plan your meetings magazine volume 20 issue 2 2015-16

HELPING YOU

AND EVENTS

MIND-BLOWINGMEETINGS

Celebrating 20 years of

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Volume 15, Issue 3 2010$10 US

+ INSPIRATION DESTINATIONS PLANNING GUIDE

15TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE




Volume 18, Issue 2 2013/2014$15 US

Volume 18, Issue 2 2013/2014$15 US

DESIGNING MEETINGS THAT INSPIREP. 10BECOME WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE P. 19CREATING A CULTURE OF INCLUSION P. 223 BIGGEST THREATS TO THE MEETING INDUSTRY P. 28

AUGMENTED EDITIONSEE PAGE 6 FOR DETAILS

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RISKY BUSINESSHow to keep your events safe in times of terrorism, strikes and more.p. 20

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MOTIVATION FOR INNOVATION



Find inspiration and destinations Plus, a handy-dandy planning guide!

INNOVATION CONTEST WINNERERICA PREWETT

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20OF MIND-BLOWINGmeetings

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VOLUME 20, ISSUE 2 2015/2016 $15 US

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PYM15i2 Cover final.indd 1 12/1/15 11:20 AM

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10 9 PREDICTIONS TO SEE YOU THROUGH THE NEXT 20 YEARS

The way we did business 20 years ago seems hopelessly quaint. What will meetings look like 20 years from now? BY KRISTI CASEY SANDERS

11 Event trends: Whats in and whats out 13 Glossary of terms

20 MIND-BLOWING MEETINGS Theres an art and science to creating engaging,

educational events. BY JEFF HURT

23 The basics 24 Teaching learners how to learn 27 Tweaking content delivery

28 BE PRODUCTIVE Want to bump up your output? Follow these

not-so-conventional tips and you will. BY JANET ROBERTS

31 Three productivity hacks 33 Four ways to work more effectively

IN THIS ISSUEFEATURES

DEPARTMENTS3 PYM+ AUGMENTED REALITY CONTENT

6 CONTRIBUTORS

9 EDITORS LETTER

132 HOW CAN WE MOVE THE INDUSTRY FORWARD? We asked recent PYM LIVE attendees how we can make the industry better. Here are their thoughts.

133 THE PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MEETING PLANNING

148 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

PYM 2015 | PLANYOURMEETINGS.COM002

Plan Your Meetings Vol. 20, Issue 2 . . . . . . . . . Cover

Hilton Americas Houston (Texas). . . . Inside Front Cover

Mountain Meeting Alliance (Colo.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Delta Air Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Broadmoor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Subscribe to PYM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

9 Predictions to See You Through the Next 20 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11

PYM Live Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-19

Mind-Blowing Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26-27

Be Productive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30-31

San Mateo/Silicon Valley CVB (Calif.) . . . . . . . . . .37

Team San Jose (Calif.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Monterey CVB (Calif.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

South Point Casino (Nev.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Aramark/Coors Field (Colo.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Beaver Run Resort & Conference Center (Colo.) . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Viceroy Snowmass (Colo.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Visit Plano (Texas) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Irving (Texas) CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Granbury (Texas), City of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Richardson (Texas) CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Embassy Suites San Marcos Hotel, Spa and Conference Center and Tour San Marcos (Texas) . . . . . . . . .75

Kerrville (Texas) CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Greater New Braunfels (Texas) CVB . . . . . . . . . . . 81

AT&T Executive Training and Conference Center . . .85

JW Marriott Houston Downtown (Texas). . . . . . . . .87

La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa (Texas) . . . . . . . . . . 91

The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center (Texas) .93

Rockport-Fulton (Texas) COC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Abilene (Texas) CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

Hotel Arista (Ill.). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Patriots Point (S.C.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Meet College Park (Ga.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort (Ga.) . . . . . . 127

Menu Planning Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Destination Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Vail Resorts (Colo.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

GO BEYOND THE PAGEWITH AUGMENTED REALITYThroughout this issue, weve embedded bonus stories, videos and other content. Download the free PYM+ app and scan the pages listed here to unlock those experiences.

HERES HOW1Download the free PYM+ app for iOS or Android: tinyurl.com/pymplusapple or tinyurl.com/pymplusandroid.

2Go to the pages listed below or look for this icon.

3Open the PYM+ app and scan the page. Double tap experience to expand to full screen. Double tap again to return to scanner view.

HELPING YOU

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Volume 18, Issue 2 2013/2014$15 US

Volume 18, Issue 2 2013/2014$15 USDESIGNING MEETINGS THAT INSPIREP. 10

BECOME WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE P. 19

CREATING A CULTURE OF INCLUSION P. 22

3 BIGGEST THREATS

TO THE MEETING INDUSTRY P. 28


Volume 18, Issue 2 2013/2014$15 US




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VOLUMEISSUEUS


RISKY BUSINESSHow to keep your events safe in times of terrorism,

strikes and more.

p. 20


MEETINGSp. 10

STEPSTOSAFERMEETINGS

p. 25COMMUNICATION

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RISKY BUSINESSHow to keep your events safe in times of terrorism,

strikes and more.

p. 20


MEETINGSp. 10

STEPSTOSAFERMEETINGS

p. 25COMMUNICATION

STRATEGIESSTARTTOFINISHp. 28

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Volume 17, Issue 1 2012$15 USANATOMY OF A MEETING

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20OF MIND-BLOWINGmeetings

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VOLUME 20, ISSUE 2 2015/2016 $15 US

MEETING PROFESSIONALS INTERNATIONAL

@

PYM15i2 Cover final.indd 1

12/1/15 11:20 AM

003PLANYOURMEETINGS.COM | PYM 2015

PACIFIC36 Silicon Valley, Calif.39 San Jose, Calif.42 Monterey County, Calif.45 Las Vegas, Nev.

MOUNTAIN49 Denver, Colo.52 Breckenridge, Colo.54 Colorado Springs, Colo.56 Snowmass, Colo.

WEST SOUTH CENTRAL60 Plano, Texas63 Irving, Texas66 Granbury, Texas69 Richardson, Texas72 San Antonio, Texas74 San Marcos, Texas77 Kerrville, Texas80 New Braunfels, Texas83 Austin, Texas86 Houston, Texas90 North Houston, Texas92 The Woodlands, Texas94 Rockport-Fulton, Texas98 Abilene, Texas

EAST NORTH CENTRAL 104 Chicago, Ill.

WEST NORTH CENTRAL106 Minneapolis, Minn.

MID-ATLANTIC107 New York, N.Y.

SOUTHEAST ATLANTIC110 Raleigh, N.C.113 Charleston, S.C.115 Atlanta, Ga.116 Douglasville, Ga.119 College Park, Ga.122 Peachtree City, Ga.125 St. Simons, Ga.128 Valdosta, Ga.130 Orlando, Fla.

35 A TOUR OF SOME TOP MEETING CITIES Featuring hot hotels, amazing venues and group amenities

DESTINATION GUIDES

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WHATS IN YOUR BAGWe asked some of our PYM AllStars to share their travel tips. Heres what they cant travel without.

48 Christy Lamagna, CMP, CMM, CTSM59 Layton Rasco102 Dana Morgan, CAP-OM108 Qualena Odom-Royes, CSEP, CMP

THIS IS WHERE

MEETINGSLAND.With access to 327 destinations worldwide, easy-to-use booking tools and robust scheduling options, Delta Meeting Network delivers the flexibility you need with the control you want. So, you can do more with every budget.

DELTA.COM/MEETINGS

PYM_DMN_FallPrintEdition_8.125x11.125.indd 1 9/1/15 9:15 AM

JEFF HURT has worked in the nonprofit and hospitali-ty arena for more than 20 years, in both education and

events. He has planned meetings in sizes from 25 to 35,000 attend-ees. Currently, he serves as execu-tive vice president of education and engagement for Velvet Chainsaw Consulting. He blogs for VCCs Midcourse Corrections about meetings, education and social media. VelvetChainsaw.com, [email protected]

JANET ROBERTS is the owner of Content by Janet Roberts, a Green Bay, Wis.,-based marketing

communications service specializing in interviews, case studies, how-tos, social-media management and other services that help people work smarter and live better. Her motto: Let me write that for you! Janet writes on both sides of the content aisle. On the marketing side, she works with tech-sector companies to help their customers and prospects solve problems, use services more effectively and understand important industry issues. On the public side, she writes for Plan Your Meetings, Encore Atlanta, Larry Chases Web Digest for Marketers, the Direct Marketing Association and other magazines, email newsletters and blogs on topics from the performing arts to food to marketing leadership. If youre interested in it, she is, too! Connect with Janet via Twitter @evansmom or email her at [email protected]. One of these days, shell blow the dust off her blog, too: contentbyjanetroberts.com.

ROBERT SANDERS Illustrator Robert Sanders says the biggest challenge in designing

illustrations for the 9 Predict-ions feature (p. 10) was imagining a world that didnt yet exist and creating a visual vocabulary that corresponded to the tone of the story, which talks about high-tech ideas in a way thats not intimidat-ing. If his work looks familiar, it may be because you have a copy of the 2009 or 2011 PYM Annual on your bookshelf. He created covers and interior illustrations for both, helping the production team win the 2010 MAGS Gamma Gold Award for Best Single Publication and a 2012 Azbee Gold Award for Graphics Excellence. His first con-tribution to PYM was as a cover model. The editorial director at the time asked him to model for the 2004 issue of Plan Your Meetings (image above). Unfortunately a version of the Southwest edition with him in a Photoshopped-on cowboy hat also exists. With any luck, he says, youll never ever have to see it. You can contact him at [email protected].

J. DAMANY DANIEL Chief ImaginatorThe Event Nerdtheeventnerd.com@theeventnerd

DAHLIA EL GAZZAR, CMP CEO & Founder, Editor Dahlia+ dahliaplus.com@DahliaElGazzar

CHERYL LAWSON FounderParty Aficionado PartyAficionado.com@PartyAficionado

JULIUS SOLARIS Founder & EditorEvent Manager Blogeventmanagerblog.com@tojulius

CONTRIBUTORSPYM 2015 | PLANYOURMEETINGS.COM006

THE FOLLOWING FUTURISTS HELPED US ENVISION THE MEETING OF TOMORROW.

WOULD YOU LIKETO CONTRIBUTE TO PYM?Most of our content is written by meeting planners like you. If you have an idea youd like to share, email our managing editor at [email protected] and include several writing samples.

Meet in a rare collection of settings unlike any others on Earth. From secluded mountain enclaves like The Ranch at Emerald Meet in a rare collection of settings unlike any others on Earth. From secluded mountain enclaves like The Ranch at Emerald Valley, to private river escapes at The Broadmoor Fishing Camp, were bringing a sense of adventure to your next gathering. Valley, to private river escapes at The Broadmoor Fishing Camp, were bringing a sense of adventure to your next gathering. Climb to 10,000 feet above sea level at The Broadmoors Cloud Camp meeting space. Situated atop Cheyenne Mountain, Climb to 10,000 feet above sea level at The Broadmoors Cloud Camp meeting space. Situated atop Cheyenne Mountain, 3,000 vertical feet above our main property, your perspective is forced to shift. Producing a meeting thats everything that meets your demands and exceeds your expectations. Book today.

8 7 7 . 9 3 5 . 9 0 5 5 B R O A D M O O R . C O M

CREATE AN EVENT AS BIG AS THE AMERICAN WEST.

01221-D BRD 2015 Print_BWE_Create_PYM_8.15x11.125.indd 1 3/23/15 4:14 PMBroadmoor_PYM2015-i1 fp.indd 1 3/23/15 6:29 PM

EDITORIALVP OF CREATIVE/CHIEF STORYTELLER Kristi Casey SandersMANAGING EDITORKathy JanichCONTRIBUTING EDITORJanet RobertsCONTRIBUTING WRITERSClaire Gould; Jeff Hurt; Christy Lamagna, CMP, CMM, CTSM; Therra Gwyn-Jaramillo; Dana Morgan, CAP-OM; Qualena Odom-Royes, CSEP, CMP; Layton Rasco; Laura Raines; Jackie Thornton, MS, CMP

PRODUCTIONART DIRECTORJoshua HartingGRAPHIC DESIGNERMark F. BaxterDIGITAL DESIGNERIan Carson

MARKETING & SALESVICE PRESIDENT, SALES & MARKETINGEvan Casey ACCOUNT EXECUTIVESSusan M. Fox, CMP, CMM; Debbie WebbEVENTS & CLIENT SERVICESEmily NorthripSOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERSophia Chin

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT/CIRCULATIONCHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERClaudia MadiganAUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT & EVENTS COORDINATORAlysia BrogdonAUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT TEAMJennifer Buckley, Diane Casey, Adriean Childree, Lisa Sanders, Karen Welsh

MPI EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT

PRESIDENT & CEO

Paul Van DeventerCHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICERMichael WoodyCHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICERDaniel GilmartinCHIEF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICERDarren TemplePublished by Meeting Professionals International, 2711 LBJ Freeway, Suite 600, Dallas, Texas 75234, 972-702-3000, fax: 972-702-3065. Copyright 2015 by Meeting Professionals International. MPI makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors, omissions or opinions expressed herein. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part of any text, photograph or illustration without written permission from the publisher strictly prohibited. Publisher reserves the right to refuse any advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable for publication.

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MEETING PROFESSIONALS INTERNATIONAL@

REFLECTIONS ON OUR FIRST 20 YEARS Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.

Victor HugoIve always had an issue with the saying You cant step in the same river twice. Not just because you clearly can, but also because when people use it, they tend to assume that there should be some sadness associated with the passage of time. Take a moment to picture what you wore in the 1980s. Do you regret how your personal style has evolved? I didnt think so.

When we achieve milestones, we revisit where we were. Sometimes we do step in that river, thank you. And I know that when I do, I appreciate the things that are the same (insert metaphorical wet feet, solid rock foundation) and take great joy in taking inventory of whats grown up, flourished or flat-out changed around me.

Believe it or not, this is Plan Your Meetings 20th year. We were founded on the belief that there was an ocean of do-it-yourself planners in corporate America who needed best-practices education and help connecting with vendors, hotels and

other suppliers. Education and connection remains at the core of what we do, but weve developed a higher purpose: to make the industry better. Our core audience of 5,000 Atlanta planners has grown to a global digital, print and social media audience of more than 100,000. We conduct live events across America that incorporate cutting-edge ideas about neuroscience and experiential meeting design (p. 20). We travel to other peoples events to share what we know about sustainable event design, new meeting technology (p. 10), productivity tips (p. 28), audience engagement and proving your worth at work. And in 2016, were excited to begin a new chapter with Meeting Professionals International, the largest and most prestigious association in our industry. Our relationship with them means youll have access to more education, career development and face-to-face networking opportunities than ever.

None of this could have been possible without your support. Thank you for sharing PYM with your co-workers and peers. We are so grateful for your questions and comments in our online communities and love seeing you at our PYM LIVE Events. Everything you do inspires, educates and empowers us as well.

I hope you enjoy this 20th anniversary edition of PYM, enhanced with the magic of augmented reality (see p. 3). Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @PYMLive, on our website, the Plan Your Meetings Facebook page and on our other social networks. Are you old-school? Drop me a line at [email protected].

Plan well and prosper, friends!

Kristi Casey Sanders VP of Creative/Chief Storyteller


EDITORS LETTER

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Evan Casey, vice president of sales and marketing, and Kristi Casey Sanders kick up their heels at PYM LIVE Chicago.

20to See YouThrough the

NextYears

9Predictions

BY KRISTI CASEY SANDERS | ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROBERT SANDERS

Unless you worked in tech or were in college in 1995, chances are you didnt have an email address. If you did, it was probably hosted by AOL, which con-nected you to a gated version of the Internet via a dial-up modem. Google didnt exist to index what little Web con-tent there was, so the only thing people did online was participate in chat rooms, read news feeds and if thats what they were into look at porn. Cellphones existed, but they werent commonplace, and no one was texting. If you were late, people just fumed until you finally showed up to explain.

Its easy to forget how fast things

change. When I started at Passkey in 1998 doing hotel housing, I had to work a telex machine, says Meeting Pool founder Dahlia El Gazzar.

Youd be lucky if a hotel property had one email address that their people could share. They just didnt see why they need-ed them. Hotels had to have reservations by telex or faxes. Then you had function books. The sheets used to have carbon copies. Youd have to make three cop-ies of each banquet event order because everyone involved with the event needed one, so you had to write really hard so itd go through all the copies.

To keep track of groups coming

in, hotels used wall calendars that could

be written on or giant books that El Gazzar

likens to Santas naughty and nice list.

It seems archaic now, but at the time it was the most effi-cient way of doing business, the end result of hundreds of years of progress.

Technology continues to change the way we do busi-ness, disrupting our procedures even faster. And theres no going back. So what will things look like in 2035? Plan Your Meetings asked some of its favorite futurists to weigh in on what will shape the industry in the next 20 years.

Time is running out. You stopped to check email and now youll never make your next appointment. Whipping out your iPhone, you text: Traffic looks horrible, can you meet virtually? You get the go-ahead, send a Google Hangout link and begin the meeting on time. By sharing your screen and documents, all hosted in the Cloud, you amend the contract and get the signatures you need as if you were there in person. During the call, you save everything to a shared notebook in Evernote. Now your event team can pull everything they need from the Cloud while on-site. None of this was possible 20 years ago.

PYM_2015_futuremeetings-1.indd 10 5/11/15 6:52 PM


Event trends:

Our industry tends to lag behind others in terms of trends and technology. Heres a snapshot of whats in and whats out now.

Tech thats inDrone photographersThe Cloud BEAMProOculus Rift3-D holographic projectionsSecretLenovo Yoga Tablet 2 ProIntel Compute StickUberConferenceGoogle HangoutsPodcastsWearablesHiring an event tech producer

Tech thats outPhoto boothsUSB sticksTelepresenceGoogle Glass (for now)Plasma screensChat RoulettePico projectorsMacbook AirFreeConferenceCall.comSkypeWebinarsSmartphonesDIY event tech design

Scan this page with the PYM+ app to reveal what things used to be like way back in 1998.



PREDICTION NO. 1: Content and design decisions will depend even more on audience feedback and needs.

Attracting attendees to a conference by offering quality education is noth-ing new. Nor is displaying user-gener-ated material like Instagram photos and tweets. Recording conference sessions so they can be repackaged and repurposed later is part of every savvy event mar-keting strategy. But all those decisions are being made from the top down. The

audience voice is present, but its whis-per-soft. El Gazzar sees a floodgate opening, one that will result in more collaborative events designed and driven by attendees.

Part of what will make that possible, she says, is the prevalence

of social tools that allow for real-time content generation, curation and distribution.

I honestly think user-generated con-tent and co-creation are going to be more fluid, she says. You know about unconferences, right? People show up and set the agenda. Well you have all this technology that makes it possible to curate all this content during a session without even having an agenda. If you have really strong subject matter experts in a room, I think you could just say: Theres no agenda, were co-creating this event right here, right now.

Thats not to say that every event will become an improvised affair. But attendees will increasingly expect to

have a say in what they experience on-site. After all, Twitter gave

attendees the ability to complain in real time more than five years ago. That privilege cant

be revoked. People also are grow-ing used to having experiences

customized for them. That expec-tation cant be ignored. The num-ber of tech tools catering to both of these desires is growing, too.

We run an analysis every year, and when more start-

ups are doing the same thing that becomes a trend for us, says Julius Solaris, found-er of Event Manager Blog and author of



an annual event technolo-gy trends report. The next big thing is live interaction. The number of people creating technology for that is unprecedented.

This means meeting and event plan-ners will need to figure out how to incorporate attendee feedback without derailing the total event experience. This requires a skill that goes beyond just being a strategic meetings manager. Its understanding how [tech] tools work and how they add value to the event, Solaris says.

Just like you should create a process map of how social media can add value to every point in your process for every person on your social team, you need to create a process map of where technolo-gy is needed at your event, where it adds value, and base it on what people will actually use. You have to connect it to the real needs of your attendees.

In other words, resist the temptation to incorporate the new just because its new or just because someone says you have to have it. If no one coming to your event will use it, youre better off saving your money for something your audi-ence will embrace.

PREDICTION NO. 2: Meetings will get smaller, more mobile and be produced on-demand.

At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Lenovo introduced the Lenova Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, a portable tab-let computer with a built-in projector. Its designed for people who want to create an instant home theater and can be used to project PowerPoint presentations and share desktop content.

I thought mind blown, says Cheryl Lawson, founder of the social marketing firm Party Aficionado and the annual Social Media Tulsa conference. Where will that take us in the future? Will our phones have projectors on them?

Mammoth annual conferences may never disappear completely, but having technology that allows you to project your thoughts without having to hire an AV team gives meeting and event planners incredible flexibility. Not to

Glossary of Terms Things change fast, as does the lingo. Here are definitions of terms weve highlighted in red throughout the text.

Google Hangout A videoconference call that can happen though desktop/laptop computers or using apps on phones, tablets or Google Glass. Users can share files, collaborate on doc-uments and broadcast content directly to YouTube.

The CloudShort for Cloud computing. A catch-all term to for a series of remote servers and software networks that store information so it can be accessed by any connected device.

Evernote A Cloud-based note-taking system accessi-ble online, through mobile apps and desk-tops/laptops. Users create notes in which they can embed audio, video, images, web-sites, text and other content and organize it into notebooks that can be shared.

Operate off phone lines like a telegraph, but on a separate frequency than voice lines. Telex machines could transmit messages at 60 words per minute to one or several telex machines simultaneously. Messages on shiny paper tape could be prepared in advance, saving users time and money, or they could be typed and sent in real time, using an attached typewriter-style keyboard. Abbreviations like CU l8tr were first used by real-time telex operators. Developed in 1930s Germany, they were a dominant form of business communication until email began to replace them in the mid-1990s.

UnconferencesConferences for which no agenda exists beforehand. Its created by audience demand on-site. Sessions are voted on and then led by attendees who volunteer to take on that topic. Several variations exist for confer-ence organizers who like the idea but want a more structured event.



mention the ability to hold frequent, small, mobile meetings without making any significant financial investment.

Another tech trend making meet-ings more mobile, Lawson says, is the Intel Compute Stick, a USB drive that turns any display into a computer when plugged in. Lawson predicts these pock-et-sized computers will increase the speed at which people can share ideas as they turn non-computers into connected machines for impromptu live or virtu-al meetings. As soon as you check into your hotel room, for example, you could turn the TV into your personal PC.

The last piece Lawson says needs to happen, and will happen soon, is a way to fully connect your phone to your TV and other mobile and computing devic-es. Now those connections tend to be one-way: You can turn your phone into a remote control, but you cant display

app activity on the TV screen. You can email yourself a file and open it on another device, but you cant swipe across a file on your tablet and see it appear on your conference screen. Expect to see that change rapidly with the launch of products like Lima, which makes any file you have accessible on up to eight connected devices.

PREDICTION NO. 3: Make way for drones, drones and more drones!

Remember that remote-controlled helicopter you played with as a kid? Well now it has a camera and may just be the future of event photography. For

festivals and outdoor events,

drones with camer-as are going to be huge,

Lawson says. I dont know if youll see drones flying around in a conference cen-

ter, but every city has at least one outdoor music festival and

one of the difficulties is getting a photog-rapher close enough to get great photos of the crowd and the band. Drones cap-ture images from angles inaccessible to human photographers.

Businesses like Amazon use drones primarily to pick through warehouses to deliver products, but Lawson sees many other applications, especially as drones become less toylike. You could deliver food and drink to people in movie the-aters. Or you could place an order while youre driving in your car and the drone could pull up next to you and give you your coffee. Whos to say that in 2035



your banquet server wont be a drone? Right now they look weird, Lawson

concedes, but eventually, theyll be part of what we see all the time.

Video and audio-enabled drones like the BEAMPro units showing up at events have another function: giving virtual attendees a more interactive event expe-rience. The motorized device features a screen from which its controller can see, hear and speak to others despite physical-ly being several thousand miles away.

The risk-management and attend-ee applications of this technology excite Lawson. If a conference center hous-es two or four of these things, and your speaker is stuck in an airport due to a rain-storm, its no longer a problem, she says. Youd go get a BEAMPro and connect your speaker. Theyd be able to network, do their presentation and move around the conference, interacting with attendees. This is the future of events. I saw a girl walking around CES but I have no idea where she was physically. My vision of the future of meetings is attending a confer-ence in Europe via these things.

PREDICTION NO. 4: Backchannel chatter about events will go dark, real dark.

If Twitter hashtags make you anxious, youll hate where the cool kids are shar-ing their opinions now.

On Twitter I may not tweet publicly how Im feeling, but on so-called anony-mous apps like Secret, people are sharing what they really think about your event, Lawson says. Not having comments tied to a public profile gives app users the freedom to share very private thoughts without repercussion. The result is very NSFW, she says, but the proliferation of these apps means its a trend that will continue to grow.

Secret marketed itself at CES as the place where you could hear the real backend conversations, Lawson says. Talk about backchannel! It was very sleazy but there were some inter-esting conversations. As event plan-ners, we do have to pay attention to the backchannels of our conference chatter.

DroneA remote-controlled pilotless aircraft, some-times referred to as an UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). The term also applies to any robot vehicle that is piloted remotely.

Not safe for work, often because of sexual, violent, lewd or shocking content.

An unauthorized, often private, mode of communication online or, increasingly, through mobile apps that promise anonymity. Dark is a reference to when spies go off the grid technically where these conversations happen.

A name given to a group of people who beta-tested Google Glass, a wearable com-puter with an augmented reality-style eye-level display screen. The program began in April 2012 and was disbanded in January to make way for a consumer launch.



You need to monitor these

apps because young people use them.

PREDICTION NO. 5: The immediate future

is all about augmented reality, virtual reality and wearables. But eventually, simulated reality will rule them all.

One feature that Google Glass Explorers loved about the wear-

able experience was not having to look down to get informa-tion or interact with the world through Glass. Its augment-

ed reality-style ocular display was what made people nervous

about it. It was too noticeable. People thought it looked weird and were afraid it was always on, recording them.

Glass is the pitbull of wearable tech-nology, says Lawson, an Explorer. Everyone who doesnt have one thinks its horrible. Even so, its being recon-figured for a commercial release, and its heads-up display-style tech continues to pop up in copycat devices.

J. Damany Daniel, aka The Event

Nerd, predicts that people will even-tually move away from wearable technology. Google Glass failed

not because people didnt want the information, but because the interface was flawed, he says. Thats also the challenge for

Oculus Rift if they want mass adop-tion. People dont want to have a thing

on their face.But remove the object you have to

interact through, move past augmented or virtual reality and enter the realm of simulated reality thats what Daniel is looking forward to.

Right now you have [projected holo-gram technology] like Hologauze and Musion, which was what they used to bring Tupac to Coachella, but you

have to set up the screen just right and the lighting has

to be perfect, he says. As the cost decreases and the technology becomes more

stable, Daniel predicts it also will become mainstream.

Marry the holographic projections to artificial intelligence and you can create your own version of Star Treks holodeck, a room filled with interac-tive simulated reality experiences. Sound far-fetched? According to scientists and researchers quoted in The New York Times last year, holodecks for personal use should hit the market by 2024.

PREDICTION NO. 6: Automated networking will be the killer app.

The Internet leveled the education-al playing field. Almost everything you need to know about anything is at your fingertips. More and more were see-ing that people arent coming to events because they care about the subject mat-ter, Daniel says. They come to the event because they want be around other people who are just like them.

This increased interest in who rath-er than what will be at the event will result in better event networking tech-nology. The killer event app, Daniel says, will be one that aggregates his LinkedIn and Facebook data to suggest the Top 5 people he should connect with at the event, alerts him when those people are nearby and lets him request a meeting right there.



These kinds of computer-generated connections may not replace the syner-gy of meeting someone on the shuttle bus or in the buffet line, but it will help exhibitors, sponsors and high achievers prove the business value of attending live events.

PREDICTION NO. 7: Enchanted objects will be everywhere.

People have a desire to gain instant access to information, Daniel says. This is made possible by the Internet of Things, or what David Rose [of MIT] likes to call enchanted objects.

The things in our daily life will become smarter, and well be better able to react as a result. Its not natural for us to interact with the world through a flat, black rectangle, which is what were doing with smartphones. We like story and interacting with things. More and more, the things that humanity has spent hundreds of years designing to be perfect (like an umbrella or chair) will become connected to the Internet.

Eventually, Daniel says, having plants that tell you when to water them, umbrellas that remind you to grab them and chairs that automatically adjust to ease muscle tension will just be the way things are.

Every event team will have an event technology producer or chief technology officer.

Today event technology resides in the realm of line items that every planner must manage, along with linens and hotel rooms. They dont understand technol-ogy, so they dont use it, Daniel says.

His advice? Stop trying to understand technology. You wouldnt do a menu tasting and then go into the kitchen to start cooking with the chef, he says. Meeting planners are generalists. If they have to do an opening session, they work with a production manager who hires and coordinates the work of the subspe-cialists for sound, light and other func-tions. Similarly, Daniel insists, meet-ing planners need to entrust technology decisions to someone who specializes in applying them to event design.

Solaris agrees. Planners are amazing, he says, but they already have a lot on their plate. They shouldnt have to han-dle technology, too. Plus, the metrics used to define an events success differ from those that prove event technology return on investment.

Daniel recommends that meeting planners treat technology like any other aspect of an event that requires a special-ist. Find people who can work with you and be part of your team, he says. There arent a lot of event professionals who can do this now, but eventually every-one will need a chief technical officer or event technology producer on staff.

PREDICTION NO. 9: Some things should never change, but well need cross- generational mentorships to ensure they wont.

Will the next generation of conference sales managers ever send a handwritten thank-you note?

Will budding meeting and event planners feel more comfortable texting their sales contact than having a confer-ence call?

Reminding industry newcomers of interpersonal communication best prac-tices may be the biggest challenge the industry will face in the next 20 years, says Joyce J. Ginsburg of JG Meetings.

Despite all the technology that has come into play, thehospitality industry is still based on service, she says.Service can only be provided by people.An app, a paper copy of instructions given to a meeting planner on how to accomplish something within a property is not ser-vice. Communication is key.

So before you retire, take time to men-tor a newbie. Teach him or her how to communicate effectively and respectful-ly with clients and co-workers face-to-face and in a timely way. Explain the eth-ics of the business and encourage them to create their own standards of profes-sional behavior. Show them the value of long-term relationships and the leverage you gain by being nice. Because there never will be an app for that.

Curious to read more about what the future may bring? Youll find 31 more pre-dictions at tinyurl.com/31futuretrends.

Augmented realityAR provides a thin layer of information over what you see. This illusion may be viewed through a mobile device, display screen or other overlay delivery system like steam, water, gas or light projection.

Oculus RiftThese high-tech goggles provide a visually immersive 3-D virtual reality experience while blocking the users view of whats really there. Wildly popular with gamers, theyve also been used by hotel chains like Marriott and other marketers to transport users to exotic destinations. Because the technology is costly and each experience must be hard-coded to the last detail, they more closely resemble movies rather than unfolding, interactive adventures.

Tupac at CoachellaIn 2012, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre rapped with a holographic projection of Tupac Shakur, who died in 1996, onstage at the Coachella Music Festival. Digital Domain, the company that produced the stage illu-sion estimated it cost between $100,000 and $400,000. See how it worked by watching this video: tinyurl.com/hologramtupac.

Artificial intelligence (AI)Intelligence exhibited by, or programmed into, machines or software. The goal is to create a machine that can think, behave, predict and react like a human being.

Internet of Things (IoT) and Big DataA vast amount of data is available to any-thing that connects to the Internet. Small computing devices called microcontrol-lers can be programmed to perform simple tasks based on triggers found online or in real space. When attached to an inanimate object or sewn into clothing, it makes the object smart and capable of interacting with people and other smart objects. You can program your houseplant to tell you when it needs water, your coatrack to text you when the kids come home or your thermostat to automatically adjust to save you money (think Nest). All these devices collect data about you. This data can be used to make the objects smarter. When tied to your online and mobile behavior profiles, it becomes part of your Big Data profile, which helps mar-keters target appeals to you and create cus-tomized on-demand experiences.



1. The education

2. The networking

3. The cu ing-edge ideas they walk away with

Evens

WATCH THIS VIDEO AND SEE FOR YOURSELF: tinyurl.com/lovepym

ATLANTAFebruary

SILICONVALLEYMarch

CHICAGOApril

AUSTIN/SANANTONIOMay

CHARLOTTEJune

RALEIGHJune

DENVERJuly

NEWYORKCITYAugust

DALLASSeptember

FORTLAUDERDALEOctober

HOUSTONNovember

*Dates are subject to change

PYMLIVEEVENTSAREPRODUCEDBY

MEETING AND EVENT PLANNERS LOVEPYM LIVE EVENTS FOR3 REASONS:

PYM Live EvensWE HOPE YOU CAN JOIN US AT THESE

IN 2016!

JOIN US AT A CITY NEAR YOU!View PlanYourMeetings.com/eventsfor more information.

PYMLIVEEVENTSAREPRODUCEDBY

MIND-BLOWINGMEETINGSThe art of applying neuroscienceto event educationBy JEFF HURT

attendees brain is the most complex, intricate and mind-blowing organ in the world.

Consider this: Your brain weighs only 3 pounds just 2 percent of your body weight. Yet, according to Daniel G. Amen, author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, it uses 20 percent to 30 percent of the calories you consume, 20 percent of the oxygen you breathe and about 25 percent of the blood flow in your body.

The brain forms the foundation of our personalities, emotions, intelli-

gence, learning, memories and love. Its an amazing, complex and power-ful organ, and we know so little about it. However, we know more today than we did 10 years ago. Research in the fields of neuroscience, cogni-

tive psychology and biology con-tinue to identify and explain the marvelous and mystifying world of the brain. As meeting professionals, we should turn to these fields for advice on designing and implementing better experiences.

Why? Because your attend-ees brains determine whether

they are fulfilled, learn, remem-ber anything, connect with others,

feel good about the experience, engage with the content and want to come back next year. We need to understand how their brains are designed if we want our meetings and events to succeed.

THE BRAIN: HOW IT WORKS

Think of an attendees brain as a computer. The most important software a computer runs is its operating system, which man-ages the computers memo-ry, processes, and all of its software and hardware. An operating system is already

hard-coded so users dont have to program it as they go. Without

an operating system, a comput-er cant function or communicate

with users.

Similarly, attendees brains perform according to certain properties that are hard-wired and encoded within them. These chief executive functions work in a specific way. If you, as the meeting orga-nizer, design an experience that makes an attendees brain function in a way contrary to nature, youll cause them to malfunction. Attendees wont be able to get their minds around your content or event experience. As their thought pro-cesses weaken, they cease learning, they disengage and their opinion of your event is damaged. Ultimately, theyll leave dissatisfied and probably wont return next year.

META BEFORE MEETINGWe know that education, networking and doing business are the Top 3 rea-sons people attend conferences. Yet how much do we really know about how peo-ple learn?

Lecture formats dominate tra-ditional conference programming. Unfortunately, brain-based research sug-gests that lectures are the worst way to deliver information and educate people. We need to find a better way.

Kent State University psychology professor John Dunlosky thinks the solu-tion lies in paying attention to how edu-cational information is delivered. In an article for American Educator maga-zine titled Strengthening the Student Toolbox, he wrote that teaching learners how to learn is as important as teaching them content, because acquiring both the right learning strategies and back-ground know-ledge is important if not essential for promoting lifelong learning.

Most meeting planners are real-ly good at providing the background knowledge attendees need to learn. They excel at securing speakers who dispense concrete information like data, dates, facts and names. But we fail to help attendees discover effective learning strategies that will help them navigate our conference content.

This sets attendees up for failure. Helen Askell-Williams of Flinders Universitys School of Education in Adelaide, Australia, discovered that teaching participants good learning strategies resulted in scores that were 73 points higher in academic profici- ency tests than those of their unprepared peers.

1. When a person understands how they learn, they absorb and retain information better.

2. When you and your speakers understand what attendees need, you can improve how you deliver content and education.

3. Its important to create distraction-free environments and limit the amount of data you want people to absorb. Focus on the essential.

4. Break frequently so peoples brains can reset.

5. Use music to make people more receptive to learning.

6. Increase attendee focus and mental clarity by creating heart coherence.

7. Give people time to discover, experiment and play with the material before introducing them to new ideas.

The Basics

ALL IM

AGES INGIMAGE.COM


Learning about how to learn (meta-cognition) clearly has a huge payout. The more we can help meeting partici-pants understand how learning naturally occurs for them, the more we can help them reach their meeting objectives.

We need to start providing and emphasizing metacognition before meetings to produce masterful results. The first step? Self-assessment (see the test at left). If attendees understand what they need to learn, theyll likely show up with a more receptive mindset.

UNLOCKING EXECUTIVE BRAIN FUNCTIONS As meeting professionals, we often ask attendees to pay attention. We assume that scheduling a speaker, putting him or her on a stage and having them talk cap-tures the audiences attention. In doing so, we confuse passive listening with engagement and focus.

Look closer at those audience mem-bers: Theyre just sleeping with their eyes open.

According to neuroscientist and lead-ership expert Henry Cloud, attention is a magic key that unlocks higher-order brain circuitry. Its essential to learning, but its not enough to guarantee reten-tion or true comprehension on its own. In order to unlock our attendees high-er-order brain circuitry, he says, we need to enlist the aid of attentions siblings: inhibition and working memory.

Inhibiting whats not important is critical for learning. Similarly, limiting the working memory to just the critical information is as important as keep-ing an attendees attention and inhibit-ing distractions. The more stimuli and extraneous content attendees encounter, the more likely their brain is to falter. We must design environments that help attendees focus and eliminate distrac-tions. We must encourage speakers to streamline content so attendees work-ing memory will be filled only with the essentials they need to understand.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RESETTING THE BRAIN Science has given us ample evidence that technology and our busy sched-ules overstimulate our brains. Scientist Nathaniel Klietman, author of Sleep and Wakefulness, found that our brains have a natural basic rest-activ-

ity cycle. Every 90 to 120 minutes, our brains need a rest. Based on Klietmans research, conference orga-nizers should intentionally sched-ule breaks so attendees brains can reset. We should break for at least 10 minutes every 90 minutes to two hours. Scheduling 30-minute breaks between sessions is best.

We also need to encourage attend-ees to love and protect their brains and resist the urge to create conference envi-ronments that encourage all-you-can-eat-style information cramming.

Instead, focus your program-ming on one to three major issues. Encourage attendees to exercise and meditate while on-site. Give them free time in the early eve-ning to hang out with friends. By offering post-event recaps or on-demand videos of con-ference sessions, you can pre-vent them from the fear of missing out. This is critical if you want them to enjoy the time they spend with you.

MUSIC, MINDS AND MEETINGS Music is a mind-bogglingly useful tool for meetings and events. Using the right music at the right time can unlock and engage attendees high-er brain functions. Playing upbeat, high-energy walk-in music, for example, can energize audience members and get them in a receptive, happy state.

According to research done by Petri Toiviainen at Finlands University of Jyvaskyla, music recruits the auditory areas of the brain and uses other large neural brain networks. Processing the pulse and beat of music enlists the brains motor areas. Our hearts start beating fast-er as we align with the beat and produce an urge to move. Musics tone and rhythm engages the lim-bic areas of the brain activat-ing our emotions. The timbre of a song affects our brains default mode network, which can either cause our mind to wander or inspire cre-ativity.

When used correctly, music can put people in the mood to learn.

How do you make attendees aware of how they learn (metacognition)? Let them self-assess, using these statements adapted from Askell-Williams research. Ask them how they learn best and provide these options:

I need ample time to draw pictures and/or diagrams to help me understand a subject.

I like to work with colleagues to try and solve questions.

I like to start with what I already know about the topic.

I like to discuss what Im learning/doing with others.

I like it when I get opportunities to think about my thinking, to make sure I understand the main ideas.

I need to be able to ask colleagues for help and try to learn something again if I dont understand the first time.

I prefer to write down my questions and what I dont understand so I can learn more about them later at my own pace.

I like to focus more time on my specific challenges.


MINDPYM 2015 | PLANYOURMEETINGS.COM026

THE HEART IS WISER THAN

THE MIND Youve probably heard the phrase just follow your heart or trust your

intuition. They sound like squishy, mushy, touchy-feely meta-phors.

Not so, says neuroscience research-

er and brain training expert Daniel Mauro, author of

Build Yourself a Better Brain. Every attendee actually has a tiny brain in their heart, he insists.

Mauros research builds on neurocar-diologist Andrew Amours 1991 dis-

covery of a complex heart-based system of

impulses that mirrors brain activity. This heart

brain directs and aligns many of the bodys systems to create a harmoni-

ous personal envi-ronment. According

to Mauro, the heart and brain directly communi-cate with each other and the heart regularly makes

unilateral decisions independent of (and sometimes overruling)

the brains commands. This is why we sometimes

feel torn between what we think and feel.

So if we want to opti-mize an attendees personal focus and clarity, we must design meeting experi-ences that create heart coherence rather than dissonance. We need to help participants heart brains align with what

theyre thinking, feeling and doing. When you cre-ate this synergy, it invokes a state of harmony and

well-being, activating posi-tive feelings.

One way we can do this is to start each part of a meeting with a heart coherence moment. Ask attendees to focus their minds on a place that brings great happiness while they practice deep breathing. This will focus brain power and increase mental clarity so attendees retain and learn more.

INTRODUCE PLAYYou may have heard about a trend called flip education. In this model, educa-tional materials and videos of lectures are distributed to attendees pre-show. In theory, attendees watch and read these materials at home and show up on-site ready to discuss the material.

The flipped education model is effec-tive in blended conference experiences where technology engages people before, during and after events. But Stanford Graduate School of Education research suggests there may be an even better way to shake up conference education to enhance learning.

The key lies in free experimentation and play. The Stanford researchers creat-ed a tabletop tool that simulated how the brain processed visual images. They let some of the neuroscience students play with it before coursework began. The students who played with the model out-performed their peers in every way that the team tracked and measured learning comprehension.

Our results suggest that students are better prepared to understand a theory after first exploring it for themselves, Stanford research leader Bertrand Schneider wrote in study findings pub-lished in the April/June 2013 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies journal.

Assistant professor Paulo Blikstein, who supervised the study, added: Exploration, inquiry and problem-solv-ing are not just nice to have things in the classroom. They are powerful learn-ing mechanisms. Blikstein says this is because our intuition about how things work is often wrong.

If you want to optimize compre-hension, retention, understanding and analysis, figure out ways your attend-ees can discover, experiment, question and problem-solve before you introduce them to new material. Keep these tips in mind, and youll be able to create brain-friendly meetings.

How do you streamline your content and make it more relevant and effec-tive? Ask yourself (and your speak-ers) these questions:

Why is this topic important for my audience and their profession?

What does my audience need to know about this topic to succeed in their jobs?

What does my audience already know about this topic?

What can my attendees relate this topic to in their lives?

How can I help attendees remem-ber the Top 3 to 5 key ideas?

What isnt clear to my audience?

What dont they understand about the topic?

MIND

Scan this page to discover more helpful articles and resources.



ProductiveBump up your output by ignoring

some conventional wisdomBy JANET ROBERTS

Be

PYM_2015_productivity-3 issue 2.indd 28 11/6/15 12:10 PM

Productive




If you want to make your work life more pro-ductive, you need to buckle down, ignore email and Facebook, multitask like a mad-man and work until the job is done. Right?

Well, maybe not. You cant stop time and work while the world is frozen around you. (But wouldnt it be great if that could happen?) Reducing distrac-tions and making it easier for everyone to accom-plish their tasks does make your job better.

However, theres no single path to productivity. Whats good for Fortune 500 firms wont necessarily work in meeting and event planning, where creativi-

ty and flexibility are key drivers of company success.But that doesnt mean you cant do better to

improve your personal work habits or help your team members work better together to achieve more with less stress, frustration and time.

PRODUCTIVITY LOSS: WHATS THE COST?Its a given that unproductive workers cost money in lost payroll and business if they prevent work from being completed or interfere in client relationships, although management and workers dont necessari-ly agree on where the problems are. ALL

IMAGES COURTESY IN

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Here are a few numbers to chew on: American companies spent an estimated $130

billion in payroll on workers who did non-work activities while on the clock, according to a 2012 study by CFO, a magazine and website for corporate financial officers.

A 2013 Gallup survey found that bored or unhappy employees in the United States cost $450 billion to $550 billion a year in lost productivity.

Women on Business reported that 39 percent of employees spend less than one hour a week on non-work tasks and that 3 percent spend more than 10 hours per week doing non-work tasks at work.

Your boss might think online distractions impede office progress, but worker bees see things differently. The Top 3 employee scourg-es, according to a time-tracking study pub-lished by Bolt Insurance, were meetings (43 percent), office politics (43 percent) and fixing other peoples mistakes (37 percent).

Even with all those annoyances and distractions, American worker productivity is increasing. The most recent figure, using Federal Reserve numbers, showed that the U.S. Gross Domestic Product work rose to $60.59 an hour in 2011, the last year the feds measured that statistic. On top of that, one of the steepest gains came after 2008, the year Facebook went viral.

3 UNCONVENTIONAL PRODUCTIVITY HACKSAn event-planning company is a creative business, much like a design firm, ad agency or architec-tural company. Projects and deadlines drive the work flow and key players must wear multiple hats. Collaboration and team communication are essen-tial to getting the job done.

Thats true for organizations large and small. However, in a small business, just one person who isnt with the program can run an entire project off the rails.

Theres a lot of advice out there about keep-ing people on task and getting more work done in the same amount of time. Some is valuable. A lot makes you wonder if the person offering the advice ever worked in the real world, but everybody keeps repeating it, so it must be good, right?

Three of those conventional-wisdom tips, and what you should do instead, are below.

1. CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: DONT CHECK YOUR EMAIL AS SOON AS YOU GET TO YOUR DESK.Some experts say email-checking can torpedo that helpful to-do list you built the day before.

True, checking email every time a new message pops up will destroy momentum and focus. But, if you dont open your inbox until you clear the first item on your list or return yesterdays phone calls, you could miss a middle-of-the-night SOS from a client in a far-distant time zone, thus turning an annoyance into a disaster.

Triage your inbox instead. Mark the items you must deal with right away. Trash what doesnt inter-est you. Leave everything else in the inbox or your

Scan this page with the PYM+ app to learn how to create a mobile/paperless office.



message folders. Then either close email or open a new tab so you dont get distracted when new mes-sages pop in. Finally, check it only at certain times: hourly, or when you finish a project, and repeat the triaging process throughout the day.

2. CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: KEEP WORKING ON A PROJECT UNTIL YOU FINISH OR SOMETHING STOPS YOU.You build break times into your clients conferences, right? Give yourself the same break. Productivity falters when youve been sitting in one position or working on the same task after an hour or so.

Chunking time, or setting specific time limits during which you will work only on things related to a specific task, can help you stay focused but also give you a preordained break to get up and walk around, eat a snack or take a fresh-air break.

3. CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: STAY OFF SOCIAL MEDIA.Experts disagree whether blocking Facebook and other social networks makes employees more pro-ductive or just drives them to play Candy Crush on their smartphones instead.

But, if monitoring social media is important for client or company communications, you can make your job less time-consuming with a social media monitoring program that pulls multiple networks into a single browser tab.

For example, Hootsuite (hootsuite.com) lets you create, act on and track posts across multiple net-works (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and WordPress blogs). You also can create and sched-ule posts to launch automatically, which can save time and stress when you want to drive engagement during your event.

BONUS TIP: KEEP EVERYONE IN THE PROJECT-MANAGEMENT LOOPWhen you run a project-based business, you live and die by deadlines and details. Spreadsheets and sticky notes can help, but project-management software can reduce the time you spend on email and the phone checking to make sure everything is getting done.

One to consider is Asana, a Cloud-based project-management service (asana.com) that puts every member of your planning team on the same digital page for maximum efficiency and collaboration.

It uses a single, well-organized dashboard that shows you at a glance what task needs to be done, whos assigned to it, whether it got done on time and what needs to be done after that.

Other project-management or collaboration ser-vices are better known (Evernote and Basecamp come to mind), but Asana feels more intuitive to use and has a shorter learning curve. Consider it if you need to transition team members away from email and sticky notes.

Digital tools can certainly lighten the load, but sometimes the best tools are found in the real world, not on the screen in front of you. Christy Lamagna, founder, president and chief strategist of Strategic Meetings & Events, shared several of her secrets for working more effectively

1. MAKE PAPER LISTS. Without them I would be adrift. I use an 8 x 11-inch notepad as my mouse pad and keep track of things that run through my head, come up on calls, etc., and jot them down.

2. CLEAR YOUR TO-DO LIST EACH DAY. At the end of each day I strive to have my list com-plete. Anything not complete gets transferred to the next days page. The goal is to start each day with as clean a sheet of paper as possible.

3. ZERO IN ON YOUR MOST DIFFICULT TASK. Doing the hardest thing first when I sit down each day is also key.

4. FOCUS ON THE FLAME. I have a candle lit in my office. The scent is relaxing. When I need to either refocus, search for an idea or exhale, staring at the flame helps me reset.

Personal productivity: Write it down, get it done, and find your focus


What is Sustainability?

The Green Meeting Industry Council promotes the perspective that sustainability, and the demands it places on our society and industry to achieve it, requires us all to be part of the solution, even with the number of challenges we face. By working together, we can create sustainability and sustainable development in the framework of our events, and in our communities.

As a baseline, sustainability requires that we source materials that fuel our society, and our events, in ways that are both ecologically and socially responsible. To achieve sustainability, GMIC believes that real leadership and a passionate effort to share knowledge will result in the increased profits, improved brand values, healthier communities, a productive environment and the gift of a good conscience for all.

Align yourself and your organization with GMIC and join our team of global leaders in sustainability. Click to join today.

GMICglobal.org

Green Meeting Industry Council 1827 Powers Ferry Road, Building 14, Suite 100 Atlanta, Georgia 30339

GMIC Ad_PYM2015-i1 d fp.pdf 1 4/30/15 4:13 PM

DYNAMIC DESTINATIONSOn the following pages, we profile select American destinations, offering highlights and insights about how these locations can enhance your meetings. Weve spoken with meeting planners, CVB representatives and local experts to bring you the best of what each city has to offer. For more extensive coverage of national and international destinations, visit planyourmeetings.com/destinations. Need help finding a venue? Go to planyourmeetings.com/RFI.

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All guides by Kristi Casey Sanders except Monterey (Monterey CVB); Kerrville (Therra Gwyn-Jaramillo); Colorado Springs, Richardson, Charleston & College Park (Janet Roberts); Peachtree City & Douglasville (Laura Raines).


CALIFORNIAPYM 2015 | PLANYOURMEETINGS.COM036

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOWSilicon Valley isnt just a place,

its a culture that emphasizes forward thinking and has developed much of the cutting-edge technology we enjoy today. The area is a collection of Northern California communities that stretch from just south of San Francisco to the southern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and inland across the San Francisco Bay from Fremont and Newark to San Jose. San Mateo County encompasses some of those same areas and stretches even further south. Airports include Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), Oakland International Airport (OAK) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Major meeting venues, destination resorts and conference hotels tend to be a short drive from San Francisco. T

plan your meetings magazine volume 20 issue 2 2015-16

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