Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

If the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco looks familiar, it might be because this hotel is in more movies than any other American hotel!

While the outside of the Westin St. Francis is pure Hollywood, the inside is pure vintage.  Tall ceilings, huge elevators covered with brass and carved wood, staircases that just stepped out of a Bette Davis movie. . . Walking into the Westin St. Francis Hotel is like walking into a time machine.  Where else can you find a pink marble staircase?

Make no mistake, though; the venue might appear to be a blast from the past, but it’s one of the most technologically up-to-date venues you’ll ever see.

Each meeting room that I saw was HUGE, and fully equipped with enough electrical outlets for the huge masses of conference participants when I was there.  The building’s WiFi was easily connected and the signals were strong and reliable.  This is of vital importance for almost any kind of conference, convention, trade show, meetup, reunion, wedding, etc.

San Francisco’s famous cable cars stop right outside the door of the Westin St. Francis.  Fisherman’s Wharf and Chinatown are within easy walking distance, too.

Reservations: (800) Westin 1 | General Inquiries: (415) 397-7000 | Meetings, Banquets, &Weddings : (415) 774-0126 | General Sales: (415) 774-0112 | Fax: (415) 774-0124

In the blogging world they say that "Content is King".  in the world of trade shows and conventions I would have to say attendance is the royalty.  My friend and colleague Chris Brogan runs some events that I was able to attend in San Francisco called the Inbound Marketing Summit.  This last show he ran was a little different from what I was used to seeing in our world of social media and marketing.  The event was a lot like speed dating.  The speakers had 20 minutes to give us their knowledge and impart their wisdom and then it was on to the next item.  Those of you like me with ADD, this is the perfect scenario.  Others might not have been keen on the idea.  Mostly the people complaining were speakers as they had 45 minute slide decks they were pushing into a 15 minute slot and trying to get 5 minutes of questions.  This is a new way of doing things and we may see more of that in the future.  I would love to see this event in Dallas and Boston, but for now I have a couple of conflicts.  Thanks Chris for allowing me to attend and keep up the good work!

Tags: Chris Brogan, Inbound Marketing Summit, San Francisco, Events, Conferences

I am writing this from about 35,000 feet as I head back home after being at a conference for the last three days.  The conference itself was held in the hotel where I was actually staying in San Francisco.  I have been to that location before so I knew exactly what to expect when I got there but that is not always the case. I have another event that I will be speaking at this weekend and it is the polar opposite of where I am just leaving. I go from a large metropolitan city like San Francisco, California to a very small town in Southern Colorado called Salida. 

The people I am speaking to are not less important to me but the change in the atmosphere will be very much different. I go from $200 accommodations and dinner that costs $50 a plate to a $50 a night hotel and a $7.99 dinner including the free slice of pie.  I don’t point this all out to make fun of the fact that San Francisco is overpriced or that Salida, Colorado is under priced.  My point is that the people come from a different part of the world and speaking in front of one group will be somewhat different than the other.  The other point is that event planning for each is on opposite sides of the spectrum as well.  San Francisco is planned and dealt with higher prices and more complexities and the event held in Salida is much less complex with fewer things with which to deal.

Knowing your destination is important when planning, when speaking in front of an audience and as a user, an attendee and as a planner.  Get to know where you are headed and remember where you just came from and make note of each. I think I am going to somewhere like paradise soon but that may be discussed soon.  I think I need some sunscreen and a tropical umbrella for my drink as a clue. Where are you headed?  Do you know the culture and what to expect when you get there?

Tags: Salida, Colorado, San Francisco, Travel, Destination, Event Planning

With the economy now going into the tank and the world seeing the new depression, it made me think of the old saw of the title of this post.  Actually I think it was Brother, Can you spare a dime, but you get the drift.  The other part of the title that is memorable is the idea of the Mac.  The world has been buzzing lately about the new Mac notebooks and I myself caught myself paying close attention to the news as it unfolded on Engadget as they live blogged the event as Steve Jobs announced the latest from Apple.  The next event for Apple is the Macworld Conference and Expo put on by IDG. IDG describes the event as:

Macworld Conference & Expo is the world’s most comprehensive Macintosh OS event, showcasing products and services for professionals involved in media and creative content development for corporate and home applications, as well as for consumers using the Mac at home.

The event is scheduled to be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on January 6-9, 2009.  They have a large list of exhibitors that will be showing their wares at the show and it will be again competing with the likes of the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas that same time.

Now about that title.  Apparently, Apple has made the price of a notebook more affordable by lowering the price to below $1,000. For a dime, or actually quite a few dimes I might be able to buy my own Mac notebook soon!

I have been making plans to attend the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco coming up in April 22-25, 2008.  The Web 2.0 Expo is a large web app convention taking place at the Moscone Center West.  Many companies and attendees will be attending this event in its second year.  The first year they indicate on their site that they had 8,500 attendees at the event.  This is an excellent number given that it was in its inaugural year,  The event is hosted by CMP Technologies and O’Reilly Conferences.  The website explains the convention as:

The second Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco takes the pulse of the Web ecosystem and looks to its future, training a spotlight across the Web 2.0 universe to illuminate how the Internet Revolution is being created and delivered. Web 2.0 Expo is for the builders of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists, people who have experiences to share and a passion for learning–the hot new thing, lessons from failures, innovations and inspirations, and the practical applications of all of the above. What will you do with the power of Web 2.0?

I’m trying to get out to the expo in San Francisco so if you plan to attend, please look me up and we can go over notes as to how you and I can change the world using Web 2.0.  Perhaps we can discuss Conventions 2.0?

If you register before March 20, 2008, you save $350 off the registration price. 

The other news about the Web 2.0 Expo is that it intends to also have an event on the East Coast in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center on September 16-19, 2008.  If they can support both a west coast and an east coast conference it will be interesting.  Hopefully they won’t dilute the attendance of their already proven expo.  They have also had an Expo in Berlin and an Expo in Tokyo.  Finally they also hold a conference called the Web 2.0 Summit.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make it to the Expo in San Francisco, and I can report my attendance there.

I have been to many conferences and trade shows and walked through many aisles of events that featured company in their booths and wondered where they had there displays done.  Many of them are elaborate some are just simple banners with a company logo and a person standing in the middle of a booth behind a small podium.

Mike Weimer, pictured left, the owner of Impact Displays commented here on Convention Insider in a previous post, and through that comment I was able to locate his company and see what his services included.  Mike understands the power of the Internet, as his company is one of the first to appear on the market for conventions displays.  Working as a marketing manager in the valley has its rewards.  Something Mike did before he was in the display business.   Mike’s company is Impact Displays.  Mike’s company began in the silicon valley back in the late 80′s as a sign company and then the idea was born to be a display company for trade shows and conventions.  They have never looked back since that time and have become a large supplier of trade show and conventions displays all over the company. 

I asked Mike about how a company based in Santa Clara, California could handle the demand for displays and such all over the country. He taught me a new concept that is a standard for convention centers which is “advanced warehousing”.  This idea allows for companies to drop ship a display booth at a convention center and have it ready to set up in a matter of minutes making it easy for companies to handle the time constraints and demands of a trade show or convention schedule.  This allows companies like FedEx and UPS to deliver the booth right to the show and no worries on the part of the event planner.

Mike’s company is an excellent resource and he was able to show me some links on his site that can help educate the event planners and conference planners out there that might be needing this type of service for the first time.  In fact the picture at right is part of a image that shows how easy pop up displays really are.  For those that want to look for displays and don;t know what is available, you can check out their link to Trade Show Buyers Guide, which can help walk you through what might be the best display for you and for your company.

Mike Weimar has had a number of really large companies that have used his service and he also says he caters the the mom and pop small business as well.  I like their own copy to end our post here. if you want use them, they “look forward to having an “Impact” on your next trade show.”

I was running through my inbox last night and as I scanned the content of a few emails at a time, something caught my eye as it related to some event planning opportunities.  There is a group that I follow and a terrific organization that puts on a convention  each year, and in fact has split the convention into two parts, one being business and the other its flagship event, BlogHer.  The convention I refer to is the folks at BlogHer.org.  I thought I would help them spread the word that there is a need for them to have some event planners nd perhaps if you are looking for an opportunity they have some work:

Speaking of having a full roster…

As you may have heard, in addition to our BlogHer Business event in New York (April) and our Annual Conference in San Francisco (July), we are embarking on our first BlogHer road show — the “Reach Out Tour” in October of 2008.

And we would like a little help from our community.

Specifically, we are looking to hire local event planners to help with some of the on-site conference elements in each of our Tour cities. So, if you have prior professional experience as an event planner and are local to one of our Reach Out Tour stops, please contact Kristy. Don’t forget to include your contact info., relevant background info., and resume.

As a reminder, our Reach Out Tour stops are:
Boston
DC
Greensboro
Nashville
Atlanta
New Orleans

Thanks in advance

I can remember when this group was a small handful of people thinking that it would be cool to put together a conference like this and I’m glad they have made it happen.  If you are an event planner and have a need to get your services noticed, this group is definitely the group to unite yourself with in being noticed.  If you live any any of the cities they are planning their events, give them a line and see if you can help them out.