Missing Something at Great Ideas
Posted on February 21st, 2009 by Cynthia D'Amour
The handouts.
I’m attending ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference.
- It’s sunny Florida.
- I’m loving seeing my friends.
- Getting ready for the sessions I’m doing tomorrow.
All was well until - I picked up my name badge.
- They handed me a jump drive with a logo on it.
- Nice.
- Until they tell me I have to download the handouts on my own.
Why aren’t the handouts in the nifty jump drive?
- I don’t want to have to take the time to download them.
- I also prefer being spontaneous with my choice of sessions attended.
- The empty jump drive feels half done.
The hallway chatter blames speakers with late handouts.
- Of course no one actually mentioned WHICH speakers are the evil people.
- (For the record, I made the deadline - which was extended.)
Why the jump drives are blank doesn’t really matter.
- It’s one of those electricity things.
- When I flip the switch, I want the lights to come on.
- I don’t want to know why it doesn’t work.
In the big picture, I’m having a good time and the empty drive is not a huge deal - it’s just a missed opportunity.
Makes me think of chapter leaders…Do you seize the opportunity to make things easier for your members?
Filed under: Savvy Leadership, Time Savers
Hey, Cynthia, I don’t think the point was to make it easier for the members. The point was to save the association time and money - and appear ahead of the curve technologically. (”Going Green” will probably spin out of that explanation, too).
I don’t mind the missing materials…they’re easy enough to download. And while the sessions have had great info, I’m kind of surprised by the conference organization. A lot of the rooms have small screens, there’s a lot of a/v issues, there’s no podium for the speakers (they have to put their laptops on the first row of tables), and speakers are dragging cords around becasuse there are no wireless mikes. The facility itself is beautiful but it really isn’t the best for a conference of this type (the rooms are really spread out and sometimes hard to find). I’m also surprised that they ASAE doesn’t start looking into less expensive venues. We’re not company owners — we’re staff and $279 a night is pretty darn pricey (maybe not for associations headquartered in DC, but certainly for the rest of us).
Oh well, at least the sessions are great!
Hi David - That’s an interesting concept. Their goal was not to make life easier for members - but to save money and appear ahead of the curve.
Which is more important - trying to appear ahead of the curve or enhancing member experience?
If they wanted to save money they could have skipped the drives. They didn’t value add - and were a hot topic at the conference.
@Scott - I agree with you about the high roomrate. One of the conferences I attended last year offered a $279 room rater, a $150 room rate - and a $27 rate at a local hostel.
It was a different approach. They wanted to make sure price of lodging was not a barrier for attending. (This was a tech conference.)
I received the same blank jump drive at Tech ‘09 and I didn’t download one handout. Not even for the sessions I did attend.
Having to go to the website and download then was an extra step that I didn’t take and who knows what I missed as a result.
I will say though that I loved getting the jump drive. It’s a great, valuable freebie. I’m just not using it for what they originally intended me to use it for.
And the “paper-light” statement has been circulating in ASAE conference materials. You could also print your handouts out at the Tech conference. They provided the printers to do so. Just didn’t have the time to do that once I got there.
I agree Lynn about always being able to put a free jump drive to use.
In fact, I would not have thought a lot about it - if it was say clipped to the journal they gave me or something like that.
Instead, I made the immediate leap “Cool! Jump drive with all the handouts. ASAE loves me and is saving me time!” when they handed it to me.
Never occured to me to view just as swag. Go figure.