Within the events world, we all know we’re facing the greatest challenges of our industry to date. There is no need to reiterate the “shrinking budgets, environmental concerns, blah blah blah” reasons for a decline in the volume of face to face meetings. So, for Marriott to roll out a new “GoThere” (warning: link takes forever to load, grumble grumble) virtual meeting solution in collaboration with AT&T, it’s ingenious, right? Well, yes and no.

First, What Will Work

1. Reduced costs. At $500/hour for the room usage, even a three hour meeting could save thousands in hard costs for high-level executives who don’t need car service, business-class airfare or hotel (a three hour cross-country meeting could potentially require an overnight stay). I wouldn’t say there was a significant amount of savings in lost productivity as most executives are working via mobile tools during travel.
2. Access to cool technology. Costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per room, Cisco Telepresence is not something most people can utilize. This could be an opportunity for small businesses and independents to experience the system.
3. Beautiful quality. Make no mistake, the technology is gorgeous. Close to flawless. Easy to use. Nuff said.
4. Environmental impact. Obviously the reduced travel equates to reduction in an environmental footprint. Calculations can be made to estimate the reduced impact.
5. International organizations could reap massive benefits. Planned locations include Shanghai, London, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and eight US cities.

The Challenges

Marriott has their work cut out for them. Why?

1. You have to book multiple rooms on multiple ends to hold the meetings. That’s double the cost…and unless you have quite a few people participating in each meeting, it could be difficult to recoup the expenditure. Plus, realistically, what are the chances that your desired party happens to be in one of the planned 13 cities? That, too, could be tricky.
2. You have to travel to get to the meeting room. This still means time away from the office. Coupled with #1, if you have to travel a fair distance to get to one of the rooms, this could equate to an even higher expense!
3. Maybe the name “GO There” wasn’t the wisest choice? Just a reminder that it still requires leaving the office, unlike many in-office web conferencing suites offering decent quality and the same interactivity. I have personally experienced several video conferencing technologies using large-screen monitors and didn’t feel I was lacking much in communication abilities.
4. Decreasing market share. With the acquisition of LifeSize Communications by Logitech (yes, the mouse company), we will potentially see far more affordable options popping up in offices around the world…with little to no sacrifice in quality. (FYI, this is a company to watch, wow!) Polycom and Juniper’s new collaboration is another potential threat.
5. They will need to do extensive consumer education in order to show the best use of their technology in place of using widely available, semi-affordable collaborative tools. Assembling a long list of case studies and demonstrations will be mandatory to sell the value. I can think of many reasons to use the rooms, but I don’t see anything listed in any of the verbiage on their site.
6. Environmental calculations could be difficult. Trying to gain an estimate of the actual reduction in footprint will require manual calculations by…the client? Without automated calculators, this could be a lost metric for organizations needing the data.

Within the list of challenges, I believe there are opportunities to find new markets and new ways to use the technology. It’s going to be a tough road, but obviously Marriott didn’t make this move without serious forethought. And with giants AT&T and Cisco backing them, it’s probably not as massive of a drop of cash anyways. All things being equal, it’s exciting to see Marriott working to innovate and adapt in making videoconferencing a tool available to the public.

As meeting professionals (supplier or planner), where are the opportunities for you? Can you adapt your job duties and expertise to become an expert on this new type of meeting?

From homepage: please click “More News” to view video created by Staylor-Made Communications!

A few months ago, Joan Eisenstodt made a great observation on Jeff Hurt’s blog, Midcourse Corrections, about how difficult it can be to sit through a presentation when the house lights are set so low it’s impossible to take notes, use a laptop, etc. And Jeff was spot-on when he agreed that these days a good projector (and, yes, that is a caveat…a crummy lamp will completely negate what I’m about to say), properly specified for the size of the room and audience should have no problem illuminating the image on the screen even with the house lights at full power.

So, just for fun, at one of my speaking engagements, I requested the AV crew not dim the house lights.  With Joan’s comment running through my head, I stood my ground as they repeatedly tried to turn down the house lights. I finally had to throw out the “I am the CEO of an AV Company” line to get them to take me seriously (oh, that’s so frustrating, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog!!).

After all was said and done, Joan was certainly right (gee, go figure haha). See, I had requested of my audience to Tweet, use their phones for live polling and do some interactive group exercises. How could I ask them to do all of this in the dark? And I knew that the front-projected, 6k projector on a 9×12 screen in an intimate 80-person room set would be more than sufficient. Ultimately we had not one complaint that the audience couldn’t read the screen, I was able to clearly see and assess the feedback from my audience and I’m sure everyone had a much easier time tapping away at their little phone keypads thanks to decent lighting! Kudos and Thank You Joan!

So, here are a few considerations when thinking about what is appropriate and how to accomplish your goals when it comes to your lighting:

• First of all, check the room lighting when evaluating your site. How flexible are the lighting options? Can you dim one quadrant or one half of the room at a time? If so, maybe inform your attendees that they have some options when it comes to overhead lighting. After all, I’m sure there are some people who feel more comfortable with darker lights overhead. I was appalled at a recent load-in when I discovered a brand-new, extremely high-end property had only two light settings. Yep, good old “on” and “off”
• For really large, non-traditional venues or a convention center type of setting, it’s often buzzing mercury lamps or nothing. As pin spots on tables can be an exorbitant cost, see what kind of effects you might achieve with blasting the walls (or preferably pipe & drape) with bright uplights. This creates a nice diffused light, but may not reach the center of the room. Or, if getting a little creative, how about something fun along the lines of table or desk lights? Battery powered LED lights can be durable and extremely long-lasting (hundreds of hours for reuse). Just be sure they are shaded to throw the light on the table – and not people’s faces!
• Spend a few minutes with your Technical Director or Project Manager reviewing  exactly how you’d like the room lighting to look during each segment of your event. There are certainly times where you’d really rather the audience be enveloped by a low-light setting…it can spark a mood that you’d like to achieve. If your intent is to relax your audience, get them solely focused on the entertainment before them or perhaps create an awards-show type of setting, you’d certainly want a lower house light setting.

Best of luck and don’t be afraid to do what your instinct tells you to. Just try to ignore the patronizing looks of the snooty AV kid (And be sure to read my AVGirl column on planyourmeetings.com for some empowering knowledge.) If you’re not happy with the results, there’s no reason why you can’t make a change mid-stride (or midcourse, eh Jeff?).

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Las Vegas, possibly the hottest topic is the new tablet technology revealed by brands such as Dell, Lenovo and HP, with Apple set to release their tablet later this month (Update: Check out the $499 tablet here!!). Essentially the product is somewhere between a cell phone and a laptop; the current products being revealed range from anything like a sophisticated cell phone to a very small laptop. Affordable price point, touch-screen functionality, extended battery life and the ability to stream in HD are some of the characteristics of this new technology. Toting around a laptop could very well be much like how the general public currently treats their mobile or smart phone.

Sooo…where would this technology fit in at a meeting or event?

1. Think about the potential for supplying these tablets to attendees (either at low or no-cost). From there you could do the following:
2. Tablets could be pre-loaded with vendor and sponsor information, educational materials, tradeshow maps, the list goes on.
3. As hard as it is to obtain sponsorship dollars, consider further that if an attendee taps on certain information (such as a sponsor’s link to information), their preferences could be tracked and valuable tracking data supplied to sponsors for improved ROI.
4. The environmental implications could be massive for reducing the need for paper at all, and without complicated distribution systems.
5. Unlike existing technology (ie Kindle) video and multimedia can also be incorporated into these devices.

Attendee goodwill could reach an all-time high!

From a logistical perspective, though, if you thought social media usage was prevalent now, well whoa! Imagine how this might transform the connectivity needs of your audience. Events that don’t offer wifi would most likely be scoffed at…as attendees tap-tap-tap their scorn with angry thumbs (resorting to using their phones due to no Internet connectivity).

What else could a person do with such fun technology??

In what appears to be a precursor to future LEED standards for Hotels, the US Green Building Council has released the “Green Venue Selection Guide: Integrating LEED into Travel and Event Management.”

The guide is intended to serve as a checklist for those properties that are not currently LEED certified. USGBC suggests the user package the checklist with their Request for Proposal. They do clarify that it should be obvious this is a product of the USGBC. One could surmise that the USGBC is wise in distributing this document to properties with the intent that hoteliers will recognize the increased demand from planners and organizations who would like to hold their events in certified green properties. Nice move USGBC!

You can download the document here. You can also see their presentation enticing hospitality professionals here.

An archived version of the Project Green AV webinar that aired 11/17 is now available on-demand. You can access it here.

For a copy of the presentation with all links live, please send a message to midori *at* pulsestaging.com You can also view the document on my LinkedIn Slide Share page.

Enjoy!!

Although it wasn’t the first time seeing a variation of the topic, I recently saw a post on LinkedIn that I found fascinating. A group discussion centers on the idea that almost all LI discussions are really just shallowly masked sales pitches. The author states that he’s seeking more technical knowledge and tips, tricks, etc. He even suggests some of the tips and topics he’d love to discuss…

Is anyone else getting the irony here?

This gentleman just created that content which he wishes to see!

Obviously, this frustrated social networker hasn’t quite grasped the concept of co-creation. And judging by the long string of posts agreeing with his sentiments (six is quite a lot for a LinkedIn discussion), it appears that many others identify themselves as “users” or “viewers” rather than “creators” and “participants”. There seems to be a disconnect between the multitude who post conversations, questions and ideas and the thousands of others who obviously have not absorbed the idea that there is no “they” in web 2.0!

If we look at the structure of our culture, we’ve long been forced into sitting in a classroom, listening to a teacher or professor – with major repricussions for speaking out of turn. And how many years have we spent sitting on a couch, passively being entertained by a television program? Imagine if you shouted at the screen and the coach actually listened! Well, social networking and web 2.0 is the way for us to really become that armchair quarterback…

From an event perspective, I have a couple of ideas on how to repair these deeply ingrained behavioral patterns and create a meetings 2.0 experience suitable for the majority.

1. Strategize. Assess your marketplace. You MUST know your audience and make use some strong deductive logic to understand what’s preventing them from participating. Is it technology that’s baffling? Then do some pre-event, basic learning webinars and maybe have on-the-ground team members doing informal training in a lobby or opening reception (more tips on making it easier to join here). Are they missing the value? Give them MEASURABLE data to support the reasons why they can benefit from participating and co-creating. In my “Twitter in Twenty” presentation, my goal is to spark one “aha!” moment so that I might convert a social naysayer to a champion social networker!
2. Respond. Quickly. If you have any feedback whatsoever, acknowledge it immediately. If you get a request for more coffee during the afternoon break, answer that request. And then make lots of noise about what you just did. Have your keynote mention it. As other attendees notice, their joy and awe at being able to produce results and understand someone is listening should stir up that many more active participants.
3. Display, Display, Display. As an audiovisual firm, I recommend that you utilize as many visual displays as you possibly can of the social networking activity that is occurring. This might include flat panel monitors in hallways, lobbies, breakout rooms, general session rooms (even embedded in tables if you want to go ultra high-tech and impactful) and anywhere else attendees will grasp the third dimension of the event around them. My favorite concept is to use interactive touch screens, which offers the added benefit of capturing marketing data for the meeting organizers and sponsors alike, while also serving up the immediate gratification of interactivity. (Daniel Gerson of Cisco has a brief discussion on this topic here.)

As is often mentioned, ensuring there is allotted time for attendees to capitalize on the many more connections they can make through social networking (perhaps using an Illumination Gallery to create a conversation place) and providing appropriate gathering space will also ensure much happier and engaged attendees (or even incorporating some of Jeff Hurt’s Purple Cow ideas). Ultimately, you can be the trusted resource that helped them use their newfound voice and finally silence the noise of “they.”

Unlike most Audiovisual companies, we concluded that a big long list of our equipment is really not practical, useful knowledge for most Event Professionals (although we do have one, it’s quite extensive and available if you’re interested!). Instead, we present five myths demonstrating why you should always consult with an independent AV service provider when planning your event.

1. It will cost more if I don’t use the hotel AV service.

This is perhaps the most costly assumption you can make when choosing your AV provider. We can demonstrate several examples where you could save your client or your company hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of precious dollars. This might be through careful scheduling of labor, adapting schedules or even helping you shop and negotiate power and rigging charges at various venues.

2. My venue will not allow me to use an outside service.

Pulse Staging can help you manage this sales tactic and negotiate with your chosen locale. Frequently the in-house provider will attempt to charge for using an outside company, often referred to as a corkage fee. However, with the careful use of a simple red pen, you should be able to mark through these unfair, bullying practices that can be up to 40% of a final billing!

3. An outside AV company won’t be able to accommodate last minute changes.

Don’t let this deceptive statement fool you! Much of a hotel’s equipment, especially any specialty gear, is actually shipped from other sources. No matter the destination, the extensive network of Pulse Staging has always supplied the desired changes to the event, no matter how large or small.

4. The in-house AV company will know the venue better than anyone else.

This is where a fresh perspective becomes your advantage. Imagine designing the same set-up for the same room for the same audience day after day. Understandingly enough, the design might become slightly predictable. Pulse Staging professionals appreciate that meeting attendees need stimulation to stay focused; and their AV design reflects this.

5. The quality of service I receive will be the same as the hotel’s, and I know I will receive the same service no matter what city or state I am in.

Almost all “in-house” Audio Visual companies are actually independent agencies—not employees—of the hotel. While they might adhere to their own standard of service, there is no guarantee they match that of the hotel. Furthermore, the team of AV specialists you depend on will change with each location. Your dedicated Pulse team travels with you, no matter the distance. This means we will be able to anticipate that your CEO usually wears a silk shirt – and accordingly provide her with her own preferred microphone.

Besides these myths, there is the general concern of whether or not your Project Manager (not a sales representative, but an on-the-ground Project Manager) will be dedicated to your event. Will they be distracted with another, larger show at the same time? Will they be available by phone at 2am when you realize you need to make changes before 6am? And what about after the event? Will they travel to your debriefing to give you performance reports and insightful suggestions on how to improve the next event?

These are all serious and vital aspects of AV that any Meetings Professional must be attuned to. In times of minimal budgets requiring maximum impact, turning to a professional AV consultant could perhaps be the elusive piece to your almost-complete ROI puzzle.

Thanks to the overwhelming popularity of an all-star panel presenting on Social Media, Pulse Staging has been invited to speak once again on the topic of Microblogging/Twitter, this time by the Society for Design Administration.

Demonstrating the extent of value that Social Media has for all industries, the panel will present on 11/19 at the Newschool of Architecture & Design. Visit the site for more details or to register.

In my increasingly frequent role as a Tech Moderator for hybrid meetings and events, I take on the duty of coaching speakers on how to best simultaneously address a virtual and live audience.

As such, I created this document to share with speakers, planners or anyone who might be involved with virtual types of presentations. I hope you find it helpful, and if you need assistance with designing, crafting and/or executing a hybrid meeting or event, please contact Midori *at* pulsestaging.com