Conference Content
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Revisions, Please
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009A few weeks back, a client emailed me a fairly long list of major revisions to a report I’d sent her. It took me by surprise—I’d reviewed that document myself, tinkered with it and polished it, and I thought the finished product was pretty darn good. What was she doing, sending it back?
Our company stands [...]
Going Onsite to Save Lives
Monday, August 10th, 2009Every so often, I get a nice snapshot of why we do what we do as an industry, and as a specialty supplier within the industry. I’ve had several in the last 10 days.
Last week, Margot Cragg, Emily MacKinnon and I were onsite with a team of local writers at the 13th World Conference on [...]
Why We Don’t Upsell
Saturday, August 1st, 2009When we discuss our services with prospective clients, we don’t upsell. Not ever.
For some time, I felt this was a matter of basic principle, that the practice of trying to bundle a second sale on top of a first one was simply abominable. I still think it’s wrong for our kind of service. But a [...]
The Meetings that Elected a President
Sunday, July 12th, 2009SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Meeting Professionals International (MPI) kicked off its 2009 World Education Congress today with an opening general session that cemented the organization’s focus on the threats the meetings industry has faced over travel, incentives, and the value of meetings.
But along the way, participants heard some ideas on the structure and purpose [...]
Can a Value-Add be Free?
Saturday, July 11th, 2009Recently a lot fingers have been doing a lot of typing regarding the Virtual Access Pass as proposed by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) for the upcoming World Education Congress (WEC). The dedication and earnest concern of the various bloggers should be commended, for this debate about using the Internet to extend the reach of conferences [...]
The Tempest Over MPI’s Virtual Access Pass
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009There’s quite a tempest brewing over the Virtual Access Pass that our professional association, Meeting Professionals International (MPI), has introduced for its 2009 World Education Congress (WEC), which gets under way this weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The conversation is an echo of a wider debate about when it’s legitimate—or whether it’s ever legitimate—to charge [...]
Farewell Rick Redfern: A Revolution in Search of a Cash Flow
Monday, May 25th, 2009What would you do if Twitter stopped tweeting and YouTube suddenly went off the air?
Particularly if you lived in a community where television outlets were consolidating, radio stations had cut local programming, and the venerable daily newspaper was on the verge of shutting down?
No doubt, with Internet access and decent search skills, you would still [...]
The Green Meetings Portal Goes Live
Thursday, April 16th, 2009The Green Meetings Portal went live earlier this week.
Earlier this year, we announced that The Conference Publishers was joining with the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) to launch the world’s first conference content portal. I’m tremendously pleased and proud to announce that the promise is now, finally, a reality.
The Portal begins life with coverage of [...]
What Are You Waiting For?
Thursday, April 9th, 2009In 1968, while most of his classmates were playing ball or watching Gilligan’s Island or sleeping, one 13-year-old boy was programming his heart out on a powerful (for its day) mainframe computer. It was a unique and improbable opportunity and he took full advantage of it. Reflecting on the experience today, Bill Gates says, “I [...]
The Green Meetings Portal: A World First
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009PITTSBURGH - This week, our company marks an important and very exciting milestone.
The Edge is a blog about conferences and content, not a promotional page for The Conference Publishers. But this is a moment when we’re generating industry news. And it has everything to do with the power of face-to-face meetings, the transcendent importance of [...]