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We have a new look and format. We still have same voice and will continue to give you provocative content.

Please be patient with us as we tweak our new look and format. More changes coming your way.

When was the last time you visited a museum?

Picture from Brooklyn Museum Graffiti Exhibit 2006 source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklyn_museum/212671060/sizes/m/

Nina Simon‘s Complicity, Intimacy, Community post about fostering personal relationships with visitors in small and large spaces brought back a flood of memories of some of my museum experiences. You should read it and then come back here. Go ahead, I’ll be here when you finish.

My Museum Experiences In My Twenties
In my twenties, I had the pleasure of helping Dallas Natural History Museum plan and create some exhibits. I was a docent, trainer and event professional in addition to my day job.  I hosted many weekend sleepovers for groups of 30, 50 and 100 kids in that museum. Yeah, what was I thinking? Actually, it was awesomesauce for sure. Ok, I digress.

I recall one experience of working on an environmental exhibit about garbage, trash and recycling. As a content expert (I was known as the Garbage Guru back then) and educator, my task was to help the designers dream up large, hands-on interactive exhibits. Those exhibits were to serve as focal points that entertained, educated and allowed multiple people to play with them at one time. These were not to be the typical poster or 3-D mannequin exhibits. They were to be participatory to increase memory retention and learning.

Applying Museum Exhibit Design Thoughts To Meetings
During those brainstorming sessions, the museum exhibit designers taught me a lot. I learned about the need to create opportunities for strangers to participate together, create community, develop closeness with one another and foster a sense of a safe place to explore the unknown. Little did I know that these designers were giving me a blueprint for annual conferences meeting, events and tradeshow experiences.

Nina Simon’s blog addresses applying Web 2.0 principles of engagement, networking and community in museum environments. In her recent post she described an exchange with a colleague about her experience in a large museum.

Simon said, “It didn’t require the staff at the front desk remembering her name or building a personal relationship with her. It required a certain kind of place and feeling that visitors manage (mostly) on their own.”

Her point struck a chord with me. As meeting and event professionals, it is our job to facilitate an atmosphere, sometimes in massive venues, that encourages attendees to build personal relationships, and manage complicity and community on their own.

So how do we do that? Practically speaking, how do we foster and encourage community, intimacy and participation in events of 500 to 25,000 people?

Eight Tips To Encourage Complicity, Intimacy And Participation At Your Next Event
Here are eight tips to help you encourage complicity and intimacy among strangers and friends at your next event. Hat tips to Nina Simone for helping me spin some of these too.

1. Set the stage early and often.
Let meeting attendees know how they can participate and what to expect early and often before they arrive onsite. Use email, chats, conference ecommunities, YouTube videos and social networks to share these ideas and set the stage. Start sessions declaring them safe spaces to openly share opinions, ideas and thoughts. Encourage others to join in and share their voice.

2. Seek buy in through agreements and ground rules.
Create and share your own COPA (conference organizer, presenter and attendee) agreement.

3. Become a conduit to experiences.
Ask staff and organization leaders to act as friends, partners and helpers instead of enforcers. Get them to set the tone.

4. Secure community greeters and seed group discussions with facilitators.
Recruit organization or local volunteers to serve as community greeters, encouraging attendees to touch, look with their eyes and ears, talk and reach out to one another. Use facilitators to help ignite small group discussions.

5. Use large open spaces wisely.
Create informal lounges in large open spaces where people can mingle, chat and greet one another comfortably. Benches, couches, groupings of informal seating along with recharge stations are great additions.

6. Encourage tradeshow exhibits that are open and able to serve many at once.
Encourage tradeshow exhibitors to create open spaces that display their products or services in ways that can be used comfortably by large groups of visitors. Hands on, interactive exhibits will attract crowds. Are visitors seen as distracting others from the experience and therefore some are missing out? Or are visitors seen as partners helping others join in the participation?

7.  Invite group play using displays with social objects.
Nina Simon explains that artifacts and social objects foster conversations around attendees’ shared experiences. Create experiences and tradeshow floor events that attract crowds and invite group play. Consider an exhibit of artifacts from the past five, ten or twenty years of the industry. Place flat screens with rotating images in large open spaces near small group lounge areas to spark conversations.

8. Ask presenters to use interactive learning experiences.
You can read more about that here, here and here.

What tips would you add to encourage complicity and participation in conferences and events? How could your encourage group play and use social objects at your next conference or event?

Change is the constant today.

What would happen if conference organizers released information about their annual event and called it a perpetual beta version?

What if a specific number of presentations were not identified and instead were labeled beta and the organizers asked attendees to help them co-create the sessions? What if some of the sessions were labeled with controversial topics with a caveat that the information was in beta? What if some of the beta sessions had pre-reading required that offered diverse viewpoints without any conclusions and instructions that onsite attendees would continue the conversations?

Would you be willing as a meeting professional to relinquish some control and provide a beta conference? Would you as an attendee be willing to participate in a conference format in beta?

Uncertainty Engages The Mind
Think of it like this. Why do you go to a baseball, basketball, football game or other spectator sport? Is it because you know who is going to win? Do you attend because you know what is going to happen each second?

No, you attend because the thrill of uncertainty is enticing. Not knowing is exactly what keeps you glued to your seat and watching. Uncertainty engages the mind.

Reading a great book or watching a suspenseful movie have the same affect. The uncertainty attracts us. Knowing what is next is not as exciting or engaging. (Read more about this process in Order Out Of Choas: Learning To Embrace Uncertainty which was a catalyst for my thoughts about uncertainty engaging the mind.)

Psychotherapist Mel Schwartz compares predictability with uncertainty like this:

• Predictable = certain = already known in advance = no need to really be here = a non-participatory life.
• Uncertainty = not knowing in advance = fully engaged in creating the future event = participatory in our life’s creation.

Which type of conference experience would you like to provide for your attendees? One that offers predictable, non participatory experiences? Or one that offers uncertainty, vitality and the ability for attendees to participate and co-create in engaged experiences?

The Perpetual Beta
Software developers identify their programs as alpha, beta, release candidate or general availability. According to Wikipedia, “Perpetual beta is a term used to describe software or a system which remains at the beta development stage for an extended or even indefinite period of time. It is often used by developers in order to allow them to constantly release new features that might not be fully tested.”

Traditional software companies like Microsoft release new versions of software every couple of years in the general availability phase. Customers don’t see new features until after they’ve been tested in beta format, behind the scenes. Beta versions are limited to employee or a small handpicked group of users outside the company.

Netscape changed the traditional software process and released both beta and general availability versions. Netscape saw its users differently as valued partners, working in tandem to improve the product. They welcomed input, recommendations and suggestions in the beta process so that the users experience was ultimately better.

Google is the perfect example of a company that embraces perpetual beta. Google Search stayed in beta for more than a year. Google Buzz and Google Wave are two examples of products that are released before finished. Their beta versions are continually changing, morphing and improving with the users input.

Conference Learning Is Perpetual Beta
Tim O’Reilly says that the perpetual beta uprising is a core principle of Web 2.0. Here are some of the Web 2.0 beta characteristics he identifies:

• Data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Trusting users as co-developers

 These principles have great implications for conference learning. All learning is co-creation: a process of a learner and an outside agent that impacts the process.

Conference organizers that embrace perpetual beta experiences develop a relationship of mutual self-interest with the attendees. They see attendees as co-creators of the experience, the knowledge and the program. They recognize that information changes, unlearning often needs to occur and that there is always room for improvement.

They invite attendees to help shape the conversation, add their experiences to the content and drive the discussion. They relinquish control of a top-down, hierarchal presentation with only one person in the know treating the rest as not-in-the-know. They harness their collective intelligence of their attendees about specific topics and issues.

Practically Speaking What Does Conference Learning In Perpetual Beta Look Like
Meeting professionals that embrace a perpetual beta experience indentify some umbrella topics, even those that are controversial, and then invite attendees to engage in discourse about these issues at the face-to-face experience. Sessions are labeled with overarching topics and facilitators.

Instead of content matter specialists, event professionals secure experienced facilitators skilled at moderating diverse views. The attendees serve as subject matter experts each with their own experiences and content. Learner outcomes identify the processes used for attendee enrichment, discussion and engagement instead of specific knowledge and skills.

During the session, facilitators help attendees separate facts from emotions, fiction from truth while providing frameworks for them to see new contexts. The session content is unpredictable, in flux as attendees drive and shape the discourse and outcomes.

Conference organizers that embrace perpetual beta experiences give attendees the incentive to participate in an ongoing relationship with them. Beta learning experiences empowers attendees to decide what is good enough and when to say the content is final. The uncertainty of the subject outcome engages attendees’ minds. It invites participation.

What are the consequences of planning and securing conference content six to eight months in advance of the program? What changes would meeting professionals have to embrace in order to implement some perpetual beta conference programming? What are the benefits of producing perpetual beta conferences? How do you feel about the idea?

Still think social media is a fad?

Flowtown created this great graphic about how culture and society is changing with time. Associations, brands and organizations have taken notice of these statistics and some have entered the social space to listen and engage with customers.

Edison Research’s February 2010 Twitter Usage In America: 2010 report shows that:

• 84% of Americans have access to the Internet from any location
• Six in seven homes have broadband Internet access
• Six in ten homes have a home Wi-Fi network
• 42% of Tweeps use Twitter to learn more about products and services.
• 41% provide opinions about products and services
• 31% ask for opinions about products and services 

As you can see from the above data, Twitter is being used for more than talking about what someone had for dinner or what they are currently doing. The conversations are often more substantial and provide value.

These statistics along with Flowtown’s infographic Still Think Social Networking Is Just A Trend present compelling cases for associations and organizations to use Social Media and even Twitter.

What statistics surprised you the most? How is social engagement impacting your organization or business?

On May 11, 2010, I presented a Webinar for KRM Information on Designing Next Generation Conference Education Sessions: Creating an Environment for Informal and Formal Learning in a Digital Age. Update May 13, 2010: Listen to the free recording of the sixty-minute presentation.

As promised, here are the slides from the presentation. Enjoy.

After viewing the slides from the presentation, what questions do you have? What steps can you take to create more participatory and interactive education sessions at your conference and event?

I’m blogging as part of the TSNN blog team. My posts will focus on technology and business processes that help move the needle for growing your show. Here’s my first post.

Photo By Marcos Esperon http://www.flickr.com/photos/77216119@N00/2575811527/

We all know that measuring ROI from tradeshow participation is like painting a moving car. Buyers are at various stages: awareness, consideration, preference and purchase. Often, it takes multiple touches to move buyers closer to purchase. Face-to-face interactions tend to either accelerate or better qualify the buyer’s stage.

Back in the good old days (three – five years ago), buyers primarily evaluated products by walking the tradeshow floor and kicking tires. Today, they do advanced online research and have a more targeted approach to tackling the show floor. They want to use their time as efficiently as possible.

Likewise, exhibitors need proof to justify their investment to participate in your tradeshow. One way to deliver that proof is to arm them with analytics. And analytics from interactive online exhibit listings are extremely powerful, often delivered in real time.

CEIR’s recent report, Power of Exhibitions In the 21st Century: Identify, Discover and Embrace Change from the Point Of View of Young Professionals found that 73% of young professional respondents interviewed (those under 40) created a must-see list of exhibitors before attending the event. Many researched the exhibitors online before attending the event. If that’s not a good enough reason to have an interactive online listing and drive heavy exhibitor adoption of completing their profiles, I don’t know what is.

Here are six best practices for creating an online interactive exhibitor listing that gets eyeballs and delivers ROI:

Read the full post What Is Measured Is Treasured: Why Your Tradeshow Needs Online Booths at TSNN.com

It’s time to flip the bird for your next conference or event.

Not literally. Figuratively.

It’s time to flip the little blue Twitter bird for your next conference by creating a COPA Agreement. An Agreement between the Conference Organizer, Presenter and Attendee (COPA).

Many conference organizers wrestle with the idea of projecting the Twitter stream on the screen behind or beside the presenter during general sessions. This is not a post about why you should or shouldn’t encourage the backchannel use. This post assumes that your audience is texting and tweeting regardless of image magnification of a backchannel. And, it offers some tips on how to encourage good tweetiquette in the process.

Your Grandparent’s Unspoken Presenter-Attendee Agreement
The traditional, old-school, old-guard unspoken presentation agreement looks like this:

• The conference organizers know what’s best for you. Accept it and attend all their events.
• The presentation description, if there is one at all, does not need to match the actual presentation.
• The presenter reserves the right to deliver a different presentation.
• This presentation is about and for the speaker, not you the attendee.
• Sit down.
• Be quite.
• Eyes and face forward, watching the presenter intently. (Actually, looking at the back of the heads in front of you straining to see the presenter.)
• Take notes on paper quietly.
• Don’t speak unless spoken to by the presenter.
• Did we tell you to be quiet?
• Don’t leave until the end of the presentation, regardless if it’s not what you expected.
• Save all questions until the end of the presentation.
• Don’t complain. It cost the organization money, time and labor to set this up for you. Accept it.
• If you must complain, do it in the hallways quietly to your friends.

This implied agreement has served many conference organizers for years. It will continue to serve some conferences in the future.

However, many audiences will no longer tolerate these old-guard agreement tactics. Times and expectations have changed. So the agreement needs to change as well. It’s time to flip the Twitter bird.

Why The COPA Agreement
Some will come to your conferences and expect that the old unspoken agreement is in place. They may become offended if someone else is texting or typing in the computer. They may think heads in computers or focused on smartphone as rude and inappropriate.

As the conference organizer, you need to render the old implied agreement null and void, especially if you are using a backchannel and encouraging social media engagement. Educate your attendees and presenters before they arrive about how you’ve flipped the bird with a new agreement. Follow the same process many savvy speakers use.

Seeking buy-in and permission from an audience at the beginning of a presentation sets the stage for a successful learning environment. It honors both parties and manages expectations. Establishing rapport with attendees, making positive learning suggestions, setting ground rules and boundaries, and selling the benefits of learning and active participation are important aspects of the agreement process. The agreement also builds trust and establishes credibility which are necessary for a productive physiological learning state.

The COPA Agreement also includes texting, tweeting and other social media sharing applications. It can set a tone for the entire conference by managing expectations. You’ll want to promote and educate your new agreement early and often. Invite presenters to incorporate parts or all of the agreement into their presentations as well.

What To Include In Your COPA Agreement
Here are 11 things to include in your COPA Agreement and what to say as a conference organizer or presenter to your attendees.

1. The Law Of Two Feet
If the session’s learning objectives did not match your expectations or at any time you feel the session is not meeting your needs, use your two feet and go to another presentation. As an adult, you have the right to control your learning. The session is for you, the learner. It’s not about the presenter.

2. Texting, tweeting, live blogging welcome.
We encourage you to text, tweet, live blog and share your experiences of the event with your friends and social networks. Here are some examples of the good, better, best ways to tweet from a conference.

3. Good vibrations please.
Turn mobile devices to vibrate and please mute the sound from laptops.

4. Be present. Be active. Use respect.
Please be present and actively participate. Your learning depends upon it. If you’re taking photos of others at a conference, use respect before posting online in social media networks. Obviously, if the group posed for a picture, they are giving their unspoken permission to publish. If they are unaware that you took their picture, ask them before you post it.

5. Take care of your own needs.
You’re an adult and we trust you. If you need to use the restroom, don’t wait for a break. Feel free to leave the room. If you need to take a call, please do so in the hallway. We understand that your business is important and continues whether you are in the office or not.

6. Can we talk? You betcha!
Assume all information is free, public and can be shared unless you’re told differently. We’ll give you something to talk about with your friends and colleagues.

7. Follow the Social Media Sharing Golden Rule: “Tweet unto others as you would have them tweet unto you.”
The same holds true for posting anything in your social networks.

8. Say something good before you say something bad.
We know you may not like everything. Try to focus on the positive first before you start a negative Twitter riot or send a flaming text. If something is said that upsets you, sit on it for a couple minutes before responding. If a few minutes later you still feel the same, post it.

8. The session description and learning objectives are our contracts.
If we break that contract or fail to meet published expectations, tell us.

9. Disagreements and differences are valued and important.
We know that not everyone is going to agree with what is being said. When a presenter says something that you don’t agree with, try to respond with a question asking for clarification. If you know the presenter is sharing outdated information, share your facts. Accuracy is important.

10. Don’t tweet or text anything that you’re not willing to say out loud.
Nuff said!

11. We invite and welcome your feedback and opinion.
Your comments, feedback and opinions are important to us. We may agree to disagree with some of your thoughts and we will always do so openly with respect, authenticity and integrity. We also embrace that we’re all still learning. Thank you for allowing us to learn, fail, and take risks along with you.

Final Thoughts
Establishing some meetings ground rules and protocol is a good way to increase attendees’ engagement, reduce negative risks and expand the rewards for everyone.

What do you think about the 21st Century new COPA agreement? What other items you would add to the list? How do you flip the twitter bird?

Still wondering if your nonprofit or trade association should use social media?

Take a look at some of this recent research and decide for yourself. 

Photo by Balakov, copyright under Creative Commons, http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/4300931777/

1.  400 million people use Facebook with nearly 95 million in the United States. Facebook Statistics 

2.  More than 50% of the active users logon to Facebook daily and more than 35 million update their status daily. Facebook Statistics 

3.  41% of Facebook users promote product fan pages. eMarketer & Morpace 

4.  37% of Facebook users join fan pages for discounts and coupons. eMarketer & Morpace 

5.  Two-thirds of Facebook users are more likely to purchase a product or visit a retailer based on a Facebook friend referral. eMarketer & Morpace 

6.  50% of Hispanic respondents said Facebook was a good tool for researching new products, compared with 46% of Asians, 44% of African-Americans and only 31% of whites. eMarketer & Morpace 

7. Facebook, Twitter and video sharing sites are the most widely used social media channels by nonprofits, at 73%, 56% and 49% respectively. Idealware, Using Social Media To Meet Nonprofit Goals, February 2010 

8. 84% nonprofits surveyed felt blogs were effective at enhancing existing relationships, followed very closely by video-sharing sites at 83%, and Twitter and Facebook at 81% each.Idealware, Using Social Media To Meet Nonprofit Goals, February 2010 

9. When it comes to reaching new potential supporters, most respondents (78%) felt Twitter was effective, followed closely by Facebook and blogs at 76% each, and video sharing sites at 72%. Idealware, Using Social Media To Meet Nonprofit Goals, February 2010 

10. LinkedIn was considered comparatively effective for fundraising just under Facebook and Twitter but lagged in nonprofit support for outreach and enhancing existing relationships. MySpace ranked lowest for fundrasing, outreach and enhancing existing relationships. Idealware, Using Social Media To Meet Nonprofit Goals, February 2010 

Image from The 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study

11. 95% of new media (social media Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) users expect companies or brands to have a presence on those sites. Cone 2009 New Media Study

Cone defines New Media as dialogue among individuals or groups by way of technology-facilitated channels, such as social networks (e.g., Facebook); blogs; microblogs (e.g., Twitter); online games; mobile devices; photo-, audio- and video-sharing sites (e.g., Flickr, iTunes, YouTube); message boards; etc.

12. 89% of new media users expect companies to interact with them in new media.  Cone 2009 New Media Study  

13. Four out of five new media users interact with companies or brands via new media sites and tools.  Cone 2009 New Media Study  

Image from The 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study

14. As of October 2009, a majority of consumers still interact with companies or brands via email (58%) or corporate websites (45%) but a third of all consumers want to interact with companies or brands via social media sites (30%).  Cone 2009 New Media Study  

What’s your experience with nonprofit associations and new media? Why should nonprofits consider using social media?

This article was written (well, ghostwritten by me in collaboration with Dave Lutz) for Dave’s People & Processes column in PCMA’s April edition of Convene.

Every association is faced with a choice: Find ways to capitalize on disruptive technologies — which enable hybrid and virtual meetings — or ignore them at their own risk.

Many planners are concerned that 2-D and 3-D meeting environments or hybrid meetings do not fit their business model and will jeopardize traditional face-to-face events. But most know the rules are changing. Few businesses are escaping the impact of the social Web and disruptive technologies. Those who understand it — and act on new insights to create new business models — are positioned to capture the real value, Value 2.0.

Here are four rules for consideration when seizing the new Value 2.0.

Rule 1: Grab and monetize “The Long Tail” of demand.
Most businesses follow the Pareto Principle, or 80-20 rule. They focus on the 20 percent of their customers who provide 80 percent of their profit or revenue. In his book The Long Tail, Chris Anderson provides examples of organizations (such as Amazon.com and Netflix) that monetize the long tail of demand beyond the 20 percent. Value 2.0 challenges the 80-20 rule with new technologies, such as live streaming and hybrid meetings, lowering the cost of accessing customers and offering a wider selection of goods and services.

Suggestion: View hybrid events and live streaming as a way to reach those who do not attend your face-to-face event — not as siphoning off those who already come.

Rule 2: Your customers value digital content. Do you?
Web 2.0 technologies have enabled new ways to create, share, and consume digital content. Is all of your meeting session content available online? Some organizations record on-site sessions and make them available via digital libraries, creating a revenue stream in a number of ways: with an annual all-you-can-access fee, a pay-per-view option, or offering archived sessions free to members while charging non-members.

Suggestion: Capture your live meeting content and make it available via digital libraries. Make all of your online content easy to consume and share. Provide ways for your customers to become personal curators of your content and create their own content around yours.

Rule 3: Take the plunge! Virtual 2-D and 3-D worlds are real business.
Born in the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) arena, virtual 2-D and 3-D worlds are now one of the hottest areas of Value 2.0. High-tech companies such as Oracle and Cisco have had success conducting major virtual events on those platforms. A number of large production companies are beginning to improve messaging and engagement tactics in virtual and hybrid environments. As a result, the gap between learning outcomes gained through virtual versus face-to-face meetings is quickly shrinking.

Suggestion: Instead of seeing the virtual space as a threat to face-to-face meetings, think of it as the killer app, extending your reach for meetings, education, and training. Creating opportunities for attendees to connect virtually before and/or after the in-person event is another way for both to co-exist.

Rule 4: Embrace your customers.
Today’s Web 2.0 technologies provide a way for you to truly connect with each of your customers in a personal way. Associations need to move beyond community to connections and build real loyalty and value. Social technologies, live streaming, and hybrid meetings lower the relationship barriers and accelerate connections.

Suggestion: In the past, you’ve only truly known your conference and meetings attendees. Now you can nurture and grow even more relationships online. Using social technologies to create intimacy with current customers and let them connect with others to grow your community is truly Value 2.0.

Take Away: Your Move
Meeting professionals have an opportunity to capitalize on emerging market opportunities, create new business models and revenue streams, and grow market share. Now is the time for associations to leverage disruptive technology and secure first-mover advantages with their meetings and events.

On_the_Web: Learn more about business model innovation at Mark W. Johnson’s blog.

This post was reprinted with permission of Convene, the magazine of the Professional Convention Management Association. © 2010 www.pcma.org

Do you view virtual and hybrid meeting tech as disruptive? What other disrupters do you see in the meetings, events and association industrries? How do you plan to use disruptive innovation to your advantage?

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevancy even less.” ~ General Eric Shinseki, 2003

The Chaos Scenario, by Bob Garfield, is about the historic re-ordering of media, marketing and commerce and traditional business triggered by the revolution in digital technology. It explores examples of adaptation to what is literally a new age of human endeavor. It is about the cutting edge, sometimes a laser scalpel and other times a guillotine.

It is, in short, about crawling from the wreckage of the old order to establish a new one.

The digital universe shifted power from the few to the many and altering human behavior, not to mention economies, on a grand scale. The question for business – as well as government, religion, science, politics, academia and every other institution hitherto operated from the top down – is what to do now.

Want more information? Download free chapters from The Chaos Scenario and visit Garfield’s blog. 

How is the Chaos Scenario impacting nonprofit associations?  Traditional annual meetings and conferences? What can conference organizers and association staff learn from this short video and Garfield’s Chaos Scenario? Share your thoughts.