Additional Forces
Technology
What are the technologies that will have the greatest impact on the meetings industry in the coming year? "Always-on, high-speed connectivity (WiFi, Edge, VCast) through a multitude of devices (Blackberries, phones, laptops) can add great value to both attendees, organizers, and exhibitors. For example:
- real interaction/feedback (surveys, registration, feedback)
- attendee preparation (live floor maps, company/product background)
- networking (visitor/company profiles, virtual networking)
- lead generation (expression of interest, virtual bizcards)
"Conference venues may want to invest in adding the infrastructure to support these developments in the short run.
"However, as portable bandwidth increases, place/time-shifting becomes the norm (TiVo/DVR, SlingBox, etc.), and everyone can send live video from their PDA/phone (e.g., to their colleague in the office), future attendance levels may be significantly impacted.
- "Conference organizers could anticipate these developments and focus on adding products/features that:
- add real value to in-person attendance (intermediation and networking)
- support this new mindset ('professional conference-attendees?')
- cater to those interested in virtual access to products, speakers, and/or exhibitors."
Sander Raaymakers
Independent Community Strategist and Technology Trend Watcher, Founding Partner of Headspinners + Co. (www.headspinners.com), a consulting firm advising clients in the hospitality and conference industry on community building and technology trends.
"The technologies with the greatest impact are the ones which enhance the attendees' ability to network - prior to, during, and after the conference. These include technologies which allow for more social networking (think of the phenomena such as MySpace, del.icio.us, and Wikipedia), as well as integration with devices we already carry.
"As pre- and post-conference networking continues to extend the event's lifecycle, tools such as those created by IntroNetworks and Leverage Software will allow people to find colleagues who have much in common with them, as well as facilitating their ability to connect before the conference begins (or even after). It has always been more difficult to network with all of the people you would like at larger conferences. These tools allow for commonalities to be identified and relationships established to ensure the networking portion of the conference is as successful as the educational component.
"On site, interactive name badges continue to develop, becoming easier to wear as well as containing more information. Utilizing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies, attendees' badges communicate with one another to allow people to break the ice and find social and business commonalities. These RFID tags, made by companies such as nTag, also can download program content to the badge, while also facilitating CEU tracking, and even in some cases, interactivity with message centers (PCMA used that technology at its 2006 Annual Meeting).
"The use of individuals' mobile phones (which are now multi-use devices which allow for Internet access and other services) will also begin to be integrated into the industry. While perhaps not on a large-scale horizon for 2007, it makes sense that these devices become the cornerstone of how individuals "virtually" communicate in a live environment. Mobile blogging, text messaging, push marketing, and other services will continue to be driven to and from the user's phone.
"By mentioning blogging, we have to also mention one of the best content drivers onto a Web site, RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Organizations that understand the need to market differently in the technology age realize that maintaining an ongoing dialogue with your customers - rich in content and light on hard selling - will keep them in the fold, allowing the organization the ability to inform them of their activities. Many organizations have already created customized RSS feeds on their Web sites to make their site 'the' place to visit for updated information. Smart organizations will continue down this path.
"As streaming content continues to grow, the use of the MP3 players (a.k.a. Podcasting) to deliver content will continue to flourish. Organizations will continue to provide content - not only from the event's general sessions, but created by the organization to maintain an ongoing communication with their membership - that can be downloaded to the user's MP3 of choice.
"There are many more on this list. The continued wireless trend (as entire cities now start to provide seamless wireless connectivity) and EvDO connectivity will continue to be used for traveling business people to maintain high-speed connectivity, wherever they are. However, as the Web continues to thrive on social networking applications, and as more people who were raised with the Internet enter our industry, these social networking tools will make their impact known.
"You say there's nothing radically new on this list? That's correct. Creation always outpaces implementation. Our industry is one that does not take immediately to new technologies. Instead, like many businesses, we wait until the technology is more mature, and in the hands of more than just the early adopters, before we start considering how we will utilize it."
James Spellos, CMP
Meeting U.
jspellos@meeting-u.com
"Two things: tagging/trip planning and visualization. Consumers are increasingly turning to tagging, a mash-up of both social networking and consumer-generated content, to sift, sort, and share content about travel planning and buying. Triporama, and TripHub, services specifically designed to make leisure travel planning easier for friends and family group travel, have also joined the tagging fray. Included in the many useful travel planning features (e.g., calendar coordination) offered by these sites, their "bookmarking button" enables any member of the group to tag pages on the fly as they research travel about their upcoming trip, automatically saving them to the group's trip page, thus eliminating the need to send the 'check this out' or 'maybe we can go here' e-mail. Carnival Connections offers similar features for leisure travel arrangers to plan a cruise.
"In terms of visualization, consumers are increasingly accustomed to using Rich-media to authenticate meeting planning and buying. The ability to visualize a potential layout of a function space, whether for a leisure or business event will become the standard."
John Bray
Vice President, Advisory Services
PhoCusWright Inc.
www.phocuswright.com
"A promising technology is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips embedded into attendee badges. RFID readers can be placed at entry points of session rooms to track meeting attendance and participation and as a CME tracking mechanism without the attendee needing to further process their credit hours manually.
"The use of the Audience Response System (ARS) by the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) has truly enhanced the meeting experience for both our presenters and attendees. The advanced technology provides our presenters with an effective tool to poll and test our attendees on important issues and trends and in offering on-site Maintenance of Certification (MOC) exams.
"Our uses of the ARS technology in 2006 included polling of attendees to determine preferences on future programming topics and dates, with the survey data used by the ASNR leadership and future program planning committees to plan for future years.
"Additionally, engaging our meeting attendees is key; we are offering innovative learning methods other than the traditional lecture format. The ASNR attendees are more engaged in the learning process in these designated ARS sessions by providing their responses to questions with further discussion and focus by the presenter following the results tally. The technology serves a dual purpose with testing and continuing medical education credits earned based on the results of the test data. The data secured from the ARS technology is available immediately to the presenter and audience for further Q&A within the session and/or post meeting.
"The ASNR introduced the ARS technology in a pilot session during our 2005 Annual Meeting in Toronto, and we expanded the system with a CME component in 2006. The ARS systems are definitely gaining in popularity, especially among continuing medical education providers. Definite benefits from ARS technology include esthetics, convenient set-up, and mobility (the ease of moving units from room to room depending on unit characteristics).
"Meeting planners should be in close communication with their organization program committee and leaders as to their expectations on the system and reliability factors and communicate closely with their ARS vendor. We conducted ongoing conference calls and on-site meetings with our vendor (AVW-TELAV) technicians and our key presenters to review system operating procedures and alternative methods to tally responses, in the event the technology was not working during the session. The technology features and reliability are changing rapidly and many variables exist for the planner, including budget constraints, user familiarity with the system, and wireless signal interference problems."
Lora Di Padova-Tannehill, CMP
Director of Scientific Meetings
American Society of Neuroradiology
Human Resources
What is the single biggest issue/challenge/opportunity for organizations in terms of hiring, staffing, employee management that you foresee for the coming year?
"The biggest thing employers can do to get the best employees is to be flexible. There are fewer and fewer great employees out there. To get them, you must make yours the best place to work. Today's employees want job satisfaction over all else. A successful employer must allow room for growth, offer training, and must respect their employees.
For example, if an employee has a gay partner, he or she should be allowed to bring that person to a company event. If someone is disabled, they should have the option to work from home. If someone wants to run a marathon, they should be given the flexibility to train for it. An organization should be individualized to retain the best employees.
"For example, take bereavement leaves. Most employers allow three days for the death of a grandparent, two days for the death of an aunt or uncle, and five days for the death of a spouse. Employers should ask employees who constitutes their immediate family, not guess who is in someone's home or who is important to them. The employee should be allowed to devise his or her own bereavement plan.
"Employee loyalty is not the same as it used to be. Management must continually give feedback to the employee, must revere them, train them, and respect the new ways of working. It's a very challenging time as companies balance the need for profitability with the need to meet employees' needs."
Harriet Hankin,
Author of The New Workforce: Five Sweeping Trends
That Will Shape Your Company's Future,
National Director of Business Development,
North America Employee Benefits Practice at Willis Inc.
"The single biggest issue is finding enough talent with the right skills. The number of people entering the labor force is decreasing and at the same time, the baby boomers are beginning to retire. People also want more flexibility in their work life so many are opting to be contractors. In fact, within five years, 25 percent of the labor force is projected to be contractors or temporary workers.
"Nearly 40 percent of workers are actively seeking new employment, which indicates there is a definite disconnect between what workers want and companies think the workers want. Plus, there are now four generations of workers making up the current workforce. All of these challenges present a great opportunity for employers to become more strategic and to revise their hiring practices and focus on their connection with their current employees.
"Companies will need to look at new options for finding talent, such as hiring retirees or contractors. They will also need to provide more options for workers such as job-sharing or working virtually."
Diane Shelgren
Executive Vice President Strategy and Client
Development Veritude, a Fidelity Investments company
www.veritude.com
Mega-Trends
Peter Yesawich, chairman & CEO of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R, www.ypbr.com), whose agency has been tracking lifestyle trends that impact travel for more than 15 years, has identified five forces that are re-shaping the meetings industry. They are:
1. The revolution - impact of the Internet on both planners and attendees. The Internet is "the single greatest force that has revolutionized the industry," said Yesawich.
2. Shifting social values - the importance of a proper balance between work and family time, and corresponding implications for future meeting strategy. From 1994 to 2000, making money was of the utmost of importance to most Americans. "We had an incredible roaring economy, the dot-com boom was in full swing, and half of all households in America were invested in the stock market," Yesawich said. This all changed when Wall Street started to melt down during the second quarter of 2000 and after Sept. 11. "People started focusing inwardly. Making money was no longer a priority. Spending quality time with family and loved ones was," said Yesawich. Today, more travelers want to bring the kids along on vacations and meetings. Over the last six years, the percentage of adults who took at least one vacation that included children increased from 26 percent to 36 percent. And the percentage that now brings children along on business trips, including meetings, continues to rise as well.
3. New consumerism - the new attitude toward business and corresponding aggressiveness of contemporary consumers. "Consumers are increasingly more demanding. They are less satisfied with what they get for what they pay. The incidence of whining in America has reached an all-time high because expectations outpace performance and delivery," said Yesawich. As a result, award and recognition programs have become richer, not leaner, and are getting stronger. "Consumers have decided they will take control of the transaction. Today, there is a quid pro quo in most consumer transactions. The attitude is if you want my business, you have to give me something in return."
4. Changing demography - evolving shifts in age, income, working habits, and ethnicity. "Every nine seconds someone turns 50 years of age in America. That translates into 4 million more '50 somethings' this year. And as people age, they pursue their No. 1 leisure pastime: travel. Plus, they have more discretionary income."
5. Pricing transparency - online comparison shopping in an increasingly price-transparent world. Meta search engines eliminate the need to visit multiple Web sites to ensure you "get the best deal." Two popular meta search sites, Qixo.com and Kayak.com, actually search the search engines. Brand clarity, or what the brand really stands for, becomes more important as prices become more transparent. "Those brands include both hotel brands and destination brands. What do people think about Chicago versus Atlanta versus Dallas versus Cancun? This revolution has been the single greatest force that has driven change in the business. Two-thirds of all business travelers regularly consult the Internet to plan business trips," said Yesawich. Understanding each megatrend will help you plan more effective meetings.
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