MeetingTrack’s Philip Arbuckle pre-ordered 3G versions of the iPad for himself and his staff, he said, “when Apple began taking orders.”
When USMA met at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter last May, the iPad had been on the market for less than two months. But that didn’t stop MeetingTrack Inc., the Kansas City–based meeting and event management company that organized USMA’s conference, from using the all-purpose tablet computer as its primary technology tool. “I’m not always an early adopter,” said MeetingTrack President PhilipW. Arbuckle. “I typically wait a short period for the bugs to get worked out and for others to trail-blaze new uses.” But in this case, Arbuckle felt compelled to be among the first to embrace the iPad because he could so clearly see the benefits for conference management. For starters, MeetingTrack uses the iPads to create a com-
prehensive operations document for each event it manages. Shared with the client and every vendor, the document is the event staff’s primary operating tool. For USMA, MeetingTrack took the document “live” by embedding resources in it through web links. Arbuckle’s team linked a local weather forecast to the meeting’s outdoor functions with the iPad, for example, to display the forecast before and during the event, and helping to determine if they needed to move the event indoors. They also linked the hotel rooming utility report—live from the Marriott Rivercenter—to the agenda, so they could anticipate changes in group size, based on in-house counts. Arbuckle said: “We virtually
eliminated the need for paper lists—which [go] quickly out of date —by accessing the latest information, posted to a website, through our iPads.” MeetingTrack also created an iPad version of planned emergency evacuation routes, which could be displayed and used instantly. Added Arbuckle: “The iPad makes a great flashlight.” Since then, MeetingTrack has continued to rely on iPads, and now
uses mobile meetings-management applications introduced in June by ootoWeb. “We now have fewer reasons to lug our laptops around,” Arbuckle said. “That means lighter luggage, fewer trips to the chiropractor—and a long list of productivity benefits.” —Barbara Palmer
nesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers that engage eachone of them in an inherently personal way.” With Convene, Dean
and Lashdiscussed three ways to make suchmemorable events a reality: theming the experience, planning the stages of the learning experience, and design- ing the signature moment. In a nod to their like-mindedness concerning learning and meeting experiences, what follows is a play- by-play from Dean, with color commentary from Lash, on each of these three key topics.
THEMING THE EXPERIENCE Bob Dean: If you can successfully theme a meeting experience and reinforce that theme in a variety of ways, then the whole meeting will be more memorable. And that’s not easy to do. It takes a lot of conviction and creativity. Scott Lash: It doesn’t have to be Disney, though that’s one genre of theming. For example, every year we come up with a new theme for thinkAbout. This year is thinkAbout Café, because we’re going to be highly [focused on] engaging people in con- versations about their ideas, what they’re doing, and where the experience economy is taking them. Our registration kits
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How are meetings and conventions innovating? Tim McGill, CEO, Hargrove Inc.
“One positive byproduct of the economic crisis is an even greater focus on ROI in the exhibitor community. And planners are responding.
We see big changes on the trade-show floor—
trade-show hours and sponsorship programs—all designed to bring buyers and sellers together in more meaningful ways.”
pcma convene December 2010 ]
are coming in the form of four-pound coffee cans, and will include two coffee mugs, coffee, and tea—everything that an individual needs to have conversations with other potential attendees prior to the event.We look for things to get people out of the normal mode of “Oh,