Meeting News - May 5, 2008 - (Page 6)

Inside the Meetings Industry Edited by Elizabeth West elizabeth.west@nielsen.com DMAI Focuses on the Tech Habits of Meeting Planners Webinars win out for their flexible education opportunities; text messaging is useful tool Washington, DC—In late March, Destination Marketing Association International released research that gauged meeting, convention, and trade show professionals’ interest in popular and emerging communication technologies. Among the 500 planners at DMAI’s February Destinations Showcase event who were surveyed said webinars are the most widely utilized technology, with 58 percent of respondents saying they participate in them frequently or occasionally. Twenty-seven percent said they don’t participate currently but are interested in doing so.“It’s not surprising that planners have a strong interest in webinars,” said Jim Duda, managing director of Destinations Showcase. “Meeting planning is one of the busiest professions, and many planners don’t have time to travel if it’s not for their own programs. Webinars allow everyone the opportunity to participate in quality education.” The next most popular technology among responding planners is text messaging, with 34 percent using it frequently or occasionally and another 20 percent interested in using it. On the flip side, 45 percent said they have no interest in using text messaging for themselves or for the benefit of their meetings. Close behind is Conference Center Executives Take On Popular Green Issues IACC’s real-time webcasts push meeting’s sessions to a wider audience, too Midway, UT—Nearly 370 executives from conference centers made it to the Zermatt Resort & Spa, about 45 miles outside Salt Lake City, for the International Association of Conference Centers’ (IACC) national meeting in late March. Environmentally friendly meeting practices took center stage. Amy Spatrisano, principal of Portland, OR-based Meeting Strategies Worldwide, and a founder of the Green Meetings Industry Council, led a session where she offered a variety of pro-environment contract clauses. She also addressed tactics that work best for events of different types and sizes, and how to measure a tangible ROI from such efforts. Another session detailed how the food and beverage function can be made more environmentally sustainable through the purchase of local foods, eco-friendly packaging, water conservation, and other tactics. To bring the conference to a wider audience, IACC produced webcasts of two major sessions in real time. The first webcast covered the opening-day town hall session of IACC leaders. The second covered the Copper Skillet competition, where top conference-center chefs competed in an on-stage cook-off. The winner of the chef showdown, Mark Suenemann of the Chateau Elan Winery & Resort Conference Center outside Atlanta, prepared seared red snapper and chicken medallions. Both webcasts can be viewed on demand at www.iacconline.org. H —Section by Robert Carey www.meetingnews.com Technologies on the Verge The technologies below didn’t place first, second—or third—but, according to a survey from DMAI, they’re on the rise, with high scores in the “interested” category. 50% 41% 40% 34% 31% 32% Interested 36% Interested Interested Interested 30% Current Users 27% Current Users 22% 21% Current Users 20% Current Users 10% 0% Wikis Blogs Podcasts RSS Feeds social networking applications such as Facebook and MySpace; 32 percent said they use it frequently or occasionally, while another 26 percent said they were interested in using it. But lack of interest is high, as well: 42 percent expressed no interest in using social networking in any capacity. On the heels of these results, DMAI launched a series of free webinars aimed at planners. The first, titled “Hotel Contracts: Balancing Legal Issues with Business Considerations,” took place on April 23. It can be viewed on demand at www.destinationsshowcase.com. A second webinar will take place in August or September; attendees may earn CMP credits by participating in any of these webinars. Even in the Slowing Economy, Springtime Expo Still Blooms Washington, DC—Despite the economic downturn that could crimp spending on meetings this year and next, the American Society of Association Executives drew a record 2,390 attendees to its one-day Springtime Expo on April 3. More than 2,100 exhibitors awaited attendees on the show floor to network and land meetings business, while ASAE introduced several new features to the show to enhance the attendee experience and make the 6 MeetingNews May 5, 2008 event more environmentally friendly. They included personalized virtual expo brochures, session handouts and video recordings available online, concierge desks in the expo hall and across from registration that provided shipping services plus typical business services, new-to-the-industry biodegradable badge holders and lanyards, reusable tote bags made from recycled material, and leftover food donations to DC Central Kitchen. To view the session summaries online, visit SpringtimeExpo.com. http://www.destinationsshowcase.com http://www.destinationsshowcase.com http://www.iacconline.org http://SpringtimeExpo.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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