Certain Blog

Certain Celebrates the Melbourne Cup

btaylor — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:26:00 GMT

Ask any Australian what is significant about the first Tuesday in November and without exception they will say “the Melbourne Cup”. This Australian institution goes from strength to strength and rightfully now holds its place as the World Championship for thoroughbred horses that are stayers (long distance racers). Now in its 151st year, the race has recently been won by international horses from Japan, France and Ireland.

Whilst there is no denying the momentum of this event on the world stage, it is the reaction of all Australians from Broome to the back of Burke that makes this event unique. They don’t call this “the race that stops a nation” for nothing. At 3pm on the first Tuesday in November, all Australians, no matter where they are or what they are doing, stop to watch (or listen) to the race. For 3 minutes or so, the entire country is captivated by “their” race. I can recall as a young boy pushing my way to the front of a large crowd gathered in front of a television shop to watch the race on the multiple TV’s on display. Of course nowadays ubiquitous mobile technology has made following the race easier than ever. But still-- families, friends and work colleagues gather in groups around the country to celebrate the race.

Certain Software’s Australia-based staff were no exception. Dressed in their racing finery, fit for the “Fashions on the Field” competition, the team enjoyed a few minutes of camaraderie whilst cheering on their hope. To gain the entire company’s interest across the globe, the Australia team assigned each employee one horse and created a pool for the winners! Whilst there can only be one winner in the race (although this year’s race was excruciatingly close to a dead heat), the real win is the connections and the memories that events like this generate. The world needs more Melbourne Cups!

Winners of the "best dressed" competition in Australia

A Pair of Aces

Peter Micciche — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:49:00 GMT

We have a couple of aces up our sleeve and I want to make sure you have them too.

At Certain, we focus on developing software solutions for meeting professionals. Our clients, though, often have event needs that go beyond what Certain provides. Naturally, because of our central, enabling role, they look to us for assistance in registration services, badges, call centers and a variety of other important services that help to deliver successful events.

That’s when we reach up our sleeve and pull out a couple of aces to win the hand. Those aces for Certain are two of our incredible business partners who take the worry out of delivering great events and make us look good along the way!

Let me tell you a little about Attendee Management, Inc. and metroConnections.

Attendee Management, Inc. is an Austin, TX based company committed to the total equation of meetings support. They take their expertise and tailor it on highly personalized basis to meet your event needs. Jeff Rasco, President, is focused like a laser on world class meetings services delivered with a smile. Jeff listens closely to your needs and his team immediately goes into action to ensure your success time after time. His staff live and breathe the meetings experience and sweat the small stuff so you don’t have to.
If you get down to their offices in Austin, make sure Jeff takes you out to the Salt Lick for some real barbecue!

metroConnections delivers great conferences and events through design, planning and implementation that can meet the needs of the most demanding companies in North America and beyond. Conference services, event production, production services and transportation can be leveraged to deliver great events and great business value. Tom McCulloch, their VP of Sales & Marketing, understands the impact events can have on your business goals and has a rich background in meetings services and technology to help guide your choices.

We are honored to have both of these partners in the value chain we introduce to customers. Technology is important but is only a piece of the events puzzle. With AMI or metroConnections at your side, you’ll find your chances of delivering a winning hand of business value to be overwhelmingly in your favor.

3 Ways to Effectively Market Your Event

Louise Miller — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:36:00 GMT

After countless hours of planning and seamless execution you have created the perfect event. The speaker panel is powerful, the appetizers are legendary, and you are still unsure how you snagged that venue—but imagine if no one was there to eat those crab cakes?

All successful event professionals understand that an effective marketing strategy is vital in order to drive attendance. However, among the draining hours of coordinating other crucial elements of planning, marketing can sometimes take a backseat. Here are three easy tips that can seriously improve your marketing strategy and overall attendee turnout:

1. Use Social Media Campaigns
Most people today are using at least one social media platform to check in with friends or relatives and even to connect with businesses. Using social media to promote your event is not only free, but the most effective way to reach various target audiences.
If you create an event invitation on Facebook, you provide a central location for people to see updates and information about how to get involved and learn more about the event and your company. Once you invite people, they can share your event information through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. This way, you don’t have to bombard attendees with a flood of emails every time you need to send them an update.

2. Take Advantage of Newsletters
You can also use your company’s newsletter to promote your event. People who signed up to receive it are already engaged with your company and may appreciate the opportunity to network and learn at your event. Be sure to build out a plan of action for your email marketing campaign. Determine how many targeted emails you want to send and the messaging that goes along with it. You can also contact other companies to see if you can advertise to their list in order to expand your reach.

3. Content Content!
Lastly, another easy way to promote your event is by offering digital whitepapers or eBooks that will drive traffic to your website and engage potential attendees in topics relating to you event. Don’t forget to include an opt-in landing page for your larger content pieces so that you can capture new leads and nurture them!

Times They Are A Changin' - Flash Foresight and Attendee Engagement

Peter Micciche — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:23:00 GMT

Are you keeping up with the times? Juggling a laptop, iPad and iPhone? Logging in to five social networks daily? The Arab spring, daily deals, protests in US major cities, Twitter, Skype, Amazon tablets, Facebook, mobile boarding passes, Google+, iPhone 5 (or is it iPhone 4S?), social, virtual meetings….whew!

Bob Dylan (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+dylan/the+times+they+are+a+changin_20021240.html) had it right forty years ago, but couldn’t possibly have anticipated the pace of change today.

Certain’s headquarters in San Francisco is at the epicenter of the changes driving our society, industry and daily lives.   Yammer, salesforce.com, Twitter, Open Table, Zynga, and StumbleUpon are just a few of the leading technology and internet service companies that are located within a few blocks of our building. Drive thirty minutes down the road and Facebook, Google, Apple and countless others dot the Silicon Valley landscape. Oh, and how about all the venture capital firms that fund innovation and change? We love being at the crossroads of innovation and take full advantage of our location to hang out with our colleagues exploring and sharing new ideas.

The truth is all the lunches, tweets, news feeds, meet-ups and connections in San Francisco and Silicon Valley can’t compensate for the pace of change we are experiencing. Why?

The reason is illustrated very well by the futurist and author Daniel Burrus in “Flash Foresight”, a book he wrote about seizing opportunities created by the pace of technological change. Have you heard about Moore’s Law?   This axiom, by one of the founders of Intel,states that computing power doubles roughly every eighteen months.

So, what does that mean to each of us?

Well, back in the days when IBM was rolling out its mainframes, doubling computer power meant your airline ticket was processed significantly faster but didn’t alter the way you purchased a ticket. In reality it wasn’t life changing.   Thirty years later, computing power has doubled multiple times and as a result we find ourselves with society, business and yes, your business planning meetings and events, being turned upside down.

Here’s the illustration Burrus uses in his book.   Let’s say you take a penny on the first day of a thirty one day month and then double it every day for the entire month. At the end of seven days, you will have sixty-four cents. Big deal.   At the end of another seven days you will have eighty-one dollars and ninety-two cents. Quite a jump.   How much do you think you will you have at the end of the month?   Let me guess…maybe three thousand dollars?   Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

Most people are astonished that the answer is over TEN MILLION DOLLARS!!! Yes, it’s true (and fun to prove on a spreadsheet).   Add one more day and you have over twenty million dollars.   The point Burres is making is that we as a society are now at the “end of the month” in cumulative and exponential computing power.   The curve is very steep and we only have to pick up the smartphone (a camera enabled computer) to get a hint of the magnitude of change.   But what will happen on the “first day of the next month”?   In reality, we can’t fully predict and that makes it both scary and exciting.    We are approaching an era in which whatever you conceive can be created through technology.

We’re seeing the impact every day.   Less than a year ago, Certain was the first event planning software company to offer an integrated mobile application with an attendee management platform.   Today, mobile solutions are taken for granted and your attendees expect to put their smart phone or tablet to good use at an event.   In lockstep with mobile advancement is deeper event-related social networking and more and more virtual events in hybrid or stand-alone mode.

Never mind the Arab Spring.   We’re talking about the Attendee Spring and it’s on the meeting professional’s plate to figure it all out (we’re happy to help of course).

The good news is that rapid technology change driving connections and engagement can unlock the business value of meetings and events.   This is an opportunity for meeting professionals to establish a new, deeper level of business partnership with their clients.

Certain Announces the 5th Consecutive Year of PCI Level 1 Compliance!

jcorreia@certain.com — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:49:00 GMT

Certain is pleased to announce our PCI Level 1 Certification for the fifth straight year! Level 1 is the highest level of PCI Compliance and the most demanding to achieve.

Certain takes responsibility to protect personal customer information very seriously. Each year Certain processes hundreds of thousands of credit card transactions. To ensure compliance, every year we must pass a rigorous audit of our network systems, data storage and encryption practices, access controls, security, threat and vulnerability management, monitoring and testing procedures, and information security policies. Tests are performed by certified network engineers from independent auditors. The entire process takes weeks and the compliance certificate is issued only if Certain satisfies all 12 sections of the PCI Level 1 audit.

Why is this important to our customers? The simple answer is peace of mind. Given the growing severity of credit card theft and liability issues from manual credit card processes, our customers inherently understand the risks of not partnering with a PCI Level 1 vendor.

Thoughts on Steve Jobs

Peter Micciche — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:42:00 GMT

I had a chance to reflect on Steve Jobs’ death last week as I drove up the California coast to Mendocino with my wife.   The weather was spectacular and it was hard to keep my eyes on the road as every turn led to a more glorious view of the ocean crashing on rocks.   We pulled over a few times along the way to walk out to the cliff’s edge and observe the beauty that eons of erosion have created.

Against this backdrop of timeless nature, I thought about Steve Jobs passing and the mark he left on the world.   Many of us have heard the now famous commencement speech he gave at Stanford in 2005 and how he encouraged people to pursue their passions.   Steve Jobs pursued his passion from a young age and created a wave of digitization that touches every aspect of our daily lives.

Isn’t changing the world enough of an incentive for everyone to follow their passion?

Many people pursue their passion only to discover that while the activity of writing or making music or being involved in sports may be enriching spiritually, it isn’t always so financially. Steve’s passion, which fueled his maniacal focus, was hugely financially rewarding for him and his stakeholders.   However, those who would have the courage to follow their passion (assuming it’s not what they already do day- to- day), have to ask themselves, do they possess not only his level of passion but his standard of excellence? Do they possess a set of interwoven personality traits, talents and level of intelligence that can support their passion and ultimately allow their passion to support them? Will their passion allow them to change the world?

Most of us have talent. Most of us have successful personality traits. Most of us possess enough intelligence. Most of us also have some sense of passion for an activity. But, while most of us have all the necessary ingredients to succeed, most of us don’t have those elements combined in the perfectly unique concoction that approaches the extraordinary singular human being that was Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs occupied a unique place in history.   He was a rare example of the pinnacle of human achievement.   He was to the world of consumer information technology what Beethoven or Miles Davis is to music or what an Einstein is to science.   The iPad, as just one example, is a work of art that evokes much more than the sense of productivity it enables. It delivers information in a tactile, pleasurable way. Who else has achieved that?

Against the standard of a Steve Jobs achievement, most of us mere mortals could be excused from attempting to follow our dreams and passions. But that would be a mistake.   Changing the world (whatever world you’re passionate about) usually starts with impacting one other human being.   Putting a mark on the world comes from impacting many human beings and influencing the way they think. Changing the world comes about when most human beings begin to listen and follow you.

You don’t have to be Einstein or Steve Jobs to make your mark on the world.   If you are reading this, you are capable of influencing a fellow human being.   If your passion, whatever it is, benefits you, it will probably benefit someone else, and, if that is true, then it just might benefit many others.   You could be well on your way to making your mark and ultimately changing the world.   Take your passion, add in a measure of excellence and intensity and see where it takes you and the rest of us. At some point in Steve Jobs youth, that’s what he did, and look to where it led.

Four Steps to Event Planning Triumph

Louise Miller — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:07:00 GMT

Event planning can often times be a stressful process. You have to make sure every detail is managed, and it requires a thorough eye and excellent organizational skills. Whether you are planning a small or large event, keeping track of all your tasks can sometimes be overwhelming. With the following tips, you can streamline your event planning process and save time, energy, and resources while ensuring that nothing is overlooked.

1. Develop a Framework

Making sure you market your event effectively will ensure that you attract an increasing number of attendees. In the 1960’s, the Four P Classification was coined to in order to help those in the marketing industry implement enhanced strategies, providing marketers the proper framework for planning. The Four P’s and how they relate to event planning are:

Product – Define what experience you want your attendees to have
Price – Determine registration price and data collection
Place – Location of your event and does it accommodate your Product
Promotion – Your marketing strategy and unique selling points

After you compose a clear outline that encompasses all these components, it will be easier to decide what other aspects are necessary to consider as well.

2. Do You Need Technology?

The use of technology is helpful for planning any event. Event planning programs can help you stay on top of tasks and make sure everything gets taken care of prior to their deadlines. If planning multiple or large scale events, it may be beneficial to use event planning software so that spreadsheets don’t get misplaced and everything you need is in one central location.

3. Take Advantage of Social Media

Using social media can help boost event attendance if managed correctly. If your company has a strong social media presence, you can send invitations out over Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Social media invitations help you reach your target audience because people that are connected to your company online are more engaged leads. These platforms are free and can increase the visibility of your event due to the viral nature of each.

4. Stay Organized!

Staying organized and paying attention to details will lead to a successful and well-rounded event. Making sure you have a framework in place as well as an effective marketing plan will guarantee that you meet your targets. By taking advantage of technology to help you stay organized and using social media for promotion, you will be well on your way to becoming a planning professional.

How Technology Can Lead to a Successful Event

tthomas — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:00:00 GMT

As a marketer who uses events as a component of integrated programs, I am well versed in the challenges facing event professionals today, and am familiar with the Excel spreadsheets and 20-lb binder you have to lug around. I have woken up in a cold sweat the night before my event and gone back through my checklist of items to confirm with the team to make sure not even the tiniest detail was overlooked. Do you want the good news or the bad news about our predicament? The good news: Technology can significantly reduce the amount of time and sweat you invest in delivering a seamless, successful event. The bad news: We are programmed to be worriers. We will always be perfectionists and no matter what tools we have at our disposal, we will always suffer from a last minute panic attack about the seating plan.

With the assistance of technology, event planning has become easier than ever before. It can help you stay organized, keep track of details, and make sure no stone is left unturned. Technology can also help you plan, analyze and budget for an event accurately and effectively. Planning large events can be complicated and stressful, especially when managing multiple coordinators, but with event planning software, you can be decisive and execute much easier and more efficiently.

Event Management and Preparation

By using software to help you manage your event, you can ensure that it runs smoothly and that nothing is forgotten. You can set up reminders and timelines for projects, and make sure that everyone involved in the planning stages knows about deadlines. By using technology, you can strategize and collaborate with others in a single forum that’s been designed to be visible to everyone. Emails will no longer be lost, and logistical issues can be addressed and resolved right away.

Effective Time Management

Taking advantage of event planning technology will save you both time and money in the long run. When planning a large scale event, lots of time can be lost in making sure communication is clear, meetings are arranged and that key players are notified of any changes. Trying to manage these tasks manually takes a lot of time and energy, but with a little organizational help, you can use your time more efficiently.

Save Money

Staying below budget is an important concept to keep in mind when planning any event. You can save a lot of money by managing your budget with software programs that allow you to keep track of all your expenses in one central location. You can track the overall budget, as well as individual line items to ensure that you stay within your means. By increasing budget visibility, you can improve accountability and easily show sponsors where their money went by printing out a report.

Registration Tracking

By using technology to manage attendee registration, you can track variables such as fees, food orders and send marketing emails to your list of attendees. As soon as someone registers, you can be notified immediately so you can be aware of how many people are planning to attend. If certain people still need to pay their registration fees, you can print out a single report that lists their names and contact information all in once place.

Staying Organized

Staying organized is probably the single most important aspect of planning a successful event, and the use of technology can alleviate a lot of stress from an organizational standpoint. The events your company puts on are a direct reflection its value, so you will want it to be the best that it can be. The more organized and influential your events are, the more likely people will be to trust your brand and recommend your work to others.

3 Ways to Measure the Success of Your Event

Patrick Cava — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:58:00 GMT

A well planned and executed event can leave dozens, hundreds or thousands of individuals with a positive experience they’ll associate with your brand. As any event planner will tell you, pulling this off takes a lot of work, dedication and money. But how do you ensure the continued success of your event and future ones?

Measuring your event is crucial to understanding what’s working, what isn’t and what needs to change so that you can set forth a plan of action for future events. Here are a few tips on how and what to measure to ensure that your events have high customer satisfaction rates and an increasing ROI.

Define your Win

Begin your measurement on day one of planning. What metrics will you use to evaluate your event? What is the purpose of your event and what are you aiming to accomplish? A lot of your pre-event planning can help define your benchmarks. For example, how many participants anticipated vs. how many registered or how long did it take for sponsors/speakers to return contracts?

Build out a list of questions to ask both during and after each event so that you can keep tabs on what’s working and how long certain planning aspects take.

Post Event Data

Once your event is over, use the data collected during the event planning to be a benchmark for the next one. This will help you plan a better event and will allow you to focus on areas of improvement as well as capitalize on any new opportunities that may be available.

Update your workflow with new best practices and lessons that you may have learned. Make note of any unforeseen hurdles as well as whether or not your suppliers were efficient. Look for gaps and opportunities and where you can reallocate spend.

Ask Your Customers

Encourage attendees to fill out a post-event survey so that you can see how people viewed the event. Social media buzz and press shout outs are also good to follow and can help others understand the value of your events.

Whatever goals you set for your event, be sure to capture key event data components that will help increase attendee satisfaction and help you plan for success.

Certain Employees Take a Stand About Sitting Down!

Louise Miller — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:25:00 GMT

We’ve all been there. Cram in a power lunch behind the computer and all of sudden it’s five and you haven’t gotten out of your chair in hours. You get up feeling like you just got off a trans-Atlantic flight and trudge to the coffee machine. Logging hours in front of the computer is an occupational hazard you can’t avoid, but an increasing amount of Certain employees have found the secret to working healthy and avoiding the mid-afternoon slump. The solution: Ditch your desk.

It’s no surprise Certain employees are at the vanguard of desk technology. As product manager and standing desk early adopter Rajesh Krishnan put it, “I’m an inveterate trendsetter.” Jokes aside, Rajesh also said, “It was mainly because I was tired of sitting around so many hours in a day and figured standing would be healthier, burn more calories, and be better for my posture.”

It turns out there’s some hard science to back up Rajesh’s hunch. The Wall Street Journal reported on the spread of standing desks at tech companies like Facebook and Google whose employees were prompted to make the shift after hearing about the potential dangers of prolonged periods of sitting. Major medical studies conducted by the American Cancer Society and the American College of Cardiology found significant jumps in premature deaths for those who remained seated more than six hours a day.

Besides the long-term health benefits gained from using a standing desk, users have reported increased energy and a welcome relief from an achy, painful back. If the idea of tossing your chair out the office for good seems a little intimidating, don’t despair. Most Certain employees opted for a dual desk with a combination of sitting and standing space. Of the nine employees at Certain using a standing desk, only one braves his day without a sitting options. However, there are plenty of opportunities to fill the daily sitting quota in meetings and conference rooms.

There are those out there who aren’t satisfied with merely standing.

Some are taking the standing desk to the next level with a treadmill desk, a fad that hasn’t quite hit Certain. Although typing code on the run may seem a little over the top, a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that a combination of sitting and walking at the workstation can melt away up to 60lbs over the course of a year.

We asked Rajesh where he thought the future of desks was headed at Certain, “I’m planning to skip straight to the swim desk, when it becomes available. I’m sure there are no safety issues at all from a multi-hundred gallon tank of water every few feet in the office.”

For now, we’ll settle for a few less chairs.

The Long and Short of Mobile QR Codes

ewang@certain.com — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:52:00 GMT

If you’ve recently walked past a bus stop, opened up a newspaper or driven past a billboard, you might have noticed these enigmatic icons that look like a barcode crossed with a psychiatrist’s Rorschach cards. Before you squint your eyes to try to make out the picture, you should know that these icons are a new type of barcodes called QR codes. QR codes can be scanned using a mobile phone, and can store a lot more information than the traditional barcode. They can hold content like website links, personal contact information, and also just plain old text.

So why should you care about QR codes? The short answer is: they’re a great tool to market your event and improve attendee experience.

Consider all of the ways you can use QR codes at your next event:

Promote the event – Encode your event site URL or event registration link with a QR code and add it to any print material you distribute.
Provide a link to the mobile agenda – Use a QR code for the link to your event mobile site and print it on the back of attendees’ badges.
Facilitate networking and lead collection – Encode your attendees’ contact information and add it to their badge.
Get session feedback – Put a QR code with a link to the survey form on the welcome sign right outside of the room.
Provide sponsor information – Add a QR code with your event sponsors’ and exhibitors’ website and direct your attendees to interactive content online. This one makes everyone happy.

To generate QR codes, go to qrcode.kaywa.com or download a free app like QR Droid (for Androids) or Qrafter (for Iphones). Remember, your attendees would also need a QR code reader on their phone. There are plenty of free ones out there for iPhones, Androids, and Blackberries.

Tips:

Make sure that when you print QR codes, they are of a size that can be easily scanned by the camera on a mobile phone. For example, a code that goes on a sponsor banner would obviously need to be much larger than one that goes on the back of a badge.
Do ensure that whatever link you encode, the site that it directs to is mobile friendly.
Provide sufficient context when you are promoting a QR code, so that attendees know what to expect.

10 Unexpected Benefits of Virtual (+1 that Doesn't Get Talked About)

Rajesh Krishnan — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:57:00 GMT

As the Product Manager for Certain Virtual, I get involved with numerous conversations with companies exploring ways to do Virtual Events. Here are some of the unexpected and creative uses we've heard around here for Virtual Events.

1. Attendee communications with anonymity - Give attendees a way to contact each other via messaging and chat. It doesn't share email addresses, just user IDs

2. Detect issues earlier - Open up your virtual venue and ask attendees what they are expecting for the live event

3. Up the value of the sponsor package - By providing virtual booths for exhibitors and sponsors on the web site they can interact directly with attendees

4. Spread the love worldwide - One of virtual events' benefits is reducing hotel and travel costs; that's proving to be a bigger deal outside the US, particularly in Australia and New Zealand

5. Encourage events around your event - A event directory that spans both live and virtual helps people to create their own events that enhance yours, such as Birds of a Feather sessions

6. Automate attendance - everyone who attends a virtual event is logged, so you know who was really there

7 . Eliminate post-event document sharing - all the events are in the virtual version of your live event, and can be put there by you or the document authors (with the right permissions)

8. Coordinate the event team - set up a private virtual chat room just for your team

9. Spread out the work - give different access rights to different areas to different people. Virtual event creation takes as much thought and care as a live event.

10.Get better data - See how attendees really are spending their time, not just did they show up for the webinar or not. It's also great information to prove how beneficial your event was. There's proof of what engaged attendees and what didn't, measured in minutes and seconds.

And no one mentions this one, but it's true: It expands your job skills - Event professionals who can handle live, hybrid, and virtual events have a leg up on specialists in only one area. It's an essential part of the resume of the future. I hope to see many of you on our July 28th Engagement Unleashed event, that I will be moderating. Info at http://www.certain.com/CertainVirtualCenter.

All Signs Point to a Successful First Edition of AIBTM

Louise Miller — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:12:00 GMT

As I travelled back from Baltimore to San Francisco, I reflected on the event I had just attended-- AIBTM, the first edition of Reed Travel’s Meetings & Events Exhibition in North America. This is the first time a Hosted Buyer Program has been introduced on a large scale to the US in our industry. Hosted Buyers are qualified meeting and events professionals invited by Reed to attend a 3-day exhibition to learn about the latest trends of the industry, meet exhibitors through a full schedule of pre-arranged 20 minute appointments for 2 days, network, and visit destinations and sites around the conference. I have attended other “IBTM” shows by Reed so the format was not a surprise for me, though it was for many attendees. A first edition of a new show always generates excitements but also unknowns and fears, and is a bit like the birthing experience of the second or third child: you both know and don’t know what to expect.

I was very impressed with the venue (Baltimore Convention Center) and the organization. There were many British accents among the AIBTM staff, and they clearly knew exactly what they were doing, in a “been there done that” kind of way that gave everyone confidence that buyers, exhibitors, speakers and VIPs alike were in good hands. There was a sense of European flair at the event with quite a number of buyers from Europe. Of course, this was an international exhibition with exhibitors from all continents.

The first day was the education day, and it was refreshing to see an education program that’s not running parallel to the exhibition hours, avoiding frustration for both buyers and exhibitors. Reed said about 740 hosted buyers came to the event, with an additional 800+ trade buyers. Though this was short of Reed’s target for the event, the buyers we saw at Certain were of very high quality. Mostly buyers had registered for the education program and it showed: all sessions we saw were either full, standing room only, or nearly full, and the format of open tables encouraged a lot of interaction at the sessions, which everyone in our industry always enjoys. Speakers were all high-caliber and so were the questions from the audience, and clearly the audience thought that the topics covered (congratulation to Erica Keogan from Reed) were right on target.

Here are the key take-away for me from the educational sessions (with a bias on technology):

Social Media was, as usual, a super-hot topic, however everyone seemed ready to move from trends to pragmatic steps that meeting professionals need to embrace: We get it, so please don’t spend too long on the big picture, and instead tell us what to do about it
Mobile is clearly at the tipping point, not just in the hands of the consumers (a study last Monday by Flurry showed that users spend more time now - 81 minutes a day - on their mobile apps than on their PC-based web browsers) but in the mind of the meeting professionals. We are all looking for pragmatic ways to expand our mobile “presence” or get started
Attendee Engagement is clearly on people’s mind as a (sometimes measurable) way to boost the value of the meetings, and helps tie a few technologies together in the context of a clear business benefit.
Hosted Buyer Programs and Appointment Management - for quite a few buyers it was a first opportunity to participate in such program. Experiencing it firsthand (the event is organized around it) gave hosted buyers and exhibitors a chance to see the value of predictable connections and opened new horizons for how to leverage appointments at their own events.

I participated in the CEO Summit, and it was a good opportunity to share valuable insight with the speakers, panelists, but of course also with participating CEOs. With Frank Sesno and Kelly McDonald as guest speakers, most discussions were about social media and marketing to new audiences. In no special order, here are the key notes that I left with:

2 ways of saying the same thing: “what we need is information curation”, and “we don’t need more information, we need advice”
To understand the social media shift, follow Jack Welch’s lunch advice, but also have lunch with the “digital natives” in your company
I found Kelly McDonald’s “5 Strategies to Grow Your Business” very relevant: be relevant, adapt to differences, market to values, reflect core values, recognize different needs
And, out of context in this blog, but so perfect in other contexts: “As they say in Washington, it’s not enough to succeed, your friends must fail”.

The exhibition floor had a very good vibe, it was great to see all the booths buzzing with appointments, and as usual in our industry they were many laughs, hugs and hand-shaking in the aisle as long-time acquaintances re-unite and new contacts are made. Oh, and yes the U2 concert was fantastic, and those who were seeing U2’s 360 tour for the first time were not deceived! Though it was a hot night in Baltimore, the crowd was lucky to escape the thunderstorms that were on the forecast that evening!

Looking forward to our next IBTM show, and to be back to AIBTM next year!

Certain Software Smart Meetings Success Story

tthomas — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:44:00 GMT

Certain Software shared this with you:
http://vimeo.com/23973801

Smart Meetings Success Story
http://vimeo.com/23973801

Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) Series: Setting up the SMM Process

ggleason@certain.com — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:04:00 GMT

More and more organizations are looking to develop Strategic Meetings Management programs to help control the risk and cost associated with meetings. In my first blog, I discussed the initial phase of starting an SMM program - assigning unique meeting ID numbers to events and standardizing supplier contracts. Today, I would like to discuss what should be considered as you begin to formalize the processes involved in SMM and how technology can greatly improve the success of your program.

Process Automation: A Meeting Professional’s BFF
Everything associated with a meeting follows a process that must be tracked and managed. Event approval and planning, vendor sourcing, attendee registration, travel booking and post-event invoicing – can all be broken down into processes or steps that must be completed in order to create a successful event.

Meeting professionals can realize the greatest benefits when utilizing a well-developed SMM program, along with a robust software solution. In fact, it is almost impossible to have a successful SMM program without a software package to help manage all aspects of the program.

While a formal SMM program establishes consistent processes and procedures, management and tracking of these processes can be controlled effortlessly with a comprehensive SMM software solution; resulting in more streamlined and cost-effective meetings and events. Think about the tremendous benefits that can be realized by automating the planning and management of every work back schedule associated with a meeting. Project management becomes effortless with an automatic system that calendars and color-codes everything; while notifying all event stakeholders of their different milestones, due dates or required deliverables. The time saved in emails alone would be well worth the effort of setting up an SMM program.

As you standardize processes, begin by focusing on these areas and develop other criteria that fit the way your organization works. Also, make note of what steps can be automated as you work through them to aid with software implementation.

Centralize expenses by Meeting ID
The best way to start standardizing processes is to begin by implementing payment policies because everyone will listen when it involves getting paid. Inform all event stakeholders that event-related expenses will NOT be paid without a Meeting ID.

Be forgiving at first and deliver payment with a fair warning, while educating everyone on the new requirements
You may also want to establish expense category codes that will provide more specifics on how each dollar is spent (travel, hotels, sponsorships, food & beverages, etc.)
If practical, consider issuing meeting credit cards with charge limits for smaller purchases. This will help control spending, but give planners the flexibility needed for expenses that occur on the go
Once the SMM program is established and automated with a software solution, organizations can start cross-referencing and analyzing costs by vendor, event or expense code in order to realize more savings at future events

Start with the Request & Approval process
Organizations should start with the first phase of any meeting or event - meeting requests and approvals - as this is mostly an internal process. Below are some things to consider when developing a formal process for meeting requests and approvals.

Ensure that every event starts with a formal request, with an attached budget, that can be routed to the appropriate budget and business line managers for approval
Organizations should make sure that any SMM package being considered creates automated budget estimates and notifies managers that a meeting has been requested as this will help keep the approval process moving
Set up “not-to-exceed” limits in all areas. While instituting these budget parameters, other criteria specific to an organization can be established to help control spending

Standardize all staff and client-facing tools
In order for the SMM program to be successful, organizations must quickly garner buy-in from attendees and event stakeholders alike on the new processes. Again, technology can help smooth out any issues that these two groups may have with changes to the norm.

Organizations should consider integrating the new SMM solution with their existing Attendee Management system, as event stakeholders will experience the benefits of a more streamlined process right away and readily accept any new requirements
Most attendees’ pre-event experience is based on interaction with event emails and the registration web site. By coupling the attendee management and SMM software packages, organizations will delight visitors with custom-tailored event web sites, forms, and email campaigns that are based on information stored in a participant’s profile or registration
If the SMM solution has Salesforce integration, all the activities of each registrant or supplier can be logged and referenced in reports to fine-tune future events or campaigns

The success of any SMM program relies heavily on technology to provide meeting professionals with the ability to efficiently plan, source, and manage events; while allowing organizations more visibility into the entire workflow. The quality of an entire event program can be elevated by establishing a formal SMM program and leveraging the automated procedures and built-in best practices found in a robust SMM software solution.

Whether you are conducting an initial investigation or are in the midst of developing a complete SMM program, I hope you find this information helpful. My next blog in the series with explore how to leverage SMM when selecting a meeting site. Let me know what you think at ggleason@certain.com.

To learn more about Certain Software, please visit www.certain.com.