About:

Why: Evans has organized technology and health care events during his career, and he wanted to create a better way to connect planners with speakers. “Many events, especially those with small staff or volunteer program committees, are understaffed—and they are often overwhelmed by the information and choices for public speakers in today’s marketplace,” says Evans.

How It Works: Planners can perform standard speaker searches or publish open calls for speakers based on event openings. Speakerfile’s technology platform aims to match the speakers and their specialties with events that might work best for them.

Find Out More: speakerfile.com, @speakerfile

Most of us feel claustrophobic in an airplane restroom, but consider the problem of a typical sumo wrestler. At weights up to 600 pounds, these VIPs can’t fit into airplane restrooms at all. To cope, they don’t eat or drink for half a day before flying to enable them to withstand a 10- or 11-hour flight with no restroom breaks.

Andrew Freund, founder of the California Sumo, has planned hundreds of events for sumos during the last 15 years and works to accommodate the needs of his larger-size clientele. Freund organizes the U.S. Sumo Open, an international sumo tournament involving 50 sumo competitors from 15 countries. He has also worked three different times on international events for Japanese professional sumo, each involving about 110 people, including 42 all-star elite sumos and another 70 or so coaches, referees and judges. He organized exhibition tournaments in 2005 in Las Vegas, in 2007 in Hawaii and in 2008 in Los Angeles.

One of Freund’s key objectives is to make travel as easy and comfortable as possible for sumos, especially during a long airplane ride, and to minimize travel time. Depending on the size of the sumo, ground transportation might include a taxi or a large-size van. Yamamotoyama, a 6-foot-4-inch, 600-pound Japanese sumo, recently came to the United States for several appearances. When traveling around, he sat flat on cushions on the floor of a Dodge Caravan, from which the middle seat had been removed.

When flying, two adjacent first-class seats work well for sumos, but if they’re unavailable, three economy seats in a row work as long as the arm rests fold up. First-class seats also may be too expensive, sometimes five or six times the costs, possibly beyond the budget of the organization paying for the ticket, says Freund. There are no weight limits for passengers on commercial flights, but some airlines require passengers to buy additional seats. “We’ve put guys who are 500 or 600 pounds on a plane, no problem,” he adds.

In Japan, professional sumos are well respected and enjoy high status. They expect the rock-star treatment when they travel, says Freund. For the Grand Sumo Los Angeles Tournament in 2008, Freund chose a hotel that was less than four miles from the competition venue. “For elite caliber sumos, the less they have to wait around and sit on a bus, the better,” Freund said.

Sumos certainly represent an extreme, but current trends suggest meeting planners will increasingly have to accommodate attendees of more diverse sizes in coming years. The size of the average American has increased substantially in the past two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Proper medical care and adequate nutrition contribute to people getting taller, too, which presents its own challenges in travel and housing.

Luxury accommodations can often offset travel challenges for tall people, says Quartknee Kwatek, who manages heightsite.com, a website for tall people and the people who shop for them. Extra limousine legroom and luxury vans might seem opulent for standard-sized individuals, but for taller people, this additional space is a necessity. The National Basketball Association is likely the country’s largest employer of tall people, and it has the advantage of providing luxury accommodations to serve the needs of tall players. For tall people who don’t play basketball, such perks can be cost-prohibitive.

At 6-foot-4-inches, Kwatek has experienced challenges such as insufficient legroom on airplanes. His thigh bone simply doesn’t fit in the allotted space. The only possible relief is an exit-row seat behind another seat that doesn’t recline, but these seats are now being sold as premium seats that are first-come, first-serve for any traveler willing to shell out the extra cash.

In most hotel rooms, the furniture and other features are not built for tall people. “The minute I sit at a desk, I’m uncomfortable,” Kwatek said. Only a few hotels, such as several Hotel Monaco locations operated by Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, offer “tall rooms” with features such as high ceilings and raised showerheads. Otherwise, hotel beds for tall people should be queen-size at least (on which they might sleep diagonally without having their feet hang over the edge of the bed). Better yet is a king-size bed or even a California king, which is slightly narrower than a king but four inches longer.

Ceilings and door heights can be a challenge, especially in older or smaller hotels where uncommonly low heights may be grandfathered in despite existing building standards. In most hotels, he adds, the mirrors are so low that he generally only sees his shoulders as he walks by.

Meetings can be particularly uncomfortable for tall people, Kwatek says. Chairs in a seminar environment are not designed for tall people. Long education sessions, such as a seminar that begins at 8 a.m. and doesn’t break until 12:30 p.m., can be a nightmare and put excess strain on a tall person’s legs. There are companies that manufacture taller chairs, but they aren’t commonly available at hotel venues. Many chairs also have weight limits; a standard 250-pound weight capacity is normal. And at teambuilding activities, Kwatek is always prepared to feel “weird and uncomfortable. You just try to make the best of it; there’s not much you can do as an option.”

Freund admits there are some special challenges to face when planning his sumo events. “But on the other side of the coin, sometimes concerns are exaggerated,” he says. “Generally speaking, it isn’t that difficult.” For example, concerns that a hotel bed will break are overblown, especially considering that a sumo is no heavier than the combined weights of a large couple. “A sumo might eat what two people eat, but they’re not going to take out the whole buffet. If you put some common sense into it, it isn’t that difficult. You just have to make the necessary adjustments.”

Kwatek feels similar about planning for large participants. “Tall people have been tall for a while, so they accommodate the environments,” he says. It’s nice for planners to consider a tall person’s needs, but it’s unnecessary to point out his or her special requirements in front of a large group. “As the tall person or the big person, you don’t want to always be the issue,” he adds.

Biggest annual event:
USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championships

Number of attendees:
Up to 400 teams, each with 10-15 people on a roster, plus parents, spectators and staff. In total, around 14,000.

Venue requirements:
Enough space (minimum of 300,000 square feet) for up to 36 courts plus a grand stand; close proximity to housing, food and attractions; reliable local transportation or very walkable; and plenty to do in free time

What are your favorite cities? 
Minneapolis and Austin. Both are very foot-friendly, have great food and entertainment nearby, and great CVBs and staff to work with.

If money were no object, where would you want to have your next event?
Hawaii just sounds like heaven for an event. The families would love it, our staff would love it, I would love it. There would just be a lot of love.

What’s your favorite planning tool or resource?
The Internet. I handle all of our equipment RFPs so I do a lot of research and the Web is invaluable to me.

Do you belong to any professional organizations?
I am a member of the National Association of Tournament Directors, and we, as an organization, are members of the NASC.

Did you always want to be a meeting planner?
I don’t think I ever pinpointed what I wanted to do. When I was little, it was a dancer. In high school it went from writer to lawyer to doctor. In college it went from doctor to advertising to wanting to be involved with the Olympics. That’s when I started getting the bug for wanting to be involved in events, sporting events specifically.

What’s your best advice for a fellow event planner?
You can always do better. Never assume you have that event down pat. It should always evolve and better itself and yourself as a planner.

When you’re planning events, what can you not live without?
Email and the Internet. At the event, my phone.

What do you most miss?
Before the event, time. During the event, sleep.

Who are you most inspired by?
My fellow events department co-workers. We’re a tight-knit group, always coming up with ideas for each other.

The GRI EOSS is based on corporate social responsibility and helps the events industry demonstrate CSR value to its partners and customers, resulting in improved business practices. “Transparent reporting is fundamental to organization success and growth,” says Sebastien Tondeur, CEO of MCI and chairman of MPI. “GRI provides the most widely used guidelines for sustainability reporting. With the GRI framework, it will be easier for the events industry to provide transparent information on the sustainability strategies and performance of their events.”

The framework helps event organizers report on widely applicable issues including greenhouse gas emissions and waste, and more specific issues such as legacy of the event, attendee travel and sustainability initiatives employed by the event. The EOSS can be downloaded here. MPI will present two webinars on the launch of the GRI EOSS. More information can be found on its website.

“Gary was a kind and hard-working man for meetings and tourism,” said Newt Collinson III, founder of Collinson Media and Events. “Our industry will miss him. He led Orlando, empowered his staff, and he made a positive difference for the entire hospitality business.

“On a personal level, I lost a friend,” added Collinson. “Gary was always quick to give suggestions on our Marketplace events and compliment our magazines and editors.”

Visit Orlando Chairman and Hyatt Regency Cypress Gardens General Manager Paul Tang said in a statement, “Gary was a loving son, husband and father. Our thoughts go out to the people he most cherished, Gary’s mother Elizabeth Sain, wife Pam and daughters Vanessa Sain-Dieguez (Luis) and Olivia.”

Memorial Information from Visit Florida:

A public viewing will take place from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, May 11 at Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home, and a celebration of his life and funeral will take place Saturday, May 12, at 11 a.m. at Northland Church. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for consideration of a donation to one of two scholarship funds established in Gary’s name:

UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management
An endowed scholarship has been established in memory of Gary C. Sain at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management for students majoring in Event Management with an emphasis in Destination Management. Gary spent his entire career in the hospitality industry and was passionate about supporting students desiring the same career path. He often spoke at the College and was a member of the Dean’s advisory board.

Destination & Travel Foundation
As an expression of remembrance and sympathy, the family requests contributions to the Destination and Travel Foundation in the name of Gary Sain. A memorial fund has been established to honor Gary’s leadership and legacy in the destination marketing industry. Destination and Travel Foundation. 2025 M St. NW Ste. 500, Washington, DC 20036.

All sporting events are similar in some ways yet different in others. Ages, gender and level of competition vary, but planners of these tournaments need to be aware of the special planning they require. Those who travel for amateur sporting competitions are either participants or the parents of children active in the sport. This typically means that the drive—the real passion—is for the sport, not necessarily the event. Yet attendees expect a successful, well-run competition every time. Here are a few ideas to help ensure you produce an event that athletes will want to return to year after year.

Know Your Impact

Understanding the positive financial impact that your event can have on a host city is a huge advantage. It’s not just about what is spent by you, the event organizer. It’s about all the residual items that drive the economic engines of industry: food, gas, hotels, clothing, activities and attractions, to name a few. Events with as few as 750 attendees can create millions of dollars in economic impact. By working closely with the local convention and visitors bureau, sports council or tourism board in the area where you are planning your event, you can get a feel for your event’s estimated impact. The key questions to ask are:

1. How many TOTAL people participate in the event? This includes the actual participants in the competition, parents, friends and relatives, coaches, officials, event staffers, volunteers, set-up personnel, technical staff, etc.
2. Do you contract hotel room blocks for attendees? How many hotel rooms get utilized as a result of the event? This is a major financial indicator and leverage opportunity. Hotel usage can be used to offset venue (convention center) costs as well as drive ancillary income for the event owner or organizer.
3. Do you want to institute a “Stay to Play” policy, requiring that teams stay at designated hotels? This will ensure that you minimize downside contract risk and maximize profit potential. It also enables you to best leverage an established usage history if you use different cities and venues. There is one caveat with Stay to Play: Make sure that your group will support it. Institute a marketing campaign to communicate the positives and the rewards will be evident.

Choose When and Where

Deciding when to hold a sports event can impact participation, costs and fees, and availability of venues. It can also impact the costs of goods and services purchased locally. Most sporting-related events are seasonal; there’s not much competitive football in the summer, for example. Depending on when you decide to schedule an event, you will be competing for space with other groups: corporate, association, religious, trade shows, entertainment/concerts, festivals, etc. All of these will drive demand for sleeping rooms, venue space, parking availability and alike.

Choosing a location can also have an impact on your bottom line. It comes down to timing and demand. A weekend in Atlanta may be relatively expensive to book, while the same weekend 90 miles north in Chattanooga or 90 miles south in Macon may be a real value. Some need-to-know items relative to when and where to hold an event include:

1. Determine location “need” times. By researching when venues and hotels are typically or seasonally less occupied, you increase the opportunity to strike lower rates at hotels to attract participants and venues where you’ll be conducting the competition.
2. Timing is everything. Less desirable weekends for some may be great for your event—holidays like Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, President’s Day or Easter, for example.
3. Your biggest competition may not be another sporting event. Always know what other larger groups may be competing for goods and services at the same time as your event. A larger gathering may decrease your ability to secure the most desired dates, rates and space. Additionally, if another group expands in size, and has a longstanding history in the city or venue, you may get squeezed out or relocated into less favorable space. Larger groups may also erode sleeping room availability and drive higher rates due to decreased inventory.
4. Lastly, check availability of double-bed room availability. King beds are great, but traveling team scenarios thrive on multiple beds and multiple occupants to defray costs.

The final key to successfully planning a sporting event is to seek out professional assistance when needed. Professional event management, venue contracting, housing and registration management can be done by agencies that already have contacts in the industry. Many of these services are available at no cost to you, the event owner or organizer. Make educated and calculated decisions based on what is best for you and your needs.

What’s on your event iPod?

1. Media Tablets and Beyond: Tablets will continue to permeate the business world, and IT managers need to prepare for how an organization will use them and how its members will, too.

2. Mobile-Centric Applications and Interfaces. Windows, icons, menus, and pointers are being replaced with touch, gesture, search, voice and video. Apps are becoming simpler to create and operate, and HTML5 will also provide a long-term model to address cross-platform (iPhone versus Android) issues.

3. Contextual and Social User Experience. Contextually aware products and systems link mobile, social, location, payment and commerce. (Think geo-location–based apps). What’s next: augmented reality.

4. Internet of Things. This concept describes how, as the Internet expands, physical items become more connected to it (example: TVs). The products will have embedded sensors, image recognition and near field communication (NFC) technologies.

5. App Stores and Marketplaces. Gartner forecasts that by 2014, there will be more than 70 billion mobile application downloads from app stores every year.

6. Next-Generation Analytics. Analytics is growing along three key dimensions: embedded analytics, real-time data analysis and complex data acquisition.

7. Big Data. The size, complexity of formats and speed of delivery exceeds the capabilities of traditional data management technologies. New ways to acquire and store data are emerging.

8. In-Memory Computing. Besides delivering a new storage tier, the availability of large amounts of memory is driving new application models. As cost and availability of memory-intensive hardware platforms reach tipping points in 2012 and 2013, the in-memory approach will enter the mainstream.

9. Extreme Low-Energy Servers. Low-energy servers are built on low-power processors typically used in mobile devices. They are becoming more common for non-complex tasks.

10. Cloud Computing. Cloud computing, which is storing materials in Web space instead of on computer hard drives, has the potential for broad long-term impact in most industries. Companies including Oracle, IBM, SAP and Microsoft are introducing or improving cloud products.

Tell us what technologies you use when planning events.

Technology companies interested in being part of the New York event can submit applications until March 23. Companies will be exposed to more than 150 innovative, early adopter event planners in the NY area, as well as to an online audience via Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more.

More information can be found here or visit plannertech.com. Follow @plannertech (or #plantech) on Twitter to find out more about the event as it gets closer.