Your attendees might say it was a great learning experience, or excellent for networking, but would they say it’s “insanely cool”? I didn’t think so. I’ve been to some great conferences, but insanely cool? Nope. I’m not even sure what would be involved in an insanely cool conference, because for me some of what would push it over the top would be the unexpected, the surprise, the thing that I don’t know about yet, but it’s something that will rock my world.

Jeff at Principled Innovation recently asked what would make a conference insanely cool, and got a few interesting responses. He also came up with three principles of insanely cool conferences. I think his second principle, “violate the participant’s expectations,” comes closest to my main criteria, but all three are essential. I’d add “surprise and delight” to his list, along with the other nine of my 10 reasons to attend. What would you add?

P.S. On a semi-related note, you could have the most insanely cool conference ever conceived, but if you don’t market it as such, forget about it. Check out Jim Carroll’s thoughts on the subject.

P.P.S. While it may not give your event the IC factor (I’m getting tired of typing “insanely cool”), Seth has some good ideas on how to organize the room to give your participants the vibe you want them to get.

About the furthest I’ve gone is the emoticon smiley face, but some people go wild turning dashes, dots, and x’s into art. Check out the entries Wired got for its ASCII Gallery, from a rendering of Michelango’s Creation of Man to a pretty realistic-looking rendering of Stephen Colbert. There’s even a poster there…hmm, for the right audience, an ASCII meeting brochure could be pretty cool.

American Airlines is testing its WiFi system on a JFK-LA flight today. For an analysis of AA’s Internet plans, check out this post.

Other than Berkeley Breathed’s spectacular Opus last Sunday, which I can’t find a link to, here’s a link to the best airline-related travel comic I’ve seen lately.

Someone just asked me if I knew of any data about the actual extent to which people are using use social media in the promotion, implementation and assessment of their meetings. If you know of any such studies, please drop a note in the comments or send me an e-mail. Thanks!

Yet another reason to join the (free) Meetings Community, also known as MeCo: The Meetings Rooms for Resale bulletin board.

Here’s how MeCo listserv moderator Jim Louis announced the new development to the listserv this morning:

We have a place now on The Meetings Community website that planners can now post information on rooms that they need to sell because of some cut back to avoid attrition and cancellation penalties. This service is now here and is completely FREE! Like everything we do at MeCo we try to offer services to our members at no charge to them. Also the posts from the Hotel Rooms for ReSale message board are posted to the MeCo Google group! So the over 2100 members of the MeCo Google group would be notified every time someone posts to the Rooms for ReSale board! This service is to help meeting planners who have run into situations were the contract was signed and the program changed size. Or if you are running into a lower room pickup than your organization expected due to the changes in the economy. Even if your program is canceled this may help you find a program that will help fill some if not all of your hotel rooms.

To view the board go to www.meetingscommunity.com and select Hotel Rooms for ReSale.

Then select the message board Hotel Rooms for ReSale. [Or use this direct link]

To post a message you need to have a Meetings Community Website Account. This is different from the Google group account. To get an account you can do so by using this link or register on the main page below the user name and password. If you don’t remember if you have an account try signing up again it will only allow you one account per email address.

Once you are logged in you just need to click on “New Thread”

Please post the following information:

* Property & Location
* Number and Types of Rooms Available
* Hotel Dates
* Your contact name and number (so other meeting managers on the list may reach you to discuss the possibility of utilizing some of your contracted room block)

Click on submit and it’s done!
MeCo is not responsible for the accuracy of any post made on the message board.

Once again, two thumbs up to MeCo for providing this service, and for free, no less. I hope people take full advantage of it. Good job, guys.

The future has arrived: Take a look at the hotel room of tomorrow, brought to you by MSNBC. I love the idea of having an in-room Wii to play with, and an alarm clock that not only works but is cool as well? Who could say no to that?

I’ve had a rough travel day–please allow me to rant and rave, er, vent a bit.

Traffic was terrible getting into Boston Logan, so I ended up arriving at 1 p.m. for a 2 p.m. flight, even though I left a two-hour window. Which would have been fine, being the middle of the day and my not having any luggage to check. Except that Central Parking was full, so I got shuttled off to a satellite lot approximately 20 miles from my terminal (OK, so that’s an exaggeration, but it sure felt that far). Then I had to lug my stuff over to Terminal E to catch the shuttle to my terminal, which of course took forever.

Made my flight, thankfully, even though I had a seatmate who tried to take my aisle seat and then proceeded to make several very loud calls on her cell phone (including three leaving messages for people to deposit a check for her during which she very loudly repeated her account number and the exact location of the bank. I very nicely suggested that she may want to keep that sort of information a little more private, but she just looked at me like I was a martian).

Flight was nice until about a half hour out of D.C., when the plane turned into a bucking bronco. The lower we got, the more she bucked. At one point, I was sure we were about to do a barrel roll, then it sounded like something whacked the side of the plane and we spun back the other way. The flight attendant who was deadheading on the flight across the aisle from me was even turning green, and said it was the worst she’d had!

After kissing the ground when we landed and a long shuttle from Dulles, I finally got to my beautiful historic hotel that I had searched and searched to find (I wanted something inexpensive but not gross, and that’s not easy to find in D.C. in high season. Was so thrilled to find this one). And they bumped me! To a low-end chain hotel in Chinatown! Ack!

After getting checked in by what may be the rudest front desk person I’ve ever met while the chihuahua behind the desk had a fit of some kind, I finally got to my room (featuring a lovely view of a wall) and went to plug in my laptop and start whining at you all. Couldn’t find the ethernet cable. Found a piece of paper that said you had to rent the cable at the front desk. Went back to front desk, where they informed me that they didn’t have Internet access in this hotel.

At this point, even I, who generally am pretty easy going, was starting to lose it, so I decided to go for a walk and cool off. Got about four blocks away and the heavens opened up in one of those freakish little microbursts. Squelched my way back to my room, dried off, and spotted a piece of paper half buried under the trash can that proclaimed, lo and behold, that I could get tMobile wireless. Finally, something went right!

All’s well that end’s well: I’m on terra firma, warm and dry, and connected, so life is good. And I am looking forward to the Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum tomorrow. If it’s anything like last year, it’ll be one of the best conferences around. It’ll be worth all the hassle, I’m sure.

But next time one of your attendees is unusually cranky, be kind. She may be having the same kind of day I had today. Ain’t travel grand?

Forbes has come out with its list of most annoying airline fees–fuel surcharges and fees for better seats are just the beginning. And, it warns, we can expect to see more coming in the future. Oh good, let’s just make flying even more irritating than it already is. Sorry to be cranky about it, but I can’t seem to help myself.

One positive experience I can say I’ve had was on my recent American flight from San Juan to Boston. The Asian chicken wrap may have cost $6, but it was delicious; way better than your normal airline free fare used to be.

(Thanks to Stuff from Patti Shock for the pointer.)

Update: This is interesting–Kayak.com is factoring the fees into the prices it quotes, while other travel sites are just providing a chart or not even dealing with it (see this Boston Globe article for more).

It’s called Hotel Guest from Heck (OK, the real name is a little more graphic), and here’s what it’s about:

This is a site for hoteliers, restaurateurs and those in the service and hospitality industry. It’s about time we had some place WE could review guests, sound off…and just take solace in the fact that we all have bad days where we have to deal with these characters.

So far, it doesn’t look like they have many takers, but I’m sure that’ll change. After all, there are enough sites out there where people can complain about hotels (and say nice things, of course), and turnabout is fair play. Here’s hoping they don’t start up a sister site called “Meeting Planners from H*!!.”