If you can cook an entire meal in 20 minutes -  you can get all your relevant points across in a lecture.

Really look at your content.  Are your points clear and concise?

Can you get your attendees to talk amongst themselves to talk through your main points?  Will the discussion further your learning objectives?

Even if you just CAN NOT cover everything in 20 minutes, STOP, Do something else and then start up again.

Allow people to ask questions.

Allow people to discuss in small or large groups.

Prepare an activity that reinforces what you were talking about.

Just please don’t keep talking for another 20 minutes.

We all have a responsibility to make meetings and events better.  As Calgary event planners we work with speakers on the finer elements of adult learning.  We stress to our speakers to only lecture for 20 minutes at the most without breaking it up with something else.

The “anything but lecture time” can be simple – it might just be a few questions from the audience.  It just has to be a moment when someone else is talking.  It needs to be a change of pace for the audience.  Let them re-group and you’ll find they pay attention to the next 20 minutes a lot better.

What are examples of things you do at the 20 minute moment?  Or do you even wait 20 minutes?

My week was with the “Adult Educator” Seminar Series at Mount Royal University.  Our very first class on Monday morning was set up in a U Shape.  As a conference and event planner I know the reasons to set people up in a variety of shapes (theatre, classroom, boardroom, etc) but we rarely experience being in that shape for an extended period of time.

But here we were, 28 of us, in a great big U.  The empty middle section was quickly used for a group activity to introduce ourselves.  Then it became an area where smaller groups could meet with each other.  We were in our “U” for the first 6 seminars.

Then seminar #7 had us in a traditional classroom format and I found myself resenting it.  Truly, I hated it.  No longer could I see everyone.  Now I had to look at the back of people’s heads.  Now I could also check out.  I knew my instructor couldn’t see me as well.  I think I went to facebook for a while.  I was less engaged.

We know there are better formats than theatre style and sometimes space doesn’t allow us anything else.  And sometimes our audience just doesn’t know better either.  But it’s time we started booking rooms that allow for U’s and allow for more movement.

What shape you do like to be in the most?  Why?

Details Inc. started blogging in 2009 as an opportunity to share information online with people in the event planning industry and friends in our social network. Social media as an event organizing strategy is growing in popularity as more companies are willing to experiment in online and interactive social circles to find what works – and what doesn’t work – for their members. From user conferences and new product announcements to online registrations, meeting planners are starting to better understand and accept social media’s growing role in event organizing.

Facebook is a social networking tool that is popular with conference professionals, and can be customized for specific groups. Through professional fan pages and customized group pages, meeting industry personnel and group members can announce upcoming meetings, register for conferences, or share vital information among those who “like” their page, friends and organization members.

Twitter is often the social space of choice for event organizers to communicate with their group members and send out location, speaker and sponsor information. Members can tweet, re-tweet and post information about meeting plans and share feedback with other followers in their social network.

Social media event platforms, such as Meet Up and Tweet Up, allow planners to communicate in real time and organize gatherings with vast numbers of personnel that have chosen to identify their group affiliation within social networks.

Though there are some Canada event planning companies and conference organizations that remain cautious about implementing social media tools, associations and planners are learning how to navigate this new terrain of social media and many are finding it beneficial for their meeting, convention, and event planning strategies.

Are you or organizations you belong to using social media to promote your meetings or events?  Tell us how it is going and share your stories with us!

For the past 2 years I’ve walked in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer and they were unforgettable experiences.  A scheduling conflict prevents me from walking this year but I also wanted to contribute to more than just “Women’s Cancers”.  There are too many other cancers that don’t have the profile but need the money and the research just as much.

My team decided to have a fundraising party and of course I was the  Calgary event planner behind it.  I groaned and whined a fair bit about it but reflecting on it afterwards I’m amazed.

I have to give a big thank you to Schanks North – but also to Schanks in general.  Holding a fundraiser at Schanks was the SIMPLEST thing ever. 

Schanks fully supports fundraising activities – I knew this from going to a school fundraiser there one year.  So I contacted them with the idea and we were able to secure a date.  Their fundraising package is incredibly well done and really helps groups put together a nice evening.  We were fortunate in selecting an evening that also had a hockey game and a big fight (as well as the Kentucky Derby on earlier in the day).

They put out a little spread of food for minimal cost to our group and weren’t overly concerned with our numbers provided we paid for our guaranteed amount of food.

They have a number of activities at Schanks that you can use to collect more funds.  Plus they accommodated our silent auction and encouraged us to sell the 50/50 tickets to the entire venue.  (Be sure to have your raffle license first though!)

It really couldn’t have been a better evening and all of the staff at Schanks helped to make it a great one.  In the end, our 50+ people that attended help us raise $3050 in the fight against cancer.  Not bad for a little group of people!

Pecha-Kucha 20×20 is an event that began in Toyko in 2003.  The concept is 20 slides for 20 seconds each and presenters talk over their slides.  The slides are on auto-follow so there is no slowing the presentation down.  Presenters have to keep up to their slides.  Each presenter has a total of just over 6 minutes for their presentation.

The concept began as a way for people to show their work in a relaxed way.  And a way that EVERYONE can show their work.  Artists have a chance to quickly demonstrate their portfolio and based on the short presentations, you can have a large number of people showing their work in one event.

Calgary Arts Development has been hosting Pecha Kucha events – you can see them in action at http://vimeo.com/user885490/videos.

The next event in Calgary is on July 16th at the Olympic Plaza Stage.  Click here for more details.

I’ve been looking at the Vancouver events and admiring the collection of people they have coming out to speak.  It’s eclectic and I’m sure fascinating and exciting to have a number of people do dynamic, quick presentations on a variety of topics.

As an audience member you must at least know that if the presentation is boring at least it is less than 7 minutes long!

The Pecha Kucha website answers the question about how it is related to TED.  (www.ted.com)  Their response:

“Many people have said – “oh so you’re like a local TED!” A very nice complement but not quite right! TED is brilliant but very different to PechaKucha. TED is top down, PechaKucha is bottom up! Deanne the hooper, Astrid daughter or Marks mum could not present at TED – but they had awesome stories and creativity to at recent PechaKucha’s”

PechaKucha is trademarked and they allow one event organizer per city to not have people stepping on each other’s events.

But how about we take on the concepts and apply it to our  Calgary event planning and our presentations?  Maybe it isn’t 20 slides in 20 seconds but some other short, concise timing.  It is getting presenters to speak over their slides and to get their messages out in quick sound bites.  We have limited attention spans and our brains really can only take so much information – so give us the main points and combine it with great visuals.

How about at the next conference we have 2 speakers give 15 minute presentations with a maximum of 15 slides (1 slide per minute) and then allow the audience the remaining 30 minutes to discuss amongst themselves?  What would we come up with?  What inspiration could we spark?

Meeting Professionals International is doing

The Travel Alberta Industry Conference was recently named “Best Meeting in Canada” by Meetings and Incentive Travel Magazine. We have been planning this meeting for the past 9 years and are working on year #10.

The finalists were nominated by attendees at the meetings which feels like an extra feather in our cap as it wasn’t just us thinking we did a great job on the meeting but the attendees too.

I think the  Travel Alberta Industry Conference is a fantastic event but I’ve been reflecting on WHY.  What besides the great education, fantastic networking and amazing location make it the best meeting in Canada?  (Although those three qualities are certainly very good ones and ones that we try to achieve at every event we plan).

The answer I’ve come up with is that the team works together amazingly well.  All the suppliers work together to put on the very best event year after year.  And we work together to support the goals of our client.  Having been planning this meeting for 10 years now – it’s like we’re all a family and it shows.  The family effort puts on a great show.  When we go to a planning meeting we help ourselves to coffee and put our dirty dishes into the dishwasher.  It’s not about tidying up after ourselves but a comfort level that we have with a long-term client.

I would encourage everyone to treat their meeting planner as part of the family.  Listen to what we have to say, take our advice.  Family members won’t steer you down a wrong path (okay – some family members might but we like our clients and we won’t let you go down a bad path).    And when hiring a planner (or other supplier) – make sure you hire someone who wants to become part of your family.

As independent meeting planners, often we are hired AFTER a contract with the venue has been signed.  And then we see how what is standard to us as planners is not standard for the hotel to automatically give to other clients.

In Calgary, many meetings and events are planned by people without any training in negotiating with hotels.  When we see these contracts we think “where is this clause?” or “why is this figure so heavily biased towards the hotel?”

I’m looking at a contract with a food and beverage attrition that states that the group is responsible for a minimum number of attendees for all meals.  This is great for the hotel – but not so great for the group that may have a decline in numbers along the planning process or that may realize that not everyone gets up to eat breakfast.

There are other usual concessions that we ask for as planners that help save groups money.  Such as a standard 1 complimentary room for every 40-50 rooms booked.  Even if your group is only 100 people, those 2 rooms might save you the cost of a room for your internal team members.

Professional planners know the best ways to negotiate with hotels and venues and the clauses that are negotiable.   It can only save a group money by bringing a planner into the team at the very beginning and letting us help you choose and contract your venue.

Photo by Robin Kuniski, www.robinkuniski.com

I recently went to a fantastic event at Janice Beaton Fine Cheese here in Calgary.  I must first of all admit that I have a huge addiction to cheese.  And probably because of Janice Beaton I’m becoming more of a refined cheese addict.  No longer will waxy, orange squares suffice.  If I’m going to eat cheese – it darn well better be good.

So Janice Beaton Fine Cheese has opened a grilled cheese counter in their store.  Not only did I go to a launch event, but then I went back a mere 4 days later to get a grilled cheese for lunch (please don’t tell my personal trainer & nutritionist).

These grilled cheese sandwiches are amazing!  Have you ever had gorgonzola  in a grilled cheese?  Try it – delicious!  And pair it with a beautiful zinfindel (not only were they doing grilled cheese tastings but they were pairing it with wine!)  The entire evening took us to a new level of happy.  (For the record it was gorgonzola, procuitto & a red wine fig spread)

Janice Beaton Fine Cheese and the accompanying restaurant also work to buy locally wherever possible and supporting suppliers in our province – this is especially true in Farm.

From an event perspective, I’m always hoping to bring in the Janice Beaton team to do cheese tastings – but now also grilled cheese tastings.  Don’t we all want some comfort food when we are travelling?  What could then be better than gourmet comfort food?

Although, I’ll warn you – you’ll never go back to using waxy, orange cheese in your grilled cheese sandwiches again.

Some other favourite combinations?  Paillot de Cevre, Roasted tomato and Basil Pesto or the Oka Classique, 3 year cheddar, Tomato chili jam and arugula.

Go to Janice Beaton now. Don’t wait – amazing grilled cheese sandwiches are waiting.

• Our MPI Chapter clearly read the article in Biz Bash and provided newspapers for our morning meeting.  I don’t know that they were read but the thought was appreciated.
• The Calgary Marriott is the exclusive caterer for the Convention Centre and had a fantastic breakfast!  When was the last time you had a pancake souffle?
• Bison Benedict – need I say anything more?  Or wait – yes – Bison Benedict on a white cheddar biscuit.  Yummy!
• The panel was informative – unfortunately it is the same message we hear every year.  Our convention centre is fantastic but too small.  Calgary has a hard time competing with other cities because we don’t have the meeting space.  We need leaders to have vision now to develop a better centre – and it’s too bad that we didn’t have leaders with vision 20 years ago.  But the Convention Centre certainly has our support in researching and building new facilities.  Let’s keep the greatness going and growing!

And the thing that really caught my attention???  The parking structure.  I think they might be in the midst of installling this as it didn’t look like all the levels were done….but the parking stalls have little lights above them – a red light and the stall is full and a green light means it is empty.  So you can look up the row and see where the empty spot is!  How brilliant is that?  Especially when you have a choice of turning to go to the lower level or going straight – you can now tell if there is any options open to you going straight!

It’s brilliant – good for the convention centre for installing this!

And back to my thoughts on the Calgary Telus Convention Centre – it’s a wonderful facility.  There are 3 hotels connected to it so you don’t need to go outside on rainy or snowy days.  And the food is great with chefs who are clearly innovative.

Thanks for hosting NMID!

Tomorrow is National Meetings Industry Day (NMID).  In Calgary we are holding a breakfast meeting to mark the occasion and we will hear from a panel within the industry in our city.   We don’t often get recognition of our industry from City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Council – but on National Meetings Industry Day – we do.  We need to stand up for our industry and make our city leaders recognize the value of meetings to the city.    From the NMID website http://www.nmid.ca

NMID is first and most importantly an educational event. This MPI initiative has four objectives:

1. to define and shape the meetings and events profession;
2. to help raise the profile of the meetings industry and the benefits it generates for communities and institutions across Canada;
3. to provide a networking opportunity to learn about and celebrate the role we as members of the industry all play in that regard;
4. to educate chapter industry leaders and enable them to discuss the economic impact of meetings in their region with people who are outside of the industry.

Members from the Canadian Chapters of MPI celebrate with a variety of educational and networking activities focusing on the significance of the Canadian meetings industry and the value of meetings to the broader business community.

This evening I will start teaching Event Production at Mount Royal University.  This is their last class before they do a final project and receive their Event Management Certificate.  I hope to impress upon them the value of this industry, the economic impact of it and that is is truly a profession.

We are not party planners – although we can plan a fantastic party.  We rarely plan it for the sake of just partying.  Because a good event planner will start off with the question “why are you holding this event?”.  And if you don’t have a reason – why spend the money?