RAMBLINGS FROM MY EVENT WORLD

CRV EXPO

First of all, I want to thank our client Boston Scientific for adding the second meeting as a bookend to the successful Division-Mission-Brand Rollout we did for CRV in 2010, and for trusting us to move one step further in the evolution of the 21^st century events by agreeing to eliminate that very expensive, ineffective one-way communication from the stage known as the General Session. 

The 2011 event gave us the opportunity to measure the impact of our efforts over the full year- which were pretty remarkable. The post-event survey done by an independent outside resource reflected 70-92% “satisfaction/commitment to CRV”  scores for all key objectives of the event.  That means we even reached down into that bottom 10% of the bell curve and made a difference.

And of course, that would not have happened without the Collaborative Team of Independent Event Professionals that came together to serve CRV – so my heartfelt thanks goes out to all gave so much energy, enthusiasm, and willingness to experiment in order to make this happen!

Last week that team was recognized for its collaborative efforts as we won the 2012 ISES STAR AWARD for BEST ISES TEAM.   Again, congratulations and thank you to all.

You can view a short video that captures the essence of that work at http:/youtu.be/8xUvvOWq5JO.

A STRESSFUL JOB

Yesterday I read in Exhibitor Magazine that the job of an event planner has been ranked by CareerCast.com. as the sixth among the top stressful jobs titles…topped only by soldier, firefighter, airline pilot, military general, and police officer. Measurements includes not only an assessment of situations likely to produce stress, but also factors such as deadline-driven duties, growth opportunities, specific responsibilities, environmental conditions and hazards encountered.

Who knew!  That explains a lot about my life.  I’m glad I did not know this at the beginning of my career!

GOOD NEWS

But there is hope for us as well.  I also stumbled across some great news on connectyourmeetings.com.

Finally, after I have been complaining about both for over twenty years, PowerPoint and Teambuilding obstacle courses have made the “What’s Out” list along with Flip Video Cams and a couple other things.

They’ve been replaced by a new list of “what’s In” including digital whiteboards, mobile scavenger hunts and Smartphones.

If only it were true…we might make some progress in delivering meaningful communication and collaboration!  I wonder how long it will take corporate America along with their supportive meeting/event planners and producers to make the change.