As the White House Turns

Meeting professionals are used to being invisible at their own events -- and most of the ones I've met and worked with seem to prefer it that way. So it's not surprising to learn that, after White House social secretary Desiree Rogers drew criticism for seeming too comfortable in the spotlight, the woman who is replacing her -- Julianna Smoot -- has a reputation for maintaining a lower profile. From today's Washington Post:

Perhaps the most obvious superficial difference between the outgoing and incoming social secretaries is one of culture and style: Where Rogers was high-profile and glamorous, Smoot is low-key and a more conventional political operative. A 2007 Washington Post profile described her as having "a blend of Southern charm and brash straight talk." And where Rogers appreciated the power of the limelight, Smoot has a better understanding of the no-drama Obama ethos, several Democratic officials said.

It makes me wonder if there's ever a public role for meeting professionals to play at their events. Or is meeting and event planning strictly a backstage job?

Turismo Chile: Earthquake Update

In the wake of Saturday's magnitude-8.8 earthquake, Turismo Chile today issued a press release reviewing how the country's tourism infrastructure has been affected:

TURISMO CHILE UPDATE ON CHILE’S TOURISM

INFRASTRUCTURE FOLLOWING SATURDAY’S EARTHQUAKE

Monday March 1, 2010 - Chile suffered an 8.8 quake in the early morning hours of Saturday February 27, 2010. The cities closest to the epicenter, including Concepcion, Talcahuano and Temuco as well as a number of small towns along Chile’s central coast were most affected by the quake.

The five different tourism regions promoted by Turismo Chile are reporting the following updates:

Desert – The north of Chile was not affected by the quake and has not reported any damage.

Easter Island – Easter Island, which lies 2,300 miles off the cost of mainland Chile, a 5.5-hour flight from Santiago, was not affected by the quake. Initial tsunami warnings have been lifted and all operations are normal.

Santiago and Central Region - Santiago’s airport suffered structural damage to the passenger terminal, however no damage was reported to the runways and the airport is expected to reopen later this week. Electricity and phone lines have been restored in Santiago and the city’s public transportation including its metro is fully operational. Valparaiso and Viña del Mar have also reported damage. The annual Viña del Mar International Music festival which was underway has been suspended.

Lakes and Volcanoes – The northern part of the Lakes and Volcanoes region, around the city of Concepcion and the Bio Bio River, was most affected by the quake. Authorities are still working on assessing the full damage. Basic essential services including water, electricity, and telecommunications are gradually being restored. The southern part of the Lakes and Volcanoes region was not affected by the quake. Operations in popular tourist towns including Pucon, Puerto Varas, and Puerto Montt are normal.

Patagonia – The far south of the country was not affected by the quake and has not reported any damage.

Chile is a country with a history of seismic activity. The country’s preparedness, including its strict anti-seismic building codes, the rapid emergency response from the government, as well as the help from a number of organizations can be credited for managing the situation and help minimize the damage. The country’s tourism infrastructure has, overall, fared well, reporting little damage.

"Our thoughts and sentiments go out to the families who have lost loved ones," said Pablo Moll, executive director of Turismo Chile. "Chileans are a resilient people and we are hard at work to get the country back on its feet quickly. We look forward to continuing to welcome travelers and are making every effort to making them feel safe and secure."

US and Canadian tour operators and media requiring additional information or assistance can contact Turismo Chile at ofitur@embassyofchile.org.

Some Canadian Humor

I love how the technical failure during the 2010 Olympics Opening Ceremony was parodied in the Closing Ceremony last night. A clown electrician raised the fourth cauldron which had failed to come up from the floor opening night. And Catriona Le May Doan, who had awkwardly waited for it to come up the first time around, finally got her chance to light it.

As meetings and events increasingly rely on big production effects to wow and energize attendees, hopefully we can take a cue from the folks in Vancouver: When technology fails you, be the first to poke some fun at yourself.

Even New York City Graffiti Knows the Value of Face-to-Face!

You Are What You Eat -- and Where You Meet

In an e-mail exchange earlier today, my boss -- Convene's talented and glamorous Editor in Chief, Michelle Russell -- ended up asking, "Chris, is it always about you and your stomach?" And I told her the truth: Yes. It is always about me and my stomach.

Which perhaps is why my chief takeaway from Wednesday night's elegant Destination & Travel Foundation Dinner & Dream Auction at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center was a cameo appearance by Ben's Chili Bowl, a D.C. institution and temple of gastronomy. The D&T Foundation honored the Travel Channel with its Spirit of Hospitality Award, and part of the show was a clip from an episode of Travel Channel's "Man v. Food" show in which host Adam Richman visited Ben's -- with Washington and Sports Authority President and CEO Greg O'Dell and Destination DC President and CEO Elliott Ferguson spliced in so that it seemed they were sitting at the counter, knoshing on chili dogs, during Richman's segment. It was a smart gag, allowing two of the evening's hosts to pay tribute to both the honoree and their own city.

I'm joking about always thinking with my stomach, but only to a point. Because I do think that for many people -- and lots of meeting attendees -- destination is culture, and culture is food. And when you're visiting Washington, D.C., in addition to world-class restaurants, that means a transcendental chili half-smoke.

PHOTO: Courtesy Ben's Chili Bowl

Work Into Play

It was on my calendar Monday to log into Virtual Edge 2010 to hear Stanford professor Byron Reeves talk about how online computer games will revolutionize work and make meetings more engaging. (Reeves has a thesis that’s hard not to like: “Play is not the opposite of work.”)

I also wanted to listen in on as a panel of experts talked about what has changed in the hybrid-events world since last spring. (Skeptics move over, one said. We are now in the knowledge-building part of the game.)

But when Reeves began to speak, I was on an important call with my boss. And during my second session pick, a source called me back with information about a story I was working on, so I missed the panel introductions.

Enter what I like to think of as TIVO for conferences. Virtual Edge Summit has made the entire conference available online, so I could go back and re-watch the portions of those sessions I missed. And drop in virtually on a couple of others. It’s not new technology, but it was a new experience for me to have a virtual conference feel so comfortable.

Thanks to Twitter, I now feel part of a larger community in the hybrid-event world. I read and tweeted on the conference backchannel during the panel (#VE10) — and seeing familiar Twitter handles pop up felt a lot like seeing familiar faces. Reeves' research at Stanford bears that out: when people engage in collaborative online games, their neurons fire in ways very similar to the way that neurons fire during face-to-face encounters.

It was fun and that — as Reeves said — leads to engagement. Putting people into environments that capitalize on emotional engagement and fun experiences can be drivers of serious business.

The Virtual Edge Summit wasn’t seamless: there were some bumps, particularly when we virtual attendees first tried to log in. But it’s easy to see why this particular conference grew by 50 percent in face-to-face attendance over last year, and many more times that in virtual participation.

Why We're Excited About Going Mobile

Those of us on the Convene team straddle two industries: media and meetings. We can't do our best by readers unless we're continually in the know about both. Technology is quickly changing the way the meetings industry works, yes, but its impact on media and print is nothing less than huge.

A recent article in Forbes solidified for me — albeit on a grand scale — why it's important that the digital version of Convene is now accessible on Apple mobile devices (and in the works for those of us with CrackBerries):

Through mobile devices, the Internet is now becoming the "system of communication" needed to truly connect the entire world. Two-thirds of the world's population now uses mobile phones, with the strongest growth in developing countries. We are connected to the wider Web and to each other in ways never before imaginable, and the size of that market, combined with the low cost of immediate global distribution, means there have never been greater opportunities for media businesses, especially those that are able to apply the lessons of history toward understanding how to prepare for the future.

We're (Now) a Mac. Are You?

Apple-loving meeting planners will be pleased to hear that PCMA and Convene magazine have just released a brand-new mobile version of Convene's digital edition for the iPhone and iPod Touch (and, when it's released in late March, Apple's new tablet computer, the iPad).*

“I’m happy we’re able to continue to offer an increasing number of ways to make it easy for our readers to access and engage with Convene content,” said Editor in Chief Michelle Russell. “Whether it’s with our blog or this new mobile site, we are delivering content how, when, and where people want it.”

IPhone and iPod Touch users can access the new mobile digital edition by pointing their mini-browsers to http://digitalconvene.pcma.org. (For more information about this initiative, see the PCMA press release at http://www.pcma.org/x11684.xml.)

* Fear not, BlackBerry addicts! A mobile digital edition of Convene is under development for you, too.

Live From Washington, D.C.

President Obama's Bipartisan Meeting on Health Reform is happening from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the White House today. It's being covered live on all the cable-news networks, and also streaming live on the White House's Web site. Which is amazing, for all the usual reasons -- giving ordinary people a prolonged look at government in action -- but it also lends the event an element of performance that seems to position it somewhere between Important National Conversation and Political Kabuki Theater.

Or is that unkind? How do you manage particularly sensitive discussions at your meetings? Is it better to be as inclusive as possible and thereby involve as much of your community as you can, or to limit access and thereby create a more intimate, genuine conversation?

P.S. Yes, this is my second post in a row that links to the White House. What can I say? I live inside the Beltway, and sometimes that narrows your perspective.

More Is Less

As conventional wisdom would have it, less is more — and, as the managing editor for PCMag Mobile discovered at a recent product launch for a new smartphone, more can also be much less.

"Trust me," writes Sascha Segan, before getting down to details about the phone itself, "you want to hear about the insanity first." He continues to set the scene for the schizophrenic launch of the Samsung Wave:

I have my limits for a tech product event. Getting us to come to a darkened, secondary convention center in a suburb of Barcelona was fine. And when we were ushered into a room the size of half a soccer field, with a catwalk stretching down the center and four full-screen "video walls" showing ocean scenes all around us, I was still on board.

But then the MC came out, an overenthusiastic (and apparently totally unironic) Brit named Jake who declared that this was "Samsung Unpacked Episode 1: Into The New Wave." I started to think of Jar-Jar Binks.

For more on this misadventure in the world of product launch event planning — including aquatic metaphors strained to the point of breaking, interpretive dancers, and the "Spirit of Bada," whatever that is — click here.