André Borschberg angled his aircraft to approach the runway sideways. It was something he had yet to do in his plane, but the winds were blowing at 30 knots (35 miles per hour) and he had to improvise. From Phoenix to Dallas, Borschberg rode the downdrafts and updrafts of winds, cruising sometimes as high as 27,000 feet. After more than 18 hours since leaving Arizona, he finally touched down at 1 a.m. on May 23 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. He was immediately given a cowboy hat by Bertrand Piccard.

Flying from Phoenix to Dallas doesn’t normally take 18 hours, but Borschberg’s plane is no ordinary aircraft. It’s named Solar Impulse, and it’s 100 percent fueled by the sun’s energy. In 2010, Borschberg and Piccard set a milestone for the first ever day and night solar flight in aviation history. Now, they’re looking to fly around the world in their zero-fuel aircraft in 2015. To do so, they’re flying across America in order to test the aircraft and to raise awareness of how new technologies can save energy and the environment. 

“I initiated [Solar Impulse] in 2002 in order to promote the pioneering spirit,” Piccard told us in our November 2012 profile of him. “In particular, to show how clean technologies can help save the natural resources of the world.

“The clean tech industry is, potentially, the biggest new industry in the world,” he continued. “It brings on the market a lot of new products that allow us to reduce energy consumption. Instead of producing more and more energy, we must first save energy. Otherwise, the renewable energy will never be enough. We could, with the currently available technology, reduce 50 percent of our fossil energy use.”

The trek across America is also a way to motivate people. Borschberg and Piccard say it’s time to stop talking about problems, and instead show enthusiasm for profitable solutions that combine environmental protection with economic growth. The Solar Impulse isn’t a concept or dream or talking points—it’s a real object showing proof that actions often speak louder than words.

People often talk about something rather than act on it. This endless chatter is driven by fear, primarily the fear of failing (what if I actually do it and it fails?). 

“The notion of something being possible or impossible stands in our mind much more than in reality,” Piccard said. “If we free ourselves from the fear of failing, we can achieve much more than what we can think at first.”

Piccard says that the best way to face fear is with what he calls a “pioneering spirit.”

“Our entire life is made of the unknown, with uncertainty and unpredictability,” he said. “Playing with that fear means exploration and adventure. Letting that fear consume us makes our existence a nightmare.”

Borschberg and Piccard are working toward making humanity’s earthly existence better. In an information packet at the Dallas event where people could get an up-close viewing of the Solar Impulse, Piccard is quoted as saying that the plane was built to convey messages and not passengers. 

“We want to show what can be achieved using clean technologies,” he said. “It’s not only the environment that would be a winner. Job creation and purchasing power would also benefit from opening up these fascinating development perspectives.”

Because of their openness to change, these two aviation explorers are finding success. In fact, a willingness to change just may be the Holy Grail to success that so many people seek.

“The fear of the unknown causes a resistance toward changes,” Piccard said in our profile. “Most of the unhappy people are the ones who try to control what they cannot control, and don’t try to change what they could change. Successful people know that it’s useless to fight against the wind, and they would rather change their altitude and attitude to find a better direction.”

Borschberg knew that when he had to land his plane. He realized it couldn’t be a normal landing because of the winds, so he changed tactics. And by doing so, he achieved a better understanding of the project that will help him and Piccard achieve their dream of a zero-fuel, around-the-world flight.

(Additional reporting by Ken McIntyre.)

Social media is not something to be scared of. It’s not something for those young whippersnappers. It’s not a passing fad. It’s here, it’s now and it’s not going away.

Once you embrace it, engage with it and really get your hands dirty with it, you’ll see that it’s a great tool, especially if you’re in sales. In fact, a recent study shows that 78 percent of salespeople who use social media outsell their peers.

How do you get in on that bank? Forbes offers five ways:

Join a social media community and play nice—“Without misrepresenting yourself, create a persona that’s likeable and trustworthy within that community,” said Janet Fouts, a social media coach and chief executive of Tatu Digital Media. “If I think you’re a jerk when I see you on a social media site, I’m not going to do business with you.”

Figure out where your prospects are pooling—Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are the three biggest channels, but consider blogs, chat rooms and comment sections, too. “Find out where your market is having conversations first, and then go there,” Fouts said.

Get yourself connected—“Conduct a search on each social networking website or use a resource like socialmention.com to find people who are talking about your industry or using related keywords,” Fouts said. “Then comment on their posts, ‘retweet’ them, answer a question or share something they say. By contributing to their conversation you add value to their network.”

Work on relationship building—It is no secret that sales rely on relationships. Without a good relationship, there won’t be any ongoing business conducted. The key is to listen. “People share a lot of information, and if you monitor and listen to what they are saying, you will eventually be able to engage in a meaningful conversation with them,” Fouts said. Which leads us to…

Employ conversations—“If you just write them a message with a pitch and a link to your website, they will be uninterested,” Fouts said. “If you say, ‘Here are some solutions to your problem, maybe my product or service can help,’ they will know you care about them.”

Now that you have some steps, let’s look at that study to reinforce using social media for sales. 

Mark Fidelman reports for Forbes that more than half (54 percent) of the study’s participants who engage with social media “tracked their social media usage back to at least one closed deal.”

“Over 40 percent said they closed between two and five deals as a result of social media and more than 10 percent of the respondents said, ‘Yes, it directly contributes to my closes,” Fidelman reported. 

Do you use social media as part of your sales process? How does it affect your results? Please let us know in the comments. 

This report comes from Rowland Stiteler, a meeting industry journalist who attended digitalNow for One+.

If you’re looking for detailed specifics about how social media impacts the profits of your business or the membership levels of your association, they may not be out there yet.

That’s the conclusion of Susan Etlinger, social media analyst and strategist for the Altimeter Group, a consulting agency with a Fortune 500 clientele.

“If you are looking for outside standards and outside benchmarks as to what constitutes an effective social media program, right now you are wasting your time, because they are just not out there…maybe two or three years from now, but right now the standards are not out there,” said Etlinger, a keynote speaker on the second day of the digitalNow 2013 conference.

Etlinger is in a good position to know about this. For 20 years, she has been in the electronic media strategy business, working for Charles Schwab and then the Horn Group before joining Altimeter.

“Right now, most companies are in a rigorous test-and-learn phase with regard to social media,” she said.

According to Etlinger, there is still plenty of testing and learning to be done before the impact of social media on profitability can be easily measured.

That, of course, doesn’t mean it’s not important for organizations to forge ahead with social media campaigns, which clearly allow both corporations and associations to learn a lot of detailed information about the likes and dislikes of their constituencies. Certainly there is a high volume of information coming back at the purveyors of social media campaigns, and clear results in spreading brand awareness and other valuable goals. 

One+ has, however, led the field in broaching these important questions about social media. In October 2010, Editor Michael Pinchera spoke with leaders at the cross-section of social media and business for the cover story, “Untangling the Value of Social Media.” The fact remains, the value of social media can be measured—it just depends on how you wish it to be quantified.

“There will never be a single equation from which to determine the value of any and all social media campaigns,” Pinchera said. “If you want to measure engagement, start building your metrics well in advance of starting social media campaigns and identify your goals. The value is based on the results in relation to your goals—much like determining the ROI, or other returns, on a specific meeting or event. That value can be determined, but one must come to the game with data and clear goals.”

Participants in this year’s sold-out digitalNow conference—held at Walt Disney’s Contemporary Resort—included a who’s who of professional associations: the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Institute of CPAs, the Professional Golfers Association. Digital media directors for the various associations conducted workshops and symposia, sharing best practices and strategies, and about a dozen corporate resource partners—companies specializing in communications and association management software—provided a trade show component to share insights about the use of digital tools.

A star of the show this year was the new digitalNow smartphone app, which allowed participants the ability to do everything from keep up with the conference schedule to download presentation screenshots from various individual symposia and workshops to post and share their own personal agendas within the conference.

“This new app is a key tool to making the conference experience more effective for every participant,” said Hugh Lee, president and CEO of Fusion Productions, which produces the conference.

Dr. Michio Kaku, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York, also spoke at the event. Kaku is a futurist, a bestselling author and a science media guru. He is a frequent contributor to The Discovery Channel, the BBC, the History Channel and the Science Channel. He gave key insights into where social media is going in the near future, but also how science will shape the world in the next 30 years. Be sure and check out the June issue of One+ for our exclusive interview with Kaku.

Snow is on the ground. Strong wind is blowing. And I’m lost.

The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a large campus, and the MPI Chicago Area Chapter’s TechCon—held this past February—is in one of these buildings. After ducking into the student center to warm my fingers, I pull up the event app and determine that I’m about 100 yards away. Thankfully, I’m a speedy walker. 

I see a lot of people climbing the steps as I approach the building. TechCon grows every year, attracting local and European meeting professionals, so the masses before me are no surprise.

One of the reasons for this growth is the great speaker selection.

“There was a strong emphasis to select [speakers] from outside the industry,” said Kyle Hillman, co-chair of TechCon. “While the meeting and event industry has quality thought leaders, they tend to be reused way too often. For the industry to grow, we need new influences.”

Hillman says that there was a firewall between sponsors and speakers, meaning that the two were not tied together. 

“It was key—as you can imagine there was great interest from sponsors to be content providers, but far too often that leads to a demo conference, and as a planner I can’t stand those events,” he said. “Ultimately, we wanted to find the best speakers for the event, not who was willing to write a check.”

Additionally, Hillman says, speakers had to step up and promote the event through pre-event articles, virtual interviews and social media channels.

It wasn’t just the speakers, though, that help created a great conference. The venue was instrumental. 

“As we are non-profit, profit-and-loss is a critical component for the chapter when managing events,” said Sean Lynch, president of the MPI Chicago Area Chapter. “IIT met our criteria of being able to accommodate our 300-plus guests, our education sessions and our interactive club-like exhibitor showcase (allowing living room furniture, F&B pods, varied lighting and hip music), and they allowed us use of other sensory effects—fire elements and fog machines, for example. Next, IIT had 20-foot ceilings, which we believed to be critical to the desired experience. Finally, they had the power and Internet bandwidth and provided such on a favorable trade basis.”

You definitely noticed the use of bandwidth during the conference. Attendees were either tweeting bon mots, participating in audience response surveys or engaging with the conference app. And if you didn’t have an iPad, you could rent one on site all ready to go.

“They were pre-loaded with the event’s app, [productivity app] Evernote, the white paper from the research session ‘Concerts to Conferences,’ as well as Web apps for the audience response systems Conference.IO and SlideKlowd, which were used in the breakouts,” Hillman said.

This was part of a plan to have attendees experience technology first-hand.

“If you think of other exhibit shows, vendors might have the equipment in their booths—we wanted to make sure the attendees could use it, experience it in real-world applications,” Hillman said. “It is ultimately better for the vendor and makes it more likely to be used by a planner.”

If attendees weren’t busy interacting with technology, they were having face-to-face conversations in the exhibit showcase area, where sponsors and clients chatted on couches and chairs. 

“The exhibit lounge was probably the greatest success element we added,” Hillman said. “To be honest, it was a huge educational undertaking to get sponsors onboard and understanding of the concept. When you lead with, ‘We are banning all pull-up banners and pop-up displays,’ exhibitors get understandably nervous.”

The idea was based on reinventing the exhibitor and planner experience. 

“As a planner, I loathe exhibitor aisles with skirted tables and often find myself looking anywhere but at booth areas so as not to create eye contact,” he said. “That is the opposite of what exhibitors are paying for and only creates an adversarial vibe for planners. So we flipped it. The lounge design created paths, not aisles, forcing attendees to mingle and walk around people and furniture, not past them. It also created lasting touch points for vendors in a more relaxed networking approach rather than a hard sell. A lot of suppliers have lost the art of connecting with buyers—we created an atmosphere that brought that back.”

Yes, technology may draw you there and may help with that first step, but it’s the face-to-face connection that seals the deal. The MPI Chicago Area Chapter realizes that, and TechCon was a great success because of the balance between technology and humanity. 

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HackMPI Helps Push the Industry Forward

(Image via Edward Fox Photography)

I needed to take a taxi on my recent trip to Chicago to attend TechCon. Normally, I would wave one down at a street corner or have a hotel staff member call one for me. This time, though, I decided to use Hailo, one of the event's sponsors.

Hailo is not the only taxi app available (others include Uber, GetTaxi and Flywheel, for example) for passengers. However, as a newbie to the world of taxi-finding-by-phone, I found it extremely easy to use. 

The service—designed by taxi drivers—says that “we make sure people are never more than two taps away from a licensed taxi.” And it’s true. Once you’ve downloaded the free app (available for iPhone and Android) and entered your credit card info, all you have to do is open up the app, watch as it searches for cabs nearby and then tap “Pick Me Up Here.”

Once a cab driver is notified, you can watch on the map as the car comes toward your location. You’re given the taxi cab’s number and driver’s name (your name is given to the driver, as well). You can select pre-determined tips (15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent or other), so that when you arrive at your location, all you have to say is thank-you as you exit the car. Since your credit card is already stored with the service, you receive an email receipt within minutes of your journey’s completion. 

"I’ve just recently used some of the taxi apps that are relatively new in the marketplace," said Jill Brown Smith, a senior account executive at Zerista Inc. and a member of the MPI Chicago Area Chapter. "I can see this being useful for planners and events if you provide attendees the link to either Hailo or Uber (or any other app out there) prior to the event. You would share it in your event application, micro-site or you could send out a link with the 'know before you go' email. This way, you empower your attendees, and they can track and pay in an easy fashion. I would caution planners to not just rely on the app service until they have used the product for themselves in that same market."

Hailo is available in Boston, Chicago, Dublin, London and Toronto. Service in Barcelona, Madrid, New York and Tokyo will launch shortly. The next time you need a cab, check out Hailo. It sure beats standing on a corner waving your arm over and over again. 

Have you ever used a taxi app for meetings and events? If so, please let us know in the comments how you used it.

Also, what are some other apps you use that make your professional life better? Please let us know in the comments (or send me an email) your favorite ones and how you use them, and we’ll include it in future blog entries about apps. 

A handful of coders sit at tables in an open, well-lit room in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Here at Cibola, a shared workplace with graffiti walls and concrete floors, the young coders are busy working on apps for the meeting industry, a segment that is ripe for development and growth.

This is HackMPI, the first of its kind for the industry. It’s part of and precedes the MPI Chicago Area Chapter’s TechCon event. Kyle Hillman, CMP, pitched the idea to the chapter’s board leading up to the event as a way to help push the industry forward with technology. 

“I know some friends that are developers, and I’ve gone to a couple of hackathons as an observer, and saw that there’s this great energy to solve problems, to create, to test their skills,” said Hillman, CEO of the Kyle Hillman Strategy Group. “It seems like a logical step for the meeting industry. If we're going to do a tech conference, we should add an element of real tech. We have six products here that have never existed in our industry, and in time could be products we'll be using in a couple of years.” 

The coders arrived on Friday night, and spent 48 hours huddled over laptops. Between bouts of coding, they watched presentations from companies, talked with mentors about their projects, and chatted among themselves. Some of them went home at the end of the night. Some slept on air mattresses. They all had to follow set rules: 

• The app had to be relevant to the meeting and event industry.
• The app must be functional for either mobile, Web, or software.
• The app cannot be a direct competitor of one of the event’s sponsors.
• The coders must be present at least four hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.

As the weekend wore on, some coders dropped out, which is expected during hackathons. Asking people to agree to dedicate 48 hours on a project, even for a prize, is difficult. However, it helps to have someone on the inside. 

“Try to find an individual in the development community to be an ambassador,” Hillman said. “Getting those developers will be your biggest challenge. Also, make sure the project is focused on a generic problem you want solved.” 

Cedric Hurst, one of the HackMPI coders, agrees. 

“One of the tricky parts about hackathons is getting teams organized ahead of time,” said Hurst, principal and lead software engineer at Spantree Technology Group LLC in Chicago. “Everyone comes in with their own idea. If there is a way to target people to solve a specific problem, that would help. Also, providing tech or industry experts that can participate in teams as non-tech contributors would be useful.”

Even without a specific problem to work on, HackMPI’s open nature was welcomed. 

“I thought that it was interesting that it was somewhat open-ended,” Hurst said. “It gave us the space to build. Some hackathons can be advertising driven, where you have to sit all day in a seminar and maybe get a chance to code. This was much more hands-off, much more focused on helping people, which was great.”

Also, a hackathon doesn’t have to last 48 hours to be successful. 

“Consider opening it up in a month in advance, then have a one-day hackathon,” said Sean Lynch, executive vice president at NHS and the Chicago Area Chapter president. 

The Winners Are

The hackathon stopped at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Afterwhich, the coders presented their apps to a panel of judges. 

“We judged based on three categories: relevancy, design and functionality,” said Steven Maguire, strategy and innovation architect at TrainSignal Inc. “Functionality was critical, because it was actually what was being demoed--what was happening today and not what would be perceived.”

The judges then convened in another room, weighing the apps against the three categories. After much deliberation, awards for first, second, and third prize were handed out. 

• Hurst and his partner, Gary Turovsky, won first place for OKMercury, an app that is a take-off of the OK Cupid algorithim, matching suppliers and planners based on questions and answers. You can demo the app at OKMercury.co.
• Prash Sabharwal was awarded second place for Swagger, a trivia-based app that can be customized for suppliers and destinations. Check it out at http://swagger.launchrock.com.
• Ray Perry was awarded third place for his mobile matchmaking app.

“This was the coolest first ever event,” said Char Shada, CMP, strategic account manager for Experient Inc. and immediate past president of the Chicago Area Chapter. “It's just neat to be cutting edge, leading the charge, leading the industry with something different. You could definitely tell the coders were really into it.”

Shada says the chapter is happy to help if you’re thinking of hosting your own hackathon.

“Reach out to us,” she said. “We're more than happy to share information and contacts.”

And this won’t be the last HackMPI for the Chicago Area chapter, according to Lynch.

“We definitely expect to do this next year,” he said. “It hit all our metrics, and it’s already on our business plan.”

For an industry such as ours, embracing technology is crucial if we are to find new and efficient ways to have better meetings and events. The MPI Chicago Area Chapter recognizes this. Don’t leave it only to them, though. Organize your own hackathon. 

“Our industry is so young,” Hillman said. “From a technology standpoint, there are so many opportunities for these throughout the country.”

Who knows--you may just discover the Mark Zuckerberg of our industry at your own hackathon.

SXSW Interactive is one of the world's best conferences, and you should make plans to attend it at least once in your lifetime. I've been a couple of times and came home with new event ideas and connections—innovative seating and participation structures, captivating speakers, and technology advancements, just to name a few.  

Considering technology, conference organizers recently named the SXSW 2013 Accelerator finalists. SXSW Accelerator takes place in front of a live audience and a panel of expert judges. Forty-eight companies will present March 11 the latest advancements in social media, mobile, and Web technologies. The group will then whittle down to 18 companies on March 12, with winners announced at the end of the day.

Some of the finalists look interesting from a meeting profession point of view:

Plotter
Cleveland, OH
plotterapp.com
Plotter is the first social network for maps. Not only does it bring much needed features to mobile maps like viewing multiple plotted locations at once, it lets you crowd source and discover maps from friends and experts. Finally, a map app that does more than search and directions.

Present.me
London, UK
present.me
Think YouTube meets Slideshare. Whether it's a conference presentation, pitching for business, updating your team, setting assignments for students or applying for a job, Present.me allows you to record and share your ideas, knowledge or messages online, simply and cost effectively.

Charlie
Northbrook, IL
charliehq.com
Charlie preps you on people before you see them. With access to your calendar Charlie knows who you are going to meet and before a meeting Charlie filters through the web to present you with any commonalties between you and your connection, breaking news on their company and social updates.

Sprezzat
Brooklyn, NY
sprezzat.com
Sprezzat, helps users customize their incoming call screen by streaming dynamic content from their favorite applications. Our flagship application Thread, is an innovative caller-ID and contact management application. Users personalize their incoming call screen and address book with a consolidated view of the caller's recent communications and social network updates.

Check out the SXSW Interactive Accelerator page for finalists, and please let us know in the comments which ones you're excited about (or if you're attending SXSW Interactive).

Digital innovation think tank L2 released its third-annual "Digital IQ Index: Hotels" study, which shows that Starwood is the most digitally knowledgeable of all hotel brands, landing five of the top 10 hotels in the index. 

"This year’s report benchmarks the digital competence of 57 hotel brands according to 675 data points across four digital dimensions: site, digital marketing, social media, and mobile," L2 reported. "Through our research, we explain the past and current digital landscape of the hotel industry, offer insight on industry trends, and highlight brand case study success stories, or ‘Flashes of Genius,’ from the past year. As always, we also provide a comprehensive ranking of all the brands included in our research, assigning each a Digital IQ of Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, or Feeble.

"This year, there was just one Genius: W Hotels," L2 continued. "The Starwood property moved up an impressive eight spots from last year to dethrone Four Seasons in 2013. W earned the top title by performing well in a variety of categories, including emerging social media (their partnership with Instagram, just one example), and creating engaging, original content that connects its various properties to the latest music, fashion, and design news. A strong site rounded out W’s digital profile." 

Have you read our latest future of meetings whitepaper? It's titled "The Value of Connection: A Review of Social Media Trends," and it was written by Dr. Emma Wood of the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality at Leeds Metropolitan University. 

To entice you, here are Wood's 10 takeaways from the paper.

1. Join in but don’t own. Experiment with social media as a person before jumping in as a company spokesperson.

2. Create when you’re ready. Format your organizational network as you would your social network. Start by thinking who you can help rather than what you can gain.

3. Segment on social media use. Don’t assume everyone will use each platform in the same way (if at all). Identify real friends and nurture them.

4. Develop strategic, targeted, device agnostic strategies. Technology may change rapidly, so have a strategy that works regardless of the platform.

5. Monetize online access. As social media becomes a vital part of the meetings product, consider ways to monetize it, but only if it provides real value.

6. Personalize by serving. Online communities of shared interest are new market segments. Identify, join, nurture and serve.

7. Build social media into your marketing mix. Integrate them into communication, product, value, accessibility and convenience.

8. Humanize the company voice. Participate as a contributor and not a marketer.

9. Don’t forget the internal customer. Social media are increasingly used within organizations to create better satisfaction, collaboration, creativity and trust.

10. Use features as they become the norm. Don’t rush into each new development; do recognize the new normal when it lands.

My favorite takeaway is No. 8, humanize the company voice. Which one is your favorite? Please let us know in the comments.

I've recently fallen in love with Skift, a "travel intelligence media company that offers news, information, data, tools and services to professionals in the travel industry and professional travelers to help them make smart decisions about travel."

After MPIWeb.org (of course), it's my go-to source for travel news. And while if focuses more on hospitality and consumer travel, I do think meeting professionals can find valuable information on the site. 

One valuable section is SkiftSocial, a data dashboard for travel industry brands. 

"Virtually every brand—from airline giants to small city tourism bureaus—is now living in a social media-driven world and has built up strategies for it," wrote Jason Clampet, SkiftSocial co-founder and head of content. "But how effective are they? SkiftSocial is a window that allows the travel industry to discover the latest patterns and trends, and gain insight into how companies project themselves in the new social-driven world.

"With SkiftSocial, readers can compare the Twitter and Facebook efforts made by airports, destinations, media brands, lodging brands, airlines, digital brands, cruise lines, and railways," he continued. "You can see who’s tweeting the most, which airlines are engaging customers the best, or which media brand knows a thing or two about Facebook."

For example, when you select Wynn Las Vegas, you see that the hotel has sent 70 tweets in the last 14 days, 20 Facebook posts in the last two weeks, and that it takes about eight hours for Wynn Las Vegas to reply to a post on Facebook (at the time of this blog entry). You can also view recent Twitter and Facebook conversations and highly liked tweets and posts.  

Compare Wynn's social media data to another Las Vegas property, Mandalay Bay (home of WEC 2013!). It has 51 tweets in the last 14 days, 17 Facebook posts in the last two weeks, and it takes about one hour to reply to a post on Facebook.   

This type of information is exciting, because it lets people know which companies have their stuff together when it comes to social media and can help you identify industry trends. Also, if I was planning a meeting or event, I'd want to work with the companies that understand and implement social media well. 

Let's hear from you. How would you use this data? What's important about it to you? Please let us know in the comments.