Dogs Save Phones, Attendees Save Dogs at SXSW

Posted on by

From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

Originally posted on http://meetingsnet.com/

As much as I love the puppy-cuddling stations Meeting Professionals International has been including in its World Education Congresses in recent years, I think the huge music and film festival SXSW coming to Austin, Texas, this week may have them beat in the sweetest/coolest canine corporate social responsibility offering. Attendees who find their mobile device batteries running low can tweet to have a charger brought to them by a St. Bernard! As a Fast Company writeup says, "Dead-battery rescue dogs! It's like the Alps, but way nerdier."

Mobile battery-case maker mophie is partnering with the Saint Bernard Rescue Foundation to send the dogs (and their handlers) to those who tweet a screenshot of their device's perilously low battery to #mophieRescue from noon to 7 p.m. March 13-15 Continue reading →

Social Media: Not Just for Marketing

Posted on by

We've written on the various ways you can use social media for marketing your event, but as this article points out there are a number of ways you can use social platforms beyond straight marketing. The public nature of social media will turn any use of it into marketing but we suggest looking at the platforms specifically for these uses and then reap the benefits that inherently happen.

  • Conversation and Resource Sharing - whether it is through Facebook or on a social site within your own event website. Give people a place where they can share ideas and questions before, during, and after the event. Create this central location for posting presentations and event materials to answer the always nagging question of "where can I find this online?"

Continue reading →

Government Meetings Still in Freefall

Posted on by

From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

Originally posted on meetingsnet.com

Corporate meetings have seen steady positive growth over the past year, but the government meetings segment continues to struggle, showing little sign of regaining its footing, at least not in the quarterly Meetings Outlook report published by Meeting Professionals International.

MPI asks planner and supplier respondents, "Compared to one year ago, which client segment of your organization's meeting and event-related business has seen the greatest decrease in activity?" In the Winter 2015 report, whose data was collected in November 2014, almost half of respondents saw government meetings in decline. That's even more than the 43 percent who reported declines in the August 2014 outlook, which itself was a dramatic increase over the 31 percent who saw declines in the May 2014 survey. (And in response to the converse question in the current report--asking which segment showed the greatest uptick--no one said government.) Continue reading →

Going Big

Posted on by

When it comes to booking big name speakers, Strata +Hadoop World scored what was probably the biggest win of the 2015 conference year. President Obama appeared via video to talk about the critical role open data should play in innovating government service to citizens.  The President also introduced DJ Patel, the new data scientist for the federal government. This appearance underlies that data is big (not just Big Data).

New positions are being created throughout government focused solely on data. The new Federal Chief Data Scientist and Chief Data Officer roles are being created in agencies across the government. The addition of data to c-suite roles shows that data is serious business.[Tweet "The addition of data to c-suite roles shows that data is serious business. #GovEventsBlog"]

According to the President and Patel, data science is a team sport - meaning that working together is key to utilizing all of the data that the government has opened to industry and the public.[Tweet "Data science is a team sport...Working together is key #GovEventsBlog"] We are being challenged by the administration to find ways to apply this data to everyday life. How can organizations and event professionals incorporate this call for collaboration into our everyday efforts? Perhaps we can look at adding a session or even just a talking point to all of our events or gatherings where attendees can brainstorm on what data exists that could be used to meet a challenge being faced within that community. This ad hoc collaboration around data could provide a unique experience for attendees and perhaps result in the next big (data) thing.

Rethinking Sponsor Packages

Posted on by

With both sponsors and attendees growing more savvy, the days of promising a logo on signage in return for event sponsorship are long gone. Companies investing in your event want a clear story around their return on investment and they know that in the age of advertising everywhere, attendees are fully able to decipher and ignore traditional brand advertising.[Tweet "Days of promising logo on signage in return for event sponsorship are long gone."]

We've come up with a couple of tips for making sponsorships stand out and provide measurable returns. Continue reading →