I was recently in Seattle which I consider the a coffee drinker’s heaven since you have a coffee house on every street corner.  When you work 20 hours a day like I have been lately getting ready for my own trade show coming up in October you tend to fall back on coffee to get you headed to point B from point A.

An event I was hoping to make some day is Coffee Fest.   Coffee Fest is currently scheduled to take place in Seattle coming up on September 25 – 27, 2009 at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.  One of the events that I am really interested in is the Latte Art Competition.

For those that are not up to speed with what this is, the competition is described as:

Attendees and exhibitors are invited to watch as top baristas from around the world, the cream of the crop — come to Coffee Fest to strut their artistic and espresso-pulling skills. In this case, beauty counts but only in the cup. Each barista is provided 5 minutes to warm up and another 5 minutes to craft up to three deftly designed drinks. The prettiest crema, decked out with the finest detail and most distinct design wins. Only the cup counts, as all three judges are "blind" – curtained off from the competitors and sheltered by headphones for the course of the competition.

My only question is how I might be the guy that gets to taste the art after it is judged–any ideas?

Tags: Seattle, CoffeeFest, Washington, Washington State Convention & Trade Center

As I indicated earlier I was in Seattle for a conference that is one of the top tech conferences with many geeky types in attendance.  As we geek types do on a regular basis, we spend time on Twitter.  We not only spend time on Twitter we speak to each other often times not only in the same room but sitting at the same table.  In this case, Twitter was going at its usual pace and people were talking between each other in the conference area.  That will set the stage for what was happening.

While the presentation went forward, the speaker, I believe one of the first times he had ever been on stage, began to speed up and then began to lose the crowd.  He was speaking of a topic that was very technical and something that many could not grasp.  He was getting some momentum and began to get passionate and speak faster. Then Twitter exploded, and even my own statement about this speaker needing to be the guy that does my homework.

The organizer at the time saw immediately the comments coming across on Twitter and slowly walked to the stage and refocused the  speaker, asked a question and made him slow down.  He told the speaker to breathe and to throttle it back.  The crowd became refocused and we all settled in to learn some really cool stuff the speaker had to say.  Twitter had saved the day without making a scene or embarrassing the speaker or all of the negative that could have come out of the situation.

Tags: Twitter, Speakers, Conference, Conventions, Presentations

I was at a recent conference in Seattle called "Gnomedex" a technology and conference for geeky technical types.  No I am not considered one of those but I enjoy hanging out with those that make me smarter and this was no exception.  I learned quite a bit of information just sitting and listening to the speakers and talking to people in the hallway.  One of these smarter than I types was Scott Porad.  Scott is the CTO of the popular websites I Can Has Cheezburger?  (the picture here I made at their site) and Failblog.org.  Scott wrote a recent post recapping his own experience at Gnomedex and it was revealing about how we as attendees perceive the value of the face-to-face meetings.  The highlights I would like to talk about are Scott’s perception of meetings:

In my view, there are two reasons to attend an industry conference, regardless of industry:

1. To gain some practical skills or information.  For example, attending a training or sales conference.
2. To develop relationships with industry peers.

And finally he finishes with:

I’ve come to understand in a more personal way the age-old axiom that “it’s not what you know, but who you know”.  At a certain point, business is not a meritocracy–there are lots of smart people with good ideas.  It’s the relationships you have, and the ability to enlist others to support you, that separates the good ideas from the successful ideas.

Most companies don’t encourage their employees to attend industry conferences.  I would encourage you to make an effort to do so, even if you have to pay your own way.  The connections made at events like Gnomedex are worth every penny of the price of admission.

This goes a long way to telling me what some industry professionals are saying when they decide to go to an event and what they are getting out of that event which we need to pay most attention to from a return on investment standpoint.  It is about the relationships made at events.  I have been following Scott for a little while in social networks and reading his blog.  I have not had the connection until we were able to shake hands and actually meet.  This is the biggest return on my investment for being in Seattle and the time and place most of us discount in the long run.  I on the other hand need to garner these relationships and i will continue to attend conferences until they come up with a better way to meet, shake hands, and say hello to a new friend.

Tags: Scott Porad, Conferences, Gnomedex, Seattle, Travel, Conference Costs

I wanted to quickly share with those that are on Twitter, our retweeting function here at Convention Insider.  If you like what you read or you want to share our blog poost with your network of friends, please feel free to use the retweet function on each of these posts.  The retweet button can be pushed and it will automatically open your Twitter account and you can then send out to your network the link to the post.  Feel free to do so!

I am in Seattle this week and I am attending a conference at the Bell Harbor Conference Center.  Enjoy your own convention, conference or trade show!

Tags: Twitter, Tweetmeme, Blogging, Conventions, Trade Shows

I am just now actually sitting on the tarmac here in Salt Lake City wondering why I didn’t pay closer attention to a minor little detail like the dates and schedule for an upcoming event. I am heading to Seattle to attend a conference that was listed as taking place September 20-22, 2009.  Without looking at the schedule or the events that were going to take place those three days I quickly booked a flight for the evening before the event and for a flight out on the last night during the evening.  I looked as I was sitting to get on the plane in Denver at the schedule to see what was the opening sessions in the morning to plan ahead.  To my dismay, the events on the 20th begin at 7:00 p.m. with a Pre-event party.  I don’t mind a party at all believe me, but to advertise that your event is going to be a three day event is somewhat misleading if your only planned activity is a part the night before the event.

Make sure your dates are easy to see and easy to understand.  This is important when attendees are booking for travel, when they are making plans to be at your planned convention or trade show.  It is also just as important when speakers and others are making their schedules for your event.  In my case, I won’t miss any time and will only be out the fee of having to stay a night in a hotel which I would have not had, if I had only paid closer attention to details.  I get to blame the organizers for this since I cold not possibly be the one at fault.

Photo via Irargerich

Tags: Conventions, Trade Show Dates

I always like visiting this city and I spend a lot of time there at conferences at one of my favorite locations, Bell Harbor International Conference Center. I will be headed there again to attend a tech conference next month and look forward to going to Pike Place Market and being in downtown Seattle.  If nothing else I can hardly wait to experience the coffee and seafood I get to have while there.  The Bell Harbor International Conference Center was one of the first places I attended where I truly knew I was in a facility that catered to the technological set.  From their comfortable chairs to their location on the water I knew this was a place to hold a technology event. They state on their site itself:

Guests who book a meeting or event at Bell Harbor will have access to some of the most technologically advanced space on the West Coast. Operated by an expert onsite technology team, our property features full-service state-of-the-art presentation equipment including:

• Built-in rear projection systems in all major conference rooms
• Complimentary high-speed internet access throughout the facility with sufficient bandwidth for hundreds of heavy users and the ability to support thousands of clients with connections up to 100 Mb/s
• IP and ISDN videoconferencing
• Touch-screen presentation control systems
• Soundproof walls, adjustable task-appropriate lighting, satellite down-linking, and electronic polling systems
• Video and audio recording and webcast services available
• An enhanced business center with full-time concierge support for general administrative needs, including photocopying and faxing
• White boards, tackable wall surfaces, analog lines, data ports, ISDN lines, shared lines, and T-1 internet access in each conference room
• The Bay Auditorium with six built-in simultaneous interpretation booths for multiple language needs
• Onsite technology team

I hope to get some pictures while I am there and perhaps I’ll tell you all about that good coffee as well.

Tags: Technology, Trade Shows, Events, Meetings, Seattle, Bell Harbor

I was thinking about traveling to different cities today and the places that I have been and the places I will be going.  I have thought about the restaurants I have been to and some stand out as a place I have to go to again.  I will be headed to Austin soon and when in Austin, I always have to go to the Salt Lick.  Why?  Because it is great BBQ.  Better than anywhere else?  Probably no the best in the world, but definitely a great place to go while in Austin.

That made me think of the idea of a girl in every port, and of course, the rest of the brainstorming I was doing on a post here went you know where in a hand basket.  It did get me thinking about asking you the readers, what is your favorite place to eat when attending your convention or trade show?  I like Charley’s while in Orlando, I had some good Sushi at places in Seattle, Seafood in Boston, and Vegas, well everything I go to in Vegas seems to be good.  What conference do you attend and also attend because of the must have eats?

Tags: Restaurants, Food, Conventions, Trade Shows, BBQ, Orlando, Austin, SXSW

I’m here in Seattle this week presenting at a conference on business blogging. It seems that I have been doing a large amount of traveling recently. This trend continues as it looks like i will be traveling to Miami in December to present on a panel at the IAEE about using social media to promote your trade show or convention. This is becoming a more popular way of promoting conventions, events and trade shows. People are using applications like blogging, YouTube, and other web applications that are consider social media tools. I’ll be talking with other industry leaders in the social media field on the panel to discuss how you can promote a convention or trade show using the tools available. Lots of convention and event planners are scrambling to get the upper hand in getting attendees and exhibitors to learn more about their event and the facilities where there event will be held. It should be a well attended session.

The event in December is well known to industry people involved in conventions and trade shows. The International Association of Exhibitions and Events Expo Expo is set to be held on December 9-11, 2008 in Miami, Florida at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Registration is set to open August 4, 2008. This is one of the largest events or the convention industry and if you decide to go, look me up! I’ll be looking for you too.

I apologize for the scarcity of posts last week as I had a really bad bug that had me wishing that I might be at an end for this world. Luckily, the antibiotics have now kicked in and my lungs are back in my chest and the golf balls I swallowed are no longer cutting off my air supply. In case you haven’t figured it out I had strep and bronchitis and was my whimpering self.

Now that I have had a chance to get back in the saddle, I found a cool blog that is offering to give a code for all of you travel enthusiasts that want to attend a free pass at the Adventure Travel Expo. All you have to do is leave a link of your travel website or of your travel blog and you can get a pass for the expo.

The expo is going to take place at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center on September 13-14, 2008. The web site explains the overview of the event:

The event gathers hundreds of captivating destinations from exotic India to captivating Cayman and exciting, activities: a huge scuba pool, kayak demonstrations, an aerial zip line, a rope adventure course, cultural performers and much more. ATE is THE place to kick off the winter blahs and plan that ultimate vacation.

Sounds like a great event and some dynamite speakers are slated to talk about their trade. This from the press release:

Sponsored by the area’s leading newspapers, The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, organizers will leverage the very lucrative Seattle-Tacoma DMA. ”Seattle is one of the largest media markets in the country with a high income population that is very involved with outdoor and leisure activities,” stated John Golicz, Unicomm’s CEO. “This is a great opportunity for travel marketers to expand market share in Seattle which increasingly serves as a main gateway to the Asia/Pacific region and Canada as well as an emerging market for the Caribbean and Latin America.“

I’ll be in Seattle next week myself giving a presentation and I’ll hopefully get to report from the area and see if I can get an interview with someone perhaps at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.

This is not an endorsement of the best conference venue in the world but it did make me wonder if there exists such a high honor of being known as “best in the world.”  I myself have been to a number of conferences and all of them had pros and cons.  As I read through my RSS feeds today I noticed this headline by Ewan McIntosh, “Probably the best conference venue in the world.”

A bold statement for anyone to claim, but I wondered what made him decide to make that statement.  Here is the post:

What a treat for a blogging conference-goer: free, very fast wifi, electricity on tap, a wide-screen projection for wrap-around presentations and no podiums to get in the way of those tasteful headshots we’ll be capturing and posting to the LIFT08 Flickr feed. They’ve even got headphones for the translation of one of the French presentations and Laurent’s gang have laid on trams for us to get to our Fondue tonight. The best conference in the world? Probably.

Sorry Ewan, I didn’t intend to scrape the post in it’s entirety but it was short and to the point.

His list includes the following points:

• Free and fast Wifi;
• Plenty of electricity;
• Wide scree projection;
• No podiums; and
• Headphones for translations.

The real reason it seems that his opinion states that this is the best conference venue seems to be ease of use and being able to have amenities that work and make it easy for blogging or live reporting.  I hear this often when attending events.  It’s always “How’s the Wifi?”  Is there electricity my battery needs a charge?”  My friend and professional blogger Tris Hussey taught me long ago that when attending a conference, bring your own power strip.  Something I keep in my computer bag now as a staple.  You can make many friends if you are the man with the power.

The best conference venue I have been to in recent memory was the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle after I attended the Blog Business Summit.  They had expensive and comfortable chairs, they had decent Wifi access and the stage and screen was easily seen. 

What is your favorite conference venue.  If you are a conference venue what do you have as amenities?  Can you be someone’s favorite conference venue?  It’s the little things that make a difference.