Plan Your Meetings
Spotlights
Digital program distribution
If you’re looking for a way to replace printed show programs and collateral, consider uploading materials to Digital Collateral, which allows attendees to download and view conference brochures, session notes and other information on their phone.
The next big thing for audience engagement
Having an audience response system at your event that takes real-time polls and texts from your attendees is cool. But having that device also be able to simultaneously translate the presentation into other languages, act as a handheld microphone for audience Q&As, provide support for the hearing impaired and display full-color sponsor logos is awesome. That’s all in a day’s work for the IML Connector: an amazing all-in-one interaction device that even can be used as a portable PA system.
Up-and-coming destinations
TripAdvisor has named its Top 5 up-and-coming U.S. travel destinations for 2010: Seward, Alaska; Hyannis, Mass.; Hot Springs, Ark.; Chinle, Ariz.; and Waimea, Hawaii. It’s probably obvious why one would want to see Hawaii or the oceanfront along Massachusetts, but don’t rule out the other emerging hot spots. Sea kayaking is the reason to visit Seward, located along Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska (not too far from Anchorage and a certain vice-presidential candidate’s hometown of Wasila). Chinle, home to Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona, has beautiful red rock canyons that can be seen from any number of overlooks along the rim. It’s also a place to observe authentic Navajo culture and history.
Mammals while you munch?
Nurture your group’s animal instincts with a banquet or reception at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences, which can accommodate groups up to 3,000. Through Sept. 12, guests can get to know at least some of the academy’s newest inhabitants: a whale that walked, a bat the size of a bumblebee and wild mothers-to-be who are pregnant for up to two years at a time.
Let your iPhone do the work
If you’re one of those constantly tethered to your iPhone, you might consider adding applications to help you work better. Several are free; others cost no more than $9.99. Among the freebies are Dragon Dictation, which creates voice-to-text transcriptions that can be e-mailed or texted; Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, which lets users share screen and audio content and chat by text; and AroundMe, which helps you find any business anywhere. For $4.99 try XpenseTracker, which sorts expenses and mileage by date, category, payment type or client. Get organized with Todo, which can sync with iCal and Outlook and handle multiple tasks.
New green venue in North Georgia
Meeting planners looking to book after October can check out the new Clarence Brown Conference Center in Cartersville, Ga., opening across from Georgia Highlands College, a two-year, associate degree-granting school. The 44,000-sq. ft. conference center sits on a 20-acre site and will feature a ballroom that can accommodate 1,400; a banquet hall that seats 300; nine meeting rooms; a 300-seat lecture hall; an executive boardroom; a landscaped courtyard; and an amphitheater. It is being built to meet Silver Level LEED Certification standards.
Themed team-building opportunities in Orlando
Theme parks are upping the team-building ante in Orlando. At Epcot, “Sum of All Thrills” lets guests design their own simulated thrill rides with variables such as height and speed. At Universal Orlando Resort, “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” opened, offering rides and themed dining. Aquatica, SeaWorld’s WaterPark, has a new high-speed tube slide called Omaka Rocka.
