ITCM

Monday, 18 July 2016

Technology

Answers to important questions for event organisers

Data is the key to the success of events. Every event generates a mountain of data ranging from contact details to dietary requirements to sponsor leads. As the event approaches, that data is typically shared across a variety of participants, from exhibitors to advertisers to hotels. This data can also move across international borders. Put simply, a lot of information moves around a lot of different people in a lot of different countries.

Tags:

MICE data delegate Event data protection

10326 Hits

How to make events less stressful

Thursday, 03 March 2016

MICE

John Fisher provides a checklist of 7 essentials

A recent survey by Q Hotels in the UK highlighted the fact that more than 70% of event organisers lose at least two hours sleep the night before organising an important event.
More than a quarter reported that they feel anxious before an event. 98% say that they need time for their body to recover after an event due to all the pressures exerted by the constant do-it-now demands of professional event management.
Being concerned that all the planning goes right on the big day is not exclusive to event organisers, of course.

Tags:

MICE delegate Event management Event organisers

8772 Hits

Mobile phones at events

Monday, 01 February 2016

Technology

Should they really be banned?

According to IMEX research, 40% of organisers would like to ban mobile phones (and other portable devices) from conference sessions. They say they are too distracting for delegates.
The American comedian Kevin Hart recently tried to do that at one of his gigs. Before he came on stage, the audience was subjected to several aggressive Tannoy announcements that the use of mobile phones and cameras was banned and that they should be switched off and kept in pockets.

Tags:

MICE delegate mobile phones conference organisers

7085 Hits

Give your event a theme

Tuesday, 05 January 2016

MICE

John Fisher shows how to attract more delegates

Imagine a world where people have no names. It would be very confusing for everyone. It also suggests that individuals are not very important. But as we know, individuals do have their own personality with a unique contribution to make. Being different can change groups of people and even nations by the sheer force of that difference. Personal charisma can even change history.

Tags:

MICE delegate Event management Event theme

7148 Hits

Sam Robson, Group Events Director at The Appointment Group

Istanbul is the place for events

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

MICE

Sam Robson Group Events Director at The Appointment Group, gives her view of the Turkish capital as a MICE destination

Known as the city where Europe meets Asia across the Bosphorus, Istanbul is also the meeting of ancient history and super cool – and an ideal location for both conference and reward events. A huge, bustling city with a population over 15m, it is just a three-and-a-half hour flight from London with British Airways, Turkish Airlines and low cost carriers flying several times each day.

Tags:

MICE Destinations delegate Istanbul DMC

12416 Hits

Don’t distract with technology

Friday, 27 November 2015

Technology

It only helps the good presenters

Over the years I’ve been to countless conferences and witnessed every conceivable level of presentation – from the amazing right through to the depressingly awful and that goes for both speakers and topics.
I vividly remember one session where the speaker was interminably dull and spent the whole session with his back to the audience. On that occasion I felt compelled to stay - in the hope that he would turn around and I’d see his face when he discovered that most of his initially sizable audience had silently crept out!

Tags:

technology delegate digital presentations Speaker

6714 Hits

Be responsible for event registration security

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Technology

What to check with your technical team

More major companies have recently fallen foul to security breaches. Some have seen the direst of consequences, with the Ashley Madison hack even leading to suicides. Every sector must look at how it protects the data of its customers – and this certainly applies to the events industry.
An increasing number of conferences have websites where the delegates sign in, pay to attend, and book sessions – but is their information securely protected?
Some of the onus is on the people registering for these websites to choose secure passwords and this is one place where size DOES matter.

Tags:

MICE Events Security delegate registration

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Keeping track of delegates

Friday, 11 September 2015

MICE

John Fisher chips in with a suggestion

Pet owners may well be familiar with microchips that carry information in a small, plastic RFID, usually inserted into the back of an animal’s neck. In the UK some 7m pets are ‘chipped’ in this way, so that, if lost, they can easily be returned to their anxious owners.
It was Dr Mark Gasson who first pioneered the idea of data-carrying chips for humans in 2009 in the UK. The chip would carry vital health information in the event of accident or an incapacitating illness, so that medical professionals could diagnose problems more quickly and restore the patient to health again.

Tags:

technology delegate future tracking Chip

8779 Hits

Bells and whistles can’t mask poor material

Friday, 21 August 2015

Technology

Content is the most important factor for delegates

I’ve attended a lot of presentations at events over the years and it seems to me that the definition of a presentation is increasingly getting lost somewhere along the way.
The dictionary says a presentation is a ‘speech or talk in which a new product, idea or piece of work is shown and explained to an audience’, but I’m seeing an increasing number of presentations that have a brief introduction followed by the speaker telling the audience to get into groups to discuss the topic.

Tags:

MICE delegate content presentations talk

5634 Hits

Is hospitality worth the trouble?

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

MICE

John Fisher, Director, FMI Group, asks incisive questions

After a recent seminar I conducted for event organisers about the UK Bribery Act…emphasising the point that hospitality was not illegal and that the Ministry of Justice was really not interested in who you may take to Wimbledon this year… one delegate from the pharmaceutical industry asked if it was okay, then, to still put chocolates on the pillows of cardiac specialists as a gift from the organisers. My reply was that if a heart surgeon was really going to be ‘unduly influenced’ by chocolates on his pillow, it’s probably time to look for another medic.

Tags:

MICE Events delegate Incentive hospitality

10459 Hits

Ebola can be a threat to international gatherings

Sydney Paulden

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

MICE

Behaviour protocol should be established for the future

The world has great sympathy for so many people in parts of West Africa who have lost family members to the dreadful ebola epidemic. No one can fail to appreciate how appalling it must be to live in an affected area and to see the fever spread around you.
It has at last become a priority for nations outside the affected areas to provide assistance as rapidly as possible – and, at the same time, to do everything possible to protect their own nations from its spread.

Tags:

MICE Meetings Show ebola delegate

9153 Hits