Professional Growth Accelerators
Over the next several months, Rentacomputer.com is going to feature tips from influencers. We’re asking industry leaders to share one key ACTION, STRATEGY or IDEA they feel Planners need to do our jobs more effectively.
Each article give you usable, repeatable techniques all to make your work better and easier.
November Influencer | Mr. Corbin Ball
This year, Bizzabo named Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP, DES, MS, #5 in their list of the TOP 60 Most Influential Events Professionals to Follow.
They based Professional influence on strict criteria:
- Klout Score (overall social media presence)
- MOZ page authority
- Twitter Follower to Following ratio
- Professional Qualifications
Corbin is a speaker and independent third-party consultant who focuses on meetings technology. He is also a writer who is widely respected throughout the industry he has helped shape over the last 20 years. Corbin Ball’s Link List is one of the must-have Planner resources.
With so much expertise to impart, Corbin was the ideal influencer to begin our new series: Professional Growth Accelerators. Since Corbin excels in Event Technology, that is where we’ll begin our series.
Corbin Ball’s Strategy
Technology is not an end; it’s a means to an end: to help planners improve the attendee experience and to save time and money.
~Corbin Ball
The question Planners need to continually ask is, “Will this technology add meaning? Does it support the main message of the people in this picture?”
If the answer is no, then you might be better off investing money on things that do. That said, people learn by doing. You can’t be afraid to try new things.
What New Technologies Are Planners Using?
Corbin just released his September 2016 Newsletter and this article: Seven Meetings Technology Trends to Watch in 2017—it’s a MUST READ. If you haven’t subscribed, you’re missing out on a goldmine.
Over the coming year, you will see an increasing focus on capturing the moment over social media, integration of resources, data driving experiences and collaboration, and total immersion experiences:
- Live streaming during events (ala Periscope and Facebook Live) has gone viral; new aspects of intellectual property rights need to be explored
- Beacons used in Data Gathering (location based analytics) to monitor wearers as they move about an event; part of personalization trend
- Location-based Social Engagement Technologies are being used to connect people with others of like interest during the events
- Companies are merging | Developers are connecting together apps to form more comprehensive end-to-end event planning solutions (one-stop-shop is part of a move to partnerships and happening across technology in general)
- Rental Virtual Reality Headsets and Augmented Reality technologies for immersive visual enjoyment
Each of these advances promises to make your job as a planner easier and your events more interesting, but that is always with the caveat that nothing distract from the main message of your event.
Bruce Kasanoff, famed ghostwriter and social media engagement expert warns that every article–or in this case every Event–has one message. No more, no less. Failure to follow this axiom weakens the impact of your message.
The temptation that you must doggedly resist is to get overly gadgety. Find the balance. Less is definitely more. In the end, everything you do as an events planner provides a faberge setting for the crown jewel of your event–the theme.
When you return people’s minds back to your theme you succeed.
Technology Done Right Takeaways from Corbin
Bringing an Event to Life is at once rewarding and demanding. In one sense, you’ve done your best work when nobody notices what you’re doing.
Keep in mind technology is one of your most powerful tools. A heavy-handed approach can have unintended consequences. Corbin’s final pointer about Event Technology is simply this:
You always want the attendees to walk away with the programmatic message. If they only take the technology story with them, then the attendees really weren’t able to hear.
Our thanks to Corbin Ball for this great approach to adopting new technology in the exciting year ahead of us.
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