What a tangled wwweb (part II)
Ray Shaw recently got his gismos off facilitating a session at AIME with technology wizard Corbin Ball. This is the second part of this session.
Story by Ray Shaw
I had the privilege of facilitating a hugely successful master class session at AIME 09 presented by Corbin Ball www.corbinball.com, undoubtedly the world’s foremost authority on meetings industry technology. Corbin’s brief was to identify the top five meetings industry technology trends.
Below is the final three meeting industry trends as discussed by Corbin and myself. Corbin’s notes are at www.corbinball.com/assets/trends.pdf:
3. More mobile meeting software products will rely on ubiquitous internet access
Corbin spoke at length on Spotme (www.spotme.com) which uses a clever purpose-built device to:
- Facilitate networking
- Message/email management
- Lead exchange
- Audience polling and survey tool
- Live brainstorming device
- Conference agenda/program
- Group announcements
- Interactive maps
- Personal scheduler
- Remote microphone
The smart phone of the future can and will do all of this once access to data is much lower cost and ubiquitous.
4. Voluntary standards will transform the industry
It is all very good to have masses of software and applications but the real benefit will come when they can interact with each other using a common language or terminology. It is no good if one program calls participants delegates and others call them pax – both with different meanings. Enter APEX Accepted Practices Exchange - www.conventionindustry.org which is working on:
- Terminology (complete)
- Contracts • Meeting & site profiles
- Requests for proposals (RFPs) (completed)
- Resumes/work orders (completed)
- Housing & registration (completed)
- History/post event reports (complete)
My advice – before you buy any software ask them is it APEX compliant.
5. Virtual meetings will not replace face to face (F2F) meetings
Corbin asked if a virtual beer was as satisfying as a real one – well unless you are a 2D soulless avatar of course not. Our industry is all about F2F meetings – the only way to truly interact with fellow human beings, to network, question and learn. Virtual meetings will eventually supplement (when costs come down) and then supplant F2F but hopefully not in my lifetime. If you are interested in teleimmersion have a look at:
Summary
Corbin presented a wonderful view of meetings industry technology - some here now, some not far away. The catalyst for much of this will be fast, cheap, wireless internet. The driver for you will be to do it faster, cheaper and better. If you are interested in more of Corbin’s views you can get on his newsletter mailing list for free – a must read every month.
Ray Shaw is an accredited meeting manager (AMM), IT journalist and chairman of Event Planners Australia. To contact him email ray@im.com.au or visit www.eventplanners.com.au.
