Tales from The Reg Desk

Greening of the Governors' Global Climate Summit

Yes, there were badges involved (well over 1800 of them!), and yes, they were printed on 100% post-consumer content recycled stock using soy inks and green printing processes, and yes, the badgeholders were compostable...but this time we're not posting about attendee management. (Gasp!)

This post is about our passion for sustainability initiatives in our industry, and a little success story we'd like to share about the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles.

AMS's parent company, Genesis Creative Group, was brought in again to manage registration and logistics for the GGCS2, which took place at the Hyatt Recency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.  Your green badge queen was happily put in charge of all greening iniatives from the onset.  In the initial sourcing, we asked the Hyatt to fill out a long "hotel greening best practices" questionaire about current processes in place at the hotel.  After review, we developed a contract addendum devoted to greening that put in place key performance indicators and goals- that must have been met with penalties in place for non-compliance.

The hotel's director of engineering and head chef worked together with the conference services manager to enact all of the iniatives- even going so far as to implement a hotel-wide food waste reclamation process for all outlets, and an elimination of all styrofoam from the hotel.  The result of this little greening contract addendum realized nearly 3 tons a week drop in landfill pull for the hotel.

We are so proud of the Hyatt, and all the amazing work they did to create the greenest event possible.  From the registration process, where we collected attendee travel and rideshare data, to the limitations on bottled beverages and paper at the event, and even to the conference giveaways (Thanks to Cynergreen for the excellent water bottles that passed stringent toxicity tests by CalEpa and to EcoPromotions for the organic cotton conference bags!), we analyzed each area of the event for its footprint and possibilities for efficiencies. Conference goers, including press, noticed the corrugated cardboard event signs, the local california fruits and nuts available to attendees, and the lack of any sodas or bottled beverages.  We hope they were as pleased as we.

To view a video interview of yours truly with the Hyatt, click over to the webcast channel for the event. While you are there, enjoy all the sessions and keynotes and the green technology expo!

We're up for a Microsoft Vendor Exchange Award!

Our mobile evaluation tool (which is part of our expanded suite of tools for event management), was nominated as a long-term cost saver for the Microsoft Vendor Exchange Awards.  Our parent company, Genesis Creative Group was nominated using our technology.

Here is an exerpt from our nomination summary: 

 

Genesis Creative Group developed an attendee evaluation tool that electronically distributes evaluations to the attendee’s mobile phones at the end of each session; regardless of the carrier or subs. The completion of an event/session evaluation is clear, simple and immediate and reaches the attendee right at the moment when the feedback is fresh in their minds, versus the traditional process for eval completion which is post event, online, through the event website  (or, in some cases, completed through an environmentally unsustainable paper process).

 

This improved process has instant impact on the amount of IT infrastructure that would normally be required to allow for capture feedback, which correlates directly to the budget. Reporting figures on the evaluations are available to event organizers and speakers immediately, in time to adjust content or delivery for next sessions based on responses on last. Additionally the probability of increased eval submissions, containing valuable data for the improvement of future events is worth its weight in gold.

The Difference is the Team

is past June I was watching our registration desk staff in action onsite at the Produced By Conference at Sony Pictures Studios. Over 2,000 badges were created for the attendees, many of whom had registered in advance via our website to reserve tickets for the very popular sessions. (See image for sample signup page in registration)  Because these sold-out sessions (with speakers like James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, and Gale Anne Hurd) were tightly controlled through our registration system, we knew the importance of accuracy and triple-care when it came to fulfilling each attendee's ticket packet.

I watched as each attendee approached the desk, and a helpful AMS staff  would find the badge, remove the ticket pouch, and show the buckslip that reconfirmed each session that the attendee chose on our website.  Our staff would give the attendee the chance to advise if there was a problem, or something missing, before walking away with badge and tickets in hand.  I realize that it was the AMS team, back in the office, that painstakingly reviewed each registration and pulled precise tickets (we did not receive any complaints of mistakes out of the entire group) for each.  It was the team decision to create buckslips that reconfirmed the registrations, just as an added measure.

I saw how much the team cared about accuracy, as well as about the attendee experience.  The hours and hours they put in checking and re-checking the tickets and badges paid off with an exceptionally smooth onsite process.

We compete very often against registration platform providers and software vendors as a solution for registration services.  I realize what a difference having a dedicated, empowered, experienced, and caring team makes - and am proud that what we offer is so different.

The ARS is Dead, Long Live the AMS

Now that our smartphone survey platform has been busily buzzing the mobile devices of conference goers throughout the US (and Japan!), we come to the obvious next step in this convenient and economical technology- the ARS. In fact, it could be that more people are asking us about our mobile survey app as ARS (Audience Response Systems) than about general conference evaluations. 

In order to utilize our smartphone survey app as an ARS, we had to solve a couple of challenges:

1-What about attendees who do not have web-enabled smartphones? Their opinions must be heard!

Answer- we bring along (or send) web-enabled "Go Phones" (pay-as-you-go mobile phones) to use as loaners for sessions. These are MUCH less expensive than traditional ARS equipment.

2- Our eval system is set to push one URL to phones or email for a group of questions at the end of a session, and report on the session's total question set. What is the best way to send and report on questions individually within the session?

Answer- our dev team added a secondary grouping layer to our session survey builder to allow for a survey link per question, with a corresponding link for show producer to embed in slides for the question's instant response report.

Below are some pix of the mobile survey in action. Fun stuff!

 

 

And instant reporting sample screenshot

Please turn phones ON while in session

There is currently a lot of debate out there about audience Twittering in session rooms. (Senators and Representatives made big news of this during Obama's recent address). However, we see Tweets as a fantastic method to engage with an audience during a session, if managed properly by the speaker. See the Langwitch blog post about conference Twitters to see how speakers and participants are using this technology to provide input and categorize information from sessions. We're even seeing some speakers project the Twitter commentary from a session adjacent to the projected slide presentation.

Are participants who are eager to contribute and comment during a session via Twitter absorbing the information in a way that solo notetaking lacks? Is a presentation that is displaying running audience commentary enhancing or detracting from its content? We feel that busy hands can free the mind, and that greater collaboration and interaction is better between the speaker and the participants. We look forward to incorporating mobile technology into all session rooms- from Twitter to Smartphone Session Surveys (by AMS, of course)!

Tag-Triggers: paperless possibilities for conferences and tradeshows

Why are we so excited about Microsoft Tags?  Admittedly, we've been known to get our gadget geek on.  (We're still listed as member of a Yahoo Cassiopeia Pocket PC user's group that has been utterly silent since 2001). The possilities of Tag, though, get our brains churning like a PowerBuoy.  This technology combines the free-to-downloadTag Reader, (which turns your smartphone's camera into a bar code reader), with the Tag generator- an online portal to create Tags (as below). Once you've downloaded the reader on your phone, look around for a Tag. Hey! I see one!
	You may snap the tag above to view the AMS Vcard.  Tags also can launch websites and your phone's dialer. What are the uses for conferences and tradeshows? We have already demonstrated the power and possibility of smartphone surveys in sessions, and we've taken this one step further with the Tag-Trigger of the session survey. We see this technology as a future alternative to Audience Response Systems as well. Why pay for AMS equipment when each participant has a mobile device in hand already?
Tradeshows will benefit from this paperless solution as well. Tags may be posted in booths- launching e-brochures, mobile demos, and exhibitor V-Cards.  Participants are able to store, sync and share the information downloaded via Tag at a tradeshow without one business card or brochure printed. A coming post will detail the successful demo of the Tag-Triggered Smartphone Session Surveys at the GMIC "Greening the Hospitality Industry" Conference in Pittsburgh.

Miami Airport Installation

Traveling from Miami last month, I came across this art installation and had to record it to watch in its soothing entirety from time to time.

If you had a gun to your head, which biodegradable badgeholder would you choose?

We're here in Pittsburgh at the GMIC (Green Meetings Industry Council) "Greening the Hospitality Industry 2009 Conference". This is a great group of passionate meeting planners, destination suppliers, and green meeting product suppliers gathering together to shape the meeting industry's sustainable future. How much thought have you given to the simple conference items that you see tossed around each show? Badges, pens, conference bags, handouts...we aim to reduce and replace each with sustainable alternatives. We enjoyed tremendously gleaning a small amount of the worlds of PLA-Bioplastic knowledge that rests in the head of Mr. Scott McKye, President of KleerTech (www.kleertech.com). We've used KleerTech's cornstarch-based badges in the past - and are excited to hear about the next era of this conference essential. Think about one large convention and the thousands of (typical) vinyl badge holders that get tossed into landfills after an event. How many shower-curtains worth have we sent to the dump? It is time for a change- and the key words will be anaerobically degradeable PVC. See our interview of Scott, as he explains the various biodegradable holders and which he would choose when faced with an armed assailant.

"This mobile app is great! You should use this at every event"

We're happy to report a successful launch of an email-to-text platform that sends personalized links to attendees via text message on their smartphones. Over 400 attendees at a conference in Tokyo last night received text alerts at the end of each breakout session with an embedded hyper link to the mobile survey for that session. Each attendee could easily fill out the 6 survey questions, and they were able to key in text (in Japanese characters) into the comments field on their phones. The title of this post is one of our favorite comments. Screen shots to follow.

Tales from the desk- worst badge typo

I have bore witness to some pretty devastating badge typos in my day, Rupert Murdock, for instance. The funniest story, though, is passed along by a nameless colleague who told me of a large show in Las Vegas in which the emergency help number printed on the backs of the badges actually rang up a house of ill-repute.  How did they find the mistake? Oh, you know, medical emergency on the tradeshow floor. Luckily 911 was also called, everything turned out fine- so we can now laugh at the story.