Your burning questions, answered by Web specialist C. David Gammel, CAE. Today we tackled things like dealing with backchannels at the meeting, how to handle blogs around a conference, and why you shouldn’t worry about social media making your meeting obsolete. It’s all good. Just click on the player to listen in:

In case you missed our first discussion, which focused on how to make your event Web site really get the results you want, here’s the link.

Is this not the best logo ever (it’s for the Internet Identity Workshop 2009)? I actually did laugh out loud when I saw it over on BoingBoing.

Don’t settle for boring, even when it comes to a conference logo. It all counts. (Sorry, I just realized the image isn’t displaying for some weird reason. If you click on the jpg, it does come up. Have to figure out what’s going on with that!)

That’s what Scott Oser is asking on the Acronym blog, and it’s an interesting question. I have sort of a love/hate thing going with social media: I love the connections and the things I learn and the insights I get into people I don’t know all that well but would like to, but I hate how big a time-suck it can be. I’ve been jamming getting Association Meetings through its production cycle lately, and have been feeling this strange hole where my nightly twittering/facebooking/etc./etc. used to be. Yet it’s strangely freeing, too, to just let that whole world pass me by for a while.

Anyway, social media and meetings…I don’t see any conflict there. Scott talks about how the sessions aren’t as educational for him as they used to be, but I think that has more to do with the number of conferences he’s gone to than the social networking thing. I felt the same way about shows I’d been to repeatedly back in the days when the Internet was just a gleam in Al Gore’s eye (sorry, that was lame). I think it just adds another layer, another form of networking, around the live event. Jeffrey Caufaude in a comment does add a good cautionary note that we not get so caught up in the coolness of all this backchannel stuff that those outside that particular digital loop end up missing out on something, but generally I don’t see social media as competing with live events at all.

I’ll be talking with someone who knows a lot more about all this than I do–Web master C. David Gammel, tomorrow. If you have any burning questions, let me know so I can ask him.

And stay tuned for the podcast, which hopefully I’ll post by tomorrow afternoon. This should be a hot one!

Update: It’s up. Here’s the podcast post.

Are you or someone you know bringing something new to your meeting planning? And getting results? Well don’t be shy about it—nominate yourself or your innovative colleague to be one of Association Meetings magazine’s First Annual AM Innovators, which will recognize association meeting professionals who are taking on the challenge of these tough times as an opportunity to find new ways to make their meetings more relevant, more learner-friendly, more profitable, and more productive than ever.

All you have to do is fill out this quick and easy form, or drop me an e-mail with your nominee’s contact info and why this person should be recognized as one of today’s meeting planning innovators.

Thanks to all the planners who aren’t afraid to think in new ways about their work—and bring new ideas to fruition!

According to Chris Elliott, people are not just being walked these days; they’re also being downgraded from four-star hotels to a no-tell motel. One guy he talked with took the downtrade, even though he was in the block for a medical convention at the hotel, which one would think would at least get him a room at a comparable hotel instead of a dive.

Please let your folks know they can say no if this happens to them, and that you can intervene on their behalf. They don’t have to, as this guy suggests tongue in cheek, “simply start disrobing in the lobby, and wait for them to suddenly find a room.” Chris offers other solutions for travelers who find themselves in this situation. Though in my experience, “being nice” can be translated by a harried hotel worker into “guest with ’sucker’ stamped on her forehead” just as easily as, “gee, let’s give this nice person a break.” Just saying…

“Sorry, you’re flight will be delayed because a baggage container just got sucked into your plane’s engine.”

Event planners are getting more optimistic about business for the rest of the year, according to this poll from Special Events magazine. From the article:

“Some 41 percent of special event professionals polled this week by Special Events predict that the economy will start to recover this year. This is a sharp increase from a March Special Events poll, where only 7 percent of respondents expected a turnaround to start this year.”

I hope they’re right!

I was fortunate today to have the chance to speak with Web guru C. David Gammel about what organizations can do to make their event Web sites really get the results they want. He has lots of ideas that you can use to increase the likelihood that potential attendees will register, exhibitors sign up for booths, and overall increase the buzz around your meeting.

Here’s a podcast of our chat. I hope you learn as much from it as I did!

To hear the Podcast, press the play button above.

David has kindly agreed to talk with us again. If you have any questions around event Web sites, social networking, dealing with “backchannels” at your show, or anything else, please feel free to drop a comment below or e-mail me and we’ll be sure to get some answers for you.

What meeting and event professionals can learn from the Grateful Dead, by Keith Johnston at Meeting and Events Thoughts. Though I did draw some similar conclusions a while back in this post.