Feb 28, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
In Part 1, the findings of the study, The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy, were highlighted.  Today, we take a closer look at the  interesting discussion taking place on the value of face-to-face (F2F)meetings. Below are the opinions of event meeting services professionals from all over the country weighing in on their importance.Pat Ahaesy, CMP, CSEP, President & Partner at P & V Enterprises shared, "One of the things that is greatly missed in a virt...

Feb 25, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
This week a landmark study was released, The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy. This study was commissioned by Pwc and made possible through the help of 14 Convention Industry Council members. This blog is dedicated to the findings of the study, while Monday's blog will bring together information from planners on their perceived value of face-to-face meetings.It is estimated that 1.8 million meetings, trade shows, conventions, congresses, and incentive events take place ...

Feb 23, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
The Apple iPad has taken the computing world by storm, selling over 13 million units in 2010, which has led to the introduction of several slate PC competitors including the HP TouchPad, Samsung Galaxy, and Dell Streak, just to name a few.Gartner Group, projects that sale of Tablet PCs to reach 55 million this year and by 2013, approximately 80% of the workforce will be using tablet technology.So how is this all changing the face of Tradeshow event planning and what is the benefit...

Feb 18, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
Last April, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) took a huge, albeit, unexpected step to embrace smartphone technology. At their annual conference mediaXchange they partnered with Handmark, a media company that specializes in mobile applications for publishers and media companies, to develop a custom application for the conference. This application was free to the attendee and could run on any iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or Windows Phone smartphone.The application prov...

Feb 16, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
The structure of most meetings today is the way it has been for decades; a presenter gets up and lectures, audience members take notes (or not), and the session ends with a standard 15 minute Q&A session with limited to no questions from the audience. C'mon meeting planners, am I right or am I right? I should know, this has been the way I have been planning most of my meetings for years, but I know there has to be a better way. With all the technology available today, meetings should be inte...

Feb 14, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
Okay, okay perhaps the title of this blog is stretching it a bit because we all know that mobile applications are changing and growing like a Califonia wildfire. With meeting apps reaching over 1,000 applications this week, this blog assessment may be only as good as the time as it takes you to read it (hopefully not). Here are a few software suggestions event meeting services professionals may wish to consider, especially if you are going to rent iPad technology.&n...

Feb 11, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
Contrary to what you may be thinking, this is not a blog about using TV, Radio, or Social Media to communicate better with your AV Team. As an experienced meeting planner, I used to schedule and talk to my event audio visual rental company early in the process and then basically when they arrived on site. However, I have learned through many years and many mistakes, that process doesn't work well, especially for large, complex events. So now, I use the MASS approach to communicate wi...

Feb 09, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
When you are negotiating a contract with your AV supplier, it is best to keep the "win-win" mentality and attitude right from the start. Both the event meeting planning company and the audio visual firm want to achieve the best deal for their respective organizations. For the planner, it is keeping their costs down and for the AV company, it is keeping their profits up. So how can we do this? Below, are six common sense, but creative ways, to work with an event audio visual rental comp...

Feb 07, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
  When 2,500 owners came together for the 2010 Hilton Worldwide Global Partnership Conference in October, event meeting services organizers wanted to make a statement. This would be the first time that every brand from every location would be at the same place at the same time. Josh Weiss, Hilton Worldwide's Vice President of Guest Services, said, "How can we drive home that we are innovative; that we are different? Not just innovative in a flashy way, but...

Feb 04, 2011 by DeDe Mulligan
Benchmark Hospitality International, which operate 30 hotels, resorts, and conference centers throughout the world, announced their trending list for 2011 based on the observations and feedback of their staff. Here is what they predict:Trend #1: Business travel is back. Booking pace for most of the Benchmark properties are outperforming 2010 results. Trend #2: The tried and true are back. Insurance, financial, consulting, technology, health care, and education markets have supported the conferen...