With so much new meeting technology being developed it can be hard to know what’s worth investing your time in, and what will simply be a flash in the pan. Our clients rely on us to keep them abreast of trends and technology, so our team works hard to keep our finger on the pulse of the meetings and convention industry.
Earlier this summer, Conference & Logistics Consultants conducted a survey of over 300 meeting planners to gauge our industry’s comfort level with new technologies. A key finding of the 2011 Meeting Technology Trends Survey was that 64 percent of meetings are already using a mobile app, or intend to add one this year. Another 16 percent intend to add one within three years.
If you’re not thinking about a mobile app for your meeting, you’re being left behind. Attendees are clamoring for instant access to information, and ways to personalize their conference experience. Mobile technology is an easy way to provide both. Mobile conference guides run the gamut from inexpensive web-based platforms ($9 – 15K) to high-end custom native apps ($25 – 100+K).
The survey also revealed a lot of other interesting information, which we will put out in a white paper later this fall. Stay tuned to the blog or subscribe to our RSS feed for future updates.
Next week, PCMA and the Virtual Edge Institute will release a new research report that takes a fresh look at the role of digital technology in the meetings industry.
Instead of the typical "virtual versus face-to-face" approach, this survey took a comparative approach, looking at how digital technologies can best be used within the framework of meeting environments. The survey asked: Why do people attend in-person and online events? What business goals are being achieved? How are attendees engaging within these environments?
Check out the full survey information.
Several points that I found interesting from a meeting planning perspective, which reinforce my opinion that virtual events just aren't going to replace face-to-face events any time soon:
1) The networking just Isn't the same. Only 33% of people surveyed said they traded contact information with other attendees in a virtual meeting, versus 78% of people at a face-to-face meeting. That's a lot fewer connections being made.
2) Attendees pay less attention. Virtual meeting attendees are more likely to IM due to boredom, shop or surf the web, take a phone call, check email, and leave the meeting than face-to-face meeting attendees. Online attendees are easily distracted, which means your content and delivery has to be twice as engaging to deliver the same educational value.
3) You'll have to charge less. Only 25% of people surveyed said they would pay the same for a virtual event as an in-person event. That's 75% who expect virtual events to cost less. Pretty important stuff when it comes to evaluating revenue and expenses for your next event.
Meetings & conventions are valuable to the US and world economy. Our industry has always been difficult to quantify, because sometimes we’re considered part travel and leisure, part hospitality, part tourism.
So to prove our collective worth, in 2009 the Convention Industry Council undertook a study entitled “The Economic Significance of Meetings to the US Economy.” The study found that the total direct spending associated with US meeting activity is estimated at $263 billion!
And that’s only the direct spending: out total contribution to the GDP was estimated at $458 billion, including 6.3 million jobs. Other nifty facts:
One of my recent conferences took a spin with a cool new social media service, called EventBurn. EventBurn is a social media aggregator, created for use at conferences and meetings, that’s designed to “summarize social media conversations.”
EventBurn makes social media more useful for conferences and events, by combining all the different content streams into a single feed. The web-based service “ automatically summarizes the top links, photos, and users, and creates a browsable long-term archive of the messages.”
Basically, EventBurn scours social media networks like Flikr, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for parameters that you define, sorts through all the clutter, and bubbles the most interesting content to the top. Through sophisticated algorithms, EventBurn returns only the most relevant information, and cuts out the clutter. Isn’t that refreshing?
EventBurn also provides all sorts of interesting statistics about your users, to help you learn from your event. Here’s just a sampling of the data that EventBurn can provide:
· top users, photos, and networks used
· most shared links and most reshared messages
· most popular hashtags
· number of messages, links, photos, users
· usage statistics such as time and frequency of use
Check out the EventBurn archive from my event here.
Specifically created for face-to-date events, “EventBurn makes it easier for event attendees, remote followers, reporters, and others to learn about emerging topics of conversation, find people to connect with, and follow the buzz quickly and easily.”
If you’re already running a Twitterfall or some other social media aggregator at your conference, EventBurn is a great next step.
One of our high-tech clients just finished their annual conference in Vancouver. This group the is perfect training ground for new meeting technologies, because the delegates are inquisitive early adopters, game to try anything once. This year, our social experiment was Poken: your social business card.
Pokens are small USB drives (AKA thumb drives, jump drives, memory sticks, etc.) that contain your contact information. Users plug them into their computers to create a Poken profile, which can also include any other social media information you might want to add, such as links to your Facebook page, twitter handle, etc.
The Poken devices can be customized with your conference logo, or you can select from several dozen stock Poken designs, which run the gamut from funky to fierce.
Poken has a little hand-shaped end that you can “high five” with other Poken users to swap information. When two Pokens are touched together, they light up so users know that their information has been shared. I was a bit apprehensive that Poken would catch on, but during our six-day conference, we had:
Though the numbers speak for themselves, my very favorite review of Poken came via the conference’s twitter stream: “Poken is the saviour for drunk research-related conversations I otherwise wouldn't remember in the morning.” So, Pokens are also good for jogging fuzzy memories.
Coming soon on the Poken front: Poken tagging using your iphone and other smart phones. Though the Pokens themselves are pretty nifty, that’s awesome too!
Sometimes, a little creativity can pay off in a huge way.
At a recent client convention in Las Vegas, we were tasked with implementing an exhibitor priority system for advance booth purchase for the first time. This particular meeting has some very assertive exhibitors, and we were worried that they would not appreciate the difficult decisions that had been made regarding priority order.
Our staff was concerned that exhibitors would crowd the advance purchase table to get the best spot. We had to come up with a solution to keep the atmosphere professional, while systematically adhering to the association’s priority system.
We considered a number of scenarios to maintain order, and decided to add a security guard during the appointment times. Yet, we were concerned about the unwelcoming impression a uniformed guard would have on the association’s valued vendors.
In a last minute stroke of genius we decided to swap out the security guard for a signature Caesars Palace Roman centurion, in full costume. Exhibitors and attendees alike were delighted, and many asked for a photo opportunity. For just a small investment, our centurion Carlos helped us keep the atmosphere light while also providing some structure.
Last week, I blogged about the basics of FourSquare. If you read that post you may be thinking that FourSquare sounds fun but wonder what application it really has for the conventions industry.
And really, I must admit that when I first started using the program, I thought "This has no value for my life." But as my friends and I started using it, it became entertaining to jockey for mayorships and badges, and it's really fun to get notifications about where my friends are hanging out so I can decide whether to join them.
Though its roots are in social networking, I think there is a real place for FourSquare at a convention and specifically on the tradeshow floor. Show managers could pre-populate the meeting facility with points of interest such as the internet café, association booth, bookstore and/or stage area. Exhibitors could create a FourSquare record for their booth, and advertise a special just for FourSquare users. Individual users could add tips about a specific location, telling other attendees what's cool there and who they enjoyed speaking with. And the possibility of badges is endless – what about badges for visiting 10, 25 or 50 exhibit booths or for checking in at specific locations?
There are, of course, technical considerations; the area must have decent cell phone density from a variety of carriers or wireless internet coverage. This may be a problem in some meeting facilities, especially if the meeting rooms or exhibit hall are underground. Pay special attention to cell phone coverage on your site visit if you are considering using any sort of GPS navigation platform.
It’s a brave new world out there in meeting technology. FourSqure is free – why not give it a try for your next meeting?
One of the biggest issues challenging convention planners and exhibitors is how to drive more traffic to the exhibit show floor. Though the technology is far from perfect, using a geolocation platform like FourSquare inside the exhibit hall is intriguing.
Let's start with the basics before we go too far. Wikipedia defines geolocation as "the identification of the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a cell phone or an Internet-connected computer terminal." In other words, geolocation is the process of using the cell phone network to tell you where you are physically located. This is exactly the process that the GPS in your car uses before it provides you with directions.
Most cell phones -- even those that are not smartphones -- have GPS location chips to identify the user's location in case of an emergency. Geolocation capability is used in smartphones for Google Maps and other find-it types of applications.
Beyond the basic "Where Am I?" questions, geolocation can also be used to play games. FourSquare is a geolocation application that uses your phone's GPS to identify your physical location relative to points of interest nearby, such as restaurants, stores, and other people.
FourSquare is a competitive game: you get points each time you check in at a location, and compete against your friends to see who can rack up the most points each week. You can even become the Mayor of a location (complete with a digital crown!) if you check in there more than anyone else. Users get notifications if their friends check in within the same city, which is handy when you're all in town at the same convention.
FourSquare users can also earn Badges -- just like Girl Scout merit badges from your childhood! -- for completing certain tasks, such as checking in at landmarks or checking in with lots of other people. Badges range from mundane to wacky, and the collection is growing.
Dozens of brands, such as Starbucks, Zagat, and TLC, use badges to generate interest in their products and drive users to visit certain locations. Businesses can advertise specials on FourSquare, which are secret offers just for FourSqure users. Starbucks, for example, offers Mayors $1 off any drink. It's a super secret club, and all you have to do to join is log in and start playing.
Coming next week – how to use FourSquare at your convention to generate interest, advertise promotions and giveaways, and bring more attendees to your location.
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