The Pacific Northwest chapter of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA ) and Washington State Chapter of Meeting Planners International (MPI ) collaborate annually to co-host the Meetings Industry Summit. The one-day event highlights the current trends in the event and hospitality industry. I had the great pleasure of serving as the PCMA Chair for the 2014 event. Planning an event for event planners? No pressure, right?
Rather than simply talk about the newest event ideas, our planning committee was determined to demonstrate them, allowing attendees to experience them, first hand, during the event. We also wanted to deliver an event experience that encouraged attendee engagement and facilitated peer-to-peer learning. We wanted to take risks by implementing new technology and ideas, realizing in doing so that our attendees would learn from our experiences, even those that didn’t work out as well as we hoped.
The following is a sampling of the new concepts we introduced at the 2014 Meetings Industry Summit:
Live Streaming of Keynote Sessions
Our objectives in streaming the keynote sessions were to extend the reach of our event to those who could not attend in person, as well as demonstrate that this type of technology could be executed well on a budget. With the help of VARVID, a team of video production specialists based in Bellingham, Washington, we created a custom website to view the live event. The website pulled in our Twitter stream and Facebook activity and enabled viewers to tweet right from the page; connecting our remote attendees with the live event.
We charged a modest registration fee to encourage participation and emailed the live streaming link to registrants the day before. Remote attendees could view the sessions in real time with a standard internet connection and standard media players.
The secret to a successful implementation lies not in the technology (VARVID and companies like them have that down), but rather in the marketing. With so much effort given to promoting the live event, we didn’t start our promotion of the streaming option soon enough, missing an opportunity to drive more traffic to the remote event.
Promoting Attendee Engagement via Mobile App
Thanks to our friends at DoubleDutch, an event app was made available at the Summit for the first time. The app offered all the features one would expect – agenda, listings of sessions and speakers, sponsor recognition, etc. – as well as a few additional features that we used to facilitate attendee engagement and communication. Attendees could create their own profile, upload a photo and then join the conversation by posting questions, insights, photos and links. Because the activity feed doesn’t require attendees to have other social media accounts, it’s a great option for groups that are not otherwise heavy social media users.
The app supports live polling during sessions as a way of gathering relevant feedback from attendees in real time. We set the polls up in advance, then, during the session, presenters instructed attendees to access the app and complete the one-question survey. We projected the results immediately on screen for all attendees to see, enabling speakers to tailor their presentation based on the results.
Birds-of-a-Feather Breakouts Offer Bite-Sized Take-Aways
Our birds-of-a-feather style breakout sessions offered a series of short, moderated discussions on a range of topics, enabling attendees to meet peers with similar interests and learn from each other. Subject matter experts facilitated the conversations on topics that ranged from emerging trends in event technology to the potential impacts of state and federal legislation on the event industry.
We set the room with conference style tables to accommodate 12-15 people, each assigned with a moderator and pre-selected topic. Moderators facilitated lively discussions with attendees and after 15 minutes, attendees would move to another table to discuss another topic with another group of peers. Moderators documented the ideas and take-aways which were provided to all attendees after the event.
This session was packed each time it was offered and our post-event evaluation reinforced that this was a clear favorite among attendees. Attendees appreciated the timeliness and relevance of the content – in some case, hearing about such topics as Net Neutrality and Airbnb or the first time – while meeting new people and connecting with peers in a lively and engaging format.
We believe these three event innovations helped us accomplish our objectives of providing strong education in an engaging environment. You can tell from our Facebook page that we had a great time at this event! And now, at last, back to my day job.
