by Kathie Niesen Pecha Kucha, what is it? It’s a presentation style that features 20 slides in 20 second increments that allows the speaker to paint a picture or tell a story. And the story is told in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The slides are auto advanced so the presenter has no choice but to stay on time and on target.
Some benefits of Pecha Kucha are:
One speaker new to Pecha Kucha mentioned the impact that the style had him reconsidering the importance of each and every slide in his talk, a talk that he normally would have put together without much thought previously. Pecha Kucha speakers stress the importance of rehearsing their talk prior to the presentation. Those 20 minutes and 20 slides can fly by in an instant and while you may be on slide 19, your verbal content may still be on slide 9 which can be a disaster. Pecha Kucha nights are popular in cities all over the world. A typical Pecha Kucha Night (PKN) includes 8 to 14 presentations. In each presentation 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each. PK is mainly being used in the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields although more and more academics, scientific and medical organizations are incorporating it. So try Pecha Kucha at your next event. Kathie Niesen, CMP is the Owner of KMN Meetings and Events. She plans meetings of all sizes. Consulting services include instructional design, working with volunteers and faculty development. You can contact her at kathie@kmnmeetings.com Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to blog@spinplanners.com. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you.
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by Kathie Niesen, CMP I just spent five days with some of the most incredible people I have ever met. My first SPiN experience started at the Leadership conference with themes of branch growth, member support and managing change. It was a two and one half day event filled with camaraderie, friendship and unbelievable ideas. I feel invigorated and renewed not just to continue as the SPiN Blog coordinator but also to continue in my quest to build my business and grow professionally. Thank you to all who contributed to that, you know who you are.
What about SPiNCon? Wonderful sessions, invigorating speakers and a truly fantastic host property and CVB whose staff spent significant time getting to know us and not just selling us on a property or location. Keynoter Kristen Brown whose amazing story of growth inspired all of us to set and achieve personal and professional goals in unique ways. A TED talk by Dean Savoca whose struggles made me realize that my own problems are really not that important. What’s important? Family, friends and savoring life. And the “recess guy” Greg Brice whose thought provoking games made for the most interesting refreshment breaks I have ever experienced. The last break in particular made me think about what I had learned at the conference and whom I had to thank for it. And did I mention changes? Well first, no membership fees for 2016, no levels of membership because there are no fees. And no fees for SPiNCon, Learning Labs, Roundtables or the hire a planner, what? It’s just never been about the money, it’s been about the senior level planner and their growth. It’s about encouraging more planners to join and participate in every part of the SPiN community. And the other big change, Sara Vanderbilt, SPiN Executive Director announced her resignation. Sara is off to explore another opportunity and a chance to build her own brand. Sara is a big part of SPiN and she will be sorely missed but we all wish her the very best and she has laid a wonderful foundation for the organization to build upon and grow. So my first SPiNCon experience, one word AWESOME. Kathie Niesen, CMP is the Owner of KMN Meetings and Events. She specializes in the planning of medical meetings, instructional design, working with volunteers and faculty development. You can contact her at kathie@kmnmeetings.com Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to blog@spinplanners.com. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you. By Doug Chorpenning If a picture tells a thousand words, what does a painting say? Based on our experience, a painting can express the essence of an event in such a remarkable way like no other. We have been promoting the live event art experience for the last 10 years. Knowing that our clients are always looking for innovative ways to engage with their attendees, we have found live event art a way to punctuate an event in a very meaningful way. One of the most prolific and talented live event artists is a proud NOLA resident, John Bukaty. He has painted hundreds of live events including concerts, corporate meetings and incentives, festivals and sporting events. Recently, he conducted a “Digging Deeper” Art Experience during a Presidents’ Retreat in Moab. The audience prided themselves on their Kevlar exterior and successful persona. However, John was able to cut through their persona and get to the real human inside. The result was nothing less than transformative. He also hiked 30 minutes with a canvas on his back to capture Corona Arch, which is where the event kicked off with a gathering under the arch and a couple inspirational presentations. Not only does the live painting experience contribute to the overall engagement value of a particular event (Welcome Reception, Golf Tournament, Final Night Dinner, etc), but it can become the signature amenity presented by client to all attendees. Original prints can range from $50-$200 each—signed limited edition prints by the artist. So, if you are looking for that one way to really connect with your audience, consider engaging a live event artist. However, this art form requires years and years of live event experience and a certain knack for really capturing the essence of an event. When hiring an artist, be sure that their style and quality jives with your expectations. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the live event art experience, please shoot me a note—doug@wetpaintgroup.com Here is a link to a short video of John’s artistic style https://vimeo.com/112237570 Doug Chorpenning is the founder and CEO of the wet paint group. wet paint specializes in corporate messaging, branding, & experiential marketing. Prior to wet paint, he owned and managed the hip performance group (a boutique branding & event management agency) from 2000-2010. His visionary leadership style & unique approach to creativity, branding and storytelling have allowed him to work with a wide variety of organizations, such as: Sysco, Time Warner, Apple, Western Union, Zappos, Office Depot, Chipotle, McAfee, Hitachi, Dish Network, and many others. Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to blog@spinplanners.com. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact By Shawna Suckow, CMP, Founder & ChairwomanMany of you know that I founded SPiN on a bit of a whim, but there’s a little more to it. As the story goes, six years ago, when I was trying to learn how to use LinkedIn (it was fairly new then) I was watching a webinar on the subject and the speaker suggested we look for groups to join. At that time, there weren’t many groups on LinkedIn. He suggested that if we didn’t see a group that we wish existed, to simply create it. It was a split second decision, and within five minutes I had the acronym. By the end of the day, I had the logo, and voila. Had I known it would become what it is today, I wonder if I would have named it differently, but I doubt it – I like the name SPiN. It describes what we do so well – keeping dozens of plates spinning in the air at once, spinning around the globe, keeping our industry spinning as its veteran members, etc. The part of the story you may not know is why I felt the void that I was seeking to fill with SPiN. I believe that around the 10-year mark, many of us face a fork in the road with the industry’s more wide-ranging associations. We generally have stopped receiving as much educational value as we did when we were younger and the choice is this: continue to stay with that association but shift from ‘giving & receiving’ to strictly ‘giving’ in the form of volunteering; or go elsewhere to get your needs met. So many of us are serving as chapter presidents, committee chairs, and more – we give, give, and give, and the industry is no doubt better off as a result. Yet where do WE go to fill up our own cup, so to speak? That’s the deeper thought that was resonating with me six years ago – what’s out there for me at this stage of my career, where I can get what I need, not just give back? I know I wasn’t alone in how I was feeling, because SPiN took off like a rocket! I’m grateful for what it’s become today, although I never would have predicted back in 2008 that I would close my company doors and become an association leader. I want to thank every one of you for believing in SPiN and co-creating this amazing resource for the benefit of all senior-level planners. by Kathie Niesen, CMP
Do we really need to develop faculty? Doesn’t that just happen naturally? The answer is yes if you are very lucky and if you are that lucky don’t you wonder how much better your education plan could be? Your faculty development plan doesn’t have to be or complicated, you can start small and grow it over time. Start with a plan to help your current faculty improve their presentations. Tips on creating power points, how to give a exciting lecture, there are plenty of websites out there that can help you create a program to do just that. Create a video and post it on your website so your speakers can access it at their leisure or put together a program for your annual conferences and meetings. Offer a boot-camp for those who want to develop their teaching skills. Take advantage of your current experienced faculty. Ask them to help you put your faculty development program together and teach it. If you organization’s educational program is successful then you already have faculty members who are great educators. Next identify those young members who may want to become involved in your education program. Ask for volunteers to blog on your website or serve as ambassadors at your meeting. Identify those who want to become involved those members are going to be your best assets. Do you have a call for abstracts? If you work for a medical, scientific, teaching or engineering association then chances are you do have one. And if you do, then you already have a pool of professionals who want to be involved. Identify some of them to help you build your program. Your already have the resources to create a faculty development program and doing so will help ensure the educational success of your organization. Kathie Niesen, CMP is the Owner of KMN Meetings and Events. She specialized in the planning of medical meetings, instructional design, working with volunteers and faculty development. You can contact her at kathie@kmnmeetings.com Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to blog@spinplanners.com. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you. Wait a second - before we get started, take a moment to answer this question:
Do you like to have fun? Though I’ve been told never to assume, I’m going to break the rules and guess that you confidently answered, “Yes!” to that question. When you think about the conferences and meetings you plan, do images of smiling attendees, speakers, and exhibitors come to mind, or could your event use a bit of a fun-makeover? Allow me to introduce you to the best makeover your conference will ever have: Gamification. Gamification allows your attendees to participate in enjoyable games and challenges, without manual raffles or cumbersome post-event point tallying. Just as planning your event is a process, planning to implement a game at your conference should also have thought behind it. Start by defining your objectives, and then distill the desired actions and behaviors to satisfy those objectives. By encouraging particular actions, you can focus the attendee’s attention on networking, sponsors/exhibitors, or key areas of your event: Attendee Networking If you need attendees to network more at your event, you can create a Networking Game that incentivizes participants to not only make connections - but step out of their comfort zone and create lasting relationships. Sponsor/Exhibitor Booth Traffic If you need to improve sponsor/exhibitor booth traffic, create a Check-In game with challenges that awards points for visiting booths. Create more specific challenges and give individual sponsors/exhibitors their own passcodes to reveal after a more in-depth discussion for even more points. Create A Unique Experience Create a Scavenger Hunt at your event and guide the participants through the optimal attendee experience by sending them to all the important places and important people. This improves their perceived value of the event while achieving your event goals. For more information on Gamification, please enjoy your complimentary copy of this exciting educational ebook, or email our team at info@eventmobi.com. Courtney kicked off her career as a corporate meeting planner and now puts that knowledge to use as a marketing & industry relations strategist for EventMobi, one of the most innovative, fast-paced event technology companies in the world. She continues to be very involved in the meetings industry, engaging in various international speaking opportunities and volunteering on multiple committees. Courtney is the recipient of the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) 2014 Chairman's Award and was selected as one of Connect Magazine's 40 under 40 this past year. She currently serves on the MPI Foundation Canadian Council and will begin her term on MPI's International Board of Directors in 2016. She can be reached at courtney@eventmobi.com. by Kathie Niesen, CMP
Lately I have been fascinated with TED talks. Maybe it’s my background in education but it seems they have hit the pot of gold in public speaking. They have the great speakers, really relevant and timely material and in many cases are irreverent about it. I have been aware of TED talks for some time but I really became hooked when I saw the TED talk given by Monica Lewinski in March. This is a woman whom I gave very little thought to except for of course what she was famous for, almost costing the presidency for Bill Clinton. I was fascinated by her ability to talk about this topic with an irony that was remarkable. For the first time I thought about how this brief episode in her life affected her, her future, her family and friends and her life. And although people have been bullied forever, this really brought it to the forefront in my mind. Since then I have watched many talks on a variety of subjects given by really interesting people. People whom I probably would never have heard of or been interested in if not for TED. And TED is so cool. Their website is well laid out, easy to follow and just puts it on the line. The casual Friday of websites. Take a spin around it sometime (www.ted.com) whoever laid it out thinks like me and not a web design expert. And they don’t discriminate, it doesn’t have to be new or trendy, it just has to be intelligent. It’s all about starting a conversation and sharing ideas. Bring us your idea their website says and lets discuss it, see if it can be a TED talk. I am all in. Kathie Niesen, CMP is the Owner of KMN Meetings and Events. She specialized in the planning of medical meetings, instructional design, working with volunteers and faculty development. You can contact her at kathie@kmnmeetings.com Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to blog@spinplanners.com. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you. By Jan Aument, CTSM Bronze Recess – it’s not just for kids
Remember when you were young and couldn’t wait for the bell to ring for recess? That feeling of fleeing the classroom, laughing with your friends and running around the playground was enough to make you twitch with anticipation and cause your attention span to mimic that of a fruit fly. Incidentally, the fruit fly is said to have the shortest attention span in the animal kingdom. Well, I know some folks who seem to have the attention of a fruit fly during meetings due to a number of reasons we all know too well. So, many of us are adding some type of activity to our meetings. Here are a couple of ideas that you might try at your next event: • Poker Walk – Give participants a map with stopping points along the way. Each stopping point could have a healthy snack or beverage and a card. They draw a card at each station and the winner with the best hand at the end wins a prize. • Doing an event in an urban location? Partner with a local animal shelter asking them to bring dogs to a location for pet walks. Many find dogs energizing and calming at the same time • At a recent event, we replaced some of the typical ballroom chairs with large exercise balls. We were surprised at how many people actually used them. • Music – Play it during breaks, make sure it’s upbeat. Hire a local dancer or physical activity instructor to come in at regular intervals getting people up off their chair and dancing or doing simple in place exercises throughout your program Organize groups of people based on their likes. A 20 minute mile club and a 10 minute mile club for walkers and runners. An early morning yoga class in an inspiring place or Power Yoga in the late afternoon helps alleviate the twitch. Recently we brought in foosball, ping pong and pool tables as well as cornhole (yes, that’s what we call it in Minnesota – otherwise known as bean bag toss) for night time activities but why not try them during breaks too? I’ll admit, I’m an amateur at all this, but it’s something I think about a lot and after writing this, will definitely push harder to incorporate more of these ideas into my next meeting or should I say Recess Break? Jan has been a corporate event specialist for over 15 years and is CTSM (Certified Trade Show Marketer) Silver certified. She is a three time President's Award winner at BASF Corporation, won the 2013 EXHIBITOR Magazine's All-Star Award and is a Portfolio Advisor to CTSM students pursing certification. Contact her at jan.aument@basf.com By Jeannie Power, CMP In today’s tech-dependent world, a mobile event app is crucial to the success of your event. When adding a mobile app to your event, there are some things that you need to consider in order to maximize the benefits that it can provide. Plan Don’t think of your mobile app as simply an add-on. To use the app to it’s fullest potential and provide maximum benefits, be sure to integrate it fully into your overall event marketing plan from the very beginning. Be sure to include ways to promote the app before, during, and after the event. Use It To It’s Fullest In order for the event app to be beneficial to attendees, it must be robust and full of content. Discuss the benefits that the app can provide with sponsors, exhibitors and speakers. Consider adding suggestions or requirements in your contracts that include completing their mobile app profiles. This could include logos, bios, contact information, handouts, slides, and links. To increase the value of the mobile event app, provide content that can not be found elsewhere. Sponsorship Opportunities Mobile event apps are an excellent way to provide new benefits for sponsors. Each mobile app company has different methods and options, so be sure to discuss what is available when selecting the best app for your needs. Be creative when offering packages to sponsors and exhibitors. The more beneficial it is to them, the more they will help promote the app and event! Support It While mobile event apps are becoming more user friendly, there are still critical situations to consider. To be successful, the app experience should be smooth, easy, and positive. Having someone onsite dedicated to mobile app support will ensure that the attendees have a smooth and positive mobile experience and increase usage. In Conclusion A positive and smooth digital experience is crucial for overall event success in today’s world. Be sure you have fully discussed the digital options so you can take advantage of everything that these new experiences will bring with them. Jeannie Power, CMP is Co-Founder and Event Technologist at Power Event Group, an event company specializing in event technology integration. Jeannie enjoys the challenge of creating a customized and engaging attendee experience by thoughtfully integrating event technology. She is also a social media fangirl and is addicted to sharing information to improve the hospitality industry. Follow Jeannie via @evntgrrl. Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to blog@spinplanners.com. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you. By Terry Matthews-Lombardo CMP I was asked to get the ‘blog ball’ rolling by posting the second one. So many topics; which one to choose? Easy. A subject matter we, meaning those of us who are already independent planners, get tons of questions about from those who dream about going out on their own. But becoming independent is not for the faint at heart, so I decided to approach this from a kind of ‘top ten’ point of view except for the sake of brevity I’m narrowing it down to three. Maybe you’d like to add more? (HINT-HINT) So here, after 30 ‘la-la-la’ years of hanging out my own shingle in this industry are my top pieces of advice for ‘going rogue’: 1) Don’t do it for the money. Yeah, you heard me. In this industry it’s rare to find an indy planner that is happy with their income; especially for those first few lean and mean years. Heck, most of us don’t even do it for the fame and glory (where is that, by the way?). You have to really, really want to be your own boss, and totally understand the highs and lows of every aspect of running your own empire of, um, one. Remember, until those big sales come in, it’s me/myself/and I. 2) Speaking of which, managing your own business is not for the faint of heart! That planner’s skill set that got you through years of corporate meetings success may not mean squat when you work for yourself, unless you also learned how to: be an accountant, be your own IT tech, sell yourself like your business depends on it (because it most definitely does), organize your office and then religiously maintain that organization so you can function without being frazzled, create a good marketing campaign for ‘the business of you’, keep yourself motivated to work each and every day even though you really want to call in sick (mommy, please?), successfully network at every opportunity including and not limited to the grocery store and every elevator you step into, be your #1 fan, and well, I think you get the picture here. You are omnificent in that you’re doing everything. . . and then some. 3) You must build a reliable infrastructure of consultant team members to cover things like contract liabilities, financial advice, insurance/bonding/licensing fees (each state/county is different in these requirements), printing, computer tech work, creative writing, advertising, and so much more. In the end, you’re never really working alone even though you actually work alone. Make sense? Have I scared you off yet? Sorry because this wasn’t meant for that purpose! I just wanted to get the dialogue going and see what input you all have. We welcome your questions, comments, input and insight into this issue and any other topic you want to toss out here in the SPIN Blogsphere. Let’s get the dialogue going and see where the conversation leads! Send your contributions to: blog@spinplanners.com |
Blog CoordinatorKathie Niesen, CMP Blog WritersMembers of SPiN Archives
April 2017
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