June full of idea sharing

The kind of food I hope to find
at meetings (Vancouver Convention
Centre, March 2013)

It has already been an incredible year of traveling, sharing knowledge and learning, with PCMA and The Special Event in January, the Green Meetings Industry Council in April and in just a few days I will join the Incentive Research Foundation for their annual meeting.

June is usually a time of birthday celebrations for my family and getting ready for exciting summer programs. While these remain true, this year there is back to back education that will be fantastic for meeting professionals, and I thought it might be fun to mention just a few which are all within ten days, making it impossible to attend all, but fun to think about!  

June 5 - 7, SPINCon, Atlantic City
For Senior Planners (10+ years) SPINCon is continuing to offer leading edge speakers in what will be a thoughtfully experimental environment with a focus on connecting planners to talk to each other and this looks great.  Two years ago I was able to go to this conference and can feel good about recommending it.

June 8 - 10, CMP Conclave, Spokane Washington
I have just renewed my CMP for the second time, and have been working on writing some elements for the next (9th edition) of the CIC manual so I was very excited about this being so close to home. I thought this might be the year to attend a conclave, but you really can't be in two places at once, so I won't make it, but especially after having met Wendy @frameworkmtgs at PCMA this January, I know that Spokane is going to rock this one - making it full of both great conversation and wine - enhanced social networking.

June 11 - 13th, AIBTM, Chicago (exhibiting)
This one is a must attend as I both love this show, and have the opportunity to support our Vancouver partners in activating the booth. In addition to the great people, the touchscreen experience of Vancouver, to learn about apps to support your planning with app gurus Dahlia El Gazzar who has been leading Wine and Apps sessions for local Chicago planners and Keith Johnston @plannerwire who is always talking tech, enjoy some BC wine, learn about audience engagement strategies with Katie of MYB and more!  That is just in our booth - check out the program for the many educational and connection opportunities that will be filling up these three days from the partnerships they have with ACTE, PCMA, ICCA, MPI, IAEE and SITE to their own Future Events Experience happening n the show floor.  I look forward to seeing many of you there!

June 13 - 15, Collaborate Marketplace, Denver (speaking)
I am thrilled to have been considered to speak at this event and to be able to join in and participate in sessions with what is an awesome lineup of speakers at this event designed for corporate meeting planners. If you haven't already checked this one out, I recommend you do - the feedback from previous years is awesome!

I look forward to new ideas and new connections, and to hearing about what others are sharing and learning along the way.

SPINCon11: The View from Canada

I recently had the great pleasure of presenting at and attending SPINCon; the inaugural conference of the Senior Planners Industry Network led by Shawna Suckow, in the Twin Cities. First, who knew there was a direct flight from Vancouver to the Twin Cities? It was really easy to get here, the Crowne Plaza St. Paul outdid themselves with the hospitality (and great rate!) and the reasonable registration made this a highly accessible meeting. Thank you. Focused on the needs of senior planners (10+ years) and with the supplier participation coming from sponsors who really want to better understand this special breed of planner, with years of experience to share, strong experience and/or education and a desire to collaboratively work to successful meetings, this was quite a special place to be.  Check out http://spincon.spinplanners.com for details on the sessions as well as archives.

The sessions were overall excellent, with lots of time for discussion and sharing, loads of interaction, and always done with no fear by the senior planners for this meeting, Shawna, Tracey Smith and Sara Vanderbilt. Their approach to selecting presentations and presenters was thoughtful and thorough, and their attention to detail from the "hatching of the ideas" to the timings of the sessions, the egg sweaters and duck speaker timer... It all added up to fun that engaged the learners as they had more tools to retain the information being shared.

A final session was the "Cheater's Guide to Hybrid Events" and the group was divided into a main room where the presentation took place (the function room) then into the "Home Office" where the experience of following along as if you were at home with headphones on was simulated and then what we called "Canada" which simulated a pod experience.  Here is what Canada found in their room, and what we have learned NOT to do, as it was set up by Sam Smith and Erica St. Angel to show what happens when you don't consider that the home, function room and remote pod as separate entities that will require thoughtful preparation to allow for their differences.

With only one camera angle far away from the main stage, and no way to see the slides being presented, we found ourselves easily disengaged and a bit disgruntled with the overall experience. Why? Several reasons, including:

1. We could not really see what was happening as it was too far away
2. We had zero connection to any emotion from the speakers with the distance and no facial close-ups
3. The bandwidth challenges meant that the connection was a bit jumpy and irritating to watch
4. The sound was not great
5. We could not see the slides the speakers referred to
6. There was no clear focus on our needs as learners, even though they did give us work to do, we were less interested in doing it

What we learned was what NOT to do when planning a hybrid! Was it risky to put participants through a less than ideal experience? Heck yes and kudos to the presenters and the organizers for recognizing that we learn as much or more from failures, and for being willing to walk off that cliff and seize the opportunity to show in a very real way what happens if you "forget" the details related to your event.

The great elements ranged from opening keynotes (GrowthWorks) who returned to wrap up our learnings at the end of the conference; Joel Zeff with an opening improv on the second morning; two awesome CSR activities, one filling school backbacks for the United Way on a riverboat cruise, and the second getting baby suppliers at the Mall of America for a local women's group; great breakout sessions that covered choosing brain-friendly food for your meeting to AV Girl's tips for technology success to Sam Smith looking at our five wishes for the meetings industry and a fun approach to strategic thinking, among others.  For me, it was also great to meet some people I had not yet met IRL and it was just as great as could have been anticipated!

Was it perfect? It wasn't supposed to be - it was meant to take risks and did, and now they will take the the concepts and sessions that really worked for the majority of the group, and build on these for the future.  And continue to focus on senior meeting planners (evolving) needs. I would definitely do what I can to participate again!