by levi_hb | Aug 28, 2017 | Technology
Adopting the latest technologies can promise big rewards in terms of time and money saved for your company. So, how can you best put technology to work for your company’s meeting and events strategy and efforts?
Remember that technology is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. In other words, you don’t need to jump on each and every new technology, nor do you always need to take the more tech-intensive path if you’re not comfortable doing so. It’s worth asking yourself whether a given new technology will serve your company well and whether the time is right for your company to try something new.
Ideally, technology is a way to do more with less and to do it more easily. In particular, technology can enable the automation of many tasks, including aspects of the proposal process and data collection. Technology can help integrate your processes, letting you, for example, seamlessly pull data from one system into another. Virtual meetings are also a promising area because they can be much less costly and sometimes every bit as effective as face-to-face meetings.
To help you and your company think about how technology can optimize your meetings and events spend, we’ve created a handy infographic. Take a look and begin to understand some specific areas in which technology can deliver tangible results and meaningful benefits for you.
Use the infographic to offer up some useful ideas and generate discussion about the value of putting technology at the center of your meetings and events strategy.
AMI offers technology solutions for a number of meetings and events needs. We’re also well-equipped to guide and advise on all technological matters as a core part of your strategy.
Thanks for taking a peek at our infographic and feel free to share it with colleagues.
Want to talk more about how technology can help you get the most from your meetings and events budget? Contact us at (866) 337‑7799 or bd@AmericanMeetings.com.
by levi_hb | Aug 21, 2017 | Technology
Finding the right audio/visual partner is a crucial part of a seamless event and ensures that you can focus on what matters the most—the experience of your attendees. The ideal vendor takes the time to understand how their role will help your event be a success, operating as a seamless extension of your team and making sure you get the right equipment for the job. Here are some tips from the expert meeting planners at AMI to make sure you find a great A/V partner for your next event:
Pick the right vendor for your needs
Do you need someone who is already familiar with the venue? One that can handle large spaces or complex visuals? The first step is defining what your needs are so that you can articulate your requirements and ensure that the A/V partner will be a good match for you. Many venues can provide in-house A/V services and some even require that you use their preferred vendor, which may or may not be the best option for you. Read your contract closely and know your options.
Know what questions to ask
Do your research before comparing companies, and ask them about equipment, maintenance, staff, budget, security, contracts, and restrictions. The more information you can get upfront, the fewer surprises there will be during and after your event! A great A/V vendor should be able to help you anticipate and mitigate the common problems that arise during events. Take advantage of their expertise and experience.
Check out their portfolio
Most vendors have an online portfolio or will provide references. Compare events of similar size and scope to yours—looking at previous work will showcase their capabilities, experience, and can give you new ideas for your event. Keep an eye out for any industry certifications or awards on their website.
Make a game plan
Ensure that responsibilities are clearly outlined and that you have a plan in place for any contingencies that might occur. A detailed schedule can help streamline the process and keep everyone on target.
Ask your vendor for suggestions
When you find an A/V partner that you trust and enjoy working with, ask their opinion on how to make your event even better. Chances are, they may have ideas and resources that you hadn’t previously considered.
Check out some of our other tips on choosing an A/V partner or reach out to us at (866) 337-7799 or bd@AmericanMeetings.com for help on your next event.
by levi_hb | Sep 24, 2015 | Technology
American Meetings is always in search for latest and greatest in meetings technology, our partner, Patrick Brochu, Director of Business Development, North America with Show Technology Inc., is already implementing “Catch Box”. This is a new interactive way to encourage the audience participation.
What is “Catch Box”? It is a throwable microphone for audience engagement and a new way to interact with the audience.
Conferences and large events are a great way for people from different backgrounds to come together to share ideas and come up with new solutions. Sadly, most of the time such events end up being boring and unproductive, with audiences left uninspired, listening to a one way monologue. With the Catchbox, organizers and speakers finally have a tool that can will help liven up events and make conferences more about participation and discussion. Not only does the device make asking questions in packed rooms faster and more feasable, the simple act of getting audiences to throw a soft cube breaks the ice and gets people to talk.
In our interview with Patrick, we discussed this new and creative idea:
Q: Why do You think this is a revolutionary idea?
A: Because it is a new and sophisticated technology that allows participants to interact in a relaxed and fun way. Also you can always customize the microphone according to your meeting’s needs.
Q: Can You describe “Catch Box”?
A: This is the only microphone inside a foam box, which make it light and safe to “throw” to the audience. This microphone does the sound by itself and it does not make any sound while is flying because it is activated by voice.
Q: What is the biggest challenge with this new technology?
A: As a new technology some of the participants may be skeptical, I thinks that all depends on the demographic of the meetings. Some people welcome very warmly to new technologies, other people think in a more conservative manner.
Q: What about pricing?
A: According to Patrick this is not an expensive technology, its price is estimated between $300.00 and $500.00, depends on the audience size and the range ratio of the room.
Patrick and his company already implemented this new technology with a success of 100% in engaging attendees.
If you are interested in implementing this new idea for your next memorable events contact AMI:
bd@americanmeetings.com/. Phone: (866) 337-7799
Happy Planning!!!
If you are interested in implementing this new idea for your next memorable events contact AMI:
E-mail: bd@americanmeetings.com/. Phone: (866) 337-7799
Happy Planning!!!
by levi_hb | Jul 29, 2015 | Technology
For the business traveler that is always on the go, the world of apps has opened of an entire new world of convenience and comfort. Whether you are crossing time zones and international borders for week long conferences or just traveling across state lines for a quick meeting, apps serve all kinds of benefits.
Below are a few apps I recommend for anyone who travels extensively for work or seasonally with a family. Most of these apps are free but you will note that a few have additional charges for added options. You can decide whether those options are worth the extra money.
TripDeck- Manage your hotel reservations, car rentals, flights, cruises, restaurants, meetings and more with easy-to-read Trip Decks for each itinerary. You can also view your entire itinerary on a gorgeous map. And now you can add some amazing flight tracking features to make your itinerary managing even better. Trip Deck’s elegant interface makes managing your entire trip a breeze. Adding the information is even easier – it syncs automatically with TripIt.
Tipping Tips- A tipping guide, giving you recommendations for if and how much it is socially acceptable to tip…in 100 countries! Now find out what is appropriate no matter where you travel around the world.
iTranslate- A top quality, free, translation dictionary designed for the iPhone. With an easy to use interface. For an additional fee you can download male and female voices that will pronounce the translations for you.
GateGuru- Specifically tailored for people waiting at airports. It tells you all the places to eat and shop near you and if they are worth losing your gate-adjacent seats.
ExpenseBay- Track business travel expenses and receipts on your phone. Take a picture of your receipt on the fly, enter in the data on your iPhone, integrate credit card transactions, and it’s automatically wrapped up into an online expense report that is sent to accounting or QuickBooks. Three versions are available from $10 to free.
HopStop- Detailed, easy-to-follow public transit directions to get you anywhere you need to go in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., London, Paris and more.
goPostal- This app lets you create and send your own personalized postcards through the UP Postal Service using pictures you took on your iPhone.
World Customs and Cultures- When you’re traveling in foreign lands, it’s important to know the customs and cultures in that area to avoid offending anyone. This app lets you look up quick tips and cultural differences by country.
Google Earth- The ultimate travel map – a satellite image of every square inch of the entire world. It’s also one of the world’s largest crowd-sourcing platforms with people uploading new street views constantly.
Pandora On The Go- Eventually, you’ll hit that dead spot in the trip where you’re driving or waiting, there’s nothing good on the radio (or you’re in a radio dead zone), and everything on your playlist has cycled through twice. Available on Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm and iPhone, Pandora can take your music preferences and build a virtual radio station around them. Just jack your phone into your car stereo’s auxiliary audio port, and get hours of free music–with limited commercial interruption.
Flightcaster- Predicts flight delays up to 6 hours before the airlines do. Flightcaster has built proprietary analytics engine that crunches factors such as airline, weather forecast, airport timeliness, current status of airplane now, etc.
FourSquare– it’s not just competitive game where people try to “check in” at local places more often than their friends. Underneath this surface is a vibrant social networking site with great tips, reviews and helpful ways to meet up with people on the road like yourself.
Urbanspoon- While many apps provide user-written reviews of restaurants, Urbanspoon combines reviews from newspapers and site members for most cities in North America. The app uses GPS to find restaurants near you, and filter them by neighborhood, cuisine, or price. My favorite part of the app is its “slot machine” function–just enter some preferences on the price range and category of dining you’d like, and give it a virtual spin for a recommendation. It ends indecision and is even better than the casino—you’ll end up spending money, but odds are you’ll enjoy it. Urbanspoon is available on iPhone and Android.
Cheap Gas!- Cheap Fuel and Gas Finder- When you have set out for journey finding cheap fuel is crucial. For this the Cheap Gas! Powered by gasbuddy.com lets you the address of the cheapest fuel closest to your current location by default. In case you are looking for the nearest gas station you can configure the app for that. It’ll also show you the price of each grade of gas. Further you can also adjust the Distance criteria and filtering. With its source as gasbuddy there is little doubt to its credibility.
Hotels.com- The app is actually a portal to the Hotels.com. It starts working better when you are near your destination. The app offers an upbeat design. The Hotels gets listed according to the location. The entries highlight customer rating, distance from location, base pricing, pictures, description, amenities, and more. This app comes handy, especially while you are on the road and looking for hotels. It’ll help you choose a hotel providing you with the stats of the nearby places.
Flight Update- If you are one of those globe-trotters who has to fly too frequently this app is your key. Not just time info with this app you get the gate info and all other info you need for flying. Having said this you should know that it gives you the actual timings, but you must look for the details for actual delays. Its itinerary functions are very helpful for multi-leg trips. This is a great pick when you are looking for similar flights in a jiffy. I guess the airline employees would love to have the Flight Updates in their iPhones.
eCurrency Currency Converter- eCurrency is an intuitive, easy-to-use currency converter providing up-to-date exchange rate information on over 190 currencies.
I hope you will find many of these apps as useful and enterraining as I do. If you have an app that you feel is relevant to a professional traveler, please feel free to share it with the rest of us by commenting to this blog.
Safe Travels,
Todd Bludworth, AMI, Inc
by levi_hb | Jul 15, 2015 | Technology
Taking individuals for a ride isn’t enough. Ride-sharing juggernaut Uber is now targeting the meetings and conventions industry as its newest source of clients, according to PCMA:
“At the end of 2014, the San Francisco-based transportation industry disruptor Uber was valued at a whopping $40 billion. As the tech company works to elevate that eye-popping figure, it’s counting on the convention industry to play a crucial role. While Uber has made headlines for its recent partnerships with Starwood and Spotify, the company is also making inroads with organizations that want to reduce travel expenses for attendees. For example, at the 2014 Massachusetts Conference For Women, Uber offered a promotional discount of $20 for conference participants who downloaded the app. The company offered a similar deal at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ New York National Conference. Attendees who were new to Uber could save $30 on the car service, and attendees who had already downloaded the app could use a promo code to save 10 percent on their rides during the conference in New York.”
Whether your meeting or conference takes your across town or around the world, Uber is helping business travelers everywhere get where they need to go more easily and seamlessly.
“In July, Uber launched Uber for Business in the US and Canada with pilots in the UK and France. Today we are excited to announce that it’s open for business in all 45 countries where Uber is available — fully translated in 22 languages. Now in more than 200 cities, the Uber for Business technology platform is the most reliable, efficient and seamless way for businesses to connect with transportation globally”.
by levi_hb | Oct 1, 2013 | Technology
Those of us who have been in the meetings industry for a long time know that when a client requests an ARS (Audience Response System) for their corporate meeting or event, they can expect to add a large chunk of time and expense to the program budget.
In addition to time and money, logistical issues can also be a factor. For example, traditional ARS requires classroom-style seating to accommodate the equipment, and this can reduce your room capacity almost by half.
Not any more! At a recent regional sales meeting, our corporate meeting planners used Join In with great success.
Join In, published by UK-based Lumi Mobile, is a live audience response platform that allows the audience to engage, real-time, with the speaker to answer a poll, ask questions and/or comment on the presentation from their mobile device.
At a recent meeting, we had a client “moderator” at the back of the room controlling the main dashboard and attendees were invited to vote, share photos, chat live and ask the speaker questions at designated intervals throughout the meeting all through their smart phones. Going live takes just a few simple steps: Create your account, brand your interface, and invite participants to download the app.
Once live, the options are limitless:
– Real-Time Messaging –The moderator can direct the conversation via their own dashboard, moderating comments and questions before publishing to displays or attendee’s devices. The moderator can also respond or send messages and announcements to the group or individuals, buzzing their device for attention.
– Instant Polling – Poll your audience in absolute real time. A variety of formats including multi and single choice, rating, text and dial-test. Audience response questions can be prepared in the dashboard in advance or on-the-fly. The results are available instantly.
– Publish results to your audience – Publishing polling results and messaging directly to the device, utilizing the ‘second screen’. Report results of your poll or let them know when they answer correctly and award points to absorb them further or simply.
– Request and publish photos – The host can request a photo from participants at any time. Pictures are shown on the dashboard within seconds, moderated, and then can be published to all participants and to displays to encourage creativity.
– Data and analytics – As well as moderating event proceedings, the dashboard provides access to the quantitative, qualitative and image data captured, allowing for individual and group tracking. One click export to formatted Excel reports.
– Custom Features – Additional features can be added such as interactive event maps, sponsor links and social media links. You can also include brochures, news pages, and meeting agendas.
“The one word of advice I would give to my clients is to set aside strategic intervals in the meeting for this interaction to avoid attendees perusing their smartphones during meeting content. Right before scheduled breaks or meeting adjournment are ideal. At the same time, however, you may find that this solution can make a presentation so engaging that attendees may not want to spend additional time on their phones.” said AMI’s COO, Todd Bludworth.
Contact AMI if you would like to incorporate this awesome solution in to your next meeting or event.
Happy Interacting!
