Molly Hackett, principal of Nix Conference and Meeting Management

In the United States, 200,000 children are at risk for exploitation every year. Child sex trafficking is a widespread occurrence, and many meeting planners don’t realize they can help stop it, says Molly Hackett, principal of Nix Conference and Meeting Management. She plans to change that.

Hackett visits about 50 hotels each year in the course of planning events for her clients. In 2008, one of her company’s clients, the Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph, was looking for a location for its 2011 conference. The federation asked Hackett to inquire about policies on human trafficking during hotel site visits. Trafficked children are often taken to hotel rooms, and many properties have no victim protection system in place.

The nuns asked Hackett to find a hotel that agreed to sign the tourism code of conduct developed by End Child Prostitution and Trafficking, or ECPAT-USA, an organization that protects children from commercial sexual exploitation. Its business code of conduct helps travel and tour companies create programs and policies to identify victims and traffickers. Hackett used the ECPAT-USA business model to create the Meeting Planner’s Code of Conduct, which was signed into existence in January on National Human Trafficking Day. The Millennium Hotel in St. Louis, site of the Sisters of St. Joseph conference, was the first hotel to sign the ECPAT-USA Code of Conduct for hotels.

We talked to St. Louis-based Hackett to find out what impact meeting planners can have on stopping such a widespread problem.

Why is child sex trafficking so prevalent?
It all comes down to the basic economics of supply and demand. There’s a demand for it and somebody’s supplying it. The demand is for younger and younger girls—those in 7th grade represent the average age group.

Why did you decide to create the Meeting Planner’s Code of Conduct?
When we first started researching [the code of conduct], we called ECPAT-USA and asked if we could sign their tourism code of conduct. We walked through all the steps and went back to our board; we reviewed their model and decided that our goals didn’t exactly fit the ECPAT-USA code of conduct. They weren’t familiar with meeting planners, especially a third-party planner.

How can planners have an impact on child sex trafficking?
Meeting planners have a really unique position. When you are on-site and your group is there for a week, you are the source of income for that venue. Whenever we’ve gone to a venue, we request an audience with the management property team. We thought we had a position where we could spread the word about human trafficking in hotels in our daily business. We talk to hotels every day and this is something we can add to our RFPs and track that information. We can take that opportunity anytime we’re on-site to talk to the management team about the code of conduct and what it means. Meeting planners are able to, without any extraordinary effort, give voice to the cause.

How is the Meeting Planner’s Code of Conduct enforced?
All of our information refers [the hotel or property management] to ECPAT-USA; they are the ones who implement the code. We created a brochure that talks about the issue and encourages meeting and event planners to sign the code of conduct. When planners are in hotels, we will inform the general managers about the human trafficking issue and encourage them to sign the ECPAT-USA Code of Conduct.

What impact do you think your code of conduct will have?
In the short time since the code has been signed, we have been able to reach more people than we imagined. It wasn’t something people didn’t know about; it’s just that they didn’t know it was so prevalent or aware it was in their city. The best thing that could happen is for meeting planners looking at the code of conduct to realize that it’s not so far out of our natural business that it wouldn’t be eventually incorporated into the daily business.

How do you train meeting planners to include the code in their site visits?
It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that this is happening. We did one training [session] and it became clear that people are struggling with [the idea of child exploitation] and the average age of the girls trafficked. We decided we needed more sessions for people to process it and then go back and do the training again.

What happens when a meeting planner agrees to your code of conduct?
Planners who adopt the Meeting Planner’s Code of Conduct agree to establish an internal social responsibility policy, implement an action plan with objectives and timeframes, and report back annually.

For more information or to learn how hospitality and event businesses can become involved, visit ecpatusa.org or nixassoc.com.

In 1992, I started my event planning career as an intern at a North American concert promotion agency. My boss, the CEO of the company, became my first mentor in the industry, guiding me in business with tools I still use today. His first piece of advice: Always be honest in business. If you make a mistake, he said, never hide it or lie about it. Eventually I earned my stripes and began managing large-scale public events, festivals and concerts. Eight years later, after I’d begun a corporate planning career, a mentor suggested I join Meeting Professionals International. I became an MPI member and received a certificate in the mail with a poster that said, “Principles of Professionalism.” I read it and read it again. I framed it and hung it in my office. Here in part is what it said:

Maintain professional integrity.

• Honestly represent and act within one’s area of professional competency and authority without exaggeration, misrepresentation or concealment.
• Avoid actions which are or could be perceived as conflicts of interest or for individual gain.
• Offer or accept only appropriate incentives, goods and services in business transactions.

As I look at these three areas of maintaining integrity, I realize that following (or not following) an ethical path in the meetings management profession starts with the individual and fans out into the entire organization. The GSA incident provides many examples where a few individuals took an alternative path and did not adhere to the guidelines dictated by their organization.

Reports of the GSA conference detail a red carpet awards ceremony that recognized the hired musical performers rather than government employee contributions. According to reports, employees were told the event was listed as an “awards ceremony” so federal dollars could be spent on food at the event.
In another example, the conference’s main organizer, administrator Jeffrey E. Neely, hosted a party in his room the night of the closing dinner. According to the Inspector General’s report, Neely’s relative—a non-GSA employee—selected the menu for the gathering and added more food. The relative reportedly contacted the GSA event planner on Neely’s staff and knew there was money in the budget to take care of the additional food.

MPI’s Principles of Professionalism are a code of conduct for our industry. A personal ethics policy begins from within, but what happens when employees are directed by their superiors to make decisions that circumvent organizational mandates? The choice becomes take a stand or risk losing your job. Reports describe Neely as directing his staff to make the conference “over the top.” When his staff suggested that this might not be a good idea, he ignored their viewpoint.

These examples are overt instances of not adhering to guidelines. The GSA incident also reveals less apparent examples that could be seen as gray in the ethical spectrum. Federal travel rules and regulations impose cost limits (government-rated sleeping rooms, for example). The Inspector General said GSA got around these restrictions by promising the hotel additional catering revenue in return for bringing the room rate down to the government’s acceptable limit. While they weren’t breaking the rules outright, they were misrepresenting the guidelines, which, according to MPI’s principles, does not honestly represent and act within the area of professional competency.

U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow responded to the GSA incident, saying, “Unfortunately, a single instance of irresponsible decision-making has the potential to cast a negative light on the millions of men and women who work every day to make America’s meetings, conventions and events industry the best in the world.” The ripple effect of one misrepresentation can be a tsunami for an entire economic driver.

I again look at the MPI poster hanging in my office. It goes on to say, “Commitment to these principles is implicit to membership and is essential to instilling public confidence, engaging in fair and equitable practices and building professional relationships with meeting industry colleagues.” There is a footnote that clarifies the meaning of “public” as “oneself, the association, fellow members, meeting attendees, clients and customers, suppliers and planners, employers and the general public.”

At a young age, I learned through my mentors that you won’t have a career without honesty and trust. That’s the basics of ethics. It starts from within.

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.

Start with a number in mind. “I’ll contact a few of my favorite speakers bureaus and tell them what I’m looking for, the topic and my price range,” says Becky Burgess, CMP, CMM, senior director of meetings for the National Association of Electrical Distributors, who’s hired thousands of speakers in her more than 30-year career. “I’ll also reach out to other associations and consultants I’ve used in the past for recommendations.” Burgess sets Google Alerts for terms like “American heroes” when searching for inspirational speakers.

Know your budget and speaker-fee price range—$5,000 to $10,000, $10,000 to $20,000, or $25,000 and higher—advises Jeff Hurt, director of education and engagement for Velvet Chainsaw Consulting, the firm that produces the annual Speaker Report. (Hurt has hired thousands of speakers throughout his career, at one point securing 1,300 industry speakers a year.)

Consider celebrities, then consider alternatives. Big names bring buzz, not necessarily crowds. “Just because someone is an actor or author doesn’t mean that they’re a good presenter,” says Hurt. Research conducted by Velvet Chainsaw Consulting last fall provided surprising results on the topic: “A keynote who is a household name—an actor, a musician, politician, or an athlete—has no effect on increasing registration,” reveals Hurt. “That being said, on-site at your conference, a famous person will cause people to show up for that session.”

There are benefits of hiring a celebrity, of course. “It gives you some PR, some hype and something to market,” Hurt says. “Conference attendees who go to see a household name are much more forgiving. A famous person can be an average speaker and the audience will love it.”

Book famous speakers early at a fraction of the cost. Once upon a time, practically no one had heard of Frank Abagnale, the forgery expert whose life inspired the film “Catch Me if You Can.” Today he’s a highly sought-after speaker who books gigs at tens of thousands of dollars a pop. “Work with a bureau in looking at what movies or books will be released right before your conference starts,” says Hurt. “If the movie is [a biopic] about an unknown person, that’s the perfect time to hire said unknown person. Secure them a year out to speak at your conference in a general session.”

Burgess booked Chris Gardner, author of “The Pursuit of Happyness,” just before the movie of the same name was released. “He was around $17,000 when we hired him. After the movie came out his fee jumped to around $79,000.”

Research, check references, interview, then hire. A bad speaker can reflect poorly on the person who hired them. “I’ve had speakers who cursed on stage or told inappropriate jokes,” says Hurt. “The number one question to ask a reference is, ‘Would you hire them again?’ If the answer is ‘no,’ move on. If the reference hem-haws around and won’t give a direct answer, the answer is ‘no.’ If they answer ‘yes,’ do a little more research.”

Look for delivery style, content and visuals. “You can have great delivery on stage and poor content, and the audience will love you,” he says. “You can have poor delivery, great content and the audience will hate you. See a video clip of that speaker in action. Watch shots of the audience responding. If there’s no audience footage, can you hear them laughing with the speaker or clapping?”

Hurt advocates taking a chance on rookie speakers, too. “I may place them in breakouts at first, but I’m always about new partnerships. Many times, speakers who you take a chance on, if they become successful later, will do favors for you because you gave them their start.”

Burgess takes agency recommendations, reviews videos and does phone interviews. “If a speaker’s willing to talk to me beforehand, that shows they’re willing to go the extra mile to learn about us and meet our needs.”

Burgess also includes crucial speaker guidelines in contracts. “They have to read, sign and send it back. It basically says things like, ‘Don’t use company names as negative examples in your stories if members of that company may be in the audience.’ It’s common sense but people still make these mistakes sometimes.”

Set your speaker up for success. Give speakers every possible advantage. “I’ve had a speaker embarrass me to death before, getting up on stage and calling us the ‘electronics’ association,” says Burgess. “After that, I started asking speakers if they would go to a local distributorship where a member can walk them through the facility and tell them about who they’re going to be speaking with.”

Define success. “Give them your audience demographics,” says Hurt. “I would [tell speakers], ‘I’ll consider you successful if you reach an 80 to 90 percent favorable rating with our attendees. If they walk out of the room talking about you, they want to stand in line and buy your book, if they’re enthralled with what you say and they say that it’s relevant—you’re successful.’”

Equally thrilling was the economic boost to Denver and its hotels, restaurants, retailers and attractions—an estimated $21.9 million—that the annual Colorado Crossroads event and its 45,000 attendees brought to town in late February. “It’s not your typical convention, but it’s the most significant annual tournament held in Denver,” says Litherland.

Significant indeed, given the list of Denver’s numerous sports tournaments, from wrestling and lacrosse to youth soccer and inline hockey. “Ten years ago people might have looked down their nose on these types of tournaments, but not anymore,” says Buddy Wheeler, sports marketing coordinator for the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We’ve been actively pursuing these kinds of events for years,” says Wheeler, who coordinates everything from road races to cheerleading in his Atlantic Coast city. “It’s good money and a win-win for everyone.”

Start Smart—and Early

Planners who organize these tournaments for thousands of amateur athletes, their coaches, families, friends and fans, admit it can be daunting—the setup alone for Crossroads’ 90 composite-floor volleyball courts took two full days. Even the first step—selecting a tournament site—isn’t always easy. Finding a city with good access, a workable convention center and an affordable, sizable room block is difficult enough, but that process becomes even more complicated for amateur sports tournament planners who have a list of additional requirements specific to their sports and athletes.
“A big part of this for us is strategic planning,” says Jeff Scully, executive director of the Maine Games and a board member of the National Congress of State Games, which is responsible for arranging the biennial State Games of America. The 2011 national tournament, which included everything from archery and badminton to skateboarding and power lifting, was held last August in San Diego, drawing some 9,100 athletes from more than 40 states. Even in a city known for its convenient downtown airport, bounty of group-friendly venues and a healthy chunk of hotel rooms, the NCSG still faced challenges.

It helped considerably that San Diego, like a growing number of destinations, offers the services of a dedicated sports commission. “Unlike your typical convention, with sports you need a lot of venues of multiple types and you need them all to be available,” says Steve Schell, vice president of sales for the San Diego Sports Commission. “Everyone has baseball and soccer fields, but they’re not just sitting around empty waiting for a big event to come to town. It’s important to line them up early on.” CVBs and sports commissions can save planners time and energy, Schell says, by knowing not just their local venue inventory but which ones can be rented and when. “We added bowling to the 2011 games, which turned out to be very popular,” says Scully. “But we couldn’t have done so if there weren’t a lot of bowling alleys right in San Diego,” he adds, a fact that Schell’s group was aware of in advance.

Finding a bevy of bowling alleys is certainly challenging, but Scully says other less obvious issues face his planning team. “The biggest [challenge] was anticipating three years out what the economy would be like for us and the athletes,” says Scully, citing travel costs (for athletes and their families), access (flying vs. drive-in) and marketing (to draw both fans and participants) as major factors. “We had to overcome those obstacles in that economy in order to have a truly national event,” he says.

Getting in and around Town

When planning the USA Volleyball Boys and Girls Junior National Championships, cities with public transit and plenty of double-room hotels have an edge, says Barbara Eisenbeis, manager of events for the Colorado Springs-based group. “We don’t have a set rotation because it’s difficult for cities to fit us in, due to the time we’re in town and the sheer size of our group,” she says. That means 816 teams of 12 players each, plus their entourage and fans, arriving somewhere in late July for an annual 10-day tournament. “We require 30,000 room nights and up to 350,000 square feet of unobstructed space, and we really appreciate cities that have well-run public transportation,” says Eisenbeis, who counts Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis and Dallas among tournament sites that score points for their user-friendly rail systems. “It’s not the end-all, but it’s super helpful.”

Denver met almost all of the requirements for the recent Crossroads volleyball tournament, but it still came with a few potential stumbling blocks. For example, while the convention center covered the tournament’s general space needs, the exhibit floor still required extra configurations for fan seating, sponsor displays and product demonstrations. Registration was another potential issue. Each team’s players needed to be strictly verified before the roster information and eventual game scores could be entered into the national database. “It’s a complicated process but imperative for both the fans and the teams so that they can get their proper ranking,” says Kay Rogness, executive director of the Front Range Volleyball Club, which runs the qualifying tournament each year.

Another concern is housing, specifically affordable properties, close to the main event facility, that can accommodate up to four youths per guest room. Proximity to family-friendly restaurants is also a plus. “We had over 50,000 people in Denver for two weekends, and since we don’t have meals inside the convention center, having restaurants amenable to groups nearby was a real bonus,” says Rogness. And for the Crossroads Volleyball event specifically, parking options and crowd control are always scrutinized. “We open our doors at 7 a.m. and it looks like Black Friday at Wal-Mart, with 10,000 people waiting to get inside,” she says. Rogness hired regular Denver police to help direct auto and foot traffic throughout the tournament’s busiest times. On peak tournament days, traffic was extremely heavy but smooth, she adds, as drive-in attendees filled up and emptied out the center’s main parking facility at least three times.

Quirks of the Game

Even after settling on a location and ironing out logistical details, a tournament planner still has to sort through the finer points of what works for their participants and what might need adjusting.

In a typical conference setting, low ceilings, harsh lights and excessive air conditioning might garner some attendee grumbling and a pointed barb or two on Twitter or post-meeting evaluations. At cheerleading (think: human pyramids), badminton (watch the birdie) and table tennis tournaments, though, they could spell disaster. “There are no venues specifically built for table tennis,” says Dave Del Vecchio, national organization director for USA Table Tennis. Even the best convention centers are built for space, not air flow, hence the need for lots of windows and strong, ongoing ventilation. “The ball is really small and light and we’ve had issues where the A/C will cause the ball to get caught in the air flow,” he says.Being able to see the ball, especially from a player’s standpoint, can also prove problematic. “It’s a huge factor in the sport,” says Del Vecchio. “Most convention centers don’t have the kind of lighting designed for sporting events. You can add it, but that adds considerable expense as well.”

Sunlight’s also a no-no, so windows need to be covered. College gymnasiums? “Their seating and lights are designed for basketball, where the ball is much bigger,” he says. The ideal venue? “A well-lit cave,” quips Del Vecchio.

The third time was finally the charm for the Cedar Rapids Area CVB in Iowa bidding on the annual National Horseshoe Pitchers Association World Horseshoe Tournament. “It’s two weeks long and for us the timing—between mid-July and mid-August—was really good,” says the CVB’s director of sports tourism Mary Lee Malmberg, who had first looked into booking the horseshoe pitchers 23 years earlier just after joining the bureau. “They needed an air-conditioned facility where they could build a minimum of 50 horseshoe courts, but we didn’t have the facilities back then,” she says.

For the 2010 tournament, though, Cedar Rapids came to the table well-prepped with ample venues (notably a spiffy new ice rink at Kingston Stadium) and an enthusiastic base of local volunteers. But right before Cedar Rapids was set to bid on the 2010 NHPA in 2008, the city had its worst flood in 500 years. “Everyone had seen us under water just a month earlier, although none of the facilities were impacted, so we knew we had to address this,” says Malmberg, who mixed humor (she arrived for her presentation in a snorkel and fins) with an appeal to the NHPA’s community-service side. “We offered the organization an opportunity to come here and help our local community rebound by stimulating our economy in a time of need,” she says.

Cedar Rapids had two other things the horseshoe group craves: local volunteers and prime soil. “You need really good dirt for the pits and we have plenty of blue clay. It’s the best,” she says. After receiving all the bids, the NHPA awarded Cedar Rapids the event on the first ballot.

To read more about what it takes to plan a tournament, check out A Closer Look with Barbara Eisenbeis.

Why did you start PrimeTime?

I was involved with coaching and traveling to tournaments with my youngest son when he was playing high school basketball. We went to a lot of bad tournaments where the event was not on a level that it should have been. I felt there was a business opportunity to [produce events with] sound business principles such as being customer-service driven, using systems and processes to be efficient and effective, and giving value for price. It was a bit of a quantum leap to go from practicing law to being an event provider, but with the support of family and our great staff, it was the right decision, and I have never regretted it.

How have you seen the market change in the last 12 years?

There has been a proliferation of providers. When we first started, it was a $5 billion industry that was almost exclusively executed by weekend fundraisers or booster clubs, or a mom-and-pop event that happened once a year. Beyond that, there were a couple national governing bodies with a much different business model than ours. But now, there are a lot of people trying to do what we do. I would guess for every one event that happened back then, there are probably 100 now.

How has your business evolved?

Twelve years ago, we didn’t have a website. Three or four years into it, we had online registration, which was a big differentiator for us then. Now there’s an expectation that everyone has that. Currently, there’s the impact of social media, which we work on daily.

What role does social media play in your events?

Social media is one of the top three priorities on my project list. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and we try to integrate them with our website. We have a number of social media initiatives we’re working on now to make events more interactive and immediate, whether it is posting the scores, stats or videos. Video has a big role in where we’re trying to go, whether it is produced by us, or providing a platform where teams can post videos. For the last two years, we’ve had live streaming of 150 games during our national basketball championships. I see a day when most, if not all, of the events will be live-streamed.

What is the participant age range in your events?

Basketball is grades 3 to 12, and football is grades 6 to 10. Soccer is a little different in that it’s ages 8 to 10 years old. And softball is for adults.

What impact do you see your business making in kids’ lives?

I believe that competitive athletics is a great place to learn about hard work, dedication and putting team before self. And that’s important because, for example, if I go to hire someone, I’m not as concerned with where they went to school and what their GPA was. I want to know if they’re prepared to work hard, if they’re committed, if they can make sacrifices and if they are willing to put team before self. There was a time when those lessons might have been learned at home, school or in a faith-based setting, but that’s not always the case today. I believe if you play a minute of college or high school sports, you’re going to have a competitive advantage and build a skill set that will help you be a more productive adult.

As CEO, what is your day-to-day role?

With 10 full-time employees, we’re an organization in which everyone does what needs to be done and takes on a lot of different responsibilities. Most of my time is focused on three areas: strategy—including products and processes—marketing decision-making and making my team more effective. A lot of my job is making sure my staff has the resources, opportunities and challenges to stay engaged and get done what we’re trying to accomplish.

How does a small staff manage more than 150 events on 48 weekends a year in up to 20 states?

I’ve got a great team, and I’d put them up against anybody. But obviously, 10 people cannot manage 150 events by themselves. We’ve invested in custom entry-management and scheduling systems that create efficiencies for us internally. Those help us market the events, drive the participation, capture the entries, schedule the games and get everything ready for the events. We also have a big pool of seasonal and part-time contract workers. We employ coaches, officials and young people in a variety of roles depending upon the market and the event. That pool of people can fluctuate between 40 and 50 in the slow season, or approach 200 when we get busy. The challenge within is to identify people that share our organizational values, and then get them the training they need to execute the event and be able to create the experience we’re committed to providing.

How do you provide consistency in so many events and regions?

I have committed to the turnkey operation because it allows me to offer consistency in delivery. I want my tournaments in Austin, Texas, Bentonville, Ark., and Chicago to look alike. It’s not a franchise, but it’s kind of a franchise model. We have our systems, and we find people locally to help us execute them. If I’m doing a new event in Louisville, Ky., I’ll send one of my best on-site managers from our home base in Dallas to do that event for the first two or three times. I want that person to demonstrate our brand and how it’s different, but I also want them to find the person in Louisville who they can develop and train and who will manage that event going forward.

What distinguishes your events in a crowded market?

One of the fundamental values we bring is a strong on-site presence and people who can have an impact, make a decision and effect change. It’s real simple, too. All of our site directors wear a red shirt. They follow our mantra: Ask, listen, solve. If you have a problem or a question at one of our events, you know to go to the person in the red shirt. One of my favorite anecdotes is from a couple years ago. We got a call from someone saying they were at one of our events, and it was the worst ever. The officials were bad, and they couldn’t find a red shirt anywhere. They got passed to our director of basketball, and told him the same story, ending with, “And we traveled all the way to Denton for this.” To which Chris [Hoover] responded, “We don’t have a tournament in Denton.” And why that was important was that we had created an expectation that someone in a red shirt would take care of problems—not just for our tournament, but for all tournaments.

What is your role on-site during events?

In the early years, I was the site manager at every event, but with the business growing so much, I’m not on-site as much as I used to be. I still get to events at least a couple times a month, but it’s more of a walk-through or meet-and-greet to express my appreciation to the teams, staff and participants. I don’t actually manage the events. Where that does change, however, is at our national championships. During championships, I actually [have an] office on-site at one of the multi-court facilities so I can interact with as many teams and on-site workers as I can. During the course of the event, I try to get to as many sites as I can to make sure we’re providing the experience we want to create.

How is your next national basketball championship going to be different?

The national basketball championship is our signature event. Twelve years ago, we had the first one in Kansas City, Mo., with 46 teams. Last year, we had 684 teams, which is the biggest event we’ve done to date. It’s the largest youth basketball championship in the country. This year, we’ve booked enough space to have 800 teams. How it’s changing is the NCAA-certified component is much bigger than it used to be. We had almost 60 college coaches last year observing the older players in their divisions, and I expect those numbers to double this year.

What does the Play Hard, Live Well Youth Sports Expo add to the national championship?

We added the expo a year ago as a separate event, although it’s connected to the national championship in that it’s at the same time. We had more than 50 vendors with products of interest to young athletes and their parents. We had [Basketball Hall of Fame member and Olympian] Nancy Lieberman and [former NBA player and coach] John Lucas as speakers. We had the Dallas Mavericks drum line. It’s an event I planned for more than five years, and it exceeded my expectations. It was a full day of interactive fun and activities, and the young people absolutely loved it. This year, we’ve added to it, and I think it’s going to be a great event.

Do you ever have time to just be a fan?

I got into this because I love basketball, but I watch less than I did before. But that being said, I really do enjoy it. This has been fun for me to do, and it provides competition. I can no longer compete on the basketball floor, but I love competing with other providers and companies.

We’ve talked basketball a lot, but you also manage football, soccer and softball events. What’s next?

PrimeTime Sports was originally about basketball, but each of those sports is a key component. The first sport we added was seven-on-seven football. We have about 15 football events a year, and we have our tournament of champions each year in College Station, Texas, which is the largest seven-on-seven football tournament in the country. We

added soccer next, which has such strong demographics. We have 217 leagues and about 25 soccer tournaments a year. The adult softball is new, and we do it as an outsourced event for the city of Farmer’s Branch, Texas. And we always are looking for other sports. I’d love to do volleyball and lacrosse. But we have to look at each sport and its different challenges. The cultures, logistics and expectations are all different. Before we go into a new market, we have to learn it and evaluate it and figure out if it is a place for us to be.

In what other ways is your business growing?

We can operate and execute events with the best of them, but tournaments are not going to be enough to reach the level of growth and impact on the sports world I want us to have. So while at the core we’re still an operating company, we’re also becoming a marketing platform in print, Web and social media. For sponsors, advertisers and anyone looking to market their sports-related products and services to young athletes and their parents, we offer everything from on-site execution with product giveaways and signage to being part of our newsletters to taking part in our Expo.

With your third-party event management, do you do stand-alone events or incorporate them into your own events?

Both. It’s on a case-by-case basis. We’ve done some PrimeTime Sports-managed events with our logo, some charitable events that we provided operational or marketing support for, some facility management and some consulting. We’ve executed parts of third-party events in some cases and done turnkey events for others. I think that’s going to be a growth area because we have developed a back room—the trained people and technology—and we can share that with people so they don’t have to go make a hefty investment in it to pull off the experience they want.

What have you learned from managing other people’s events?

It affirms the same basic principles we’ve applied, but when we apply our systems and processes to someone else’s events, it provides a fresh outlook. Sometimes we get into the routine with our own events because we’re so used to doing them, and sharing with others affirms why our systems are of value.

What inspires you to do your job?

I love to compete, I love my job and I’ve got 10 outstanding staff members on my team. I want them to grow, be fulfilled in their job and believe they’re working with the best game in town.

How do you inspire your team?

We talk every day about what we do and why we do it. We have our organizational values: CHAMPS, which is Customer-service driven, Have ability and integrity, be Active listeners, Make a difference, be Problem-solvers and Serve each other. We literally talk about those values every day. We also spend a lot of time talking as a team about decision-making and steps for success.

Where do you see PrimeTime Sports in 10 years?

I couldn’t have foreseen where we’re at today 10 years ago. If I gave a 10-year projection, it’s probably going to happen in two-and-a-half years. That being said, I want PrimeTime Sports to be a national organization. We are a very strong regional organization and one of the best sports event providers you can find. There is not a true national youth sports provider, other than possibly AAU (Amateur Athletics Union, a nonprofit), but that’s such a totally different model than anything else. For our model, that national presence doesn’t exist. I want that to be us. And I also want to do not only competition, but also a lot more training and camps, which is something we’ve done a couple times recently.

What’s your No. 1 goal for this year?

I want more than 750 teams at the national basketball championships. But my ultimate goal is I want a 1,000-team tournament.  I don’t think that’s ever been done before. We won’t do it this year, but that is something we’re going to get done.

SEC Championship games are obviously big business for the cities that host them. Tell us about how you decide where to take the games each year.

CM: We award championship events through a bid process. For football, we have contracts in place at the Georgia Dome through 2017. For basketball, we have sites through 2019 and baseball will continue to be at Regions Park [in Hoover, Ala.] for the next five years. We work years in advance to try and solidify these sites. It’s beneficial to us financially to do that and also to get a handle of the facility and get a good idea of what’s out there. For instance, for men’s basketball, we stay five years out at all times. Interested cities will contact us and ask for a bid package that’s always ready to go. In four to six weeks, they return it. We consolidate bids, present them to the conference’s athletic directors and committee, and vote.

What are you looking for in host cities?

CM: We look at everything in a city from the facility itself to the locker rooms to playing surface to hospitality space. In addition, we look at surrounding hotels to serve as team hotels and look at ease for fans to get in and out of the city. We rely a lot on local organizing committees, sports commissions and CVBs.

What does your planning staff look like?

CM: We have 30 staff members. Some work in championships full-time; others work in other full-time positions. Some work with media relations. We all wear a lot of hats when championships roll around.

KPS: I’m in my 16th year with the SEC. Before this, I worked at Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort with front desk, group housing and convention services. I work a lot with hotels [for the SEC events], but I don’t do everything that works with hotels. I also plan our annual meeting in Destin and special events.

You organize football, basketball and baseball championships. What’s the easiest one to plan?

CM: Believe it or not, football is probably my easiest event. We’ve been at the Georgia Dome since ’94, and the biggest difference is that it’s virtually a one-day event and the basketball tournament is four. It’s about to be a five-day tournament. There’s a good bit more involved. It’s the same thing with baseball. We just expanded our bracket to a 10-team format [with the addition of two more teams to the SEC Conference]. It will be a six-day tournament this year. We will work through the night on Sunday through Monday to have the stadium ready to go on Tuesday morning. It’s the length of those events that make them hard to plan. With football, the teams come in on Friday for practice at the Georgia Dome, they play the game on Saturday and they’re gone.

The football and baseball championships don’t move around to different cities much, but basketball does. Why is that?

CM: For football, that time of year, we need to have an indoor facility. Atlanta has proven itself to be the city to host that event. Basketball differs somewhat because there are so many nice facilities to choose from. Most years, we’ve been in Nashville and Atlanta, but we’ve done Tampa and New Orleans. Memphis has the FedEx Forum, and Orlando has a nice facility with the Amway Center. We like to pick a city where the facility has entertainment and places to eat right there in walking distance.

There are a lot of people who love sports, and would love the opportunity to work in sports. What do you love about your job?

CM: After months and sometimes even years of preparing for an event, then getting on-site and seeing the student athletes and fans having a good time at the event that you helped plan and put together is pretty gratifying.

KPS: I enjoy that it’s not the same every day. I do a lot of the same things year to year, but I don’t do the same things day to day. I interact with our

bowl people, universities and the NCAA. There’s always a new challenge or a new opportunity that I wasn’t doing last week. I enjoy that it changes.

You never really have the issue a lot of planners have: getting attendees to return.

CM: No, for football, we have around 20,000 tickets that are sold publicly, and our renewal rate is 98 to 99 percent.

KPS: You see people [at the football championships] that have pins from the last 20 tournaments they’ve attended. Year after year, they’re going to go because they appreciate college athletics. They look forward to that every year.

Do you ever get to just be a fan?

CM: I don’t get to really personally enjoy the actual game that’s being played. All I’m thinking about are the potential things that could happen or what’s going on. At the same time, it’s gratifying to see it all come together.

KPS: A lot of my planning happens in advance. It’s a frenzy up until the game. Once it begins, [I] can take a breath and sit down and look around and appreciate the work that it’s taken to get to that point. I’ve always been a college sports fan, but never much of a pro sports fan. I love college baseball, and I try to enjoy the games when I can.

Q. How do I know which platforms to use for my audience?
A. Knowing where your audience is congregating is important, but you will still likely need to use multiple platforms to reach them. Knowing the demographic trends helps, or you can poll your members to find out where they are. Setting up accounts on multiple platforms to see which draws the greatest numbers and engagement is the route most people take. For a more exact look at your social demographics, Rapportive is a Gmail extension inside your inbox that shows a profile of each contact, including a picture and which social networks they’re on and most social CRM systems include social networks in the profile of your customer database.

Q. How do we use social media to reach those who are not following us?  
A. LinkedIn is a great tool to find people in a specific industry. Creating groups surrounding a topic to draw interest from people searching the topic and who wouldn’t necessarily know your organization name. Facebook ads are also very customizable and can be tailored to reach specific audiences by geography, gender, age, interest and much more. Participating in conversations associated with a Twitter hashtag in your field also gets your name out among an industry or niche interest.   Depending on your industry, other tools that might be helpful in identifying new blood include:

• Meetup groups meet in cities around the world to discuss topics of interest to them either personally or professionally, search for an appropriate meetup group and connect with the members/attendees.
• Google blog search will turn up blogs about and/or dedicated to topics.
• Creating a “Boolean” search string on Google or using Google Advanced search to specifically look for keywords within pages on a given domain (i.e., Facebook.com) will turn up a significant number of individuals, groups, pages, etc., dedicated to your search topic. Human resources, more specifically “candidate sourcers,” are professional people finders. Contact someone in your organization’s HR and ask about creating Boolean search strings. They should be able to teach you the basics in about five to 10 minutes.

Q. How do you prevent offending or overloading followers, (i.e., taking up too much “Share of Wall” on Facebook)?
A. Post quality matters more than post quantity and/or share of wall. Knowing your audience is key, as is asking for every post: “What’s in it for them?” If you are targeting a younger or more “connected” audience you will need to post more frequently because posts are chronologically ranked and higher volume of posts equals shorter post lifespan. If your audience is less connected, each post has a longer shelf life and one post per day (or less) could be sufficient. Again, quality is still most important. Followers are more open to frequent posts if they value the information you are providing or it helps their personal brand to be associated with you.

Q. What are the legal issues with Pinterest?
A. The copyright issues surrounding Pinterest are still a grey area. Because users are pinning pictures that refer back to the host site, the responsibility should land on whether the originally posting site owns the image. The legalese on Pinterest has attempted to absolve itself from any responsibility by claiming fair use and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, but these have not yet been tested in a court of law. For more information on the complexities of the issue, read this article in Forbes.

Q. What resources are available to get started on Twitter?
A. Mashable is a great go-to for any social media 101; here is their version for Twitter. Staying up on blogs from social media industry experts like Jeff Hurt, Julius Solaris, Liz King and Lara McCulloch will keep you informed of new ideas to enhance your event’s account once you get started. We also have a basic guide to the new Twitter.

Q. How can companies combat negative online feedback, whether it is about them or a company with a similar name?
A. Listening and responding to any feedback on the Internet about you is crucial. People don’t always talk directly to you when they are talking about you. Listening tools ranging from Radian6 on the high-end or Social Mention, which is free alert you when keywords show up on social media. Once you know it’s there, you can use it as an outlet to provide customer service, to inform the public about your stance on a situation and to stay on top of issues stirring up your audience.

Important notes:
• Once it is posted it is virtually permanent (some sites will let the organization post a challenge and after review the post may be taken down but this is rare). So you really can’t remove anything that’s out there.
• It is less about “combating” the post than mitigating the post’s damage. The last thing you want to do is start a public argument with someone online. You also don’t want to overwhelm the board with denials. Both tactics make your brand look worse than the original negative comment.
• A recommended tactic is to engage the fans you know will come to your defense. Raving Fans are a brand’s best friends and typically they will come to your defense long before you ever find the negative post in the first place, but if not, try to enlist some into service. DO NOT as a representative of the company, pretend to be an impartial fan. Somehow they always find out.

Q. How do you recommend selling the value of social media to management?
A. Like you would for any good marketing pitch, present the data behind how a specific social media campaign can benefit your company. Having a social media strategy outlined will help your cause. A prudent management team is not going to jump on Facebook because it has 800 million users, but they might get behind a campaign that proves the specific market you want to target has an active presence on the social network that you can tap into through ads or a page for your association. Furthermore, identifying similar organizations (competitors are great) that are, or are trying to, have success within the network is always helpful.

Q. How can you expand a presence internationally?
A. It is a Facebook world, the rest of us just live in it. While Facebook is nearly ubiquitous, there are still a few lingering countries where Facebook is not the dominant player (Brazil, China, Russia and much of Eastern Europe). The beauty of Facebook specifically and social networks in general is their international reach and ability to target specific regions. Each individual is geographically identified on his or her profile. Facebook ads can be tailored to individuals in certain areas, and searching or using hashtags for the regions you are targeting narrows down people and posts on Twitter. For more information on prevailing networks in specific countries see techcrunch.com.

Q. Do you see a difference in what industries use which platforms more, e.g. agriculture, health, education, etc.?
A. Most analytics revolve around demographics, rather than industry. But generally, corporate fields lean toward LinkedIn; high-tech, Generation Y-led business are more socially diverse and are more likely to use multiple platforms; and consumer brands tend to have a large presence on Facebook and others.

LinkedIn is the only social network that specifically divides users by industry though, so it is a good place to get started. LinkedIn users in order by job function rank in the following: sales, recruiting, IT, administrative and then others. Top industries are higher education, marketing/advertising, IT and healthcare.

There are a few studies based on the popularity of industries but they are usually based on conversation metrics rather than profile metrics (popular product groups tend to do well—cars, technology, etc.).

Q. How can a content calendar help when setting up a social strategy?
A. The biggest problem most organizations face, is knowing what to say, when to say it and how to say it. Social media, just like any marketing campaign, must have a high-level vision and strategy in place. Once you determine your medium, define purpose and select content, setting up frequency of posts is your next obstacle.

Dashboards like HootSuite and Tweetdeck allow you to schedule posts for multiple accounts far in advance. This is a good way to launch a social media presence and make sure you are regularly updating your accounts. However, setting this up and leaving it alone creates a “push” mentality and doesn’t engage users by listening and interacting on a personal level. Use it in moderation or to fill in the gaps when you are too busy to monitor the accounts religiously.

Analytics show you the type of posts your community interacts with best and what time of day creates the most interaction. Use that information to continually enhance your calendar and optimize your efforts.

Q. Generation Y knows social media. Should you turn over control of your accounts to them?
A. Again, high-level strategy is crucial. Knowing the tools and knowing your business are two different things. Upper level management should determine a vision and purpose of social media, and interns and younger members of the staff can implement this. Use their knowledge of the platforms and tendency to be early adopters to come up with new ideas and execute strategy in new ways. Also, know your audience. If you are primarily serving a more mature audience, they might not connect to someone much younger about a professional development opportunity.

Q. Can you use LinkedIn as a cold call for sales?
A. Most social networks are wary of allowing businesses to contact individuals. LinkedIn forces basic members to identify how you know an individual before you can connect with them. There are ways to get around this though. If you are the member of the same group, you can contact them directly. Also, premium memberships can contact anyone without an introduction. How you contact people is up to you, but looking like spam is never helpful. Use LinkedIn as a name generator, find someone who you are mutually connected to and then take the cold call to the phone line or to email. A cold connection in social is not nearly as good as making an in-person connection via phone and then connecting via social.

Q. How does Google+ factor in?
A. Too early to tell for sure. Google’s new search policy, which puts your presence on Google+ higher in related search results, and its ownership of Picasa (photo sharing) and YouTube (video sharing), and it’s integration with the Android smartphone platform make it a very important player in the game. However, it has yet to create the engagement and critical mass to become a major competitor to Facebook. Time will tell if the millions of people with Gmail accounts who were automatically entered into the system will start using it at any higher rate.

Step 1: Start with the end in mind

When planning a live meeting, the first objective is to determine your goals. The same is true for a hybrid meeting that incorporates virtual elements into the live platform. Ask yourself what you want the end goal to be. Are you looking to expand your audience to members who could not otherwise attend? Are you offering continuing education units (CEUs), the virtual platform helping to increase the ability to gain this education after the conference concludes? Rosaelena Ledesma-Bernaducci, CMP, congress manager with McVeigh Associates Ltd., stresses the need to align objectives for all facets of the meeting. “It’s important to meet your objectives with the audience that’s virtually present as well as with the live audience,” she says.

Step 2: Decide what goes virtual

Choose the conference elements you want available to a virtual audience. Are you streaming the entire conference, general sessions and educational workshops? Perhaps it’s the well-known keynote speaker who has star power to attract an expanded audience. Just as the on-site audience will pay a fee to see a giant in the industry who may be retired and rarely speaks, so too will the virtual audience pay to have this opportunity.

Andy Straub, president of Blueyed Productions, which produces and integrates distance-learning programs, says it’s important to determine what you can bring to audience members that they wouldn’t otherwise see on their own. Straub’s company produced an event at United Artists movie theaters for Wine Spectator magazine. The theaters were set up with satellite feeds and the audience was taken into vineyards to get the first look at the year’s special wines ahead of the competition. The audience sampled the wines in the theater and asked questions of the vintners in real-time. “The ability to get thousands of people into a wine cellar at the same time was extraordinary,” Straub says.

Another example is within the medical industry, which was perhaps the first industry to broadcast a presentation. Referred to as a “live case,” cameras go into an operating room and a surgical technique or medical device is demonstrated in real-time. A practitioner may never have had the opportunity to see this technique in use before. The value of this never-before-seen presentation attracts an audience both on-site and virtually.

If CEUs can be obtained through the breakout sessions, it’s important to make this education available to the virtual audience. Keep in mind that the more sessions streaming simultaneously, the higher the costs will be. Each room requires its own set of cameras and streaming equipment, plus operating staff. However, fees charged to the virtual audience can offset this cost. If the CEUs are mandatory for their jobs or to maintain a certification, the cost can be justified and attendees are willing to make the investment.

Step 3: Adapt the Agenda

If you’ve determined your virtual audience will view the presentations from varying time zones, try to adapt your agenda to the best times for your participants. Eileen Roehl, CMP, managing partner of the Murfee Group, a medical and corporate meetings management company, has coordinated live case transmissions to 35 locations across the world. “We’ve done transmissions at 7 a.m. Eastern time to accommodate the European audience and at 4 p.m. Eastern time to accommodate the Asian market,” Roehl says. She also suggests placing the streamed presentation before a long break in the agenda. “This way, if there are any issues [with the technology], you have some cushion in the agenda timing.”

Step 4: Define the content

Once you’ve determined which sessions will be streamed, define the content of those presentations. This helps determine the rate of data transfer or bandwidth needed. Do you have one speaker showing a PowerPoint presentation or a panel of speakers with no visual elements? A static image such as a slide with no video does not require a strong signal to transmit. If you are transmitting high-definition medical images, however, the signal will need to be a greater capacity. The more motion or video the presentation contains, the stronger the signal needs to be, which requires a more expensive technology.

Step 5: Guide your speakers

It’s important to let speakers know from the very beginning that they will be presenting to both a live and virtual audience. Give them as much information about the virtual audience as you can, such as the number of people who are viewing online and what cities, states or countries they are viewing from. Kevin Novak, vice president of integrated web strategy and technology for the American Institute of Architects, suggests building the virtual experience as close to the physical experience as possible. “Make sure the virtual attendee has the same opportunity as the on-site attendee,” Novak says. This means speakers should be prepared to take questions from the virtual audience as well, whether the questions are coming from social media sites or a live chat platform. Speakers should acknowledge the virtual audience at the beginning of their presentations and thank them for attending.

It’s also important to make sure speaker contracts include a clause allowing you to distribute their presentations online. If you decide to stream their presentations after the contract is signed, request an addendum granting this permission. Most speakers will likely comply as it gives them a wider audience and greater exposure.

Step 6: Determine your Virtual Audience

If this is your first time entering the virtual community, it may be difficult to determine who would most likely attend the presentation virtually versus in-person. First, decide if you are reaching a local, regional, national or international audience. Perhaps your membership includes an international contingency that has stopped attending live meetings due to travel costs and budget cuts. This group would be a prime target for the virtual presentation. Novak looked at areas of the country where he didn’t have a strong in-person attendance at the annual convention and geared the virtual marketing towards those locations. “We found our on-site attendance was coming from a 300-mile radius of the convention center,” Novak said. “We weren’t hitting the majority of our membership [with the on-site meeting].”

Step 7: Understand the technology

Knowing your technology needs can be a daunting exercise. While most planners have a general knowledge of audiovisual equipment and online processes, most do not have the specific technical skills to set up the virtual presentation. Consult with your internal IT person and hire a vendor who has a history of successfully streaming presentations, both domestically and abroad.

If your presenter is off-site, you have a choice of three ways to stream the presentation: via Internet, fiber or satellite. “The decision comes down to cost versus image quality,” Roehl says. “The Internet is the cheapest solution, but it doesn’t give the best quality.” Staub says you can boost the speed of the Internet by using Polycom intelligence. Similar to a Polycom conference phone, the unit has video capabilities. One unit is placed at the off-site presentation venue and the other unit is placed at the hotel or conference center where the live audience presides.  The two units “talk to each other” to find the fastest way to move the signal.

Fiber is the wired version of Internet access—think of a T1 line—and is ordered through the venue’s telephone company as a circuit. However, the venue must have fiber available that is not already in use called “dark fiber.” “A lot of venues don’t have the fiber because they offer Internet as an option,” Roehl says.

Fiber can be cost-effective if you are transmitting in a local area, such as in the operating room example where the hospital is in the same city as the meeting venue, referred to as a “local loop.” Costs increase when the signal needs to be transmitted out of state, such as New York City to San Francisco. The local loop in New York City needs to be sent to a long-distance provider (incurring long distance charges of approximately $500) and then sent to the local loop in San Francisco. The fiber circuit must be activated, which can incur a fee upwards of $2,000. A one month’s usage fee of $2,000 is charged whether you use the circuit for one minute or three days. The activation and monthly usage fee are charged on both ends, so your cost is now $8,000—$4,000 in New York City and $4,000 in San Francisco—plus the long-distance charges.

Satellite offers the same high-definition, limitless bandwidth as fiber, but it can be a bit more cost-effective if the venue has a satellite dish. If this is not available, satellite trucks can be rented. An uplink truck at the off-site venue incurs a $3,000 fee and a downlink truck at the meeting venue incurs another $3,000. Satellite space is rented for approximately $600 and similar to a meeting planner’s site visit at a hotel, both venues need to be “scouted” to make sure the signal works. This incurs a charge of $500 for each scout. Total satellite cost is $7,600 as opposed to the fiber option of $8,500.

Whichever method you choose, make sure it is available on both ends—at the meeting venue and the off-site presentation venue. “You can’t have one site fiber and the other satellite, or one transmission standard-definition and one with high-definition,” Roehl says. “It needs to be apples to apples.”

In addition to the technology, the on-site venue must be adapted to enable the best viewing for the online audience. “Lighting is the main complaint of online viewers,” says Erica St. Angel, vice president of Sonic Foundry, which provides a hybrid event platform and webcasting through its Mediasite technology. Make sure presenters are adequately lit to transmit to video and the online audience. Perform a test and tape the speaker at rehearsals or tape one of your staff members and see how the picture transmits online. St. Angel says it’s best to put the speaker on a riser so the camera can shoot over the heads of the audience. She suggests using two cameras, one to film the speaker and one to pan the on-site attendees. “This helps to draw in the online viewers and makes them feel as if they are a part of the audience,” St. Angel says. Testing the noise level in the room is also important. If there is a lot of background noise, not only will the on-site audience have difficulty hearing the presentation, but the online community’s ability to hear will be further diminished.

Step 8: Have a backup plan

Every good planner knows that you shouldn’t plan an outdoor function without having backup space indoors. The same is true for a virtual event. If the technology goes down and you lose the signal, you need a backup plan. If a presenter is off-site, as in the example of a live case at a hospital, a taped case can be aired in the downtime or the agenda can be shifted to the next live presentation. “We have taped cases on-site and ready to play if needed, and the session moderators are prepped on the taped cases,” Roehl says. “We also have the next session’s live speakers present, so if there is a problem, we can proceed with the live speakers and do the transmission later.”

If the signal to the online community goes down, the ability to air an alternative presentation is not possible. Simply wait until the signal is back and notify the online audience that any part of the presentation that was missed will be available online after the conference.

Step 9: Ramp up Staffing

Just as a live event has staff members assigned to each meeting function, from audiovisual to food and beverage monitoring, so should the virtual component have a dedicated staff member. St. Angel calls this a “virtual concierge” and advises that this person should have no other job but monitoring the online presentation and perhaps the social media responses. That way, if the transmission signal or audio is lost, the virtual concierge can immediately call tech support to get the problem fixed. This person can also give updates to the online audience if there is a delay in the agenda. If a speaker is 15 minutes late in starting a presentation, for example, the online audience might think the technology is down. The concierge can send messages to the audience via chat or social media sites and get in front of the camera to inform the audience of the delay.

Step 10: Determine virtual fees

If you charge a fee for your conference, determine how the online presentations will be priced compared to in-person attendance. Novak says AIA did not charge a fee for virtual attendance for the 2009 convention. More than 17,000 online viewers attended sessions over three days (22,500 people on-site). In 2010, they charged the virtual audience a fee of $165 for 36 sessions viewed real-time and also available on demand post-event. The online viewership went down to 3,000 people. “Market the virtual component separately so it doesn’t get lost in the on-site fee package,” Novak says.  

In 2011, AIA taped the sessions, but did not stream them to an online audience. Instead they made the presentations available post-conference and on demand, charging $29 per CEU credit.
Don’t forget to communicate the link to access the presentations over and over again. St. Angel says the virtual attendee should receive the link when registering for the conference, then a reminder at least a month before the meeting and again a week prior. The link should take attendees to the organization’s website or event website for added promotion of the brand.

Step 11: Follow up

Just as you would survey your on-site audience for feedback on the meeting’s success, so should you survey the online audience. Generally the same questions can be asked of both audiences. It would be helpful to add questions to the virtual audience’s survey asking them how easy the site was to access, if they had any problems with the signal, etc. Be sure to ask them if they plan to attend the conference next year, on-site or online. It’s also beneficial to track how many times the presentations were accessed post-event.