Incorporating Technology into Meetings

For many meeting planners, technology is all about helping us perform our jobs more efficiently from online registration systems, printing name badges, tracking attendees and managing budgets. Sometimes it may be easy to forget that technology plays a very important role in an attendees experience. Below are some ways technology can improve that experience.

Wow - That Was a Great Presentation!

In todays world of instant information, near constant Internet access and ever-changing technology, attendees are beginning to expect more than just a single speaker reading off of PowerPoint slides. Technology makes it easy to really jazz up your presentations and begin to truly engage your audience. PowerPoint can easily be combined with Flash animations, embedded audio and video and other cool features that can really enhance a presentation.

Wait Dont Go!

It does not matter how great the presentations are if the attendees dont attend. Keeping attendees in the meeting environment is always a challenge for planners, especially with the distraction of PDAs and cell phones. Setting up an Internet caf outside of meeting rooms that provides Internet access between sessions will encourage attendees to stick around.

Giveaways Yes Please!

With the PhRMA code and the new California Marketing Compliance Law (CMCL) restricting what giveaways are appropriate, wowing attendees with expensive giveaways are a thing of the past. One giveaway that has recently become popular is a USB flash drive imprinted with a company or conference logo. Information about the company or conference can be saved on the drive for attendees to access later. Attendees can easily use the drive for other purposes.

That Would Have Been Cool

Technology is wonderful when it works, but if something goes wrong it can leave a bad impression of the presenter and the conference. Every failure cant be avoided, but you should take steps to ensure that they are few and far between. Be sure that you have full IT support throughout the entire conference in the meeting spaces, Internet cafes and the exhibit hall.

The Next Best Thing

Technology is always changing and attendees will not always be impressed with technology that was new yesterday. Dont wait until you have seen something at several conferences before trying it. To keep your conference fresh and innovative push the envelope!

Michelle Issing, is one of the co-owners of Designing Events, a premier global provider of planning, management and marketing services for events, meetings and conferences.

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