Yes, it’s true! #eventprofs turns 1 today!! It’s been a truly incredible year and as I’ve watched the community grow from a small group of people on February 9, 2009 to a thriving community of thousands today, I can say that I’m truly proud and amazed. In celebration of our first birthday, I wanted to turn it over to you, the community, to share what #eventprofs has meant to you.

Share your thoughts

Feel free to comment on this post & let everyone know how the #eventprofs community has impacted you or your business.

Also, please join us this evening @ 9pm EST / 6pm PST for our weekly Twitter chat to share your stories. Click here for instructions on how to participate in a chat.

More info

Wow – and for a very comprehensive overview of #eventprofs’ history, see Samuel J Smith’s post.

I just participated in a few livestreamed breakout sessions from EventCamp 2010 New York. One of which was a session run by Samuel J Smith which used what’s called a fishbowl technique to promote discussion around his topic: Integrating Social Media Onsite at Events. I learned a great deal from watching this session remotely and give Samuel big kudos for taking a leap and doing something unconventional.

The Fishbowl Set Up

The fishbowl in action at Event Camp 2010

Having sat through far too many sessions that use conventional classroom style room set ups, I found this more collaborative set up quite refreshing. For those of you who have not seen fishbowl dialogue in action, it is much like it sounds…a circle of 5-8 chairs are placed in the center of the room facing each other (this would be the fishbowl) and 2-8 (depending on the size of your audience) rows of chairs are set up to radiate out of the fishbowl.

People who volunteer or are selected to sit in the fishbowl have a dialogue or provide points of view on a selected topic. One of the fishbowl chairs is always left empty – this way if anyone from the audience wants to join the discussion they seat themselves at the empty chair (and someone else gets up to free up a chair). The idea is the moderation is kept to a minimum and the constantly changing fishbowl participants drive the dialogue.

I found this technique to be a great way to tap into the intelligence of the audience and build content for a subject around the needs, challenges and experiences of that crowd (at least the ones who participated in the fishbowl).

Learnings from outside of the fishbowl

Get the audience warmed up

We all know that audience interaction can be tough to achieve. There are natural extroverts who have no problem standing up and making a point, but there are others who get shivers of fear at the thought of even putting up their hand. Sitting in a fishbowl can be very intimidating, so it’s not for everyone. But I do think there’s an opportunity to warm up the audience before the fishbowl begins. Get people on their feet and interacting.

Set parameters upfront

To build off of the last point, there are some individuals who gravitate to the spotlight. Some of them can tend to go on and on and on and on and on and on about a point (It should be noted that this did not happen at EventCamp). Setting some upfront parameters may be helpful to ensure people stay on topic, don’t hog the mic and interact professionally.

A side note: My husband is one of those guys who is a best man or MC at every wedding we attend. Most of our friends are West Indian and let’s just say that the speeches portion of the reception can be…er…a bit long winded. He regularly warns wedding guests that if their speeches go on too long, he may come out to cut them short. His schtick? A pair of briefs (i.e. underwear). When someone drones on with the speech he pulls out the briefs and flashes them to the speaker and the audience. It gets the audience re-engaged and gets the speaker to wrap up. Case closed.

Choose a controversial subject

There was some great dialogue, but one of the most enjoyable parts of Samuel Smith’s session was when Clinton Bonner decided to take the ‘devil’s advocate’ position on a topic. It got participants fired up (in a good way) and created some great points on both sides of the argument.

Instead of picking an all encompassing subject, why not pick a controversial statement like: “why social media should never be used for events” . It gives people permission to pick sides and get passionate about their points of view.

Online engagement

A goal, whenever live streaming a session, is to involve the online audience as much as possible. The fishbowl made it very difficult to engage the online viewers since (stating the obvious here) we couldn’t physically sit in the empty seat. I do, however, think there’s an opportunity to allow online viewers to have a seat in the fishbowl by way of video stream. I’d love to get an a/v professional to weigh in on this (in the comments section) to see if you have any recommendation on how this could work.

Fishbowl introductions

As an online viewer, since there were so many people moving in and out of the fishbowl, it was a bit hard to keep up with who was speaking. I’d recommending asking anyone who speaks to introduce them self and their twitter handle.

I really enjoyed this session and plan on using the technique and some of my learnings from all of you in some of my upcoming seminars. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Sam!

What do you think?

Did you watch the fishbowl? What did you think? Can you see yourself incorporating this into any of your events?

I attended AdBall – a Fashion Fetish Event – last night. It was a bacchanalian gala held to signal the end of Advertising Week 2010. I was generously invited by the men of 5th Element Events (one of our Blog Sponsors) and, with camera in tow, set out to let my hair down after a long week of travel and training.

It was a great night out, one of my most enjoyable in a while. Highlights included watching a man take off his pants for a photo op (yes, it’s true), listening to artist Anjulie, who tore it up for the crowd, the great food, and of course the swag bag! Some photos from the event can be seen below.

Here’s a YouTube video of the talented Anjulie performing her song Rain, which was featured on The Hills.

For those of you who don’t know our industry’s first unconference, eventcamp 2010, will be hitting New York during Social Media Week on February 6, 2010 from 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

This event is a great example of how to build an event around a community. The organizers of this event are all active #eventprofs and have done a wonderful job engaging with and adding value to the thriving community of event & meeting professionals online.

In fact, a wonderful story has unfolded that highlights just how tight this group has become. @MsStallings wanted desperately to attend eventcamp 2010, but didn’t have the funds to do it on her own. As this blog post states, she humbly asked for some help from #eventprofs and they delivered! 7 people came together to sponsor her trip to New York from Atlanta.

To extend the amazing benefits of being a part of a community, I would like to sponsor one deserving person the cost of registration for the event (a $75 US value). If you’d like to win this opportunity, here’s what you need to do:

How to win a ticket

1. Create a short Youtube video stating why you want to go (in under 2 mins) & BE SURE TO TAG IT WITH EC10. Update: Or make a comment in the comment section below!

2. Deadline is January 26th

3. Most deserving video, as decided by the judges will win!

Call for more sponsors

I would like to encourage any other people who wish to sponsor someone to add to the list of items being sponsored! Let’s see how this unfolds

For more info on eventcamp 2010

Community Site

Facebook page

Register

The event hashtag is #EC10

Congratulations to everyone who was nominated for the 2009 EventProfs Blog Awards! As you know, all nominated blogs were announced and voting was opened to the public to vote on their favorite blog in each category.

Our goal with the awards was to create a platform to introduce new and not-so-new blogs to event professionals. Judging by the number of votes cast – over 1,200 in total, I’d say we were successful!

All votes have been counted and below is a list of the winning blogs:

BEST EDUCATION BLOG
Cvent Meetings & Events

BEST EYE CANDY BLOG
Design Dawgs

BEST INSPIRATION BLOG
Fuel: The Passion that Drives Us

BEST WEDDING BLOG
RockNRoll Bride

BEST NEW BLOG
Bridalease

BEST INDUSTRY ADVANCEMENT BLOG
PlusPoint

BEST FOOD BLOG
Food for Thought

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
Past-President – ISES Toronto
. Follow me on Twitter
. Connect with me on LinkedIn
. Become my Peep at EventPeeps
. Befriend me at Events Network

I guess this is kind of like my blog version of an Out of Office Alert. I’m off to Trinidad to speak at Eventology TT. Got my bags packed (check) and my presentations complete (check). I look forward to getting back into the blogging swing of things when I return. So, stay tuned for the announcement of the Eventprofs Blog Awards Winners!

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
Past-President – ISES Toronto
. Follow me on Twitter
. Connect with me on LinkedIn
. Become my Peep at EventPeeps
. Befriend me at Events Network

Congratulations to everyone who entered their blog into the EventProfs Blog Awards 2009! The nominees have been announced and can be found, along with voting instructions, on the EventProfs wiki. Cast your ballot & vote for your favorite blogs. Voting will close on September 21, 2009 @ 5:00 pm EDT.

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
Past-President – ISES Toronto
. Follow me on Twitter
. Connect with me on LinkedIn
. Become my Peep at EventPeeps
. Befriend me at Events Network