A Second Chance at San Diego

Everyone loves a second chance. Here's yours (and mine, too).

On  Jan. 31, PCMA is hosting a free virtual extension of several sessions from Convening Leaders, held Jan. 8-11 in San Diego. You can link to register for the virtual extension here. And go here for information about the rebroadcast of the co-located Virtual Edge Summit.

I attended Convening Leaders, and I've already registered for next Tuesday's virtual event. I want to see some sessions  I reluctantly missed — including Dr. John Medina's Masters Series, "More Brain Rules for Meetings" — because I was attending others in the same time slot.

I'm also attending because it won't simply be a taped version of the content. There will be a social mediator on hand to keep the virtual group connected through text chats and at least two of the presenters, Sally Hogshead and Mary Byers are taking part in the live chat. It's a safe bet that we'll see more extensions like this in the future, as a way of expanding and extending the meeting experience to more people.

When Convene talked to James Goodman, managing vice president for conference and event services for the 157,000-member American Dental Association (ADA) regarding its decision to expand the virtual component of its annual meeting last fall, Goodman had this to say: "We are not trying to replace the live experience, we we are trying to enhance it."

So whether you are a repeater like me, or haven't had a chance to see any of the sessions, in person or otherwise,  I hope to see you online.

According to some sources, it was a pretty good meeting.

Live From Convening Leaders

Convene is representing at PCMA 2012 Convening Leaders in San Diego this week -- overseeing the PCMA Daily newspaper and maintaining a strong, florally accented presence in the PCMA Partner Lounge. Photo by Andy Chasteen.

Pulling All The Triggers

Sally Hogshead

In Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, brand consultant Sally Hogshead examines the meaning and mechanics of fascination, and offers seven ways for individuals and organizations to increase and improve upon their ability to get attention and keep it, as well as to influence others.

            Hogshead’s book is the result of multidisciplinary research, but fascination, it turns out, is as much art as science  — to be most effective, you have to know how and when to use the triggers. And it is generally best, Hogshead advises, not to use all the triggers at one time.

But there are exceptions, including when Hogshead is speaking and wants to prove her points. When I interviewed Hogshead for the November issue of Convene, she employed me how she uses all seven triggers when she speaks. It's also a sneak preview: Hogshead will speak Jan. 9 at Convening Leaders in San Diego.

1. Passion. “It is very important for the audience to feel that they are bonding with  me from the second I walk out on stage, I want them to feel like we are  we are doing this together.”

2. Trust: “As soon as I walk out there, [the audience] knows I am a leader in my field, they already know I have done a tremendous amount of research. Trust is not something I can build on stage, trust is something that can be built through experience and repeated exposure. I make sure that audience knows that everything I am saying is not  my opinion, but is backed up by research.”

<--!more-->3. Prestige: Every aspect of my keynote is polished to a perfect degree, my slides have all been developed by award-winning designers. I make sure that every piece of the experience, from the way I am introduced, to the way my  materials are handed out gives a very high-end experience for the audience.

4. Power. “When I speak, I am in command and control of what I am talking about . That helps {the audience] understand that this is a message that they absolutely need to hear — that this is urgent."

5. Alarm: "I used the alarm trigger to explain what happens if people don’t fascinate. I want them to really understand that it used to be okay to not fascinate ... but today there is too much competition. I use the alarm trigger to get people really plugged into the problem. I need them to be a bit uncomfortable hearing my speech, so I can give them the solution and so they understand that there is a lot at stake here."

6. Rebellion: "This trigger is one of my favorites. Rebellion is about creativity and surprise. While I am talking, I love to give the audience either a surprise or do something in a completely innovative way. I love walking out into the audience and asking people to join me on stage for an exercise  or challenging the audience in a way they didn’t expect … I love pushing the boundaries of how a speech would normally go."

Mystique: "When an audience is curious, they want to know more. I give them enough information to understand the insight. But I don’t want to spell everything out to the nth degree."

Find this fascinating? You're in luck: Hogshead is speaking on Jan. 9, 2012 at PCMA Convening Leaders.  You can also take "brand personality" test on Hogshead website to find out your our natural strengths and how to use them. 

Convening Leaders Scorecard

A long, long time ago, during the closing moments of last week, before 2011 Convening Leaders came to encompass everything that was or ever would be, I wrote about five things I was looking forward to during PCMA's annual meeting. Since our meeting just wrapped up yesterday, and Virtual Edge Summit 2011 is well into its second day, I think this is a good time to see how those five things worked out. So, here we go:

Serentwipity

A view of the "Tradeshow Trends: New Revenues" session at PMCA Convening Leaders.

Yesterday, during day one of PCMA Convening Leaders in Las Vegas, I experienced one of those moments of serendipity that social-media boosters mean when they talk about social networks increasing connectivity and community, rather than the other way around.

"If everyone always has their noses buried in the phones," naysayers say, "how is anyone ever supposed to meet someone new?"

Chairman's Award

Colin Reed, with Kati Quigley, left, and Deborah Sexton.

When I attended the Gaylord Opryland Resort’s grand reopening in November, I happened to catch Gaylord Chairman and CEO Colin Reed standing in one of the property’s hallways, talking on his cellphone. I went up to him, but waited off to the side until he had finished his call. When he saw me, he immediately cut his call short to shake my hand. He instantly remembered from my name badge that I had interviewed him for a Convene article.

From that experience and our interview, I knew how human — and humane — Reed is. So I was delighted to see him accept PCMA’s 2010 Chairman’s Award at this morning’s Opening General Session. 

When I spoke to Reed about the hotel's response during the Nashville flood and its aftermathlast May, he had told me: "We have this very strong, people-centric culture, where we say that the people who come to work every day in our company come first." 

In accepting the award, he had the same message: "These buildings that we hold meetings in are just buildings. It's the people who work there who bring them alive."

Well-deserved, indeed.

24-Hour Party People

Kelly Peacy, CAE, CMP, PCMA's vice president of meetings and events, has written a column, Planner's Notebook, for Convene over the last few months, where she has given readers an inside look at the process of planning 2011 Convening Leaders. With this guest post, Peacy continues the backstage tour:

One thing I've learned is that Las Vegas knows how to throw a party.

King Dahl, executive director at MGM Grand Resorts, and Lenny Talarico, CSEP, MGM Grand Resorts director of events, are two amazing event professionals. Dahl and Talarico designed the "Las Vegas ... Then and Now"-themed Opening Reception, which if you attended on Sunday night, you know was phenomenal.

What you probably didn't know is that, after the reception, our Freeman team and The MGM Grand staff worked all night to get the Marquee Ballroom ready for the Celebrate PCMA Luncheon.

The most expedient way to do this was to get the Freeman AV and production crew to dovetail their efforts with Dahl and Talrico. We used the main part of the entertainment stage for the luncheon program, and the Freeman AV tweaked the existing design to accommodate the graphics screens. We left the majority of the drape lines in place, and then the MGM Grand banquet staff went to work on table settings.

This couldn't have been a more collaborative effort and I hope you enjoy the results.

Get Up Already!

Okay, yeah, it starts at 7 a.m. on Monday morning.

But if you're attending 2011 Convening Leaders in Las Vegas, you won't want to miss the Learning Lounge, located in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. You can't miss it -- you have to walk through the Learning Lounge to get to the Opening General Session. (The photo at right shows the area under construction on Saturday.)

Monday's 90-minute Learning Lounge schedule is packed with short, rich learning opportunities, including 15-minute talks in the Big Ideas Pavilion, on topics ranging from "What Millenials Want," with Josip Petrusa and "Spheres of Influence ... Good Will You Already Own," with Carol Verret.

You also don't want to miss the innovative "Supplier Showdown Theater," where suppliers and vendors will compete for audience approval while demonstrating their solutions to problems. Tomorrow's topic is "Strategic Meeting Management," with David Peckinpaugh as emcee.

And the Social Media Lounge will feature some of the most knowledgeable speakers on the topic anywhere, including Chris Brogan on "Improve Your Influence," Corbin Ball on "Getting Started with Social Media for Event Professionals, and Rick Calvert, speaking on "Growing Attendance Through Affiliate Marketing."

CES and the City

I'm not going to lie: When I first heard that Convening Leaders 2011 was going to overlap with the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (whose Central Hall is pictured at left), I wondered if it was the best idea. CES is the definition of a city-wide event, a 125,000-attendee giganotosaurus with exhibit space at the Las Vegas Convention Center, The Venetian, the Las Vegas Hilton, and the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel, meetings and room blocks at a slew of other properties, and receptions and parties at who knows how many venues. Add in a certain other high-profile event happening at the same time — this one at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, with upwards of 25,000 attendees — and you have a recipe for meetings gridlock. Or so it seemed to me.

Countdown to Convening Leaders

Tomorrow morning I leave for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, part of the PCMA staff's great westward migration for Convening Leaders 2011, which begins Sunday and runs through Wednesday. If the Twitter feed is any indication, there's a lot of buzz around this year's annual meeting -- as well there should be, given the General Session speakers and Masters Series programs on tap, the virtual extension of Convening Leaders on PCMA365, the co-location with Virtual Edge Summit, the cognitive carnival of the PCMA Learning Lounge, and the crazy assortment of other learning, networking, and social events.

Before I begin the pre-meeting cycle of laundry and packing, I thought I'd share a few of the things I'm most looking forward to at Convening Leaders -- in no particular order, with the understanding that I'm not not looking forward to anything that I don't mention: