In my business these days there is a notion that Free is the new black.  I am not so sure and I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea that technology and writing and applications that surround that market is all being given away.  Many of the business models are just now figuring out that someone, be it the company or advertisers or others have to pay for the free. 

I am still working on this but I wanted to address it here as well.  I think we are going to start to see this idea of free spill over to other fields and other models.  Is it finding its way to conventions and trade shows?  I have heard tell that people are thinking of giving things away for free and passing on the costs from other areas.  Can you say "free wifi?"  I am hearing of people attending conferences from the comfort of their living room and watching it on their laptop as it is streamed lived to them. is this a new phenomena and will it take hold?  Only time will tell and these are the questions I have been plagued with in my own arena.  Right now I am not working on giving away the cow for free.

Tags: Free Economy, Conventions, Trade Shows

Photo via ephramjames

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to the folks at Pathable that are doing an Events Case Study Webinar tomorrow, or is it today, I have lost track or my time suddenly?  This is a webinar I myself would like to attend because of this one statement:

I’ve seen too many webinars and blog posts that promise to teach me “secrets of social media” but end up saying, in effect “use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, they’re great.” We hope to break this mold on Wednesday, July 1st with a webinar that offers a succinct toolkit for social media and events, with recommendations on what to use, what not to use, when and why, based on case studies and data.

Amen to that and I wish I had the time to check it out.  That is not to say that you should not go over and see if what they have to offer is a good event.  I also think that "webinars" are a good topic of discussion for another time as well.  Webinars are somewhat like virtual conferences.  The virtual convention or conference could be the new black?

Tags: Pathable, Webinar, Events, Case Study

I know that by now all of you have heard of Facebook, and some of the more prominent social networks out there.  I for one use LinkedIn regularly as well and Ning.com and lots of other social networks. Yes, I am a professional, or at least play one on TV.  I wanted alert everyone that might be lurking here or at least those of you that happen by that there is also a social network for you.  Yes, I am speaking about event people on in this case eventpeeps.com. From Canadian Peeps to Trade Show Peeps to even those interested in Twitter Peeps.  Social Networks are the new black and many of you are already a part of it.  I wanted to make sure to give a shout out to the conventions and event industry peeps as well!

Tags: Social Networks, Event Peeps, Facebook, Ning, Twitter, Events, Conventions, Trade Shows

I have been meaning to write this post up for a while now and I have finally had someone push me over the edge to get it up.  The site Comics Worth Reading popped up in my RSS reader and I want to weigh in my own ideas and perhaps get some of your thoughts.  They ask the question that I am sure many planners or conference and convention organizers wrestle with and that is, "Should Press Get in Free to Conventions?" 

I want to take that a step further than that and make it not just "Press" in the more traditional sense, but how about the all encompassing "new media" as well?  This includes Bloggers, Podcasters, Video people, Photographers and every other "citizen journalist" out there.  I won’t get into the entire debate of whether bloggers and their kin are considered journalists as that is for another place and time, but I will say that I believe this is a new problem that is just being considered.  We saw this same issue being raised in the last Presidential election and the democratic national convention and the republican national convention.  Who is considered press?

Simple.  I believe now that everyone should be considered press.  It is up to each of the organizers to decide on the criteria.  If the person is a blogger in your industry and wants a press pass to your event you have to weigh their "social capital" or their "influence".  That can be more difficult to gauge than some but that is what it comes down to in brass tacks.  How much reach or eyeballs and publicity do they bring to the table.  That can be determined and decided upon.

This is not the end of this debate.  With the emergence of new media, we are about to see more issues raised.  I just read yesterday on a friend’s blog about Conferences Needing To Update Their Policies. Even in our own industry of social media we cannot agree on what is right and wrong.  I like Rick Calvert’s (my friend and boss and CEO at Blog World and New Media Expo) comment on that post.  I don’t have the right answer.  I think we are just beginning to see how this is shaping up.  I do think that if you don’t have a policy you need to make one and stick to it.  In my mind, everyone is now a journalist.  Which ones get a free ride to the show is entirely up to you.

Image via Commons.Wikimedia.org

Tags: Press, Press Pass, Conventions, Trade Shows, New Media, Conferences

Does your convention or trade show have a search engine strategy?  I have written about a number of conventions that are coming or that are scheduled and most of them I have found as a result of trade show magazines, or have alerts that come to me or emails or companies that tell us directly about their show through direct mailings and other forms.  The thing that I am curious about is the person that has no idea that you exist.  How are they finding your show?

I am actually writing a blog post on another blog that talks about why people should attend an event in their own industry and if they have a hobby or interest that they love there is probably an event or convention that they can attend.  The one thing that I want to tell them to do to find that event is to go to a convention listing or site like ours at Conventions.net or go to a search engine and find it in their listings.  So how are you listed in the search engines?  If you have no idea, now is the time to panic.  Are you a quilting convention?  Perhaps you are a hunting and outdoor convention.  How do I find you? 

Now that you have an idea of how to find you and how I might find you, what are you doing to insure that your keywords you just used are being fed to the spiders that crawl the site?  If you have no idea what I am talking about, welcome to the party.  If you do and have no idea why your site is not showing up in the Google world we live in, let us know we can give you an idea (yes we are the first result for the word "conventions") and perhaps even help you and give you a hand and a leg up on your competition.

Tags: SEM, SEO, Search, Conventions, Trade Shows, Conferences, Events, Google, MSN, Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com

I have traveled to Chicago recently and had a chance to see McCormick Place up close and personal and I may get yet another chance to speak at an event there coming up in July.  The Association for Exhibit & Event Professionals is coming up on July 21-23, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.

So what exactly is TSEA?  They have been around almost as long as I have which if you ask my daughter is like an eternity.  Their site better describes them:

"Since 1966 the Trade Show Exhibitors Association has provided knowledge to marketing and management professionals who use face to face marketing to promote and sell their products, as well as to those who supply them with products and services. We provide you with: Education, Advocacy, Promotion, Communication, Service, and member only discounts on a variety of products and services. Our programs, services and publications are designed to help you gain the necessary edge in exhibiting success. TSEA is led by a Board of Directors comprised of your professional peers, so you can always be assured that we understand your needs. Our tradeshow knowledge will help enable you to get the best return on your investment when exhibiting.

TSEA works aggressively on behalf of you, the EXHIBITOR, to insure that your rights are being protected and your opinions are not being ignored. We are the VOICE of exhibitors around the globe."

I want to speak about social media there and did the same or similar talk in Miami at the first of the year.  Chicago is a nice town and I like the facilities there at McCormick Place.  I may even get a chance to stay again at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place and that might be the best part.

Tags: TSEA, Chicago, TS2, Hyatt Regency, McCormick Place

I mentioned that I would be helping someone plan an event coming up this fall, and I realized that I am not well versed in a most of the behind the scenes workings of planning a convention or trade show, or even a small event or corporate retreat.  I was then wondering if there was a long list of "convention coaches" out there that can be called upon to give the little advice here and there or people that are veterans in the industry that might be able to help get more information for me on planning the event.  I quickly turned to Google as is the norm for me in any need I have from Chinese food to directions to grandmother’s house, and I found a list of some and a specific Coach that can help me I think.  So how about you?  Are you a coach or advisor? How Can I find you if I had that small question?  If I need just to figure out how to get 400 chairs delivered to a place on Saturday, who do I ask how to get that done?  I can see the "You want it when" comedic cartoons flashing in my head now.  Well, perhaps I need a Convention Superhero.

Actually, if you go to Conventions.net I am sure there is a listing or two of the superhero you are looking for in an event planner or other "coach".

Tags: Convention Assistance, Coaching, Google

Photo via eteamz.com

I have been working with someone to help plan an event that will take place this fall.  The event itself is going to be very nice since the event is going to take place in Hawaii.  I have been to Hawaii last month on an unrelated trip but I was able to get out there and see the lay of the land or perhaps the lay of the islands.  One of the things we are working on for this event is to have it work with many other partners all wanting to be able to have their own communities register from their own social networks.  This will make it necessary to use an online registration service and one of those services was suggested was Eventbrite.  I am thinking I need something more in house but this seems to be a decent option.  Are you a registration aficionado?  What is your favorite?  Can you help me with my event?

Tags: event registration, event planning, registration, eventbrite

I have been on this travel kick this year and I am not normally a huge traveler.  I seem to have been to just about every corner of the United States Map from Miami to New York, to Hawaii and to Seattle.  I look ahead to my schedule and I will be in Chicago and Houston and other cities in the near future.  One thing that most all of my travels have brought me this summer is a new found love of some of the better hotels and services.  These hotels are some the best in the world, and then again I have been in some not so great hotels.  I will be talking more about these as I begin to recap some of my experiences.  One of the things you must do when planning an event or conference or convention be mindful that the hotel where the attendees are staying is probably one of the more important decisions you should consider when thinking about where you hold your event.  When getting a proposal from an event location and their staff make sure you ask questions about nearby hotels and facilities.  I have had some events that turned out bad not because the event itself was bad but because the accommodations where I was staying made the experience bad.

Tags: Hotels, Accomodations, Event Planning, Convention Planning, Conference Planning, Travel

I just wanted to make sure and alert everyone to the fact that we are now launching our hospitality section of the web site at Conventions.net you can find all types of hospitality resources at our page dedicated to the space.  Like the convention and trade show industry we will also be bringing your many resources for your benefit related to the hospitality industry and market.  Another way that Conventions.net is being a thought leader in its ability to bring to your the resources you are looking for on the Internet.  If you would like to advertise or become a  part of the Hospitality Marketplace, please feel free to contact us at Conventions.net.  We will soon be moving the Hospitality Marketplace to its own URL and location at HospitalityMarketplace.net so please follow along with us as we grow our already large database of information.

Tags: Hospitality, Conventions.net, Hospitality Resources, Convention Resources, Hospitality Information