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There’s science to back it up.

Edward Glaeser, in his book Triumph of the City, cites a University of Michigan study in which researchers organized groups of people and asked them to play a game requiring cooperation.  The researchers organized one set of groups that played the game face to face; and another set of groups that played by communicating electronically.

The face-to-face groups thrived; the e-groups collapsed.

Togetherness magnifies people’s strengths, Glaeser concludes.

That’s why companies located in the geographic center of their industries are more productive; why workers who live in cities see their wages grow faster than others’; and why inventors are inspired by other inventors who live in the same community.  And it’s why, far from failing in the Internet Era, cities are blossoming.

“Humans communicate best when they are physically brought togther,” Glaeser says.

Wired columnist Jonah Lehrer points to a second study by Harvard Medical School that asked whether physical proximity affects the quality of scientific research.

The researchers analyzed 35,000 peer-reviewed papers, mapping the location of every co-author.  The results showed that, when co-authors were located close together, their papers tended to be of the highest quality (as measured by the number of subsequent citations).

“For whatever reason, electronic interactions are not (at least not yet) a substitute for the real world,” writes Lehrer.

“Our most important new ideas typically don’t arrive on a screen.  Rather, they emerge from idle conversation, from too many people sharing the same space.”

(Photo by statianzo)

Frost & Sullivan, a growth consulting business, reported in April 2010 that a survey of 1,500 employees found that almost 2/3 used social media for work, and almost ¾ used it for personal reasons. Social media is a powerful tool to use to get the word out about your webinar.

Before the Webinar

1. Tweet your webinar’s details about two weeks beforehand. Invite your followers to tweet questions using a specific hash tag. Watch the conversation around the hash tag, and respond to people’s questions for more information. Tweet about the webinar every day before it takes place. When people register for your webinar, ask them to provide their Twitter name so that you can see what they’re saying about your organization and the webinar.

2. Post the specifics of the webinar on your company’s Facebook page once per day for two weeks beforehand. Link to the registration page in your post. Invite presenters and company employees to spread the word about the event as well. Encourage your LinkedIn network to spread the word, too. Briefly discuss the webinar in your company’s blog as well to give readers an idea of what topics you will cover. Flyte, an internet marketing and web design firm in Portland, Maine suggests offering discounts to people who “like” your Facebook page for the webinar.

Larry Chase of Web Digest for Marketers says that it is important to continue marketing your webinar even if you reach the limit of registrants for your webinar as about 50 percent of them will not attend. Chase also suggests sending reminders before the webinar to remind people when it is and how to log in.

During the Webinar

3. During the webinar, give participants the Twitter hash tag so that they can tweet about the event. Encourage them to use the hash tag in emails you send before and after the event, too. Give a company employee the task of monitoring tweets so that they can help participants with questions. If attendees have good ideas or information, ask the person to retweet it.

4. Assign another employee to tweet during the event and to update the Facebook and LinkedIn pages. The audience will remain engaged in the conversation when you provide new ideas and thoughts during the webinar. Mike Volpe of Marketing with Mike suggests that you answer all technical aspects of how to use software during the webinar in the first few minutes of the webinar. You might use social media to give pointers on how to reduce echo, ask questions or invite other participants during the webinar.

After the Webinar

5. Upload your recording to YouTube or Vimeo, to your website and your Facebook page. Another option is to put the presentation on a site like Slideshare. Put a registration page in front of the webinar on your website so that you can identify possible future customers who will use their business credit card to purchase your products or services.

6. Tell participants to continue using the webinar hash tag in their Twitter conversations after the webinar. Read comments and questions about the webinar on Twitter, and respond to them quickly. Tell people via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and any other social media platforms you use where they can find the recording of the webinar. Encourage them to talk about it, to contact you with questions and ideas and to share it with their colleagues.

Daniela Baker, social media advocate with CreditDonkey says, as you monitor conversations on your different profile pages, take note of what people are talking about. Create groups and hash tags about those topics to keep your audience engaged long after the webinar ends.

(Photo by rmburns)

Recently, he agreed to answer five questions on important event industry trends.  You can read his answers to my first two questions here.  These are the final three questions I asked, along with David’s answers.

Are there any trends taking place that you consider bad for events?

Fear of Feedback

Are boring or ineffective events death? Did your event run its course?
Boring events have been bad since the beginning of time. But now we have the technology to find out soon and make adjustments. So why do they still occur? People don’t want to know when their event is a failure. Dwindling attendance is the ultimate vote, but do you have to wait until next year or your next event to know that your event was a failure? I think fear of getting feedback is still a major trend that we are not seeing effectively addressed.

When planners don’ t recognize that something is failing, when attendance is down year after year, it is a sign that something has to be done. With all the tools of feedback in today’ s world it is easy to do that kind of analysis. Events evolve, times evolve, and the needs of your audiences evolve.

Over-Dependence On Technology

I feel that a dependence on technology is really bad for events. Events are about storytelling, flow, pace, social engineering and numerology. The brain works more emotionally rather than logically and events have got to create that managed serendipity that make events magical.

Don’t Be Too Big For Your Britches

The past controversy over the caterer not showing up for the premiere of a major motion picture pointed out to me that it is important for event planners not to get too big for their britches.  Attention to all of the details makes it imperative that someone is watching at all times.  Unlike other businesses, you can’t just plan something on the spreadsheet and it will happen in the event world. Someone actually has to go to the meeting with the entire team to make sure that everything is working properly.

If someone has too many events and cannot focus on the event that he has in front of him then it usually will not be successful. All attention has to be put on the event at hand.  Doing the day-to-day grunt work, no matter how  high up the ladder you are is still as important as ever.  Checking with the caterer to make sure he has t the  right date  is not above any of us.

What new technology or tools should event professionals be keeping an eye on?

Business Gaming

Business gaming allows organizations to move from tell to show and experience. Just the high-level simulation tools used in business gaming are so sophisticated that even the military can be using games that business organizations are using. People have to realize that usually things don’ t work out the way you plan.

You can plan as much as you want in business and still not be prepared for unexpected circumstances. Business games allow organizations to test how workers deal with issues under pressure. It is much better to do it in a business setting for practice rather than with real customers. What is also very cool about business games is the ability to measure absolutely everything that someone does and to see how their workforce stacks up.

Presentation and Story Telling Tools

Is PowerPoint dead? How do we engage people by combining words, video, photos, in a seamless way to tell the story to get the point across, to learn about a new thing, to influence, or to just entertain.

I have frequently use PREZI as a very effective way to combine video, words, and pictures to improve my storytelling.

With all the change that is occurring right now, what is the best way for event professionals to stay on top of things?

I saw a great Ted talk recently where the speaker talked about understanding the why as opposed to the what. It’s important that we understand why humans gather in order to do our jobs. Learning everything about the motivation of gatherings, their connection to how the brain works, and how they inspire people to make change is critical to our understanding of what we do. I see the why of what are are, in effect, managing: the 21st century town squares of our society.

It is important to understand logistics of planning an event as a given. Those things should be done with the highest level of integrity that is humanly possible.

They should be done always with an eye to how to innovate to make them even better. We also get better at it the more we do it. And the way to get better at it is to talk to people to find out how they do it. So it fits into my premise as to why I started BizBash. This is an industry that it is not easy to peak over the fence to see what other people are doing.

Look Outside the best event planners I’ve ever seen are people that are not from the industry. They are the architects, the decorators, the product designers, the furniture designers, and others who have a knack for understanding how things should fit together the best possible way. I say read read read watch watch watch talk talk talk be interested in everything. We are programmers of human interaction and most of all have to be observant.

Also it’s important to get technical.  During every holiday one thing that I like to do is learn a new program so I can really understand it. For example learning WordPress gave me a complete sense of how the world is going in terms of communicating online and integrating the past that can be done so that I can now communicate fast via video words and photographs and can edit down things on YouTube.

I use a program called Nova for mind mapping which has helped me tremendously in thinking out a project and seeing that it may be so big that it’ s not worth doing.

I am using Merlin to do project management. It integrates directly from the Nova mind mapping software to figure out projects and to actually plan the more effectively.

Listening is the skill that needs to be strengthened in all of us. With all the collaboration tools out there many times we just don’ t listen. The strength of group ideas empowers everyone.

I recently asked David to share his thoughts on trends in the industry by answering five questions.  Not surprisingly, his responses were fascinating and full of useful information on what’s coming down the pike. In fact, he gave me enough great content for two posts.  Here are his answers to my first two questions.

What are the major influences causing trends in the events industry today?

Relevance Matters
Keeping events relevant is the biggest trend affecting the event industry today.
People are highly critical and will tell you how they feel immediately. If an event doesn’t serve their needs they will either say it via social media, or they will just never show up again and you may not even know why.

Social media authenticity affects events
Just as in social media, authenticity also rules the day. Sometimes if something is over programmed it does not allow people to communicate with each other.

Old-fashioned social skills need fine tuning
One other area that is influencing events is that people don’t know how to be social. They are fine behind their desk having the power of their anonymity, but put them in front of another person and they may not even have a clue how to behave.

The power of let’s
Another trend that I see is that groups that never were getting together are now getting together. When you look at phenomenons like meetup.com you get a good sense of the organic growth that is actually forming.  According to the CEO of meet up, Scott Heffernan, the number 1 group of people gathering on meet up is made up of “mom’s. When they gather, the number 1 word that is used is let’s.  These gatherings are promoting all sorts of new actions. It is interesting to note that both the tea party and Occupy Wall Street use the meet up technology as  a central organizing opportunity for both.

Learning Affects Everything
When companies like salesforce.com  are creating alternatives to traditional tradeshows like their Dream Force event, it is evident that user groups and customer training are becoming some of the biggest trends in events. Teaching your clients, keeping your clients, and showing the love for your clients create the best insurance policy that an organization can have. That is why you’re seeing user groups of companies with major platforms becoming the central organizing trade shows of their niche.

What positive trends do you see?

Entrepreneur Power
Events are the last bastion of the entrepreneur. The fact that the hospitality layer has already been created makes it easy for entrepreneurs to create events out of nothing and promote to see if they will get any traction. The hospitality layer is the fact that convention centers, hotels, ground transportation, airplanes and restaurants are in place and planners don’t have to think about dealing with infrastructure issues around those elements and can concentrate on the actual gathering of people in a space makes it easier. Think about Burning Man that actually builds an entire city from scratch each year.

Events and meetings are getting strategic
Smarter people are getting involved in the event meeting industry. Executives understand that managing human workforces and gatherings of strategic bases can have huge impact that can be used for positive things. The political world is leading the way on this by combining both online and off-line as well as face-to-face and the longtail to make meetings and events a centerpiece of the strategic opportunity rather than a nice to have.

Understanding the brain
Professional brain researchers like Andrea Sullivan, who are integrating how the brain works with meetings and events work, are propelling the trend of letting “the brain be the brain” in developing a strategy for meetings and events. It is this understanding that is probably going to have the largest impact in how meanings of events actually happen. Their findings will be impacting everything from the physical meeting room, to the presentation tactics, to the food that is served, to the learning aspects.

Permission to talk
Going back to the illustration about meetup.com, building an appropriate time for people to actually just speak to each other without music blaring, distractions from entertainment, or managed environments will give people the space to make the magic happen – just personal communications. Facilitated discussions are still fantastic, but allowing people to take it further is something that cannot be programmed to the nth degree.

Get set
What do you get when you let a small team of driven event peeps (Liz King of Liz King Events, Lindsey Rosenthal of Events For Good and Liz Mazzei of Pogby)  bring together 10 state of the art event technology start-ups, a group of engaged event organizers, a magician for MC (Josh Norris), and mix them with some top notch partners  to add some flavors and colors? Right, a PlannerTech event! First edition on June 9, 2011 in New York, and the second one on December 6 in Washington DC.

Ready?
The concept is pretty easy and straightforward: 10 pitches of 4 minutes each in which the company showcases the product or service. After that there is plenty of time to network and interact with the presenting companies and other attendees. Throughout the event some magical entertainment, and of course time to grab a bite from the offered foodsamples at the foodtrucks.

Action!
With the featured companies, PlannerTech represents a nice blend of tech powered trends that are emerging in the event industry: social, mobile, green and DIY. It’s to be said, for those not familiar with technology it could be a bit intimidating and confusing. A lot of technologies may seem very similar. By looking at them more closely, you’ll discover that they provides solutions for different problems that you (either consciously or subconsciously) might encounter.

My takeaways
The future is now, be part of it! Take your time to study the various solutions and try to get a grasp of how their visions are part of the changing event industry field. They definitely will influence the way you and your colleagues work, but most of all they will replace some of your event planners frustrations by making things less complicated. In fact they’ll help you to make your actual added value as an event planner more visible to your client. By taking a lot of hassle out of the organizing, to let you focus on what you’re supposed to do. So, embrace technology and look at it as a way to make your work more fun. Your customers / attendees certainly will love you for that!

(Photo courtesy of PlannerTech)

Evernote (Free)

Will Evernote isn’t planner-specific, it’s worth mentioning because it is the ultimate archiving/reference material app. It allows you to organize your notes into stackable notebooks as well as well as use tags. While it doesn’t have a native calendar to sort your notes, you can always make notebooks for specific months, projects, or periods of time, and you can also put dates on the tags of your notes. I would still mainly use it for note-keeping as there are better apps out there for scheduling and reminding.

Jorte (Free)

Google has its own Google Calendar app available on every Android, and it runs just fine really; in fact, I used it on my phone for over half a year. However, once I tried out this app called Jorte (also free), I noticed a few tweaks that made my calendar easier to read the events from the month view (rather than having to tap them like in the native Google app) and could even prioritize important events and Google tasks to display in a neat list under the calendar. Since this app is free, I see no reason not to at least try it out; you can always go back to the native Google app if you are for some odd reason disappointed.

Vlingo (free)

While it’s not quite the Siri that you’ll find on the new iPhone 4S, Vlingo is what I would call the next best thing for Android. It can send texts and emails, dial numbers, search the web, find local businesses, get directions, update your Facebook status, and answer questions, all in response to your voice. It even has a car mode for easy access to commands commonly used in a car. And for an app that is constantly increasing its features in development, I am boggled how this is still free.

Super Planner – Event Planning ($9.99)

I will warn you, this app is very expensive; so much so that I did not throw down the cash to test it out. However, I did do extensive research on this app, and for event planners it seems to be worth the money. It offers supreme functionality, giving you price estimates, ideal staging estimates, staffing estimates, and of course food estimates. You may have to do some measurements of your event space (which you should do anyway) and have a good estimate of how many people will be there (which you should anyway), but the app will offer you plenty of advice for how much space you will need and cater advice to what type of event you are planning (dancing involved, full bar, etc.).

Byline:

This is a guest post by Kimberly Wilson. Kimberly is from accredited online colleges, she writes on topics including career, education, student life, college life, home improvement, time management etc.

The following facts taken from two articles in Ode Magazine,  The Power of Strangers by Serena Renner and No Such Thing As A Thing an excerpt from Lynne McTaggart’s book The Bond illustrate a few of the many recent developments and discoveries that directly relate to meetings and events.

1 – Group memberships are up

Though divorce rates may be up, church attendance down, bowling leagues disappearing – group membership as a whole is growing. Approximately 75 percent of Americans belong to some kind of group, compared with 65 percent in 2008 (Pew – The Social Side of the Internet.) This, of course, bodes well for event professionals as groups must come together to meet face to face or virtually.

2 -Most online social network users belong to some sort of group

Approximately 82 percent of online social network users participate in groups (Pew – The Social Side of the Internet) Tell that to your friends who think the internet is creating more socially isolated individuals.  Again and again, online interaction is shown to be a driver for events and meetings.

3 – Since meetup.com launched its site in 2002, 90,000 groups have formed in 118 countries

BizBash CEO David Adler says the proliferation of groups through meetup.com is a significant trend event professionals should monitor. The site allows anyone to form a group online and plan face to face gatherings.

4 – A growing body of evidence indicates belonging to a group leads to significant health benefits

Social networks protect against heart disease, stroke and more. Another fact we can feel good about as event professionals provide the structure for such groups to meet. (Sociologist Len Syme, Columbia Social Isolation Stroke Study)

5 – When we do things in groups we’re able to resist difficulties such as pain that we wouldn’t be able to resist as individuals

An Oxford Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology Study of Oxford rowers showed they experienced significantly greater pain tolerance after group training compared to exercising individually. Researchers concluded that the shared activity of rowing created an increase in endorphin release over that released when individuals practiced rowing alone.

The “we’re-all-in-this-together” feeling is powerful and studies like this help to bolster the case for creating opportunities for individuals to collaborate. Again,  we’re in the business of creating the ideal circumstances for groups to overcome great obstacles and do good.

(Photo by kawwsu29)

That’s why I yelled “YES!” when I literally StumbledUpon a site that compares free apps.

According to the site, “CatchFree is an online service that makes it easy to find the best free solution for anything from streaming music to managing projects online.”

While it doesn’t list every app category under the sun, the categories CatchFree does list can be quite valuable to event professionals.  For instance, are you looking for a way to hold an online meeting or webinar for free?  How about sharing files online or collaborating with others on a project?

The CatchFree site compares apps on a grid listing 10 to 12 features. Hovering over a feature will bring up a box that lists more information including reviews.

CatchFree collects feedback from thousands of real users across a broad range of categories to make comparing and choosing the best free solutions easier.

Have you found a site or app that your fellow event professionals might appreciate?  Don’t be shy. Please share them on the Engage365 community!

(This post was co-written with Jo Kling.)

When it comes to rewarding employees, one popular opinion is that employees prefer to receive cash prizes or incentives. According to conventional wisdom, when presented with cash or say a trip to the Caribbean, employees will opt for the chance to earn additional money.

In today’s challenging economic environment, incentive budgets are coming under increased scrutiny. As a result, the discussion of the benefits of cash versus non-cash rewards is heating up. With organizations grappling with the challenge of doing more with less, planners must be able to justify proposed motivational programs and demonstrate a return on investment.

Meeting planners now have more ammunition when it comes to proposing non-cash prizes and trips for incentives. Recent industry reports indicated that “tangible incentives” – incentives that carry monetary value but are non-cash in nature such as travel or merchandise – are more attractive to employees.

The Incentive Research Foundation and the Incentive Federation issued a report earlier this year examining the impact of various incentives including cash and more non-tangible ones.

According to the report, “Non-cash inducements are actually more effective and therefore, more efficient in capturing an employee’s attention. The current business economy continues to represent challenges for everyone. For program planners looking to make a bigger impact, non-cash tangible awards make better business sense.”

Their report goes on to state that non-cash rewards better capture employees’ interest, motivating them to work harder.

Cash may be more ephemeral than non-tangible prizes such as an incentive trips. For example, employees may feel pressure to use cash prices to pay bills or to address household needs, such as buying a new washing machine. While an immediate need has been met, they might not necessarily have the same sense of accomplishment or excitement afterwards.

Just as employees may be more engaged by non-cash prizes, they may also be more inclined to talk to their friends and family about winning a trip. However, they may not feel comfortable discussing how they earned extra cash at work.

What kinds of non-cash prizes motivate employees?

A study published in The Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management compared cash and non-cash rewards among 45 insurance agents. The agents were divided into three teams during the program with three different incentives – travel, cash and their choice of merchandise.

Travel was the biggest motivator resulting in more sales by the “Travel Team.”

With travel incentives, employees have the opportunity to visit destinations or go on trips they may not have necessarily chose on their own due to budgetary concerns. Travel or incentive trips also hold the potential of creating lasting and meaningful memories.

Cruises are one example of an ideal incentive trip. There are a variety of ships and trips suitable for organizations and companies of all sizes. Interest in cruising is also high in the United States. According to the Cruise Line Industry Association, 36 million Americans indicated that they have an intention to cruise in the next three years.

Incentive trips also provide the opportunity for networking and team building. Outside the pressures of the office, employees have the chance to learn more about their colleagues, strengthen existing relationships and create lasting bounds.

The ideal incentive depends on your employees and company culture. Before selecting an award consider what will best meet your budget, intrigue and inspire your employees and create a fulfilling experience. Don’t be afraid to challenge conventional wisdom – that cash is the prize of choice.

(Photo by Wendy Piersall)