I would go with adventure 10 times out of 10.

Boston Scientific chose adventure, too. They skipped the General Session that would have stuffed 5,000 employees into chairs to listen to PowerPoint presentations.  Instead, they created an Expo environment – in the spirit of the Shanghai Expo – where employees could engage with the company, its products and people in many different ways.

Watch the video to see how it turned out. Then, put your PowerPoint down and get started creating your own Adventure.

The post Which Would You Choose: Four Hours of PowerPoint or an Adventure? appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

Event Camp Twin Cities is an innovation lab for the meetings industry. A tiny one. The event is about sharing ideas and building relationships first and foremost. We generate awareness for new ideas, create new product trials for our partners and showcase thought leaders – or crazy people that want to test new ideas!

[wpvideo vdCmPX4L] We don’t have a billion dollars or a million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars. Event Camp Twin Cities is put together with duct tape, bailing wire, a little inegnuity and a truck load of passion. Our financial and in-kind partners and volunteers are the backbone of this event.

When Ray Hansen and I created this event – our premise was simple. Let’s create a safe space for people to try things that they can’t (or won’t) try in their own events. Let’s find thought leaders that don’t know that they are thought leaders and give them space to share their ideas. Let’s use social media and hybrid technology in ways that most people dream about (or blog about). Let’s get as many people involved as possible. If we can do all of that – hopefully – we will inspire people to go try something that they learned about at our event.

The First Event

In 2010, we showed our attendees Learning Journals, Pecha-Kucha, Business Games, Mass Collaboration, Story Slam, Glenn Thayer’s New General Session Model, alternative seating, etc. Most people had never heard of these concepts. Then, we wrapped the event in a hybrid experience that was unlike anything most people had ever seen. We had 550 people online and they stayed all day.

The event was a wild success. Here are some press articles that do an excellent job of painting a picture of what happened in 2010 and what this event is about:

• Meeting Accomplished (Minnesota Hospitality Journal)

• EventCamp: An Innovation Lab for Meeting Planners (Twin Cities Business)
• More than Remotely Successful (PCMA Convene)
• An Instant News Channel for Conferences (Corporate Meetings & Incentives)
• Ideas from Event Camp Twin Cities (Minnesota Meetings & Events)

The post Creating Mad Event Science appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

I do.

In a followup to my last post (Real World Likes – The Next Big Thing in Social Media in Events), I want to show you two fresh examples that will help you open your mind to new possibilities for social media at your events.

New York City Marathon 2010

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnrzClsOlyU&feature=player_embedded]

See how Asics used videos and location based tracking to help family and friends at home cheer on their marathoners. This is really cool stuff. Fans record videos and leave messages for runners. Then as the runners go past a checkpoint, the videos and messages play on large screens. 

EpicMix Ski Application

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.993748&w=425&h=350&fv=]

See how Colorado skiers track and share their ski experiences with their friends and social media buddies. This is the skiers version of Nike Plus (watch video). It provides gaming elements, badges, community engagement, performance reporting and social sharing.

Lessons for Social Media in Events

1. Look at how these digital experiences compliment the IRL (In-real-life) experience and enhance it.
2. Look at how mobile, social media, RFID and communities are all working together to create remarkable digital experiences rather than as individual components.
3. Look at how the gaming elements or leaderboard and rewards are included (especially in EpicMix).

The Bottom Line

Hopefully, this post gets you thinking beyond Facebook and Twitter for using social media in your events. As you saw in the videos here and in the previous post, there are a number of ways that technology can be integrated to create remarkable digital experiences.

Have you seen anything like this? What else would you add?

The post Social Media in Events: Beyond Facebook & Twitter appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

I have to pull out my phone, take a picture, enter a short message and upload it. I miss valuable networking time at your event – plus my iphone will probably autocorrect what I type into some gibberish.

In my opinion, the greatest challenge to spreading the use of social media at events is getting people to express themselves digitally without having to use a laptop or handheld device.

What would happen if you could give people a simple way to “like” something in the real world without having to use a laptop or mobile device?

Here are three videos of how events are using RFID and Social Media to allow attendees to express themselves digitally.

Coca-Cola and the Like Machine

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqwDqN7LNsc]

Liking Renault at the NLRAI Autoshow

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfwKJ97T9C0&feature=player_embedded]

Rock Concert in Belgium

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/22432033]

Why is this the next big thing?

There are four reasons why I think this technology will be the next big thing for social media in events.

(1) Ease of Use for Attendees – It is so simple to swipe a wristband or badge against a touchpoint that automatically updates your status. You take the technology complexity out of the experience.

(2) Awareness – If your brand or event is new and lacking widspread awareness, this is the perfect way to tap into the Digital word of mouth power of social media.

(3) Data – You get data about what people like at your event.  Plus, you can collect data on what was shared with others and clicked on. When you combine this data with other landing page, registration for newsletters, etc. data to see how it contributed to driving people into your marketing funnel.

(4) Widespread application – This technology will work for the galas, weddings, conferences, tradeshows, national sales meetings, association conferences, parties, etc.

Bottom Line

In my opinion, allowing people to express themselves digitally without the need for a device is the next evolution in the integration of social media in events.

Now you know where I stand. What do you think?  What’s the next big thing for social media in events – if this isn’t it?

The post Real World Likes – the Next Big Thing for Social Media in Events appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

For me, I think of a sterile library-like-space with few people, little noise and empty chairs. I’m extremely pleased to tell you that PCMA‘s Learning Lounge was anything but. It was noisy, engaging and full of life!

This experimental idea gave us a glimpse into the Future of Meetings. It showed us new ways to include and engage a large number of attendees. And, showed us how we could incorporate the back of stage into our event experiences.

Luckily I brought my Flip Camera and made a short video. Have a look.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stXsBO5hIDU]

5 things that I liked about the Learning Lounge:

1. The format gave approximately 100 additional attendees an opportunity to share ideas and expertise with their peers.
2. The open space allowed you to “sample” a bunch of ideas and move between theaters very quickly.
3. The interview studio sessions were recorded and broadcast on the internet allowing people at home to participate as well.
4. The use of 3D structures and décor created intimate spaces out of a huge open space.
5. Having the Learning Lounge right next to the general session helped people arrive early, network, learn and get excited before the general session started.

Bottom Line

PCMA’s Learning Lounge was a high-energy, high traffic space that gave a bunch of attendees an opportunity to participate in the event. This is an idea that you should consider for your next meeting or event.

Have you experienced anything like PCMA’s Learning Lounge before? Have you tried anything similar in your own events? And, if you were at PCMA last week – what did you think of the Learning Lounge?

PS. This is a perfect example of Wish #2 coming to life!

The post Meeting Innovation: PCMA’s Learning Lounge appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

All of this negativity can make the daily grind even more challenging. People are more snippy around the water cooler. There is lots of finger pointing, complaining, etc.

It is easy to forget why you are great. It is easy to forget what makes you so special. In other words, it is easy for you to lose your mojo.

Helping Employees Appreciate Your Company

It’s time that we “flip” the conversation. We need to start talking about what we do have instead of what we don’t have. If you are a fortune 500 company, you aren’t going to go away overnight. Things might be rough, today, but there still has to be something for you to celebrate.

Maybe it is your new product pipeline. Maybe it is your best in class customer service. Maybe it is your awesome channel power. Maybe it is your organization’s ability to persevere.

Whatever it is – are you using your internal events to rediscover your magic and appreciate it? You should.

5,000 Events for 5,000 people

This summer, I was part of an event team that took employees of a medical company on a personal journey to reconnect with their company. We brought manufacturing, operations, R&D, marketing and the top leadership together. Then, we created a museum type environment where they could go rediscover the great things about their company. Their awesome products, their awesome patients, their awesome physicans, and….their awesome colleagues.

For most of these employees, it was the first time that they had ever met the people who depended on them – their customers, their physicians and their leadership. For most of these employees it was the first time that they had stood shoulder to shoulder with each other.

While the event was remarkably busy  (5,000 people can do that to you!) – at one moment, I caught the CEO enjoying a silent moment watching videos that employees had created about the best kept secrets of the company. He was just listening to these employees talk about what was important to them. It was remarkable.

Constructive Conversations

At this event, my team used Pop-up Workshops (something that I made up), Informal Town Hall Meetings, Employee Tube Video Kiosks, Idea Kiosks and Reflection Stations to get people to release their positive energy and start talking constructively about the future.

These workshops and interactive kiosks yielded hundreds and hundreds of ideas and support from employees. Some came in the form of videos, some on post-it notes, while others came in the form of questions and other comments (digital, written and verbal).

Using User-Generated Content to Manage “Monday Morning”

While the immediate reaction to the event was – “WOW, that was awesome! It was just what we needed”. The real question is how do you maintain the momentum. What actions do you take on Monday morning?

We talked with the internal communications about this. They took on the challenge of repurposing this massive amount of user-generated content (video, questions, comments, etc.) on their intranet website, leadership blogs, internal e-blasts and in internal company newsletters. Very quickly after this event, the intranet site had content posted and the first e-blast went out from leadership. Regular updates are planned over the next several months.

So far so good.

Bottom Line

One event is not going to work like a magic pill and solve all of your problems. You can strategically use events to reconnect your employees and help them rediscover why your company is so great. You can use events to get your mojo back.

What are you doing to rediscover your organization’s mojo?

The post Are You Using Events To Get Your Mojo Back? appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

In the past, we might have given an event a local or regional name. This name helped the event connect and identify with the city, state, or region where the event took place. If the event was a big one we might add the descriptor “National” or “International” to the name.

What about in the digital world? Do these naming standards apply?

Let’s look at Event Camp Twin Cities as an example. We called the event – Event Camp Twin Cities – because it took place in the twin cities of Minneapolis-St.Paul. The Twin Cities is the name for Minneapolis-St.Paul around here. We expected to draw most people from the area. So, the name seemed logical at the time.

What happened in reality is that we created something much bigger. We had 75 people participating in Minneapolis. Most people were from Minnesota, Canada (a northern suburb) and Wisconsin with a few East and West Coasters sprinkled in there for good measure.  Then, we had two remote sites that had about 20 people in them – one in Dallas, Texas and another in Basel, Switzerland. Finally, we had over 550 people participating live online from all over the world. These people came from all over the place.

Using digital technology, we took a regional event and created a global one. I think that we are going to see more events doing things like this. Calling these events “National” or “Regional”events – just doesn’t seem appropriate.

So what should we be calling these events? The Big One?

The post Naming Events in a Digital World appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

The general consensus at MPI’s World Education Conference in Vancouver last month was that the Twitter conversations were up and complaining via Twitter was down.

So, I did a short analysis on the Twitter conversations from WEC to see if this was true. My analysis was purely structural and did not allow me to do any deep categorization of the tweets.

Here are some statistics:

• 511 Unique Tweeters on the #wec10 hashtag from 24-28 July
• 5126 Individual Tweets under this hashtag.
• 80% of the Tweets (4100) were made by 20% of the Tweeters (97 people).
• 36% (1826) of the Tweets were “RT” version retweets.
• The word love appeared in 161 Tweets, the word great in 469 tweets and the word like in 200 tweets.
• The word bad appeared in about 40 tweets.

For those of you that are curious, the word “Fiasco” appeared zero times.

What do these statistics mean?

First, they show that we can measure and frame the conversation. However, statistics on their own need to be put into context. I don’t have any statistics about the other MPI events to know if these statistics are above, below or on par with the normal tweetage. (I just made that word up.)

Second, the large number of retweets tells me that the twitterati found ideas tweeted by others worth sharing with their own social networks. Since, we were trying to spread ideas and information outside of the MPI and WEC community – I think this is a valuable statistic.

Third, I did a light keyword analysis and found that the sentiment was mostly positive among the tweeters. I think this is great – because at some events – the twitterati can be brutal. If I had the resources, I would have taken a closer at the keywords and phrases to see what appeared to be the most popular. (The wordcloud above is the best that I could do.)

Finally, these statistics give us insights on participation. Social Media participation does not follow a standard bell curve distribution. You rely on a few people to create most of the Social Media content and a larger group to comment and share that content.

A Word About “Social Media Kung Fu”

Live Tweeting during a session takes some Social Media Kung Fu type skills. Speaking from experience it is hard. Here’s what your live-tweeters have to do: Listen to a sound bite from a speaker, synthesize it into a simple 140 character message, type it into your smartphone without errors and tweet it. All of this happens in seconds. It takes practice to become proficient at it. Not all Social Media people can perform at this level on-site at an event. I still consider myself a student.

Bottom Line

If your intent is to spread ideas from your event to the world, then be sure to recruit some twitterati to live tweet during sessions. When selecting them make sure that they know Social Media Kung Fu and have some tools (like a table and chair with power) so they can type faster.

There is a lot here for us to talk about. What else would you add?

Note: I did receive partial registration reduction for agreeing to participate in the Social Media Guru program at MPI’s World Education Conference.

The post WEC Final: Love 161, Fiasco Zero appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

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How Can Technology Enhances Live Meetings?

Are you looking for some innovative and forward thinking on the role that technology can play in meetings? Checkout the Webinar and White paper from the IACC (International Association of Conference Centers) on Technology. This webinar is loaded with advanced thinking in communication, collaboration and co-creation using technology and live events.  They cover everything from the brain to space utilization to technology trends – and much more.

> IACC Though Leadership Summit Video (first 90 minutes had me scribbling ideas madly)

> Summary Blog Post

> IACC WhitePaper

Can Technology Make You Happy? You Betcha!

A recent survey of 35,000 people found that technology was linked to happiness. People of all ages agreed that they liked the things that technology can do for them. The statistics are counter-intuitive to those that say that technology is harming our lives – and that we need less of it. (Read More)

Helping Students Learn How to Enjoy Learning

“A classroom should be the place for students to open their minds and also express themselves”, says Travis Allen founder of the iSchool Initiative. Travis’ group is bringing the student perspective on technology use into the learning development process. (Read More)

How to Optimize Your Texting Response Rate

Speakers – Are you looking for strategies that help you improve your response rates with audience polling? PollEverywhere recently summarized several tips together in one place. This summary is super-helpful. (Read More)

Sidebar: The speaker Jim Carrol used Poll Everyhwere to solicit answers to the question – what is the biggest challenge for the meeting industry going forward?

Seth Godin Offers Sound Ideas for Developers Creating iPad Applications for Meetings

There are a lot of people that are predicting the role that the iPad will play in meetings. In fact, I have been a part of the prediction parade twice: iPad – It just works -but will it work for events? and What iPad Means to Meetings. The marketer, Seth Godin put together some sound advice for anyone developing an iPad application for meetings of all sizes. (Read More)

The post Five Perspectives on Technology in Learning & Events appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

The report “Best Practices in Online Community Management” produced by Pathable reads like a secret decoder ring for first time event community managers.

While the report is loaded with with helpful advice, I thought these four things stood out:

Recruit the Stars

The report recommends that you go find “stars” to come hangout in your community and contribute to it. Just like in night clubs, these stars draw others into the conversations and to the community, etc. The report offers seven different tips for recruiting stars and engaging them.

Find A Champion

This is the internal leader that is committed to make sure that the online community succeeds. Based on my experience in corporate america, the stronger the champion the better the project result.

Control the Trolls

This report offers strategies to contain and mitigate negative actions by troublemakers (trolls or Wild Things) that want to pollute your event’s social network. Think about the tips in this section like “Rodent Killer.”

Cross-Pollinate

Most event communities allow attendees to connect their friends/contacts, status updates, etc with other social networks (think Linkedin or Twitter). This allows attendees to leverage their connections and engagement in other places with the event social network.

Bottom Line

If you find a champion that can bring the stars into your online event community and squash the trolls – then you will increase your odds of ending up with a rich thriving event community.

You can download the original report from Pathable directly here: Best Practices in Online Community Management (sorry, you must register with Pathable.)

What other resources would you recommend to first time community managers?

image via: fashionartiste

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