Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

I just recently purchased a new smart phone and I am trying to change from the Blackberry I had to the new Droid X. I am not afforded the luxury of having the iPhone as I am not with their carrier.  I know that many of you also struggle with the technology as it comes out and I know that most users have no idea the capabilities of their phones.  This makes our smart phones for dumb users as I like to tell my wife.  The problem is that the technology is growing faster and faster and we have no way to keep up with what is available in most phones.  We have somewhat of the problem with the Go Go Gadget syndrome, never knowing what is going to pop out next.

I know that most organizers of events are now looking to become more mobile as the technology grows and as we become more sophisticated with using it.  Are you “mobile” yet?  That is the question I get from a number of vendors and suppliers of mobile applications out there.  We are seeing the number of iPhone apps being very difficult to review let alone, even count at this point in the game.  They are growing at a pace nobody can seem to keep up with.  We have the mobile applications section of Conventions.net and I encourage you to take a look at that page and familiarize yourself with what is available.  I have the new Android phone and that also has an applications store and we are now into complete overload as it relates to the application market.  We are now entering into the mobile world and we are seeing many new applications that are related to the event and conventions and conference world.  Are you mobile?  If you are mobile what is your favorite mobile applications?  If you are a mobile applications builder and you have an application for the convention industry please let me know about it!

Editor:  The following is a post that I received as an email from one of our employees at Conventions.net.  I had to post it because it is a classic example of what cool stuff happens between companies and their employees.

I don’t usually write reviews but I want everyone to know how happy I am with Quality Logo Products! I’m getting married soon and I knew I wanted to have some wine glasses personalized with our wedding date and names, so I spent some time researching different promotional products stores. Most of the websites I went to had glasses but they all seemed overpriced or their setup charges were cost prohibitive. I was honestly about to give up when I stumbled upon a coupon code for Quality Logo Products and decided to check them out.
I found some wine glasses I liked right away and got excited when I saw they were in my price range. While I was trying to estimate how much 200 glasses would cost me with shipping, I noticed there was a button that said “Live Help” under the picture of the glasses. I clicked on it because I figured it would be easier for me to just talk to someone from Quality Logo Products, and I’m SO glad I did! My rep, Anthony, was so friendly and he helped me estimate my shipping costs within a couple of minutes. He also gave me other favor suggestions based on the budget I gave him, which was very helpful because that’s how I found the bride and groom stress balls I ended up ordering with the glasses. I saved about $20 with the coupon I found, which also helped! Anthony made me feel at ease with the whole transaction and there was never a point when I was kept out of the loop. He let me see electronic proofs to make sure my wedding info was the way I wanted it, he sent me email updates to let me know when my favors shipped and to let me know my tracking number, and he always emailed me back if I had a question. I can’t imagine what my experience would have been like if I hadn’t found Quality Logo Products!
I just know that our wine glasses and cute stress balls are going to be a huge hit at the reception. The quality is amazing. Much to my surprise, thanks to the special packaging Quality Logo Products uses, not a single wine glass arrived broken – they were all still intact. I can’t wait to give them out! I couldn’t even tell you how many other online stores I searched for wedding favor ideas before I found Quality Logo Products, but I know I’ll never go anywhere else again. I’ve already recommended them to everyone I know and I will continue to do so. Don’t bother with the other promotional products sites: go to QualityLogoProducts.com right now if you know what’s good for you!

In early 2007, I remember sitting in a bar in Austin, Texas and finding all of my friends on Twitter.  I had less than 100 people I was following then and I could remember seeing in real time what they were doing and what they were reading or watching on television or what bar they were buying drinks at in town.  It was very easy to follow along and it was a real cocktail party at that time.  Fast forward now a few years and my personal Twitter account has more than 11,000 followers and I am trying to follow along myself with more than 8,000 people.  Obviously, I cannot follow along with that many people in the real world of Twitter now but I have a good chance to talking with a few of them during the day.

We here at Conventions.net have been on Twitter for a while now and we are integrating other areas of social media here with our blog too.  I think Facebook is soon to be in the offering of places you can have conversations with us.  I will let you know when we get that up and running.  For now, you can follow along with our tweets at the Conventions.net Twitter page.  We will be updating with you what we are doing, will be sending updates about blog postings, and what new and interesting things we find on the Internet.  We are also working on making sure you know the latest news, and of course, we love chatting with you.  Feel free to follow along with us there and we will talk to you soon…or is it Tweet with you soon?

This is the question that everyone should be able to answer in your organization when it comes time to prepare for your event.  If you have people from your organization working in your booth, they need to know why every attendee should show up to your booth.  Is your trade show booth standing out in the crowd? Do you have something new that everyone wants to see?  Perhaps you have the coolest giveaway?  These are just a few of the ideas that would make people want to show up to your trade show booth.

We are in some very competitive times as it relates to business.  There are only so many customers out there in each industry and all of them are looking to get the best product or service for the best deal.  So why should they be doing business with your company7.  That same thing spills over to your trade show booth.  Why should I be visiting your booth?

We have many experts here at Conventions.net in our marketplace that can help you stand out in the crowd, be it a cool exhibit booth, some great promotional products or perhaps it is as simple as getting the right personnel to handle the booth from the presentation side.  All of these can be found on our site.  The question you also need to ask yourself is whether you can afford for people NOT to show up to your booth at the next trade show or convention?

[photo courtesy of UOregon Conference Services]

As you can see from our last couple of months we have been showcasing many of the convention centers around the country and letting you know their offerings and how they might fit into your convention plan. No matter if you are planning a large event or a smaller conference, we want to be seen as the place to come for information. You can find all of the information on any city or center just by looking at the categories we have here, or perhaps making sure to visit Conventions.net for the latest information on any of our locations we have featured there.

I wanted to get back to some of the nuts and bolts of actually going through the planning of a convention, trade show or conference. I have been busy with a few of my own shows, one in Las Vegas in 2009 at BlogWorld & New Media Expo, followed very quickly by the Social Media Business Summit in Hawaii at the [re]Think Hawaii event, and most recently I have been working on the Modern Media Man Summit in Atlanta which will take place in September, 2010.  It seems I have a few plates in the air and have been doing many jobs over the last couple of years.  I am sure this will continue as I think it is a great way to gain experience doing a number of different jobs in different locations.

This week I am going to start talking about some of the things that go on behind the doors or events.  These are the things that might not be the glamorous things that occur and it might not be the things that we like to showcase as owners of events or conference directors or exhibit booth salespersons.  I have met a number of interesting people along the way and want to talk about a few of those as well so stay tuned while I start my brain dump of all the things that go into what I see as convention planning!

[photo via Retronaut]

Yesterday we had some down time here at the Convention Insider as we rearranged the furniture a little in our back side offices.  Well not exactly, we merely switched out blog over to a dedicated server for the purpose of better serving your needs.  If you can tell we are running a little faster here now there is a reason.  We are now back up and running and as you can see from my last post having a blog down did not stop those from commenting as my test worked with flying colors.  The companies with listening software were indeed listening and commented.  Now we get back to regularly, okay so they are not as regular as I would like, scheduled blog postings.

Update:  Just when I thought the problems were over we have some quirks here so be patient if something is going awry on comments or the like.

Update 2:  Feel like we should be playing a theme song from Jeopardy here.

Tags: Conventions.net, Convention Insider

We have been working feverishly here to get the new blog design up and running and getting all of the widgets working and the bells and whistles working and i think we have finally reached the part where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully the light that we are seeing is not a freight train. We will soon be back to our normal operation here providing information commentary and all things conventions and trade shows.

I myself was very busy in January attending the CES convention in Las Vegas and speaking at a conference during that show and finally attending the Affiliate Summit West in the Rio at Las Vegas. I have some stories to tell and some other things to fill in but for now let’s just say I won’t bite off more than I can chew until we get the remaining parts to the puzzle.

As you can see we also have added a feature that will allow you to advertise here on our site and I can certainly help get you on the site, or you can refer to our media kit if you are interested in being a part of this site or the mother site over at Conventions.net. In today’s uncertain economic times we offer a very affordable way to get some exposure for your company or your event, trade show conference, meeting or convention. In the meantime, Happy New Year! I am assured that we can say that for 30 days following the actual new year coming to pass according to Miss Manners.