2010: The Year of Collaboration

Posted by: Curt Peoples, President, Peoples & Company Communications, Toronto

Business concepts go in and out of fashion, but sometimes a concept we have offhandedly used for years rises above the rest to encapsulate just what is happening (or needs to happen) now.

In 2010, collaboration is the concept that has emerged to describe what organizations need.

Like teamwork, collaboration is an activity where people or organizations work together to achieve common goals. But collaboration is something more. Fruitful collaboration requires everyone to fully appreciate and build on each others’ strengths. It involves multiple players making decisions in order to maximize their returns.

Those involved in creative, collaborative activities will tell you success starts with a shared chemistry, positive intent and collective acceptance. Collaborators share a desire to meet a high bar of excellence.

The session I am facilitating on Monday at the PCMA Education Conference is a peer-to-peer session. We will kick it off with a look at the mindset and skills that great collaborators employ. You’ll get the chance to share experiences with others in the session — focusing on ways to creatively collaborate with clients, suppliers and business partners. The goal is to give you new ideas that you can use in your business.

Here are the details:

Monday, June 14, 2010
10:30 p.m. - 11:45 p.m.
Collaborate to Achieve Greater Success
For meeting professionals to succeed, meet goals and thrive they need to embrace the concept of collaboration

• Discover collaboration techniques to achieve goals and positively impact your bottom line
• Leverage collaboration for co-location of events, costs, logistics, and crowdsourcing
• Leverage sponsorships to build a collaborative culture that will lead to long-term planner and supplier relationships

An extra note: One aspect of great collaboration is giving useful advice with no expectation of getting anything in return. In this spirit, I recommend three Montreal restaurants that you might not find on your own.

• Griffintown Café – Canada’s National Post lists the Griffintown Café as one of the top ten casual dining restaurants in Montreal.
• Le Pied de Cochon – The food is inventive, the staff is cool and the wine list is amazing.
• Joe Beef – This one is for foodies. There are only 30 seats in this cozy restaurant of renowned Montreal chef, David McMillan.

Enjoy! I hope I’ll meet you Montreal.

Curt

Let's Talk!

Let’s talk about what new things you are doing to drive attendance to your meeting—are you looking at new social media campaigns, new markets, new programs? Or, are you focusing your limited resources harder on programs and tactics that worked in the past to make sure your “strengths” are as good as they can be?

Let’s talk, and let’s listen, here on this blog. And then-- let’s meet face to face in Montreal to share what’s worked and why, what hasn’t and why not. Let’s share our successes review our challenges so we can increase our understanding of what tactics are working, and why.

Over the course of my career, PCMA members have been my “panel of experts.” I’ve reached out to my peers repeatedly for help, for answers, or even for permission to copy their ideas. PCMA is giving us another exciting opportunity to learn from each other, and I hope you can join us.

I’m Teri Jarvie and I am excited to be facilitating at this year’s Education Conference (formerly the Leadership Conference). Here are the details on the session:

Monday, June 14, 2010
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Drive Attendance to Your Event
Strategies designed to build attendance and attract interest are more important today than ever before. Meeting professionals play a critical role as they are designing and developing meeting experiences their stakeholders need, want and expect.

• Match your organization's profile with programming design that stimulates interest
• Leverage sponsorships to drive value to the experience
• Develop a marketing strategy that effectively communicates clear and concise messaging
• Understand how to market your events in a digitally connected world

Notice that I said facilitating, rather than speaking – so I really need your help. Let’s talk in advance – tell me what’s keeping you awake, what’s important to you, what’s working for you and what’s not. We need your input to this interactive, innovative session, and we need it now.

In addition, you need to be in Montreal to expand the discussion. You’ll get ideas and solutions from your peers (the experts).  Tools you can take back and use, immediately. More importantly, you’ll have a new network of experts to turn to when the next challenge arises. We’ll talk and listen to each other, and it won’t be complete if you’re not there. You can register now at pcma.org/EduCon

Please take a minute to review the program and provide your input into this session. I look forward to listening to you in Montreal!

--Teri

p.s. You can respond through the links on this page, or feel free to email me directly at tjarvie@cscmp.org.

Montreal Here We Come!

2010 PCMA Education Conference, June 13-16,2010

Have you marked your calendar yet for the PCMA 2010 Education Conference? More importantly, have you taken that next important step and registered?

Let me officially introduce myself... I am Mike McCurry, your Co-Chair (along with Bob Hancock) for the 2010 PCMA Education Conference. I am thrilled to be part of the volunteer leadership team, helping to plan and stage this wonderful event.

As you may know this conference was previously entitled the "PCMA Leadership Conference." While PCMA expects to preserve the historically intimate feel of this event, it's focus is broadened, and the program has been expanded to a three-day format. Here is a brief video clip introducing the conference:



I am excited, as the 2010 event is going to feature some really outstanding education value! The PCMA staff and the 2010 Conference committee are working really hard to deliver a special, innovative program to you, our attendees.

So, why should you attend the 2010 Education Conference?

Here are just some of the many reasons:

• Inspirational and Captivating General Session Speakers
• Libby Gill -- Former Head of Communications for Sony, Universal and Turner Broadcasting
• Jamie Clarke -- Extreme Adventurer & Motivational Speaker/Author
• Scott Klososky -- Entrepreneur, SocialTech Guru, and Innovator
• Jeff Corwin -- Animal Planet Host and Leading Conservationist
  


• Interactive and Engaging Peer-to-Peer Education Sessions -- moderated by skilled facilitators, you will collaborate with, and learn from other, like-minded professionals, to exchange ideas and develop solutions to critical industry issues. Some topics covered include:
• Event Engineer Strategies
• Create An Event Engagement Plan
• Innovative Techniques in Conference Formats
• Social Media Tools
  
• Strategic Meeting Management

• Great Social and Networking Opportunities
  

• Opportunity to Enjoy a World Class European-style Canadian City

The absolutely stunning Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel is our host hotel. Please make sure to reserve your hotel room as soon as possible, as the city is extremely busy over our conference dates.

On behalf of the entire PCMA team, and our 2010 Conference Committee, we look forward to seeing you in Montreal! Don't miss this great event opportunity.