Recession coming? Perhaps the best way to keep briefed on your profession is to attend the annual conference of your peers. Yet wouldn’t you enjoy the event more if you had a greater voice in the meeting design and formats, topics and speakers, participation and networking opportunities and ways you could meet online before and stay connected afterwards?

In this podcast hear about trends and fresh ideas for meetings from respected pros who cover all kinds of meetings for MeetingsNet. Meet The Meetings Group Editorial Director, Betsy Bair and Face2Face blogger and Association Meetings Editor Sue Pelletier. They’d just returned from PCMA’s big conference in Seattle, with fresh ideas on how to “Collaborate, Communicate, Innovate.

Betsy enjoyed a Pecha Kucha session.

“Did you go there on vacation?” “I rode on that bike ride for breast cancer too.” “Oh, you went to that meeting too?” Walking around the conference halls, with your favorite tote bag over your shoulder is like carrying a mini-billboard about some special part of your life. Such questions are easy conversation starters. It’s about increased approachability amongst strangers. As when walking your dog, you’re more likely to talk with others walking theirs. One thing leads to another, as you walk into the next session together.

This clever way to reduce the waste generated at meetings also helps attendees get to know each other. MeetingsNet blogger, Sue Pelletier got the tip from Nancy J. Wilson’s blog, Pretentious Musings of a Green Meeting Planner.

Per Wilson, “One of the newest green meeting practices is asking participants to bring their own conference bag instead of a sponsor supplying one. It makes sense, we all have so many. Before you say your participants would find this ‘tacky’ or ‘cheap’, hear me out.

Because, what is actually happening is participants are showing up with bags:

• From an earlier conference.
• From organizations they belong to in their personal lives.
• Imprinted with personal messages such as “Ask me about…”
• Bags From their favorite vacation spot.”

Just as Richard Florida asks, Who’s Your City?, meeting attendees who bring their own bag, can ask each other, “Who’s your bag?” to get to know each other. Next? Name tags. (Reuse them.)
Conference participants: here’s another way to recycle – and do good.

About nine years ago I started bringing home from the conferences where I spoke the inevitable mugs, tee shirts, pens and, of course, conference tote bags. I collect them from six other nearby speakers and take them up to a well-run non-profit here in Marin County.

Once I saw one of “my” tee shirts on a young, pregnant Vietnamese woman (2005 in Orlando ~ American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons) and another time I glimpsed a man carrying two shovels, with a very full tote bag over his shoulder (Intel inside, We Meet Our Goals, 2004). I told a friend, with a quicker mind than mine, about these two sightings and he responded, “Too bad we couldn’t switch the shirt and the bag.”

As well, consider bringing home those extra hotel soaps and shampoos (oh, you do, eh?) and donating them to your favorite non-profit. Maybe to help the homeless, or for a womens’ shelter.

He was in Bangalore and his co-presenters were in San Jose, yet Cisco’s CEO appeared live – on the same stage. How? By using a breathtaking 3D holographic-like technology. They tout it as, “the world’s first real time virtual presentation. Aptly, it’s called TelePresence.

See Sir Richard Branson – live at a London press conference, while standing at Necker Island, his Caribbean retreat. Or preview “the first space age Olympic swim suit.” On Wednesday a Telstra executive in Melbourne, Australia interacted with an audience in Adelaide.

My friend Rick watched a demo and raved about it. Suddenly, this is a competitive space. And, yes, this is Cisco’s big new business, partnering with Musion, yet it will have to cost less to gain traction. Why am I interested in it, aside from the astounding effect of a holographic human presence?

Because:

• The realistic presence it provides means people around the world can gather for what really feels like an in-person gathering.

• The best actors anywhere for a particular play can assemble to enact it, for more people to see – live and later.

• The top experts on a topic can appear on a panel, taking questions from audiences in many places.

• Crowdsourcing becomes easier.

In short, it enables more realistic “face-to-face” group collaboration. Cisco had an I-Prize contest in which anyone could propose novel ways to use this technology. Already it is in 28 countries, lightening the carbon footprint. Five years ago I spoke on Cisco’s global, in-house on-demand TV station. I still get emails from Cisco employees who clicked on their computer to see my presentation when they thought it might help them with a current need. Holographic-like appearances, however takes that kind of live and on-demand capability to a whole new level.

As useage goes up and cost goes down, the world will flatten for more Me2We opportunities. We’ll be able to get a better feel for each other, no matter where we actually are. I can hardly wait to try it.

Skip travel and lodging costs. Meeting Planners’ Alert:

For PCMA, SGMP, MPI, ASAE, NSA,MeCo, MeetingsNet, MiForum and others in the meeting or communication professions: bring the most relevant speakers and panelists to the same stage – no matter where they are standing in the world. Enable “attendees” to talk with them. Encourage convention centers and conference hotels to provide this capacity, offered by Cisco, HP or other firm. Set the bar higher.

First, Cisco CEO John Chambers is providing it for large conferences, concerts, events, awards ceremonies, multi-site meetings, high level briefings, retail, museums and product launches – even movies and soldier/family conversations. Then Chambers wants to bring it to our homes. (Well, not every room, in the home.) Stay tuned.

Pecha Kucha. This “equal time” meeting format is wildly popular because everyone gets a chance to share and compare in a quick and lively way. That’s why it spread around the world so quickly in the past few years. Attendees loved it yesterday when Joan Eisenstodt demonstrated the approach at PCMA’s prestigious conference of meeting professionals. “I am now a big fan” wrote MeetingsNet blogger Sue Pelletier who covered the session.

Pecha Kucha Night was originally conceived as a way for young architects and designers in Tokyo to gather and “show-and-tell” their work, leaving enough time to compare notes afterwards. Here’s how it works.

Each person who wants to talk about her or his work presents a slide show (a PowerPoint presentation). They are limited to 20 images, each slide showing for no more than 20 seconds.

Thus each presenter get six minutes and 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter pops up to present a pithy message.

Think of it as speed dating for meetings where the goal is to quickly learn a great insight from each other. This format has spread throughout the world, from Amsterdam to here in San Francisco. By the way, Pecha Kucha is Japanese for chit chat. Brevity is growing popular.

Besides using Garr Reynolds’ fabulous new book, hosting your own Pecha Kucha gathering – and avoid death by PowerPoint.

… so they’ll want to come back next year. How many conferences have you attended where you felt talked “at” by a series of speakers up on stage? Then you rushed between sessions to meet new people and catch up with friends in the hallways. Wouldn’t it be great to have a meeting designed to support you in exchanging ideas with the colleagues most helpful for you? Well, next February many professional meeting planners will be attending a conference that’s designed to in a “Me2We” way – where attendees turn from passive to active participants – interacting more frequently and productively. Then they can celebrate together and to learn from each other. (Not a new idea – just one that is spread too slowly for some, including me.) Some in the food industry have jumped in to help peers.

Want your next conference to be more meaningful and memorable? Via Jim Louis, one of the adept moderators of a closely-knit online group to which I belong called MeetingsCommunity (MeCo), I discovered MeetingsNet’s coverage of the innovative formats for the conference, “MPI Meeting Differently”:

“To improve the trade show experience, MPI is changing the layout of the exhibit hall. One innovation is something MPI calls “conversation spots,” freestanding circular plexiglass towers that are divided into quadrants and placed in high-profile spots around the exhibit hall. The idea is to provide a more intimate meeting area for exhibitors and attendees than they normally find on the trade show floor.

Organizers tinkered with more than just the trade show format. New concepts include:

a. The “Conversation Café”-a learning environment based on a coffee shop.

b. “Book clubs” – discussions led by book authors and subject matter authorities.

c. Wikis – each educational session will have its own wiki pages to encourage pre- and post-session communication and collaboration.

d. Educational sessions in “soft seating” or lounge-style meeting environments. Most of the 80 educational sessions will eschew a traditional classroom setting. Instead they will be held in the round to facilitate interactive learning and discussion.”

My hope is that this is the tipping point to make meetings even more interactive so attendees find in each other fresh ways to be mutually-supportive. Even as a “professional” (aka paid) speaker I’d welcome more short (20 – 30 minute) “meet the expert” sessions around 8-12 person tables, with a bell ringing so you could move through three sessions in a block. Then the mix and mingle times are more fun and valuable. That’s because you’ve probably discovered some people who share your interests and gotten a sense of whom you might like and respect enough to talk further. Use CrowdVine or other services to set up a social network – just for the conference.

For an invitation-only gathering, have inclusive, action-inducing rituals like the TED conference or Rennaisance Weekend.

Plus why not let attendees vote on the topics, speakers and session formats they most want?

And why not ask all invited speakers to 1) submit in advance, three of the tips they will present, then 2) receive an email of all speakers’ tips and be required to 3) refer to at least two other speaker’s tips as they complement the speaker’s message. Thus the conference would have more continuing threads of themes.

Also why not have lively panels of inside and outside experts (1. journalists or columnists, 2. researchers at investment banks, and 3. veteran, respected exhibitors) who see, from a different perspective, the sector represented in the conference. Give each panelist just seven minutes to offer their best two pieces of advice for attendees. Encourage attendees to submit written questions as they listen. Volunteers could gather the questions, sort for best mix for the strong and well-liked MC to present to the panelists to answer. As attendees leave the meeting room, they are given the handout with the written version of panelists’ tips and their bios. Thus attendees see more candor and pertinent content – in a contagiously active way. Who knows? That may lead to more unconferences. And, perhaps more associations and other member-based groups will start their own social network to keep people involved, meeting and collaborating all year long.

Speaking of partipatory, hear holiday cheer that’s guaranteed to make you laugh with joy. My way of wishing you a (Me2We) holiday you savor – with others .