Protecting You from exhibitor block piraTES

President's Message

By Brian Stevens

As you know, the contracts for major conventions and tradeshows happening this year were booked in a better economic climate. The assumption was that the global economy would continue to grow. Instead we have deflation on many levels and in many cases like hotel rooms no growth. In January, USA Today predicted that unemployment will be at 9% in 2009 and 10% in 2010. Inflation for 2009 is expected to be at zero percent and hotels will be pressed to fill rooms.

There are a couple of things that happen in this economy that we need to watch:

• Rates negotiated years ago might be higher than the market. We need in many cases to adjust these with the hotels so they pick up the rooms and we do not lose them to the internet sites for a few dollars lower.
• There is a company that has actually built their business model to go after exhibitor blocks and offer them incentives to stay outside your hotel block. They access a CVB list of conventions and tradeshows in town and then find a large exhibitor or sponsor your website and offer a free accommodation in return for the exhibitor list. Then they approach the exhibitor list in an almost official manner to get the reservation.

• Password-protect your exhibitor list.
• Add to your hotel contracts that they cannot book rooms to a 4th party.
• Write a letter to this group advising them to steer clear of your event. (We have a sample letter if you’d like a template.)

Times are hard enough – we need to guard against companies that are not operating above board. It’s time these guys “walked the plank” right off our ship.

I look forward to seeing you at MPI in Atlanta later this week.

Brian Stevens

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Between You and Me – The Impact of Social Software on the Meetings Industry

By Corbin Ball

With 106 million registered users, if MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th largest in the world between Japan and Mexico.

MySpace exemplifies the revolution sweeping the web enabling people to connect, rendezvous and collaborate via web-based tools. Social software will have many applications for meeting professionals:

When events are reduced to their most essential element, they are about bringing people together. Online social software to develop communities is a natural adjunct to face-to-face meetings.

Meeting professionals often work in collaborative work teams and often in disparate locations. The collaboration tools common to social software products can perform some tasks more efficiently than older ways of working together.

The events industry is a highly social one. Many meeting professionals, especially those entering this industry, will be open and possibly run with these applications.

Although some elements of social software have been around for years (instant messaging and electronic bulletin boards are examples), this new set of applications provide a richer, easier and very different experience.

MySpace is a great place to start. Although teenagers sharing personal profiles, blogs, music and photos comprise much of the action, this site generates more than 4% of all web traffic! This has been noticed and used to some benefit by some in the meetings industry. Searches such as “meeting planning” or “meetings technology” will generate lots of hits, especially for sponsored links. Those targeting potential employees new the industry will likely find responses here. Suppliers to the meetings industry have also found cheap visibility here as well.

YouTube, the popular video-sharing site named Time magazine’s 2006 Invention of the Year, allows registered users to upload videos and unregistered users to watch nearly all of them. Event marketers, speakers and venues can use this to easily and more broadly distribute video demo clips.

Second Life, an internet-based multi-user 3-D virtual world, takes online chat rooms literally to a completely new dimension. Each user takes the form of an avatar (a 3-D completely configurable entity) to explore this virtual world and interact with others in this space. The relatively recent addition of full voice chat capability makes this a very interesting addition.

Meeting industry applications include the MeCo Mansion (download the free software at www.secondlife.com and then use the search box to find it). This is an ambitious project from Dan Parks who has built an elaborate 3-D mansion with several meeting rooms set aside for meeting industry experts, videos, informational links, and tutorials for those new to SL. With more than five million registered SL users (residents), major corporations such as IBM, Toyota and Starwood Hotels have recognized the potential and are setting up shop here.

Please note, however, although the MeCo Mansion is completely G-rated, there are worlds to be found in SL that are far from this.

3-D virtual worlds are also being developed as event content browsers. Digitell a conference recording firm is using ActiveWorlds to build virtual convention centers with meeting rooms and exhibit space. Although currently in the prototype stage, the plans are to use recorded content from events to enable virtual convention attendees to walk through a meeting space to browse the meeting content, view presentation videos/slides with audio, connect with exhibit companies and interact with others.

MPI Wikis. A wiki is a website which allows visitors to add, edit and remove content. Wikis will be coming soon to MPI members at www.mpiweb.org with many subject areas planned. Stop by and share your thoughts. While you are there, check out the full site upgrade and update your member profile with a bio and photo as well.

Business networking sites such as IntroNetworks, BDMetrics, and Leverage Software are also players in the social software arena, with the goal of bringing people of common interests together at meetings and exhibitions. TripHub allows business or leisure groups to plan a trip (create a trip home page, send invitations, discuss and share plans), another social software site with impact for meetings.

These are just a few examples of the social networking transformation that is sweeping the web. Increasingly so, you and/or your meeting professional colleagues will take advantage of social software sites to network, to collaborate and to more efficiently do business.

About the Author: Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP is a professional speaker and consultant focusing on meetings technology. With 20 years of experience running international citywide technology meetings, he now helps clients worldwide use technology to save time and improve productivity. He can be contacted at his web site: www.corbinball.com