Not only is it most beneficial to attend meetings in person, but it’s increasingly the case that the destination — or knowledge center — that hosts conferences and conventions is instrumental in delivering bleeding-edge content. Read Barbara Palmer’s cover and CMP Series story on p. 62.
And speaking of destinations, the 730 veteran meeting planners who participated in the Watkins Research Group’s latest biennial meetings industry survey named the 12 North American cities that deliver what they value most (see p. 26). We’re proud to report that those same respondents said Convene is the industry publication they rely on most
“for information relative to booking large meetings.”
Participating in a conference virtually isn’t as good as being there in person. But it’s much better than missing out entirely.
L
ast month, if I could have backed out of making the two-hour drive to attend the Going Digital 2012 publishing conference without losing my hotel-room charge and registration fee,
I might have. Just the week before, Senior Editor Barbara Palmer and I had been stuck an extra day in Nashville after our Convene Forum ended — waiting for the New York City airports to mop up after Superstorm Sandy’s devastation, sweating out canceled flights, and wor- rying about our loved ones back home. (We were fortunately spared any damage, but read Assistant Editor Sarah Beau- champ’s report on how Sandy ripped through the meetings industry in the metro New York area, on p. 19.) Then, on the day Going Digital
started, I woke up to find my car cov- ered in six inches of snow, courtesy of a nor’easter that added misery to all those still recovering from Sandy. While the snow was only a minor nuisance for me, it topped my “Reasons Why I Should Skip This Conference” mental list, which included fast-approaching deadlines for this very issue of Convene, a sick dog that had kept me up all night, and uncertainty as to whether I would get anything out of going. Which I ended up doing, as much because of the already incurred costs as a sense of responsibil- ity that I represent the industry and need to support meetings. (Silly, I know.) Why the long backstory? Because
had there been a third option — if Going Digital’s sessions had actually been broadcast digitally — I would have stayed home and watched online. Granted, it wouldn’t have been the
same as being there. I wouldn’t have gotten to know a few potentially valu- able contacts in the field of publishing
technology, who may be able to help us chart a new digital strategy for Convene. I would have missed joining fellow attendees for a 7 a.m. walk around Sky- top Lodge’s lake in Pennsylvania’s beau- tiful Pocono Mountains. But I would have probably gotten enough informa- tion to make it worth my while. And in fact the results of our latest
epanel survey on hybrid meetings (p. 127) indicate that planners increasingly are making that third option available, mainly because by adding a virtual com- ponent to their face-to-face events, they expect to expand their audience. We didn’t think to ask how hybrid events might add to the in-person attendee experience. But as Virtual Edge Insti- tute Executive Director Michael Doyle reports in this month’s Online column (p. 45), by broadcasting special educa- tion programs from theater/studio space on their show floors, two events succeeded in drawing on-site traffic. At Convene Forum, Barbara took a
no-cost approach to allowing Sarah and fellow Assistant Editor Katie Kervin — who were keeping the home fires burn- ing back in the office — to join in on the action. She simply logged on to Google+ Hangouts and pointed her laptop in the direction of our speakers (see her blog post on p. 7). Her aim, and ours, was to be inclusive rather than expansive.