Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending one of the many Live Earth house parties around the country.

The house party used practically all of the suggestions in our How to Host A House Party guide, and was very successful. It was a great networking opportunity for like-minded people to meet and discuss ways they can work together toward the goals of the Live Earth organizers.

The hosts had plenty of room for the nearly 60 people there. Everyone was encouraged to bring a dish, which guaranteed there would be enough food -- even though most people brought deserts.

When a house party has a set time period for a speaker's presentation or to view a DVD, it's easy to make sure every attendee sees and hears the organization's message. However, with the Live Earth concerts playing continually on two large TVs, it was difficult to ensure that the house party guests actually received the message.

To overcome this problem, these hosts handed out information sheets late in the evening to take home and read.

Whether you're looking for support for a political candidate or issue -- or you're trying to save the planet -- house parties are a great way to raise awareness and encourage action.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We're all looking for better ways to connect with other people so we can have great experiences.

The options for electronic connections has grown tremendously from the telephone and e-mail to include instant messaging, SMS text messaging on our cell phones, and social networking Web sites like MySpace and Match.com. Let's not forget about blogs, where comments can be a conversation. And, the newest way to share everything about your life, Twitter.

While most of these services can help grow online relationships, their most valuable uses are to share information and arrange face-to-face encounters with another person or group.

Tony Karrer links to a post by Kathy Sierra (Face-to-Face Trumps Twitter, Blogs, Podcasts, Video...) on attending the SXSW conference that covers online communicating. She said:

Bottom line: Face-to-Face matters, and the more people we meet online, the more people we now want to connect with offline.

She points out that one of the reasons people attend face-to-face events is the emotional energy of being around others who believe as you do. SXSW attendees believe in the power and benefits of online communication and media. And they came together face-to-face to learn from each other and support each other.

Another powerful motivation for attending face-to-face events is physical touch. Whether it's a hardy handshake at business events or a friendly hug or kiss at social events, physical touch is key to great relationships.

By the way, she also listed 10 great ways to get people together face-to-face.

The chart highlights how to choose whether to hold an online event or a face-to-face event. If it's only for information sharing, especially among people who already know each other, hold the meeting online. However, if the attendees need to build relationships and become motivated, face-to-face is still the best way to meet.

So, when you’re deciding whether to have an online meeting or a face-to-face meeting, consider whether the relationships everyone will form are more valuable than everyone's cost of traveling to the meeting.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Meeting organizers face interesting challenges as their event approaches. Take, for example, the situation faced by Cindy Klaverkamp, senior event planner for Creative Memories, who had a two-day regional convention with 300 Creative Memories consultants scheduled in Pittsburgh.

The collapse of some concrete flooring in Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center February 5 forced the facility to close temporarily and had several groups scrambling to find different venues or dates for their meetings.

The 6-inch-thick concrete floor in a loading area collapsed under the weight of a tractor-trailer, sending a mixture of concrete, steel, and equipment onto a public area below, and leaving the tractor-trailer trapped in a 20-by-60-foot hole in the floor/ceiling. No one was hurt.

Fortunately for Cindy, her vendors cooperated and she was able to move the event, acquire audiovisual equipment, and change a variety of other details that came up instantly.

This is an extreme example of the roof falling in, but it's always important to be able to contact vendors quickly.

One way to keep this data handy is to store vendor contact data in your SureToMeet Contacts area, then add them to a Contact Group called "Vendors." Wherever you are when you need a complete list of vendors and contact information, just log in and click over to your "Vendors" group.

You may never invite all of your vendors to a meeting or party (although Cindy might), but the SureToMeet contact manager can keep vendor contact data accessible from any Web browser.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It seems that after attending a meeting or event, we come away feeling that there was more benefit in the networking than the presentations.

Every conference organizer tries their best to make every speaker relevant and beneficial for the audience, but frequently it just doesn’t turn out that way. I’ve been on plenty of conference planning committees – and have presented at lots of conferences and monthly meetings – so I’ve experienced the frustration from both sides.

The authors of We Have Always Done It That Way feel the same way:

Ask any conference attendee where the value is and you will most likely here, “in the hallways” or “at the social functions”. Why? Because this is the place where real-time business issues can be addressed.

They have some good ideas for helping attendees solve current problems by using the Web to improve networking before, during, and after a conference or event. They also have some good ideas on how to learn about attendee needs so speakers can present more of what the audience is looking for.

For us in event promotion, improving the benefits of an event gives us more to tell prospective attendees – and improves the likelihood that those who attend will come again in the future.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Al Gore has recently become the face of the movement to reduce global warming with his film “An Inconvenient Truth.” In the film Al Gore shows a set of charts, graphs, and videos that make a compelling case that it’s time to alter lifestyles in order to save the Earth.

Many people who saw “An Inconvenient Truth” in theaters are looking for ways to share Al Gore’s message with their friends.

The easiest and most effective way to do this is to buy a copy of the DVD and hold a house party. Inviting friends and associates over to watch it together, followed by a group discussion, reaches people who wouldn’t have paid to see “An Inconvenient Truth” in theaters.

It you decide to host a house party showing of “An Inconvenient Truth” there are plenty of resources online to help you:

• How to Host A House Party - Planning guide on how to plan and host a house party.
  
• an-inconvenient-truth.com – A web site operated by fans of the movie and book "An Inconvenient Truth" to spread it's important message.
  
• An Inconvenient Truth Educator's Resource - A section on Participate.net, a community of film lovers and activists who are dedicated to engaging their minds, sharing their passions, and improving the world around them.
  
• Climate Crisis - Official Web site and blog for the movie “An Inconvenient Truth.”
  
• The Climate Project - A non-profit group that is training 1,000 lecturers who will present the information delivered in An Inconvenient Truth to audiences across America.
  

If you hold a house party to show “An Inconvenient Truth,” post a comment below and let us know how well it went.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I was recently reminded how important it is for event organizers to provide their cell phone number to people invited to a meeting or event.

I was invited to attend a small networking group at a local hotel the other evening. We didn’t know each other yet, but everything should have gone well because the organizer e-mailed everyone details (using SureToMeet) and included ways to spot the host.

Unfortunately, one person couldn’t find our group – and she didn’t have the cell phone number of our host.

So, make sure each person invited to your event or meeting has your cell phone number so you can guide them to your location.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 06:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the problems that event organizers constantly face is finding good, inexpensive meeting locations.

We recently started hosting a free monthly networking event here in Los Angeles and faced this problem ourselves.

One of the people helping start our networking group suggested that we meet in the lobby/bar of a large hotel because it has plenty of room for a group to network, it's easy for everyone to find the building, and is usually not very busy. It turns out that it’s not easy to find a large hotel lobby/bar that can easily hold 100-150 people, but after visiting several hotels we found a good venue for our networking events.

We originally wanted a lobby/bar to avoid the costs of a meeting room while we started the networking group – especially since it’s free to attend our networking events! It turns out that there are other benefits, too. It’s easy for everyone to find our networking group when they arrive, the chairs and couches are comfortable for groups to sit and chat, and we attract people who are in the hotel for other meetings and events.

So, when you need a place for a group to meet, consider a nearby hotel lobby.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A networking technique that isn't talked about very often is holding "house parties" to share with people how you feel about a non-profit organization or political candidate.

We have added a new article, How to Host A House Party:

Many of the changes in our community we would like to see require raising awareness of a problem or need before people will become involved. This is true whether you are supporting a cause, non-profit organization, or political candidate. A house party is a gathering of people at a home so you can influence several people at once face-to-face. Hosting a house party is a great way to bring together friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers in a comfortable environment to talk about an important cause or political candidate that you support.

In addition to promoting a cause or candidate, house parties are a great way to connect with likeminded people and grow your network.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

I attended a networking event the other evening where the event organizers were using a different format than they had for the past several years. Instead of several hours of free-form networking they had promoted having an industry expert present to the audience , with open networking before and after the presentation.

The good news is that new people attended who were genuinely interested in the topic.

I spoke with someone who was clearly attending for the first time and helped her understand the purpose of the organization and the format of the evening's event.

It occurred to me how valuable it is for event organizers to spot newcomers as they register, then help them feel welcome and understand what's going on so they have a good experience and will attend future events.

Posted by Cliff Allen at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)