One + February 2011 - (Page 61)

ired of investing hours of employee time and thousands of dollars in printing thick documents for its quarterly trustees’ meetings, Abilene Christian University took a step into the future. The West Texas educational institution offered each of its 31 trustees US$300 toward the purchase of an iPad so they could view all of the documents they needed on the lightweight, wireless devices. The trustees liked the idea, and today their documents reside in PDF ﬁles on the university’s website, which the group can access from their gadgets during meetings. “It’s about $4,000 a year in cost savings,” said the project’s organizer Kelly Brown, executive assistant to the university’s general counsel. The university estimates that the devices will pay for themselves within three years. “One of the things our university promotes is mobile learning. For our board to buy into that and use mobile learning tools, it adds a lot of value.” It may come as no surprise that the world of meetings and business events is increasingly tech-enabled. MPI’s FutureWatch 2011 survey shows that— propelled by requests from everyone from corporate clients to meeting attendees—this year meeting professionals will increasingly gravitate toward meeting-enhancing online social networking tools such as Twitter, plan with software that helps with tasks such as RFPs and logistics and open their minds to the virtual domain to welcome offsite participants. The survey unveiled ﬁve T key tech trends for the year. • More demands from meeting professionals for innovative technology such as polling tools • A broadening scope of event technologies such as RFP and bidding software • Demands from delegates and speakers—especially younger ones who have grown up in a digital world—for increasingly sophisticated multimedia and other technologies that facilitate the ﬂow of ideas between them and their audiences • The growing prominence of mobile applications • The growing adoption of events that combine in-person and virtual aspects. “If you’re not on top of technology and what’s out there, you’re going to get left behind and your clients are going to get frustrated with you,” explained Brian Meyer, president of international planning ﬁrm Meeting Expectations. On top of this, many new technologies play into the growing demand for more sustainable meetings, reducing the need for resources such as paper and cutting down on the need for travel. It was for that reason, in part, that the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa, a 600-room property in Northern Michigan, recently hired MacroView Labs to build a mobile application for smart phones that helps visitors ﬁnd their ways around the premises, keep up with what is going on there and access documents such as programs for meetings they are attending. The eco-beneﬁts of such developments can be signiﬁcant. Thinking similarly, the management of the 1,840-room Sheraton Dallas Hotel recently invested nearly $200,000 in a Cisco TelePresence system, a high-end virtual conferencing setup. General Manager Ray Hammer says that beyond bringing a cutting-edge technology to the hotel that is available in fewer than 30 locations around the world, the system helps the property to reduce its carbon footprint. The hotel has even used it for local meetings, such as one with the Dallas CVB. In an industry that still, at its heart, centers on human interaction, many professionals have mixed feelings about the march forward into an increasingly digital and device-driven world. “It’s kind of a bittersweet thing,” said Karen Shackman, founder of 20-year-old destination management ﬁrm Shackman Associates. “We’re all moving ahead with technology, but my personal feeling is that when you are so plugged into technology, you are missing some of the basic connections built on a one-to-one basis.” And though technology may ultimately save meeting planners and attendees precious hours, many industry professionals say they have had to make a serious time commitment at the front end to understand what beneﬁts various Scan this tag technologies offer, with your smart which ones work phone to watch best for a particular an interview event and how to with Greg Van actually use them. Dyke of PSAV on “We’re shifting trends in event our team away technology. With so many integrated software programs available for meeting and event planning, recommendations of speciﬁc options can depend on the precise needs of your event. The following are some of the leading event management software companies—give them a test drive and see if the ride works for you. Cvent Inc. www.cvent.com Comprehensive Web-based event management, including e-mail communications and secure online registration. MPI’s ofﬁcial meetings management tech partner. etouches www.etouches.com Home to 13 Web-based event planning tools covering the event planning lifecycle. Split into modules, this permits the planner to pay only for those speciﬁc services needed. SignUp4 LLC www.signup4.com Strategic Meetings Management Suite includes event, travel and spend management software. StarCite www.starcite.com Current client roster includes hundreds of Fortune 500/ Global 1000 companies, including 80 percent of the world’s top tech companies. For a comprehensive list of attendee management programs on the market (much more than we can offer here in print), visit www.corbinball.com/bookmarks/#Registration. Need more tech? Fear not, the March/ April issue of One+ will be overﬂowing with valuable tech insights sufﬁcient to boggle one’s mind. mpiweb.org 61 http://www.cvent.com http://www.etouches.com http://www.signup4.com http://www.starcite.com http://www.corbinball.com/bookmarks/#Registration http://www.mpiweb.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of One + February 2011

One + February 2011
Contents
Energy of Many
Impressions
The Productivity Cloud
Overheard
Agenda
MPIWeb Connect
Thoughts+Leaders
Events for Life
Gateway to the Future
Top Spots
It Was Not Interesting
Irrelevant
The Wrong Words
Up to Snuff
That’s Enough Facebook
Super Foods to the Rescue
Shoring Resources
Jack and Smoke
Accidentally on Purpose
Staying on Top of Tech
The Joy of Work
Plan to Run
Productivity on the Go
Angel of the Favelas
Your Community
Making a Difference
Until We Meet Again
MPI’s 2011 Meeting Guide to Canada
Contents
Banff Centre
Ottawa Tourism
Tourisme Montréal
The Buzz
InterContinental Canada
Caesars Windsor
Vintage Hotels
The Great Green North
Whistler, British Columbia
Meetings and Conventions Calgary
Scotiabank Convention Centre

One + February 2011