Follow this link to view a product slideshow that illustrates some of the technologies highlighted in this article.
There’s no shortage of shiny new technologies available to meeting and event planners to help enhance the attendee, exhibitor, or speaker experience. The continuing development of Web technology, proliferation of Internet broadband access, and introduction of new mobile devices all hold promise for reducing headaches in the meeting management process, cutting marketing and administrative costs, or boosting the “wow” factor for participants.
But separating technologies that can make a real impact from those that are mere gimmicks remains a real challenge for planners. We’ve detailed six types of technologies, and recent advances within each, that can help planners improve the meeting experience without busting the budget.
Web-Enabled Meeting
Management
Corbin Ball, president of Corbin Ball Associates, a meetings technology consulting firm in Bellingham, Washington, says Web 2.0, or the second generation of Internet-based services designed to facilitate more online collaboration, is changing the meeting and events industry in seemingly subtle ways, but with a large overall impact. For example wikis, which are interactive, collaborative Web pages, allow geographically-dispersed event planning teams to track conference management details in common documents visible to all.
One such example is a Google spreadsheet. “If someone makes a change in a spreadsheet cell, everyone on the team can see it instantly, regardless of where they are on site or around the world,” Ball says. “During meetings and events, thousands of details are tracked and needed at a moment’s notice in settings away from the standard office and with multiple parties, and the Web 2.0 revolution is ideally suited to benefit those conditions.”
MetroConnections, a Minneapolis-based events management company, acknowledged the benefits and growing popularity of online events management by creating Attend-eSource, a suite of Web-based technologies that includes online registration, session tracking, and lead retrieval. By handling registration, housing, credit card processing, activity counts, e-mail direct marketing, and other administrative processes online, planners gain new efficiencies and reduce costs associated with old hard-copy approaches.
MetroConnections partners with what it considers top technology companies to provide the Web applications, then supports installation and operation with its own customer service team. “The idea behind Attend-eSource is to take some of the time and worry out of choosing the best Web-based applications by offering one-stop shopping,” says Mike Graves, senior vice president of conference services for MetroConnections.
One of the most popular components of Attend-eSource is online registration. “We’ve gone from perhaps 25 to 50 percent of sizeable meetings and events using online registration five years ago to 80 to 90 percent using it today,” Graves says.
