Posted: September 26th, 2012
Image source: http://www.visitlasvegas.com/
Looking for a good time in Vegas at IMEX America?
Aside from all of the usual Vegas delights, there will be plenty of fun things to do at the IMEX America show, which runs from October 9-11. Here are a few suggested diversions:
- Check out the latest suite of event technology that is powering and transforming events.
Stop by ACTIVE Network’s booth #2626 to find out about the latest tools including Meeting Locator , Mobile and Conference 7.0 .
- Get your hands dirty cleaning soap!
Yes, you read it right. Find out where socially conscious hotels retire their old soap! On Monday October 8th, take a tour of Clean the World’s Las Vegas Recycling Operations Center, and find out what happens to those leftover little bottles of shampoo and soap bars. Be ready for bus pickup at 1:30 on Level 1, Ground Transportation Entrance (opposite Marco Polo Ballroom), at The Venetian|The Palazzo.
- “Do” celebrate the Fab Four.
On Tuesday Oct. 9th, at the Visit England booth (#814), on what would have been John Lennon’s 72nd birthday, the Liverpool Convention Bureau will celebrate 50 years since the Beatles released their first single “Love me Do”, with a party at various times during the day: 10:00 am, 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm. Stop by and enter the “Ticket to Ride” competition to win an all-expenses-paid familiarization trip to Liverpool.
- Learn key Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) Concepts. On Thursday, October 11th , the last day of IMEX, Linda McNairy, VP of Strategic Partnerships at ACTIVE Network, Business Solutions, will be at PCMA’s booth #3048 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center at The Venetian and The Palazzo, from 11:00-11:30, speaking on:
- “15 SMM Basics in 15 minutes”
- “SMM Metrics: What’s Important. What’s Not.”
- Take a trip to the future!
On October 11th at 10:30 am, in the Press Center in the Veronese room on Level 2 of the Venetian|Palazzo, IMEX will present follow-up findings from the IMEX Group’s “Power of 10″ study, which sheds new light on what the next 10 years might have in store for the global meetings and events industry.
Read what ACTIVE Network, Business Solutions has planned for IMEX America here!
What are your recommendations for this year’s IMEX America?
Posted: September 25th, 2012
Written By: Guestblogger, Tara Barnes, Marketing Director at Pathable
You may be feeling smug because you’ve got your attendee engagement strategy ready to roll, but the real work has just begun. While having that roadmap in place is a crucial jumping off point, you now need to think about the measurable goals you want to achieve.
The key word in that last sentence is measurable. Numbers tell us a concrete story. What exactly are you measuring? In what increments? During what time period? While you may think “I want my attendees to interact with my speakers more,” how will you judge if this is happening, and if it is happening successfully?
Here’s an example of the importance of measurable, concrete goals: Let’s say that you want to increase the open rate on your event marketing emails. If you increased your email open rate by 0.005%, would that feel like you’d really met your goal? Creating realistic and measurable goals has to be a top priority for your event and organization.
While the goals for every event will be different, I wanted to help you get started with four of our favorite attendee engagement goals.
- Increase traffic to your event website by 25% in a 30-day time period – You can’t measure this without knowing your starting point, so if you’re not currently tracking website statistics, hop to it! Google Analytics is a powerful, free tool.
- Grow event community adoption rates from 70%-80% over a two year period – We recommend comparing a community for the same event. As you approach year two, be sure to note what you’re doing differently to try and grow those numbers.
- Increase the number of session feedback survey completions by 15% – This can be slightly harder to measure if you’re gathering data from paper surveys. A tool like Survey Monkey can simplify the recording and measurement process.
- Increase your event marketing email open rate by 1% per email – Again, tracking is essential here. Consider sending your marketing emails through a program like MailChimp that allows you to easily segment, target, A/B test and track things like open and click through rates.
The above are simply meant to be suggestions and ideas as you shape your own event’s attendee engagement goals. Remember to measure! I touched briefly on some tools above but stay tuned for a follow up post on more suggested tools for attendee engagement throughout your event’s life cycle.
Tara Barnes (@PathableTara) is the Marketing Director for Pathable, Inc. In addition to a background in event planning/management, Tara has extensive experience in marketing, social media, communications and public relations strategy.
Posted: September 20th, 2012
- 47.8% of tradeshow and event marketers spend 1-5 hours on social media marketing per week.
- 102% is the average increase of Twitter followers from businesses that start a blog
- Mobile smartphone usage is set to increase from 83.5 million users in 2010 to 142.1 million users in 2014
- 66% of users access social networking via a smartphone.
- Smartphones like the iphone and Android are increasing the opportunities to connect attendees and other tradeshow participants.
This week’s stats and infographic are brought to us from Echelon Design and Exhibitor Media Group. It provides an interesting look at some of the most widely used social media tools and their application and effectiveness in today’s event world. Please enjoy and let us know what your experience of social networking and events has been?
Please share your comments below
Posted: August 17th, 2012
If you operate in the world of meetings, events or large conferences and tradeshows, you may know ACTIVE Network as the brand behind event technology solutions such as RegOnline, Conference and StarCite. But what else do you know about ACTIVE?
Chances are you’ve probably been touched by ACTIVE Network technology in other areas of your life. Maybe you’ve signed up for a half marathon, or a 5k charity run? Or perhaps you’ve gone online to book a camp site for a family vacation?
ACTIVE Network builds technology that powers activities and experiences across multiple industries, markets and communities. Whether it’s a corporate meeting, business conference, 10K race, a kid’s camp, or a ski resort, our goal is to help organizers get participants, manage their events, and build communities. Our new Company Story aims to show our commitment to providing you with access to activities anywhere.
Check out the new video to learn a little more about the ACTIVE Network, and see how our technology touches much more than just the business community. How many of you have used ACTIVE’s technology for activities other than business meetings and events?
Comment below and let us know what you think.
Posted: August 3rd, 2012
Image courtesy of Paypromedia.com
The 2012 Summer Olympics have really highlighted the rapid rise of social media over the past four years. The social network, Twitter, is now at the fingertips of 140 million users, up from only a few million when the Olympics were held in Beijing in 2008.
With an estimated 11,000 athletes competing from 205 countries around the world, all eyes are on London and the Olympics this summer. The Olympics event organizers invest years of careful planning into the exact execution and delivery of this historic event, attracting millions of viewers from across the globe. But no amount of event planning could have prepared the 2012 event organizers for the impact social media has had on this year’s games. With controversy surrounding racist tweets from athletes, fan arrests for threatening tweets, and lash-back campaigns by athletes against the organizing committee, the media is awash with social media coverage.
International Olympic Committee spokesman, Mark Adams, commented on Yahoo News about social media at the Games
“I don’t think we would seek to control it, nor could we, more than 15 million fans are following and participating in the Olympic experience via Twitter and other social media platforms, not to mention a good proportion of the 10,800 athletes. Used the right way, we embrace social media, and if you look at the guidelines, we positively encourage it.”
The 2012 Olympic Games is a prime example of the rise of social media, and highlights the power and impact of this powerful medium, not to mention the speed at which it is growing. For organizations and event organizers that have yet to embrace social media as an integral part of their marketing strategy, now is the time to take the plunge. It’s time to harness this powerful platform to drive more engagement with your audience, and extend that engagement beyond a single meeting or event opportunity each year.
Justin Ramers, Director of Online Marketing at ACTIVE Network Business Solutions explains how social media can be detrimental if not understood or used effectively.
“The number one mistake in social media is putting tactics before the strategy, and by tactics I mean setting up a Facebook page, starting a Twitter account, or starting to publish content without asking the question ‘why am I doing this?’ Take a step back and look at your entire business, organization or your event and ask yourself what is the purpose of this event or what am I trying to accomplish with my marketing efforts? Once you answer that question you can start to look at ‘how can I start to leverage social media as a medium to execute on those goals?’”
For more on social media strategy, and effective ways to implement it, click here. Check out the latest event technology podcast in the series from ACTIVE Network Business Solutions. In this latest podcast we talk to our contributors about the increasingly important role of social media and communities to help drive deeper engagement and advocacy, and how these channels are empowering attendees to drive organizers to deliver the content they really want.
Listen to the podcast now
Posted: July 26th, 2012
Events are all about engagement, but extending that engagement beyond the event itself can be a challenge for many event planners, marketers and conference organizers. This week’s infographic is brought to you courtesy of Northwest Creative Imaging who has illustrated how you can leverage social media before, during and after your event to enhance engagement and extend the event lifecycle.
How do you use social media to engage your event audience?
Posted: July 19th, 2012
There are so many fantastic infographics out there now, we’re going to source the best and share one each week on this blog. Check out this gem from The Event Manager blog. How many of you can relate to this? What else could you add to this? Comments below please…
Posted: July 16th, 2012
GBTA 2012 is just around the corner. Stop by Booth #2331 and say hello to the Active Network | StarCite team. Be sure to ask them to show you the all new ‘Meeting Locator’, a nifty new tool that calculates the optimum location for your next meeting or event in terms of cost and carbon footprint.
Here’s our top picks for this year’s show.
If you haven’t enjoyed a session on Strategic Meetings Management with Kevin Iwamoto, do not hesitate any longer. Kevin is ‘The’ meetings procurement maestro and delivers his sessions with a witty punch of humor and panache that it sure to have you chuckling out loud and thinking of clever ways to pinch the pennies and manage your meetings spend within the first 5 minutes.
Get to room 157 C on Monday July 23rd at 11.45 for SMM 101: Building the Framework with Kevin Iwamoto.
Despite his fresh, handsome appearance, Anthony Miller is no spring chicken to the world of events. Indeed, he knows a thing or two about global meetings management and will have you frantically scribbling notes on smart ways to drive more revenue from your events while creating more engagement with your global event audience.
Join Anthony for his session on Global Meetings Management – The Next Frontier, on Tuesday July 24th, room 159, 10.30am-11.40
The CWT sponsored event at the Boston Symphony Hall is the place to be on Tuesday evening. With a theme like ‘Thrive in Retro’, how could you resist? This is a Mad Men-inspired 60’s night club theme that will transform one of Boston’s most beloved landmarks back to an era of glamour and style.
Get your dancing shoes on and see you for some 60’s swing on Tuesday July 24th, Boston Symphony Hall at 7.30pm
It’s not every day that we see not one, but two past US presidents in the line-up of keynote speakers for a convention such as GBTA. George Bush will host a luncheon and speaking session on Tuesday at 1.15pm but
Our pick for Wednesday July 25th is the session with Bill Clinton, Founder of The William J. Clinton Foundation 42nd President of the United States of America, which takes place from 1.45pm-3.45pm.
What sessions will you be attending at this year’s GBTA? Comment below with your recommendations.
Posted: July 6th, 2012
The meeting and events industry has come a long way from the fuel guzzling, wasteful, and spend-happy industry it once was. Sustainable events and cost-cutting now go hand in hand, so consider these 5 simple, and sure fire ways to reduce the environmental impact of your event and cut your overall event-spend.
1. Get a mobile app for your event: Cut down on the paper content and wastage at your event by providing your event content in a mobile ready format that attendees can download and access on their mobile devices. This saves attendees the hassle of lugging around programs, brochures and documents, and it can save you significantly on the cost and resources involved in printing the materials as well as recycling or disposing of the material post-show.
2. Choose the right meeting location: Start thinking about the environmental impacts of your meeting or event location at the earliest stages of your meeting or event planning. Consider the location of your event and how sustainable that city or country is and the cost of transport and accommodation there. There are now tools available to help you calculate the distance delegates have to travel to get to your event destination and the carbon emissions incurred as part of their travel. By choosing the optimal destination for your next meeting or event you can save significantly while being kinder to the environment.
3. Educate all stakeholders: Incorporate sustainability as part of your overall event strategy. Promote a more sustainable event as part of your marketing and communications plan so attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and event organizers are engaged and informed about it before, during and after the event takes place. By engaging all parties in your sustainability efforts you will be in a much better position to achieve your sustainability and bottom line goals.
4. Recycle event signage or go digital: Consider designing event signage and materials with a life span of more than one year. Reuse your signage from year to year or consider going digital with all of it. You’ll save on printing and design costs in the long run and reduce your wastage significantly.
5. Eliminate one time use products: Reduce waste at your event by eliminating one time use products such as plastic bottles, coffee cups, giveaways and signage. Provide water refill stations and encourage all event attendees and suppliers to reuse and recycle. For tradeshows and large conferences consider re-usable water bottles, and bags and gifts as part of your conference pack.
Going green with your event should not be a costly endeavor. It actually goes hand in hand with effective cost-cutting. The key to achieving both in tandem is the correct forward planning and incorporating sustainability as a fundamental part of your event from the outset.
What steps are you taking to promote sustainability at your event and to achieve cost savings?
Posted: June 28th, 2012
Written By: Guestblogger, Tara Barnes, Marketing Director at Pathable
Your event is one in a million… but that isn’t meant in a complimentary way. Your event is one thing among a million others that your attendees are thinking about on a daily basis. You need to work hard to get attendees engaged with your event’s content. You need to capture and hold their attention. And you can’t do this by throwing a couple of tweets their way and thinking that all is well.
Making sure your attendees (and potential attendees) are engaged with your event year-round takes careful planning and strategy. Each event’s strategy will be as unique as the event itself, but there are specific, well-tested tips that will get anyone started in creating their engagement roadmap.
Tip #1: Set clear, measurable goals. This may seem like a no-brainer, but goals are often overlooked. You can’t know how well your strategy has worked unless you have goals you’re trying to achieve and ways to measure if you’re meeting them. Goals will differ for everyone but might include: Increasing registration numbers, generating more website traffic, number of social media shares, etc.
Tip #2: Properly load your tool chest. You want to engage with attendees, and you think you’ve got just the right social media tools to do it with. Perhaps you do, but these need to be tools your attendees are already using, not just what your favorites are. Select your social media and communication tools carefully. Poll your attendees to see what they’re already using. It’s far wiser to use a few tools well than to manage a dozen poorly.
Tip #3: Set a schedule and stick to it. Good marketing and engagement with any audience comes from providing relevant content in a timely manner. A content schedule is an important part of an event’s engagement strategy. Once you have your communication mediums pinned down, map out your content. What do you want to be communicating to your attendees before you open registration? Just before your event? On-site? Post-event? You need to think of content through every phase of your event’s life cycle, plan out when you need to communicate it and which tools you will need to do all of that.
Tip #4: What’s in it for your attendees? A common mistake planners make when trying to engage with attendees is exclusively trying to sell what makes their event so wonderful. You don’t want to neglect that, but the central focus of a good engagement strategy is showing attendees what’s in your event for them. Focus on what they will learn at your event. Who will they get to network with? What new products and services will they learn about? Additionally, the more questions you ask attendees and the more you empower them to help shape your event, the more relevant your content will be to be to them.
Attendee engagement should be an on-going endeavor, and creating your strategy is merely the jumping-off point. Stay tuned for more posts on engagement management with tips for goal setting, choosing the right tools and ways to extend that engagement year-round.
Tara Barnes (@PathableTara) is the Marketing Director for Pathable, Inc. In addition to a background in event planning/management, Tara has extensive experience in marketing, social media, communications and public relations strategy.
