IMEX14 - Socially Aware

I am always impressed with the work of the IMEX Social Team. Miguel Neves and his team truly understand all facets of on-line, and brought together all their lessons (includes a good video recap) and continued to grow.  They again worked with How-can-I-be-social to facilitate conversations with on-site and virtual participants around the globe and had a lot of fun with the IMEX Social Team capturing information all through the space.
Their enthusiasm, experience, no fear to experiment and embrace what is happening NOW, and continue to learn... all of this is what adds up to an excellent ongoing partnership. 

This is the year of the selfie, and you can head to this link to tag yourself in the picture above! Seriously - this is quite awesome. 

 From IMEXLive, sponsored by Hilton Worldwide and The Events Network on BOB-TV there are many great interviews captured (also available in the app), and in the Vancouver booth, Kiki for the fourth year captured interviews with many locals and leaders.  CNTV in a co-production with Sonic Foundry and PRG also broadcast live from the show with these and more interviews being available as part of IMEX TV each day.  It is always fun to see what people are saying about the show and our industry and to have so many great avenues and perspectives adds to the story.

Brandt and I were also on site with the Event Alley Show and had the opportunity to dig deeper into what is going on right now in the industry and how we all impact it. This is a great episode and thank you Brandt for pretty much doing it all! 

The tweets were off the charts, with the extended reach into the millions, and we were able to capture this and showcase it with QuickMobile and its newest offering, Concerto. For me as a planner who loves social, I am digging this new tool!  The ability to be social from within the app (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) is also a great feature.

Concerto on the screen in our comfortable QuickMobile space

IMEX continues to be a leader from social to education all encapsulated in a serious buying show and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next year.

In the meantime you can check out this IMEX America Live Link to see all the action.

Event Alley Fun

Content. 48 hours of content uploaded every hour. How do you possibly find that all important "Context" within the Content? Finding what is relevant for you, relevant for your industry is a challenge. I am a voracious consumer of content and always have been, so when I was invited to be part of Event Alley Show this year, I thought it seemed like a great idea.

Lindsey preps for a live show
at MPI WEC this year.

So far, so good!  The Event Alley Show guests are what define the show, and we have had some amazing people join us including most recently Evan Greene, the CMO of The Recording Academy (the Grammys), Simon T. Bailey, Julius Solaris, David Merrell and Chad Kaydo on trends and the business of design, Ruud Janssen and Roel Friessen discussing Event Model Generation and so many more.  We have also done live episodes from PYM Meetings, MPI WEC and the IRF Annual Invitational.  Explore and see what you can find!

We also occasionally do audio only Show Plus episodes and have talked with Roger Simons of MCI about event sustainabiliity, Andrew Walker about MPI's CSR initiatives and King Dahl about large scale events, among others, and I enjoy hearing what these smart people have to share with us.  In teaching Sustainable Event Operations at BCIT earlier this year I used a number of the interviews - with Shawna McKinley, Mariela McIlwraith, Karen Swim (PR) and Michele Sarkisian (EPCAT and human trafficking) as we explored the people - planet - profit impacts of events and meetings.

We have recently updated our playlists and the range of subjects from Technology to Event Design to Sustainable and Responsible Meetings provides excellent listening no matter where you play in the meeting and event space.

I definitely have some favorite episodes - but encourage you to check out our YouTube channel for the videos, or Event Alley Show on iTunes or Stitcher if listening podcast style fits your life better. 

Customer Service Rules

Helping at the IRF

Customer service comes in many forms, but one thing I know absolutely is that we recognize and appreciate excellent service, we talk about bad service, and we have become immune to average service.  From my first career as a hairstylist and salon manager, to my second as a meeting planner and event producer, I have innately understood that great service is the only option if you want to become successful in that thing called work most of us will have to do for a long time.  We are lucky when we have work we love doing, and enjoy the rewards of providing good service. In the meeting and event industry, service is often our only differentiator, and while I have dozens of stories from my work in this arena, below I share a few that have inspired me to think about how we can do what we do better.

Trevor sharing knowledge

I have a few stories, the first from my colleague Trevor, a star among us in how he makes people feel, and who appreciates great service.  Trevor comes home from IMEX Frankfurt, exhausted as you would expect, and gets in a taxi to go home. The taxi is a regular taxi on the outside. Inside it is uber-clean with an office organizer on the

dashboard for the driver’s pens, receipts etc. The car smells good. There is nature/spa music playing at a reasonable volume and the temperature is comfortable.  The driver at the end of the trip says thank you very much, here is my card with my mobile number on the back and if you would like to book a ride with me, please call or text.  A week later, Trevor remembers this experience, texts the driver for a 4am pickup. He responds and says he will see him at 4am, and would he like a coffee? How would he like it?  At 3am the driver texts and says, see you at 4. At 345 he texts and says I am in the Tim Horton’s lineup would you like anything to go with your coffee? Guess who Trevor will have pick him up when he comes home?  And – this is a regular taxi driver and not a private car service, or a fancy sedan – nobody told him to do this – he has taken it upon himself to offer this level of service.  Guess who Trevor calls every time he has to go on a trip?

The next is from Andy who as someone who makes orthopedic braces understands well how important service is and who enjoys helping people greatly. Today he got a new drum. I love this story because it is from a guy in Beaverton who hand-makes the drums with an amazing amount of care and attention to detail, and who will only sell to musicians. Why? He wants people who love music to play his drums - not for someone who appreciates the beauty to make them a coffee table or a lamp.  Great service comes with passion for your product.

My cousin Kerry owns a coffee shop, the Hawthorne Cafe in Milton, which means for the most part her and Matt spend seven days a week caring for the basic coffee and food needs of guests, and who have focused on what matters to them - fresh, wholesome food, organic and fair trade products, and being a go-to place for those who appreciate excellent f & b products and great service.  They have created a warm environment that is conducive to families and individuals, indoors in a great space and outdoors on a fabulous patio, plus catering, jam nights, and other ongoing events. They ALWAYS do this with joy, and if you are near the area, I would stop in! 

Many of us are familiar with the famous level of service provided by Ritz Carlton properties. and on the Event Alley Show we were lucky enough to capture Jeff Hargett, a great speaker on the subject of service and a true master of this subject as the Senior Corporate Director, Culture Transformation for this organization as he shares his thoughts. It was one of our more technically challenging episodes as he joined us over a wifi connection, something we can all agree has not reached the level of service we now require (!) but well worth the listen for the content he shares.

How do we inspire this level of service from every individual who works with us?

Mobile - Events - Fun

Six weeks into my new job with QuickMobile not only do I remain extremely excited about the possibilities for mobile I am looking forward to some great upcoming events. 

For the balance of the year QuickMobile has partnered with BizBash to support their Plan a Thons - and what I know is when people I admire such as Warner Brothers Hillary Harris tell me how much fun a Plan a Thon is - I know we are in for a great ride across five cities, beginning this week in Toronto!   

At IMEX Frankfurt this year with the QuickMobile team we will be doing a really fun activation - so stop by there and say hi to Trevor Roald, get a great picture you can share and make sure to tag me back on the post @TahiraCreates so I can follow along on the fun! They will also be releasing the results of the meeting planner survey done in partnership and the results are pretty interesting. I feel many of us are still just starting to tap into the potential of our participants having their "world in their pocket" and I think the next few years will really see us use this to our collective advantage.

Add to this some great travel to shows including HSMAI, AIBTM and the IRF Invitational where you can also catch the Event Alley Show live, and it is going to be a rocking next few months. I look forward to catching up with MANY of my far-flung friends - it's going to be a blast! 

Event Alley Show

One year ago, the Event Alley Show launched, and I commented on what a smart idea this was - accessible, current and relevant information for our industry presented in a fun way that was and is easy to listen to each week.

When I was asked to be a guest host last June at AIBTM, and had the opportunity to chat with CeCe Solomon and Scott Lum, I was thrilled.  

At the end of the year I was asked if I would like to join the Event Alley Show as co-host moving forward to 2014, and I could not be more thrilled to join Lindsey Rosenthal and BIG VOICE Brandt Krueger as we build a community of those interested in meetings, events and the impacts they can have.

We will have some excellent guests, great segments, and a lot of fun learning coming your way.  We invite you to explore the website and to join us every Wednesday at 10am PST / 1pm EST, this year on - air with a new video format, or you can download the audio podcasts and enjoy them when it suits you.  We look forward to your ideas, input, and sharing with us as we build our neighborhood!  Oh, and there are great rewards for listeners so please join us live, share your comments and add to the awesome!