Ben Stein On The Meetings Industry

I had the opportunity to interview Ben Stein (economist, lawyer, actor) a few years ago after he spoke at MPI’s World Education Congress. His defense of face-to-face meetings is still extremely relevant today.

Here’s a clip from that interview.

What are your thoughts on how face-to-face meetings will help our economic recovery?

 

Known as the “Voice of Meetings & Events”, Glenn Thayer is a host for live and televised events. He specializes in online/hybrid meetings, conference moderation and strategic content delivery. He can be contacted at glennthayer.com or @glennthayer on Twitter.

 

 

The Changing Face Of Meetings November 2nd

From the CSAE website:

Attended a meeting lately? Or viewed an online presentation? What’d you see: Talking heads? PowerPoint? Easels?

Your members want more. And different.

Television, YouTube, and TED talks are making huge shifts in expectations for delivering content to members. Older formats and techniques are rapidly becoming ineffective and obsolete. To keep your  members engaged, you need to change the way you design and deliver meetings.

That’s why we’ve scheduled Glenn Thayer for our next Learn with Leaders Luncheon on Friday, November 2nd from 11 am to 3 pm at the Denver Marriott Tech Center (4900 S. Syracuse Street, Denver, CO 80237). Glenn has helped plan hundreds of meetings, from small local events to international conferences. He’s been a part of both awful events and amazing ones. And he’s going to share with you how to make sure your meetings fall into the “amazing” category.

In his cutting-edge program, The Changing Face of Meetings, you’ll discover:

  • Why yesterday’s meetings don’t work today
  • What your members want and don’t want in a meeting
  • How to turn your meetings into “must-attend” events
  • 12 things you can do to make your general sessions more powerful
  • How to reach a wider audience (without a bigger marketing budget)
  • Why nearly everything you’ve heard about hybrid meetings is wrong
  • When to do hybrid meetings and when not to
  • How to engage younger audiences
  • How to improve member acquisition and retention
  • Secrets to generating more revenue
  • How to incorporate the latest technology into your meetings
  • Strategies for creating more value for your sponsors
  • How to make your association more relevant than ever before
  • And much more!

Glenn Thayer, The Voice of Meetings and Events, and president of Thayer Productions, is a host for live and televised events specializing in hybrid meetings, conferences and content delivery strategies. He consults with meeting planners to help them exceed their meeting goals without exceeding their meeting budget.

You’ll not simply hear Glenn talking about “hybrid” meetings, but you will be experiencing one as well.

To help in the presentation and answer your questions, Glenn will be joined by other industry professionals: Elizabeth Glau, Building Blocks Social Media; Scott Collingsworth, Swank Audio Visual; and Brian Doubleday, Greenworks Video.

Face to Face Plus Streaming Broadcasting

For persons unable to attend this expanded event in person, can view the main part of the program online or on their mobile device. The deep dive session will be in person only. (Click here to log in the the live webcast at 12:30 PM on November 2). To register for the face-to-face program, visit http://csaenet.org/index.cfm/ID/251.

I hope you can join me!

The EventProfs Virtual Attendee Wish List

I’m here in Chicago gearing up for Event Camp. Tomorrow, I’ll be your virtual host for Event Camp and moderating a session called Thinking of Your Virtual Audience: An Open Discussion. With the input of many folks in the #eventprofs community, I put together a wish list of elements that make for a successful virtual/hybrid event. Below is the culmination of that input. I invite you to join us virtually for Event Camp tomorrow and Sunday and contribute to the discussion.  You can register for free at http://bit.ly/ecncvirtual.

The #eventprofs Virtual Attendee Wish List

1.  The virtual audience wishes to be able to participate and interact in real time with the face-to-face audience and one another, to extend our learning and build camaraderie within our community.  We want to join and leave conversations as on-site attendees do, to be able to have “side conversations” with several virtual and face-to-face attendees outside of the general chat stream.

2.  The virtual audience wishes for a virtual host and tech moderator, someone who is a touch point for the virtual attendees. We wish for a person that is on-site, reaching out to us, encouraging and sustaining our participation with direct interaction, someone to ask questions and give comments to the presenter on our behalf (giving a voice to our tweets).  This person will engage us when there is an on-site activity that we cannot participate in.  They will give us custom content specifically designed for the virtual audience, including interviews and a “behind the scenes” look at the room to show us what we are missing (show us, don’t tell us).

3.  The virtual audience wishes for great content and transparent technology (audio is clear, video is clean, and the presentation visuals can be seen). Don’t give us a reason to check our email.

4.  The virtual (and face-to-face) audience wishes to have speakers that can deliver their content effectively to keep us from falling asleep in our chairs.  Please stop punishing us with painful panel discussions that we can’t engage with (a Q&A at the end doesn’t cut it).

5.  The virtual audience wishes to have a virtual environment or platform that is easy to understand and navigate, where we can find the content we need, listen to the speaker deliver his/her presentation, and interact with other attendees.

6.  The virtual audience wishes to have the availability of a dedicated Twitter stream (hashtag) and a real person moderating it.

7.  The virtual audience wishes to have clear start and break times for our virtual attendance (virtual agenda).  We don’t want to miss out on participating in something that was setup and broadcast just for us.

These are our wishes…   But realize there will be more.

What are your wishes as a virtual attendee of a conference or webinar?

Special thanks to Lara McCulloch (@ready2spark), Mike McCurry (@michaelmccurry), Mike McAllen (@mmcallen), Greg Ruby (@GregRuby), Adrian Segar (@ASegar), Christina Stallings (@MsStallings), Vanessa LaClair, Heidi Thorne (@heidithorne), Tahira Endean (@TahiraCreates), Christina Coster (@MizCity), Joan Eisenstodt (@JoanEisenstodt), Deb Roth (@PinkDeb), Midori Connolly (@GreenA_V), and Jeff Hurt (@JeffHurt) for contributing to this wish list.  You guys ROCK!!!


Known as the “Voice of Meetings & Events”, Glenn Thayer is a host for live and televised events. He specializes in hybrid meetings, conference moderation and strategic content delivery. He can be contacted at glennthayer.com or @glennthayer on Twitter.

The Event Camp Experience Part I

I’m here in Chicago and excited for the opening reception here at Event Camp.  The next two days are going to be filled with excitement, energy, and a whole lot of learning.  Most of the Eventprofs community will be here (those that aren’t will be missed). The great part, is that you can still attend virtually for free at http://bit.ly/ecncvirtual.

The view from my room at the Hotel Allegro

I get to  interview all of our speakers here at Event Camp, so if there is anything you want me to ask them, send me a tweet (@glennthayer) and I’ll share your questions and comments.  I’m also moderating a session on “Thinking About Your Virtual Audience.”  Your input would be great (before and during the session)!

I hope you can join us at Event Camp!

Cheers,

Glenn


Known as the “Voice of Meetings & Events”, Glenn Thayer is a host for live and televised events. He specializes in hybrid meetings, conference moderation and strategic content delivery. He can be contacted at glennthayer.com or @glennthayer on Twitter.

Using Voice Talent For Meetings & Events

If you’ve ever been to a meeting or event, you’ve heard the voice talent.  A voice talent can add a tremendous amount of professionalism and excitement to your meeting or event.  Not sure what that is?  Take a listen.

Glenn’s Corporate Meeting Voice Over
GlennThayer_2009_corporate.mp3

So what is a voice talent?

A voice talent is the person you hear, but don’t see.  They could be the movie trailer voice, the voice of the loading zone at the airport, video game voices, radio voices, television voices, trade show kiosk voices and more.

We’ve all heard the voice talent say “Ladies and Gentlemen, please be seated” and the infamous “Please welcome your CEO…” at many meetings and events, but what can it do for you?

A professional voice talent can:

  • Keep your production at a professional level
  • Be a great substitute when you don’t have a budget for a professional master of ceremonies
  • Narrate your videos
  • Brand your event (before, during, and after)

I’ve posted some generic “please be seated” voice overs below for you to use.  Download them here and use them in your production today!  They are in WAV format and can be transferred into your playback system of choice (Instant Replay, iTunes, CD).  Need something customized for your conference or event?  Contact me and I will be happy to help you out.

10 Minutes Before Show – (right-click to save)

5 Minutes Before Show - (right-click to save)

Show Is Beginning - (right-click to save)

Got questions?  Give me a call at (719) 473-6848 and I would be happy to answer them!

Known as the “Voice of Meetings & Events”, Glenn Thayer is a host for live and televised events. He specializes in hybrid meetings, conference moderation and strategic content delivery. He can be contacted at glennthayer.com or @glennthayer on Twitter.

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