Bob Dean Scott Lash

a sky-high look at innovation and change, with 16 professionals inside and outside the industry weighing in on a simple but sweeping question: “How would you like to see meetings and conventions change, and why?” Well, it’s that time of year again. Only this go-round, we’re addressing change on a

more incremental scale—at the ground level, with profiles of organizations that have innovated, changed, tweaked, or otherwise done something different with their meet- ings over the last year or so. From creating an exhibit of member artwork on the show floor, to bolstering a room block with a raffle-prize campaign, to selecting a host city that best reflects the character of attendees, all of these changes are practical, hands-on, and easily implemented by just about any group.

Positive Signs

NSTA: NATIONAL SCIENCE TEACHER ASSOCIATION 2010 National Conference—March 18–21, Philadelphia www.nsta.org/conferences/2010phi

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NSTA used a few simple, graphic solutions to great effect, including displaying many signs that would have been set up on free-floating easels on a cen-

“What’s Happening at NSTA” wall, updated daily pcma convene December 2010

trally located wall, providing a “nice, affordable area to put everything miscellaneous,”said Lana Ostrander, director of marketing and public relations for Hargrove Inc., NSTA’s gen- eral contractor. Elsewhere at the Pennsylvania Convention Cen- ter, NSTA placed a large, 3-D version of its logo that both highlighted the organization’s visual brand and gave attendees a point of reference. “It became a photo-shoot spot and meeting place,”Ostrander said. “I think especially for international attendees, it’s great to have a photo-shoot space or physical representation of the show.” — Christopher Durso

In our cover story last December, we offered

Innovating Experiences

Creating memorable events doesn’t have to be ‘expensive’ or ‘crazy.’ All it takes, according to PCMA 2011 Convening Lead- ers speakers Bob Dean andScott Lash, is a will- ingness to break with convention.

It’s clear that Bob Dean and Scott Lash share a common perspective. During a recent confer- ence-call interview with Convene, they took turns excitedly finishing each others’ thoughts about designing content for meetings. So it makes sense that together, at PCMA 2011 Convening Leaders in Las Vegas next month, they’ll present a session titled “Optimizing Com- pelling Content.” Lash, a partner and

marketing director for the “think studio” Strate- gicHorizons, and Dean, a senior learning and tal- ent-management execu- tive at Profiling Online, first met in 1998, at StrategicHorizons’ inau- gural thinkAbout confer- ence, at which attendees “explore, share, and interact and network with others leading the way in the Experience Economy.” The two men recon- nected when Dean took part in StrategicHori- zons’ first Certified Experience Economy Expert course. The Experience Econ-

omy is a 1999 book co- authored by Strategic Horizons founders Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore, whose title serves as shorthand for the pair’s worldview that the “experience economy” —having followed agri- culture, industry, and service—is the modern era’s dominant econ- omy, in which “all busi-

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