Filed under: Standards, Implementing Technology Shawn Pierce @ 4:24 pm on 17/12/07
Well, I have to say that the eMerge opening session was a great event. I had several people ask me after the event to post links to our online brochure and online videos and to give the name of the company we use to create these great pieces.
So, here you go:
Company - Advancis
Contact - Bertrand Balzano
Phone # - (214) 766-4854
Sample - Surfaces eBrochure
For our online videos we use Brightcove. Below is a sample video for our Surfaces show:
Surfaces Video
I encourage people to drop me a comment if they have any questions about other products/services that we use at Hanley Wood.
Filed under: Standards, APEX Shawn Pierce @ 3:50 pm on 26/11/07
Over the last 5 years there has been an initiative in the meetings industry to create standards and best practices. This initiative is called APEX (Accepted Practices EXchange). I know that many of you have heard of APEX and have marveled at the lack of progress related to the Exhibitions and Event side of the meetings industry. I share your disbelief. Our own Stephen Nold has chimed in on this issue - TSWeek BLOG
Last year I was asked (and accepted) the position of Commissioner to represent the Exhibitions industry. After the first couple of meetings it was overtly apparent that APEX was focused on the Meeting Planners side of the business and wasn’t even looking at “our side” of the business. Those of you that know me realize that I am not good at sitting around in meetings and not accomplishing anything. As a matter of fact, I would rather stick a pin in my eye… That left me with two choices – resign my position on the commission or complain loudly that APEX start to address our side of the business.
Well, my complaints have been heard loud and clear. APEX has just authorized the creation of an Exhibitions & Events Industry Panel. This panel is tasked with the creation of standard templates for the exchange of Attendee and Exhibitor data. These new templates will allow data to flow between show management and the vendor community with ease. Currently each of us “make” registration and other vendors provide us with our data in our (potentially) unique format. That ends up equating to potentially over 3,000 different formats that the various registration vendors are creating each year. Ridiculous! There is nothing “unique” about this data. We are all gathering basically the same information but we want it in different formats so that it will go into our various back office systems.
Over the next few weeks I will invite several people from our industry to join me on the new Exhibitions Panel. This will be a small group of people that are able to make decisions and move quickly to a resolution. My goal is to have the new data exchange standard completed by the end of 2008. So, if you or someone you know should be considered for the panel please email me (Shawn Pierce).
It is time to move forward and complete the data exchange standards for our industry.
Filed under: Standards, Implementing Technology Shawn Pierce @ 4:58 pm on 24/11/07
It has been a long time since I spoke with someone in our industry that said “Boy, I don’t know what to do with all of my free time…” OK, I’ve NEVER heard anyone say that! But, I do see many people in the industry constantly putting out fires instead of fixing the root cause of the problem.
Imagine that Sr. Management comes to you and asks you to provide them with a list of the top 100 companies that have participated in your event over the last 3 years with a breakdown in revenue between booth space, sponsorship and advertising. This kind of request can take hours if not days to produce. And, as we all know, Sr. Management always wants these answers ASAP…there goes another night or weekend with the kids…
These questions come up on a regular basis. People scramble to pull together all of the data, cross reference it against known parent/child relationships and be sure to combine any companies that have merged over the last 3 years. After many hours/days of pulling all of this data together they hand it over to management and then sit back and exhale a large sigh of relief. Congratulations, you have just put out a big fire and impressed management with your ability to work hard and get the numbers to them that they wanted.
I say rubbish! If you have to pull this stunt more than twice you must enjoy the pain. These types of requests come in regularly and shouldn’t be a surprise. It shouldn’t be hard to get to the information that runs our business. In this business all we own is the good will in the industry, our brands and the DATA.
Basic back office systems are needed to ensure that we can utilize our data on an “as needed” basis. This doesn’t mean that you have to go out and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of time building elaborate systems but it does mean that you should have basic systems in place that allow you to track your information without much trouble.
Let’s start with some basics:
- Develop a common customer number for Exhibitors
- Keep track of relationships (parent/child) and mergers
- Don’t add new companies to your list unless you are SURE that they are not a company already in your list
- Be sure to store/use your customer number in the system(s) that you are using for billing and inventory
Once your data has this common thread of a customer number then pulling data together for reporting should be much easier. And, when you decide that the time is right for you to move to a full fledged Exhibitions Management System or Association Management system you will already have your most basic building block ready to go.
One last thing, once you have gone through the work to have a common customer number for your exhibitors put someone in charge of keeping the data clean. Sitting back and giving a sigh of relief after this project won’t do you much good if someone isn’t minding the data in the months/years to come. You will just end up doing it over and over.
Filed under: Uncategorized Shawn Pierce @ 3:47 pm on 10/10/07
This Blogging world is interesting. We have already been accused of not having enough content on the eMerge blog for it to be “relevant”. (see http://blog.meetingsnet.com/face2face/2007/10/08/new-blogs-emerge/) That’s amazing to me given that the site just launched a week ago. Tough crowd!
I welcome the challenge…
Filed under: Implementing Technology Shawn Pierce @ 3:34 pm on 10/10/07
The creation of this blog is a great example of how I like to do projects (technical or not). At Hanley Wood we call it “small incremental wins”. We take a large complex problem and break it down into smaller components. Then we will “fix” a particular component and then move on to the next component. There may be months between the components getting fixed based on their complexity. Meanwhile we have implemented at least one fix and gained an “incremental win”. All of the stakeholders that want the overall complex problem to be fixed feel that the project is successfully moving forward and then become cheerleaders to the next component. The incremental win philosophy has been a tremendous success for me over the years.
Many projects fail because they are simply too big both from a technology standpoint and process change standpoint. The CEO’s and Executive Directors out there will typically want to have big splashy home runs. Try your best to “talk them off the ledge”. Map out where you want to be overall in 2 years and then begin to take small incremental steps toward your goal. Trust me, your life will be much easier and ultimately you will reach that big splashy home run that senior management wants…
This eMerge Blog is in its infancy. We just launched a week or so ago and we already have over 6 active bloggers. The blogging system works, the interface is easy for the users and writers and we have been generating hundreds of site visits per day. I call that a successful first step. We have achieved a small incremental win and the Exhibitions and Event industry is better for it. We will continue to take “steps” to improve our site and the content that will be released at the actual conference.
Filed under: Partnerships, Implementing Technology Shawn Pierce @ 3:37 pm on 10/10/07
Throughout the years I have had many conversations with the leaders of the tradeshow world. Each has bemoaned the fact that the software that they have purchased isn’t working as advertised. Many companies will choose a particular vendor’s software then think that their work is done and that the vendor will take over from here. I contend that this is not just wrong but a recipe for disaster.
Software vendors in our industry are not very “big” by software company standards (think Microsoft, Oracle & Adobe). Most are privately funded. Think about it, we are a relatively small industry and even if a vendor captures the majority of the marketplace there isn’t much money left over to be your Business Analyst, training staff and implementation team.I have always taken the view that our requirements should be met 90% by the software we choose and 10% by changing our internal processes. Now, achieving the 90/10 ratio usually isn’t “out of the box”. I often look for software and vendors that have a base platform that meet most of our needs and MORE importantly a vendor that I feel I can work with to close the gap to our requirements.This requires working to find a win-win solution between the vendor’s long term development plan and your internal infrastructure needs.
So, when asking for a change to the software you should ask yourself “Will this change just satisfy our particular needs OR will this change serve the greater customer base that my vendor is seeking to capture?”. If the answer is that only you and a handful of others could possibly use the change then you have some decisions to make. Can this requirement be satisfy with a process change? Do I want to try and pay the vendor for a customization (if they can even spare the resources)? Or, perhaps you can slightly modify your requirements and have the vendor slightly alter their software in a way that will work for both sides.
Turn your vendors into partners and EVERYONE will be more satisfied, results will be achieved AND your new partner may do you a favor in the future…
Filed under: Team Building, Implementing Technology Shawn Pierce @ 7:27 am on 10/10/07
When was the last time someone from the technology department went to your show and did something OTHER than IT? Have they interned at the show? Did they shadow the operations department through the setup or space draw? Associations and Independent Show organizers don’t have large technology departments so it’s hard to spare a tech person to simply be onsite to learn. But how else do we expect this team of people to learn the importance of the systems that they are expected to specify and support back at the office? I’m not suggesting that everyone in IT go to the show but those individuals that are responsible for your back office systems NEED to understand what happens “when the rubber meets the road”.
Technology is an ever increasing component of how we do business yet I have found that most technology people in our business have very little tradeshow/event experience. Taking the time to teach these people our business will pay big dividends down the line.
