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CONVENE
The Journal of Professional Convention Management
Volume X, Number 11 - December 1995
High Tech Conversation
CONVENE Editor Peter Shure interviews John Friedlander
(This month's "High Tech Conversation" records a recent dialogue between convene editor Peter Shure and John Friedlander, Executive Director of the Macintosh Consultants Network.
CONVENE: What is your involvement in the association's conferences?
FRIEDLANDER: I'm the Executive Director of the organization. We're a small but growing high-tech not-for-profit that holds two conferences annually on the east and west coasts. I have a background in hospitality, so I'm deeply involved in producing the conferences. I also run a busy computer consultancy, so let's just say that life is never dull! But Convene and Bob Albom, the independent meeting planner who handles our contract negotiations, help me cope with the many issues that arise during the mounting of our conferences.
CONVENE: How is technology changing the planning process?
FRIEDLANDER: Though I am a professional technology adviser, I also have a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the over-hype of new trends and technologies„such as that most recently surrounding the internet and the World Wide Web. So it took quite a while for me to arrange my own easy, direct access to the internet.
But now that I have made the conceptual and technological leap, I find myself taking advantage of the internet in ways I would not have expected, and in ways that directly affect my knowledge and consumption of travel and meeting-related services.
CONVENE: Can you share some examples?
FRIEDLANDER: I now measure a destination's appropriateness for my group, and the amount of personal enjoyment I (or my membership) might be able to glean from a destination by how much information I can gather from the internet before setting foot out of my office. But rather than replace service providers like travel agents and meeting consultants, this new access to information enhances the quality of my experience onsite.
CONVENE: So you're increasingly reliant on the internet as a travel information resource?
FRIEDLANDER: Oh, absolutely! A recent business trip to San Jose illustrates my point. I'd been told that getting from the San Francisco airport to downtown San Jose was expensive and difficult. Wrong. A free shuttle took me from the airport to the Millbrae CalTrain station, $3 later I was in downtown San Jose, and a free hotel shuttle got me to my hotel. And I tipped the driver $3. I never would have known of this option if I hadn't surfed the 'net first.
That's just one small example. I've also found places to eat, events to attend, some areas even have traffic information.
"Any town that has anything to sell should inform the world via the internet "
CONVENE: In your opinion, should every destination be on the internet?
FRIEDLANDER: Let's put it this way: I recently read of a nearby town whose First Selectman wanted to put his town on the internet. At the time, I laughed, thinking that it would be a complete waste of time and resources for this tiny little town to have an "address" on a world-wide computer network.
I'm not laughing anymore. Any town that has anything to sell--be it tourism, industrial development, meeting destinations, educational resources, natural resources--should be informing the world via the internet that those items are available right there in Anytown, USA. What's more, every business that wants to sell to customers not in the local area should be publicizing their existence on the internet.
Whenever I travel now, I always spend a few minutes searching for information on my destination as part of my preparations. Some of the things I look for: what hotels are in the area? How will I get from the airport to the hotel? What cultural events are scheduled during my visit? What restaurants are recommended by the locals? Any local attractions worth a look? Are there other professional events in the area I didn't learn of through "normal" channels?
I've found several of the major hotel chains on the internet, and many other travel-related services as well, including services specifically targeted at meeting planners. By the way, my organization is offering a discount for on-line conference registration, and we're looking into online hotel registration as well.
There's a growing segment of the population that is taking more control over their lives and their businesses by using the power of information gathering on the internet. These people can be captured as customers by effectively using the resources of the internet.
CONVENE: That segues into the subject that originally brought us together. Can you share your thoughts about "Convene"?
FRIEDLANDER: Every issue I receive has an article about the impact of "high-tech" on the meeting business. Yet I can't find any evidence that Convene, PCMA, or any of your advertisers actually exist in the high tech world.
I couldn't find a single electronic mail address anywhere in the entire magazine, not in Convene's Publisher's Statement, not in an author's bio, not in an advertisement, nothing!
In the time it takes me to play a fruitless and frustrating game of phone tag with someone whose name I don't know that I've had to call blindly from the 800 phone number listed in an ad, I've sent a couple of dozen email messages that I have a higher degreee of confidence will actualy get read and responded to.
In the time it takes me to print a letter to an advertiser, stamp it, mail it; wait for the post office to deliver it, and have them read it--if it ever gets to them at all--I will have sent or received literally hundreds of electronic messages to and from people all over the country and the world.
Significant travel and meeting purchasing decisions will have been made and actions taken before this letter even arrives at its destination. But the Convene advertisers I can't reach electronically probably won't even get considered in my plans.
CONVENE: You're a computer consultant. What would you suggest?
FRIEDLANDER: Get on-line! Convene, PCMA and Convene's advertisers need to recognize that their audiences communicate electronically, make purchasing decisions and take purchasing action based on information obtained from world-wide networks like the internet.
Convene should have a presence on the internet. In addition, encourage your advertisers to do the same, and to publish their electronic addresses in their Convene advertisements. Over time, I promise you, you'll be amazed at the response.
I read recently in USA Today a factoid indicating that nearly 80% of the business users surveyed planned to somewhat or significantly increase their use of on-line services or the internet next year. That's a whole lot of potential customers getting in line--or should I say on-line?
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Though I wrote this article, CONVENE Magazine owns it now, including the copyright associated with it. The article appears here by permission, and no other publication is allowed without express permission from the publisher.