Working Smarter By Barbara Palmer

Take Away

Binders vs.Tablets

A year after the iPad’s debut, industry professionals are debating a burning question about on-site meeting specs: paper or digital?

WhenRayThackery,avicepresidentatthemeet- ings-technology company ootoWeb, askedmem- bers of the Event Planning & Event Manage- ment LinkedIn groupwhy they were still hanging onto their massive meetings-spec binders at a time when even the military no longer uses paper, some ofthem reacted a bit testily. The question, posed last summer, has drawn

nearly 300 responses, most ofthem extolling the indispensability ofbinders—more than one plan- ner called it a “bible”—and the dangers and inef- ficiencies of relying on technology. But for a grow- ing number ofplanners, iPads and other tablets offer a powerful—not tomention lightweight— on-site alternative to paper. A similar thread on PCMA’s LinkedIn group

Jody Egel, CAE, CMP, meetings manager for

Million Dollar Round Table, an association of financial professionals, chose Dropbox when she used an iPad for a meeting in Singapore this past February—her first time using the tablet for a meeting. Egel organized her documents by convert- ing files to PDFs, sorted both individually and by day, and also saved as one comprehensive docu- ment, all searchable. “Once I opened them in Dropbox onmyiPad,” Egel said, “I opened them in PDF Reader Pro Edition [an inexpensive app]. PDF Reader Pro allows you to search [files] and make notes.” You can go home again. Many planners rec-

ommendedusing Apple’sMobileMe, LogMeIn, or other similar services, which allow users to access

“I’ll never be able togoback toa hard-copy book again.”

has been buzzing with questions and comments from planners about getting maximum perform- ance fromtablets at meetings. Fromthat discussion, and from conversations with planners, Convene gleaned the following tips: Ramp up. Any change in technology takes

time to get used to, so don’t take your iPad out of the box the day before your big meeting.Take time beforehand to familiarize yourself with how it works, and, if possible, pick a small, low-profile meeting for its debut. Store your files in the cloud. Perhaps the key

benefit of digital tools like the iPad is their ability to store large amounts of data. As one meeting planner pointedout, she oftenworksonmore than one meeting at a time, and doesn’t want to carry two or three sets of paper specs at a time. Many iPad-wielding planners store their meeting specs and other documents usingDropbox, a free online file-storage system thatWired magazine called “the iPad’s de facto file system.”

their computer desktops remotely. Egel again: “There were several times where I forgot docu- ments, I would go to LogMeIn and from my iPad, I’d put the document into my Dropbox on mydesktop, and instantly have access to it onmy iPad.”

Prepare for problems.Wireless Internet serv-

ice that is unreliable or inaccessible could be a headache for iPad-dependent planners, our sources agreed. But the issue is something ofa moot point considering that binders can never be connected to the Internet. There’s also the fear of losing data.To mitigate

that possibility at her Singapore meeting, Egel did the equivalent of wearing a belt and sus- penders—she took both a binder and an iPad. “After using the iPad on site, I’ll never be able to go back to a hard-copy book again,” she said. “My hard-copy spec book sat onmy desk in ourmeet- ing office on site the whole week, but I never opened it.”

ON_THE_WEB: The website MeetingApps.combills itself as the first online portal featuring mobile applications for meeting and event professionals. Apps are organized by categories, including meeting management.

30 pcma convene April 2011 ILLUSTRATION BY GREG MABLY

Here Come the Apps Once you take the iPad plunge, you open the door to a universe of business- and meetings-related applications. At least that’s been the expe- rience of early iPad adopter Philip Arbuckle, CMP, CEO, of Meeting Track Inc. Among other

changes, Arbuckle switched from more expensive tele- prompter software to Prompster, an iPad application. “Since we can plug the iPad into a video projector,” Arbuckle said, “we now have another option for teleprompt- ing”— one that not only costs less but is easier touse.

Barbara Palmer is a senior editor of Convene.

Working Smarter is sponsored by PSAV Presentation Services, www.psav.com.