Meeting News - February 25, 2008 - (Page 19)

Edited by Elizabeth West elizabeth.west@nielsen.com Technology Virtual Trade Show a First For Meetings Industry More than 2,200 registrants sign up; education, networking key components New York—MeetingNews and Successful Meetings magazines partnered with InXpo to give the meetings industry its first virtual trade show on Jan. 31. The technology has been recognized by Trade Show Executive magazine as fast-growing enhancement to brick-and-mortar shows, but Virtual Meeting World showed the technology also has legs on its own. The event offered several elements of a physical trade show, including an expo floor with interactive booths, a meeting planners lounge, educational sessions, and a special area where attendees could sign up for site inspection tours. Attendees “walked” the exhibition halls, chatted live or InXpo won a Trade Show Executive Int’l Innovation Award in 2007. left messages with suppliers, and networked with fellow meeting planners. The chat roomwebinars with interactive question-and-answer opporstyle lounge was among the most active areas, where tunities. Archived sessions are available online at planners talked about budgets and industry trends, and www.virtualmeetingworld.com. got recommendations about properties and destinations. Early feedback indicated that most attendees were Key to attendance, however, was the education comenthusiastic about the format. Some, however, were chalponent. Four sessions, including a keynote by American lenged by technical difficulties, including sound and synExpress’ Chris Wilkes, addressed budget and financial chronization during the education sessions along with challenges facing meeting planners, as well as strategies nonintuitive interactions with exhibitors. Still, 85 percent about how to navigate contract negotiations and the of attendees said they were likely to return for more. “It corporate trend towards centralized meetings managewas as close to a real face-to-face meeting as I’ve ever ment. The education sessions were conducted via live seen,” said one attendee. —Elizabeth West Meetings by Harrah’s Hooks Up With nTag Las Vegas—Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment, a group of seven properties that includes such meetings staples as Caesars Palace and the Flamingo, announced a partnership with nTag, a provider of real-time event management solutions, to offer audience tracking, instant polling, and other data drivers to meetings clients. nTag will have its equipment on site at all seven properties. The companies will engage in co-marketing and co-selling efforts. “The collaboration of best-inclass firms like nTag and Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment [enables] companies to quickly and efficiently improve their meetings,” said David Goretski, CEO of nTag. “Meeting planners face really unique challenges, and nTag understands and addresses a specific set of them,” said Michael Massari, VP of meeting sales and operations for Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s.“This partnership will give our customers access to a product that [drives] corporate value. It’s an enormous benefit to our industry and to our clients.” —Elizabeth West ConferencePlus to Offer 24-Hour Phone Interpretation Schaumburg, IL—ConferencePlus and Language Learning Enterprises (LLE) have partnered up to provide conference customers on-demand, live, 24-hour interpretation of 150 languages. Customers on a Conference Plus-serviced conference call can make an interpretation request and have a live interpreter, provided by LLE, connected to the call within seconds, according to the company. “We spoke with our customers and analyzed the market and found there www.meetingnews.com was a growing need for on-demand language options to support worldwide conferencing,” said Ken Velten, senior vice president of marketing for ConferencePlus.“We believe our partnership with LLE provides our customers with tools to thrive and compete in the global economy.” —Robert Carey Internet-based ROI Tool Kit Unveiled at PCMA Event Seattle—The first web-based, exhibition industry-specific Return on Investment (ROI) Tool Kit had a much-anticipated unveiling at Professional Convention Management Association’s (PCMA) 2008 annual meeting in Seattle in January. It is a collaborative effort between the PCMA Education Foundation, Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), PCMA, the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), and Exhibit Surveys. Recent CEIR research showed that the number-one concern among companies today is the lack of ROI metrics. The ROI Tool Kit helps convention planners market the value of their events to future exhibitors. “Our objective in developing these calculators for the industry is not simply to provide the tools to measure exhibitor performance,” said Skip Cox, president and CEO of Exhibit Surveys. “They will also help exhibitors make better investment decisions, plan more effectively, and identify strengths and weaknesses of their exhibits.” The ROI Tool Kit is available through the websites of each of the collaborating organizations. r —Emily Carrus MeetingNews 19 February 25, 2008 http://www.virtualmeetingworld.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - February 25, 2008

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