Michael McCurry

About The Author

Michael McCurry is a 30 year veteran of the meetings & events industry. He began his career at the Hyatt Regency O’hare in 1979 as a Front Desk Agent. He eventually joined the Convention Services Department and continued that role at several hotels until joining Conferon (now Experient) in 1985. Michael McCurry Michael McCurry McCurry is currently a Strategic Account Manager with Experient and is responsible for oversight of the relationship between Experient and numerous corporate and association clients. He has been an active member of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) since 1993 and is 2009 President of the Greater Midwest Chapter.

July 19, 2010

Virtual Attendees are Real People Too! – 5 Mistakes with Hybrid Events

By Michael McCurry

Have you ever attended two conferences simultaneously? I have. MPI’s Meet Different in Cancun, Mexico and the Virtual Edge Summit in Santa Clara, CA, without ever leaving my office.

Yes, I am the “Virtual Attendee” and this my perspective on Hybrid events and the problems with them

While I certainly missed the face2face interaction at both events, the experience of navigating two conferences at the same time was very interesting, to say the least.

May 3, 2010

Google Wave For Meetings & Events — An Early Look!

By Michael McCurry

Many of you read my article published on Sunday providing you a first look at the new web 2.0 tool Google Wave. To view that article please click here. I came across a very solid EBook, “The Complete Guide to Google Wave,” written by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash.

March 8, 2010

Learning Lessons from a Hybrid Event Experience – MPI’s #MD10 Conference

By Michael McCurry

About 10 days ago, I wrote an article which, in part, was critical of MPI (Meeting Professionals International) for deciding to charge “non-members” a hefty fee for their Virtual Access Pass (VAP) to the 2010 Meet Different Conference. (occurred in Cancun, Mexico this week)

February 14, 2010

Hybrid Events — Whats All the Buzz?

By Michael McCurry

There has been a lot of discussion in the business world lately about a relatively new genre of events, “hybrid meetings.”

Briefly, the term “Hybrid” refers to an event containing both “Live” and “virtual” components working together. In Wikipedia, the term “hybrid” is defined as “the combination of two or more different things, aimed at achieving a particular objective or goal.”

Over the past couple of months I have participated in several hybrid events, both as a virtual and live participant. From those experiences come the following observations: