OK, this is not directly about event sustainability, but here are two tools that help you manage your money and brand image (both important parts of sustainable business!). One I have recently used and one I am about to use.
1. www.crowdspring.com. I used this service to access designers for a new corporate logo. You set an "award" and then designers respond in a competition, where you can rate the designs and then choose one (or more). We got about 70 designs to choose from. The winning designer was from Argentina!
2. www.squarespace.com. I am just about to use this site to create a new website. It is "drag and drop" so you can easily maintain it yourself, starting at $8.00/month.
Love to hear about other tools you have used.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sustainable Ops Management
I guess I should have realized this before, but I admit, when I was sitting in my Operations Management class last night (OPMA for short), the first class of the fall MBA term, I had a small revelation: Event Management is just specialized Operations Management. For those who don't have a clue what I mean by Operations Management, I fall back on my prof's definition: "The function that manages the conversion/transformation of inputs into outputs (services/goods) that are of value to customers". For those of you who are now even more confused, here is my translation regarding events.
We take things (food, paper, tchotchkes) and people (attendees, staff, speakers, exhibitors) and transport them. The transformation here is locational, and the challenge for sustainable event professionals is to not only get them there on time but to get them there efficiently, with the least use of scarce resources like fuel, time, and money. This efficiency is the key to sustainability. For example, by choosing locations closest to the majority of people travelling to the event, you cut down on the amount of fuel used to get there (and carbon emissions), the cost of the ticket, and the time of the people travelling. This same sentiment applied to things is the beginning of creating a sustainable supply chain.
The sustainable supply chain also includes social elements (like Fair Trade or minority-owned businesses) but is also concerned with efficiency. That is why the mantra of "buy local" is so important to sustainable events. Once again, you are using scarce resource efficiently to reduce travel time and use of fuels. You are also, of course, stimulating the local economy while getting fresher produce, among other things.
The industry provides venues, and here the activity is building and retrofitting and the transformation is a physical one. LEED buildings are the main example of this. The value to customers includes buildings that enhance future transformations, such as the ability to learn, health of attendees, and of course the efficient use of scarce resources such as energy.
Events are often used to create other transformations -- data to information (for example, the use of social media and virtual meetings) information to knowledge, and knowledge to application (for example, learning how to create a sustainable event and applying these concepts to your next event). It also creates "remote to real transformations" -- by which I mean that someone's electronic or remote presence is transformed into real, personal relationships via a face-to-face meeting. Yes, I just made that phrase up, but this is the intrinsic power of face-to-face. Research I did in collaboration with Ottawa colleague Mitchell Beer in designing a hybrid meeting strategy for a client only reinforced this concept for me.
Operations management impacts all areas of logistic meetings design, but also impacts on organizational strategy. The sustainable events operational strategy should specify how the organization will employ its resources to support its sustainability strategy. This brings sustainable events to the boardroom as a key player in any CSR strategies.
It also means that we can learn from existing OPMA strategies how to better create and position sustainable event strategies. More to come.
We take things (food, paper, tchotchkes) and people (attendees, staff, speakers, exhibitors) and transport them. The transformation here is locational, and the challenge for sustainable event professionals is to not only get them there on time but to get them there efficiently, with the least use of scarce resources like fuel, time, and money. This efficiency is the key to sustainability. For example, by choosing locations closest to the majority of people travelling to the event, you cut down on the amount of fuel used to get there (and carbon emissions), the cost of the ticket, and the time of the people travelling. This same sentiment applied to things is the beginning of creating a sustainable supply chain.
The sustainable supply chain also includes social elements (like Fair Trade or minority-owned businesses) but is also concerned with efficiency. That is why the mantra of "buy local" is so important to sustainable events. Once again, you are using scarce resource efficiently to reduce travel time and use of fuels. You are also, of course, stimulating the local economy while getting fresher produce, among other things.
The industry provides venues, and here the activity is building and retrofitting and the transformation is a physical one. LEED buildings are the main example of this. The value to customers includes buildings that enhance future transformations, such as the ability to learn, health of attendees, and of course the efficient use of scarce resources such as energy.
Events are often used to create other transformations -- data to information (for example, the use of social media and virtual meetings) information to knowledge, and knowledge to application (for example, learning how to create a sustainable event and applying these concepts to your next event). It also creates "remote to real transformations" -- by which I mean that someone's electronic or remote presence is transformed into real, personal relationships via a face-to-face meeting. Yes, I just made that phrase up, but this is the intrinsic power of face-to-face. Research I did in collaboration with Ottawa colleague Mitchell Beer in designing a hybrid meeting strategy for a client only reinforced this concept for me.
Operations management impacts all areas of logistic meetings design, but also impacts on organizational strategy. The sustainable events operational strategy should specify how the organization will employ its resources to support its sustainability strategy. This brings sustainable events to the boardroom as a key player in any CSR strategies.
It also means that we can learn from existing OPMA strategies how to better create and position sustainable event strategies. More to come.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Crowdsourcing
I am sure many of you receive Convene Magazine, the monthly magazine from PCMA. I wanted to mention it here for no better reason than there is a great article in it by Barbara Palmer, senior editor of Convene, and that I was interviewed for it. Here is the link:
The article is called Are We Thinking What I am Thinking? and it is about crowdsourcing.
The article is called Are We Thinking What I am Thinking? and it is about crowdsourcing.
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