Networking For Meeting Attendees

Many companies are bigger than we think. There's no way all of the employees know each other or have even met. We all know that one of the big reasons to hold meetings or corporate retreats is to bring employees together and figure out ways to better the company through teamwork. They want to find people with shared interests to do business with and they want to home in on the people who will be the most helpful for them in their endeavors. But, especially at larger meetings, people find networking to be uncomfortable, overwhelming and downright ineffective. Here are a few things you can do as their event planner to make the experience more fun.

Name badges with a twist
Instead of first and last name, find some ways to give the name badges more dimension. Try color coding by interest or specialty (and remember to give your attendees the key!) or ask your attendees to list their three favorite things. Have them say "Ask me about...". It's a great way to get the conversation started and help your attendees figure out who might be a good fit for them.

There's an app for that...

There are some pretty cool networking apps out there that allow your attendees to check in at your event and find a list of all the other people who are there, along with their social networks.

Bump: Bump isn't only used for swapping info with the mystery gentleman at the bar. Feel free to bump contacts at networking events and even in the workplace. Who's to say that fleeting connections won't materialize into bigger and better prospects down the line?

WhosHere: It's time to meet your match. Find other people in your proximity who also use the service and talk to them! It's as simple as that. You can also review the profiles of those nearest to you and hold out on an introduction until you find a subject with similar interests. Great for down-time at conferences. 

Take your shoes off and relax (but not in the meeting, of course!)
So often, we're focused on great event content, but we forget about down time. Down time is really important - not only for our brains, but for connecting with our fellow event attendees. What we'd love to see is more time left to be created by your attendees - time for them to create content, share ideas and network. You will find that your attendees see this as some of the most valuable time they have.

Networking can play a huge role in the success of your corporate life. Whether attending a meeting with 75 different companies involved, or your own company's meeting where you just may not know anyone, networking builds relationships and a strong foundation for teamwork.

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Selecting The Right Technology For Your Meeting

You have just been given the daunting task of planning the next big corporate meeting for your company. But before you even have a chance to ask what the proposed date is, questions and ideas start flooding your head. What is the budget? How many people will be attending? 200 people? Which conference center will hold that many people?

The stress of meeting planning can be all too overwhelming, but thankfully there are tons and tons of meeting planning technology products that can perform nearly every job in planning that successful meeting. The problem is not every product is "one size fits all." The right meetings technology solution can bring a huge benefit in cost, time savings and customer service. The wrong choice can be far more costly than just the price of the software and implementation.

So how do you choose which ones will be beneficial for you and your company? This article will help decide on the most efficient technology products for your meeting and eliminate the ones that may be insignificant.

Inventory your office. 
First before anything else, examine your current office environment. Determine what is currently being used and what could use modification. Here are some questions that need to be posed:

• What meetings processes are being managed via paper?  Do you maintain a large file cabinet of meeting facility information? Do you send your RFPs via fax? Are you accepting registration via the mail or fax? Do you use paper surveys? Do you draw and update your exhibit plan by hand? Do you schedule your rooms manually? A piece of paper is a white flag of inefficiency. Often these should be the first targets to be considered for technology upgrades.
• What over-the-counter software (Excel, Word, Access, etc.) are you using? If you are relying on these (especially word processing files) for your meeting planning processes, this should be a warning.  Flat files (i.e. word documents) are highly inefficient in terms of managing data from meeting to meeting. 
• What meeting planning software and other technology tools do you currently use? What works well and what doesn't?  Are there newer versions that will work more efficiently?
• What is the budget and time frame to change?

Determine which types of solutions are needed.
After inventory has been completed, examine the issues found. The next step is to determine which solutions will be needed to solve these technology problems. As stated earlier, there are tons of technology tools that can assist in meeting planning. Here are some areas where technology can help:

• Attendee matchmaking and networking
• Budgeting
• Badge making
• Customer Relations Management (CRM)
• Event web sites and portal management
• Exhibit sales and floor plan management
• Groupware and online collaboration
• Housing and room block management
• Incentive tracking
• Lead retrieval
• Marketing, communication and attendance building
• Meeting specification
• Meetings consolidation, procurement and request for proposal (RFP) management
• Onsite technology (registration, cyber cafes, product directories, internet access)
• Registration
• Scheduling
• Site selection
• Surveys
• Travel and ground transportation management

Decide on specific features needed.
Once you have narrowed down what you need, the next step is to develop a list of specific features required. Brainstorm a feature list of specific features desired in the “ideal” system. 

Once the list is compiled, it should grouped by feature area and ranked (must have, good to have, nice to have but not necessary). Delete the ones that, upon further review, are not deemed important.

Evaluation and selection 

Now you are ready to to start looking at technology vendors. Here are some steps that will help the vendor evaluation and selection process:

1. Determine the list of technology vendors providing the desired technology tools or services. 
2. Narrow down your choices to a select few (3-5 choices)
3. Set up full product demonstrations. Depending on the size of the sale and the elaborateness of the products, these can either be in person or via web demo. Software companies often have a demo version.
4. Make the final selection from the information gathered.
5. Set up a full implementation and evaluation timeline.

Implementation

The final steps are to implement the solution, train the staff, and set up measurable criteria and goals for successful deployment.  These goals should be centered on measurable decreases in meeting management costs, fast meeting turnaround, and/or improvement of customer services – often all three. With the successful addition of these technology products your meeting planning will become easier and more efficient. 

These technology product guidelines are accredited to Corbin Ball, CMP. Ball is a consultant, writer and speaker focusing on events and meetings technology. With 20 years of experience running international citywide technology meetings, he now helps clients worldwide use technology to save time and improve productivity. He has been named by MeetingNews Magazine for 4 years as one of the “25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry. He is also MPI’s 2002 International Supplier of the Year. He can be contacted at his extensive web site: www.corbinball.com.

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5 Ways to Keep Business Travel Stress-Free

Those of us that don't take business trips weekly may envy the people that travel weekly to the Golden Gate, the Big Apple, or the Sunshine State for their job. It's a win-win situation, right? Attend a meeting for a few hours in the morning, then it's off to play and explore the city, eating local cuisine or catching some rays.

Well most times it's not all that glamorous. In reality, traveling for business purposes is a lot more stressful. Planning those never-ending itineraries, booking already booked flights and packing a week's worth of suits and shoes into one rather small carry-on are just a few of the hassles associated with business trips.

We have comprised a list of five ways to make sure your next business trip is efficient and as stress free as possible.

1. Always keep a packed bag

If you are a frequent business traveler there is no better way to jump start your stress-free trip than with an already packed bag. This saves time packing, keeps everything organized, and you are always ready to go. Keep the essentials in there - your passport, extra money, toiletries, and a spare phone charger - so when you are planning the trip the night before all you have to do is throw some work (and play) clothes in there and you're set and ready to go. 

2.  Spend time planning your itinerary

There is nothing more stressful than not knowing exactly what you are doing and when. Spend extra time the day before your trip planning your flight, transportation, lodging and learning where the business meeting will be held. Keep a notebook or a document on your iPad with contact information for everyone attending the meeting. If your flight gets delayed or you are stuck in traffic you want to be sure you can contact someone and let them know you are running behind. After planning for business you can then plan for pleasure. Pick out a restaurant you'd like to try, a monument to visit or a museum. 

3. Avoid red eye flights

I repeat, avoid red eye flights. Although sometimes it seems like you can run on "e" most of the time, business trips should not be one of those instances. Get some sleep and take a morning flight, you'll be rested when you get to your meeting and much more alert. Your colleagues, and body, will thank you!

4. Stick to a routine

Jet lag is one of those pesky business trip downers, so make sure you stick to your daily routine to ensure that it doesn't get the best of you. If you typically wake up at 6 A.M. to make an 8 A.M. meeting do the same while on your business trip. Traveling disrupts the body clock, so if you stick to your routine you will remain fresh and focused.

 5. Save some time for play!

After a long grueling week of business meetings and seminars, treat yourself to some play time. Walk around the city, shop, eat the local fare and enjoy the perks of getting to work in a new city for the week. Even the most busy business person should take some me-time.

Traveling can be made into a dreaded venture. Don't let the stress of a trip ruin the discovery of a new and exciting place. Embrace the conflicts and keep an positive attitude and your trip will be a breeze!

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Tech Tuesday: QR Codes In The Meeting Industry

We've started seeing them everywhere. Listed at the bottom of a business card, under a signature on an email or even screen printed on a T-shirt, these QR codes are popping up everywhere and are taking futuristic steps from physical to virtual reality. But what exactly are these codes, and why are they so important for tech savvy people in the meeting industry?

QR codes, or Quick Response codes, are two-dimensional bar codes that contain all sorts of information that can be read by a bar code reader, or more importantly, a smartphone. In the age of fast paced and ever-changing technology, it is the job of a meeting planner to stay up-to-date on the trends. And while QR codes just recently became a staple for businesses in the past few years, meeting planners have a great advantage in utilizing these codes to benefit their company.

As common knowledge goes, no one can go anywhere without their phone these days, which is what makes QR codes ideal. The ability of taking your smartphone phone out of your pocket and scanning one of these codes is what makes this new technology so practical.

Small and compact, QR codes can pack a lot of information allowing creative planners to use them in as many ways as they can think of. Since they can be printed onto virtually anything, takeaways at trade shows are being seen with these little black and white bar codes all over them - mugs, canvas bags, the booths themselves, etc.

So how do you get started on creating QR codes for your company? Well it's quite simple, actually. There are many free websites that will convert a URL, video, or just plain old text to a fancy, technology forward QR code.

An example site that will generate QR codes is qrcode.kaywa.com. This website actually has a QR code reader app that you can download from your smartphone, making it a one-stop-shop for getting into the QR code frenzy.

But, as stated earlier, the field of technology is highly fast paced and ever-changing. So for today we have QR codes, but we never know what new and improved innovation might come out tomorrow. Meeting planners, it is your job to stay on top of current technology. It will benefit you and your company in the long run!

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