Rematch for a Good Cause

Full disclosure: I know about this story because it involves my second cousin, once removed. As we continue to explore social responsibility at organizations in our Giving Back series in Convene, this story reminds me that charity starts with one individual before it can spread to an organization. And also, just as the best CSR programs connect with their organization's own goals, people are most inspired to give back to causes that have touched their lives. That, and every once in a while, you can turn back the clock.

So, for the story: You need to go back to 1989, when New Jersey's No. 1 ranked high school hockey team, St. Joseph Regional (that's the team in the photo above, with my cousin Dave in the second row), made it to the state finals to play against the state's No. 2 ranked team, The Delbarton School. Just as excitement for the match was reaching a feverish pitch, it was announced on the eve of the game that it was canceled — done in by a measles outbreak at Delbarton.

Flash forward 21 years to the present — and this weekend, when nearly all (40 of the original 46) high school players from those two teams will play a reunion match. Proceeds from the event will go to three cancer charities (one in honor of one of the players' mother, who is battling brain cancer). "That was critical to making this event meaningful," one of the players, James Olsen, told The New York Times. "We're going to do some real tangible good for people who are suffering. I like the fact that people are going to use this opportunity to support a good cause."

For the full story, go to www.frozenflashback.com.

No Business Like (Trade) Show Business

One of the blockbuster season's most anticipated movies is "Iron Man 2" -- and to help promote it, what is Marvel Studios leveraging but the power of trade shows. Marvel has created an elaborate Web site for Stark Expo 2010, an exhibition run by Stark Industries, which is the multinational company owned by the movie's hero, Tony Stark. The make-believe expo seems to be set on the grounds of the 1964 New York World's Fair in Queens, and, perhaps coincidentally, is scheduled for May 7, the very day that "Iron Man 2" opens in theaters.

Watching the trailer for "Iron Man 2," it seems that Stark Expo plays a small but pivotal role in the movie, helping establish Tony Stark's rock-star standing within his industry. The Web site includes a map of the expo grounds that mixes pavilions for fictitious Stark Industries product and systems (there's a particularly cool monorail and a space-age Port Authority) with structures devoted to some of the movie's sponsors. Hollywood calls that "product placement." We call it "partner benefits."

Face Time. It Matters. Sometimes, I Guess.

Last week, American Express Business Travel launched a new online travel management scorecard, and the results of a survey, Managing Travel in the New Normal. The 169 respondents polled for the survey are directly involved in managing corporate travel policies and budgets across 30 industries. The research sought to gauge "attitudes and actions companies have taken to scale back travel and plan for the future."

Here's one result I found especially telling: While companies have been scaling back on travel costs, many are investing in virtual meetings technologies. According to the summary:

Survey results showed that more than 40 percent of C-level executives are willing to spend on new virtual meetings technologies. This finding indicates that top decision-makers likely view the concept of virtual travel as a beneficial investment and supports the idea that companies are transitioning from targeting cost reductions to a strategy built around more thoughtful spending to connect employees.

• 74 percent said their companies use or plan to use audio-conferencing as an alternative to travel.
• 15 percent of respondents are currently researching broadband collaboration options.
• 10 percent have no alternative technology strategy to replace in-person meetings.

I don't know about you, but that last bullet point raises a few questions for me. Does it mean that 90 percent do have an alternative technology strategy to replace face-to-face meetings? And how do organizations decide whether a particular meeting is best held in person or not? If face time is still considered the best way to do business, is there a matrix to determine when second best is good enough?

The Travel Promotion Act, or, Now What?

The news from this afternoon's free PCMA Webinar -- "How to Make the Travel Promotion Act Work for You!" -- was hopeful but also sobering. Hopeful because until now, "We have had to do the entirety of marketing on our own as destinations," said Webinar speaker J. Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau. The Travel Promotion Act, Perry said, "will provide for the first time unified, cohesive American branding."

But the legislation is also sobering because the situation that at least partly inspired the meetings industry to support it so strongly hasn't changed all that much. "We have a job as an industry of really convincing elected officials -- especially on the home turf, with our representatives and state senators -- of why travel matters," said Webinar speaker Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. "I think it's a darn shame that we had to fight for so long [for funding] to get people to come to the United States. But that's all a symptom of our elected officials thinking that what we do is frivolous."

What do you think? Are you expecting the Travel Promotion Act to give your meetings a boost -- especially when it comes to attracting international attendees?

Convene On Site: CGA Focus Forum

The topic at yesterday morning's Convene Green Alliance (CGA) Focus Forum, held at the Renaissance Washington, DC, Downtown Hotel, was "Raising the Game: Taking large-scale sporting events to a greener level and what it means for your convention." And while the speaker -- Michelle Travis, vice president of sales for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association -- offered a lot of fun, valuable insights based on her city's experiences hosting gigantic events like the Indianapolis 500 and (in 2012) Super Bowl XLVI, the real appeal of her session came from its small-scale approach. Attendees were sitting in rounds, and throughout her presentation, Michelle threw out "hot topic" questions about holding sustainable meetings for each small group to chew over.

Particularly interesting responses came when Michelle -- who is second from the right in the photo above, with the International Economic Development Council's Jackie Gibson, CGA Executive Director Tracey Messina, and the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association's Aaron Riggins -- asked what environmental initiatives attendees had seen at large sporting events that they might apply to their own meetings. Three possibilities: using paperless tickets (downloaded to iPhones, BlackBerrys, and other handheld devices), displaying sponsors' names on LED boards instead of banners, and offering bulk food-service items, such as ketchup from a dispenser instead of in individual packets.

These are all simple enough things to implement that maybe you're doing them already. But that's part of the appeal of going green, isn't it?

Bobble-icious

I've lived in Bergen County, N.J., for nearly 30 years, and I've never gotten used to the chlorinated taste of the tap water here. Just over on the other side of the Hudson River, New York City has great-tasting tap water, but for us in the burbs? Not so much.

Knowing the impact of bottled water on the environment (every year nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to make plastic water bottles), it has bothered me that I have to buy individual water bottles for drinking for me and my family. Which is why I'm excited about my latest find: Bobble, a BPA-free water bottle made from recycled plastic, with a built-in charcoal filter. It makes my tap water taste every bit as good as bottled water. Since I can fill it up about 300 times before I have to replace the filter, that's 300 water bottles that don't end up in the recycling bin (and at under $10 a Bobble, anywhere from $70 to $300 saved). My thirst is slaked and my conscience soothed.

Since the first rule of green meetings is to eschew individual water bottles, this seems like it would make a great — and sponsorable — giveaway.

When Thought Leaders Are Just That

Yesterday, I attended the International Association of Conference Centers' (IACC) Thought Leader Summit at Workspring in downtown Chicago. The theme of the panel discussion was "incorporating advancing technology into the meeting experience," and eight terrific panelists brought a variety of perspectives to the table.

Have you ever put together or attended a "thought leaders" session which turned out to be less than thoughtful? This was one session — Webcast live for 2010 IACC-Americas Summit

attendees — that was aptly named. It was three hours long, but when you have eight insightful people feeding off each other, the time passes quickly. And that, not surprisingly, was one of the biggest takeaways from the session: Meetings today have to be much more about collaboration than one-way content delivery.

As panelist Mark Greiner, senior VP and chief experience officer for Steelcase, said, "The reason why collaboration is coming into play so much now is that the problems are too big to solve in a cubicle. The world of work has shifted. It used to be very linear, procedural. It fit the work model. Work has evolved, so what is left are the tough problems, the creative problems that demand collaboration to create generative work, to create new knowledge."

New knowledge. The kind of thing you hope comes out of meetings and conferences, and what I got out of yesterday's session.

How Not to Win Friends and Influence Others

It's no secret that social media is big in the meetings industry, with capacity-crowd educational sessions at conferences devoted to the often amorphous topic.

What is the best use of social media? What can it do for my meeting? Who should be allowed to tweet, and when? Will it increase attendance? What are the dangers associated with having a social media presence? Or, simply, what is it?

Convene covered this topic extensively in our February issue's cover story package (which you can read here), including discussion of a higher education conference at which the tweets got downright nasty. Unfortunately, it seems that many associations and organizations have to learn things the hard way when it comes to social media.

Or you could pay attention to some high-profile social media belly flops on the part of major corporations, all of which have recently handled (sometimes poorly, sometimes skillfully) online conflagarations.

The five lessons that can be learned from social media public relations disasters, according to a recent Atlantic blog post, are:

1. Don't get defensive
2. Closely watch social networks for complaints
3. Don't stalk your customers
4. Be vigilant of how employees use social media
5. Don't insult a cohesive community

For more on this — including discussion of the companies' boneheaded moves that launched a thousand tweets — click through here.

Grocery Bag Epiphany

Yesterday we put the finishing touches on the May issue of Convene, including a special section on sustainable meetings. I was struck by how, as these convention centers, hotels, and destinations continue to find innovative ways to minimize the environmental impact of meetings, they've also kept slugging away at the basics, including recycling paper and cutting energy use.

I stopped for a few items at a popular grocery store in Manhattan on my way home and pulled out the nylon shopping bag that I sometimes -- but not always -- have tucked away in my purse. "Thanks for bringing your own bag," the cashier said. "Guess how many paper bags we use a week?" she asked me. I really had no idea. "Five tons," was the answer.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about that number. Five tons of paper a week for one (granted, very busy) store just for grocery bags. It put the issue of making sustainable choices in terms that is hard for me to ignore -- and illustrated how critical it is to keep working on the sometimes unglamorous, but very neccessary, work of changing behaviour.

Convene On Site: DC Convention Center

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., is the same size as it ever was, but has a lot more space. It only sounds like it violates the laws of physics. Actually, the new space is the result of a recently completed retrofit project that has transformed unused and underused areas around the building into 48,000 square feet of additional meeting space. During a tour this afternoon, Washington Convention and Sports Authority President and CEO Greg O'Dell, along with Vice President of Facility Operations John Collins and Vice President of Communications and Marketing Chinyere Hubbard, took me through the results -- on what happened to be move-out day for the high-profile AIPAC Policy Conference 2010, one of the first events to take advantage of the convention center's enhancements.

Thanks to the $14-million retrofit, Walter E. Washington now boasts two glassed-in meeting rooms overlooking the building's Grand Lobby (that's Greg and John standing inside one of them in the top photo), plus a series of "skyfold walls" that deploy quietly down from the ceiling to subdivide the wide-open East and West Registration areas into as many as six more rooms (see the photo directly above). But what I saw this afternoon was ... not too much of that. The retrofit project has been integrated almost seamlessly into the existing space, meaning the Grand Lobby is still a cathedral of light and air, and the building's elegant framing and its overall sense of flow are undisturbed.

The whole project was designed to meet a need that Greg told me an increasing number of events have -- same amount of exhibit space but more educational programming, which means more breakout rooms. Not that you'd notice them at Walter E. Washington.

PHOTOS: DBKing