By now we have all heard about the cancellation of the ASAE technology conference In Washington DC due to bad weather.
It was amazing to see how the “unconference” was created and its impact not only on those who were in DC, but the ripple effects in our industry. We should examine what took place and have conversations in our offices about those implications.
Michelle Bruno on her blog, Fork in the Road, assessed the situation very nicely. She provides all the background drama of getting this #untech 10 off the ground. I would suggest you read her blog post for all those details. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: How #Untech10 Was Launched and What it Means to a Changing.
Michelle very clearly outlines her observations below:
Industry Associations must change. So many associations (and event organizations) take conservative approaches, focus on details that turn out to be less important and find the risk of failure too great to try anything new or spontaneous for fear of ruffling some board members’ feathers. ASAE made a bold move when they allowed (although unable to endorse or assist) the members to run with #Untech10 without seeing it as competition but as a way to meet the needs of their community.
Generation X works differently. Grant, Dreyer and others saw the cancellation of the conference as an incredible opportunity to serve their community, shape the future of hybrid meetings and showcase the technology that will one day be the norm rather than the exception. In true Generation X style, the door opened and rather than wait for group consensus, feasibility studies or permission, they ran through it with little more than their smartphones and chutzpah.
Exhibitors will sell differently in the future. The vendor companies that stepped up for #Untech10 with people, platforms and money are the other heroes of the story. In true social media style, they allowed themselves to be exposed, to risk failure, to be transparent and to sell by example.
Now that we’ve learned to live without, we may do without. In the future, it may not be necessary to have large gatherings of people in order to serve and build the community. We all love face-to-face but the success of #Untech10 revealed that meeting stakeholders are just as responsive to virtual meetings as live ones given the right conditions. The focus on “butts in seats” or “heads in beds” is quickly turning to butts and heads.
Spontaneity is the new black. Maddie Grant and I discussed the fact that #Untech10 was sort of like the conference version of a “rave” or the mobile catering trucks that drive around Los Angeles tweeting their locations and daily specials to followers who line up for the goods. Meetings in the future will have more spontaneity brought to them by the audience who will participate more and in greater numbers than before because it adds dimension and excitement to the event FOR THEM.
Meeting, conference and exhibition planners’ skill sets will change. Had Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer not known how to utilize Twitter and about the technology platforms for networking, broadcasting and capturing content, they could not have done what they did so quickly. This is a lesson to all planners to learn what’s going on in the new world of event technology and for hell’s sake, get on Twitter.
Being nimble pays dividends. The #Untech10 experience was a thrill ride for Maddie Grant. “I would totally do it again. I think doing things fast, collaboratively and openly takes away the stress of doing things perfectly. We just had to get it done. The reason we could do it with so many players was that we only had 24 hours to get it done. In the future organizations will need to be nimble enough to pull these types of things off,” she says.
There is no such thing as control. If anything, #Untech10 demonstrated that control over the content, the message and the brand is elusive. If the meeting organization does not provide compelling content, establish the message (by listening and acting) and reinforce the brand (by example setting not advertising), the attendees will do it for them.
Live and virtual audiences are part of an event continuum. There was incredible electricity in the room of live bodies gathered at the Renaissance Hotel according to Grant. Likewise, the virtual attendees were lively, active and a major component of the meeting. When done correctly (i.e. allowing the audience to be as much a part of the meeting as the presenters), the live experience and the virtual experience can function in complementary ways.
The Takeaway: The revolution will not be televised. It will be streamed live and on demand to a computer or smartphone near you.
The question for you as a “trusted” resource for your group, how are you navigating the technology road-map?
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Wow Joyce. Thanks for posting my ideas. The post script to this blog post is two-fold. I believe we as an industry are starting to wake up, move on and try new things. The recession was a terrible blow and it changed everything BUT there are fabulous advancements being made in thinking and in technology and if groups can just hold on a little longer, we will be in the clear with some new ideas and processes to show for it. Second, I hate to say it but two young women with the guts to put it all on the line, rally the troops and make lemon smoothies out of lemons, showed us veterans what is possible. Note to selves…new rules, new possibilities. Girl power!