponsors earlier in the process to make
their stands more interactive.
Yes, there are a lot of challenges, he
says, but theyre all challenges he looks
forward to.
I was afraid the TED high would
end after the event, Jenkins said. But
I saw that it could be sustained.
ting them to be spread globally.
Adora Svitak, TEDxRedmond
Adora Svitak is one of the rare TEDx
organizers who didnt just attend a TED
conference but actually presented at
one. Shes rarer still because when she
presented, she was just 12 years old.
The experience of being in a place
lled with so many ideas and so much
inspiration made me want to bring back
something similar to my community,
Svitak said.
So she created an organizing commit-
tee of 16 young people and got to work.
Today, Svitak is 14 and has already or-
ganized two TEDx events in her home-
town of Redmond, Washington, and is
currently working on the third.
She says her organizing committee of
16 teens gets a lot of support from the
parents. (TED requires all organizers
under the age of 18 be supervised by an
adult.) But the decisions, she says, are
all made by the teens because the TEDx
format is ideal for a for-kids-by-kids
program.
As young people, were at the per-
fect crossroads of this childish naivet
and realism, Svitak said. I think it can
be easier for young people, being a little
less cynical, understanding the message
that speakers are putting forward and
going into it with an open mind.
Svitak says that planning TEDx
events has become somewhat addictive
because each event sets the bar higher
and inspires more new people who crave
even more ideas. To keep going, Svitak
says she has had to learn the same les-
sons that all organizers eventually learn.
Start early, delegate tasks and,
above all, keep in mind why youre do-
ing it, she said. If I ever lost focus,
forgot the fact that its ultimately about
the inspiration and the impact, I would
feel like all my hard work wasnt going
anywhere.
Pablo Jenkins, TEDxJovenPuraVida
When Pablo Jenkins became a co-orga-
nizer of a TEDx youth event in Costa
Rica, he was hoping to get young people
inside his country better connected to
each other and to the rest of the world
at a time when they need it most.
We were trying to think of ways we
could get the TED message to people
as they are deciding what theyre doing
-TATF UI JIAY
continued from page 21
JIt IDFA-, -MAII MFFTINt-
TARA SWORDS specializes in business, technology
and travel topics.
ELIZABETH HENDERSON, M.E., Des., is the chief
sustainability strategist with Meeting Change, a
consultancy that uses sustainability to increase
heart-share, mindshare and market-share for ef-
fective business results. She can be reached at
elizabeth@meetingchange.com
SAPs SAPPHIRE NOW event is just
one example of how meetings add sig-
nicant value to the business. As the vice
president of global events, Scott Schenker,
explains, Our primary objective with
SAPPHIRE NOW was transforming the
brand and pipeline acceleration. As a re-
sult of the event, people aremore likely
to buy and buy sooner. I can show in-
creased opportunity movement and deal
closure.
DETERMINING THE BUSINESS
VALUE OF MEETINGS
The process, tools and techniques used to
determine the business value of meetings
are no different than those used to deter-
mine the inherent value of other business
imperatives.
Like most successful business initia-
tives, it starts with securing stakeholder
commitment. Without this, the next
stepestablishing relevant, clearly de-
ned objectivescant take place. While
this seems like an entirely logical and rea-
sonable step, according to MPIs research,
it is rarely practiced. Without objectives,
its impossible to design, plan and execute
a meeting that meets an organizations
needs. Without relevant, clearly dened
objectives, it is impossible to determine
the business value of meetings.
Next, meeting professionals need to
address the clear lack of knowledge and
understanding around the wide variety of
measures and measurement tools among
the various stakeholders. They need to
know enough about these to make in-
formed decisions about a reasonable
course of action, regardless of whether the
measures come from internal or external
resources.
Finally, without proper analysis and
reporting, all efforts are wasted. Theres
an old saying among measurement pro-
fessionals that no data is better than bad
data; implementing the wrong solution
can be more costly than the challenge
youre trying to solve.
MPIs research also found that in ad-
dition to these knowledge and skill gaps,
there are misperceptions about the scope
and scale of determining business value
that must be overcome. Many meeting
professionals believe that the business val-
ue of meetings is an all-or-nothing propo-
sition and that the complexity of the task
will inevitably lead to failure.
The irony is that this belief is based
on faulty assumptions. Companies have
successfully challenged these assumptions
and demonstrated that determining the
business value of meetings is something
that can be phased in over time, in man-
ageable steps that do not detract from oth-
er responsibilities or require signicant re-
sources and budget. This is the wayand
some argue the only sustainable wayto
institute an organizational change initia-
tive such as this.
BENEFITS VS. PERCEIVED COSTS
When this alignment of business objectives
and the use of appropriate measures, tools,
analysis and reporting occur, the benets
of implementation far outweigh perceived
costs. According to stakeholders and meet-
ing professionals who adhere to these best
practices, meetings become more efcient
and effective, accelerating growth and the
pace of organizational change.
Marty Homlish, former CMO of SAP,
noted this when speaking about SAPPIRE
NOW.
Weve taken [the event] and created
a transformational platform for the com-
pany.
Thats the potential inherent in every
meeting or event, all of which represent the
same opportunitya chance to signicant-
ly impact business. But without measure-
ment, without determining the business
value of meetings, the only word meetings
will be known for is potential.
MEETING EXPECTATIONS
Its one thing to have expectations for a
meeting or event. Most dontand those
who do dont set these expectations very
high. Its another to have the standards and
the processes in place that enable expecta-
tions to be met or even exceeded. Its time
meeting owners, professionals and del-
egates acknowledge whats at stake and do
their parts to ensure meetings realize their
full potential.
MPIs Business Value of Meetings proj-
ect set out to identify how companies deter-
mine the total impact of their meetings. It
found that while there is a well-established
process for such initiatives, that process
isnt being utilized by meeting stakeholders
for a variety of reasons.
The projects ongoing deliverables
will explore in more detail the barriers to
change and explain the steps individual
stakeholders can take to develop a reason-
able and sustainable measurement pro-
gram that helps answer the question that
remains unanswered: Whats the busi-
ness value of our meeting? The rst set
of tools is already available. Visit www.
mpiweb.org/bvom for ve white papers
that explain the steps toward developing
a business value of meetings program.
Over the coming months, MPI will deliver
tools against these white papers to assist in
your efforts to determine the value of your
events.
The Business Value of Meetings:
Barriers to Change
LOOK AROUND: GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS, POLITICAL UPHEAVAL,
DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY. No organization or individual is immune to
these changes. And few industries are as impacted by these changes as the
meeting sector, where these forces and others aggressively collide.
Despite the urgent need to address these issues, the majority of us
continue to resist change in the way we meet, and in the way we conduct the
business of meetings. Any change initiative,
regardless of size or scope, is fraught with
challenges, and understanding these is key to
managing them. But, for the courageous mi-
nority that fears uncertainty yet acts anyway,
here is some advice on making the case for
change.
Barriers to change generally fall into two
categories: individual and organizational.
Actually, its the overemphasis on process is-
sues over people issues that experts attribute
the high failure rate of change initiatives to,
up to 70 percent by most estimates.
In terms of individual barriers, know that
resistance to change is normal and expected. Skepticism of new ideas is
actually healthy; its intransigent resistance that impedes on business objec-
tives. Misunderstandings and miscommunications are also common, often
exacerbated in industries and organizations under duress and in greater
need of change.
Other individual barriers to change include:
Habit
Low tolerance for change
Fear of the unknown
Self-interest
These underscore the powerful and dynamic nature of individual change
needs. Without the awareness of the need for change, the desire to make it
happen, the knowledge about how to change and the reinforcement of new
skills and behavior, any initiatives will have little chance of success.
Actually, its the emphasis on process issues over people issues that ex-
perts attribute the high failure rate of change initiatives to, up to 70 percent
by most estimates.
In terms of organizational barriers, poorly managed change processes
contribute to a climate of mistrust and misunderstanding. Add to this volatile
mix a lack of preparation and planning, dedicated resources and incentives
and buy-in from senior management, workgroups and individuals, and you
start to wonder why failure rates arent higher.
Whatever the reason, individual or organizational, you must anticipate
resistance and be prepared to respond to it rationally and emotionally. For
the former, begin with a clear understanding of the problem at hand. Without
this, the ideas you generate, the criteria you use to evaluate those ideas and
the action plans you put in place will likely lead you further from the most
sensible solution.
On an emotional level, build trust and security. Be prepared to explain the
need for change, provide relevant information and involve all stakeholders
in the process. Ultimately, the change management process is simply a tool
for delivering results. The change itself takes place one individual at a time,
changing thinking, beliefs and behaviors.
The meeting industry has always struggled to keep pace with the rate
of change going on in the world around us. The adoption of distance learn-
ing technologies and utilization of social media are just two examples from
recent decades where we failed to lead and are now busy playing catch-up.
Today, solutions exist for many of the challenges we face. We need only open
our eyes and ears, roll up our sleeves and embrace the change we want to see
in our industry.
JFJtFJTIUN V-. JFAIITY
JOHN NAWN is founder of The Perfect Meeting, an
experiential design rm focused on maximizing the
attendee meeting experience.
JOHN NAWN
SERVICE THATS SETTING NEW STANDARDS.
ITS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DISCOVER THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
A GOOD MEETING AND THE GREATER MEETING. LEARN MORE AT
MEETGAYLORD. COM
WELCOME TO THE GREATER MEETI NG.
A PARTNERSHI P
BASED ON RATES, DATES AND SPACE
WI LL ONLY LEAVE YOU WI TH
RESERVATI ONS.

Meet Your Business Success

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Meet Your Business Success

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Advert|sement

Meeting Purpose In-Person Virtual Notes

You might also like