Archive for March, 2010
Blueprint for Successful Meetings – The Technical Side: Part II
Setting up the Show Computer
You’re in the meeting room for your important presentation and everything looks perfect. There’s a projector with enough lumens, a correctly sized screen so that everyone can see – maybe even a sound system – and the meeting is about to begin. You even remembered the auto-advance slide presenter and the laser pointer. The coffee break is set and lunch is scheduled for 12:30. Did you forget anything?
One sure way to invite “Death by PowerPoint,” is to let more than one person try to hook up their computer to your show projector or to change computers in the middle of your meeting.
In all but the smallest and most informal presentations, we strongly recommend your entire program for the day be contained on and run from a uniquely created directory on a single, dedicated laptop. If you’ve decided to go it alone at your meeting, having a dedicated “Show Computer” that you control, is truly mission critical.
Even if nothing else happens, there’s nothing more disruptive to a program than taking 3 to 5 minutes to switch the projector connection between multiple laptops. The inevitable delay, which results when presenters insist on using their own laptops, breaks the momentum of the meeting. An extended period between presentations encourages people to begin chatting about unrelated matters, take or make “urgent” phone calls, answer emails and generally disrupt the focus on your meeting’s topic. It’s hard to get everyone’s attention back on the screen and the speaker and the message of your meeting.
We all know you can’t stop individual bathroom visits but when more than one or two people slip out of a meeting for a bathroom break, if you wait for them, a five minute break can easily turn into 10 or 15 minutes.
Just a few unnecessary breaks can add 30 minutes to an hour to a morning’s program. The consequences? You may run over your allocated time for the meeting, lose your meeting space to another group which has reserved it, or even worse, people may end up departing before key agenda items are covered. Time is money and when you add up the true cost of unscheduled breaks, you can see how important it is to have rapid transitions between speakers.
What’s worse then this kind of interruption? When switching computers, even if you have an IT technician in the room, you may not be able to establish an immediate projection connection without having to toggle back and forth between output modes. Most computers of the same brand have standard settings but it’s not unusual for different brands of computers to behave differently, with different function keys, brightness and sound controls.
Even more distressing is the hassle of switching presenters’ positions, which can be even more complicated if you’re using an auto advance device (inexpensive and highly recommended but a disaster if you’re switching laptops between speakers!)
And finally, in the worst case scenario, you may even need to turn off the projector, allow it to cool and completely reboot the system to avoid burning out the bulb.
When it’s your meeting, your reputation is on the line if the logistics don’t go well. So don’t take a chance, even if you have to volunteer your own laptop as the Show Computer. Oh, and be sure to take that desktop photo of your toddlers or your new puppy off the screen and replace it with a welcome slide appropriate to your meeting, with today’s date and a color scheme that matches your slide presentations. (You can put the puppy back on after the meeting is over!)
Sure, if you use your own machine as the Show Computer, you won’t be able to answer emails and surf the net during the meeting, but isn’t that something you’d rather your audience not do anyway? What a perfect opportunity to “Lead by Example.”
Next Week’s Edition will focus the Importance of Slide Reviews and Dress Rehearsals for a Successful Event.
If you have any questions, please schedule a consultation on our website at www.SummitMgt.com or call 1-800-835-9767.
Till then,
Have a great meeting!
Rob and Joe Lipman
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Blueprint for Successful Meetings – The Technical Side: Part I
Choose Your Technical Team Wisely
For all but the smallest meeting, using a hotel’s in-house audio-visual department can be a risky endeavor. It stands to reason that while the hotel’s technical team will do their best to follow your instructions, ultimately, they owe their allegiance to a company with conflicting loyalties. After all, you are only in their hotel for a few days; they will have another client next week, and the week after that.
Traveling with a technical team, which owes its allegiance to you, is as important as finding the right speakers for your presentations.
The wisdom of this approach becomes even clearer when hosting meetings outside of the US, especially when your speakers are used to American standards and work ethics. If you’ve ever tried to get a technical staff together in Paris for a rehearsal at 5:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon, or even 7:00 AM on a Monday, you know the hurdle you face.
When you retain your own production company, they become familiar with your speakers, your standard formats, your expectations and above all, The Message of Your Meeting.® You can also be sure that you won’t show up on the morning of the meeting with 15-year old equipment, a video projector that isn’t bright enough for the audience to see, a screen that’s too small, or sound equipment that isn’t adequate for your room.
Are you confident you know enough about AV equipment to be sure your hotel will deliver the right equipment? And if it’s not right, are you comfortable enough conversing in foreign languages to make last minute changes to fix anything that’s not right?
While it’s tempting to save a few dollars by using in-house AV, when compared to the overall cost of your meeting, the cost of hiring a professional production company is not only a wise investment, it’s also the best insurance you can possibly buy to be sure your meeting is professionally run.
Design a Standard Template for ALL Presentations
It’s easy enough to design a standard template with PowerPoint. When multiple speakers develop their presentations independently, chances are slim your meeting will have a uniform look. Distribute the template to your speakers when assignments are handed out. Set a firm deadline for submission and review, and don’t forget to provide specifications for the color scheme and standard font sizes.
Audiences do not like being read to. This simple fact is often ignored, especially by inexperienced presenters. Review each section for content, cohesiveness, and technical accuracy. There’s nothing worse than a guest speaker who shows up at the last minute, with incomplete information, inadvertent disclosures or contradictory points. The first time you don’t check every slide might be your last.
Keep slides simple and presentations as brief as possible. Your slide deck should only contain the highlights of each speaker’s talk. It’s not necessary to have a bullet point for every point made. After all, if your audience could read the entire presentation, they really don’t need to hear the speaker, would they?
The following slide, from the Technical Source Archives at the University of North Carolina, shows much more than how to design effective slides. It’s good practice to specify dark backgrounds, select strong colors that don’t clash, use familiar and easily recognized symbols, and choose easy to read fonts.
By using ACTIVE VERBS, you can get your point across in fewer words, focusing attention on the speaker:
Reference: http://technologysource.org/article/399/
We’ll have more tips on Technical Aspects of Running a Meeting in a segment we call “Death by PowerPoint” in next week’s e-Blast, so please stay tuned.
If you have any questions, please schedule a consultation on our website at www.SummitMgt.com or call 1-800-835-9767.
Happy Travels,
Rob and Joe Lipman
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Late Breaking News from Continental Airlines – EXTRA LEGROOM FOR SALE
Effective today, Continental will offer an opportunity to upgrade to seats featuring extra legroom for a “nominal” amount, which will vary by length of flight and market competition. Elite fliers can get these seats in advance – another benefit of earning status on Continental.
According to the Airline’s website:
“Choose to purchase a seat with extra legroom when you require more room for work or relaxation. When checking-in during the normal check-in period 24 hours prior to your flight, you’ll have the choice to purchase a seat offering a minimum of seven additional inches of legroom. These seats will be available to purchase at continental.com or at an airport kiosk. OnePass Elite members will continue to have the same access to the seats without paying a fee.
The fee to purchase an extra legroom seat will vary based on a number of factors including the length of the flight and market. The actual amount of extra legroom will vary depending on the type of aircraft and row. Consider this choice when you’re looking for additional comfort on your next flight.”
Continental Giveth, but then Taketh Away
The Wall Street Journal has reported Continental will be discontinuing free domestic coach meal service on almost all domestic routes, except for coast-to-coast flights.
Continental had prided itself on being the only major US airline to offer complimentary food on most of its mealtime flights. Its executives used to say the cost of offering the service was a good investment for the goodwill and loyalty it engendered with customers, and by and large, that philosophy seems to have worked.
For those of us flying out of Newark – even though the food wasn’t great – the service will be missed. For now, meals will continue, but come late summer, they will be history. Like other carriers, Continental will offer “food for purchase” on flights over mealtimes, and promises a “healthy and fresh” cuisine.
Don’t forget to check your email tomorrow for our regular weekly e-blast on Travel and Meeting Management.
Regards,
Rob and Joe Lipman
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Top 10 Ways to Mismanage Meeting Spending
Rob and I recently shared a conversation with Eric Smith from Collaborative Synergies LLC, a colleague who managed one of the largest meeting planning and event teams for a Fortune 50 company in North America. We began swapping horror stories about how some companies mismanage meeting costs.
Suddenly, we understood “You might be a redneck if…” and “You might be developing a meeting in the 90’s if…” scenarios. So, without too much more thought and not to be outdone by Letterman, here is “Lipman’s Top 10 Ways to Mismanage Meeting Spend”…
You just might be mismanaging your meeting spend, If…
| 10. | You allow an administrative assistant to source, plan and/or sign-off on meetings greater than 30 people, with more than 30 hotel nights and $30K+ in spend. |
| 9. | You do not have a preferred transient & group hotel program or, at the very least, a choice of hotels that you can frequent for meetings to increase your buying power. |
| 8. | You do not have a written meetings management policy – that is enforced. |
| 7. | You do not recognize the value of face-to-face in conjunction with online meeting presentations and on-demand modules. |
| 6. | You allow the presenter to dictate the content or allow them to prepare the message without oversight. You don’t just need a presentation, you need consistency – consider validating your presentations with an Audience Response System. |
| 5. | You do not rely on professional meeting planners for large events, even if smaller conferences are managed internally. |
| 4. | You do not have a meeting planning company that can evaluate city and venue selection, visa requirements, group cumulative air flying times, flight arrival and departure times, cost of pre/ post nights and best air cost options. |
| 3. | You allow meeting locations to be determined by where somebody thinks it might be nice to go “on vacation.” |
| 2. | You do not know how much you are currently spending on offsite company meetings at hotels & conference centers. You have more than one group in your company managing your offsite meetings, which are greater than 30 people. |
| 1. | Your company’s Senior Leadership does not “Lead by Example” – by this we mean to establish an official Meetings Management Policy (MMP), direct employees to support and follow the established MMP and, most importantly, to follow this policy themselves. |
A meeting that is well managed goes beyond tangible savings; it delivers a positive return on investment. The most successful meetings must amplify the message from the physical venue and deliver it to virtual attendees, social media, and secure archives. You now have a meeting in three dimensions.
If you’re interested in finding out how you can maximize your next business meeting, schedule a complimentary consultation at www.summitmgt.com or call 973-239-4005 ext 120.
Also, if you have a horror story or an example of how someone mismanaged your meeting spend, please be sure to share!
Regards,
Joe and Rob Lipman
Strategies for Avoiding the Middle Seat: Part II
Last week, we covered some of the top strategies for avoiding the middle seat. As a quick review, Summit recommends:
- Choose a preferred airline and do everything possible to attain elite status, qualifying you for “preferred seating” at time of booking.
- Use your frequent flier number when making reservations and check with your carrier’s website frequently to see if seats have opened up.
- Starting 72 hours out, airlines open up preferred seating as top tier fliers are upgraded 72, 48 and 24 hours out.
- Don’t rely solely on your travel agent to get seating, you can call the airlines and often get premier seating as an actual passenger (especially with status) whereas agents are not able to clear seats blocked by the airline.
- Check seating early in the morning, as airlines run their programs overnight and early morning searches are more likely to yield better results. If on the west coast, check after midnight if possible – by the time you check in the morning, east coast users may have already snagged the open seats.
Read Communications from Your Airline Website
In 2009, many carriers desperately seeking business travel dollars offered double qualification points on flights, making it much easier to qualify for elite status. A traveler could purchase a single qualifying ticket to fly from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, or from New York to Hong Kong, to achieve entry tier elite status in one trip.
Other carriers, including Jet Blue and United, have long offered online opportunities to purchase exit row and other “premium” seats for anywhere from $10-$100 per segment. This option is particularly valuable when flying low cost, one-class International Carriers, which often operate with very tight seating. These seats can turn an exit row seat into “poor man’s first class.”
Subscribing to business traveler blogs such as “Seat Guru” www.seatguru.com, www.seatexpert.com and Business Net www.bnet.com are especially helpful when trying to make sense of online seat maps – or when trying to find out which airlines are offering special bonuses.
Just this week, for example, Continental Airlines announced it would be offering coach seats with up to 7 inches more legroom – an announcement of particular importance to our New York area readers. Details will be made available on or about March 17, when the service will be launched on a limited number of flights. No word yet on whether frequent fliers will be able to reserve these seats without cost.
Since signing up for a frequent flier accounts costs nothing, there’s no reason not to enroll yourself in each program, even if you’re not planning to fly a lot.
Using Online Booking Services
While Corporate Travelers can sometimes use their corporate travel departments for personal travel, the cost involved means individuals often turn to online booking services to avoid booking fees.
While better than obviously prejudiced airline booking sites, there are some things online booking sites don’t do as well as airline sites. Getting you out of middle seats is one of those things!
When purchasing a ticket through online services, travelers without status often find they are unable to reserve any seat at all, even when planning months in advance.
Travelocity, Orbitz and Expedia websites can request the seat you want, however the airlines ultimately have control. That’s where joining a frequent flyer program and entering the number when booking becomes critical.
Without a FF account, the chances of actually landing a confirmed seat assignment before showing up at the airport at flight time are slim.
We also advise keeping a close watch on your airline PNR, or Passenger Name Record, on the airline’s website, even if you’re not a frequent flier. Always have a profile with the each airline AND travel agency you use as it will automatically indicate your preference.
Travel agents, including Summit Management Services, are usually willing to call the airline to haggle for a seat if you are a frequent flier, but as a direct customer you can often do more yourself.
If you have an International flight involving several airlines, such as a connection on Continental from Newark to Paris and then Air France from Paris to Nice, you may need to call or log into each airline website separately. You will need each “locator confirmation” to get the appropriate reservation and seat information online. This is particularly confusing if you’ve booked on one carrier and you’re trying to use partner airline Frequent Flier numbers on other airlines. It’s worth the extra effort to avoid a center seat.
Day of Departure Strategies
On your morning of departure, if you still don’t have a seat assignment, a call to the airline may, in some cases, shake loose a seat IF you call more than 4 hours prior to flight time. Of course, you may receive the dreaded pronouncement that the flight is “under Airport control,” and in that case, all you can do is show up as early as possible.
If all else fails, try to arrive at the airport early and request your preferred type of seating.
First, try going to the counter agents for preferred seating, especially if there is a relatively short line. Counter agents appreciate friendly and relaxed customers, and if a good seat is available, it will often be yours with a smile.
If the line for check-in is long, consider using the check-in kiosks – now available for almost every airline. Many of them give you the opportunity to purchase premium or upgraded seats at check in – often at surprisingly reasonable prices. And don’t forget to check to see if business class seats are available at check-in for international flights; we’ve seen business class seats offered for sale in places like Tokyo and London for as little as $350 – about 10% of the rate that would be charged for guaranteed premium seats!
We’ll address the specific benefits available from the major US and some International Carriers in a later issue. For information about Summit Management Services, please visit us online at www.SummitMgt.com.
Till then,
Happy Travels,
Joe and Rob Lipman
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