During the next several days, attendees of this year’s Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders event in San Diego may see many of their fellow attendees playing FourSquare on their smart phones.  Hopefully, this little article can offer a few pointers to those of you who may wish to play along.

FourSquare is a location based application that you will need to download to your mobile device.  Points are earned when you “check-in” that you are at a venue.  Whoever checks in the most at a venue (only one check-in per day counts) becomes the Mayor of that venue.  The mayor is only awarded after someone has checked in at a venue for a second time.

Some venues, such as restaurants and bars, offer specials to whoever becomes the Mayor.  Plus, there are bragging rights when you are the mayor.  In addition, you can connect with friends to keep track of where they are located and offer tips about what to try or not to try at a particular venue.  My favorite part of Foursquare is that badges that can be earned by checking in at different categories.

When you check-in at a venue, you can share comments about your check-in on Twitter and Facebook.  This is a very nice thing to do if attending an event and you wish to create some buzz about what is going on.

I had my introduction to FourSquare at the Convening Leaders in Dallas in 2010.  Jeff Hurt arranged a dinner for Mike McAllen, MikeMcCurry and myself who had only met on Twitter via the #EventProfs community.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel lobby for a few beverages.  Everywhere we went, Jeff was checking in on FourSquare and letting folks on Twitter follow our adventures.  People started coming by to say hello, have a drink or two.  Someone jokingly commented that we were holding court and nicknamed us the Godfathers of #Eventprofs.

So where should you check-in during Convening Leaders?  For starters, there are the following PCMA specific locations available:

• PCMA Convening Leaders
• PCMA Learning Lounge
• PCMA Party with a Purpose
• PCMA Student Union
• PCMA Fun Run
• PCMA General Sessions
• PCMA Luncheons
• PCMA Hospitality Helping Hands

Check-in at your hotel, the San Diego Convention Center, any venues, restaurants or shops that you visit during your stay.  So let’s see what badges we can earn while you are at Convening Leaders!

After your very first check-in, you earn the NEWBIE badge.  After your 10^th, 25^th and 50th different check-ins, you earn the ADVENTURER, EXPLORER and SUPERSTAR badges respectively.

If we can get 50 or more folks to check in at one venue at the same time, we can earn the SWARM badge.  It would be awesome if we could do this at the Learning Lounge or General Sessions!

Check in 3 times at the same place in one week and earn the LOCAL badge!

Find your friends on FourSquare and connect with them.  If you check-in to a venue where 3 of your friends of the opposite sex are currently checked in, you get yourself the PLAYER PLEASE badge.

Are you planning to attend Party with a Purpose?  Before checking into the PCMA specific venue for the party, check-in to the USS Midway to earn the I’M ON A BOAT badge.

If you get carried away and check in 10+ times on FourSquare in a 12 hour period, you earn the OVERSHARE badge.

Hang out 4 nights in a row and earn the BENDER badge!  Check-in 4 or more times in a single night (it’s easier than it sounds!) and earn the CRUNKED badge.  Check-in after 3:00 am on a Sunday thru Thursday and earn the SCHOOL NIGHT badge.  For help earning these three badges, hang out with ****** and ****** during Convening Leaders (names edited to protect the innocent…).

These are just a small sampling of the over 100 different badges that can be earned on FourSquare.  Join in the fun during Convening Leaders and I hope to see you there!

I have a small pile of items here on my desk that I’ve been saving up to include in a future post.  Well, that day is here!

• In the last month or so of tweeting, I’ve started to do a daily tweet of a fellow #eventprofs that I feel is worthy of following.  I created the hashtag of #youhavetofollow for these messages, and it seems to have received favorable comments to date.  Some will argue that this is just a takeoff of #followfriday or #ff, and frankly, yes it is!  My biggest argument against #followfriday is that most folks will list a plethora of tweeps to follow, but gives no reason why I should follow them.  My goal with #youhavetofollow is to shine the light on a noteworthy #eventprofs and give some rationale for why they should be followed.  I hope many of you will start to follow this format and use it as well.
• One of my favorite blogs is Bill Geist’s ZeitGeist, which is geared towards Destination Marketing Organizations and Convention and Visitor Bureaus.  I’ve followed Bill for a few years and had the pleasure of finally meeting him last year at #SoMeT10, the Social Media in Tourism Conference.  Bill is able to tackle some major items in destination marketing in his blog, with posts with very few words and generally a humorous spin.  Please take a few minutes to check out his site, as I truly believe he is one of the leading advocates for change in how destinations market themselves to the public and government bureaucracy’s cluelessness about the economic impact of tourism.
• In September of 1814, the citizens of Baltimore turned away a British invasion force and basically saved our nation.  During the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner, which would eventually become our national anthem.  The other night I had the television on and game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals was on for the National Hockey League, and the Canadian national anthem – O Canada – was being sung.  It is amazing to me how the Canadian’s sing along to the song, basically allowing the anthem singer to take a break.  I would love to see the same for our national anthem at a sporting event here in the States.
• I’m amazed at the number of Certified Meeting Professionals who were unable to attend the recent CMP Conclave in Cancun due to the reasoning of the “high costs” of not being held in the States.  For me, airfare to Cancun was cheaper than my last two trips to Las Vegas and the hotel rooms were much more affordable than recent/upcoming events for IAEE, PCMA or MPI.  How are we ever going to be able to argue the value of having meetings in locales deemed as “destinations” if we don’t support these venues as an industry?
• Thanks to Jon Trask for having me as guest on the Meetings Podcast regarding my thoughts on the CMP Conclave.  I look forward to possibly doing a few more with you and Mike McAllen during MPI’s WEC in Orlando this July.
• Last month, a small group got together in Washington, DC to discuss the formation of a Chesapeake regional chapter of the Green Meetings Industry Council.  The response was positive and things are progressing, so hopefully there will be a GMIC Chesapeake Chapter by the end of the year.  Email me if you are interested in joining us as we go forward.
• Crain’s Chicago Business recently published an article about show contractors and organizers squeezing exhibitors with fairly high prices for services on the trade show floor.  This case is not unique, and there is only one industry organization that represents the exhibitor – the Trade Show Exhibitors Association.  TSEA will be holding its annual Red Diamond Congress in Orlando this summer at the Hotel Peabody Orlando from July 31 thru August 3rd, with exhibitor advocacy as one of its central themes.  (In full disclosure, TSEA and the Red Diamond Congress are clients of mine.)  Having the opportunity to be involved in the planning, I am very impressed with TSEA for thinking outside the box and creating a conference that will stand apart from most industry conferences.  I hope you will consider attending – this event would be on my calendar even if it were not a client!

• 

  Kristian Hammerstady – NY Times

  Next week, Keith Olbermann returns to television with his Countdown show on the Current network.  Disregarding politics, I have been a huge fan of his dating from his days on ESPN’s SportsCenter.  Several months ago, Keith was lecturing to a crowd of college students and recounting how a general manager of a radio station would not hire him and told Keith that he had no future in broadcasting.  Keith went on to offer the following advice: “Just remember, it’s possible the person who won’t hire you is not smart enough to hire you.” I’ve always liked this quote and am reminded of a few old bosses I have had!  And if Keith happens to read this, good luck with the new show!

• Last month, at the annual meeting of the Greater Baltimore Committee, plans were unveiled for a new arena and convention center complex for my hometown.  I’ll offer up my thoughts next week in a seperate posting.  In the meantime, let’s just say I am in favor of this development.
• Thanks to PCMA for reprinting my last blog post here on their website.  Words cannot express how excited I am to have to have PCMA and AIBTM co-located in my hometown next week and I am looking forward to meeting many of you in person during these two conferences.  I am confident that after your visit to Baltimore that you will agree with me that Baltimore is the greatest city in the United States.

The "Godfathers" of #Eventprofs, aka Jeff Hurt, Michael McCurry, Greg Ruby and Mike McAllen

The above picture of Jeff Hurt, Michael McCurry, myself and Mike McAllen was taken in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency – Dallas on Saturday, January 9th just on the eve of this year’s Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) convention.  For those of you on Twitter, you will more likely recognize these names by their “handles” of @JeffHurt, @MichaelMcCurry, @GregRuby and @MMcAllen.

Immediately after the picture was taken, Jeff posted it to Twitter and labeled the four of us as the “Godfathers of #EventProfs.”  Again, those of you on Twitter are familiar with the #eventprofs hour-long chats on Tuesday nights and Thursday afternoon.

Well, if you are going to be a Godfather, you have to have a good nickname to go along with it.  So from now on, these gentlemen will be known as Jeff “The Professor” Hurt, Michael “Guitar Man” McCurry, “Baltimore Greg” Ruby and Mike “The Podcaster” McAllen.

Now, onto the real reason for this entry.  Until this Saturday, most of us had never met one another.  Only Mike McCurry and myself had met previously a few months ago on one of his trips to the Baltimore-Washington area.  This is a great example of one of the best values of social media – being able to create relationships online and then following up with a face to face meeting.

PCMA did a nice job of creating an online community for its annual meeting using Crowdvine.  Folks had the opportunity to go online to review who had registered to attend and make connections to meet during the event.  I know I used this resource and had made arrangements to meet a few folks at PCMA before my travel plans were changed and I had to leave Dallas early.

If a possible attendee is wavering to go to an event, these online communities can be a great tool to convince them to attend.  By reviewing the attendee list, I can come across a handful of people that I want to meet and be more likely to attend, rather than attending an event and just hoping to see people.

Another example of the power of Social Media is that shortly after Jeff posted the above picture, we were tweeted by several other folks and then joined in the hotel lobby by Jessica Levin, Christine Melendes, Liz Giannini and a few others.   Imagine that you are exhibiting at a trade show, send out a tweet to promote an item at your booth and have folks come by almost immediately.

I’ve had the good fortune to meet with several folks at events I attended, that I had only known online previously.  I hope that someday I will have the opportunity to meet you in person.