The Nintendo Wii is beating Sony’s seemingly unbeatable PlayStation 3, according to this article in the New York Times.

Some of the video game industry’s smartest minds thought that couch potatoes wanted richer graphics and more challenging virtual worlds. It turns out that a lot of potatoes simply wanted to get off the couch.

That may be the best explanation for the growing popularity of the Nintendo Wii, the new video game system that has players jumping, punching and swinging, giving them an aerobic workout right in front of their television sets.

The other key quote:

“You’re up and you’re moving, and it makes you feel more involved,” said Tracy Ciardiello, 28.

Makes me think that adding a little physicality to a meeting might not be a bad thing. Even in lectures I’ve attended, my attention perks right back up if they have us stand up and stretch for a minute. Is there something physical your session leaders can tie into their content? Nothing too strenuous, of course, but something to involve the bod as well as the mind?

I was sorry to hear today that ASAE and the Center’s Great Ideas Conference is having some power issues. According to reports (here, here, and here—thanks, Ben, for the updates!), an electrical fire is wreaking havok with both guest rooms and meeting space. It sounds like a planner’s nightmare, but at least this first-hand report says they dealt with it admirably:

The ASAE staff has been extraordinary in helping attendees find their meeting rooms and making sure the show goes on. They have proven their mettle through this difficult ordeal which was far beyond their control.

Do you know what you’d do if something similar happened at your meeting?

Not that anyone would ever nod off in your meeting, but…

Check out Sleep-Warning glasses, which vibrate when they sense you’re about to conk out. They aren’t cheap, though, at about $370.

In anticipation of the Super Bowl: “Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings.”—George Will

I stole the quote from A Clear Eye, one of my favorite marketing blogs. So, thanks Tom!

If anyone wants to listen to a conversation I had recently with Mike over at Grass Shack Events and Media. You can listen to it here. We kind of ramble around, but it was a fun chat.

BTW, I met Mike over in Second Life, the virtual world where more and more meetings are taking place (it’s not up online yet, but my colleague wrote a great article about SL for the February issue of Corporate Meetings & Incentives). He’s building virtual offices in SL, and doing meetings there, too. How cool is that?

This is pretty off-topic, but I thought it was hilarious. Someone has waaaaay too much time on his hands (not to mention tea-light candles).

Chalk up another way idiots can spoil things for the rest of us: People use hotel coffee pots to cook methamphetamine. From the article:

If you were to drink coffee from a pot used to make meth, it could be hazardous to your health. The problem is residue from chemicals such as red phosphorus and iodine. “Typical sickness and issues that would come with any chemical exposure, simple nausea, vomiting to maybe a hospital visit,” said Phillips.

Phillips says it’s pretty easy to tell if a coffee pot has been used to cook meth. It will have a dark reddish-orange stain. You should also be skeptical if there’s a chemical odor when you walk in the room.

Thanks to Stuff from Patti Shock for the pointer.

That’s the interesting premise of this article in Wired. Security theater, where there’s more of a show than a real security measure (think taking your shoes off at the airport and the goo rules), might have its uses:

We make smart security trade-offs — and by this I mean trade-offs for genuine security — when our feeling of security closely matches the reality. When the two are out of alignment, we get security wrong. Security theater is no substitute for security reality, but, used correctly, security theater can be a way of raising our feeling of security so that it more closely matches the reality of security. It makes us feel more secure handing our babies off to doctors and nurses, buying over-the-counter medicines and flying on airplanes — closer to how secure we should feel if we had all the facts and did the math correctly.

Which is all pretty valid. I was about to say, “yeah, but” until I read the next paragraph:

Of course, too much security theater and our feeling of security becomes greater than the reality, which is also bad. And others — politicians, corporations and so on — can use security theater to make us feel more secure without doing the hard work of actually making us secure. That’s the usual way security theater is used, and why I so often malign it.

If our fears really are all out of proportion to reality, as is likely the case with the air situation, maybe the theater is enough to make some people calm down to the level of threat that really exists. But to me it’s so obviously theater that it just seems like a big waste of time and money. My comfort level would be much raised if we had, say, cargo screening instead of toothpaste in plastic baggies.

As I was proofreading the cover story for the February issue of Association Meetings (the article is about what we need to change about association meetings, based on the book We Have Always Done It that Way: 101 things about associations we must change), I was struck anew by this bit:

The old metric of success—people standing in the aisles and maxed-out session rooms—also needs some rethinking, says [Jeff] De Cagna. “That’s a way of looking at whether something was popular, but not if attendees are learning anything.”

This is a fundamental issue, I think. While assocations always say their conferences are about education, the way they are designed seem much more focused on the bottom line; i.e., getting more seats in seats, keeping sponsors happy, and making attendees feel good about coming so they’ll come back next time and bring a few colleagues. I can’t tell you how many press releases I get touting record attendance and record numbers of trade show booths. I have yet to receive one that outlines what participants did with the knowledge they gained to improve their effectiveness on the job.

It’s hard, because associations tend to depend on their meetings for such a large percentage of their revenue. But if association meetings truly were all about education rather than the bottom line, they’d be very different animals than what we typically see. Am I unrealistic for wanting to see these meetings become more educationally focused? What would a truly educational conference look like? And, if you held one, would anyone come?

We all love these little gadgets, and I’ve seen some pretty strange ones, but fosfor gadgets Ten Weirdest USB Drives showcases some doozies. Like this one:

You just rip off the head and plug it in. Yikes. Though I would have given the top spot to the 10-pound bowling ball USB drive. I can’t even imagine trying to plug that one into a laptop. Might be a fun giveaway if you’re the Professional Bowlers Association, though.