• TECHTALK EXCLUSIVE: Get Your Site to the Top with Search Engines
• ARTICLE: Leveraging Surveys for a Successful Event
• NEW INVERVIEW: Get Set for the Wireless Revolution
• WIRED NEWS ARTICLE: Blogging's Impact on Meetings
• NEWS: Ultimate Technology Resource Nears Completion
• 4 FAVORITE MEETINGS INDUSTRY SITES
• 4 FAVORITE REFERENCE SITES
• NEW ARTICLE: Legal Checklist for Associations Web Sites
• .  .  .  .  .and more!

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS......

	The Professional Meeting Planners Network (PMPN) www.pmpn.com    & Attendee Management Inc. (AMi) www.attendeenet.com   PMPN and AMi, our newest company, congratulate Corbin on being named MPI's Supplier of the Year. We are pleased to sponsor this newsletter in support of his work, and as evidence of our commitment to maximizing the benefits of technology in the meeting and events industry.
	Passkey www.passkey.com/customer_meeting_benefits.shtml  Do you still pay attrition fees? Passkey's online booking engine and group reservations and revenue management solution can help you reduce attrition exposure and provide real-time up-to-date visibility to your event's block and pick-up information. Take it a step further and integrate Passkey with your preferred registration solution to deliver your attendees a one-stop shopping experience for event registration and hotel reservation for all your events.
	Conferon  www.conferon.com   Is your marketing reaching your target audience and boosting ROI? Conferon's MRA and ConferOnline options help you meet attendance goals.
	Loudeye Corporation www.loudeye.com Loudeye is a leading provider of digital media and Webcasting services that enables event and conference planners to leverage the Web to extend the reach of meetings and events plus increase post-event revenue significantly. During the past year alone Loudeye's service has broadcast more than 6,000 events.

Items 2 and 3, "How to be Read" and "How to be Bookmarked," will be covered in the next issue of TechTalk.

More...

NEW ARTICLE: Leveraging Surveys for a More Successful Event

Online survey tools will help you understand how your events are fulfilling your target markets expectations, giving you the data you need to maximize your return on investment for all your event activities.

This article outlines several ways to use surveys for meetings and is reprinted with the permission of WebSurveyor.

More...

NEW INTERVIEW: Get Set for the Wireless Revolution

This well researched MeetingNews article by Marshall Krantz details the impact of Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies on hotels, convention centers and the meetings industry. It includes

a few comments and quotes from me as well.

BLOGGING (WEB LOGGING) & ITS IMPACT ON MEETINGS

In my presentations on wireless meeting industry trends, I have been speculating for the past couple of years on the impact of wireless technology and, specifically, blogging, on meetings and

networking. These speculations are becoming a reality as this article from Wired News Magazine details.

By the way, Wired News is an excellent free mailing list for general technology trends.

NEWS

Ultimate Technology Guide for Meeting Professionals is coming soon!

This very substantially expanded edition of "The Ultimate Meetings Professionals Software Guide" will be available this summer. It will offer more than a 425% increase on the last edition with more than 1,200 listings of meetings technology software products, web services, and technology service providers. (The last issue of my book was already the most comprehensive book on the subject ever printed.)

Distributed by MPI, it will be downloadable and distributed from the MPI Web site and available as a searchable CD-ROM as well. It will be sold as a subscription and will be updated on a regular basis. Further details, as they develop, will be announced in this newsletter, at my Web site and through MPI

This project, in part, has been made available through a grant from the MPI Foundation.

More info…

dialing code directory, and more.

3 Highlighted Meeting Industry Favorite Sites:

Meetings.com

This recently reorganized site from Conferon has much for meeting planners. It incorporates the PlanSoft site inspection database and has loads of content including the extensive Conferon Guide to Meeting Management, an extensive list of helpful articles, white papers, and lots o' links.

Attendee Management Inc. (AMI)

There are more than 100 online registration providers out there. Many are easy to use and some are quite robust. However, if you are daunted by technology and would just like someone to do it for you, consider AMI. With a very experienced management team, including a past MPI International Meeting Planner of the Year, Jeff Rasco, CMP, they will guide you through the process with little pain.

SpotMe

I participated in the first public demonstration of SpotMe in London two years ago. However, this high-tech networking device has come along way since then.

Your picture is taken at registration and you are handed a proprietary hand-held PDA device. With it you can scan the area nearby and see the pictures, names and titles of those within 10

meters around you. You can select names from a pre-registration list and the unit will vibrate when that person comes in range, showing his/her picture. Schedules, surveys, messaging

capabilities are also included. At the end of the meeting, you are sent the names/pictures of all of the people that you selected or exchanged info with at the meeting.

I used the device during the MPI PEC Europe meeting last month in Berlin and it worked great! Until recently, this product was only available in Europe, but now is expanding to the U.S.

A checklist of legal considerations to consider during the process of establishing a web site provided by Barbara Dunn, Esq. of the legal firm of Howe & Hutton.

CURRENT SPEAKING CALENDAR
My speaking and consulting schedule for May and June will be bring me to: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Tampa, Geneva, Honolulu, Philadelphia, and New York. I would look forward to the opportunity to for a speaking engagement in your city.

CORBIN'S PROGRAMS

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 

TESTIMONIALS

CORBIN'S CONSULTING AND WRITING SERVICES

SPONSORSHIP:  Want to help sponsor Corbin's Tech Talk Newsletter sent to thousands of subscribers in 60 countries interested in meetings, events, trade show and hotel technology?

E-mail me at: contactcorbin@corbinball.com

PRIVACY STATEMENT: We respect your privacy. Your name and e-mail address will never be sold, traded, rented, bartered, or given away. Nor will it be used for any other purpose than to communicate with you. Period!

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REFERRALS: If you know of anyone that would benefit from my free email newsletter (sent every two months) containing the latest in meetings technology in clear language designed specifically for the meeting professional, please forward this newsletter on. 

CONTACT INFO:: 
Corbin Ball, CMP
Corbin Ball Associates
506 14th Street, Bellingham, WA 98225-6107
Phone: 360-734-8756, Fax: 508-632-7730
Email Corbin
Web: www.corbinball.com 

© Copyright 2003 Corbin Ball Associates.
This letter and its content are proprietary products. All rights reserved. You are welcome to forward the entire letter to anyone you feel may be interested.