Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

My colleagues over at Media Bullseye have a post up about conference insurance.  The problem they discuss arose at a conference, or unconference I guess it should be referred to as, had a problem with the number of attendees versus the amount of signed up guests.  The number that signed up was substantially less than those that attended. 

They also  refer to social platform called “The Point” that is helping conference organizers find out if they have enough support to hold their conference.  It is somewhat like an insurance policy.  I can see where this might be a benefit to conference organizers or to the people that support an event through sponsorship.  It really is not a problem for the attendees, so it seems to be a win win.  I am going to keep an eye out for the campaign as it approaches its deadline for raising funds and getting early sign ups for the conference.  As of the date and time of this publication they were at 10% of their goal.

I was reading up on my feeds I missed over the holidays and ran across an article in the 5280 Magazine’s online presence about the Democratic National Convention that is taking place here in Denver.  The blog post goes on to state:

The House of Representatives will vote tonight on a $900 billion plus ominibus spending bill. Thanks to Rep. Diana DeGette, it includes $50 million for security funding for Denver and a like amount for Minneapolis, host cities for the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer. DeGette said she spoke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and things look good for passage.

I am astonished at that amount for security.  The convention itself is scheduled for a total of 4 days. Even my ability at remedial math makes that figure of $12.5M per day.  I can understand the need for security at such an event, but that seems a little high for a budget.  I can certainly see that security is big business and with prices such as that, it seems it may also be pretty lucrative.  I’ll stay tuned to see if that bill is passed.

It was scary.  8 kids 10 years old and younger, flour, butter, sprinkles and frosting.  No this really has nothing to do with a real convention or trade show but it felt like it when we unleashed all of them in my kitchen to decorate Christmas cookies for the holiday.  It was pandemonium at our house as the 2 year old ate frosting as fast as he could, followed by the 3 year old eating sprinkles and red hots. 

I can speak in front of captains of industry, present to employees of Fortune 500 companies, and run my own company, but nothing prepares you for what can transpire in a situation like putting that many children in a kitchen and surround them with the spirit of Christmas and dunk them in sugar.  As they finished, it looked like a war zone or like a path of an F5 tornado had come through leaving green and red and white frosting smudges in its wake.  All in all, it was a harrowing experience but like many situations it was all for the best and what came of the terror, were shining faces, smiles and glee.  We also had a pretty good spread of cookies at the end of the experience.   The photo at left represents those cookies that made it, and of course we had “the pile” that will probably never see a camera.

We here at the Convention Insider and all of the rest at Conventions.net want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and to all others whatever holiday you celebrate in this season, we hope you are safe and happy.  We look forward to being a part of your lives in 2008 and hope you all success and prosperity in the coming new year.

I have a friend I was meeting with last night over drinks tell me that his boss at work wanted to have a submission for a proposal for all of the conventions and trade shows he planned to attend in 2008.  This would then be approved by upper management.  This may seem like busy work to some but to upper management worried about their budgets for the coming year, it is an invaluable resource to have for their planning.  The problem is which conventions and trade shows are available and where do I find the information?

Conventions.net is getting close to rolling out a listing service of all of the available conventions and trade shows, and will have some very cool features to allow people to search for conventions and trade shows within their niche and can find out more information from there.  I can’t wait to see it finished and a part of the site.  I think it will be a very valuable resource for our users.  How many conventions do you attend in a year?  How to you plan for them?  I would like to interview you and see how you accomplish your schedule, so make a comment here so we can talk!

There is not much happening in the world of Conventions and Trade Shows as I type this at 11:00 p.m. in the evening, but I can’t help but think what we have coming up just after the new year.  If you are a technical geek type, the Super Bowl of conventions is right around the corner, the Consumer Electronic Show 2008.  I have a number of friends gearing up for this show because, well, I hang out with technical geeks.  This is one of the biggest shows out there and it is taking place in Las Vegas on January 7-10, 2008.  Only a place like Las Vegas could handle the size of this event.  This conventions will show the latest trends in electronics of all sorts, such as digital products, audio, theater, gaming and home products.  It will be very exciting and I am hoping to make it to the show coming up in a few weeks.  It is fortunate that they have this show after Christmas as if it were before there would be no way that Santa would be able to keep up with the demand for the coolest and latest products.  If you are lucky enough to attend the show in Vegas, and if I get to be a participant, you know me by the kid in a candy store look on my face and the notebook with my handwritten notes and lists of must have electronics and cool technology.  This is just the beginning of the 2008 convention and trade show year, but a great way to kick off 2008.

The IAEE Convention in Las Vegas began Monday, and put on by International Association of Exhibitions and Events.  We only launched Conventions.net and Convention Insider in the first part of September.  Time constraints made us unable to get in on this year’s festivities at the last minute and make the necessary arrangements.  Our intention was to live blog the event to let everyone know what was happening, what was the cool news and the buzz going on for those like myself that could not otherwise be there for the experience. 

I woke this morning knowing that it may have taken a couple of days to get the news out but craving the information about how the Expo Expo 2007 was going.  I quickly jumped into search mode with Google.  I, like many others, get a lot of news from the blogs available and I jumped into Google blog search to find IAEE, and my results were shocking.  I narrowed my search thinking that I only wanted the up to date and most relevant info available within the last week.  As you can see my result returned 3 hits, yes, a measly three total relevant and up to date hits about the largest convention for the convention, trade show and exhibitors out there.  Come to find out at closer look, two of the results revealed they were spam, and the other was an unrelated event.  I decided to do some other searches to get my news.  I tried Expo Expo 2007,  I made my search completely broad and not only with blogs but the entire web and changed my query to Expo Las Vegas, and still nothing.   Those of you attending out in Las Vegas at the 2007 Expo Expo have really missed the boat.  You could have been the only one providing the influential information, and could have been the sole news source for the rest of the people within your industry.  Next year we’ll try to remedy this situation, by being the voice that will provide up to the minute information about the industry and what is happening at Expo Expo 2008!

I’m always on the lookout for convention news or event planning or trade shows related to what is on my mind at the time.  What is on my mind recently is the holidays.  So let’s look at what we find when looking for Holidays and Conventions.  What stood out to me when I looked at the results was something that was put on by the Washington DC Convention and Visitors Authority called Holiday Homecoming.  This site has every holiday covered from Hanukkah, to Kwanzaa and Christmas.  Obviously, being our nation’s capital they have to cover every base, they do well and they have a listing of every type of event known in each area.  They tell you how to get around, and how to plan for the events, and most information you’ll need for the holidays.  Check out the site that Washington DC Convention and Visitors Authority has put together for the holidays.

I knew after a few minutes into the conversation with Arnie Roberts (pictured right) of Smart-reg International  that I was in way over my head as it related to technology and the issues surrounding convention or event registration, and the associated lead generation and lead retrieval, or what Arnie likes to call “Lead Capture”.  There are so many issues related to how registrations are done and how lead retrieval is acquired, that our supposed brief conversation turned into a marathon phone conference and left me with my head spinning with all of the information available.  Think I’m kidding?  We talked about Russian spy stuff and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), copper coils and chips, world economics, and many other very technical and cool James Bond kind of stuff.  After all, Arnie got his start more than 30 years ago in the technology sector working for the American Broadcasting Company in their corporate data center.  Arnie knows data.

I can only describe Smart-reg International in a single word – INNOVATIVE.  Arnie Roberts is truly the leading expert in the area of convention or tradeshow registration.  He is sought after by companies not only locally but also globally to provide information on how best to handle registrations not only online as is the case with many of his other competitors, but also on site which is a unique offering of Smart-reg International.  Smart-reg International has handled conventions or events from as small as 200 attendees up to 92,000 people. I’m not sure how I would carry around 90,000+ business cards, but Arnie’s company offers a simple solution with their technology and innovation.  He has done this in locations here in the US, and in places like Barcelona, Berlin, Singapore and New Delhi to name a few.

Not only do they have the technology in place for handling registration and lead retrieval, they are also innovating ways for convention planners or event planners to do some very interesting things.  They are using RFID as I mentioned above to track attendees and provide invaluable data to organizers.  In addition they are adding significant value to the way conference planners can generate more exhibitors by giving value added benefits to them through new technologies.  The technology that is awaiting approval for its patent is the trademarked “ALL IN THE BADGE” technology.  A very cool badge indeed, and all of the benefits are difficult to list here, but suffice it to say, if I wanted to track my attendees, and generate leads, allow them to purchase products, or handle transactions using a badge, this would be the first place I would stop.  Other technologies the company is looking to offer for conventions or trade shows are Product Locater, Colleague Tracker, Smart Mat, and Refer-a-Friend.  Like I said, these guys are a one stop shop for getting your event on top with all the possible technology to make it a success.  If you can make it out to Las Vegas next week (December 10-12, 2007) for the IAEE’s Annual Meeting and Exhibition, stop by and speak to the folks at Smart-reg International at booth #1006, I know they can dazzle you with their service through the use of their technology.

It seems that I haven’t posted here in weeks, but it has only been days, but I am still behind in bringing things up to date.  You know what they say about excuses?  Well I don’t have much of an excuse for not posting other than I have been given the Super Bug.  I think it has transmogrified into this super bug after mutating and entering my body.  With the number of children I have and being around even more children for the holidays, I think I have been immersed in a germ infested echo chamber that continues to bombard me with bacteria and virus and all other things bad.

I have been to the doctor and finally been given a big dose of penicillin, and have been on it nearly a week now and as I start the road to recovery I will be able to catch up.  I am going to start with a new Friday Feature this week as I have a few interviews lined up for the next few Fridays.  Thanks for the patience and I’ll be posting much more here in the next few days. 

Now if I can get rid of the cough that is breaking my ribs…