Big events used to be a great way to pull people together, motivate them, and update them on new information. Corporations held large internal meetings. And, industry associations held large annual conventions for their members.

However, the low cost of the Internet and the high cost of convention halls, hotels, and airlines - plus the lost productivity - has resulted in a decrease in the number of those huge corporate events and week-long industry conferences.

Seth Godin questions big event value

Seth Godin recently sparked a conversation on the Web on whether big events are still valuable. He was referring to large events such as product introductions, but the meeting/event industry used his piece to discuss the challenges of their industry.

And, the meetings and events industry that produces large events is facing some big challenges. I can name almost a dozen large conferences I used to attend that don't exist anymore. And, many other large events just aren't so large these days,

For example, a few weeks ago I attended a large industry association conference in Las Vegas to help a startup company research a manufacturing technology. Not being from that industry, we needed to get up to speed quickly, meet vendors selling that technology, and evaluate the technology.

Unfortunately, the conference had no educational sessions on this small, emerging technology. So, we met with the handful of vendors - whose booths were scattered across multiple buildings. And, since attendance at the show was down the people in the booths had plenty a time to talk with us.

It turned out that it would have been much more productive and inexpensive for us to attend a day-long seminar with presentations by just these vendors.

Replacing conventions and big conferences

What's replacing those huge conventions and conferences? Two things.

• First, of course, is the Internet. Initially, e-mail discussion groups and forums provided information more quickly than trade magazines and annual conferences. Today, webinars and self-paced e-learning deliver information and education where and when you need it.
• Second, local/regional meetings and events provide an easy and inexpensive way to meet with likeminded people face-to-face more frequently than at annual conferences. In addition, the quality of presentations at local groups and chapter meetings is frequently as valuable as those at large national conferences.

The big, expensive conferences will survive on lower attendance. They just won't be so big and expensive.

Local events & meetings

Expect to see a lot more local groups and organizations produce high-quality meetings and events around the narrow, specific interests of their members - which will reduce the need to fly off to large conventions.

The Web-based webinar has become a popular way to make a presentation to people no matter where they are. However, online webinars have gotten a bad reputation - audience members do other tasks during webinars, and some people say they have left the room while a webinar is in progress.

Since SureToMeet provides event registration services for organizations holding both in-person meetings and online webinars, we have an interest in organizations having successful webinars!

Improving the webinar experience

It has become so easy and inexpensive to hold a webinar that it's easy to neglect the event planning and content preparation that's essential for a quality webinar experience. So, we created a free, interactive webinar planning tool as a source of "webinar best practices." These webinar planning ideas can help all webinar producers improve their webinar results.

Just start at the top level and click down to the specific action items and tasks that will help you produce a successful and beneficial webinar.

People attend meeting and events over and over again because they feel they receive value from attending each time. Once they attend a few meetings and don't feel that they benefited they quit attending.

It's no secret that we all act that way. What seems to be a secret to many groups and organizations is how to deliver the "value" that members and volunteers are seeking.

During her Lazy Leader Road Show, Cynthia D'Amour shared how to attract (and retain) members by appealing to their "hot buttons." People who attend meetings are looking for some combination of these attributes:

• Personal/professional development
• Make a difference
• Be part of a community

Every organization is different, so each organization's members look for different combinations of these attributes.

Chapters of professional organizations rely more on professional development than a business networking mixer group. But, both types of organizations have the same challenge -- to deliver the "value" that meets the needs of members in these three areas.

If you've read any books or articles about networking, then you've seen the suggestion to come up with what's called an "elevator speech" pitch. The idea is that you should be able to completely describe what your company sells and why customers buy from you in less than a minute -- during an elevator ride.

For a long time I tried to do this. I worked on creating an elevator pitch for networking events, but I found that the elevator pitch monologue just didn't feel right. After all, it was supposed to be a conversation.

Then, I found the article Kill the Elevator Speech about abandoning the idea of having an elevator pitch. What it said made sense -- convey the same information that's in an elevator speech, but do it step-by-step in a conversation!

I'm not saying that an elevator speech isn't helpful.

Just writing an elevator pitch is helpful to clarify what your company offers. But, it turns out that an elevator speech is useful only for events where delivering a short pitch is the format for the meeting. For example, the pitch fest meetings where entrepreneurs pitch potential investors on investing in their company in less than a minute is an interesting and entertaining format, but it seldom results in a worthwhile new connection.

Elevator speeches are also valuable at "speed networking" events where the objective is to tell your pitch quickly, or listen to the other person's pitch, so you can make the most of the few minutes you have -- before moving on to the next person's pitch.

However, in the casual, conversational setting of a networking mixer, it's better to use a slightly different technique.

Here is a simple, one sentence format for introducing your story in a way that's easy for the other person to remember:

[Company] provides [product or service solution] that helps [type of customer] [benefit].

Here are some examples to show how this template can be used:

• Apple Computer provides computer-based products that helps people use digital content.
• Honda provides cars and trucks to both consumers and businesses that are used to go places.
• The Los Angeles Times provides news and information to people in Southern California that helps them stay in touch with their community.
• SureToMeet provides meeting registration services that helps event organizers attract more people to events and meetings.

Most of these companies provide more than one product or service. But, people at busy networking events can only remember one thing that your company provides.

Start conversations with your one sentence introduction, and be ready to answer questions about your company as they come up in the conversation.

So, set the elevator speech aside for when an event calls for you to deliver a short pitch. Then, come up with a short way to quickly describe the one thing you want people at networking events to remember that you can provide.

Business networking is a big part of how business deals get done these days -- but it has become harder and harder to make business networking beneficial.

For some people, face-to-face networking at meetings for professional groups and association chapters works well to meet new people.

For others, online networking using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail discussion lists works well to increase the number of connections, friends, and followers.

I have used both methods for a long time, and they work well for meeting new people. But both fall short when it comes to growing a relationship with someone you've met. That takes a different type of networking. It takes engaging in activities together over time.

Tony Karrer has cone up with a technique called "Visible Networking" that's likely to overcome some of these problems. With Visible Networking a group of people have their networking conversations online in public:

What do I mean by visible networking, well it's simply the idea that instead of having a 30 minute phone conversation, why not have that conversation out in public view. Twitter is pretty much that already. But I'm thinking about deeper conversations than I have on twitter. So, clearly it would make sense to do this in my blogs. And I'm thinking about having these conversations both with people I already know and people that I've just met or are just getting to know.

I told Tony:

Your idea of "Visible Networking" can help people take the "glad to meet you" networking to the next level -- "glad to know you" relationships. Then, face-to-face meetings and activities become much more valuable. I see Visible Networking as a series of conversations around blog posts, and encouraging a group of people to actively participate. It's like a dinner discussion where a topic is discussed, then the group moves to the next topic.

Yes, blogs has been touted as a place to have conversations, but Tony is doing Visible Networking by starting the conversation in a blog post, then continuing the conversation in the comments. And, since he's using a public blog anyone can join the conversation.

This technique can work well for any group, organization, or association chapter where many members don't know each other. Visible Networking can help give visibility to each member, and encourage other members to participate in the conversations.

Many business people are reevaluating every expenditure to ensure that every dollar produces value.

This reevaluation includes memberships in associations and other business groups.

Shira Levine wrote a good reminder on six ways to get value from joining an association: A Good Business Move: Joining Associations

Her main theme is that it takes more than just paying an association's membership dues in order to get the most value from the membership -- it takes an investment of time.

Every time you interact with another person their impression of you changes.

With each interaction they have a better understanding of who you are, what you believe -- and how you will act in certain situations.

These changes are more frequent and pronounced when you are out networking at events because those relationships are new. So, it's important to make sure the way people perceive you helps you achieve your goals, and not detracts from it.

Ever since Tom Peters wrote the article "The Brand Called You" writers, consultants, and coaches have been helping people understand the concept of "personal branding."

Unfortunately, most of what has been written about personal branding has been on how to project a "brand image" -- not on how to decide what that image should be.

Heather Schlegel, a marketing consultant and event producer, has combined both personal branding strategy and tactics into a single mind map diagram. Her Personal Branding and Audience Development Worksheet shows how to decide what your personal brand should be -- and how to implement your personal brand strategy.

Take a look at her diagram to see how to evaluate and improve your personal brand image.

Southern California is the home for thousands of technology companies such as MySpace in Los Angeles, Linksys in Orange County, and Qualcomm in San Diego.

And what do you find in a high-tech community -- in addition to technology? Events. Lots of Events.

It's been difficult to keep up on the technology events in Southern California. Several Web sites have calendars of events in SoCal communities. However, not every event organizer lists their gathering on those sites

The Technology Council of Southern California and TechEmpower have created Southern California Tech Central, a new Web site that makes it much easier to keep up with the whole technology sector in Southern California.

Here's a page with posts about SoCal events http://cc.tcosc.org/event/.

Check out the Southern California Tech Central -- and keep up with the tech events Southern California.

Business cards have been part of business forever. But, the Internet finally has applications that reduce the need for business cards.

Laurie Percival mentioned that while at the SXSW conference she used Contxts, a new SMS-based service that shares business card information with someone by just sending their mobile phone number to an SMS "short code."

There are many times when you don't have business cards to give to a new acquaintance. You might be at a conference and run out. Or, you might be at such a casual location that your business cards aren't handy. Both seemed to occur a lot at SXSW!

There are two ways to use Contxts. One way is to send your contact's mobile phone number to Contxts and they will send your business card information to your contact's mobile phone. Or, your contact can text your user ID to Contxts at 50500 and retrieve your business card data via SMS.

One of the extra benefits of Contxts is that you can list all of your favorite social media addresses in your profile, which you couldn't include on a paper business card.

Contxts won't replace paper business cards, but as they add features it should reduce the keying of new contacts into a contact manager.

I'm sure Contxts will be used a lot at our next LINC networking event.

Organizations and groups face a big challenge today putting on events for their members. While the cost of events is rising, members are becoming more cost conscious.
 
This means organizations need to not only manage their costs for events, but also ensure that registration fees will cover their costs.
 
For organizations that have been collecting registration fees at their events, the number of "no shows" can result in costs exceeding revenues.
 
Event organizers know that the number of people who RSVP to an event can be very different from the number who actually attend the event. This is especially true for events that don't require a registration fee to be paid online prior to the event.

For the business networking events I help organize we found that a significant number of the "Yes" RSVPs don't attend. Fortunately, our events are free, which means we don't have a financial obligation to meet.

However, most organizations have significant costs to host their events. So, many organizations are moving to online event registration to:

• Motivate members to pre-pay by discounting online registration prices
• Ensure a minimum number of attendees by the people who paid for event registration online
• Reduce the staff needed at the event's registration area

• Sell any number of registrations
• Accept credit cards for payment

• Display event description pages within the organization's existing Web site.
• Send e-mail invitations to a mailing list on predetermined schedule.
• Obtain the name of every attendee and the registration type (e.g., member, guest, student) that was purchased for them.
• Offer "early bird" price discounts that reward attendees for paying their event registration online.
• Offer certain types of registrations to specific groups of people (i.e., member discounts only to members, etc.),
• Limit the number of each type of registration that can be sold online to encourage early purchase.
• Customize the online registration form to ask questions specific to the event.
• Accept attendee referrals of new people, which are added to the organization's mailing list.
• Create an online community of attendees prior to an event so people know who will attend.
• Download online registrations for printing nametags prior to the event.
• Automatically update online content with links to the organization's upcoming events.
• Sell organization memberships online.
• Receive online registration payments without the cost of bank credit card merchant account fees.

This gives attendees a greater sense of quality for both the event and the organization. And, the online event registration system helps manage revenue to ensure that the event will be beneficial to the organization, too.