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Dial C-M-P Carol Galle, CMP, who shared a funny story for our Other Duties as Assigned department in January (read it at convn .galle-odaa), sent Convene this note: “My best friend planned a 50th-birth- day party for her husband last week and emailed me to say, ‘Event planning is way too stressful. I can’t imagine how anyone could do this for a living.’ I smiled and, after thinking about it, laughed out loud. This comment is coming from a 911 operator!”

PCMA@LinkedIn: Evaluating the Evals Darlene Cresswell, CEO of Strategic Events Plus, posted this question to mem- bers of the PCMA Global Meetings com- munity: What methods have you used to encourage your attendees to respond to your requests for evaluations of sessions or the event?

Make the user experience as easy as pos- sible! For instance, if you have a mobile app for the event, include a link to a post-event/session survey within the app, allowing your attendees to com- plete the survey then and there. Another possibility is to send a post-event survey from your online registration provider. In this instance, you would need to send the survey to those attendees who regis- tered for the session.

Alex Platia, Senior Associate, Marketing, Cvent

I always find it a challenge to remem- ber exactly what sessions I attended and the details to be able to provide speaker/content feedback a week after the event. The best way is to remind attendees to do it right there in the ses- sion before they leave the room. Also, keeping questions to three to

four max will increase the response rate, compared to … 10 detailed ques- tions. This may sound obvious, but I think the easiest way to provide session feedback is when it’s integrated with the conference app as Alex mentioned.

PCMA.ORG As another option, you could assign

points for providing feedback and an overall prize, like [a] 5-percent discount for next year’s registration. But nothing beats a personal reminder during the session to get attendees to provide feedback.

Bob Vaez, President, EventMobi Believe it or not, we still do it on paper

and get a 75- to 80-percent return rate. Always have; not sure if our group is just compulsive about it or perhaps they think it’s tied to CME. Not sure why, not complaining. BTW, our overall meeting evaluation, which is available on the mobile app and also by email, has about a 30-percent return rate — go figure.

Kathie Niesen, CMP, Education Manager, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

From Convene’s blog For more on the meetings industry, visit our blog at pcmaconvene.com.

THINKING LIKE A PARANOID OPTIMIST When New York Times foreign- affairs columnist Thomas Fried- man, co-author of That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back, spoke on Jan. 16 at Convening Leaders 2013 in Orlando, he recommended to the audience five ways of thinking in order to successfully navigate a globalized, hypercompetitive world:

1 Think like a new immigrant. New immigrants are hungry and passion- ate about opportunities. And all of us, Friedman said, are immigrants in the globally networked world.

2 Think like an artisan. In the pre- industrial world, artisans made one- of-a-kind products, and created them with so much pride that they carved their initials into their work. Do the same: Take so much pride in your work that you want to carve your initials into it at the end of the day.

3 Think like a startup. Never think of yourself as complete. Always be in beta, constantly reinventing and redefining your role and what you bring to the table.

Thomas Friedman in Orlando.

4 PQ + CQ > IQ. A combined pas- sion quotient (PQ) and curiosity quo- tient (CQ) trumps a high intelligence quotient. Brains still matter, but pas- sion and curiosity matter more.

5 Think like a waitress at Perkins pancake house in Minneapolis. When Friedman and a friend had breakfast at his favorite restaurant, an enterprising waitress announced to his friend, “I gave you extra fruit,” as she served his breakfast — and earned a 50-percent tip. No matter what your job is, be entrepreneurial. — Barbara Palmer

Read the full post at convn.org/paranoid -optimist, and an excerpt from That Used to Be Us at convn.org/tom-friedman.

FEBRUARY 2013 PCMA CONVENE

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JACOB SLATON

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