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Meeting Planning Lessons Learned From The Technology Trenches Presented by Timothy LaFleur, CMP 3/18/15

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Housekeeping Feel free to use your mobile device for whatever reasons you need Ask lots of questions at anytime Will be using PollEverywhere

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Level set How many people have a smart device? How many people have used a conference app? How many people have used an app for the planning specs? How many people have used Wi-Fi at facilities? How many people have negotiated for Wi-Fi at meeting facilities How many people have cursed while using or negotiating for apps or Wi-Fi at facilities

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My mobile journey In the meeting planning industry since 2005 Worked at Conferon/Experient, Meetings & Incentives and now at IAITAM Been a techy geek for as long as I can remember Realized in September of 2010 mobile was going to be a game changer Became obsessed with learning how to integrate mobile into meetings Become even more obsessed with going paperless in my meeting specs

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The beginning 2009 started the revolution for attendees I hate carry things in my hands Mobile program specs Started with MS doc integrations Tablets were a mustsort of Cloud & office suite apps become important OTGs (SuperPlanner)

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Mobile formatting

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A little way down the road Mobi sites Private distribution Integration of other apps in approach Conference app became all things to all people

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Stabilization DIY app platforms started popping up - Guidebook - DoubleDutch - Attendify Places importance on design Freedom to put things were you want them Formatting becomes important (i.e. how it interacts with search features)

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Apps for planners and attendees Ultimately I settled on having a show app for planners and attendees Leverage the same tool with different focuses

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Lets take a lookTimeline

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Lets take a lookSchedule

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Lets take a lookGlobal Search

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Lets take a lookSchedule

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Lets take a lookPrivate Messages

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Lets take a lookPeople

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Lets take a lookUpdates & Format

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Lets take a lookNotes

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Lets take a lookExporting Notes

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Apps I love for meeting planning Evernote Flight Trackers Speedtest Currency Exchange Skitch SignMyPad WeatherBug HP ePrint Home & Biz Floor Plan Creator Smart Tools Animoto Highlight Reel Apps Smart Voice Recorder AndroVid Color Touch Photo Grid Flashlight App Hangouts/Facetime Barcode Scanner RepliGo Reader LodgeNet TripIt

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A Productive vs. A Disrupted Onsite Team What disrupts your onsite staff? - Texts - Social Media - Streaming - SmartPhone Games - Music Is a disrupted onsite team a bad thing? Can a disrupted onsite team be a good thing? A disrupted onsite team allows for easier adoption of just in time information

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Lessons learned How are you going to use the app Build your meetings taking into account the capabilities of the mobile approach Mobile approaches are more than apps All conference apps are not the same Apps need to be familiar for optimal adoption - Consistency year over year - Something familiar in their life Takes a team effort Social is key Be aware of all branding opportunities

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Dont Miss Branding Opportunities

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Build your mobile approach around your meeting example

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Newsletter tech integrations. Aggregators = Central Hub

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Build your mobile approach around your meeting example

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BEWARE OF USER GENERATED CONTENT. It does need to be managed.

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How to integrate Must be multi platform friendly Must be multi screen size friendly Understand the proficiency of your end users Know what is out there Use what makes sense

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Questions for any conference app provider What items get hard coded into the app How does content upgrade process work (foreground or background) What are the engagement opportunities What social aspects are there How does the my schedule feature work with reminders If public distribution what promotional opportunities exist. (i.e. Android Feature Graphics)

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Questions for any conference app provider What platforms are the app native for? How old of OSs does the app support? What gets cached and what doesn't? Single use or subscription based Do you support private distribution Can I use my own iOS Developer, Enterprise Developer or Google Play Dev Licenses? What part of the app can you password protect?

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Questions for any conference app provider What does the build process look like? How many graphical elements do I need to create? What does the CMS look like? What reporting to do I get? Is there a web app version available? How long is the build time? Are their tablet friendly versions available? Do you have a notes section and how does it work?

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Negotiate Wi-Fi What are you trying to accomplish Understand Wi-Fi is shared medium Understand each others perspectives - Cost of doing business or profit center Free is not always free 802.11 b/g/n/a/c Its not just about bandwidth Speedtest Wi-Fi Calculator OTG

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Wi-Fi questions 1.How much bandwidth does the hotel have coming into it in its entirety. 2. How much of that total hotel bandwidth number is split between guest room and meeting space or is all the bandwidth shared throughout the whole hotel with no delineations. 3. What model access points (a.k.a. APs) do they have. Example would be 802.11b/g or 802.11b/g/n etc.

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Wi-Fi questions 4. How much bandwidth can each model of AP broadcast after accounting for overhead encryptions etc. What does the through put look like, what is the range of each AP, etc. 5. Are their AP handoffs good? (this is purely relative the hotel will say yes but that is something you can test at the site if you like)

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Wi-Fi questions 6. How does the network handle idle mobile connections that automatically attach but aren't active, does that count as a connection and how often does the network check to see if it is idle and does it kick idle devices off the network eventually? 7. Does each AP have its own backhaul to a network switch or is the backhaul a shared route to the switch.

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Wi-Fi questions 8. Buy per connection or total bandwidth - If you purchase by connections what happens when you reach your limit? 9. 5% overset 10. Understanding that connections are a snapshot in time and finite ask for a 15 minute grace period 11. How does well does or can your network load balance

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Questions?

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Thank you! Timothy J. LaFleur, CMP, CMAM, CSAM IAITAM Director of Business Development tim.lafleur@iaitam.org +1.330.628.3012 www.iaitam.org @tjlafleur110