Busy, busy, busy little bees here in the Certain Software Marketing Department.  Lots of buzzing going on – we just returned from exhibiting at the ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) Conference and Expo in San Diego, CA.  ASTD attracts a large number of training program managers, session and meeting planners, program managers, etc.  Next, we’ll be at the Greenfair Silicon Valley starting this Friday in San Jose, CA.  We are a technology partner and sponsor and are supporting the Go Green efforts by educating the public on how to go paperless.  You can have a look at our Go Green best practices by clicking here: www.certain.com/gogreen

Next week is just as busy.  We are also a technology partner of HSMAI’s (Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International) Affordable Meetings and SGMP (Society of Government Meeting Professionals).  We will be exhibiting at HSMAI's Affordable Meetings West in Long Beach, CA on June 11-12 and also at SGMP’s Annual Conference being held June 11-14 in Dallas, TX. 

Certain is all around the world  – visit our event page to see where we’ll be next! 

As the old phrase says, "knowing is half the battle." In the whirlwind life of professional conference planners, this saying couldn't be more true. With site visits to make, vendor contracts to negotiate, and confused registrants calling every two minutes, getting an overview of the meetings season and of the money that's being spent may sometimes feel like an unattainable goal.

Certain Registration helps event planners get control of the big picture by offering information about key meeting factors, and by allowing for strong Consolidation reporting across all events done that year (or multi-year). We offer:

1. A unified and easily navigable Events List that lets you see which events just finished, which are upcoming, where they are occurring, and how many people have registered so far for each.

2. Custom Event data fields to track extra details about each event that you may need, whether it's a departmental code, a travel partner, or the on-site manager's name and phone number.

3. Consolidation reporting that helps you see activity across multiple events at once. How many events did you do by location? How many registrants went to multiple events? What was your average attendance this year vs. last year?

4. Event budgets with General Ledger codes specific to your accounting practices. We let you build your own General Ledger matrix for spend categories and codes, or you can use ours. Then track your projected and actual spend for each meeting, and report on the numbers across events using Consolidation reporting.

In subsequent releases, we will introduce new functionality to help you get even more control. We'll let you track meeting requests and approvals, use an automatic budget estimator to easily build better budget estimates, and assign meeting planner staff to events, all within one set of tools.

Stay tuned to our Certain blog for updates on the latest in our Meetings Management product suite.

When it comes to creating software simulation and training, I’ve found Adobe Captivate is easy to use and makes polished video tutorials. Not only can you demonstrate how a software application works, but you can also create interactive simulations for learners to practice using the application. In addition to screen captures, Captivate also provides quiz and survey features and is flexible enough to allow you to import images, audio, Powerpoint slides, and Flash files.

I've seen training videos produced using TechSmith’s Camtasia, but it doesn’t offer the simulation component that helps make for a more active learning experience. As a learner myself, I find simple demonstrations fall short of effective instruction. If you are mainly interested in recording a presentation, then Camtasia might work well for you.

As an online registration technology provider, Certain Registration is committed to giving customers the tools and solutions you need to manage events successfully. That’s why we’re developing on-demand training videos to help your registration specialists and meeting planners get up to speed quickly on our application. Look for our videos online later this spring!

If you are cooking for your 7-year old son’s birthday party or dinner for your boss and his wife, are you likely to prepare the same dishes? The same sorts of considerations that go into planning a meal for these different groups also apply to meeting planning and trainings. The point is, don’t underestimate the importance of knowing your audience.

When you are preparing a training or presentation, consider the age, skill level, and backgrounds of your audience. How much do they already know about your topic? How will this new information be of use to them? Is the terminology going to be over their heads? What do the participants have in common with each other? Learning the answers to questions like these in advance will help you develop curriculum that meets the needs of your particular audience.

Recently, an acquaintance who frequently presents to groups of public school teachers lamented how tough an audience of teachers can be. As a former high school teacher, I knew exactly what she was talking about. Whether it was a faculty meeting or professional development workshop, the presenters competed for our attention with the looming pressures of papers to grade, lessons to create, parents to contact, etc.  Knowing this about the audience makes it all the more important to communicate immediately how your information or training will be of value to them.

If you’re interested in tips for how to get your audience’s attention, you might want to check out this article:

Creative Presentation Openers

Or if you know your audience may be hostile, here’s an article with strategies for defusing the tension and managing attendee experience:

Defusing a Hostile Audience

I enjoy being a Supplier member of The Society of Government Meeting Professionals (SGMP) and associating with meeting planners from federal, state, and local government as well as other providers of meeting services and facilities.  

Through the Annual Education Conference and Tradeshow, monthly Chapter Meetings, and Special Events, planners and suppliers come together to review the latest trends in meetings management.  It is very rewarding to help meeting planners improve the quality and cost effectiveness of their meetings.

On February 5, I participated in “Achieving Gold” the goal for this year’s National Capital (NATCAP) Chapter‘s 11th Annual Winter Meeting & Tradeshow.  The event included a selection of sessions designed to keep planners and suppliers on top of current issues.

Sessions included “What is Sarbanes Oxley?” an explanation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX ) and how meeting professionals must comply with this law from an ethical standpoint.  For instance, disclosing information that might provide one potential contractor an edge that others do not have; or bundling meeting services such as morning and afternoon breaks, internet fees, gratuities or perhaps even registration fees.  The bottom line is accountability.  Are we as meeting planners and service providers putting ourselves and our partners at risk of an ethical violation of SOX? Read more.    

A very hot and chic session topic was the “Greening” of Government Meetings.  This session demonstrated how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is leading the way by making environmental responsibility a common business practice.  Did I mention the government has an acronym for anything and everything?  EPA is changing their contract acquisition rules to give preference to meeting services and facilities that consume less and manage resources in environmentally positive ways.  These topics were a perfect segue into the Trade Show.  I enthusiastically talked with attendees about the immediate benefits of using Certain Registration to “Go Green”.  Read more.

Mission accomplished.  I Achieved Gold!



David Dzergoski and Jeff Wilson from Certain talk with an attendee about "Going Green."

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Tip #1 - As an event planner or meeting planner you know the importance of a well organized event. Using that same strategic way of thinking, when you build an event in Certain's event registration software, will help you save time and money. A great way to create an event plan is to ask your Implementation Manager or Sales Representative for an SOW or Statement of Work document. This document outlines the major areas of Certain Registration and will assist you in gathering all the information you need to begin building your event the right way from the start. Whether you're building your own special event or working with one of our Implementation Managers to create a multi city trade show, a little planning saves more than a little time. And as we all know, time = money!

While researching what Youtube clips exist out there on the meeting and event planning industry right now, I chanced upon this retro gem. From the looks of the hairstyles and clunky, old-school computer monitors, I am guessing this is from right around the early 1990's. Not too, too long ago, but definitely the pre-online registration days when things were still done manually with a huge paper trail, a simplistic desktop event management software program and shipments of slick marketing brochures.


 

Fast forward to the glorious digitized world of meeting and events planning in 2008 where business and communication are driven by the powerful engine of the internet. The hard way - manual processes, paper forms and printed collateral - have been replaced by convenient online registration websites that are hard at work for you 24/7.

These days, when you start planning a meeting, event, conference, convention or training program, you have to build a website first. And in this Web 2.0 era with so many great developments in sophisticated web design, social networking and back-end functionality, planners can't just publish rudimentary websites anymore. Your online registration website has to be creative, interactive, secure and.....in short, awesome.

WEB 2.0 FOR AWESOME ONLINE REGISTRATION WEBSITES

According to IBM social-networking analyst, Dario de Judicibus, as quoted from Wikipedia's Web 2.0 section:

"Web 2.0 is a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture."

This can be applied to create more appealing, effective, relevant and secure online registration websites.

TIP 1 - Custom design your websites

Even the least design savvy of people have grown accustomed to sleek, professional web design, so making your online registration websites have an engaging and sophisticated look & feel is just becoming a given. As a meeting and events planner, you are either creating a unique buzz around a specific special event or you are trying to conform to your client or organization's corporate branding standards. Good Web 2.0 online registration site design does not mean you need an art school or marketing degree, just access to an application that allows you to customize every element.

The number one guideline for Web 2.0 and beyond design is calculated simplicity. Make it readable, use clean typography. Use sophisticated color palates. Layout all the elements within a planned grid that makes them visible in the browser without scrolling down. Choose high aesthetic value, quality graphics.

If you aren't doing all this yourself, choose an online registration provider who offers event build services so you can engage a highly skilled web design professional with meetings and events industry experience to design the project to your specifications.

TIP 2 - Incorporate new media elements and relevant links

Well done Flash and video elements can deliver messages to potential registrants. A visionary address from the Board Chairman can put a face on an association and encourage old and new members to participate. A quick tour of a conference destination's amenities could entice more attendees to register. Increase program attendance by offering dynamic thumbnail previews or links to guest presenters' websites.

If you do not have the resources to create original pieces, look for ready-made media elements to incorporate from your host city's visitors bureau, hotel, conference venue or guest speakers.

TIP 3 - Optimize your websites for search engines

Optimizing websites to pop to the top of the list when people are searching on Google, Yahoo or other search engines is key, and even online registration websites can be search engine optimized. Determine what top keywords apply to the meetings, events, conferences or training programs you are marketing. Optimize every registration site by incorporating those keywords into the URL, web page titles, content and metatags. Because URL's are the very first part of any website that get crawled by Google, Yahoo and the other search engines, the ability to customize your online registration website URL is also incredibly huge, and not all software providers offer this capability.

TIP 4- Find ways to incorporate social networking and interactivity

In a sense, online registration is a social networking tool that is designed to bring people of similar interests together to meet face-to-face. But before that in-person meeting, you could offer ways for attendees to network with each other online before and after events. Create a Facebook page for the event, a Google group or a blog where attendees can have conversations with each other on specific topics. While these may exist independently of your online registration websites, offering them as "Meet Other Attendees" links within in your sites or in your email communications could be highly effective.

TIP 5 - Use hosted technology providers

One of the greatest things about how sophisticated meetings and events planning technology is today in the Web 2.0 era is that it is hosted. Unlike the days of paper and desktop applications, the availability of hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions brings meetings and events planning professionals many more advantages. You gain the flexibility of on-demand technology that allows people to register 24/7 and you to track registrations up to the minute from anywhere. Because online registration websites capture so much personal data including credit cards information, hosted solutions offer a higher degree of security as well.

I’m excited that soon we’ll be launching a new set of on-demand training videos for Certain Registration! The first group of videos focuses on registration management topics. Our on-demand videos will help new users hit the ground running as well as offer experienced users the opportunity to refresh their skills with Certain’s online registration software. Meeting planners can watch and interact with the training videos at their convenience. Each video contains narration, animation, interactivity, and chances to review the content at your own pace.

The videos will be available to all Certain Registration customers at no additional charge. As a valued customer, we also supply you with online context-sensitive help, a searchable knowledge base, and live technical support so that you can achieve effective meeting management in no time!