Singing about the Power to Change-GMIC

Day 7 - 9, GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference

Westin Peachtree and 200 Peachtree Center, Atlanta

Wellness rating: 3.6/5 Based on no protein and limited allergy/gf sensitivity items available at breakfast, limited options for exercise/walking, limited access to natural light during the sessions. Excellent fitness center in the Westin was well used by participants. I am adding a wellness rating to these meetings because when you are spending 34 days on the road, every day counts.

A Study in Sustainability was how we chose to approach the GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference and again, I am so pleased QuickMobile has returned as their mobile app partner and were able to make a positive difference to their initiatives. It is one of the most satisfying parts of my work, to see mobile in action!  It is also one of the reasons we developed the Mobile App Certificate, part of the CIC Preferred Partner Program - 10 hours of how to design mobile into your meetings - and why it matters now that everyone shows up with mobile device in hand!

There were so many things to learn and discover, including a fantastic session on meeting dietary needs of participants in this new age of allergies, sensitivities and choices by Tracy Stuckrath who along with Nancy Zavada, a founder of GMIC was recently named one of M&C's top 25 women in the meetings industry.  Two women I am proud to call friends and who have earned this distinction, along with the others included in this list.

If you don't know Kristi Casey Sanders of PYM - well, you are missing out!  As our host for this meeting she kept us informed, kept it real, reminded us of the learnings we were having along the way, and tied together her love for technology and people with fun periscope interviews throughout. 

We chose to have a study because we wanted to share ideas, and we were able to share twenty copies of Meet Better, a new book by Nancy, Shawna McKinley and Mariela McIlwraith with those who came by to chat with us.  We know they will enjoy the 167 ways to make their meetings more sustainable.  It should truly be part of the thinking behind every meetings - the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit is a pillar we should all be able to get behind and make adaptations that make sense given each particular situation. 

Keynote presentations reminded us of a variety of things related to the theme of the Power to Change, starting with Laura Turner Seydel and the work the Turner family continues to do do around sustainability in their many businesses and using their power for good in their home base of Atlanta.  Derreck Kayongo of the Global Soap Project was simply delightful as he shared his story of starting with one idea and now delivering with partners soap to 92 countries in need! 

We also had the opportunity to head out to MODA, the Museum of Design Atlanta and explore how a city applies design thinking and sustainable choices into their growth including telling the story in innovative ways such as these word cubes. One of the highlights of this whole trip for me was of course the people I get to have conversations with. We began talking about sustainable meetings in 1995 in Vancouver, and have a LEED Platinum Convention Centre and I now teach a Sustainable Event Operations class at BCIT and believe that this needs to be simply woven into our planning and being surrounded by like-minded people is always awesome. One of my early heroes was and remains Jill Drury of the Drury Design Dynamics because they do incredibly interesting and thoughtful and visually stunning work, and do it all with sustainability as a core value - in their office, with their people who never leave, at each and every event and learning from every conversation with her is always something to look forward to. 

Other groups experienced other behind-the-scenes tours and then we reconvened for a closing lunch and a final keynote.

The key reminders were all brought together in a team focused closing keynote led by Angus Clark as he brought out his guitar and shared the story of the beginnings of Song Division in Australia, their journey and the ongoing work they do to support community through music, and ultimately in having us all work together to solidify our learnings into a song verse in teams at our tables.  With input from the group who had worked on various verses the lines were chosen to make up a song which we then were able to hear put together at the end, and laugh and enjoy an upbeat and memorable closing keynote that worked to drive home the key messages.

I was also able to enjoy dining with fantastic friends who are sharing this journey of sustainable meetings from around the world, and enjoy both White Oaks and South City Kitchen, two of the many restaurants offering farm to table options - and there is nothing better than great food paired with fabulous company!

I can't wait to see what the new GMIC President, Roger Simons brings to the organization as he takes on this important leadership role.  His passion for sustainability, enthusiasm for life and living it, and smart approach to the issues at hand will continue the great work done to date by the people before him, many still actively involved, and all still planning sustainable events.

5 lessons from PCMA Educon

Day 4 - 7, PCMA Educon
Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina
Wellness rating: Wellness rating: 4.6/5. Good variety of food items at all meals and special meal requests on plated lunches met by the facility.  Great natural light in both hotel and convention center open areas and active outdoor open air networking in the evenings.  Limited fitness centre but opportunity to walk between venues. Good balance of time in the program. Points lost on last evening with lack of options for food and beverage, although a stunning location.  I am adding a wellness rating to these meetings because when you are spending 34 days on the road, every day counts.

The road to learning is this way... a short walk between the hotel and the Broward convention center was marked with these making it easy to find (or an air conditioned shuttle was available) and a highlight on the return journey each day was first a lemonade stand, and as we neared the hotel, a cool towel with a laundry basket 50 steps later! It is these small details that make PCMA stand out, and make Educon a particular favorite for many meeting professionals to attend.  While my first Educon, it was one which had been recommended as a "must attend" for a number of years and I am happy I was able to experience PCMA learning in action.

So what does PCMA do that makes this meeting stand out?

1. They experiment.  They take risks with the format, and they openly talk about what worked and why, and what didn't work, and why. After it is all over, they adjust and consider what to try next.  The picture above is but one example of some excellent seating options they showcased, in this case combined with what the venue offered. Each environment offered a different feeling which was interesting to see how people responded - generally very positively! 
2. They think deeply about the flow of the event and made choices that made sense for the participants, fit the venue, and showcased the sponsors on an ongoing basis with the timing and location of meals and breaks. It cannot be overstated how important this balance is, and how delicate. 
3. They use mobile smartly. I am fortunate to work with their mobile partner QuickMobile and I know the thought and work that goes into the various integrations and use cases that are considered to build it into their overall meeting design and I LOVE WHEN MOBILE IS USED WELL! 
4. A good host / facilitator, this time Adrian Segar, is crucial to weaving a story through your meeting and this was done well - the right information at the right time. Each meeting will have its own unique needs, and for this one Adrian was the choice that made sense.
5. Everyone arrives at your meeting with a brain and having John Medina who really explains how our brain works at a meeting and in life - and is completely fun to listen to, was an absolute highlight of the meeting, as a great keynote should be!  This is certainly a meeting I would return to, thank you PCMA! 

Speed Dating and Power Lunches

Over this series of posts I will share with you what I am learning in 34 days, 5 conferences, 12 flights, 9 hotels, 9 hours of time difference, 1 international soccer tournament and over 100 meals eaten out.  So it began... 

Day 1 - 4. Hello Orlando and the Rosen Shingle Creek. A self contained conference property, this space worked really well for Collinson Media's Collaborate bringing together nearly 1,000 meeting professionals for 3 days of events, education and a hosted buyer program done in a six minute speed dating format.  
Wellness rating: 4.2/5 Based on large venue offering lots of walking between spaces but very limited natural light in the convention center area and weather limited outdoor networking when in the hotel.  Universal off-site event was great for lots of walking, excellent food options, and stimulating fun. Food choices overall offered a great variety at breakfast and lunch the dietary requirements were well met by the venue.  This is being added because with 34 days on the road, every choice counts.

Lessons I learned

1. A super hero theme is extra awesome when you have Bill Rosemann of Marvel Comics come and speak about his affinity for the flawed, introverted humans who become superheroes due to circumstances beyond their control and that each of us has the power and compassion inside of us.  
2. Presenting a new session I created on How to Unleash Your Inner Creative Superhero was a ton of fun as the overfilled room had an unbeatable energy and it was a blast to see the emblems each person created for themselves before the session was done. From what inspires us to how we become heroes for our clients and how to sell creativity - every minute from the time I started putting this together until after the session was, well, super!
3. If you are prepared, in six minutes you know if you have a business fit and you can decide to continue the conversation.  This is a hosted buyer format that was great to experience.  I also appreciated that on the second day the Collinson team listened to what people said after the first day and incorporated a break into the second afternoon for everyone to rejuvenate before getting back to business.
4. Great keynotes inspire participants. Captain Mark Kelly shared not only his powerful story of supporting his wife, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords through her post shooting recovery, but also about the practical lessons he has applied to his life as a fighter pilot and astronaut. Practice and persistence were his key messages and he is right, we don't get better at anything unless we just keep doing it. And we don't do it alone, and a team you can trust is critical to any successful mission.
5. Chelsea Clinton reminded me that any parent can make time for dinner with their family, as hers did, with a little effort. Having been a planner / producer for twenty years I have missed a lot of meals, so we try to make up for it in other times - it is not always easy but it is important to understand your priorities.
6. Anderson Cooper is funny, truly enjoying everything about life, and while we all have complicated lives, you can choose to embrace the weird, or you can choose to wallow in the challenges... Nah - bring on the complicated and laugh in the face of impossible! When you are surrounded by really had things happening, show compassion and have empathy for those in circumstances we can't even begin to imagine.
7. Think like a curator!  Jeff Hurt is one smart man, and my more serendipitous moment was finding Jeff first on my late arrival and enjoying home made guacamole and chips, and maybe a margarita or two over a fascinating conversation. It is these moments when you leave your room that make events meaningful.
8. Michelle Bergstein Fontanez rocks.  If you don't know Michelle and the work she does, check it out.  I really appreciated Michelle taking time out of her schedule to come and spend time with me analyzing the industry, marketing for events and event businesses and so much more.
9. Perspective is everything.  In 6 minute and 40 seconds per speaker our Pecha Kucha style session covered wellness (me), sustainability (stylish and smart Trevor Lui), digital integrations in meetings (Matt Love from Collinson), the irony of failing to succeed (the inimitable Courtney Stanley), contract law (ubersmart Lisa Sommer Devlin), favorite apps of planners (delightful Jim Spellos) and Meetings Mean Business (verbose Roger Rickard) and this was fabulous.  The style pushes you to be articulate and concise - and for many of us who tend to talk more - it was a great exercise in constraint - and so amazing to hear and see how each person put theirs together - this we want to do again!

I left this event feeling inspired and headed straight on to the next one, with a small change as my flight on a small regional airline no longer existed, so after being re-routed I eventually got to PCMA Educon on the other side of the state, and next up is my learnings from this.

June - Road to Learning

I am very fortunate to be able to represent QuickMobile at many events throughout the year, and I have a few of my favorites coming up in June.  The first I will attend (narrowly missing AIBTM which we have sent two other lucky people to) is Collaborate Marketplace. I first attended this Collinson Media event in Denver, and found the quality of format, presentations, and take-away information to be of the highest caliber.  I am simply thrilled to be participating again and look forward to seeing many friends there where I expect to be having at least this much fun!

Whan life gives you lemons... juggle! Event created while at Cantrav in 2010.

From here it is straight across Florida to PCMA Educon, where they will be again offering up a day of hybrid sessions and where we are again partnering to do their awesome app.  This is a group that pushes boundaries and shows meeting professionals alternatives - I always appreciate that! 

GMIC beckons again, and the longer I teach Sustainable Event Operations at BCIT for, the more I know there is to learn to deliver events which meet a triple bottom line.  The passionate planners in this room are our greatest brain trust and I love the conversations we are able to have.  Also so happy we are doing their app again! At our space there we will be giving away this fabulous brand new resource, Meet Better, authored by experts Nancy J Zavada, Shawna McKinley and Mariela McIlwraith - just come and have a conversation with us for your chance to take home your own. 

Where will I see you next?

U2 and the Mobile Mind Shift

I have loved U2 since Joshua Tree because their music is honest and awesome.  I have seen them perform multiple times over the years (lucky me!) and now, 25+ years later, love how they have embraced all the #eventtech available to elevate the human experience.  One of my favorite moments was when they brought up a thrilled audience member, tapped into her own phone and had her film and project what she was seeing on the gigantic double sided, catwalk enabled screen that filled the stadium. From close-ups of each member to panning the audience so they could be on the screen too - she maximized the experience. And... she has that memory stored on her device forever. They aren't scared of mobile - they are maximizing the opportunities of a mobile enabled audience. We know this one concert added to the 70 million daily Instagram photos, was seen by many of the 745 million daily Facebook users and was part of the 700 million tweets posted daily. #U2


From another human experience, having spent many years planning medical meetings, many specifically focused on HIV/AIDS, I also appreciate as they have grown they have used their power for good establishing among other things, Red, a charity to support creating an AIDS free generation. Some of you may remember this time, it wasn't that long ago when AIDS was a new and frightening disease, and if we can work to eradicate it, as we have smallpox, polio and other diseases through research, medical care and most importantly, education for those most affected, this is something I can get behind.

Mobile in action during the concert

Now those mobile moments.  This is something I talk about frequently as I speak on experiential design, event technology and most recently, the importance for meeting and event professionals to embrace the reality that our participants are arriving with their devices in hand, and more than ever are relying on mobile to provide their access to information, their work functionality and social connections, and to capture and share their memories.  What Forrester Research refers to as the Mobile Mind Shift is happening in life, in retail, in the way we research, discuss and purchase products and services and 100% in the way we experience meetings and events.  Are you considering how to integrate the BYOD reality into your plans - amplifying your brand and growing your event community's stories? Plus capturing their thoughts and feelings about your event, and being able to "see" in real time what is happening in your events?  Isn't it time?  

Oh, and if you have the chance to see U2 on this tour - go!

Tea Tasting at Events - Sweet

In 2008 I had the pleasure of working with an amazing team in Beijing for the Summer Olympic Games. On arriving in Beijing, as one of the first to come during training, I was greeted at the large and overwhelming airport by Kiko and Lindsey, and a large group of super-cute, nervous and somewhat giggly Chinese team members in training.  They would be with us for the whole month, and were in great hands learning under Kiko, whose knowledge of event transportation is second to none, and anyone in this industry knows this is an art, especially on large, world-scaled events. Lindsey had a host of roles over the course of the Games, and I always found her presence to be one of calm and still get-it-done. Now, several years later to see them translating their skill set and love of tea into a business that would add something unique to events is quite fantastic, and I asked her to share her story in greater detail here.


1. Lindsey, tell me about why you created Blackbird Tea - what couldn't you 
find already in the world of tea?

The primary reason is that I love tea – the first time my mom made me English Breakfast tea with sugar and milk I fell completely in love – and when I started contemplating the idea of starting a business with my husband, Kiko, tea popped into my mind. He’s a coffee drinker, but he got on board. 

Also, I was noticing among the people around me that the story surrounding tea was, in my opinion, incomplete. Most of my friends saw tea as something you drink when you’re sick or in need of a health boost. And while tea is certainly comforting and healthy (especially when enjoyed without loads of sugar and milk), I think it’s also just a tasty beverage. And with loose leaf tea, which is the best type of tea to drink in terms of taste and health benefits, many people I’ve met tend to get nervous and think it has to be this mystical, serious process that is so concerned with steeping times, water temperature, and portioning that they just don’t try it. But you can make a great cup of tea just as easily as you can make coffee, and it doesn’t have to be a fussy, cumbersome process. Tea is good for us, it has a long history, and it can be ceremonial, but at the end of the day, it just tastes really good. You can take the other aspects of it or leave them.

So mainly, we’re aiming to share good, high quality tea and to demystify it in a way.

My experience: I too had a similar falling in love experience with my neighbours who moved in across the street when I was eight.  A British family, every day after school there was tea, with delicious treats I learned how to bake at their house, and cloth napkins. It was both grown-up and peaceful.

2. We have really seen a push towards wellness in the past year or so with meetings and events. This is something I feel very strongly about as we tend to fill up participant's time into very long days, and we don't always offer the most hydrating or nourishing items for these long days. Tell me about your vision for how Blackbird tea can fit into this new thinking.

I realize that I’ve just gotten done saying that people don’t need to think about health when it comes to tea, but when I say that I am mainly speaking to debunking the idea that if something is healthy is probably doesn’t taste good, or it’s something we’ll only have when we feel under the weather. We’ve made huge strides in the world of food with regards to realizing that things can be good for us and taste great, but I think that tea still has a ways to go with this. Part of the issue is the stories we tell about tea – that it’s a healthy alternative to coffee, that it’s a cancer fighter, etc, all of which are true, but I think we have to broaden the story.

Tahira: We certainly can't take away coffee, but as participants seek to personalize their experience having choices is always a good thing.

3. I love the idea of creating on-site tea experiences!  I see a ton of opportunities for both venues and hotel brands, particularly those embracing this movement towards health and offering lifestyle menus - to be able to offer planners something really creative.  What would a Blackbird tea tasting experience offer to event guests?

Blackbird is still really small, and with our experience with events we are drawn towards the evolution of both adding tea experiences to events, or eventually to supply product for meetings and events. So far we’ve done parties and some great pop-up shops and have found it is a great way to introduce people to another option. 

Plus, guests wouldn’t get those jitters associated with too much coffee but still have a way to connect with others over a hot cuppa!

You can make it a cocktail too – tea and spirits go well together! 

Tahira: I love the idea of offering alternatives to guests, and tea cocktails would be fun.  I see a workshop brewing!

Since we’re still small and nimble, there’s a flexibility there that wouldn’t exist with all brands. I think our best quality at the moment is that we are able to create most any kind of experience to complement the experience of the event – special wedding favors in  upstate New York; a small tasting stand at a private fundraiser for the surf industry in California; a retail pop up space in Seattle. All different looks and objectives but achievable through our small size, which in that sense, is an asset. We offer that flexibility coupled with some really tasty teas, a small, local business feel (because that’s what we are), and a love of sharing our knowledge of tea with guests. If people want to know, we’ll talk about the origins of the teas, ingredients, how to make them at home, and even the journey of starting a tea business. 

Lindsey, thank you for taking the time to share this with me.  I see so many opportunities for forward thinking events to add to what they are doing as you do offer more than just a teabag on a station, and I believe as we continue to seek more authentic experiences and connections, you offer a way to make this happen.  When we think about what we are learning about meeting and learning design, time for reflection and the introvert's need for quiet time, I think stopping at a tea station, or in a larger event even a great pop-up space, offers something really special.  For anyone who wants to reach out directly - hello@blackbirdteaco.com 

Nicholas wins Michael Smith Science Challenge

Earlier this year Nicholas wrote - in French - the Michael Smith Science Challenge and we heard yesterday Nicholas came first in Canada - FIRST!!!

No, we had not heard of this before either and even when he was asked by his teacher to participate, we still didn't hear about it.  Other parents reading this may be familiar with this phenomenon.  Then this letter came. Let's go with "WOW!"

Yes, he is our son, and his fascination with science is well known to us, but when I looked at what the types of questions were, and couldn't answer any... well suffice it to say, I was impressed.  

One of the things we most appreciate about Nicholas is his innate curiosity. Every day he asks a question we can't answer and often have to look up.  This is something that will serve him well through his whole life as he won't accept the status quo, but will dig deeper and seek solutions that serve the greater good.

Way to go - we are really proud of you!