Eventworld 2011 Merit Scholarship Education Review

AN "IN-DEPTH" LOOK INTO ISES EVENTWORLD 2011

As the St. Louis Chapter Merit Scholarship recipient for 2011, I had the pleasure of attending the 2011 Eventworld in St. Louis in August. I attended all of the general sessions and several of the educational classes. Though diverse in their advertised focus, there was a common thread to many of the presentations. Here is a brief summary of my learning there.

It’s essential that we must continue to show the value of meetings to the public. It’s our path to professional redemption and ultimately to growing our industry and our own businesses. We must challenge the status quo through building a coalition of industry supporters and represent ourselves in the manner that every other large industry does. We must lobby to debunk “bad business myths” of Meetings Events & Incentives Industry and show value to the economy, to businesses within the industry and those affected by it and to the attendees and participants in our programs.

To be a legitimate business that can attract and serve corporate clients, we must have all of the minimum required documents and indemnification and accounting processes and be prepared to demonstrate any of the above to our corporate clients at any time. It is essential that we nvest in finance and the financial health of our business. Risk assessment is a key to the gate of corporate events and an absolutely essential part of any fully featured event design and sales presentation. Corporations require this internally and will look for it in us. Study the certifications and rules related to our client’s operations and procurement processes. This will position us to correspond with corporations in the manner that they are accustomed to.

Don’t discount science and studies. It can provide the competitive advantage in every facet of our event planning and delivery as well as our marketing and sales. Look into other industries to grow business, not at competition. Other industries have paid billions to complete this research and it is free for the taking for the planner open to drawing parallels between processes.

Engagement is Key! It doesn’t matter how long a person is at the event, it matters how long they are paying attention to the message. We are better served by quick powerfully emotional experiences built around the message. Perhaps media can prolong the attention to our message and allow the message to resonate over time through reliving it repeatedly. Since time on message is the goal, don’t waste someone’s attention. Do not focus on our intention, focus on what our attendees are paying attention to. Build your message into what your audience chooses to pay attention to for best results. As we are mobile device driven, we pay less attention and have less time to pay attention. Respect our attendees’ time and attention and provide impact not quantity.

To some extent consumer technologies are now driving pro technologies. HD is an example of that. 3D may be next. Access to these technologies has made more common video recording. The addition of professional recording and streaming services are minimal incremental costs over and above IMAG. This media is increasingly valuable. The focus of events is not just the experience, but the generation of media. This was a welcome re-occurring theme throughout the meetings I attended.

All the presentations focused on how to better measure and show return on event investment and create enduring value through engagement and media. In every presentation we were urged to look outside the practices of our own industry and to model our methods after the industries we seek to serve. The generation of media assets from events was repeatedly encouraged.

The event was full of insight and inspiration. I’ve compiled a more detailed report of each of the educational seminars that I attended. These reports are published in my blog on ISES Communities.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve our local chapter by attending Eventworld as our representative and to report back on my learning. It was awesome!

Written by John Peckham - 2011 Merit Scholarship Recipient