Maroon 5 - Conducting

Do you remember your first concert?  (Mine was Trooper) Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking my daughter and two friends to see Owl City, Neon Trees and Maroon 5. There is nothing more infectious than the energy of 3 x 12 year old girls getting ready to go to a concert, but at the same time being as cool as you can only be at certain specific points in your life.

As an event producer, I cannot attend a show without looking at the technical details. (and many of you are the same) Kudos to the Maroon 5 team, who used technology in so many incredibly smart ways to tell the story, some of my favorites I will share with you here.

Owl City

Neon Trees

First, I always love seeing the difference in the look for the opening act(s) to the headliner, and this show did not disappoint. Backing the stage for the opening acts a large white backdrop, lacking enough finesse I knew it would not stay. This was used well for projections that added depth to Owl City and Neon Trees - both excellent bands and a perfect fit for the Maroon 5 audience.

As Maroon 5 was starting, I could see two sections behind the "kill zone" (essentially behind the stage) full of people, and knew for sure the white drape was outta there. Sure enough, in the build-up to Maroon 5 taking the stage, this was literally lifted in a "whoosh" revealing the white off shoot stages you see above to be part of a larger "M" backed by projections screens that were used smartly and to great effect throughout the show. One of my favorite uses was the strips that brought in the colors that tied to the overall theming (and merchandising), but had Adam Levine sharp in black and white.

Every song brought an entirely new look, and used every part of the stage, set and screens to bring every song to its own life. We have the technology, it is rare still to see it used so completely and effectively, and I thank those who masterminded this. The bridge that arced down from overhead for just the encore, delivering Adam to the crowd waiting in the middle of the arena for the whole show for him to be just this close, was an awesome addition and added the right sense of highlight to the finale.

We also appreciated the depth and breadth of the music, and their obvious joy in doing live shows.  With no bad language, lots of gratitude to the audience for the ongoing support and a really good show, it was a choice I could feel good about sharing with three young ladies! For all of us, it is good to remember how lucky you are, with how hard you have worked, to be able to do what you love (and they said it out loud).

Yes, they bought the t-shirts. This was their criteria for choice - "this one, it isn't just cool on its own, you have to make it cool." And yes, they wore them home and slept in them!

(R)evolution of Mobile

Time for discussion -
EventCamp Vancouver

In January Hyper-Connectivity and the reality that we are all on, all connected, all the time was a point of discussion, and how we can possibly keep up this pace remains at issue. How we are now seeing approximately 63,000 words every day, and a plethora of images and infographics, all competing for our attention, all taking us away from old - fashioned human face-to-face interactive conversations is a new reality, but is it better? 

I have made so many friends on social media that I have now met IRL that I cannot disparage the power of social media for connections, but I can definitely say I prefer the time spent live with friends, colleagues, peers, and family.

Last week I wrote about the collision of social and mobile - "SMobile" as Claire Smith referred to it, and the challenges and opportunities that will come from the global shift (yes, global) to "we want it now and we want it on an app" that we are seeing all around us.  

Yet at the same time, Thom Singer this week looks at the reality that adding an app or even an app with a gamification component does not a conference community make - which I agree with, although I have seen it be successful, I have also seen it be a non-starter.  Both TED and SXSW - the two largest proponents of technology on many levels, have boldly said at their 2013 events "please, put down your devices".  The two links will take you to TED's 13 rules for attendees, designed to increase human, live, intuitive interaction, and then at SXSW how the festival is using human tools to draw people away from their devices and back to f2f collaborations.  I agree with all of these, there is a time to engage via mobile (it is a great way to find friends especially at large events) and a time to put it away and enjoy the people.

What are you going to do at your next event to increase the human engagement factor? The kinds of interaction that leads to collaboration, friendship, and real opportunities. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this ongoing (r)evolution.

http://canadianspecialevents.com/cseme_toronto/readers-choice-finalists-vote-now/

Planner...or Conductor?

The ultimate fire and ice event
orchestrated by Cantrav Services.

At a recent conference, our (amazing) client commented, as the 200 guests arrived, that this was the part she liked best, when the six people who had been planning for months could now turn it over to the energy of the participants. I LOVE THIS perspective. I told her I loved it and would be turning this into a blog post, and here it is.

I am a huge fan of Benjamin Zander, a man, a speaker, a teacher, a classical music lover and a Conductor (Boston Philharmonic Orchestra) and find I am always moved by his messages.  In watching him enrapture a TED audience on an archived TEDTalk this week it made me think about the similarities between being a meeting planner and being a conductor.  First though, an obvious difference. When a CD of the orchestra is released, it will have a picture of the conductor on the cover, and this would be the exact opposite of what happens at a meeting, where the planner is in the background, typically by choice, certainly by the nature of the work, but the role in creation just as vital.

The similarities include a reliance on everyone around you to create a cohesive whole. An orchestra will have percussion, woodwinds, strings, brass, keys, and potentially featured artists to create a symphony, led by the conductor.  They may then combine this music to create an even greater whole, adding to opera, a play, an awards show, as examples.  Every single player has to be able to be fully responsible for their own part, and yet be part of the greater whole, cohesive in timing with everyone else, all guided by the conductor, rehearsed and yes, orchestrated.

As meeting planners we too have to bring together a group of supplier partners to create an event we have invested ourselves in, usually beginning with a proposal (and budget) sold, and now to be brought alive. We will work with parameters dictated by the venue, desired by the stakeholders, and set out to meet the objectives, and most importantly when we plan an event, there are no rehearsals!  A great meeting will have rehearsals for their general sessions, possibly gala awards, and maybe even dry runs for their breakout sessions but nobody gets to rehearse a reception or welcome event, or "mind blowing, unforgettable off-site event in a unique location". Understanding this will affect our ability to be great conductors, what steps should we / could we take? I have had the opportunity to lead teams on many multi-faceted projects, and share my ideas here, and welcome yours.

1. First play the symphony. Play it through once and inspire your team. (with an event this is sharing the creative description and objectives)
2. Lay it out, create the event version of the "musical score", critical path leading to a production schedule, floor plans, imagery, whatever it takes to tell the story.
3. We MUST share this vision with everyone who is part of the team. Get their input, make sure they know their role, and are comfortable with everything it encompasses.
4. Have everyone play nicely together. We don't get to have rehearsals but we can have a meeting ahead of time and run through it all from set through event to strike.
5. Then, watch the magic happen.

There is magic in music, and there is definitely magic in the events we create, and seeing how people respond to what we have created... that is what keeps us wanting to create. But back to the beginning, the magic truly comes from the people, and yes, when we watch the guests arrive, feel their energy, their buzz and see them smiling, collaborating,  connecting, our invested energy, ultimately rewarded.

Voting currently available with winning choices announced in Toronto March 21, 2013. I appreciate your support - plus it is fun to see all the nominees!

SMobile

Parked, checking flight status
while waiting

In a recent post I spoke about hyper-connectivity of the world being an issue we need to address as we plan our meetings.  At the recent (excellent) MPI BC Chapter Education Conference, there was a word used by Claire Smith as she opened the day that stuck with me. She was speaking of shifts (something happening that will change the way we do business) and trends (something topical now that will evolve) that are and will soon be impacting our industry.

The Word: SMobile. The combination of social and mobile. This is a SHIFT, so we must pay attention to it. What does this mean to our meetings? (To our lives?) This ubiquitous and ongoing intrusion as we now spend, in many cases, more time connected to our virtual world than building real-time connections with people we are face-to-face with is impacting how our meetings are affecting people. 

This collision of technology and talking, this new way of sharing information, it is not going away.  We now have multiple ways of connecting with people through one device. Like many of you, my mobile phone connects me to thousands on Twitter, hundreds on Facebook, more on LinkedIn, dozens by text - SMS, WhatsApp, OnChat, and still more by voice or video with Skype and Facetime, and for very few, by telephone.  

We shop, drive, research and register all with the device in our hand (tablet or smartphone) - we are are no longer road warriors, we are mobile maniacs.  We rely on apps for the weather, for recipes, for maps, for sharing ideas and storing content, for playing games, passing the time, and learning.

As an organization or event who is looking to find sponsors, increase ticket sales or registrations, or ideally build a community around us, are we taking full advantage of this SMobility?  Ideally you are collecting data about HOW people want to be connected to you, and creating messages unique to each of these social platforms that are useful to your audience.  While apps for events are fantastic, useful, sustainable and able to change at a moment's notice - an excellent tool for many reasons, you should be considering how your organization can create an app that builds ongoing engagement and communication within your unique social network.

How is your organization going to meet the challenges of our globally changing, totally SMobile world?

http://canadianspecialevents.com/cseme_toronto/readers-choice-finalists-vote-now/

Word of the Day-Genuine

A little fun with a competitor
on Dinner Party Wars

Seen today on Twitter
@bifnaked Word of The Day: Genuine

My question is, would you choose another way to be? 

My feeling is that being anything else would simply take more energy than I have. Essentially, what you see is what you get, good or sometimes not so good, being human and all. When I am excited about something, I will share my joy and passion and when I disagree with something, you will know that too.  When I see reasons to celebrate, I will bring you along with me, and I hope you are ready to share the ride!

We live in a world that is tough, expensive, and highly imperfect, where we will have incredible opportunities, great joy, crushing disappointment and challenges which may be related to work, health, family or a specific event we are working on that will take energy to overcome. When you are genuine in sharing times of joy and times of need, you will be amazed at the support you receive, I know I am always fortunate to have support from often unexpected places, and hope that in turn I can genuinely support others.

I agree with Bif, be genuine. Have an authentic day, and do what you need to do.

Status Quo and Breaking Barriers

Who told them this was impossible?

Ruud Janssen RT @RuudWJanssen
“@jtauvaa: #EMEC13 innovators and pioneers are a threat to status quo. #MPI #eventprofs” -but an inspiration to innovate + break barriers

In surfing Twitter this morning, this tweet popped right out at me and I feel a deep concern for our industry if anyone thinks we can remain in "status quo".  In the twenty years I have been a meeting planner and event producer, the world has changed and the way we plan meetings must follow, and it must follow a lot more rapidly.  Some of the changes I have seen and issues at a glance as I perceive them include:

1. Twenty years ago we planned everything slowly, by paper and fax, and the sheer manual labour on items like registration took a lot of time. While the manual element is reduced, the attention to details that lead to the proper care and feeding of the delegates remains critical.  It is not simply data inputs that people provide, it is critical information to planning.  Being able to capture and appropriately analyse and then engage at a higher level using this information is currently being underutilized.  I believe the planner of the future will need to better understand the individuals and use the reams of algorithmic data that can be easily collected by using the available, more intuitive and socially connected database systems to create more meaningful experiences at live events. 

2. Travel cost will remain a barrier. Public air travel did not exist in any meaningful way even 60 years ago, but face to face meetings have been important for thousands of years. We now have ubiquitous air travel, and then a world filled with organizations that have put travel limits on their people due to the rising costs of air travel, and the reality is that travel costs will remain high due to fuel costs.  The savvy meeting planner will need to move beyond this perceived need for all f2f and learn how to incorporate hybrid opportunities into meetings for those people who still want to attend but for reasons of time or cost cannot.  There will also be the need to understand that well done hybrids can actually increase future attendance when remote attendees have an opportunity to share in the quality of education and see the potential connections they could make if they were there in person.  

3. TED. The influence that this particular conference has had on our world cannot be ignored. They have made all information accessible to anyone who wants it, and thousands of others - universities included, have followed suit, with much of it accessible at no cost.  People no longer need to attend conferences to learn, so you need to make your offered experience have enough "more" to make it a sensible investment. What are you doing to make yours the can't miss experience?

4. Maker Faire.  Innovation is everywhere. This particular stream of events embraces the unique, the inventive, the "why didn't I think of that?"  Etsy has opened up the world of artisans to everyone with access to the internet, and this too is farther reaching than we could ever have imagined even five years ago. As meeting professionals we have to open up our eyes to the amazing world around us and consider how to include the extraordinary and create positive surprises in our events.

5. Neuroscience. Scientists have learned more about how our brains respond to stimuli in the past decade than at any time in our past, and they have openly shared reams of information, and some of which smart people on the edges of and fully engaged in our industry have extrapolated for us. I have been working with Andrea Sullivan on presenting information on how to include more brain-friendly food and beverage into our meetings, and others have been doing similar work in Europe. This is a very, very simple way to make your meetings better as you support your attendees through their day by offering choices that make sense for a ream of reasons. Andrea has also recently written a white paper on technology and its impact on the brain at meetings - worth a read as it quickly brings in an overview and understanding of integrating this budget item to its maximum capability. What is being done to engage every brain that attends through environment, food, scent, music, texture and connecting the dots in ways that will enhance the meeting experience? 

6. Hyper-connectivity.  I started this post out by saying I was inspired by a tweet, sent from Switzerland. Last week I did a hybrid chocolate tasting with MPI Belgium. The week before that I met at least 8 people f2f I had previously only met on-line, through Tweetchats, through virtual attendance at meetings, through Triberr tribes...  and we met with hugs and dove into relevant conversations about shared interests. We have seen social revolutions started on-line; we have the opportunity to use a myriad of tools to build communities online - with many examples on LinkedIn, Facebook and so many others. These allow us to connect to our own meeting and event communities, our associations, and even festivals where 100,000+ are having a "shared" experience.  If you are not on-line, it is time to at least understand how this is impacting our world.

7. Technology. It too is now omnipresent in our lives, with my daughter having more followers at 12 on instagram then I will ever have - we need to be aware of how mobile technology is impacting our events, including and beyond the apps we are building.  When we set a room we need to understand how we can influence behaviours and enhance retention of learning by making the best available choices given the venue, budget and material. When we are marketing we need to consider all the tools.  We also need to understand how this Digital Disruption is impacting what is to come, and Michelle Bruno offers some great perspective here.  Use what is out there to your advantage, example... What Pinterest boards are your attendees following and creating and how can you use this information to heighten their experience?

I fear for all the meeting and event professionals that with the rise of the internet, where ANYONE can DIY their own event experience with a few google searches for suppliers, that if we are not ahead of the curve, we will become the dodo bird, the platypus, the entity that could not evolve quickly enough to remain strong and important. On the other hand, if we remain focused on our own lifelong learning and adapting to the curve balls the world will continue to toss at us, we can indeed change the world, one meeting at a time.

MPI WEC 2010 Vancouver - this had never been done  before, but why not?

F and B Smart Spending

Glitter Pop from Culinary Capers for
a Midsummer Night's Dream
with Cantrav Services

The most recent statistic I saw said that in just the US, over 34B is spent each year on food and beverage in the meetings industry. THIRTY FOUR BILLION DOLLARS. In ONE country, so imagine what the global spend is.  Now, think back to the last meeting you attended or planned, how much of the food was memorable? Delicious? Made you feel better? Created a positive discussion with the people you  were sharing the meal with?

We live in a world obsessed with food;  from TV shows to magazines, restaurants and cookbooks, the rise of the celebrity chef and a renewed interest in farm to table cooking, and we must take this momentum and collaborate with our caterers, CSMs, Chefs and move our industry collectively forward.

There is a whole range of research that shows how we will improve our meetings by including "brain-friendly" menu options that ensure we offer healthy choices that stabilize guest's blood sugar through a long day of meetings.  This is something I feel strongly we need to incorporate into our meetings, but not the primary focus for today.

Today is about how we take our passion, our global obsession with food and improve the way we spend money on F & B.  Let's take the basic tenets of what I consider the better way to plan, and explore these.

1. Regionalize your planning.  Where are you going, what do they grow there, and how are they going to make it delicious for you. When you cut down on transportation and processing, the money now goes to the product, and the preparation and you will likely spend less for much more delicious food.  Ask the Chef what they LIKE to showcase, and you will likely be stunned at the results.
2. Build conversations around food.  It is proven that when we "break bread" with other human beings, we are more apt to develop relationships, so allow time and space and provide service that provides this. No more sending a lone server out with 24 bites on a tray into a room of 200 where it is about grasping for food, instead consider setting  a large central station and inviting people to come and explore the options. Provide information on what you are serving, where it comes from, or even a story - get people talking about what they are actually tasting.
3. Make every bite count.  Create healthy menus, using fresh, delicious, recognizable products that will provide nutrition, not just fill space. 
4. Pair menus.  For plated dinners, consider pairing the courses, cucumber water with a fresh salad; a crisp white with a squash soup; a deep red with a lush entrée; mint tea with dates and pistachios or baklava style desserts might be one example that is healthy, delicious and creating levels of positive surprise and discussion.  There are thousands of possibilities depending on where you are - use the knowledge of your local partners to create amazing experiences. (Like Brain-Friendly, environments to support discussions is another whole subject)
5.  How about combining our passion for food with our interest in corporate social responsibility?  There are also opportunities to use our excess to support our communities, and certainly throughout North America many city's hotels and convention centres participate in food runner style programs that allow unused food to go to local shelters and soup kitchens.  Thank you to all of you who are doing what you can.

What if we took this another step, and instead of one break or one meal, we told our groups that we weren't going to provide anything for one break, but we would instead be donating the cost of that break to an organization like No Kid Hungry and feeding x number of children x number of hot meals?  Or sending that break to a local shelter.

Let's change the way we approach our food and beverage planning, and make every bite count.  Who's with me?