October 2020
Announcing...
The Washington Post* says:
"SPIN miniCon is the perfect solution for those pesky SPINCon withdrawls....Shawna is stunning, the program is scintillating, and the attendees are smarty pantses. Broadway is all aflutter...it's much better than Cats."
USA Today* says:
"Hold everything...what's a miniCon? Is it a tiny ex-convict? We must know."
We've decided that, in the year that has felt like an eternity, OUR DECEMBER (1st-3rd) SPINCON IS TOO FAR AWAY. We wanna see you'se guys NOW! So we mighta had a drinky poo or two...dreamt up a plan...and SPIN miniCon was spawned with our partners at innoVia Productions and Zenevent!
Join us for brain-busting amounts of fun and learnin'! Cool stuff will be said, awesome stuff will be done, and you can participate WEARING NO PANTS OR SHOES! (Fair warning, there will be dancing....remember we can see you!) .
"SPIN miniCon is the perfect solution for those pesky SPINCon withdrawls....Shawna is stunning, the program is scintillating, and the attendees are smarty pantses. Broadway is all aflutter...it's much better than Cats."
USA Today* says:
"Hold everything...what's a miniCon? Is it a tiny ex-convict? We must know."
We've decided that, in the year that has felt like an eternity, OUR DECEMBER (1st-3rd) SPINCON IS TOO FAR AWAY. We wanna see you'se guys NOW! So we mighta had a drinky poo or two...dreamt up a plan...and SPIN miniCon was spawned with our partners at innoVia Productions and Zenevent!
Join us for brain-busting amounts of fun and learnin'! Cool stuff will be said, awesome stuff will be done, and you can participate WEARING NO PANTS OR SHOES! (Fair warning, there will be dancing....remember we can see you!) .
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STARTING MONDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 12...
We miss you so much that one day wasn't enough togetherness so the amazing peeps at Wildly Different are guiding us through a virtual Haunted Trail (oooooh!) on Monday, October 12th from 8pm-9:15pm. Turn down the lights, grab your favorite candy and beverage and join us! It wouldn't be a Halloween game without costumes...so we've come up with the SPIN Virtual Mullet Contest! What's this, you ask? Well, a traditional mullet is 'business in the front, party in the back.' a VIRTUAL MULLET is your typical Zoom attire: business on the top, quarantine style on the bottom! Wear your best Virtual Mullet outfit to win fabulous prizes (that may or may not come from Shawna's storage room). Then, on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13...
If you've never been to SPINCon, you may not know that our four "pillars" (makes us sound formal and smart, yo?!) are BRAIN, BODY, BEING, and BUSINESS. While we do like to have gobs of fun, we take these pillars seriously, because YOU are SO MUCH MORE than the person who is a freaking meetings MASTER. You are a whole person with needs beyond mere continuing education. We got you covered, Boo!
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How much does all this awesomeness cost?
ZIP, ZERO, ZILCH!!! |
Check out our Amaze-balls miniCon Speakers!
(the smarty-pantses behind the sessions)
Body Session
Business Session
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Being Session
Brain Session
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*These quotes may entirely be fabricated. Don’t sue.
How’s That Virtual Thing Going for You?
By Terry Matthews-Lombardo, CMP
Now that the reality of pandemic pandemonium has set in, sigh, I’m wondering how many of us have been able to get our ‘virtual act’ together yet? Count me among those still struggling, but hey, I’m getting there. And just to be clear, the virtual act I’m referring to is not how pretty you are on your zoom calls, although I think we’ve all spruced ourselves up a bit in that department by now, right?
The virtual act I’m referring to is all those meetings that are now being held in cyberspace and how are you dealing with it all. I mean, on a scale of 1-10 [10 is superior] would you grade yourself high or low? I’ll go first by admitting that as I write this, I’m probably a solid, um, 3.5ish? Yeah, I’m a sad-sack, I know. Honest to a fault, but on the plus side I do have other talents, and I chose to focus on those which I encourage all of you to do as well.
In my defense RE virtual learning, what I’ve found so far is that it’s a slow process until it’s not, and by that I mean all it takes is once client to call and say “let’s do this!” and then suddenly, the fire is lit and you’re all about where do I go and what do I do? Never mind that you’ve already listened to about 1001 webinars and read all those totally interesting [?] industry articles on this topic. Some that you’ve even highlighted, bookmarked, and saved ‘for future reference’, wink-wink.
But in reality, when a client says go you want answers. And contact info for who to call, and a list of what companies are doing good virtual ‘stuff’ (not so much the other ones). You also want lists to follow and methodically mark ‘check-check-check!’ because we’re planners, right?
Well guess what? In case you weren’t already aware of this, SPIN has an awesome feature connected to our FB page that provides plenty of resources for virtual planning. And as SPIN members, you all have free access to this information. Just log in to FB, go to the SPIN Members Only page then move over to the far-left side where you’ll see a list of things, one of which is the FILES tab. Click on that and wow, you’ll see some great information at your fingertips. Lots of topics covered there, but specific to virtual planning I really learned from some of these:
- (FCCCC) Virtual Event Planning, submitted by SPIN member Yush Sztalkoper. This is a very comprehensive Xcel spreadsheet format full of job titles, duties, and countdown to event info.
- Virtual Conference Legal Issues by Joshua Grimes (industry lawyer) . Excellent points with suggested/approved verbiage to consider including in your own legal docs.
- Virtual Event Planning, a 12-page summary that I personally thought was a great ‘starter kit’ by a company called Endless Events.
As we all know, SPIN is about learning and sharing. We are a community of veteran planners with an endless amount of resources to tap into at any time. Thanks to those members who have already shared and posted these important learning tools and documents on our FB page, and let’s keep sharing the love!
Have you had a chance to check out the new podcast from Tracy Stuckrath, CSEP, CMM, CHC?
Earlier this month Tracy shared her conversation with Ben Chapman, food safety specialist, extension specialist and professor at North Carolina State University on what and how meeting organizers should be concerned about as it relates to food safety in general and with the coronavirus. From cleaning and santizing, seating, service methods (everyone touching the tongs), standard operating procedures, time and temperature control, food sourcing, health inspection scores and more, Ben spends almost 55 minutes share his insights on how to be and provide a safe food and beverage experience. To listen and view all offerings visit: https://thrivemeetings.com/services/eating-at-a-meeting/ |
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A miniCon limerick from Shawna's Head:
There once were some planners from Nantucket
Whose stresses could fill up a bucket.
They went to miniCon
Then their woes were all gone.
So they said, "Hey that was so worth my time I'm so glad I prioritized it in my schedule. What a valuable event."
[What, were you expecting a different ending?!]
-Shawna Suckow, SPIN Founder and Poetess
There once were some planners from Nantucket
Whose stresses could fill up a bucket.
They went to miniCon
Then their woes were all gone.
So they said, "Hey that was so worth my time I'm so glad I prioritized it in my schedule. What a valuable event."
[What, were you expecting a different ending?!]
-Shawna Suckow, SPIN Founder and Poetess
“The Masked SPINNER”
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What’s Your Back-Up Plan?
By: Terry Matthews-Lombardo, CMP
Are you in the process of letting go of excess while attempting to hold on to your sanity? Welcome to 2020, aka the year that we all lost [our clients/jobs/stability/security/YOU FILL IN THE BLANK ‘cuz I’m sure you’ve lost something!]. And while sometimes we can take comfort in the ‘everyone is in the same boat’ mindset, somehow even that offers nothing these days, right? Methinks it’s because, to be quite honest here, the boat itself is overloaded and on the verge of sinking, or at least hitting an iceberg. Maybe yours already has?
Well I truly believe that for every ‘iceberg’ in your life there is an opportunity to shift your thinking.
Maybe now is a good time to start thinking about your second act. You know, the one where you put your years of meeting planning knowledge and skills into high gear and decide what you want to do with the rest of your life? And by second act I’m not referring to retirement, although that may just be an option for some of our veteran Spinners.
The second act I’m referring to is the one that maybe you were headed toward way back when, at that time and place in your past when you got sidetracked by an awesome meeting planning career. For instance, do you remember how you answered that question we all got asked back in elementary school, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” If you can’t remember how you answered back then maybe now would be a good time to ask yourself the updated version of that, “what do I want to try to do now, before it’s too late?”
Hmmm.
Are you having trouble answering that? Then try this: make a list of things you are passionate or curious about and take some time to explore those thoughts. For instance, if you love to organize, would it be possible to turn that into any kind of small business at this point? Do you make spectacular cakes as gifts for family and friends and possibly could start charging for those masterpieces? Do you have any teaching skills that could equate to private tutoring right now?
Because the list is endless, you get the picture here. The point is that as with most of us, if you are already halfway through your expected life span and find yourself without any kind of Plan B, then right now might be a good time to do some soul searching and think about what you want your future to look like. For some it’s a financially focused search as in how can I continue to make money and survive? For others it might be time for search for what would bring you more joy and self-fulfillment such as in volunteer work. Still others might just want to head out in a new direction and if that’s you, there’s never been a better time to explore your options.
The common goal here is to get you to think about ‘the day after tomorrow’ because you’ve probably already got a full list for tomorrow, right? I thought so. That’s why this challenge is more about dreaming. And facing reality. And being honest with yourself and whatever position you currently find yourself living.
If we’ve learned nothing from the past few painful months we have certainly learned that mostly the strong survive, along with those willing to shift their course.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I am currently still happy to be known first and foremost as a veteran professional meeting planner and I even still have some clients in 2020 (squee!), but am also proud to report that I’m currently doing a ‘gentle slide’ into my own second act as a travel writer focusing on meetings and detours. I’d be honored if you skip over to www.terrysworldtravels.com to take a look at my blogsite and ecstatic if you’d sign up to follow my fun adventures.
Well I truly believe that for every ‘iceberg’ in your life there is an opportunity to shift your thinking.
Maybe now is a good time to start thinking about your second act. You know, the one where you put your years of meeting planning knowledge and skills into high gear and decide what you want to do with the rest of your life? And by second act I’m not referring to retirement, although that may just be an option for some of our veteran Spinners.
The second act I’m referring to is the one that maybe you were headed toward way back when, at that time and place in your past when you got sidetracked by an awesome meeting planning career. For instance, do you remember how you answered that question we all got asked back in elementary school, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” If you can’t remember how you answered back then maybe now would be a good time to ask yourself the updated version of that, “what do I want to try to do now, before it’s too late?”
Hmmm.
Are you having trouble answering that? Then try this: make a list of things you are passionate or curious about and take some time to explore those thoughts. For instance, if you love to organize, would it be possible to turn that into any kind of small business at this point? Do you make spectacular cakes as gifts for family and friends and possibly could start charging for those masterpieces? Do you have any teaching skills that could equate to private tutoring right now?
Because the list is endless, you get the picture here. The point is that as with most of us, if you are already halfway through your expected life span and find yourself without any kind of Plan B, then right now might be a good time to do some soul searching and think about what you want your future to look like. For some it’s a financially focused search as in how can I continue to make money and survive? For others it might be time for search for what would bring you more joy and self-fulfillment such as in volunteer work. Still others might just want to head out in a new direction and if that’s you, there’s never been a better time to explore your options.
The common goal here is to get you to think about ‘the day after tomorrow’ because you’ve probably already got a full list for tomorrow, right? I thought so. That’s why this challenge is more about dreaming. And facing reality. And being honest with yourself and whatever position you currently find yourself living.
If we’ve learned nothing from the past few painful months we have certainly learned that mostly the strong survive, along with those willing to shift their course.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I am currently still happy to be known first and foremost as a veteran professional meeting planner and I even still have some clients in 2020 (squee!), but am also proud to report that I’m currently doing a ‘gentle slide’ into my own second act as a travel writer focusing on meetings and detours. I’d be honored if you skip over to www.terrysworldtravels.com to take a look at my blogsite and ecstatic if you’d sign up to follow my fun adventures.
