Corbin's September/October 2004 TechTalk Newsletter Volume 6  ●  Issue 5    |  8 September 2004     |    The Meetings Technology Professionals

Welcome to Corbin's TechTalk Newsletter, in its fifth year of providing the latest in technology for meetings, hospitality and travel professionals in more than 60 countries. In this issue: NEW ARTICLE: What Meeting Planners Want from Speakers  NEW ARTICLE: Using Teleconferencing for Meetings Success RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: The Online Internet Giants Impact on Meetings NEWS 10 WEB FAVORITES FOR BUSINESS AND FUN NEW ARTICLE: Reverse Lead Retrieval for Tradeshows NEW ARTICLE: Avoiding Wireless Chaos - Using Wi-Fi for Meetings. QUOTE OF THE MONTH CORBIN'S CALENDAR and the fine print. Click here for a free subscription to this newsletter or, if you are already a subscriber, to manage your subscription. Thanks to our sponsors who make TechTalk possible. Please click on the links below and tell them "Corbin sent you." SmartEvent SmartEventSM is a revolutionary way for attendees, exhibitors and show owners to increase ROI from each event. SmartEvent creates pre-show attendance justification reports, recommends introductions among buyers, sellers, peers and partners, and converts each event into a post-show community for peer networking and commerce. For more information, contact: Mike Godsey, ExpoExchange, 301-662-9401, ext. 2367.   Great Online Registration Software RegOnline is a leader in the registration business with innovative technology, great pricing, and a support team that you will want to tell your friends about. RegOnline will make your event management lifeeasier. Contact: www.regonline.com or 1-888-351-9948 x3   Hawaii Convention Center "Where Business and Aloha Meet." Designed to create a uniquely Hawaiian sense of place, the Hawai'i Convention Center is the perfect place for meeting of virtually any size or occasion. RFID Name Badges from Dietze Enterprises, Inc. Improving on the capabilities of lead generation and session tracking systems that use 2-D barcodes or magnetic stripes, RFBadge (patent pending) delivers Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to show managers and their exhibitors.   RFBadge provides enhanced security, identification, data exchange, attendance verification and exhibitor lead retrieval in a low cost, easy to use system. BEYOND REGISTRATION eMeetingExperts takes meeting planning beyond registration with ePlanner(TM). Manage budgets, room block, air/ground travel, breakouts, and a/v while creating a complete meeting plan, Personal Agendas (TM), name badges and more! Tightly integrated with Microsoft Office, you can exchange data with your current registration or meeting planning software. Imports e-itineraries!  For more information or a FREE TRIAL, visit www.emeetingexperts.com. Travel Planners, Inc. The million things that could go wrong won’t when Travel Planners is your housing provider. Put an end to attrition. Forget about “bookarounds” and customer complaints. With 25 years of experience, Travel Planners can create an error-free Master Plan for you. Get a free copy of our Anti-Attrition Plan at www.tphousing.com. EIBTM -- 30 November-2 December 2004  -- Barcelona Spain EIBTM Is The Premier International Event Dedicated To The Global Meetings And Incentive Industry.  EIBTM attracts 5,000 industry buyers and 2,000 exhibitors from over 100 countries. Over 2,500 buyers at EIBTM are top-level decision-makers bought to the event as part its Hosted Buyer Programme®. ConferZone ConferZone is the first objective e-conferencing resource that tracks the latest technology and trends in the marketplace. ConferZone provides information on Web conferencing, video conferencing, voice/audio conferencing, collaborative conferencing as well as expertise on hardware, equipment and consulting services.     Attendee Management Inc. (AMi) AMi breaks down the barriers to online registration, housing, travel and e-marketing. No license fees, no software to manage, just dedicated, experienced service. Pay only for what you need, and provide the solutions your attendees and clients expect. Contact info@attendeenet.com, or call 512.842.1613 CardinalWare CardinalWare is a 4th Generation Content Management System that fully integrates management of information, personal profiles and distribution.Whether you need a new or better Website, online marketing and communications tools, integration with other data, or anything in between, CardinalWare may be right for you. Visit our Website or call us at 888-755-7075.  NEW ARTICLE: What Meeting Planners Want from Speakers This article covers the key points of what meeting planners expect from speakers written from my perspective of being both a meeting planner and a professional speaker. NEW ARTICLE: Using Teleconferencing for Meeting Success Technology is booming, bringing people all over the world closer together through advanced systems of communication. Why not take advantage of this for your business? You can save time and travel costs by arranging meetings or presentations over the telephone, through video transmissions, and via computer. This article by Susan Friedmann, CSP, The TradeshowCoach gives several helpful ideas on how to do this better. RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: The Online Internet Giants’ Next Business May Be Meetings This article, by Sara Torrence, CMP appearing in the June 2004 issue of Convene, covers the impact of the online travel giants such as Orbitz and Expedia as they try to capture the meetings travel market. It includes some of my thoughts on the issue as well.  NEWS:   Meetings Consolidation Report from Corbin Ball Associates coming this fall This report will be the the first ever to provide an in-depth perspective on the major leading 'strategic' meetings consolidation systems on the market. If you're on the decision committee for a new meetings consolidation or events planning system, then you won't want to miss it.   EIBTM Technology Village I will be attending and assisting with the EIBTM Technology Village in Barcelona in the late fall this year. It is one of the few meeting industry events that group the technology companies together in one convenient location. If you are a technology company, let me know or click on the link above for more info.  Worldwide Technology Watch for meetings technology innovation winner announced. IntroNetworks, a visually appealing online networking tool, was the unanimous winner from 32 entries in the Worldwide Technology Watch for meetings technology innovation at the judging this past week in London. Honorable mentions were given to Dietze Enterprises (www.dietze-inc.com) for it RFID badge technology and 3Touch Intelligent Conference Systems for it Liberty Lectern. This award, sponsored by EIBTM will be awarded during the EIBTM show in Barcelona 30 November-2 December. 10 WEB SITE FAVORITES FOR BUSINESS & FUN   3 Favorite Meeting Industry Sites: Event Marketer Lots of articles, resources, links and ideas on how to effectively market your meetings and events. OnSitePM This simple and easy-to-use online project management product has modules designed specifically for meetings. Now everyone, even those in remote offices, can be on the same page in the status of a meetings project. ESpeakers.com This interesting site, designed primarily for speakers and speaker bureaus, helps to streamline the process for meeting planners to find out a speaker's availability and to book them online. The system is being used by 20 bureaus and has been endorsed by NSA and MPI. 4 Favorite Utility and Search Sites:   CEOExpress This customizable business portal is chock full of news and business links designed for the "busy CEO." Thanks to Paul Bruno, from the Bruno Group, for recommending this link. The Travel Insider This content-rich site for road warriors has lots of articles, news, ideas and information on airlines and travel and how to make the process easier. Fraud and Phishing (ID Theft) Test Avoid becoming "phish" bait! Phishing is use of the web for ID theft scams. What seems to be a legitimate email from Earthlink, E-bay, or bank or other legitimate company asks you to "re-enter" for validation purposes your ID information including credit card number, PIN number, etc. These are almost always scams and they are exploding in prevalence. I strongly urge you to take this test to see if you can differentiate legitimate email messages from the scams -- you may be surprised at how hard this test is. Are you a Cell Phone Offender? Take this Cell Phone Courtesy Test 3 Sites for Fun:    Vanity Plates A great alphabetized collection of hundreds of vanity license plates. Jib Jab's This Land Although widely distributed, this is the funniest "political cartoon" I have ever seen. If you have just landed from Mars and haven't seen it, definitely check it out. 200 presidential campaign commercials from 1952 - 2004 This very interesting site includes streaming video of political campaign commercials, categorized by election year and candidate, from the time television's infancy. Commericals are much more sophisticated now than in the 50's, but, in many way, they are just the same.  NEW ARTICLE: Reverse Lead Retrieval – New Directions in Tradeshow Data Collection A novel “reverse lead retrieval” product is now available putting data collection in the hands of the show visitors (the buyers) and providing significant new ways of quantifying exhibitor return on investment by tying tradeshow participation with actual sales. NEW ARTICLE: Avoiding Wireless Chaos - Using Wi-Fi for Meetings Because of its attractive economics and flexibility, Wi-Fi (the popular term for a high-frequency wireless local area network, or WLAN), is an excellent way to deploy High Speed Internet (HSI) in a hotel environment. This very informative article by  Bill Halpin, VP of Engineering for Core Communications is high in content and very light in the sales pitch. QUOTE OF THE MONTH:  "Men have become the tools of their tools." - Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) CORBIN'S SPEAKING CALENDAR My speaking and consulting schedule for September and October will bring me to Bloomington, MN, Kansas City, Boston, Toronto and Cape Town and likely a few other places as well. Check the link above for specific details. I would love to make your city one of my destinations as well, so please contact me and let's set a date. CORBIN'S PROGRAMS FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS  TESTIMONIALS CORBIN'S CONSULTING AND WRITING SERVICES SPONSORSHIP:  Want to help sponsor Corbin's Tech Talk Newsletter sent to thousands of subscribers in 60 countries interested in meetings, events, trade show and hotel technology? E-mail me at: contactcorbin@corbinball.com PRIVACY STATEMENT: We respect your privacy. Your, e-mail address and any other information will never be sold, traded, rented, bartered, or given away. Nor will it be used for any other purpose than to communicate with you. Period!   TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.corbinball.com/contact/ You can also change your preferences at this address. LIST DIFFICULTIES?  Send a message to: info@corbinball.com. REFERRALS: If you know of anyone that would benefit from my free email newsletter (sent every two months) containing the latest in meetings technology in clear language designed specifically for the meeting professional, please forward this newsletter on.  CONTACT INFO:  Corbin Ball, CMP, Corbin Ball Associates, 506 14th Street, Bellingham, WA 98225-6107 Phone: 360-734-8756  |  Email Corbin| Web: www.corbinball.com  © Copyright 2004 Corbin Ball Associates. This letter and its content are proprietary products. All rights reserved. Please forward the entire letter to anyone you feel may be interested.