Susan Bird posts about the origins of the word “symposium,” and how far we’ve gotten from its original meaning. From her post:

In a museum of Etruscan artifacts in Cortona, Italy, I was struck by an exhibit that explained the word symposium comes from the Etruscan practice (we’re talking 7th Century, BC here) of gathering people to have a conversation about something important. It gave testimony, said the exhibit, to the need for a leader to reinforce the community of consensus on an issue, critical to the retention of the leader’s power.

Does that sound anything like any seminar you’ve been to recently? Should it? I believe it still should be a conversation (not a lecture, a conversation) about something important, but not necessarily something to bolster a leader’s power. It’s interesting to ponder on this hot, hot afternoon, anyway.

This is fun: Check out the Ticket Generator, where you can give yourself a stub to just about anything at all. There has to be some way to use these for meetings, though I can’t think of any at the moment.

Update: Ken Molay at the Webinar Blog came up with a good use for these fun things:

I immediately thought of tying it to your promotional marketing for a webinar. You could also embed the image into the confirmation email sent when someone registers for the event (if your vendor’s configuration program is flexible enough to do so).

Any other ideas?

I’m sorry, but ASAE and the Center is just being brilliant this year in how it’s marketing its convention—at least, it is for people like me. Check out the meeting’s home page, with its “Top Ten Reasons to Attend ASAE & The Center’s Annual Meeting.” It’s actually pretty funny. There also is an audio download of what people had to say about last year’s meeting, and a cute video highlight of what’s to come. The colors and the energy really set the expectations for a fun, lively, engaging experience.

Then there’s the BostonBlog, where some folks have been posting about various things related to the meeting in Boston later this month. My favorite thing on the BostonBlog so far is the contest they’ve been running for several weeks now about all kinds of obscure Boston-related trivia, from historical to the Red Sox. I’ve been learning a lot about the city through this weekly quiz, and am having a great time with it. The only rub is that if you, like me, missed the first week (or a week in the middle), you kind of fell hopelessly behind. They’re fixing that by posting a grand finale quiz next week that will level the playing field by offering 100 points (the leader so far has 58)—kind of like a final Jeopardy, where winner takes all. So if you’re going to the conference, go ahead and participate, or at least check out the BostonBlog. As we get closer to the show, the posts there should get pretty interesting.

Now I’m curious to see if the event itself is as much fun as the marketing leading up to it has been…