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teach our up-and-coming new pro- fessionals to be ethical and consider- ate, and to understand the impor- tance of productive supplier relationships.The center of econom- ic growth and development is chang- ing, population is booming, technol- ogy is expanding, and the number of internationalmeetings is ever increasing. It’s timeto consider that people and businesses are likely to be transitioning to newmodels for doing business. If you can’t learn the new rules

of the game,Mr. Hollan, perhaps it’s time for you to step out! Loretta Lowe,CMP Meeting and Event Planner and Instructor San Francisco State University

PCMA@Linkedin: Going Too Far?

“AREMEETINGPROFESSION- als going too far?” Maria Marsala, CEOof ElevatingYour Business, recently asked onPCMA’s LinkedIn group. She wrote: At the last two conferences

where I’ve spoken, I’ve had to learn a new technology for each. I also was told to not bring any papers into the program with me, as the conference had gone paperless. The first time I complied—but only one person downloaded the notes from the website and printed them prior to the event.Abig section ofmy training was missing because no one had completed the assessment. I will never allow that to happen again. I tried to think onmyfeet, and

provided the group withsome of the questions during the session, but a really interesting conversation betweenmeand the participants just didn’t take place. Seems tome, as a speaker, that someorganizations are going too far with the concept of going paperless—to the detriment of the audience and speaker. Recently, Iwas told to putmy

assessment on a polling program. I watched the polling program’s video

6 pcmaconvene June 2011

direction. Consideringwhat I learned, itwould takemenearly 30 minutes to have the assessmentcompleted by the group. I have 90 minutes to talk. What areyour thoughts? Are

planners going too far in telling speakershowthey canspeak?Will futuremeetings only befor thosewho are technology-oriented? Here are two of the responses that Marsala received:

I’VE BEEN SPEAKINGATAND attending conferences for 25 years. I see both sides of the paperless thing. It can be an awful waste when there are way too many leftover work- books, and it’s a lot less work and cost to go paperless. Having transi- tioned from trainer to speaker, I found a huge difference in the expectations of printed content. Planners don’t “get” using a hand- out to supplement a presentation much. The fallback seems to be using the slides as handouts with room for notes. I’ve tried all kinds of variations.

It just depends on what the audience’s expectations are.You just have to be flexible, go with the parameters, and deliver as much value as possible. Phil Bruno President Treat ’em Right Seminars

ITHINKIT ISGOODTOSHOW sensitivity to paper waste, but hand- outs are sometimes necessary. One of thesolutions that weprovideis the ability to send a presentation to an attendee directly by either texting a five- to six-digit number or scan- ning aQRcode.You instantly receive the document in your email in a PDF format. Another technolo- gy enables the audience to text their questions to you so you can review them at the end of a presentation, or you can even poll the audience. Andrew Janosick Vice President of Sales Proforma Executive Business Services

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Mary Lynn Novelli, CMP (AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central and South America, Carribbean) Dallas, TX; phone: (312) 423-7212; fax: (469) 574-5590; e-mail: mnovelli@pcma.org

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Ken Torres (Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central andSouth America, Caribbean) P.O. Box 9128, Miramar Beach, FL 32550; phone: (850) 837-5177; fax: (850) 837-5277; e-mail: ktorres@pcma.org

MANAGER, PRODUCTION & CIRCULATION Keisha Reed, (312) 423-7246

PCMA OFFICERS CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Susan R. Katz, True Value Company

CHAIR-ELECT Kent E. Allaway, CEM, CMP, Produce Marketing Association

SECRETARY-TREASURER Johnnie C. White, CMP, Cardiovascular Research Foundation

IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR Kati S. Quigley, CMP, Microsoft Corporation

PCMA DIRECTORS Willie L. Benjamin II, International Reading Association

Hunter Clemens, CMP, Association Management Group/Meetings Management Laurie Fitzgerald, CMP, Allstate Insurance Company Ben Goedegebuure, Scottish Exhibition + Conference Centre James S. Goodman, CMP, American Dental Association Richard B. Green, Marriott International Mary Pat Heftman, National Restaurant Association Christine Klein, CMP, Talley Management Group Inc. Raymond J. Kopcinski, CMP, Million Dollar RoundTable Carrie Freeman Parsons, Freeman William F. Reed, CMP, Experient Inc. James E. Rooney, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Randall Tanaka, Hawaii Convention Center ChristopherWehking, CMP, American Society of Anesthesiologists DonWelsh, Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau

David L.Williams, CMP, International Association for Energy Economics

The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of PCMA.

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