As associate editor for Connect magazine, I heard about Connect Marketplace for six months leading up to it. I heard about the speakers we had lined up and wrote about them for the show issue. I understood the concept of the reverse trade show. I knew we’d be building bikes for Louisville youth, networking with colleagues in the Connecting Lounge, and taking photos of meeting planners at the photo booth. But like most events, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like until you’ve attended.

Well, now that I have one Marketplace event under my belt, I have a few observations to share. One of the first things I noticed about Connect Marketplace is that it’s a great event at which to network. From the opening party at the Derby Museum at Churchill Downs to the reverse trade show, planners and suppliers had a lot of face time with one another. But giving people face time is one thing — it’s like that old adage about leading a horse to water. Sure you can’t make him drink, but you can encourage it. And that’s what Marketplace does. The mood is relaxed. The trade show has a lot of energy. The educational sessions are conversational and informal. It’s easier to open up and talk to people when the environment is comfortable and fun, so perhaps that’s why I came home with a stack of business cards as tall as the coffee cup I’m sipping from this morning.

Connie Lacy with the American Jail Association speaks with representatives from Louisville at Connect Marketplace (Photo by Tammy Gentuso)

The other major takeaway I came home with from Connect Marketplace is that people are meeting. Registration numbers are up and room blocks are growing. Is the industry where it was three or four years ago? No. That’s why meeting planners filled Barbara Dunn’s contract negotiations sessions, where she advised them on how to guarantee the best room rates and what still can’t be skimped on. (“Don’t negotiate non-economic items like risk management,” she advised.) But is the meetings industry better than it was last year? Yes, and planners are still getting more creative. Overheard in the sponsorship session: “Sometimes the craziest things generate the best ideas.” Said in Maurilio Amorim’s marketing session: “It works because it’s different,” referring to the new Old Spice commercials. But I didn’t hear a lot of “cut back,” “cancel” or “not doing it this year.” Sure, some planners are staying closer to home or trying to find that new destination that’s affordable and attractive, but that’s why they come to Marketplace, to find out what destinations work best for their meetings.

As a magazine editor, the actions I take now differ somewhat from those of the meeting planner. I’m not going through my notes trying to determine what destinations work best for my upcoming meetings. But some of what I do now is the same as what planners and suppliers are doing back at the office. That big stack of business cards next to my coffee cup? I’m sending e-mails to all those people, thanking them for helping me in so many ways last week. The notes I took during educational sessions? I’m poring over them, deciding what changes I can implement now and what needs to be applied to a long-term plan for our magazine. (I’m updating keywords on our website today, as Jim Spellos suggested during one of his sessions, but my notes on doing a website redesign is something that will be filed away as fodder for a longer-term strategy.) I’m posting photos and video from the event, connecting with attendees through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as Corbin Ball advised.

I’m looking at much of what I learned last week through the lens of “what this means for the meetings industry.” And that’s my job, to share with our magazine readers what I think they should be aware of in the industry. In the next few months, the rest of our editorial staff and I will write about ethics, technology and Generation Y as it relates to this ever-changing meetings industry in which we all work. You’ll read about it in our magazine, on our website and on our blogs. Because no matter what you learn while you’re at a conference, no matter how many pages of notes you take and how many PowerPoint presentations you request from speakers, that knowledge falls empty without implementing it, sharing it with your boards and staff, and applying it to your next meeting. So before we come together again in 2011 in Chicago, let’s take what we learned in Louisville to improve our meetings and events.