There's a Blog for That?

A recurring feature in Convene's front-of-the-magazine "Plenary" department is "There's a Meeting For That?" which explores the awe-inspiring range of interests that bring people together.

We've uncovered everything from the Face Painting and Body Art Convention to Laurapalooza 2010, which brought together scholars and fans interested in children's author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Our takeaway? No matter how narrow the niche, people love both to share what they know and to learn from each other.

In that spirit, we offer "There's a Blog for That?," a link to a blog with an off-the-beaten-path perspective on a topic relevant to the meetings industry.

First up is Sound Branding Blog, by Karlheinz Illner, a German sound-branding expert.  "Music sparks emotions and emotions control our brain's decisions," says Illner, who consults on projects for leading international firms, including Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz.

Illner doesn't post frequently, but what he has to say is often fascinating. (Here's a link to an interview he did with another blogger about sound branding in hotels.)

As Illner notes, sound branding is a new field. But as meeting planners pay more attention to the senses and the art and science of creating immersive experiences, Illner's voice is one worth tuning into every now and then.

And, as it turns out, there is a meeting for that: Illner has blogged about the Audio Branding Academy's annual Audio Branding Congress, which launched in 2009.

A Year in Blog Posts

Photo by Fabrizio Pincelli

There are a lot of ways to mark the end of a year. We decided to look both backwards and forward at the same time, by sharing some of the blog posts we wrote in 2011 that hit on topics or trends that we'll still be talking about in 2012. We chose one for each month:

1. Making Lemonade. Kelly Peacy, PCMA's vice president for meetings and events, took on what could have been a real headache and came up with a solution that was a runaway hit with attendees. (Why it's buzz-worthy now: Her innovation was a keeper, and will return at Convening Leaders 2012 Jan. 8-11.)

2. By the Numbers. When the Convention Industry Council (CIC) revealed the results of the landmark study, "The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy," jaws dropped: Meetings contribute $263 billion in direct spending and 1.7 million jobs to the U.S. economy each year. The CIC study kicked off a wave of new meetings-industry research initiatives.

3. SXSW Cared About Japan. The world watched in sad horror as Japan was devastated in March by an earthquake and tsunami, followed by severe damage at a nuclear power plant. The meetings industry acted quickly, including attendees at SXSW in Austin, who began raising funds to aid in the disaster hours after it began. The Japanese National Tourism Organization reported rising numbers of visitors later in the year.

4. So Long Bubba. It's not really news anymore that iPads can be a meeting planner's best friend. Mandi Kasper, CMP, a member of PCMA's meetings and events team, made this great little video about how she and fellow team members made the leap from paper to tablet.

5. Got Geek? There is a constant churn of new applications created to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of meetings and meeting planners. Planner Liz King hit on a great idea — a meeting! — to test them out. Planner Tech took off in New York, and was repeated in Washington, D.C.

6. Serious Fun. Games, as a way to both connect and educate attendees, came on strong this year, including the pioneering game played by attendees at the Green Meeting Industry Council's annual meeting in Portland.

7. Huyang Is in the Details. Global trends and government policies continue to affect the world of international meetings in big ways, but little things mean a lot, too.

8. Smart Ways to Fight 'Decision Fatigue'. Research into how our brains work has huge implications for how we design and run meetings. (Look for more about brain-friendly meetings in the January issue of Convene.)

9. A Turning Point for Hybrid Meetings? We had it wrong, it turns out, when we predicted that sharing meeting content online would decimate our meetings. Done right, it can have just the opposite effect.

10. "The Future is Crashing Into Us." There was plenty of straight talk when more than 200 attendees gathered at the PCMA Masters Series in Washington, D.C., to discuss what the future of convention exhibits and trade shows might look like.

11. "In Your Mind's Eye." Why meeting planners may be the most imaginative people around, live from our inaugural Convene Forum. Stay tuned for word about where we will meet in 2012.

12. Doing Good by Doing What You Are Good At. CSR is not only not a fad, but is becoming more aligned with business goals. Imagine what could happen if you were to leverage, not just the energy of your attendees, but their deepest expertise. What could they learn from one another while they are giving back?

Smart Ways to Fight "Decision Fatigue"

I was excited to read the recent New York Times Magazine article about  "decision fatigue," which looks at the research behind the discovery that the sheer number of decisions we make can deplete our ability to make good ones.

There are, to use the scientific term, takeaways galore for the meetings industry.

Here are just a few:

Offer choices in meeting sessions and experiences wisely. One of the researchers mentioned in the story, Convening Leaders 2011 speaker Sheena Iyengar, talked last year with Convene about how exhausting making choices can be. What that means for conference organizers: Don't overwhelm attendees a long list of choices, she advised.  Rather, divide choices into categories and then limit choices in each category. (Here's a link to the article.)

Conserve attendees' mental energy for important decisions. Attendees shouldn't be asked to fritter away their brainpower in wondering which hallway might take them to a session, or which  building entrance they should use. It's a no-brainer to provide good signage, clear, easy-to-use communications, and lots of friendly assistance

Pay attention to the care and feeding of attendees' brains. One fascinating passage was about the recent discovery that a quick hit of glucose can restore a tired brain's ability to make good decisions. That might make it sound like a late-afternoon cookie is a good idea, but a shot of sugar, researchers say, is not as useful to our brain as giving it stable amounts of glucose over the course of a day with protein and other nutritious foods.

Luckily, Andrea Sullivan of BrainStrength Systems is ahead of the curve on advising meeting planners on how they can support attendee experience through food. She is the coauthor of a white paper that addresses the intersection of performance and food at meetings, published by the The National Conference Center.

There's sure to be many more lessons here that I haven't mentioned -- MeetingsNet Web Editor Sue Pelletier shared some of her insights about the story in a recent blog post.

And I hope you will do the same.

The World-Changing Way We Meet Now

"Can meetings save the world?" we asked in our January cover story.

Our focus was on what we termed  "big-tent, big-idea" meetings -- from the Clinton Global Initiative to PopTech -- which bring together the world's leading thinkers and activists to train their attention on the world's biggest problems.

Central to the story was the question:  Can the the way we meet change how meetings change the world?

"Movements can be spawned around the social interactions generated at conferences," one meeting designer told us. So, what happens when technology -- in the form of video, livestreaming, and social media --  greatly accelerates the number of those social interactions?

One example to watch is Tina Brown's Women in the World Summit, in New York City today and tomorrow. Brown's conference is taking on truly thorny problems, like sex trafficking in the United States, war's effect on women, and empowering women in democracies.   The conference is being livestreamed today and tomorrow -- wherever you happen to be, you are invited to listen in and take part in the conversation.

Central to the story is the idea that these meetings are about real change, not just talking about change.  Last year's inaugural Women in the World summit resulted in donations to schools in Kenya and the establishment of a peace foundation in Liberia, and Brown is ramping up the active funding of solutions at this year's conference.

What are your thoughts:  Can meetings save the world?

Designing For Creativity

How Do You Design For Creativity?

"Over time, our belief systems can harden into rigid walls that prevent us from considering alternative viewpoints," Convene columnist Jeffrey Cufaude writes in "Think Differently" in our February issue. "And that's a problem."

To think differently, we need to be exposed to differences -- to diverse ideas as well as people -- and allow the collision to create insights, Cufaude argues.

In the presentation above, consultant, speaker, and blogger Bud Caddell, also operates at the intersection of ideas and innovation. Cadell's work is part of a collaborative effort to foster creativity in public education, but the questions raised about public education also can -- and should -- be asked about how we design and offer content at conferences and meetings.

Like "What technologies belong in a modern classroom?" "How should they be used to foster collaborative creativity?" 

And, "What brands and organizations stand for creativity and/or have an interest in a more creative workforce?" 

And a biggie: "What would an education system (or conference education program) be like if it put creativity at the core of its values?"

A Brooklyn Tale

No matter how brilliant our ideas for new ways of designing meetings or communicating with members and attendees may be, they won’t work if we don’t know our audience.

I’ve heard that a hundred times, but it was brought home to me this morning when I stopped at the drugstore in my Brooklyn neighborhood. The drugstore is part of a chain and recently removed a counter with two cash registers and replaced it with four automated checkout stands.

In theory, the automated registers provide faster, more efficient service. In practice, however, they are a big flop. From what I’ve observed, the store’s customers either ignore them, lining up to be waited on by two now very overworked cashiers, or make half-hearted attempts to use the automated registers while complaining loudly.

Don't Monkey Around With Stress

Neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky spent a dozen years in Kenya studying the relationships within a troop of baboons and learned this: We primates really stress each other out. And, as a story about Sapolsky's work in the August issue of Wired relates, chronic stress contributes to a long list of health problems, including suppressed immune function, heart disease, depression, adult-onset diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and many more.

The article suggest ways that individuals can help combat stress -- by getting enough sleep, for instance, meditating, and not getting into arguments. The article is less optimistic, however, about the possibility of zapping the external sources of chronic stress, particularly the stress of feeling out of control of your own experience.

In the meetings world, there's already a powerful movement afoot toward putting attendees' emotional and physical needs on the agenda, so that they can fully engage in learning and networking opportunities. Every meeting is in some ways its own universe, and organizers can make decisions along that way that reduce negative kinds of stress, leaving only the positive buzz of connecting with people and ideas.

One cure for stress are meetings themselves, and the relationship-building they make possible: Studies of monkeys show that the more socially isolated they are, the higher their levels of stress hormones and their mortality rate.