Another can’t resist article, this time from the St. Petersburg Times: Seeking space between state and USA. It seems that Visit Florida is changing its FLA USA slogan with, natch, Visit Florida. That’s fine. FLA USA always was a little odd. But the reason behind the change is fairly chilling:

Unpopular or unpatriotic as this notion may be, a brand name that hypes USA probably is not the smartest way these days to lure foreign tourists to the Sunshine State. “Florida” probably still has plenty of overseas sun-’n'-fun allure, but USA conjures up some pretty negative opinions in more than a few countries.

The columnist goes on to talk about a recent Pew Research Center survey that found that Europe, the Middle East and Asia still aren’t thrilled with the U.S.

In Britain, Germany and Canada - three countries Florida’s tourism industry depends on - favorable opinions of the United States fell from the comfortable 70- and 80-percent rankings five years ago to the 40s and 50s this year.

But, ahem, even though you can take the USA out of Florida, you can’t take Florida out of the USA. I mean, wouldn’t they still know that’s where they’re going?

Interesting article in this week’s Chief Marketer e-newsletter: Show Business: What Makes a Conference Worth Attending.

From what I’ve been reading on the ASAE show blog, I would have absolutely loved Stan Slap’s session on Sunday. Here’s a quick snip from Kevin Holland’s most recent writeup, but go read the whole post (and a couple of previous ones, here, here, and here.):

Many associations, because we are built around the concept of consensus, fear controversy. We’d be much happier if everyone got along … if people worked through “proper channels” rather than airing critical thoughts in public. However, if your association is not the topic of pro-and-con conversation among your constituents … if your trade press is not analyzing your actions and measuring your success … if you’re not being criticized sometimes … then you have to question how relevant you really are.

Passion is not blind allegiance. It’s a commitment to the idea of an organization and a fervent desire to see that idea succeed.

Substitute the word company or meeting or product or project (or magazine or blog, for that matter) for “association,” and it still rings true. I’ve felt kind of bad for taking a few swipes at ASAE for its blog this year, but it’s only because I really care about it and want to see it be a success. If I didn’t care, I’d ignore it instead of pore over it and pick it apart. I poke some sticks at MPI and PCMA every now and then, too, when I feel they deserve it, as well as applaud the things they do right. Because I care about what they do, how they position this industry to the rest of the world, and most importantly, their members.

Don’t be afraid of criticism—embrace it. As I’d bet everyone’s mom told them at some point in life: I only say this because I love you.

And please feel free to give me a (Stan) slap when you think I deserve it. I’d be honored, because it means you care about what I’m saying (and that someone’s actually reading this thing!). Plus, I love a good discussion, and if everyone’s coming from the same place, well, where’s the fun in that?

P.S. Note to PCMA and MPI: Notice how much more play ASAE is getting than your conferences did in this space (unfortunately, I’ve been chained to my desk for all three this year). Not that I don’t care just as much, but I had no idea what was going on until I heard about it from friends and colleagues after they got back. Please consider following ASAE’s lead and doing a show blog for your meetings.

I spoke this morning with someone from a large medical conference who wanted to know if blogs might be a good addition to their meeting marketing mix (here’s what a blog is). I’ve written a few articles about meeting blogs (here, here, and here), but here’s the short version.

The plusses: Blogs are easy and free-to-very-cheap to set up. They can be on external sites, or integrated into your website. They can extend your reach beyond your usual mailing lists because they tend to get picked up by search engines (because they usually contain a lot of links and are linked to from other blogs). They also can boost your site traffic if integrated into your site. They provide an additional sponsorship opportunity. They are a great way to connect with your attendee base because they have a “voice,” attitude, and personality that usually isn’t present in public relations and marketing pieces. They also show your attendees that you’re up on all the latest tech tools. They can be a way to extend your conference to non-attendees if you post writeups of sessions during the show, and provide a way to follow up with attendees afterward.

The minuses: They are a lot of work. To be effective, you have to post several times a week; daily is better. They can’t be just a rehash of your other public relations/marketing efforts—readers won’t come back if it’s just the usual PR. The posts have to be provocative, thought-provoking, and insightful, and even amusing, if possible. Your blogger has to be careful of libel, slander, and all that good stuff (plus HIPPA for for medical meetings). Your blogger should be someone well-regarded in your specialty. Spammers also like blogs, and if you allow comments, you’ll probably spend some time every day deleting spam from the comments area and trackbacks. You also have to monitor comments to make sure no one gets out of hand. (These two points can be eliminated if you don’t allow comments.) They also won’t replace anything you’re currently doing to market your meeting.

I’m probably missing some stuff (I’m sure Rich could think of more), but those are the main points we talked about. Personally, I’d say, go for it, but only if you’re willing to put in the time, thought, and energy to do it right. If done well, it will make your organization—and your conference—even more attractive to your attendees (if they’re not early adapters of this technology, it might only be a hit with a few people, but why not be a hit with a few people? They have friends, too. And blogging is finally getting some traction, so you’d be ahead of the game for next time around). If not done well, it’d be a big waste of time and energy.

I just heard about ZazzleStamps, a new service where you can upload your own image to be placed on postage stamps. This could be a very cool way to further brand your meeting mailings.

Association Meeting’s e-newsletter AM Extra, has some good items in it. I particularly liked this one: Getting the Next Generation on Board. A snip:

How can associations build membership and program their events to attract younger generations while retaining baby boomers? This is the central question explored in a report being developed by SmithBucklin Corp.’s William E. Smith Institute for Association Research.

“A Generational Profile of Association Participation” is being written by Arthur C. Brooks, an associate professor of public administration and director of the Nonprofit Studies Program at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. The study looks at how different age groups participate (or do not) in association activities, and it suggests appropriate messages for reaching these groups.

Initial findings show that Generation X’ers (those born between 1965-1975) are just as likely as baby boomers (1946-1964) to join associations. The primary challenge for associations is that there are simply fewer Generation X’ers. To retain current membership levels, associations will have to adjust their membership acquisition strategies to recruit a higher percentage of the younger generation, according to Brooks.

I’m looking forward to reading the full study when it’s released later this year.

Yes, it is possible to find a hotel room in August in New York City for $129/night, but I wouldn’t recommend staying there! Actually, other than the bulletproof glass surrounding the registration area, the feeling that I better not venture out after dark, and the ancient, creaking elevator, it wasn’t too bad. The room was clean, the air conditioner worked, and the suspended ceilings were stain-free and bright (always a tip-off to me is when these ceilings are chipped, cracked, and water-stained that hotel maintenance isn’t a priority). (Yes, I am a very frugal New Englander who’d also rather walk 45 blocks than hail a cab, even if it was 95 degrees out—and I have the blisters to prove it.)

Anyway, I took a quick (and cheap) trip to NYC to attend a session on e-media put on by American Business Media. I was drawn solely by the content—I glanced at the panelists, but didn’t really pay too much attention to who would be speaking. I should have.

While they were all exceptional speakers—funny, even—the experiences of online editors at the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, and AdWeek weren’t tremedously helpful to me and, I would suspect, most of the rest of the people in the room. I mean, the panelists have staffs of 60 or more people dedicated just to their online offerings, plus a ton of contribution, mostly writing, from their huge print staffs. Not to mention their own TV studios for making videos to post to their sites, etc. Um, well, it’s nice to know how all that works, but that ain’t my life!

The reason I’m boring you with this is because I can’t help but wonder how you all balance “star power” with your audience’s real needs. ABM probably got 85 registrants when they were only expecting 50 in large part due to that star power, but most of us really couldn’t relate to what they had to say because our audiences are much smaller, much more “nichey,” and our efforts are infinitely less well-funded and staffed.

I actually would rather have had a big open-space discussion about what we’re doing, the challenges we’re facing, all that fun stuff, to share our experience and expertise with each other, with some “names” helping to facilitate (they could have learned how the other 9/10ths live, too!). But would that have had as big an attendance draw? I don’t know. What I do know is that I didn’t get much in the way of takeaways, other than basically feeling a little green with envy at all the presenters can do with their Web sites that is pretty far beyond what most trade publications could dream of doing.

P.S. For those who get the weekly e-mail update, this trip knocked me off the usual Wednesday schedule. Please look for it tomorrow!

There’s a good article on building good e-mail lists in Chief Marketer called An Eight-Point Checklist for Building Your List. While some of the points are pretty basic (be sure to get permission before adding someone to the list, for example), but I hadn’t thought about the five levels of permission before. E-marketers, check it out.

I just saw this on Tom Asacker’s site and cracked up, given my whole “rename this blog” kick lately: $400,000 spent to rename Marina Bay… Marina Bay. Ha!

With the poll now starting to show a distinct lean toward keeping face2face as face2face, we may well join Marina Bay in the much-ado-about-nothing department, though I have gotten some great alternate suggestions. But the idea of spending $400k in the process just boggles my mind!

P.S. Maybe we’d like face2face better if we Google-fied it!

This morning I got an e-mail from a floral designer who wants to increase his visibility in the corporate and nonprofit meetings market. I gave him some suggestions, like advertising in our magazines ;> and being active in industry associations, writing articles on floral design trends, and signing up for the Special Events buyers guide that I just wrote about before I got this guy’s e-mail (talk about serendipity!). And of course I suggested that he start up his own blog—I for one would be interested to read about the ins and outs of that business, which I know very little about. But I’m just throwing out the usual marketing stuff.

So, how do you guys pick a floral designer for your events? Do hotels and/or DMCs recommend them? The CVB? Buyers Guides? What could a floral designer do to get your attention? It’s not something I usually write about, so I really don’t know exactly what’s involved, and yet having the right floral design is one of those touches that has to be done right, especially for high-level events. Anyone want to clue me in?