Organizing The Unorganized

Don’t you just love lists?  How about when everything has a place and that place is orderly?  I know many people like this and many who would laugh at me for even suggesting such a thing.  I know some people who will take the time to get organized ever so often just to end up right back where they were to begin with.  Being organized takes a special commitment and involves getting into a routine.  Here are a few thoughts to help you get started on being, and staying organized.

  • Avoid Procrastination:  Once you’ve gotten organized by establishing a place for everything, make sure you put it there.  Don’t set things aside for later. Whether its papers at the office or dishes at home, take the few extra seconds to put things in their place when your done with them every time.
  • Make It a Habit:  It takes 21 days to establish a habit so you need to commit.  Make sure you’re in the organized life for the long haul.  You may have some days of chaos where you feel yourself slipping off track but that’s ok.  It happens to all of us.  Just make sure you get back on track quickly.
  • Reward Yourself:  Who doesn’t like to be rewarded for a job well done?  If you’ve been living an unorganized life, organizing it for the long haul is a big deal.  Set up some rewards for yourself.  Every month you succeed you can use the time you’ve saved by being organized (and you should have some) to do something fun just for you!

Do you have anything that has helped you stay organized that might help someone else?

 

 

 

Social Media, Boring Conversations & Meeting Attendee ROI

Came across some good articles this past week. Please let me know which one was your favorite.

Social Media Made Fun & Easy: Engaging Across Generation Gaps - In case you missed the free webinar, here’s the link to the presentation. Definitely some useful information here.

Polite & Rude Ways To End A Conversation - Ever been stuck in a conversation you wish you could get out of? Here’s a list of both gracious and impolite ways for you to end a conversation.

Meeting and Event Planner App-Check In Easy - An interview with the designer of the new app, Check In Easy, discussing how the app can help meeting and event planners.

Association Meetings Should Be About Member ROI - Excellent reminder, everyone’s time is valuable and meeting dollars are limited, so make sure your meeting agenda reflects the needs of those attending.

 

Should You Be Using Pinterest To Promote Your Event?

If you’re like me, you have probably been reading and hearing a lot about Pinterest lately. Over the past 6 months it has been the fastest growing social media site…EVER! Given these stats, I felt like I had to check it out.

So, what is Pinterest? The short version is it’s a visually appealing platform, easy to use and offers life-style oriented content. Technically you have to be invited to join, but it’s not a big deal. Chances are pretty good that some of your Facebook or Twitter friends are already members and they can shoot you an email invite. Once you receive your invite you can log in and be creating your own pin boards in no time.

To help you decide if this is something you should doing with your events, here are 3 links we think you may find helpful:

How To Effectively Use Pinterest For Events – A picture paints a thousand words and events can tell an engaging story on Pinterest. Here are 5 tips to help you get started…

Pinterest For Conference, Wedding & Event Planners – Contains a list of 12 ways for event planners to use Pinterest. Interestingly enough, the first 2 deal with using Pinterest to brainstorm ideas for new events and conference topics.

Conference & Event Showcasing Via Online Pinboards – This link is to an open discussion group on LinkedIn dedicated to sharing how to use Pinterest to promote conferences and events.

Should you be using Pinterest to help promote your event? If you’re desire to create engagement with your audience in a visually compelling way, the short answer is YES. Pinterest can be a great way to build a community around your event.

The more I look into it, the more I’m convinced we will be promoting our events at Ridgecrest on Pinterest. What about you?

 

Enjoy A Little Local Flavoring!

When attending conferences, one of the things I always enjoy is getting out and sampling some of the area restaurants. I’m thinking Fred’s Mexican Cafe in Old Town San Diego, Guadelupe Cafe in Santa Fe, numerous places on the Riverwalk in San Antonio to name just a few. Chain restaurants don’t count. You can do that back home. I’m talking places the locals love to go!

With this mind, I thought it would be interesting to ask our Ridgecrest sales team where they enjoy going to eat in and around Asheville. Here’s what they came back with:

  • Tupelo Honey Cafe - How can you go wrong when their website tagline says, “New South Flavors. Scratch-made Fun.”? Must admit I have never tried this place, but definitely have it on my list for later this spring.
  • Corner Kitchen - Housed in an historic Victorian house located in Biltmore Village, this is a favorite with locals and out of town guests.
  • Moose Cafe - Located on the grounds of the Western North Carolina Farmer’s Market and featured in Southern Living for their homemade “cathead” biscuits and applebutter. Need I say more?
  • My Father’s Pizza - A Black Mountain tradition that is well known to Ridgecrest guests. My favorite is the white garlic, roasted chicken pizza!
  • Red Rocker Inn - Another Black Mountain favorite. This historic B&B offers a great dining experience and you will definitely want to save room for their killer desserts!

What about you? What are some of the local restaurants you’ve enjoyed when attending a conference?

8 Great Technology Tools For Event Planners

As we’ve shared in previous posts, being a meeting/event planner can be a tough, challenging job. Fortunately technology is beginning to offer some tools that can go a long way in reducing stress on a meeting planner. Here are 8 we thought you might find helpful…or at least fun. Enjoy!

  • Eventbrite – An online registration system that can create custom event pages, has social media tools to promote events and tracks attendance.
  • Zite - Keep track of varied interests in one place with this custom magazine app that learn’s your interests and curates articles and news according to what you read. (Free – iPhone, iPad)
  • Slideshare - Online presentation network where speakers can share their slideshows with attendees. Planners can also tap into the site to search for potential speakers.
  • Square – A great way to take on-site payments. The tiny device attaches to any smartphone or iPad, accepts all major credit cards and charges merchants a 2.75% rate.
  • Pinterest - A social networking site that is an online pinboard where users share things they love on the Internet. Perfect for the visually stimulating world of events.
  • Storify - Turn your conference or event into a story. By embedding tweets, Facebook posts, video and images into a single stream on the site, the conversation surrounding a session or the entire conference becomes a multi-media story. Once the story is published, users can send it out via social media to spread the word.
  • Cardmunch – This app from LinkedIn converts a photo of a business card into a digital contact and finds the new contact on LinkedIn. (iPhone)
  • HeyTell – Stay connected to the other members of your planning team with this walkie-talkie app. No need for hand-held radios or wasting time typing out a text. (iPhone, Android)

Any other tech tools you’re currently using that our readers may also find helpful? Please share in the comments!

4 Ways We Promise To Show A Little Love

Earlier this year, CareerCast.com came out with their list of the most stressful jobs for 2012 (read here). Not surprisingly, soldier, fireman and police officer were all in the top 5.  What I definitely did not expect to see was event coordinator/planner at #6. After reading the article we responded by posting 5 stress relieving tips for meeting planners (read here), along with how to put together a meeting planner survival kit (read here). Hopefully you found at least one of these posts helpful!

At Ridgecrest we recognize how challenging and stressful it can be for the person planning their group’s meeting or retreat. Therefore we want to do everything we can to make planning an event with us a great, positive experience. To help make this happen, here are 4 ways we promise to show our event planners a little love:

  • Take the time to really listen – We know you’re busy and trying to juggle a boat load of details and a myriad of distractions. Whenever we talk, you will have our undivided attention as we discuss your meeting needs.
  • Be a problem solver- Let us know what problems you had with your last event and we’ll work closely with you to solve them. We want to help make you the hero!
  • We’ll offer suggestions/alternatives - We handle hundreds of meetings every year. This gives us the opportunity to see a lot of great and not so great event ideas. We’ll be sure to share ideas we think could positively impact your event and our feelings won’t be hurt if you choose not to take us up on a suggestion.
  • We’ll always say “thank you” – Your ministry is important to us and we’ll never take your business for granted!

As a meeting planner, how else can we show you a little love?