Planned Serendipity
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This document discusses ways to build connections and reduce intimidation at conferences through planned serendipitous activities like tee shirt and cap swaps. It also stresses the importance of remembering that volunteers are people first and their attendance at the event may not be their top priority. Targeted session tracking and badges are also mentioned as ways to help attendees.
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Planned Serendipity
- 1. Planned Serendipity … Wonderful unexpected discoveries of things not sought for, but planned by outside forces.
- 6. ACU-I NIRSA NACA
- 7. Radiological Society of North America
- 9. Conferences can be an intimidating place for your lone attendees and first timers.
- 10. What are you doing to build connections?
- 12. First there was a tee shirt swap……..
- 13. Now a Cap Swap sponsored by Top of the World
- 15. Volunteers
- 16. It is easy to forget your volunteers are people first, membership and attendance at your event may be lower on their priority list.
- 21. The Shared Experience of Absurdity – Charlie Todd – on Ted Talks http://www.ted.com/talks/charlie_todd_the_shared_experience_of_absurdity.html http://improveverywhere.com/2009/02/09/high-five-escalator/
- 23. Secret Squirrels Wendy Holliday Vice President, Marketing and Member Services National Association of College Stores Ph: (800) 622-7498, ext. 2303 Fx: (440) 775-4769 wholliday@nacs.org www.nacs.org
Editor's Notes
- But what of planned serendipity?
- I use these college photos
- Because college not only a great example of a time when wonderful relationship form
- But also as a reference to something that colleges do to encourage freshmen success that I think we can translate to the association world
- Colleges…..
- So what can we do as conference organizers to increase the opportunities for relationships to form?Some are small stepsHere these large associations are breaking down their attendees into smaller targeted groups or creating specific events and competitions.
- RSNA – has quite a bit of international attendance, so a breakdown by country or languages is important
- Simple – helpfulICBA Stars on badges for first timersICBA – StarsStole the idea from Craft and Hobby Association
- Do you have a first timer receptionAre you creating a welcoming environment during the receptionThe first time I sent an email to our lone attendees……..
- How about everyone else?As meeting planners, you can create wonderful opportunities for strangers to interact in a non-threatening environment.
- This can be fun or lonely depending on your point of view.
- Opening Session InteractionsWhat is meaningful to your attendee – our are retailers so this worked.
- Then it moved into a revenue generating opportunity as well as an engaging event for members.
- ICBA – even breaks education tracks further by POS system used.
- Volunteer recognition and encouragement – they become your brand ambassadorsShow candy bar wrappers
- We have a volunteer lounge and photos of volunteers are collected and posted. The first year I solicited photos, I thought I would receive a lot of headshots. This is our incoming board president.
- They want to connect with you and with each other – are you providing an opportunity to do so.
- I received 5 photos from this member and two were just of the fish
- Serendipity can happen. It will happen more if we – the event organizers – push it along.Look how happy Randy is to find his picture in the lounge.
- Try something to inspire.
- I sent it – just for fun to my secret squirrels. They went crazy for it.
- Ok – Secret Squirrel – NACS Virtual Task ForceDo what you can – the smallest thing can generate interest and excitement.