A successful meeting in today’s world is reliant on being a leader in every avenue possible. Technology can play a major role in providing your attendees with a great meeting experience. Here we will take a look at technology that can make or break your meeting.
Touch Screens
Hotels have added large interactive touch screens throughout their properties, assisting guests with directions, weather, meeting room locations, daily schedules, and so much more. This self service feature virtually eliminates long lines at the concierge and the need to handout printed maps and schedules. Attendees can even check arriving and departing flight times with up to date delays and cancellations.
In 2010 CHEP hosted an event at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas, NV, where the touch screens were employed all over the property including the sleeping rooms. This was a tremendous help for attendees who were navigating a very large hotel for the first time.
Sleeping rooms with touch screens can allow guests to adjust lights, television, and temperature, order lunch, or maybe even a massage. Hotels can save energy and money by having full remote access to their systems making adjustments as needed to keep costs low.
Touch screens used in meeting rooms for lighting, temperature and music adjustments are also popping up in more hotels. This allows for more control to be given to the speaker during their presentation. No need to call maintenance to head to the boiler room to increase the temperature 4 degrees, all that can be controlled in the meeting room. Touch screens are a great addition to a meeting space however, they are not something you can add on your own so you are completely dependent on the hotel to not only provide the screens but keep the information up to date.
RFID
In this technologically driven world we are always looking for a bright new gadget to enhance our lives and meetings. Say goodbye to sign in sheets forever! RFID technology is the wave of the future, no lines no waiting just simply walk through the SmartGate and your name, check in time and session information is captured instantly. The RFID time stamping feature allows for easy reconciliation of overlapping check in times, making last minute class changes a breeze.
The reporting function produces an accurate account of your meeting for future planning providing important information for future meetings such as, the most popular classes or the average length of time attendees spent in a course. RFID allows you the luxury of solving a host of registration related problems with just a click of a button
The technology is still new and only a handful of hotels have incorporated RFID into their organizations as a means of, tracking the wayward towel or assisting staff with providing directions and other information.
The technology is new and ever evolving; investing in these products and services can get pricey but are well worth the investment.
Social Media
Social media is everywhere and now it’s in your meeting! Using services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few) offers a brand new platform for your meeting. Attendees can receive updates, links to resources or websites, and can ask questions about the event, all in real time. You can create groups and pages to increase networking within your group, meeting and across the country. When used in conjunction with email newsletter services like MailChimp, ConstantContact, or iContact, you can link your social media sites directly to your e-marketing campaign.
CHEP is actively embracing the technology age with open arms. We have created Facebook and Twitter pages with links to presenter sites, resources and pages. Each morning we post “Morning Coffee with CHEP” where we ask our followers to comment on relevant online articles. Updates for our seasonal program schedule, location/presenter changes and inclement weather announcements are made on all of our social media platforms, ensuring we reach our entire audience.
Podcast
Podcasting is a great way to reach your audience, internet radio! Podcasting allows anyone with a computer to become talk show host; you can interview upcoming presenters and discuss your new meeting destinations. . Since podcasters don’t rely on ratings or radio executives to reach their audience you can talk about topics related solely to your business and audience. With podcasts consistently geared to your group you can establish yourself as a subject matter expert and industry leader. With video podcasting you can provide demonstrations and video interviews, podcasts can be downloaded on demand via iTunes or other podcasting websites and attendees can even subscribe through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for automatic downloads of new podcasts.
Podcasting is free from government regulations for the time being.You don’t need to buy a license to broadcast like radio stations and you don’t have to abide by the FCC regulations. This can be seen as a positive or a negative given anything goes but be careful because copyright laws do apply. Podcasters can even copyright their material!
As with any meeting, know your group and make sure the technology is appropriate for your groups’ needs and abilities.
Dawn Anastasia is a Meeting Planner with CHEPinc. She can be reached at 410-642-1857
