Simon on: ITCM - Low-cost spherical photography is a benefit

Meeting room at the Brooklands Hotel - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Spherical photography has moved into the mainstream thanks to digital technology, with even the smallest of businesses adopting the trend.

But can a 360-degree view of a room really benefit the meetings industry? I think it should - any venue with meeting rooms for hire can benefit from giving potential clients the ability to look around.

As for meeting planners, being able to see spaces in their entireties provides huge advantages at the researching stage.

Read the whole article, featured on ITCM, by clicking here.

Simon on: Apps vs. Web

New research suggests that a third of young professionals dislike event apps. Given the way apps have been promoted to organisers, this may come as a surprise.

But should it? In most cases it’s quicker to use a mobile device to go to the event website and find information than to download and install an app. And if users don’t get round to removing apps for past events, their devices are going to get cluttered up with apps they no longer need.

It’s also clear that the design of some apps works against them because they’re so muddled it’s difficult to find relevant information.

All of this means that organisers must not neglect their websites in favour of their apps.

They need to take a close look at their websites and ask whether they provide the information users want and whether it’s easy to find. For example, are the dates, location and opening times shown at the top of the home page? How many clicks does it take to find the seminar programme? These days it's very easy to deliver different content to mobile devices and desktop browsers.

Get all of this right and it might even be possible to save money on app development.

Originally published in Conference News

Simon on: Suitcasing

There seems to be an increase of interest in ‘suitcasing’ - the process of taking advantage of networking opportunities at conferences without paying the registration fee. Even the New York Times has written about it.

It’s easy to see why it annoys organisers: people are gaining benefits from the event without contributing anything. One organiser quoted in the NYT article claims that between 1 and 3 percent of attendees are ‘suitcasing’. If you have 500 delegates at a conference each paying €1,000.00 registration, you could be losing up to €15,000.00.

There are proven technologies and techniques that can be used to combat the problem but this issue also raises a question: why are people doing this? It’s because they want the networking benefits of being at the conference.

That’s something that you don’t get with virtual or hybrid events. The promoters of these technologies will disagree but recent experience suggests that trying to be a virtual visitor can be a frustrating business. The technology works but people at events don’t want to stand around talking to a tablet on a stick.

People want to talk to people. The best way to do that is face to face. That’s why people are ‘suitcasing’.

Originally published in Conference News 

Simon on: Compelling content

A recent conference session included information from research carried out for MPI a couple of years ago. When asked to identify the most effective elements of a hybrid meeting, planners chose online chats, rebroadcast recorded sessions, online Q&A with speakers and virtual breakout rooms.

Attendees, on the other hand, put compelling content as easily the most important factor.

In itself this difference of opinion may not matter were it not for the fact that, if the MPI figures are right, content was put in a clear first place by attendees while planners reckoned it a poor seventh.

Why was this? Do planners want to boast about having the latest gizmos at their events or have suppliers’ sales people convinced them they can’t survive without this or that technology?

Whatever the reason, planners need to understand that the answer to the question, ‘how do you engage the attendees?’ isn’t ‘use the latest tech’ it’s ‘get the content right’.

Because if the content isn’t right, the sexiest technology in the world isn’t going to save the conference. The attendees will all be sitting with their heads bent over their mobile devices and they won’t be sending tweets about what a great conference they’re at.

Originally published in Conference News

Simon on: Big Data

The annoying aspect of so much of the nonsense spouted about technology is that it diverts attention from what planners should be doing. 

Take Big Data for example. Meeting planners don’t need to bother about it because they’re unlikely ever to have to deal with it.

Big Data describes huge, unstructured databases that need to be analysed using sophisticated systems and specialised data analysts. Both are very expensive. Even the biggest conferences aren’t going to produce a database on which Big Data techniques will be relevant.

Yet we have people using the examples of major consumer brands, which may have Big Data, to claim that meeting planners need to get to grips with the subject. Needless to say, these people usually have a product or service to flog that answers the supposed need they have highlighted.

The reality is that instead of worrying about something that will never affect them, planners should be concentrating the data they collect now and figuring out whether they really need it.

In most cases, the answer is no because most of the data is never used. This means registrants wade through pages of questions to no purpose.

So forget Big Data. Concentrate on Necessary Data.

Originally published in Conference News