James Spellos speaks in HTML and Twitter

OK, so he doesn’t actually speak in code, but James Spellos knows what he’s talking about when it comes to technology, websites and social media. He founded Meeting U., a tech education and consulting business for meeting professionals. He’s shared some of his Internet wizardry and wisdom during Connect Marketplace events, and he shares a few of them here.

1. On a site inspection, test the Wi-Fi in both the meeting rooms and guest rooms. And ask whether it’s wired or wireless, because some attendees prefer one to another.

2. Check out event.com, where planners can search venues by square footage, number of rooms, amenities and more.

3. Keep the keyword content high and prominent on your website so someone visiting it knows what it’s about in five seconds or less.

4. One key to a good site: Get other websites to link to you. Find out if others sites are linking to you by going to google.com, and typing “link:[www.yourwebsitename.com]” into the search bar.

5. Consider using an audience response system during events. The technology lends itself to getting the information you would normally not get until a post-event survey. What better way to find out how people like what we’re doing, how much people like or dislike the conference, than to really get a sense about what people feel at the time they are feeling it?

6. The old-school approach to events included save-the-date cards, expensive four-color brochures and telemarketing. The new approach should include viral videos, web-based info, a Facebook event page, Twitter and branded communities.

7. Older generations want something tangible. So you can push digital tools, but use traditional ones if your group wants it.