Doodle solves meeting scheduling

I came across Doodle a few years ago as my wife uses it on a regular basis to co-ordinate her meetings. I revisited it recently and was again impressed with the product. It allows you to send an invite out to people to meet, but it also gives the recipients the option to suggest alternative times and vote on the time that suits them best. So you dont have loads of emails going back and forward all day!!

Great idea and seems to be solving a lot of peoples problems schedulting meetings as they have 10 million users!!

Visit www.doodle.com for more details.

Need sponsors for your event? Try SponsorHub

All event planners would welcome some more revenue to cover the costs of running their events. SponsorHub allows you to showcase your event to prospective sponsors, saving you time and hassle making calls and trying to sell sponsorship on your own.

Great idea! visit them at www.sponsorhub.com

The Quirky Things Events People Have In Common

Chances are if you are in events – you’ve picked up some interesting habits and talents along the way. It’s affected my world view and made me a pessimistic optimist: I hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Here are some quirky personality traits I think we events professionals have in common.
I spotted a great info graphic the other day Taken from the Event Manager Blog by Julius Solarison the personality traits of an Event planner and it made me think about the personality quirks I had developed from being in the business.

For what it’s worth, here are my kooky takes on what an being an Event Manager can do to you:

• You have any one or these in your handbag or in the case of guys, your rucksack, car etc..

A spirit level
A tape measure or measuring device
Masking tape
Smart-phone
Cable ties
Plasters

• You are the kind of person capable of performing MacGyverlevels of Lateral thinking whilst using rubber-bands, duct tape and a paperclip to resolve complex structural impediments in a display unit, staging area or key structural portion of your venue
• You may get turned on by the very latest Av equipment & Technology and a shiny new staple-gun.
• If you are a woman: you have mastered the art of day to night dressing and are able to transform from fleece top and jeans to evening wear in just about any confined space measuring 1.5×1m in the middle of a field if needs be.
• You have multiple phone chargers with you for several brands
• You are able to gauge the size of a room in seconds and can guess the maximum capacity of most spaces.
• You are a detailaholic and have gone beyond list making to making lists which cross reference other lists.
• You are developing a new obsession with Pinterest for tracking your feature ideas, competing events, stakeholders, leads, venues .. you name it
• You always assume it takes a longer time to do something regardless of what the other person says and if it doesn’t you know you want the extra time to iron out last minute tweaks and glitches.
• You’ve gotten really good at estimating how long it takes to do something actually and have developed a great internal clock.
• You have backups for your backup. And your favourite piece of jewelry could possible be that Data key around your neck.
• You pretty good at colonizing a cafe and turning it as a mobile office or War room for the next 5 hours. You are able to hot desk like no one else you know.
• In the old days You spent loads on directory enquiries, now your smartphone eats up serious amounts of data on site.
• You can’t believe how we coped before the smartphone and then you remembered how you used to lug around that battered and overwhelmed Filofax for years beforehand and it has your whole life in it. You have on speed dial: Av man, electrician, a printer who works miracles in 24 hours, last minute babysitters, temp agencies and ideally 2 very available men with a van.
• The Cloud is your friend. You are eternally in google docs mode or Dropbox
• You either approach all personal life events be it Christmas shopping or your wedding with a spreadsheet, Gantt chart and guest database cross referenced to the hilt. OR, you probably do it all last minute as you have zero time for your own life.
• When you do your own wedding, chances are every supplier is also a guest.

In short :

As you can see I have picked up a few kooky traits as I look back  - I could do this forever being in events as list making is one of our industry’s forte’s nevertheless am hoping to hear what others have to say on the topic…

There are moments when you think  habitually that Murphy’s law is the only thing you can count on. Equally important is remembering that it’s not necessarily your fault – Life happens but Being prepared is what matters most.

Having listed I was prompted to ask myself: Was I drawn to the business because of my pre-existing character traits? Or did this career make me the Person I am today? A Chicken and egg syndrome was starting to develop in my head.

Do you have your own list of personality traits that work for you in your business and do you have w view on my Chicken and egg Syndrome? Do share your key personality traits that help you excel in the business!

San Francisco base

We decided last year that we have a strong opportunity to grow our businss in the US so we decided to set up a base in San Francisco. So now we have the Dublin office and San Francisco base, a bit like Google and Facebook! But for now thats where the similarities end.

Our US business is now growing rapidly and we have some really exciting partnerships which will be going live over the coming months. Its been a very interesting few months, the US market is very different to Europe and Asia. We have always had a very strong client base here but mainly in relation to outbound conferences but now we are seeing a huge increase on the domestic booking side as well.

Tips to Increase Meeting Attendance by: Mark Dallman

Great “Tips” to Increase Meeting Attendance    by: Mark Dallman

Let’s face it, trying to grow attendance at your meeting is one of the hardest jobs in this new economy.  Whether you are trying to reach your attendees through mail, email or social media, it is an ever evolving task that you must focus on to keep your numbers up.  Below I have put together some great “tips” to try and help you increase your meeting attendance through proper attendance marketing.  So here we go!

MAKE IT A “MUST-ATTEND” EVENT–Tell people why they need to be there and have attendee advocates on your marketing materials to state why they attend your meeting.  Help them, help you!

CONTENT IS “KING” – You should know what the “Hot Topics” are in your industry but providing great content comes from great feedback so 6-9 months out, you should send out an email or use social media platforms asking for ideas or suggestions for topics.  This will give you a great starting point on what needs should be addressed.

VOLUNTEER – Volunteering is a great way to build relationships within your organization and a great way for your attendees to give back.  A great website to check for volunteering opportunities in the city/state that your conference is in is www.volunteermatch.org.

“WHY” REGISTER – Make it clear to them why their attendance is important and how it helps your Association or Corporation.  For those attendees that are in a budget “crunch”, offer them a printable form written by a top Executive in your office that they can give to their boss which lays out why they need to attend and the true value and benefits of attending.

OFFER FLEXIBLE OPTIONS – Offer as many ways to register and to pay for registration as possible, whether online, mobile application, (such as www.quickmobile.com) phone, fax, check, purchase order, credit card or cash.

INCREASE YOUR INVITE LIST – Offer discounted registration for college or high school students that are majoring in your field or would benefit from your meeting agenda.

DISCOUNTS COUNT – Everyone is looking for a deal so offer multiple attendee discounts, company discounts, early registration discounts, early bird hotel rates, public transportation discounts, etc.

These are just a couple of tips that I came up with and I hope you find them useful
mdallman@hpnglobal.com.

Maximising the impact and reach of your meeting

In early 2012 Vok Dams Consulting, the consulting arm of the eponymous German based marketing and live communications agency, produced an intriguing white paper on “Hybrid Events, a new trend in live marketing”. The authors, Altenstrasser and Korte, define hybrid events as the “integrative interplay of social media and live marketing” and proffer the hypothesis that “in the future no event will be successful unless it involves social media”

Defining Hybrid

The white paper makes no reference to the plethora of discussion and activity that has been on-going for almost 3 years on the “meetings” side of The Meetings and Events Industry. Nor does it take cognisance of the broader definition of the term “hybrid” which meetings professionals use. While the concept of a hybrid meeting pivots around creating effective messages for two or even three audiences – the live audience, the on-line audience and the off-line, post meeting audience, Vok Dams limit their definition of hybrid events to live marketing + social media (to include not only classic social media platforms but all web-based tools) and focus, largely, on one audience.

What’s important, though, are the exciting findings of the Vok Dams study which highlight the unique effectiveness of hybrid solutions, the robust client appetite to taste them and, most importantly, the central importance of the live event itself.

Maximising audience reach and intensity of contact

As a MarCom agency, Vok Dams presents “live events” as a specific category or channel on the marketing spectrum describing them as the measure with the “highest contact intensity”. They further describe social media, because of their reach, as having “the greatest potential for brand, product and business communication”. The “integrative interplay” of the two makes for a revolutionary approach to live communication with maximized contact intensity and reach. The implications of this are valid across the entire meetings and events spectrum and will impact clients in the not-for-profit congresses sector as much as those in commercially driven corporations.

When people come together, magic happens

Large medical congresses, board of directors’ meetings, training seminars, incentive travel experiences, product launches and Gala dinners are all “live events” that bring people face to face and generate what Vok Dams calls “high contact intensity”. Sebastien Tondeur, CEO of MCI, the globally integrated association, communication and event management company, describes it, somewhat less abstractly, thus: “When people come together, magic happens!” Either way the magic or intensity is a sine qua non of the live event and the belt and braces that ensure effective, impactful and memorable communication.

Before, During and After the Event

Technology, then, comes into play and provides almost infinite dissemination and marketing opportunities. The event is no longer limited by time and space and assumes a life before, during and after the event itself. Prior to the event social media platforms can promote the event, recruit delegates and connect them to each other. During the event digital platforms facilitate dialogue and promote user generated content. After the event technology enables easy event evaluation and feedback and allows the on-going delivery of content to delegates.

Technology also opens the event to other participants, outside of the live audience: delegates can join the live event in clusters from remote hubs or individually from their own homes while the content captured at the live event can be re-purposed and even monetised for other audiences.

Communication Revolution

Clearly we are in the midst of a communications revolution not experienced on this planet since Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1440s. This is having, and will continue to have, huge implications for the Meetings and Events industry. The use of new technology in meetings and events is about to move beyond the narrow and rarefied realm of the innovators and early adopters (reckoned by marketeers to comprise less than 20% of the available market) creating, according the recent report by the Rosa Garriga and the MPI Foundation, demand for a “new breed of meetings and events professional”.

MeetSmarter

MCI Dublin is piloting a new meetings concept entitled “MeetSmarter – Build, Connect, Share” which showcases how the hybrid model can help MarCom executives successfully reach their objectives. MeetSmarter is an on-line, interactive, digital experience fused with a live meeting – real people, real places, real time. Due to take place in Killarney, Ireland’s best equipped meetings destination, this 2 day educational event features speakers from key social media companies as well as companies experienced in hybrid events. The event will be fully “socialized” affording participants direct insight into the extended nature of hybrid events with key touch-points before, during and after the meetings itself. All set amidst the spectacular natural setting of Killarney, this promises to be a memorable, impactful learning moment. Participation is by invitation only to MarCom specialists in associations and corporations – contact mark.egan@mci-group.com

Padraic Gilligan is VP of Industry Relations at MCI and VP of Ovation Global DMC, MCI’s destination management division. He can be contacted on padraic.gilligan@mci-group.com. He blogs regularly on padraicino.wordpress.com

The Maritime Museum of San Diego

Ahoy Mateys! Greetings from sunny San Diego!

Here at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, we proudly offer multiple waterfront venues for meetings and private events. We are located right on the San Diego Bay and offer the Berkeley Ferryboat and tall ships Star of India, HMS Surprise, and Californian as meeting locations.

The Berkeley can accommodate up to 1,000 guests and can seat 350. She also has a dance floor, bar, tables, presentation screen, a sound system, and two outdoor party decks.

My favorite ship is the Star of India, the world’s oldest active sailing ship. She sailed around the world 21 times! The Star can hold 600 people and can be transformed into a pirate ship (or any other theme) for special events.

HMS Surprise is a replica of an 18th century Royal Navy frigate used in the Academy Award winning motion picture, “Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World”, and Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” She can hold up to 175 people and definitely has a lot of character!

The Californian, though she can hold fewer people at a 50-guest maximum, can actually go out sailing into the Pacific Ocean. I had the opportunity to go out on a four-hour adventure sail a couple of months ago and loved every second of it.

Feel free to check us out for yourself: http://www.sdmaritime.org/private-events/.

While you’re in town, a few of my favorite things to do are: go to Old Town for Taco Tuesday, visit the San Diego Zoo, hike Sunset Cliffs or Torrey Pines, and enjoy the night life in the Gaslamp Quarter. Come experience San Diego for yourself! It’s the best place I’ve ever called home.

Fair winds,

Erica Geary
Blog: EventVenuesSanDiego.com
Events Liaison & Social Media
Maritime Museum of San Diego
1492 N. Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92101

Choosing the Right Mobile Event Apps® for your Event (Part 1)

Aside from social media, one of the most popular trends for adding value to your event is providing a mobile Event App to enhance the pre, during and post-event experience. There are a number of solutions available from native apps to html5 and mobile web apps. All come with their benefits and downsides.

So how do you go about selecting the right app, the right developer and the right platform for your audience?

A question our clients frequently ask of us is ‘why should we invest in native Event Apps® when “web-apps” are quoted as becoming so good? Why invest in Apple’s approval process and store (and soon Google’s and others) when you can hire a web developer to build you an HTML5 mobile friendly experience?’

In order to respond accurately to this we need to discuss a few key points. As good as web apps may be, they are still a far cry from their native app cousins. We have developed in excess of 300 Event Apps® for leading international trade shows, all of which require a native Event App for a true user experience.

If you’ve done any research in the world of Event Apps® you may have heard the terms “Native App”, “Web App” and “HTML 5” Event App. These are all different ways to deploy Event Apps® on your smart phone.

What is the difference?

HTML5 Event App (Web-based app)
Every HTML 5 app is in fact a Web-based app. But not every Web-based app is HTML 5. HTML 5 is a new set of tags that programmers can use to display your application in a web browser. HTML 5 supports some really cool stuff like video and it also makes it easier for the developer to do asynchronous calls back to the web server. The term “Web-App” refers to any application that requires some form of a webserver to run. HTML5 apps require internet connectivity. However, HTML5 apps can run off-line like a native app for a portion of their service but do not typically store content in a data base like a native app, they pull from cache memory.

Native Event Apps®
In general, apps you access via the app store are “Native apps”. A truly native app is written in a language and compiled down to an actual executable that runs natively on your phone without a browser or internet connectivity. Some native apps, still connect to web servers to interact with data in the cloud or to receive content updates.

Mobile Web Apps
Mobile Web Apps are websites that are repurposed to work on mobile devices. They use the internet to connect and are designed to display correctly on a mobile device.

Titanic conference venue Belfast

We are delighted to see the excellent conference facilities being offered by the Titanic Experience in Belfast. This would be a unique venue to hold a conference in with the magic and mystery of the Titanic. The offer 5 conference suites with the largest the Titanic suite having a capacity of 825 in reception style.

For more information visit: http://www.titanicbelfast.com

Augusta meeting rooms…come on Rory & Gmac

This week the biggest golf tournament in the world the Masters is taking place in Augusta, Georgia, USA. Like me you might be more interested in watching the golf than having a meeting! But if you are planning a business trip to Augusta later in the year and fancy combining a golf and business you can visit our guide to meeting venues in Augusta.

Getting back to the golf, as an Irish company we have to be cheering for Rory McElroy and Graeme McDowell. Enjoy!