Monthly Archives: February 2010

Feb25

MeetDifferent – VAP Day 3

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MeetDifferent – VAP Day 3

Day 3 – February 23, 2010

For those of us participating via MPI’s Virtual Access Pass (VAP) on Tuesday morning – I believe we were let down.  To start, the room had a relatively poor wireless connection – I noticed several comments on Twitter about leaving the room to be able to send/receive tweets.  On top of that, the VAP audience’s access to the live video feed was delayed – it was up and then it was down. Once it was back up, the consensus was that we didn’t really miss much. Marty Neumeier’s presentation was probably the least stimulating of all of the presentations I watched over the past three days.

Complaints focused on the lack of engagement with the live and virtual audiences. Mr. Neumeier spent most of his time looking at the computer as he clicked through the power point presentation (unseen by the virtual audience).  It wasn’t until the end of his presentation, when he sat down with Glenn Thayer, did he become much more engaged.  With all due respect, I think Mr. Neumeier is a really smart guy.  He had so much information to share – but I got lost along the way with the delivery.

Day three’s experience was again not as fulfilling as day one. I was stuck in the office and could only catch pieces here and there as I went about my day. I will be taking the time to listen and watch the recorded sessions, but probably not until the weekend when I can finally take a breather!

My funny twitter conversation that day?

@vlaclair I think there is a lesson learned here somewhere :)
@MichaelMcCurry: Attend in person! :)

If there is a next time for MeetDifferent – Next time I’m attending in person!

WHAT…? Is it possible there will be no MeetDifferent in 2011? The rumor mill has begun to churn. MPI is requesting that anyone who participated in MD10 to please provide feedback. They introduced many, many changes and they need to know what we think before they can activate the evolution of MeetDifferent 2011. A formal survey will be sent out soon. As you know, it is needs of MPI Members that dictate the evolution of delivering world-class content efficiently. We will most likely see a decision in the next 30 days or so.

Keep your eyes peeled and return a completed survey when you receive one!  Also you can visit the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) blog ENGAGE to provide feedback.  Check it out here: http://www.mpiweb.org/Community/Blogs/Engage/Post/10-02-22/Virtual_Access_Feedback_Welcome.aspx

I just want to give MPI a big round of virtual applause for all the hard work they put into making the Virtual Access Pass a success. A hybrid event such as this doesn’t come without some technical difficulties, but I feel that they did a stand up job.  Although I was participating virtually, I felt engaged – both while watching the live video steam and chatting with others in the Twitterverse.  I hope to see MPI provide more events and such as this – its a huge Member benefit.  It’s a tough time economically.  This can hurt planners in particular – our budgets are tightly controlled.   The Virtual Access Pass allowed me to participate and be a part of the conversation.   Hats off to you MPI – Thank You.

Now how about getting access to the Iron Chef Competition lunch…  :)

Feb23

MeetDifferent – VAP Day 2

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MeetDifferent – VAP Day 2

Day 2 – Monday, February 22

Accessing live video content for MPI’s MeetDifferent on day two was a little more difficult for me – largely due in part to the fact that I had to go to work!  No more sitting comfortably on the couch!  There were video technical issues – but they seemed mainly caused by the meeting room’s inability to maintain a healthy wireless signal. Kudos to MPI’s technical team – who have been on top of all technical issues as they occur.  They are watching the Twitter stream closely – and react instantaneously to the virtual audiences issues.  MPI monitors the virtual audience closely – we are not ignored – concerns are addressed upon receipt.  It’s a great member care response – but it’s not just in response to member concerns – ALL who are participating are taken care of!

So what did I watch on day two of MeetDifferent?

Here’s a little recap.

General Session

A big kudos to the MPI Foundation that raised over $50k at Rendezvous.  The Foundation is such a vital part of MPI – many of its members would not be able to be members or partake in educational events without it’s help.  The money raised goes back to the membership for education, grants, CSR, scholarships, etc.  It’s wonderful. The  Foundation has reached 75% of its goal!  Want to know how you can help?  Visit: http://www.mpiweb.org/Foundation/About.aspx

The General Session speaker Monica Harrington was AWESOME! It was a very engaging and interactive session – with questions being taken from the virtual audience via Twitter.  It was a compelling way to run a general session and to kick off the morning in Cancun.  I plan to watch the session again to make sure I didn’t miss anything!  Thank you MPI for providing access to recorded video content that I can access later!  Again Glenn Thayer was the engaging & interactive MC – and a perfect choice for MeetDifferent.

Some quotes from Monica Harrington’s presentation, that I particularly enjoyed! (Disclaimer, quotes were taken from Twitter, I apologize if they are not perfect/exact quotes)

Failure leads to success. We don’t talk about failure enough, how it feels what we can learn from it

How can meeting planners be more innovative? Think – how can I advance the business.That’s what CEO’s care about. Work through your Marketing Manager.

Be open to failure and talk about what went wrong and lessons learned

When you’re doing something innovative, some people may think you’re crazy.

The second live video event I “attending” was Lead Different with Linda Swindling, self proclaimed “recovering” lawyer!  Linda discussed helping others by becoming a mentor.

Particularly great quotes…

Truly successful ppl love help others, are open and will make the time to mentor you.

A coach & mentor should serve as a mirror & hold you accountable.

I don’t surround myself with troublemakers. I want problem-solvers.

Failure is to be embraced

Her presentation made me think…who would I consider to be a mentor?  I have more than one – no doubt many of you do.  I have several MPI mentors – both at a Chapter and International level.  I have found that many of my mentors are exactly as Linda described mentors to be – open, willing to help, and to push you to think – to move beyond your comfort zone.  Do more, be more – don’t just want more.  I can say that I am so happy to have found (in some cases fallen into) this industry – it is filled with people who want to share their ideas with others.

You can follow Linda Swindling on Twitter @LindaSwindling

PS:  Check out this graphic capture of MeetDifferent.  So cool!
http://www.imagethink.net/meetdifferent_2010/meetdifferent_2010.html

Stay tuned for Day 3…

Feb22

MPI MeetDifferent – VAP Day 1

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MPI MeetDifferent – VAP Day 1

Day ONE of Coverage – Sunday, February 21

Yesterday was a big day for MPI’s MeetDifferent 2010 in Cancun, MX.  And I attended virtually via MPI’s Virtual Access Pass (VAP) that was available to its members for free; a great bonus for those who cannot attend in person. MPI’s VAP option has been received with mixed reviews from both members and non-members; the argument for free versus a charge for viewing.  I won’t spend time on that issue – I am a member and I was happy it was free.  It’s a perk of being a member. The only major thing I was disappointed about was that there were not enough video presentations available!

There were of course, bumps along the road.  Technology doesn’t come without some technical issues! The great thing I’ve found about MPI is their customer service.  As soon as any technical issues arose, the team was on it.

A few issues included:

  1. I use a MAC – but I couldn’t use Firefox to view the video/audio presentations.  Firefox is my preferred browser – and video/audio should have been made available to all browsers across all platforms.
  2. No power point presentation sync.  The virtual audience couldn’t see the power point presentations being displayed, and if they were in the background – the screen was so bright white it was impossible to see what was displayed.
  3. Speakers need a little more coaching to engage the Virtual Audience.
  4. No video coverage of the Iron Chef Lunch Competition.  Okay – so that’s not terrible.  But I would have loved to have seen it!

Overall, the best part of the VAP – was that I could really be involved.  I was “there”, just not in the room!  I had great interaction with both the live and virtual audiences through Twitter.  I connected with new professionals, like Michael McCurry (@michaelmccurry) who I had been following, but had not until yesterday “spoken” with him!

But how did MPI decide which sessions would be video or audio only? I have put that question to MPI already via @MPITheresa, MPI’s Manager of Strategic Communications. FYI – she’s great and I’m sure I will hear from her soon. I was disappointed that a favorite speaker, James Spellos, CMP – was not available in video.  His presentations are so interactive that audio only is impossible to follow. Was a there a survey? In my opinion, the more interactive the sessions, the more valuable those sessions would be as video. Audio is really hard to stay focused on.

The Twitterverse made its complaints known – and offered up that sponsorships could have “paid” for the live video coverage.  I cannot speak for MPI – I am not privy to what they did or didn’t do when it comes to video coverage.  There’s a budget to consider, manpower, time, etc.  But there is always rooms for improvement!

Favorite presentations

So I participated in Creating Personal Presence: Thinking on Your Feet in the C-Suite with speaker Dianna Booher of Booher Consultants, Inc.  She was great.  I was thoroughly impressed with her presentation style and advice.  I would love to receive her presence tips – but I couldn’t see the power point presentation with the email address…

Another favorite video presentation was Hybrid Meetings, with Midori Connolly, CEO of Pulse Staging & Events, Inc. (@GreenA_V).  She rocked this presentation.  And the virtual audience was able to be involved, just as much as the live audience.  With Tech Moderator, Glenn Thayer (The Voice of Meetings & Events) (@glennthayer) who filtered through the Twitter Feed (#hm10) and spoke on our behalf with questions.  It went a long way to show how beneficial speaker coaching and a tech moderator could be for live video and its virtual audience.

I’m really looking forward to today’s presentations, in particular Lead Different!  Want to participate?  Visit MPI’s website at www.mpiweb.org to activate your Virtual Access Pass!  Thank you MPI for the option to attend virtually!

Feb12

More Social Media – I Heart Twitter

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More Social Media – I Heart Twitter

Yesterday MPI Chapter (Northeastern NY) welcomed Jim Spellos (@jspellos) as our featured speaker on the topic of Social Media.  It continues to be a hot topic and the numerous social media outlets just seem to grow exponentially every day – and the biggest applications (i.e. Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn) just keep coming out with new and exciting reasons to have an account.

Think about that social media applications you use.  If you were forced to use only ONE (a difficult decision, I know) – which one would you choose?  Jim chose Twitter, and I have to agree.  Twitter would be my one and only – if forced to pick.  Hopefully no one will make me.

But consider this from Mashable.com …

Maybe Twitter doesn’t have a growth problem after all. According to new stats out today from Royal Pingdom, Twitter saw an all-time high of more than 1.2 billion tweets in January. Perhaps this is what CEO Evan Williams meant last month when he said that the site was hitting records “across all the metrics that matter.”

Diving a bit deeper into the numbers, Royal Pingdom reports that tweet volume grew by 16x from January ’09 to January ’10. Over the past three months, tweet volume has grown steadily at around 17 percent. In other words, if tweet volume is the metric that matters, Twitter is still growing at a very healthy clip.

Are you getting your message out?

And consider this…

According to the stats provided in Jim’s presentation from www.emarketer.com – Twitter is projected to have 26 million users in 2010.  Oh, and did you know that 4.5 million of those people follow Ashton Kutcher?  Amazing!

Twitter has been a great marketing tool, social networking tool and even a means to win some free Chobani Yogurt! Check out @ChobaniNicki and watch for the Spoons Game! Professionally – I found out about MPI’s Virtual Access Pass program (VAP) for MeetDifferent 2010 (use hashtag #md10 to follow the conversation) – Free for MPI Members – before it was even announced! So knowing the release was imminent, I kept an eye on the Twitter feed and made sure to RT (retweet) the conversation.  And of course I signed up – as I cannot go to Cancun myself! (boo)

Professionally, as a meeting planner – Twitter provides me with direct access to Meeting Professionals International (MPI) – any many others in the event industry, in a way that email doesn’t.  I am able to find out about updates, events, discounts, hotels, connections – before those who don’t have a Twitter account do.  In 140 characters or less I have made a connection.  To me it’s not about updating my followers on every move I make, it’s about really connecting – and branding/marketing myself, my MPI Chapter and my profession.

Dive right in, it’s not hard – and you shouldn’t be afraid.  You will find new connections and new friends are out there waiting to hear what you have to say – in 140 words or less of course!

Follow me on Twitter!  @vlaclair

Follow my Chapter @mpineny and our conversations with #mpineny

Feb1

Webinar Junkie

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Webinar Junkie

Recently I have become really involved in attending Webinars.  They are such a handy tool – and a great way to reach those of us who can’t get out of the office for the actual meeting.  For me, they provide a means to educational content I cannot get to in person – whatever the reason may be.   I’m busy this time of year, so making time to be out of the office is hard to come by.  And if I could just zap myself to and from the meeting it might not be such an issue, but like many people you also have to make time for travel to and from the meeting.  An hour long event, could actually take up half your day.  Not productive.

Webinar to the rescue.

I believe this month I’ve participated in at least five webinars with another one on the schedule for tomorrow.  I’m a member of Meeting Professionals International who have a great list of webinars as part of their MPI Knowledge Exchange (Online Learning) with discount prices for members.  I also participate in Webinars arranged by  Meetings Focus – they have a great list of upcoming webinars.  I’m looking forward to listening to Jim Spellos speak on social media.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010
1:00 PM EST, 12:00 PM CST, 11:00 AM MST, 10:00 AM PST
Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. Learn how to use the most-popular social networking sites to drive attendance and shape content for your meetings.

What’s next?

I’m hoping that I will be able to participate in MPI’s Meet Different 2010 via webcast this month.  I am unable to attend in person, but there is so much content that I want to hear about!  Obviously I will be watching the Twitter hashtag #MD10 for regular updates!