On Apple in the Big Apple

"Look at this," my dad said to me recently, pointing to the new digital camera he had purchased. "It's a Japanese camera manufactured in China. What else is new?"

I thought about that frequent lament — that all the manufacturing jobs have left the U.S. and other countries for China — when I saw Mike Daisey perform his theatrical monologue "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" at New York City's Public Theater yesterday afternoon.

For nearly two hours, Daisey sat in a chair on the spare stage to share his love story of all things Apple, and in stark contrast, a riveting account of his visit to Shenzhen, China. In particular, his trip to the massive Foxconn Technology plant, where 430,000 workers toil under inhumane conditions to produce those very cool Apple products, as well as nearly half of all consumer electronics sold throughout the world. (A recent New York Times article corroborated Daisey's diatribe.)

It was sobering, to put it mildly. The iPhone in my bag seemed heavier than usual. As my friend and I sat talking in the theater while the audience streamed out, we wondered what to do with this information. As we made our way out, we were handed a piece of paper. The headline on one side read, "Change is Possible." The other side: "The Rest of the Story Is in Your Hands."

How is this relevant to the meetings industry? Two things come to mind. First, how helpful it is — should you have speaker who will be delivering a message that will likely make attendees want to do something to feel less powerless — to provide some kind of follow-up material.

And secondly, as Convene's latest epanel results (to be published in next month's issue) show, meeting planners have embraced the iPad, like so many other industry professionals and consumers. Nearly a quarter of those responded to the survey use a tablet for work and 32 percent use one for personal use; nearly 80 percent of these tablet users have an iPad. We, too, have a say in this. From Daisey's handout: "Apple has long been a pioneer in technology — now they have the opportunity to lead the entire field into an era of ethical manufacturing. Let's keep pressure on them to do the right thing." Apple CEO Tim Cook's email is tcook@apple.com.

Note: Since I posted this, there's been a bit of a brouhaha about Mike Daisey's performance not being entirely factual. See my updated blog post on this.

"The Ideas-Conference Boom"

New York magazine landed in my mailbox this week, with a story, "Those Fabulous Confabs," that comes straight from the heart of the meetings industry. It's a gossipy look at the growth and evolution of the TED conference, and dozens of similar conferences, like PopTech and the Aspen Ideas Festival, that have sprung up in its wake.

Audience at TedGlobal 2010

The story covers some of the same ground I did in a story last year, although I was more starry-eyed about the trend. And if you were at 2012 Convening Leaders in San Diego, there's a good chance you already know what TED's founder, Richard Saul Wurman, who is quoted in the article, has to say about conferences. (Or you can read Executive Editor Chris Durso's interview with Wurman.)

The story asks a question about the new conferences which nagged at me:  "Are we running out of things to say?" I'm not sure if editors were just trying to be provocative, but the notion that a few dozen or even few hundred conferences could scratch the surface of what there is to say about sustainability, creativity, or solving global problems, just for starters, is one I can't take seriously. Organizers' judgment about who and what is worth hearing may fail, or we may be running out of time to listen to all those ideas, but those are different problems.

What I also found interesting was the short shrift the article gives to attendees. Other than an elite group of speakers and A-listers, ideas-conference attendees are painted as a pathetic and grasping lot. (The story begins with an anecdote about an attempted mugging of a TED conference attendee for his badge.)

The article recounts the value that speakers get from the connections they make from such conferences, and it seems likely to me that attendees —who mostly don't have a voice in the story — could tell similar stories. The conferences aren't proliferating simply because they offer content that, in many cases, is available on the Web. Attendees go for the opportunity to connect, and I don't think they are so clueless they would continue to attend if there wasn't something to be gained.

I would love to hear what you think.

Community-Building with Richard III

Kevin Spacey at BAM

I went over the weekend to see Richard III at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Harvey Theater and the production, with Kevin Spacey as the villainous Richard, impressed me on every level. And that includes an email BAM sent me a couple of days before the performance, which got me thinking about the opportunities organizations have in helping attendees prepare for events.

I didn't expect the email, which reminded me that I had tickets to the performance, which I bought months ago. It also included production notes, a map with directions to the theater, a list of nearby bars and restaurants, and an invitation to join a Facebook group for the event.

All of that is pretty standard. But where BAM excelled was in sifting through the available information on the Web about the production, finding what was relevant and reliable, and presenting it to me in an easy-to-digest way. I had intended to brush up on the history of The War of the Roses before the play; BAM sent me a link to blog post with a family tree of the warring British royal houses, two video clips, and a few additional links to articles and interviews. It wasn't exhaustive, but rather a thoughtful, "best-of" kind of list.

I appreciated it, and it reminded me of a Clay Shirky quote that I came across last week, which describes the contents about BAM's email perfectly:

Curation comes up when search stops working…[and] when people realize that it isn't just about information seeking, it's also about synchronizing a community.

I'm a fairly new member of BAM, and I joined, I confess, in order to have a better shot at getting tickets to very popular productions like Richard III. I know that the email is a marketing tool, but it made me feel like more than just a ticket-holder. And by not trying to sell me anything, but to give me something of value, I ended up more sold on BAM.

Recipe for Engagement

Meredith Rollins, left, and Mona Simon (in toque)

As editors, we’ve often written about the benefits of interactive experiences at meetings — of how a shared activity can strengthen relationships more effectively than just bringing attendees together in a meeting room or around a conference table.

Last week we experienced it ourselves, when Convene’s editorial and sales teams met with members of PCMA's executive, marketing, partner relations, and business innovation staffs for a planning retreat at Grove Isle Hotel & Spa in Miami.

One sultry evening, Chef Ehren Beers led us in an “Interactive Chef’s Challenge;" Mona Simon, director of partner relations and advertising, divided us into four teams, mixing it up in terms of our daily job functions. Luckily for us, Beers made food preparation practically foolproof: ingredients for our three-course dinner were pre-chopped and pre-measured, and Beers coached us on methods.

 Editor Chris Durso and ad exec Mary Lynn Novelli

It wasn’t structured as a competition, but our group managed to make it into one, talking friendly trash about other teams’ techniques, as we tossed together a chicken and mango salad, sautéed fish, stirred lemon and pine nuts into quinoa, and flambéed – or attempted to flambé – berries for dessert.

The hands-on dinner came at the end of a long day of strategy and discussion, as we filled page after flip-chart page of ideas. And it worked as advertised, switching on our playful sides, and creating a relaxing, if rowdy, atmosphere.

The resort looks over beautiful Biscayne Bay, and we moved from dinner to sitting around one of the hotel’s well-appointed fire-pits, overlooking the water, sipping wine, and talking into the night.

Software programmers invented the phrase “eating your own dog food,” as a metaphor for using your own systems, and it’s an apt, if inelegant, description of what we were doing.  And, with apologies to Chef Beers, our dog food tasted great.

Photos by Advertising Executive Mary Lou Sarmiento

Sebastian Thrun's Big Idea

Today is the first-ever national Digital Learning Day, a good day to talk about computer scientist Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford professor who is leaving a tenured position and will teach free online computer science classes to a global audience. (Thrun begins talking at 2:27 minutes into the video.)

Thrun is a very popular professor at Stanford -- the class he taught with Peter Norvig on Artificial Intelligence (AI) routinely drew 200 students. But when Thrun offered the course online and, with one email,  invited the world to enroll, that number jumped to 160,000 students.

The experience changed Thrun's life, he said in a talk at the recent DLD - Digital Life Design conference in Munich. The course was exactly the same as the one he taught in the classroom on the Stanford campus, but the online students included working men and women of all ages from all across the globe.

As Thrun heard back from the online students about the impact the class was having on their lives -- including a note from a soldier stationed in Afghanistan who watched online instruction while on a break from mortar fire -- he decided that making education free and accessible could change the world, he said.

Thrun and two partners founded Udacity, which is planning to offer more courses, including a programming course with no prerequisites.

What does all this have to do with the meetings industry? Because Thrun is one of the world's premier scientists, we can expect to see him thinking deeply about the content and delivery of online education.

The first class has already yielded teaching lessons. Students told him that the online classes felt personal, despite the fact they were broadcast to thousands. They felt intimate, Thrun said, because he kept the technology simple, using a camera, a pen, and paper to illustrate course content. Thrun also up-ended the passive lecture model, finding ways to make the course material interactive, so that students were actively engaged.

Udacity is looking to add more instructors from top-tier universities -- in law, business, medicine, and other disciplines. No doubt those individuals will bring their own ideas about online education to the enterprise.

Udacity and its audacious goals were announced just a few days ago. But it does look like the start of something big.

Thanks to Dara at diyscholar.wordpress.com for posting the video.

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.

Closing General Session

Photo courtesy NeilsPhotography

After the Beatles broke up, George Harrison's first solo album was titled, appropriately enough, All Things Must Pass.  True enough.  In the same vein, it's with regret that I — Convene Senior Editor Hunter R. Slaton — must now say the same: For the time being, at least, I'm calling my last general session to a close, and signing off from PCMA, Convene, and the meetings industry.

It's been a good run for me.  I joined the meetings industry four and half years ago, when I started working at a competitor magazine of Convene's.  When I started, I was given my "beats" — journalist slang for areas of coverage — one of which was an acronym I'd never heard of before: PCMA.  Little did I know that in the coming years PCMA would become an even bigger part of my life.

Global Platform Could Unite, Expand Virtual Events

Tony Lorenz, left, with industry leaders at Convening Leaders.

The Network.

That’s what Tony Lorenz, founder of bXb Online is calling a new global online channel designed to aggregate content that offers live and on-demand content, primarily from face-to-face events. Plans are to launch the network later this year, but only after gathering information from the events industry. The network, which will be on an open-source platform, will be “for the industry and by the industry,” he said.

Pulling content together onto one network will make it easier for users to find and access the best, Lorenz said. He also expects that by aggregating the content, the network will raise the profile of the events industry in the greater business world, he said.

Plans for the network were announced this morning at the San Diego Convention Center at a press conference held during Convening Leaders. Lorenz was joined by supporting organizations,

including the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA),  and Virtual Edge Institute (VEI). The International Association of Events & Exhibitions (IAEE) is also a charter supporter.

Lorenz will be gathering information from the industry in a series of face-to-face events, some tied to large industry events, as well as through an online forum. More details are available here, http://bxbonline.com/blog.

Those interested in participating can also contact bXb by email at thenetwork@bxbonline.com.

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.

Scholarship Funds Support Digital Certification Program

Meeting professionals eager to develop the skills required in the quickly expanding hybrid and online events arena could soon get support from an industry leader.

Michael Doyle, founder of the Virtual Edge Institute (VEI), announced today that  bXb Online has committed $100,000 in support of VEI’s Digital Event Strategist (DES) certification program, the only one of its kind. The financial support offered by bXb Online, a four-month-old marketing agency founded by Tony Lorenz and specializing in hybrid and online event strategies, will sponsor professionals who are pursuing advanced credentials in the discipline.

The DES Certification, scheduled to launch this spring, is designed to help develop the talent that organizations need to effectively engage audiences using online events, Doyle said.

“The digital events community is an important and fast-growing category within event marketing,” he said. “The scale of the industry, when compared to the available talent in the digital events category, calls for investment in the talent base. bXb Online’s commitment will help ensure growth of a robust talent pool in the industry.”

For the second year in a row, VEI's Virtual Edge Summit is being co-located with PCMA's Convening Leaders.

Education is a pillar of bXb Online, said Lorenz. “We want to do what we can to support professional education in the digital event marketing space." The DES certification program starts with best practices around strategy, a characteristic that Lorenz called "embedded in the DNA of bXb Online."

While not a condition of bXb'a commitment, Lorenz is encouraging industry colleagues to consider a match of up to 100 percent of the pledge to further expand VEI’s DES certification program as a critical component of the entire event marketing landscape.

 Look for details about the bXb Online DES scholarship program and registration for scholarship applications on January 31, 2012, at www.bxbonline.com/desscholarsship. For now, interested professionals may sign up for scholarship updates by emailing their complete contact information to desscholars@bxbonline.com.