This is the first of three articles exploring changing landscape of technology and the corporate meetings and events industry. The iconic line from the 1960s Bob Dylan song “The times they are a changing” seems to be a common refrain every decade or so, and in the intervening half-century since that song was composed, the times have thoroughly changed. We have seen generations of technology race by. We went from records to cassettes to CDs to iPods to music streaming…
Social Media & Technology
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Under the influencer: Planners are missing out on next-gen social media marketing
It’s the age of the influencer. Social media marketing has created a strata of social media users that leverage their online followings — some as small as 1,000, with others in the hundreds of millions — to strike deals with brands and organizations to not just promote their products, but to lend them some VIP verve and spark a conversation. It’s the celebrity endorsement evolved, and it’s marketing that’s tailor-made to engage audiences and follow through on brand awareness, the…
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How to use real-time polling to enhance your corporate event
I was introduced to live polling in my first year of university during Psychology 101. Sitting in a lecture hall with 300 people, I responded to questions the professor put to the class by answering on a small remote, which immediately registered my response along with everyone else’s on a screen at the front of the hall. Polling was a quick way to engage us, and it encouraged us to pay attention. It’s a two-way street, too: He often used…
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Six marketing tips to promote your next event
By Brent Taylor Let’s talk marketing. It seems today that there is a plethora of marketing materials, opinions and experts advising us on how to best market any product or service we have to offer. Why is that? Why is there so much attention being given to marketing? I recently read Seth Godin’s books, All Marketers are Liars and Purple Cow. I recommend both these books along with Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. I was intrigued by what Godin identifies as…
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Digital vs. paper: Which will win the battle of meetings communication?
By Phil Rappoport Could the fun and age-old “selection game” of Rock-Paper-Scissors become “App-Paper-Scissors?” Which one would top the other in a one-on-one duel by meeting professionals and their delegates? Can the app and a pair of scissors turn paper into shreds, or will paper still have a place? Judging by the surge of mobile app usage in the meetings and events industry over the past five years, one would think that apps are clearly in the driver’s seat and…
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Social media: Just because you can, does not mean you should
Americans touch their smart telephones 2600 times per day, as cited in a study by The Economist. According to Group M, Americans spend, on average, almost four hours per day of personal time online, over four hours per day in Britain and almost five hours in Hong Kong. That does not include being online at work! These statistics highlight the seemingly unstoppable growth of social media in our lives. The benefits of this new technology have been extraordinary. Anyone can…
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Meetings industry forecast: Hot topics and trends for Canadian meetings in 2018
By Yma Sherry A few weeks back, American Express Meetings & Events released the highly anticipated 2018 Global Meetings & Events Forecast. Now in its seventh edition, the Forecast aims to help meeting professionals and executives strategically direct and make effective use of their meeting investment to demonstrate the value of managed corporate meetings programs. Looking ahead to 2018, the meetings and events industry is thriving. We’re seeing steady and increasing investment driven by increased competition for global market share,…
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How to make innovation simple
In the face of today’s fast-moving, highly-volatile business world and the ongoing disruptions it brings, many businesses and individuals continue to struggle with the concept of innovation. But according to leading experts (and Merriam Webster’s dictionary), innovation is far simpler than you may suspect: By definition, it’s simply the introduction of something new. But innovating is often far easier said than done: If it were simple, everyone would be doing it, naturally. Surprisingly though, as we’ve found through our ongoing…
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Three fallacies about mobile apps for events, and how to address them
By Phil Rappoport Event mobile apps have become a mainstay for conferences and meetings. Participants expect the digital version of the printed program, and with good reason. The event mobile app is the best, most convenient meeting tool that can be continually updated. When an event app is released weeks or even months before an event, it allows delegates to plan and customize their schedule, read speaker profiles, mark specific exhibitors for must-have conversations, and download slides. Changes to the…
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Dos and don’ts for events geared toward young professionals
Young professional events can be super tricky to plan, because of the wide range of individuals attending (often anywhere from 21 to 35), varying from junior, to mid, to sometimes even senior-level professionals. Considering that you’re probably marketing to both Baby Boomers and Generation X (if they’re controlling the budget for professional development and other events for their staff), and Generations Y and Z (yes, the first-born of this group are now 22!), it can be very challenging to make…
