Successful Meetings - September 2007 - (Page 31)

What’s extra on Learn more about how to use new and social media. Go to www.mimegasite.com for checklists and to read this article’s companion piece, “MPI Gets Social.” Also, check out our new “Meet the Editors of Successful Meetings and MeetingNews” MySpace page at www.myspace.com/thesmmnsociety site, “you’re going to drive a lot of traffic to your site.” Social media and blogging have a lot of links that go back and forth, he continues, “and that’s what the search engines love. So the more active the attendees and the organizers are in using the site, it’ll be that much easier for people to find it and for you to get the news out there.” Confabb, which now has 35,000 listed conferences worldwide— and hopes to ultimately accrue 60,000—“layers” a social networking interface over a database. “Not only can you find the shows on Confabb,” says Mandell, “you can interact with the organizers and with the people attending a show; see details about a show; see ratings and reviews of everything down to the networking, the venue, the sponsors, the speakers—even the swag.” Also: “There’s a blog or discussion for each conference in our database that can be used by the attendees to ask questions and to interact with other people. There’s an events tab for people who are planning a little side conference or a cocktail party—networking scenes that aren’t really part of the main agenda. Most importantly, there’s what we call our media tab. We pull in blog feeds from Technorati, videos from YouTube, photos from Flickr, tags from del.icio.us, and news through Google and Yahoo.” BlogWorld is listed on Confabb; so is the 6th Annual Asian Diversity Career Expo, which was recently held at New York’s Madison Square Garden. According to show organizer Won Kim of New York-based executive recruitment firm, Asian Diversity Inc., “This was the first time that ADI employed social media to promote the show: We had a couple of interns post on forums and create event groups on various social sites.” Although Kim bases this year’s high caliber of exhibitors and attendees mainly on the fact that “our brand is reaching the higher-ups in the Fortune 500 sector,” he perceives a greater potential for social media, and he plans to hire an event coordinator who will utilize social and media networks in a viable way. “I believe we may get even better candidates by exercising our reach in such novel social media as Doostang, Zoodango, Facebook, mediabistro, and popular blogs.” AND NOW, THE DOWN SIDE If social media is so great—and it’s free—why isn’t everybody using it? Well, they are, and that can problematic. Even Ohana, the accounting student (who attended the Deloitte National Leadership Conference in Arizona last summer and searches social media for more networking opportunities) warns, “With everyone promoting online for events and conferences, people may disregard these invitations as spam and just consider them obsolete.” Yes, says Kim, “A user can be so inundated with ads and other marketing attempts that the last thing they want to read about or click on is another ‘visit me’ ploy.” “The Internet is now huge,” says Kalehoff. “Consumer attention is extremely difficult to pin down. Consumers are elusive; trust in traditional institutions is declining—that includes government, corporations, academic, and editorial.” WHAT YOU PAY FOR and manage it, going forward. We give you everything you need, stuff you never even dreamed you could have, and we do it at a fraction of the cost. And you could focus on what’s really important: booking rooms, lining up sponsors, and all these other things that are going to make your event good or make you ultimately a lot of money. SM: But what if I put on a terrible show and everyone says so, right on my conference’s Web page? Can I take down those negative comments? MANDELL: This is public information—you can’t take it down. That’s not how the Internet works; people don’t want to be a closed, captive audience. The only way we can take it down, by our terms and conditions, is if it is malicious, threatening, or offensive content. But if it’s “The food was terrible,” or “So-andso gave a speech and had no idea what he was talking about; and when he was asked questions, he just seemed completely uneducated”—that’s information that’s helpful to people, and we don’t have any right taking it down. If you’re afraid of people writing bad reviews, put on a good show. —TH SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS SEPTEMBER 2007 mimegasite.com In the meetings industry, “traditional institutions” means associations, hotels, and CVBs; and these are being scrutinized by their consumers—the meeting planners—who are indeed having trust issues. “As I requisitioned the check the other day for the dues for the professional association to which I belong,” says Gaffney, “I thought to myself, ‘Geez, the [MiForum] list is a hundred times more valuable to me at this point in my life than this association.’ ” Adams agrees: “Not one association that I’m a member of offers anything close!” And Suttle, who belongs to a large industry association (to remain nameless) says, “[It] charges me more money for dues and to attend the annual convention simply because I work for a supplier.” By comparison, she adds, “On MiForum, we are all cherished colleagues, without this artificially imposed hierarchy of importance or respect that, I believe, the association’s pricing structure implies.” Of the planners contacted for this article, only a handful could mention any social networking resources or other tools that were brought to their attention by associations or suppliers—which is not to say that these segments are ignoring new and social media and its implications. Meeting Professionals International, which recently convened its World Education Congress in Montreal (July 31 http://mimegasite.com http://www.mimegasite.com http://www.myspace.com/thesmmnsociety http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - September 2007

Successful Meetings - September 2007 Contents Editor's Note Research Calendar Suppliers Planner Spotlight Websites of the Month Management Matters Meetings Law Personal Success Pre-Event Tools of the Trade The Social Revolution Long Beach Insert State of the Art A Better Banquet The Seven Wonders of the Gaming World On the List Places & Spaces Caribbean Trinidad & Tobago Insert Monaco Greater Los Angeles Hilton Head/Myrtle Beach Gurus Nevada Planners Guide 2007 This Just In Las Vegas The Big Picture The Benefits of Being Small Let's Get Together Let Us Entertain You This Just in Reno Tahoe Perfect Complements Hotel Stats & Contact Info Hawaii Incentive Handbook 2007

Successful Meetings - September 2007

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