The International Centre is pleased to announce a significant expansion to its wireless Internet program with the addition of the Conference Centre and Aviation Ballroom as areas where WiFi is provided complimentary. The new offerings now cover nearly 39,000 square feet of additional flexible meeting space where attendees can connect freely and perform routine online tasks. The International Centre’s leading technology program already boasts existing complimentary WiFi in all of its lobby areas and Craft Eatery, the venue’s permanent restaurant.…
Social Media & Technology
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17 ideas to add now for more memorable events
Mobile device charging stations – the new water cooler of your events. Make it comfortable. Add water and maybe even a list of questions people can think about relevant to your industry as conversation starters – ideal for the power-hungry introvert. Mobile app. Keep it simple, or add some bells and whistles aka participant feedback mechanisms. Every single person shows up with a device, and most of them don’t need more paper to recycle later. Enough said. Water stations, with…
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How content management can extend the benefits of a conference after it’s over
By Oliver Vadas Finding a way to provide ongoing support for professional development and information distribution are important considerations for a growing number of corporate and association meeting planners. Making conference content available to an entire audience or association membership — not only to registered conference delegates — is the best way to fulfill that mission. The first phase of the education process is to explain the benefits of preserving conference contents. The following article is intended to assist event…
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How to rock your second screen roll out
By Victor Paan Mobile devices are a part of your attendees’ everyday routines, whether at home, on the job, or on a show site—so why not tap into this behavior by transforming the mobile device into a part of the overall event experience? Mobile devices can help amplify engagement, while working behind the scenes to gather immense data on audience preferences, speaker and content performance and more. Second screen is still a fairly new technology, but through our experience utilizing…
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First report from IACC Meeting Room of The Future initiative highlights attendee desire for experience creation
As part of a dynamic new initiative from IACC, a first set of research has been conducted and reported following the survey of global meeting planners. The IACC Meeting Room of the Future aims to transform the meeting experience through a global collaboration of leaders in conference room design, audiovisual technology, hospitality, academia and conference management. The project and initial global survey results were unveiled at IACC-America’s Connect annual conference in New York City this week. The project combines innovation…
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Event technology checklist: 18 items to consider when planning your next event
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,…
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How Evernote can make event professionals more efficient
While we all know technology has changed the way we do business, one thing that it has not changed is the amount of information that we deal with on a daily basis. In fact, the proliferation of technology has increased the different types of information we can create and that we need to file, record, keep track of, and act on. I would like to introduce you to an app that has vastly improved how I access, store, edit and…
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How to increase pre-conference engagement with social media and games
Engaging your attendees prior to the event is the best way to ensure participants will be excited during the show and even afterward. Encouraging participation before the event sets the stage for high levels of engagement because your audience will already be invested in your content, competitions, and the conference in general. The key to using social media and event games for pre-conference engagement is having a plan or strategy in place that includes a timeline, tactics and an understanding…
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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…
