My Top Eventprofs Reads for 2016

Inspired by others sharing their top ready, below are books I have read, use to teach with, have learned from or think you will find useful as you build or evolve in your event / meeting career. From the "basics" to the inspirational, these are among the best I have found across the sectors that are driving us forward.

1. Convention Industry Council's 9th Edition because it is the base for the CMP exam for a reason. If you are seriously into planning meetings, and believe in lifelong learning, and work somewhere that recognizes the benefits of this designation, or want to, this is a good read for you. A nice companion read is Professional Meeting Management, 6th edition.
2. Event Design Handbook - Roel Frissen, Ruud Jannsen and Dennis Luijer. This builds the story of the #EventCanvas which captures the process of design - from building stakeholder empathy maps, why this matters and defining needs, goals and measurements - both real and visceral. It lays it out in a way that is systematic and ultimately for your event owner - compelling. As a book, it is (of course) really well designed and therefore both easy to read and to pull relevant content from.
3. Winners Dream by Bill McDermott. Why do meetings and incentives matter? This explains why - from the perspective of this CEO. 
4. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Meetings and Events Industry by Elizabeth Henderson and Mariela McIlwraith. We share one world, we have the ability to have the biggest impact on it - much of it positive once we understand our power and pay attention to the planning and design process with an eye on sustainability. This book breaks it down without being preachy.
5. Gamestorming A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers. Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo. If you don't like the title, this is not the book for you. That's okay. If you want to work with your teams and committees and even on-site at your events to change up formats and deliver more actionable learning, this is a great book for you.
6. Resonate by Nancy Duarte. If you are a content creator, an event producer, or just love the way storytelling can be used to deliver great messages, this book is practical, has lots of great examples and will spark new ways to deliver content well - and make every presenter you share it with look better too.
7. Trending Topic by Gerrit Heijkoop and Paula Vos is described as a 'management novel' and it really is just this - an easy read that you learn from. If you are thinking you still don't really understand social media or how it can benefit your meeting, event or association and its members, this book is an easy way to create understanding. Social media is simply another medium we need to understand as event professionals, and this makes the learning, yes, fun.
8. Wine Drinking for Creative Thinking by Michael Gelb. If you know me - the title says it all. If you want to delve into the process of creativity, enjoy some great storytelling, and pair it with chocolate, this is exactly the book to do it with.

Happy reading!

When is Social Media Not Social?

Me and "Speaker Sue" at last meet IRL (oct 2015)

Coffee with my SM Hero Matt Bologna of BizBash

Social Media. Two words. Social is the active part of this combination. Media is a tool. What Jenise Fryatt taught us as #EIR in the early days of learning how to use this twitter tool = Engage, Inform, Retweet.  Engage with people - yes PEOPLE who are actively sharing interesting content and ideas - start and continue conversations because when you meet these people IRL (in real life) you will find yourself with new friends, colleagues and interesting conversations immediately. It is rather awesome the power of online conversations turning into a live, interactive, intelligent conversation, often with a beverage in hand.  (aka why I love IMEX- see previous blog for all the social media friends I have the opportunity to see there!)  

Engage. Note the word being overused - conversation. When Social Media is not social - ie a one - way dumping of information out, it is an advertorial, not social media at its best.  When you are not engaging with other content, or responding to any reaction to your content sharing - you are kind of missing the point - and mostly you are missing the opportunity social media brings - for you personally, for your organization, and especially if you have a small business you are trying to grow.

Inform.  Sharing content without interaction-boring. Sharing content others can interact with - good idea.  Sharing content with #hashtags to create conversation around a topic of interest to many - very good idea.  Being part of a community such as #eventprofs brings rewards, including friendships born out of common interests.  Being part of weekly chats such as #contentchat or #assnchat around topics that affect your professional life -- growth opportunities.  Sharing content you have created - now we are talking!

Retweet. So simple - hit the retweet button and BOOM you are sharing relevant content with those in your community. Add a comment, ask a question, add to the discussion and your impact is growing.  BTW this is the only one of the three that applies to Twitter only  in terminology - every platform has a way to like, share or comment - so consider the platforms that make sense for you and your business, get comfortable with a couple, and get sharing!

Want to learn more? Michelle Bergstein Fontanez joins me via skype to talk Social Media at a live Vancouver ISES meeting soon - join us if you want to delve into personal and business-friendly social media best practices.
ISES Educates November 17

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.

Conn-tech-tuality

It is that time again, to check in on how fast our tech world is spinning around us, and seeing how we are doing as the meeting and event industry at keeping up – with developments and with our attendees' expectations.

Hyper-connectivity is a topic I have written about before, and we know as individuals how much time we spend researching purchases on line, especially for travel.  According to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group (shared by Dylan Bolger at the Incentive Research Foundation Invitational) we spend 40+ hours researching on-line for our vacations in the pre and post booking process.  So, what else are we finding when we open our browser and type in our destination(s) of choice – perhaps a meeting we are interested in pops into our frame of reference, and by virtue of the location, we feel more compelled to go.  We also reach out through our many social media channels to see who else we will see at #meeting, sometimes during the decision process, and certainly after we have booked.  We will communicate via text, emails, dm’s, and possibly even the old-school way, by telephone, and make plans for when we are there, scheduling meetings, breakfasts, and post-event cocktails.

Most of us will now arrive with multiple devices which all require wifi connectivity, something we recognize is a precious commodity, especially when we check into a hotel that is charging per room per device, often at $14.95 per!  Some loyalty programs will offer complimentary wifi as a benefit, but bandwidth remains an issue whether we are paying or not, and the concept of catching up on that Netflix show while away from our children remains just that, a concept as the bandwidth often doesn’t allow video streaming applications to even open, thus forcing us to spend that time checking email for example.  

Personal control is our new mantra, as we want to decide, in the way of all teen-agers across time, to do what we want, when we want. Like a good teen, we are often stymied in this desire by conference or event plans without enough choice, the meeting equivalent of being told “No, you can’t just go out and hang around!” On-site examples may include a reception where the whole room is noisy making it hard to converse, or there is only one focal point with no alternate activities, or there are no gluten free options, or free time is negligible as a few frustrations we may have all experienced.  We now have a stronger desire for targeted media as we process up to 65,000 pieces of data a day coming at us from radio, billboards, television, browser searches, emails, text messages and more.  We also now have more tools, in the form of mobile devices and filters which allow us to easily target information and to receive targeted information specific to our needs and interests, and as organizations trying to maximize engagement during specific times, we need to be keenly aware of our opportunities to make meaningful connections – live and digitally in our changing paradigm.

S’mobility is another topic I have written about, and certainly SoLoMo or Social Local Mobile has become an expectation. I want to be able to reach out and connect across multiple platforms at all times, and when I don’t have wifi, I may incur data charges that certainly seem unreasonable, especially on top of monthly bills we have to manage.  Another SoMoLo acronym refers to Social + Mobile = Loyal, and when we enable our conference and event participants to connect on-line to each other, to f2f and virtual participants, to sponsors and exhibitors and their people and websites for added information, to speakers and their sessions and their notes, to our schedules and to information about attending and maximizing our participation, and when this is done easily through a great app, we develop more brand loyalty to the hosting organization because the experience becomes more comfortable, easy, and more pleasurable overall.

How will you marry digital into your meetings to contextualize the overall experience for your participants?

Event attendance - relationship or transaction?

Engaged learners at #ECV11

Reality check: event attendance is not a decision made as a simple transaction. A potential attendee does not consider attending an event the same way they consider buying a coffee, or even purchasing a product online.

The decision to attend an event is much more complex. As a potential attendee you need to consider the resources, time, money, travel distance and potential return. You will choose to attend because you see value in attending. Where does this value come from?

As event planners you know it comes back to education and networking. The primary consideration is actually emotional. It is the relationships you have the potential to build while you are there.  How do you sell attendance to your boss though? With rational clarification about the knowledge you will gain by attending, which is where we come back to "content is king" and where the participant driven knowledge model becomes a tougher sell, even if you may leave a conference with a participant driven agenda richer for the deepened relationships and deep-dive education you may achieve, it is still hard to take a blank agenda to your boss and sell your participation. The transaction is tougher to make.

How can you build relationships with your potential attendees? One excellent way pre-event is with effective social media, the kind where you begin conversations that can be continued when you meet face - to - face. Where potential attendees encourage each other to attend because they are excited to share ideas f2f, and where your sessions are stronger because there are more people willing to share ideas, knowledge and resources with each other.  Where connecting for future potential business is a natural extension of your event - the attendance is about the relationships, and people will not only return, they will give you the word of mouth marketing you cannot create without them.

What are you doing to use your meetings as leverage that enhances connections?

Blogalong with Eventwist - Vancouver, New York, and Yes Las Vegas

This week I had the distinct pleasure of being part of the new VANCOUVER booth at AIBTM in Baltimore. OK, reality check, I was administering this booth - making sure all the partners had what they needed for uniforms, swag, support etc. etc. Now, there is a reason I am the Creative Director at Cantrav. and not the administrator of much! So I dug in and got it done and I think I can safely say this was a roaring success - great sales team on the floor, great quality of hosted buyers who were committed to maximizing their time at the show and a great space to do it in!

Here was the funny/great thing about our row for me... beside us MGM Resorts on one side and Boston on another. Dave Gazley had lost the bet with Boston - check this out for Dave wearing the Bruins Jersey - a good sport that one! Just beside Boston, New York! So I think that between the class of Vegas's MGM Resorts and the yellow taxi cookies of New York, we held our own! I think that Lenny from Vegas may have been a bit surprised when I came up and gave him a hug, but when King Dahl says "Hug" - well. you HUG!  Whatever they might say about New Yorkers - I found them VERY friendly and I can't wait to go!

We LOVED having Kiki L'Italien filming Social Media Sweet Spot LIVE from the booth and we sure had some of the who's who stop by, naturally bringing them in for an interview - check it out and you will see Jeff Hurt, Joan Eisenstodt, Dave Lutz, Liz King, Traci Browne and then our Vancouver hosts including Ken Cretney from the gorgeous Vancouver Convention Centre and Doug Tewnion with the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle - at least! Thank you ALL (but especially Kiki!)

On a personal note, seeing for the first time IRL people who have inspired me on-line for nearly a year - you know who you are - Jenise, Lindsey, Traci, Barbara, Ruud... and reconnecting IRL with Greg who took us to some serious local haunts (Nacho Mamas, the fabulous Blue Hill Tavern and then of course Walt's for Karake and Mamas on the Half Shell and then cannolis) - thank you sir, you are a star!  Andy - how much fun did we have? Thanks for sharing the experience. Liz, Billy, Andrea, Kiki, Glenn, Trevor, Joan, Midori, Jeff, Jessica, Christine, Dave... For anyone who does not understand the power of SOCIAl (media) - all I can say is keep reading...

I am so fortunate to have connected with people who are PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES, who understand that meetings can make a difference, and that when we as planners and producers take care of the people who attend our events and their educational, personal, professional needs are met through events that allow them to be engaged and to truly connect... this is what is going to make meetings and events continually better through relevance and proven RO... I(nvestment), E(ngagement), R(elationships)... let's create memorable moments and give people information they can use when they return to their organizations...  I say BRING IT ON!