Among hot topics when the Professional Convention Management Association (PMCA) held its annual meeting in San Diego: the "threat" of virtual meetings. But some speakers said that is not an apt discussion, according to an account in Biz Bash.

"Discussing the digital future of physical events at a Virtual Edge session, Active Events general manager Eric Olson first tried to dispel the popular notion that virtual meetings are a threat to face-to-face events—an essential part of any conversation on the controversial topic," says Biz Bash.
 

There’s a general fear in the events industry of technology replacing the live environment, Olson said.

"But digital technology isn’t a replacement for anything. It’s additive," he said.

When talking  about virtual or hybrid events, in the past it’s been this "scary concept" of what meeting-goers do digitally and what they do live as separate things.

"But there’s already a convergence of all this stuff. And we need to embrace that to take the industry forward" he said.

He suggested meeting professionals now use digital elements to drive people to physical events.

Among the factors driving big change toward hybrid programs in the event industry, he said, is the public’s willingness to prefer listening to peers online, even strangers, more than to traditional advertising.

Another factor is the huge amount of information available: "So [live] events can’t just have a guy sitting on the stage providing information I could get on a blog or YouTube," he said.
Meanwhile, the global economic crisis, Olson said, "took events from being just part of our DNA to having to really justify them." And consumer technology gave business attendees new tools such as iPhones and iPads.

"I no longer have to be a Fortune 500 company, or have a whole IT team, to provide really good technology for events," he said.

All of this adds up to a change in the role of meeting planners who must view the process in its entire life cycle, he said.
 

"It does present a new challenge for event organizers. We need to think about ourselves as architects," he said.

Other major areas of discussion, according to Biz Bash:

—Eric Janecke, Hilton New Orleans Riverside director of marketing, pointed out there’s a new tool for evaluating the worth of meetings.

"Our industry tends to look at historical data [about the value of meetings] the way people look at their credit scores: Everyone thinks theirs is great until they go try to get a loan," he said. But a new tool for evaluation is The Event Impact Calculator, which Destination Marketing Association International rolled out last fall. It measures a wide variety of data points, including how much is being spent on accommodations and on transportation, as well as other values such as jobs, taxes, wages, and return on investment.
 

Having such numbers at the ready is essential, planners agreed.

A PricewwaterhouseCoopers study in 2009 found the meeting business was worth $907 billion. But a key lies in planners communicating its worth, said speakers.

—Kendall College assistant professor Susan Tinnish and others gave tips for green meetings, including  investigating carbon offsets and incorporating sustainability into the RFP and looking for vendors, destinations, and accommodations that work toward the goal.

Other recommendations included using recycled products and team building events with a charitable component. And don’t forget marketing, said Biz Bash.

By David Wilkening