News from Houston, Texas (MPI conference)
Posted by maarten.vannest... on February 3, 2008
The MPI conference in Houston is called Meet Different. A lot of novelties are introduced.
maarten.vanneste@meetingsupport.org's blog
Drowning by numbers
Posted by maarten.vannest... on February 2, 2008
The Meeting planner with a focus on the content of meetings has a challenge: the numbers are eating away the focus on content. Imagine a corporate conference of 250 participants: getting all 250 in the room on time and on budget is a lot of work. Providing the right menu including all kinds of special requests and allergies can be overwhelming. To do a good job for 20 participants and spouses is already a lot of work, I know from experience. Making that happen for 250 is close to a full time job for several weeks. These larger participant numbers take so much time and energy to plan logistically, that the content soon floats out of focus. This is normal, even natural and I guess all of us would have the same tendency. How can you work on content when 250 participants are asking you a thousand questions? 250 adult professionals all behaving like children that need to be kept by the hand for even the smallest things. Meeting planners will all testify this can be the case.
Badge2Match
Posted by maarten.vannest... on January 31, 2008
Effective networking is one of the main goals for participants to events. This new technological badge helps them do this with almost normal name badges turned into a smart, easy to use networking tool. The interactive badge is programmed based on the participant’s personal preferences. Whenever a participant is within 8 meters of a person with matching preferences, both their badges will light up in the same color. A relevant person to meet is identified. An interesting conversation can start. To be launched in 2008: more news on www.meetingsupport.org
Meeting Architecture defined
Posted by maarten.vannest... on August 21, 2007
A meeting architect is an individual that focuses on the potential meeting objectives, the meeting formats and designs, and the conceptual and practical building blocks to construct a meeting for better learning, networking and motivation in the participant population. A meeting architect also knows how to measure the meeting results up to its Return on Investment.
The meeting architect works in four phases:
Analysing meeting objectives
Designing the meeting to support these objectives
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