He presented three questions to the audience to think through before making any decision, big or small. Each question suggested the need to introduce objectivity or clarity into the process.

1. What would my replacement do?
2. What would a great leader do?
3. What story do I want to tell?

Throughout his talk, Stanley drove home the point that leaders are not always the smartest in the room, or even the ones with all the information, but they are the leaders because they can make—or have to make—decisions when it matters.

“Leaders are important because of the thing we hate most: uncertainty,” he said. “Uncertainty is not indicative of poor leadership; uncertainty underscores the need for leadership.”

Stanley expands on how to balance the fear and motivation question No. 1 can incite in a leader as well as how he has become a better speaker to live and virtual audiences in the video below.

The other Leadercast speakers offered insight planners can implement in their leadership roles, but planners can learn even more from what went in to planning the huge event. Read our interview with Leadercast planner Michael Williams here.

Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium was used for the conference's general sessions in order to accommodate the conference's more than 20,000 high school-aged students and their chaperones.

Event: The National Catholic Youth Conference drew 21,000 youth to Indianapolis last November. “We talk about it as three days of catechism or teaching, prayer and worship, recreation and service,” says Gross. “We try and engage people in multiple ways in multiple levels, strengthening their Catholic identities and understanding of our Catholic faith.” The organizers found the city and host diocese such a good fit, they signed up to bring the conference back for the 2013 biennial event before the 2011 event took place.

Location: NCYC has very specific needs in a host city: covered stadium with minimum seating of 20,000 people; a convention center with 750,000 square feet of exhibit space within walking distance, if not connected to, the stadium; 5,500 quad-occupancy hotel rooms within 20-30 minutes of the center; and a diocese willing and equipped to host a group of that size. “It’s not about being in an exciting destination—not to say Indy isn’t exciting—but it’s about driveability. When attendees can bus or drive in cars and vans, we see attendance increase,” Gross says.

Return Trip: Returning to Indianapolis in 2013 has its advantages. “A lot of adults and group leaders have been once before, so for them, it will eliminate the first-time jitters; they’ll know the layout, where the restrooms are,” Gross says. It also allows the planning team to improve problems faced during the previous event.

Trade Show: The event’s trade show, called Thematic Park, was designed to be an interactive venue with a central service area to puts the event’s theme, “Called to Glory,” into action. “It showed how to take [lessons] home and replicate them at the local level,” Gross says. In the past, attendees built a Habitat for Humanity house in the exhibit hall. At this event, students could participate in sports, walk through a disability simulation, sculpt clay at the Creative Corner, or sit at a coffeehouse and listen to Catholic musicians. “It connected to what was happening in our general session in Lucas Oil,” Gross says. “It was always meant to be interactive, and never meant to be exhibit booths in a 10×10 line.”

Face-to-Face: “We draw young people from across the country, and we hear, most poignantly, that they’re the only Catholic in their community,” she says. “They come and are able to see they’re not the only Catholic. [They are] one of tens of thousands, who come together and gather once every other year, who are making the tough decision and living counter-culturally.”

Security: In response to the recent child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops developed a charter to protect young people that all Catholic dioceses in the country have to be in general alignment with. It includes background checks, training to recognize and predict signs of abuse, and steps needed to protect against any such behavior. NCYC did background checks on every speaker and performer who took the stage. “We’re still working on it,” Gross says. “Is it overkill or are we striking the right balance? It’s a major expense—not that finances make the decision—but we didn’t used to budget for this, but now we do.”

| IN GROSS’ WORDS |

When I’m on-site at an event:

I can’t live without my co-workers, including our very dedicated vendor partners. Events don’t happen because of one person. Outside of work, my husband and children. They make everything worthwhile.

I communicate using a radio, texting, and, occasionally, email. We also hold daily face-to-face briefings for our highest level group leaders.

I am most inspired by the young people who attend our youth conference and the adults who bring them.

I most miss my children. (I’m blessed that my husband is a member of our organization and so he is usually present at most of our events.)

I learn the most from doing. I’m a hands-on learner.

Gross tells us why the success of NCYC is about more than a job in A Closer Look.

Whether to convey mood, atmosphere, motivation or excitement, a well planned and designed use of lighting instruments can create different settings. Lighting needs change for different aspects of an event; a general session requires different lighting than a live music performance, for example. Lighting can be complex and expensive, but with enough forethought and planning, you can create a very dramatic look within your budget.

Color and Contrast 

Look at the example of the stage set for NBC’s stand-up comedy television competition “Last Comic Standing”. Is it dramatic? Absolutely. But you can count the number of lighting instruments used on one hand. Using a black draped background, one white light illuminating a stool, a video projector display for the graphic and a few lights for the blue effect on the floor, a focused and theatrical stage was created. The key to achieving this dramatic look is the combination of contrast and color. This technique easily can be adapted for any large keynote or entertainment session at very little cost.

Simple Can Be Powerful

Keep this in mind when planning your next event: You don’t need a million lights to create memories. Performing artists Jars of Clay put on a concert for an audience. The setting is dramatic and intense, yet only four lights—and no color—are used. For added effect, planners can use a theatrical “haze” to create a scene and help lights show their true color. Without the haze, the audience wouldn’t get the beaming light effect. Haze helps create this effect, unlike “fog,” the low-lying effect that rolls off the floor (think “Dancing with the Stars”).

Planning for Projectors 

When planning the lighting and staging for events, don’t forget your audience, especially if you are using image projection (IMAG) in a general session. When lighting a stage or speaker for videotaping or IMAG, make sure that you don’t wash out your presenters by only using white light. Flesh-tone covers or “gels” give a more natural look to presenters. Also, using a “key light,” or a light placed slightly behind a presenter or performer to highlight the person, can make a big difference. In lighting, often the smallest changes can yield the biggest differences.

Get creative. Get ideas from television shows, concerts, events or other  meetings you attend, then share your ideas with your audiovisual team or lighting designers to see what you can achieve within your budget. Stay informed and don’t ever be afraid to try something new.

Kevin R. Johnston, CMP, is the executive vice president at Collinson Events and has produced events globally for Fortune 500 companies and international associations for more than 25 years. You can reach him at kjohnston@collinsonevents.com.

As event planners, there is much you can teach your clients, but there are things you can learn from them too, both to build your business and to better serve your customers. For example, successful trade show exhibitors will tell you a giveaway vastly improves their conversion of visitors to leads. It’s not just a hunch. Research actually quantifies the impact promotional giveaways can have and helps us understand why they work.

In a 2004 study by Georgia Southern University, a sample of nearly 800 pre-registered attendees to a pharmaceutical trade show were divided into three groups. The first received a postcard inviting the recipient to stop by the exhibitor’s booth; the second received the invitation, together with a promotional magnet imprinted with the exhibitor’s logo; and the third received a postcard offering a T-shirt in exchange for bringing the postcard to the exhibitor’s booth at the show.

The findings? Of postcard recipients who later stopped by the booths, 41 percent had received the offer for the shirt; 36 percent had received the postcard with the magnet; and 23 percent had received only the invitation. In other words, as PPAI Research concludes, 78.2 percent more people responded to the T-shirt offer than the postcard alone, and 56.5 percent more people responded to the magnet than the postcard alone.

Dr. Robert Cialdini defines the rule of reciprocity in "Influence: Science and Practice."

Including a promotional gift generates markedly greater traffic, which increases the likelihood of leads. But what explains the behavior? Why are people more likely to give their time, attention or money after receiving something for free?

Part of the answer lies in what’s been called the reciprocity rule. As Dr. Robert Cialdini reports in his top-selling book, “Influence: Science and Practice,” all humans in all cultures are conditioned to respond to any gift with a reciprocal gift or act. This conditioned response is so strong that most people are simply compelled to return the kindness of a gift, even if they really don’t want to.

The rule is so much a part of our lives that we don’t even realize we’re in its sway. Have you ever felt you “owed” someone a return invitation to a party? Or said, “Much obliged,” to express your thanks for a favor? Or felt pressure to donate to a nonprofit organization that included a gift in its fundraising appeal? That’s the rule of reciprocity at work. And you can make it work for you, too. Here’s how:

1. Take a page from your clients’ playbook and invest in promotional products as you market your event or event planning services. Promotional products offer excellent value relative to other forms of media; according to the Advertising Specialty Institute, the average cost per impression of a promotional item is $0.004 (that’s two-and-a-half impressions for a penny). In picking your giveaway, put a focus on utility and durability: Select a gift your target recipient will actually want to use and that will last. A T-shirt languishing in a prospect’s drawer isn’t doing anything for your brand, but a travel mug she takes in the car every day could keep you front and center in her mind.
2. Know that you don’t have to choose an expensive giveaway. A big price tag isn’t necessary to trigger the recipient’s impulse to give back, because reciprocation isn’t a market transaction—it’s human nature. If you prefer to give more expensive items, that’s fine too. But know that a high retail value isn’t necessary to set off the reciprocity effect.
3. Give the item before you ask for anything. The powerful reciprocity effect is triggered in the second person by the one who gives first. Be the first giver and you will reap the rewards.

Combine these strategies and you will discover that not only are you saving money on your promotional product spending but also getting more out of the giveaways you use.

Finally, if you are trying to be careful with your budget, use the Internet to buy your giveaways direct—and be sure to comparison shop. In many cases, vendors source their undecorated items from the same manufacturers. Don’t pay more than you need to when you can find the exact same item somewhere else.

Jerry McLaughlin is CEO of branders.com, the world’s largest online promotional products company. He can be reached at jerrymclaughlin@branders.com.

For Planners

An event isn’t going to be well-organized if the person behind it isn’t. The following tools keep planners on track by helping with travel, accounting, scheduling and planning.

Contactually

Not everyone can have a personal assistant keeping track of emails and tasks. Contactually is a relationship management tool that connects directly to an email inbox and takes note of who the messages are from and how frequently and quickly the user responds to certain emails. The system prioritizes contacts and helps keep track of follow-up. Reminder emails from Contactually keep important relationships top of mind. The web-based platform is compatible with Gmail, Outlook and most email programs online and on all mobile devices. It also syncs with most CRMs. contactually.com | Plans range from $15-$150/month

Doodle

Faxing a sign-up sheet around to colleagues? Sending reply-all emails to a group? Try the online meeting scheduler Doodle, which easily coordinates schedules with polls that sync with Google, Outlook, Exchange and iCal to help pick the best dates and location for everyone involved. doodle.com | Free or premium plans $39-$479/year

Powersquid

Bring along the ultimate powerstrip, the PowerSquid, which fits in a briefcase, has a flat profile plug to squeeze behind furniture, two glowing outlets, surge protection and a bevy of octopus-like extensions for multiple electronics. powersquid.com | $12.95-$59.95

 iRunuRun

This mobile app and web dashboard focuses on performance and accountability rather than acting as a task manager. Users select up to seven measurable actions that can be weighted according to priority and lead to a big picture goal (i.e., “reach out to 10 attendees a week on social media” rather than “improve engagement with attendees”). Weekly scoring and benchmarks give users metrics to mark their progress. Purchasing a directed account allows leaders to create teams, set goals for employees, monitor progress, create competitions among a group and add custom branding to the app. Also check out iprayupray, a beta website that uses the irun concept to encourage individuals and organizations to manage prayer among communities. irunurun.com |  $0.99 app; self-directed account: free-$4.99/month; directed account: $500 team challenge fee, ongoing subscription based on users and performance discount during initial challenge |  iPhone

TIP | Use tweetchat.com to join Twitter chats. Sign in on the website using your Twitter account and type in a designated hashtag. The system filters the relevant tweets into a chat room and makes it easy to message the group. Smart pausing prevents new tweets from being added to the top if the user scrolls down to read earlier posts until scrolling back up. No prep work is required for the organizer either. Make sure followers know when to join and what hashtag to follow and it’s all set.

For Events

From marketing and registration leading up to an event to on-site gadgets and post-event follow up, event technology enhances connection, engagement and participation throughout the experience.

Citywide Attendee Credential System

ITN International’s BCARD badges take interactive name tags one step further. Embedded with Near Field Communications technology, the identification cards double as a way to track attendees within the conference (think: education credits) and as a free pass to public transit and tourist attractions throughout a host city. The host CVB can provide discounts around town, or tickets to a convention-wide event at an area attraction. itn-international.com | Pricing structures depend on size of event and sponsorship opportunities

Padgett Plus

The affordable device has login capabilities and a full numeric keypad for voting and polling. It is the most popular of Padgett’s devices for faith-based events, especially for elections. An LCD display shows two-line messages, including an alert when the organizer receives the vote or answer. Upgraded devices from Padgett include the Ativa with a full-color, customizable LCD touch screen that can engage participants in a fun game of “Jeopardy” or other custom game shows in addition to its audience response capabilities.
pcipro.com  | Flexible pricing is based on the number of keypads, number of days used and location of meeting

IML Connector

The BlackBerry-like device has a full keyboard and color screen. In addition to simple polling during a presentation, the device works well for voting on amendments, elections and other important matters. The organizer can give voting privileges to certain individuals and make responses confidential, providing professionalism for important votes or fundraising initiatives. A built-in speaker and microphone allows attendees to contribute to the conversation or ask questions during an open forum. Simpler models are available through IML for polling and fundraising. imlaudienceresponse.com | $10-$25/day per device

Social Tables

Anyone who’s ever gotten stuck at the crazy cousin table at a wedding knows the importance of a good seating chart. When there are assigned seats, drama and unhappy guests can follow. Social Tables gives attendees the power to help with the seating chart without the chaos a planner would expect from crowdsourcing this aspect of planning. The collaborative program allows multiple organizers at different locations to determine seating. The organizers’ purest intention, though, is to allow guests to pick their own seats. Planners can put guests into categories giving them certain options of where to sit, and guests have the ability to interact beforehand and pick their seats, ideally with new contacts. socialtables.com | Free

Square

The best way to take payment on-site, this tiny device attaches to a smartphone, accepts all major credit cards and charges merchants a 2.75 percent rate. It makes registration a breeze, and direct-deposit payments are in the bank the next day. square.com | iPhone, iPad, Android

For Social

Events are social. We plan gatherings to initiate connection and interaction among colleagues. Social media gives that interaction a year-round platform, encourages face-to-face connections and offers the potential to elevate events to a new level. New players in this field add excitement to what planners can achieve through social networks.

Pinterest

The hottest trend in social media, Pinterest, beat YouTube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic in January and is fast on Twitter’s heels. The social networking site is an online pinboard where users share things they love on the Internet. It’s perfect for the visually stimulating world of events. Planners can go in several directions with it. A planner might create a board that markets an event, pinning articles about education, images that go along with the theme, speaker videos and host city information. Or, the planner might create a personal idea board with centerpiece possibilities, great food and beverage presentations or cool audiovisual. And, if the site seems geared too much for the female set, its manly (unrelated) counterpart, gentlemint.com, has a rougher exterior. pinterest.com | Free | iPhone, iPad, HTML5

Pathable

Technology has increased engagement at face-to-face events and extended lifespans online. One of the pioneers in this area is Pathable, a custom online community for events, which had a makeover at the end of last year that made it even better. More than simply a custom social networking site, the platform was designed with events in mind. It integrates with registration systems, giving attendees a virtual presence and allowing them to network with one another, create custom agendas and download session handouts. Attendees, speakers and suppliers dialogue in forums, and a virtual trade show floor gives additional exposure and connection opportunities to suppliers. The benefits of 2.0? Allows all of that engagement year-round, makes it all mobile and browser-based (i.e., faster). pathable.com | $3,900-$27,200/year | iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows phone

For Mobile

Today, in order to mobilize attendees, many meeting planners have to mobilize their content. Making the event website mobile, having an on-site mobile app and using a personal mobile device as a tool are necessary.

Gamify App

Competition fuels engagement, and gaming—the No. 1 most popular mobile activity—turns attendees into active participants. EventMobi has created GamifyApp, a customizable gaming app for events. Attendees earn badges by checking into exhibitor booths, answering questions about education sessions or taking part in an event-specific scavenger hunt. Organizers receive data about who checked into locations, which they can share with exhibitors or use for their own feedback. gamifyapp.com | $2,500 or combined with EventMobi packages starting at $799 | iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry

Swivl

This is not your average tripod. The Swivl base holds a smartphone, and automatically follows a presenter wearing a Swivl sensor. The speaker is free to move around and stays in the camera’s view. swivl.com | $159 | iPhone

For Websites

An app, social media, online registration system and print pieces are all important aspects of event marketing, but they all link from or to a crucial information hub: the event’s website.

Event Manager Theme

The new website theme built for a WordPress platform was designed based on feedback from the Event Planning and Event Management LinkedIn group started by Julius Solaris, editor of the Event Manager Blog. The template is easy to manage with custom dashboard sections for speakers and sessions, integrates with Eventbrite for registration, and is responsive, meaning it adapts to web or mobile platforms automatically. The clean layout is easy for attendees to navigate. It’s recommended for small to medium events, and has a custom version with upgrades and extra features for large events. eventmanagerblog.com/event-manager-theme | $99, $149 with 1 year of support

Facebook Badges

Share personal profiles, a “like” box, photo albums or an event’s Facebook page on a main website to draw attention to the event activity on the social network. Users don’t have to leave the website to like the event’s page or check out photos from previous events. facebook.com/badges | Free

Don’t forget there are still more tools in the April/May issue of Rejuvenate, and read an interview with Michael Williams of Chick-fil-A Leadercast about how he implements technology here. Let us know in the comments below some of your favorite meetings technology tools.

You’ll see a lot of the same elements at faith-based conferences. The style and substance of these events vary wildly (a 10,000-person congress certainly demands different things than a 200-person youth event), but most faith-based meetings have a few unifying factors: education, worship, speakers and community events. It’s the way these elements are delivered that’s changing. And a few meeting planners are stepping way outside the ascribed planning box by focusing on creating an environment that changes the attitude and conversation about a meeting before it ever begins.

“If everyone else is doing it, we’re probably not going to do it,” says Katie Strandlund, sponsor care coordinator and director of operations of Story conference, an annual event held in Chicago for self-described artists and creators (mostly Christian) who are trying to communicate their stories. Now in its fourth year, Story continues to break the standard conference mold. “It’s more of an experience than a conference,” says Strandlund. “It’s meant to inspire and help people see what’s possible and push imaginations to a greater level.”

The speakers you see at other faith-based events? You won’t see them at Story. Musicians? The bands at Story are up-and-comers or barely-knowns. Breakout sessions? Not here. Everything takes place on one main stage at Park Community Church. Speakers are intermixed with bands. Bands are intermixed with theatrical acts. Those acts are intermixed with monologues. The agenda is unexpected, the content is unusual, but the focus remains where it should be: on the attendees.

“The environment—from the time you arrive to the time you leave—is meant to be inspirational. We want to make it an experience. We want to make it something you want to come back to,” says Strandlund. That means bringing in speakers via hologram (yes, a hologram, on stage, speaking). It also means making it rain, indoors, on the main stage. It means dispatching a “surprise and delight” team who hands out throwback treats from the ‘90s (think MoonPies and Yoo-hoo chocolate milk).

Not every planner can make it rain on stage (Strandlund says, “Don’t ask me how we do it”), but much of what you see at Story can be lifted, even in part, for your own meetings and events. Story’s website is an amazing online portal and gateway to the event, with an innovative design and functionality. Last year, conference organizers checked everyone in with the EventBrite app, which, despite being relatively easy-to-use, made a huge impression on attendees. During Story’s breaks, organizers created special environments in which attendees could hang out and relax. One was a garage lounge with a DJ and comfy couches. Another was an art gallery. Yet another area was an acoustic cafe. They gave the event a “festival feel,” says Strandlund.

Story is big and bright and fun. Its vision is obvious. The passion that Ben Arment,  author and founder of several ministry events including Story, and the rest of the planning team have is clear. They want to inspire people. They want to bring their attendees something they can’t find at other events. And they have that goal in mind before they even begin lining up music acts and speakers.

“Start with identifying your goals and design meetings around that, innovate around that and create around that,” says John Nawn, an organizational psychologist and founder of The Perfect Meeting, a meeting facilitation, coaching and design advisory firm. It’s impossible to be creative and try new things without first knowing what you want to get out of your event, he says.

Blaine Hogan, creative director of Willow Creek Community Church, opens his mouth to catch a few raindrops as it rains on stage during the 2011 Story conference in Chicago.

Nawn also draws a distinction between creativity and innovation. Creativity, he says, is developing new ideas. Innovation, by contrast, is the process of transforming those ideas into valuable or profitable solutions. When planning meetings and events, you can be both creative and innovative, but being innovative can help you actually measure ROI. “You need to understand and get past self-imposed barriers,” he recommends. Instead of focusing on the fact that you have a tight budget or time constraints, think instead about what opportunities those barriers can ultimately create. Limited time for education? Consider the TED approach by shortening the time speakers have to present. Tight budgets? That’s when creativity really flows.

“I believe most people are more creative than they give themselves credit for,” says Nawn. They just need to be more confident, he says. It takes guts to forgo printed conference materials in favor of electronic ones, possibly alienating a few members, and it takes a lot of confidence to start with absolutely nothing and, within months, build an entire event and watch people explore and enjoy your creation.

That’s what happened to Scott McClellan, director of Echo Conference, an educational event for the artists, geeks and storytellers that roam behind the scenes at their churches and organizations. The conference attendees are primarily on staff at churches or ministries, and “they are communicators who don’t have a traditional pulpit,” says McClellan. “Most of them aren’t teaching Sunday mornings, but they’re communicating the same message or enhancing the Sunday morning message through other media.”

Echo was founded by RT Creative Group, which is also the parent company for Igniter Media. Igniter Media has been helping to create media resources for churches for a decade. “As Igniter Media, we were passionate about using new media to unite the church and serve its people,” explains McClellan. “We found that there was no magazine dedicated to that conversation, exploring the art and resources and practice of those things. The magazine we wanted wasn’t there, so we started Collide,” he says, which was a magazine for Christian creators the company often worked with. (Collide has since ceased publication in favor of an online outlet, EchoHub.) “The conference that we wanted wasn’t there either.” So, they started brainstorming. That’s how Echo came along.

McClellan joined the planning team for the 2009 conference, the event’s second year. One of the first things he recognized was the pressure to be creative when planning an event for creative people. “I feel that pressure,” he admits. “Although, what’s interesting about our audience is that they come from such different churches. One person’s definition of creative because they’re on staff at a 10,000-member church that does 3D and immersive experiences is truly different from someone who comes from a rural church of 400 people in Montana.” Because of that, McClellan and his team have to be careful not to overplan and overdo the technical aspects of Echo.

“We started out going full throttle, as graphically intensive and media intensive as we could get,” he says. “And our attendees said, ‘That was great, but we can’t go home and replicate that.’ In some ways, our eyes began to open. How can we model creativity without modeling something extravagant?”

That’s when McClellan and his team refocused on the goal of the conference. What they wanted to do was inspire and equip people and show them what’s possible in multimedia church offerings, but in an approachable way. “We started imposing some constraints on ourselves,” he says. What resulted is a conference that’s “creative in a good way,” as McClellan describes it. “Being creative doesn’t necessarily mean being more extravagant.”

Take, for example, Echo’s speaker introductions. Rather than having a moderator introduce speakers, Echo plays short, two-minute videos as introductions. For the last few years, the videos have featured Johnny and Chachi, a Christian comedy duo (watch the videos). The videos aren’t excessive or overproduced, but they’re funny and original.

In recent years, Echo also introduced a user-friendly mobile website with all conference information rather than producing a pricey app that has to be reformatted for different phones. The site works on any Droid or iPhone. Echo has to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to conference technology because its uber tech-savvy audience demands it. Inspiration and new ideas for Echo come from everywhere, says McClellan. He recently heard about a speaker who presents sessions using an iPad because he can seamlessly transition between his keynote address and another app that allows him to sketch something on the projected screen. McClellan plans to adopt the idea for the sessions he presents at Echo.

Richard Kang speaks during the 2011 Echo conference in a session on the mobile Internet.

McClellan gleans inspiration from lots of sources, and reviews them with his team in an effort to come up with the best ideas. Nothing impairs the creative planning process more than negative feedback, says Kristin D. Charles, Ph.D., a communications and adult learning expert. She often presents educational sessions on the topic of planning and creativity, including a recent one at an MPI-Wisconsin event, “Balancing Creativity and Critical Thinking in Event Planning,” in which she identified a number of steps in the creative planning process. “The first step is being creative and thinking divergently,” she says, which is the process of coming up with as many ideas as possible without evaluating them.

In all subsequent steps, thinking divergently is a key to maintaining the creative approach. Like Nawn, Charles finds it important to identify goals and the vision for your event as a way to facilitate the creative planning process. “Ask a ton of questions of all your stakeholders. What do they want the meeting to feel like, look like, sound like and taste like? Get as many ideas as you can, then go through an exercise of narrowing down themes,” she says.

It can be difficult to get people to open up and brainstorm as a team, says Charles. Some people dominate the conversation. Others are critical of ideas, even when it’s been established that there will be no negative feedback. It takes a strong leader to set the tone and be clear about the goals of the session. “Don’t have negative consequences for thinking creatively,” she says. “Someone has to say, ‘We’re going to have fun coming up with the most ridiculous stuff we can.’ Then you reward people who are willing to go out on a limb and come up with crazy ideas.”

Deciding you’re going to bring in a speaker via hologram? That’s pretty crazy. Choosing to produce speaker intro videos? That takes some planning. Many ideas originally proposed for Story or Echo never made it into their events, but that’s OK, too. It’s about throwing out as many ideas as possible, then seeing which ones stick.

Story conference is all about the unexpected, including little-known bands.

Nawn says there are two different models for planning events, and neither is right or wrong. Neither is better or worse. They’re just different perspectives. One is comparable to the Apple model. In many ways, the late CEO Steve Jobs convinced Apple consumers what they wanted before they knew they wanted it. That’s true of many meetings. Planners organize meetings based on what they think attendees want. “That happens by default because we’ve been doing meetings like this since the beginning of time,” says Nawn.

But in recent years, another model has emerged. “We reach out to our audience and ask what they want in partnership or collaboration with them.” These crowdsourced conferences are built and improved over time based on audience response. It’s more difficult to perfect the Apple model, says Nawn. TED has been able to do it, but few conferences have replicated the TED conference well. It takes a very creative person who’s willing to take risks, implement the top-down approach and do it successfully.

Regardless of the way you plan events or who you plan them for, there’s always an opening for creativity. Some planners bust it wide open, and that’s when you get conferences such as Echo and Story. Other planners—in fact, it’s probably safe to say most planners—never quite get the courage to fully explore their creative resources. In the faith-based community, opportunities abound to break out of the norm, and one key reason is because the audience is often willing to accept what is offered. They’re looking for inspiration. They attend events because they want to see and feel something new. You can help open their minds to new ideas when you do the same.

“Bright Ideas” is the third article in our Rethinking Meetings series, which examines the way the planning and production of meetings are changing. We invite you to think about how you can use concepts presented in this series, discuss them with your teams and organizations, and share your insights with us. Email editor@collinsonmedia.com or add your comments on our wall.

Photo: Joshua White

Why is NCYC important to you?

We draw young people from across the country, and we hear, most poignantly, that they’re the only Catholic in their community. They come and are able to see they’re not the only Catholic. [They are] one of tens of thousands, who come together once every other year, who are making the tough decision and living counter-culturally. From comments we get through video and Facebook, they say they can be authentic to all that they are, and it’s always remarkable their reaction to adults who are present to them—deacons, clergy, sisters who are there—young people treat them with such respect and such generous love. They’re so appreciative that these men and women have taken time out of their busy ministries to be present to the young church.

How did you become a planner?

I was a product of a solid Catholic family but also a really good youth ministry in high school myself, a good parish program and an excellent Catholic high school. When I got out of college in 1992, the Pope was coming to Denver the following summer. I got a job working for the planning organization for that papal visit. I didn’t know people did this. I looked into youth ministry, but it’s not necessarily my skill set. My skill set is planning, handling multiple functions of logistics—that’s my forte.

What’s your inspiration?

It allows me to give back to my church that has given me so much and that has built a foundation that has been invaluable in my own life. I want all young people to have the opportunity that I had. It’s such a blessing to be able to do this within my own faith, to make a living doing something I love for my church and my own faith. I have four children and I want NCYC to continue to grow and mature and be around for them when they grow up.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?

Listen to the little voice you hear in your head, especially when it tells you that what you are planning is a mistake or won’t work.

Read more about the planning that went into NCYC here.

As the executive director of Chick-fil-A Leadercast, Williams is responsible for the planning and execution of the annual event aimed to inspire leaders to make a difference in their local communities.

Forget the 1 percent you hear about in the news all the time. Michael Williams is trying to reach a different 1 percent—the 1 percent of the world’s population that, research shows, can create a culture shift when they grab onto an idea and embrace it. One tool he uses to do this is Chick-fil-A Leadercast, a one-day leadership event started more than 10 years ago by John Maxwell and one of a number of events produced by Giant Impact, challenging people to shift their thinking about how leadership works. On May 4, a number of world-renowned leaders (including CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien and pastor Andy Stanley) will gather in Atlanta for Leadercast to deliver inspiring speeches that will be broadcast to more than 125,000 people worldwide. Here’s how Williams, executive director of the event, and his team do it.

What is the purpose of Chick-fil-A Leadercast?
Our big goal is to change the leadership culture of America—really the world, but starting where we are—from pride-based leadership to humility-based leadership.

Why is it important to align sponsorships, like you’ve done with Chick-fil-A, with the mission of your organization?
We want to find people with the same DNA as us—people who have a high amount of quality service and operational excellence. When we have global brands that stand for those same qualities, it is assurance to the world and reiterates the quality of the event. It’s also a risk for us. When we put a national sponsor’s name on it and they have some sort of negative press, it affects us. So we look at who we want to emulate our message.

How can planners seek those kinds of partnerships?
We’ve always gone at it with the attitude of relationship before any opportunity. We don’t even talk about sponsorships until we’ve added value in some way to that sponsor.

Frans Johansson speaks at the 2011 Leadercast

Why do you simulcast the live event?
If our goal is to change the leadership culture of America first, that’s a huge number of people. Studies show if you can change 1 percent of a given population, you start to see a culture shift. You see that throughout time. You look at the Civil Rights movement. If you start to get 1 percent of the population to stand up for an issue, you see that tipping point. We looked at working class America, the everyday leaders in America, and if we can have an impact on 1 percent of them, we will shift the culture. That number is actually 2,301,315 people. That’s our BHAG—our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. We can’t do that with one event. We’ll cap out. We’ll have 5,000 to 6,000 at the live event in Atlanta. Simulcast allows us to empower influencers all throughout the world.

More than 800 host sites simulcast the Atlanta event live to attendees present at their venues. How does that work?
They buy a license to simulcast our event, and they turn around and sell tickets to their public. We have host sites that do it for all different reasons. We have chambers of commerce that want to do it as a way to raise funds. We have churches who do it as an outreach to a local community. We have entrepreneurs who do it because they want to be life coaches and this is a great way to bring clients in around leadership. About 30 percent of our hosts are corporations who are simulcasting internally for their own company benefit.

How do you attract host sites?
We promote through social media. We’re following folks on Twitter and adding value and sharing content with leadership experts there and on Facebook. We take part in a lot of other events and trade shows. We partner with a lot of other organizations who have community influencers involved and we reach out to them with a message of, “We truly want to partner with you to influence your community.” We do that through a variety of technology, through email blasts and through Chick-fil-A. They have a raving fan database they send messages to about the event.

How do you encourage host sites to have a similar experience to the live site?
It is completely up to them. Anything we do at the live site we share. We share minute-by-minute [plans], we share creative ideas. We view host sites as partners, and every day we’re constantly striving to get better at how we equip our host sites. We do webinars, letting people know what we’re doing, the ways we are engaging people, and we encourage them to share best practices between each other.

What are some creative ways you’ve used social media?
We’ve created a private group on Facebook of all of our host sites. You have 800 people who are community influencers or are bringing this into their companies, and they share best practices. It’s amazing to watch that from the inside.

Attendees experience the event from the executive lounge

How do you engage followers?
We’re reading and following our raving fans, and retweeting and interacting with them. We want to know who’s following us and reach out to them because a lot of them have incredible stories and incredible things they are saying.

What about on-site at the event?
The last two years we’ve been a trending topic on the day of the event on Twitter. We do creative things during the event encouraging people to use our hashtag. Last year, we were trying to get a response out of Ryan Seacrest. He’s a big Chick-fil-A fan, and so Tripp [Crosby], our emcee, told everyone to tweet Ryan Seacrest and ask him if he would have lunch with Tripp next time he’s in L.A. or Atlanta. Now you have 125,000 people tweeting Ryan Seacrest with our hashtag, so now it’s interactive. We ask people to tweet in questions to our speakers and we have a backstage interviewer, Michael Hyatt, who’s interviewing speakers when they come off the stage and really looking for the questions from the audience on Twitter. Also, leading up to the event we’ve done twitterviews—interviews over Twitter—with John Maxwell and Suzy Welch. We’re lining more up for this year.

What is the Choice video contest this year?
This year, the theme is all about choices. The choices we make on a day-to-day-basis—the small choices—tend to lead to macro results. We opened a contest to give a $5,000 reward for the best 10-second video clip that illustrates a choice being made. We’ll use all the videos at the event and create a larger, longer video.

Why is engaging your community in this way important?
It guides us when we are coaching speakers and specifically ask them to speak on some of these topics. It’s really important for us to listen, not just push information out, “Hey, here’s a good leadership tip,” but really asking a question on Facebook and on Twitter and engaging to hear what people are saying.

How has social media changed the way events are planned?
One hundred percent. In the past, we’ve had this speaker vetting process to see who is going to speak at our events, and it’s just been us deciding. Through social media, we can ask who you want to see on stage and we get a list of names. Then on top of that, people are tweeting about it and it’s giving access to the speakers. If all of a sudden 10,000 tweets say I want Suzy Welch or Bono to speak at Leadercast, then Bono is getting all these tweets and thinking, “What in the world is this Leadercast thing?” Then when we reach out to them they say, “I was wondering about you guys.” It’s done so much to help bridge access to these speakers.

How has it changed the event?
Especially in a simulcast world, you’re so distant. How amazing is it that I can literally be sitting in South Africa and tweeting Tim Tebow a question that gets answered right then and there? The level of engagement and ownership one attendee feels is absolutely tremendous.

Coca-Cola and Mentos explosion

Tell us about the production involved in the Atlanta event.
We want everyone who comes to the live site to be wowed, so we look at sensory in production—what they hear, what they see, what they smell, what they taste. We use LED lights and huge screens and interaction pieces. Last year, we had fire jugglers and we did a Coke and Mentos explosion on stage. Also, sound—we bring in great musicians. We’re constantly asking how can we engage all the senses and make it something that all fits into the theme.

Why is it important to be creative?
People won’t engage if you’re not. A lot of people think, “I can’t spend the money to be creative,” and then they wonder why there’s 200 people who showed up at their event when they were hoping for 1,000. You’ve got to give people an engagement, and that comes through creativity. Spending the time, the energy and the money creating these wow moments and sensory experiences are what make or break an event.

What if they don’t have your budget?
I wish we had twice the budget. I’m amazed when I walk through and see what our team has created when I know what the budget is. Where our team gets the most creative is when we have a very, very, very tight budget, and then ask, “How do we use what we have?” We’re forced to be creative at that time. Throwing money at something takes no creativity.

What inspires you in your job?
Any event planner who’s doing a large event of some sort has to build an incredible team around them, who know what they’re doing, who are working in their unique skill sets and abilities. I get the most joy out of watching attendees’ faces, seeing the experiences that people are having, and hearing the stories of change, and then to be able to look at my team and say, “You did this.” As the leader of this team, the true joy and the true excitement comes when I can hold a mirror up to the team and say you have done the most amazing job at transforming life all around the world.

Fire jugglers entertain between speakers

How do you encourage your team?
As a company, we really try to reward character, competence and influence. The executive team calls out and appreciates those folks and the team. We also celebrate stories from host sites and attendees. To be able to share these stories, to get a letter in the mail, or a tweet or a Facebook message that talks about the power of impact, and to be able to hand that off to [my team] and say, “This is because of you. Thank you.”

How do you relax after an event?
Run and hide. Most of our team goes dark for a good while, a week or so after the event. A lot of us take vacation. I’m an entrepreneur. I love starting things and having my hands in a lot of things, so I make sure on days when I’m unplugged on the weekends, I really unplug. So I encourage the team to take true free days after the event and leading up to the event. I think it was released recently that event planning is one of the top 10 most stressful jobs in the world, and we all understand why. When we are rested and rejuvenated, we actually work in our most creative zone.

What’s your best advice for fellow planners?
Have a system where you can unplug completely. Turn off your iPhone for a 24-hour period. Turn off your email. Be unreachable. If you can’t turn your phone off, you’re not a good leader. Your team needs to be empowered to make decisions when you’re not around.

What do you have to have on-site?
My phone and my assistant.

Favorite book?
“Good to Great,” by Jim Collins

Favorite music?
I love hip-hop. I love a good beat. I love dancing and having a good time. Hip-hop makes me smile and usually makes people around me smile.

Favorite quote?
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” —Mahatma Gandhi

A meeting planner in Washington, D.C., sees a loose bolt on her exhibit panel. She picks up a wrench to fix it and a union laborer standing nearby sees her and reports a grievance to his supervisor. A florist in San Francisco attempts to carry centerpieces up a hotel loading dock and a Teamster stops him. The meeting planner who hired the florist must pay union laborers to perform this service.

While these scenarios may seem far-fetched, they are based on actual experiences faced by planners holding events in cities with unionized labor. While union regulations vary from city to city, an understanding of the venue’s guidelines will allow you to budget and reduce your organization’s liability to union grievances.

Before contracting a hotel or convention center, ask if it utilizes a union labor force and specifically which departments are in the union. While banquet servers and bellmen may be under a union contact, conference services managers and administrators might be non-union. If the venue does employ union laborers, inquire as to whether the union contracts are expiring or up for negotiation. Labor disputes could cause a disruption in services, a strike and public demonstrations outside the venue, all of which can affect your meeting.

Your salesperson might downplay any union negotiations to make a sale or not know the full extent of disputes, especially if the salesperson is located in another state. It is best to perform further research outside the venue’s report. The official hotel guide of the Hotel Workers Union, Unite Here, provides a list of hotels that are at risk of dispute or on strike. You should also perform an Internet search on the property. Search with the venue’s name followed by the words “labor dispute boycott strike” or “picket lines protests union” to learn of any existing or pending labor disputes. You can also call the local branch of the Hotel Workers Union and ask if they are currently engaged in any labor disputes in hotels in your chosen city. Unite Here provides a list of branches per city at unitehere.org/about/locals.php.

Include a union clause in your contract to further protect your organization, even if you find that union contracts are not up for negotiation and no disputes are pending. Most force majeure clauses include strikes and labor disputes. However, it is wise to add language that allows you to cancel the agreement and receive a refund of all deposits should a dispute or strike occur within two weeks prior to the start of your event or at any time during your event.

Consider also adding a clause that requires the hotel to notify your group within 10 days after it becomes aware of any labor disputes involving the hotel and its employees. The clause should include notification of the expiration of a negotiated labor contact or the filing of an unfair labor practice charge by a union, which often leads to a dispute.

Once your contract is in place, it’s time to research the union’s regulations and uncover any additional fees that may be imposed. If you are using the venue’s exclusive service providers, they are fully aware of the regulations and will work with the local unions to ensure compliance. If you are using an outside production company, for example, make sure it has worked in the city previously and has an understanding of the guidelines.

Increased fees often come into play when your event requires union labor for longer than an eight-hour period, on holidays or weekends. Check with the venue to see what staffing guidelines are in place and how you might alter your schedule to reduce fees. For example, union servers might be restricted to three hours for a breakfast or lunch shift and four hours for a dinner shift, including setup and teardown time. If you request that the linens are placed on the tables 1.5 hours before your dinner begins so your florist can bring the centerpieces, you’ll have only 2.5 hours to set up, serve and tear down your dinner and chances are you will go into overtime. In this case, see if the florist can deliver the centerpieces at the same time the venue is setting up the overall tables.

If your program requires dedicated staff, taking them away from their regular schedule, you may incur additional fees as well. For example, if you require dedicated room service staff for your VIP executives, which means the servers would not garner gratuities from other guests, a hotel might then require a flat “attendant” fee to compensate for the lost income.

Always ask hotels if the unions will agree to negotiate fees for certain services. For example, hotels charge a certain amount per item for room deliveries, an amount that goes to the bellman as a gratuity. If you place an envelope on top of a box, that can count as two items. Try to negotiate a bundled fee based on the overall amount of deliveries. If you have a multi-year contract with the hotel or your program is generating a significant amount of revenue for the property, the hotel might be more willing to waive the fees for your group and pay the union staff out of its own budget.

By carefully researching the property’s union guidelines and strengthening the contractual language against disputes, you can successfully manage an event at any union facility.

Monica Compton, CMP, is a writer and event marketing consultant with Pinnacle Productions Inc., based in Atlanta, Ga. She has 20 years experience as a global meeting planner, managing a variety of programs both domestically and internationally.

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.