Working Smarter By Hunter R. Slaton

Take Away

Plug and Play

At PCMA’s first-ever Technology Think Tank, planners got a taste of QR codes, near-field communications, telepresence—and the ‘insane, just sexy factor of having an app.’

Ona gray, rainy,autumnalmorning in mid-Sep- tember, the parti-colored glass exterior of the 551,520-square-foot Palais de congrès de Montréal was a welcome, vibrant sight to attendees at PCMA’s inauguralTechnology ThinkTank. After a reception the night before at The Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, whichwas hosting the group of 22—including meeting planners, suppliers, and PCMA staff — everyone was ready to dig into hands-on learning facilitated byPSAVPresentation Services’ GregVan Dyke, senior vice president of global sales and marketing, and Brian Lagestee, senior vice president of technology. The morning began with breakfast and intro-

ductions. Marc Tremblay, the Palais’ gregarious president and CEO, welcomed attendees and

How about an episodic, event-based app—one geared specifically to a single meeting or conven- tion—versus an ongoing, 365-day app? Donella Evoniuk, senior director of conference

services for the International Society forTechnol- ogy in Education (ISTE), described her group’s thought processwhen choosing what level of app to go with: “What would make the app special, and what would make it be a tool of choice?” In the end, ISTEwentwith a $40,000 apprather than a $5,000 one, because the organization required specific functionality. Nextupwas a demonstration of the Palais’ Cis-

coTelePresence suite, which allows for immersive, life-size, high-def meetings between a growing number of remote locations. The system is truly

“You need to engage with your audience frequently.”

described how the facility was going through a “massive modernization” to prepare for October 2012’sWorld Congress on InformationTechnol- ogy (WCIT)—an eventwhose techneeds are obvi- ously demanding. The day’s first session was a Meetings &

EventsTechnology Showcase, where suppliers at six technology pods educated planners on what was possible at their meetings. Attendees learned aboutQRcodes—which you can generate free at http://bitly.com — and potential accreditation solutions, including RFID and near-field com- munications, or NFC. (SeeTakeAway, at right.) After a break,Van Dyke led a session in which participants were challenged to think critically about the tech tools and applications they’d just learned about.Heasked his audience to consider justwhat their app needs were: Did they need spe- cific functionality, or would anoff-the-shelf appdo?

impressive. It’s almost possible to forget that the people on the other side of the conference table— which cleverly seems to extend into the screen— aren’t physically sitting across from you. In the afternoon, Lagestee hosted a session on hybrid-meeting technologies.“Afew years ago,” Lagestee said, indicating the screens beaming PSAVexecutives into the meeting, “thiswasn’t the best solution for live events. That’s changed.” Van Dyke followed with “Presentation&Par-

ticipation: Engagement Tools for Meaningful Interactions.” “You need to engage with your audience frequently throughout the dialogue,” he said — by displaying pre-screened audience tweets, for example, or using poll responses. And all of these things engage participants evenmore if they’re done via an app.“The insane, just sexy fac- tor of having an app” can’t be discounted, Van Dyke said. “People just love having an app.”

ON_THE_WEB: For more information about the PCMA Technology Think Tank, visit www.pcma.org/ Education/Meetings-and-Events/Think-Tanks.

30 pcma convene November 2011 ILLUSTRATION BY GREG MABLY

NFC Rising According to PCMA Technology Think Tank Meetings & Events Technology Showcase exhibitor Frédéric Laurendeau, MPM, PMP, president of mobile app-maker mPhase, all Black- Berry phones pro- duced going forward will incorporate near- field communica- tions (NFC) technolo- gy — which is what allows “tap to pay” functionality on cer- tain credit cards. Android phones cur- rently have NFC capability, but iPhones do not. It is possible that, in the future, accrediting bodies will accept technologies such as NFC (or RFID) for continuing educa- tion, although they haven’t yet.

Hunter R. Slaton is a senioreditor of Convene.

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