Plan Your Meetings

Imagine our surprise today when we heard that Plan Your Meetings got a special shout-out at the MPI Houston Chapter’s January luncheon. Of course, we had to investigate …

It turns out Katie Laird, an adorable, cupcake-loving social media guru, gave us props for our YouTube channel, which got started as a way for me to upload my Weblog reports from last year’s MPI MeetDifferent convention because I couldn’t store files that large on my computer, and became a really cost-effective way for us to host videos we embed on this site. She cited PYM’s channel as “an example for event planners on things that geek rock stars do.” Check it out on slide 20 of her awesome presentation:

Thanks Happy Katie! We heart you too!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of conducting a brainstorming session with meeting planners about the challenges they’re facing right now and what some of the solutions are. Whether you attended or not, I think everyone can benefit from some of the advice your peers have on dealing with toxic bosses, contract negotiations, dealing with attrition, working within a tight budget, getting certified and more.

I’ve posted the findings with links to interesting articles, relevant Web sites and additional information we didn’t get to discuss due to time constraints. Plus, I uploaded a couple of documents: 152+ Ways to Save and Tim Sanders’ Dirty Dozen Rules for Green Meetings.

You can check it out at http://planyourmeetings.ning.com/forum/topics/industry-challenges-solutions.

The ning group is kind of like a Facebook for planners, and it allows for easier networking and dialogue between us. You can also access it by clicking the “Networking” navigation bar at the top of this page.

Feel free to add comments to the findings if I missed anything, or to ask additional questions.

We are living in interesting times. Despite meeting cancellations, budget shrinkage and economic uncertainties, we know face-to-face meetings will never completely go away. What has to change, however, is how those meetings are conducted.

Change can be scary; some companies truly are struggling, but I can’t help but agree with the author who coined this era  “The Great Disruption.” It’s a time of great potential, especially for the people planning meetings and events.

It is with an eye toward helping you innovate and adapt that we are holding a PYM Planner Focus Group at next week’s PYM LIVE 2009 Atlanta. We’ll be discussing current industry challenges and solutions.

Do you have a burning question you need answered? Or an awkward situation you need advice on handling? No topic is too big or small for us to tackle. Post your questions below, or e-mail them to kristi@planyourmeetings.com.

Have you checked out the bill for the Inauguration festivities? Now, that’s a party. Just to be sworn in costs $1.24 million dollars.

Security needs to be high for this historic event, and the costs for police and Port-A-Potty rentals don’t help the budget any. But check out the total cost.

By Jan Tolle MacDonald, CMP, CMM

It’s my last day in New Orleans, and I will depart for Minneapolis where the expected temperature is -20 degrees Fahrenheit.  Since I work for Travel Alberta, I should say -28 degrees Celsius, even though Canadians are so smart they know both systems. The irony is that Alberta is a warmer place than Minneapolis today.

My best class of the day:  “Are you Sabotaging Yourself?” by JP Pawliw-Fry, BA, BPHE, DC, president, Institute for Health and Human Potential. He spoke about the “blind leader” effect: the higher you go in your career, the more chance you have of empathy failures, difficulty  judging emotions/faces, increased impulsive behavior, increased stereotyping and isolation. He said it’s because the higher up one goes, the less candid feedback one gets from the people on the lower rungs of the career ladder.

The No. 1 reason  why people stay in their organization, he says, is their relationship with their leader. A colleague who works for a major airline told me she gets frequent offers for other opportunities, but will never leave because of the way she was treated 22 years ago!

On my way home, there were about 10 of us on the same plane. Our PCMA conference continued at the airport and I made two great discoveries:

1. To check out flight schedules, gates and times, security wait times from your mobile phone check out: virtuallythere.com. Since my flight was delayed, I was able to view what time it would arrive and the gate number.
2. The other is a new one from Google for 411 business information. It’s free, and it works in Canada, too. It can be used to call businesses such as restaurants, hotels, phone numbers, etc.  I’ve got this number on my speed dial:  800-GO-GOOG or 800-466-4411.

As I write this last post and reflect on the past week in New Orleans, I can say it’s been a fast-paced conference. From meeting new people to volunteering and enjoying the New Orleans scene, I’ve learned a lot and experienced growth, both professionally and personally. Not a bad deal.

And I return home feeling, we’re all lucky to be in this business.

::

Jan Tolle MacDonald, CMP, CMM, is the regional manager, Midwest MC&IT, for Travel Alberta. This is her first time attending the Professional Convention Management Association convention, she blogged about her experiences for the duration of the event.

By Sandy Biback, CMP, CMM

This will be my last post. It’s been interesting.

As I sit at the airport, I can reflect on some of the learning nuggets I’m taking back with me:

1. I have new ways of attracting trade show exhibitors, and improved ideas on how to give them more options — such as discounts for next year’s show — when they sign on the dotted line for the current year’s event.
2. I want to create year-round sponsorship opportunities as opposed to just offering conference-specific sponsorships.
3. And, as always, we all need to remember to deliver what is promised.

For me, the highlight was watching my student Lars deliver his workshop as “student of the year.” (I participated in the final product.) The objective — discuss in different formats how to make Webinars more interactive like face-to-face meetings are. Lars is the face of our future in our profession, and his findings will become a future PCMA Webinar, so stay tuned and hop on board.

See you all in Dallas next year!

By Sandy Biback, CMP, CMM

We all are moving through challenging and opportunity-laden times. I just got out of a session where we heard from Montie Brewer, president and CEO of Air Canada, and Larry Kellner, chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines.

Brewer suggested airlines need to plan for volatile times. Not just oil pricing volatility, but also monetary fluctuations. The opportunity, he said, is to figure out how to better service customers. Kellner said less load factor gives them more opportunity to try new things.

Air Canada is doing just that. They will shortly be launching a customer volunteer program. Flyers will volunteer to adjust their schedules when load factors are at their highest in return for benefits. Stay tuned …

Challenging times. Innovative times.