We’ve covered a lot of ground with this four-part series on technology, and this illustrates the depth and breadth of the topic and the important role it plays. Most meeting planners have learned as they go, and this is certainly how it worked for me. To help you feel comfortable talking about event technology and, more importantly, negotiating pricing on Internet service, here is a list of things to know that will help you in the process. First and foremost,…
Author: Sandra Wood
Sandra Wood, CMP is an award-winning, innovative certified meeting professional (CMP). She has more than 20 years planning, organizing, and delivering a wide variety of organizational and industrial meeting and events across Canada that address complex issues and are attended by such stakeholders as medical and educational professionals, public advocacy representatives, government officials, and political leadership. She is a public speaker, writer and workshop presenter on event sustainability and food waste recovery management and has taught at Algonquin College (Ottawa) on these topics. A proud member of PCMA and GMIC and an Ambassador for La Tablée des Chefs, Sandra believes that conferences and events are wonderful engagement opportunities that can easily be enhanced through better meeting practices which include excellent program design and evaluation, effective use of event technologies and hybrid technologies plus good corporate social responsibility that embraces event sustainability and food waste recovery. Sandra knows that event planners and suppliers are busy people and is pleased to be sharing her experience and expertise with her colleagues through Corporate Meetings Network.
Articles by Sandra Wood
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Negotiating Internet pricing for corporate events: The elephant in the room
Meeting planners understand that venues need to make money. Its common knowledge that profits on hotel guestrooms run around 80 per cent and food and beverage around 40 per cent. But I have not seen anything that discloses what profits are being realized from Internet service, yet Internet access has become an integral part of events. This makes negotiating Internet pricing more difficult. While meeting planners are well versed on negotiating meeting space, Internet service is different, and many planners…
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How to effectively manage event technology
Keeping attendees connected and up-to-date at corporate meetings and events Providing Internet services comes with challenges. How do you address the risk of an attendee using the conference WiFi to download a movie or other large file? Do you have the means to monitor usage and what will you do about it? At conferences I worked on, the IT team monitored usage and tracked down individuals downloading large files. We would make a point of speaking to those individuals because…
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Conference technology requirements 101
Meeting planners are under increasing pressure to keep up with conference technology in order to source the right suite of apps, software and AV that will wow attendees so they leave with a lasting, memorable and immersive experience. With an often diverse attendee demographic, a need to “look modern”, engage the audience, deliver content of value and bring it all within budget, meeting planners realize that arranging for the right technology takes as much or often even time than organizing…
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Job loss in the events industry: 10 tips to help the transition
You’ve received the news – maybe it was expected, maybe it wasn’t – but the pace at which you’ve been working has suddenly changed dramatically. You likely have a mixture of feelings from relief, to anger, to panic, to calm, and around and around you go. Everyone absorbs news differently, but job loss is not something anyone likes to experience. Take comfort in knowing that once you start sharing your news with others, you will be very surprised to hear…
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Steps to end food waste in the event industry
All of us working in this wonderful industry know there’s an inconvenient truth – food waste. We all dislike it, yet feel powerless to stop it. According to a updated study released in 2014 by Value Chain Management International, food waste in Canada equates to an estimated $31 billion annually, of which eight per cent (about $2.5 billion) is attributed to the “food service” industry (hospitality and restaurant industry). When I read the report, I was not surprised because I’ve…
