Social Media and Meet Tweets

Last week I participated in a Twitter chat moderated by our colleague Joan Eisenstodt. This particular discussion was focused on association meetings. Meetings professionals participate in these chats every week by logging in to tweetchat.com using their Twitter account login and password and entering the group name #assnchat. Many use free thirdparty web-based tools to view the activity of their selected groups. The topic a week ago was “how to use social media tools to create communities around individual event agenda items.” The question was driven by the never-ending search for ways to increase interaction among meetings participants as well as registrations and attendance. In the course of an hour, there were about 200 interactions among the 20 or so participants. It was an excellent example of how Twitter and other SM tools can be used to conceive and produce more engaging f2f meetings.

Social media (SM) is a topic enjoying a lot discussion these days. Tools (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) that enable people to connect to form relationships sound perfect for meetings right? Well you better believe it. MCMag.com reports that a majority of respondents used Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to market meetings.

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Our discussion last week revealed that SM tools can and should be used to:

• Brainstorm meeting themes and concepts.
• Check out agenda topics for relevance and buy in.
• Use communications channels that speak to a broader spectrum of prospective attendees.
• Prepare registrants for more productive f2f encounters.

Twitter is easier to experience than it is to explain but it is clearly worth the effort. Knowing how to mine for the good stuff is clearly key. But its potential is becoming more obvious by the minute. A recent article on TechCrunch by Eric Schonfield presents dramatic increases in use and measures of usefulness. The data shows that Twitter readership in up significantly in month over month measures.

With messages limited to 140 characters useful tweets can be seen as the Haiku of social media. Not all Tweeters are artful in conveying usfeful information but you only have to read to find the good ones. For the uninitiated, communities within Twitter are formed in association with keywords identified by the prefix “#” (e.g., #assnchat, #eventprofs). These unique keywords are called hashtags. So anyone can create a community for discussion on a regular basis or on the fly as need occurs. Hashtags can also be used to search and track topical areas of thought and discussion. It’s not hard to see who are the thought leaders in these channels.

If any of this is sounding the least bit mysterious, you should see Lara McCulloch-Carter’s video on how to get involved in Twitter chats with Tweetchat.

BTW, look for our Tweets http://twitter.com/MeetCollab.

John Iwaniec
meetingscollaborative.com

MICE-Works Beta Roll Out

Key representatives of Krisam and Gobal Events Partners were briefed on development progress of MICE-Works. Participants included Chris White, Jim Schultenover, Scott White, Kathleen McDermott, Stacy Tischler, and Jennifer Arthur. A copy of the briefing notes are available in .pdf format here: Corporate Social Networking.

John Iwaniec led the briefing and discussed development progress and direction and did an online walk through of the beta-site. The vision includes establishing the site as a major open-access resource in the Meetings Industry knowledge network.

Farecast – Hotel Search Tool

Farecast is an airline fare comparison site that has released a beta version of its new hotel rate search tool. It presents data on the basis of rate histories for each hotel and is, therefore, able to identify high/low rate scales for hotels in each search universe. The search results indicate whether rates quoted for your selected date range are high/low or average based upon the hotels rate history.

European Business Hotels

Don’t miss the CNBC European Business’ edition on Hotels. In particular, there are two articles worthy of attention by planners working in European markets as well at hoteliers competing for market share there. First is a high level listing of what is reported to be Europe’s 25 top performing business hotels. We have added the Web links to these hotels in the sidebar to the right. Peruse the sites to get a sense of what market leaders are doing with their Web presences to appeal to and support meeting planning (e.g., venue details and photography of meeting spaces within the respective properties). Also, see the discussion on hot trends in European hotels.

City Page – Washington, DC

We’ve begun work on the first of a series of city pages which will serve as repositories of useful information for meetings professionals.  Our staring point is Washington, DC.  Soon to follow will be Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, and Orlando.  Please browse to the page by selecting “Washington, DC” from the “Pages” list in the right-hand sidebar or by going here.

MICE-Works Industry Survey Completed

We have completed a survey of over 350 meetings industry professionals.  You may see the actual survey form here.  If you have a few minutes to answer five questions, please do so.  You may review the survey results here.

We have significantly increased resource links based upon results of this survey.  Please peruse the list in the right-hand sidebar and let us know other links that you find particularly useful.  You can do that in either of two ways.  Contribute to the survey here or leave your comment below.

Meeting Planners Must Manage Growth

Growth in the number, size and budget for meetings impacts planners. Respondents to an MPI study published in its FutureWatch 2007 reflect a picture of expected growth in number of meetings, attendees and overall budgets in 2007. However, there is also an indication that organizations will be focussed on investing in meetings rather than simply spending on meetings. This translates to growing focus on Return On Investment (ROI) and is likely to place more emphasis on planning and implimentation efficiencies.

US Meetings Expenditures Comparison

Data from M&C Magazine 2006 Meeting Market Report (2005 data) reflects comparative meeting spending profiles between associations and corporations.

US Travel Trend

 Data from the Travel Industry Association indicates continued growth in travel since 9/11 reflecting decisions in favor of domestic travel over international choices. This is borne out by findings of the Union of International Associations (UIA). Their analysis of data on international meetings organized and/or sponsored by international organizations reflected a decline in internation travel by such organizations.

Blogging – How to begin? Why?

The first step is the hardest.  Our goal is to identify the reader’s needs in a couple of ways.  We have completed a survey of meetings industry practitioners on the ways in which they use the Web to do  their job.  We will be publishing the results of that survey.   And we will begin feretting resources that respondents said are sometimes hard to find.  We will also present research from time to time that has been completed by us or others for the use of this community.

Think of it as an introduction to a dialogue.  This is our way of priming the well.  The rest is up to the reader.  The objective is to establish a collaborative space in which participants can share needs and experience in a way that becomes a laboratory for creative solutions that are responsive to the meetings community.

Some may feel an initial aversion to adding their voice to this dialogue but the goal is to share experiences that are valuable to others with similar needs. As dialogue builds, the blog becomes an organic knowledge base that is fully searchable. Contributing should be made to be as easy as possible and accessible in every way.  And it is.  Every entry is enabled to record your comments and/or questions.  Communicate freely!