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Mark Ley

Going to Augusta!

She may not get to wear the coveted green jacket but Christine Gillis, senior administrative assistant for Life Technologies, is our winner at the Masters! Her name was drawn from a pool of planners who submitted RFPs on EliteMeetings.com between January and February. In collaboration with EliteMeetings.com, incentive powerhouse SportEvents.com is giving Christine a trip for two to Augusta, Georgia to witness the legendary Masters Golf Championship, April 5-11⎯a prize [...]

by Mark Ley on March 24, 2010

Elite Meetings Creates Two Tiers for Elite Certified Hotels!

In the very near future there will be more than 1400 hotels and resorts on EliteMeetings.com. As a result, Elite Meetings International (EMI) announced today that it has begun certifying Elite properties as Platinum and Gold, to better serve meeting professionals who seek the highest quality offerings in North America. Initiated at the request of meeting professionals and approved by the Elite Meetings Advisory Board (EMAB), the new designations help [...]

by Mark Ley on March 24, 2010

Lessons with content

Social Media Marketing is a quickly expanding medium with shifting rules. However, the basic rules of journalism remain the same. I learned a very big lesson today that I would like to share with all of the other event professionals out there who are working to grow exposure by sharing content and information that is valuable to their communities. There is a huge difference between an article that an author [...]

by Mark Ley on March 19, 2010

Grow Locally before Growing Globally

To often social media is looked at as solely as marketing and business development tool for growing your exposure among those who have never, ever, heard of a product. It is seen as an avenue that will cut down the all the noise and bring in the new. The same ideas have been applied to meetings, and tradeshows, with many organizations using these tools in an effort to boost the [...]

by Mark Ley on March 18, 2010

Latest Planner Reviews!!

One of the features I enjoy most about EliteMeetings.com is reading the planner reviews of our properties. There is something special about sharing in the personal experience of a member of our community of Meeting Professionals. Sometimes it’s the unique insight they provide, sometimes it’s a sneak peak at a great example of an exceeded expectation and sometimes it’s just a simple exclamation of thanks. What ever it is, I [...]

by Mark Ley on March 5, 2010

Is Your Conference Content Boogielicious Or Headbanging Hurt?

About the Author: Jeff Hurt has worked in events/nonprofit arena for more than 20 years including Keep America Beautiful as a consultant/trainer/writer; Keep Texas Beautiful as Education Coordinator; Professional Development Manager for Meeting Professionals International; Professional Development Manager for Promotional Products Association International; and Director of Education and Events for the National Association of Dental Plans. He has also served on several board of directors for several North Texas, state and national charities [...]

by Mark Ley on March 3, 2010

Missing Freight? Don’t Panic

About the Author: Eric Lukazewski is the Creative director at Echelon Design. Social Media evangelist, marketing strategist, graphic artist and a self proclaimed tech nerd. Check out his blog Tradeshow Insight and contact him the next time you’re looking for a new booth! Chances are, you’ve been here before: You fight early morning traffic, search aimlessly to find a parking space at the convention center, walk a short marathon to [...]

by Mark Ley on March 2, 2010

How a Well-Designed “Thank You” Inspires Community Uptake

Chrissie Brodigan’s post originally appeared on ThinkVitamin Chrissie (@tenaciouscb) is an online ux/product designer, Brooklynite, and pug lover/rescuer. She has built a career designing web applications and community strategy for clients like huffingtonpost.com, K-12 education systems, and more recently pursues her passion for activism in the non-profit sector designing apps for advocacy and outreach. Both she and her business partner Jessica Teal (formerly Obama’s 2008 campaign design manager) continue to [...]

by Mark Ley on March 1, 2010

Getting FaceTime at MeetDifferent

As we learned over the past year, face-to-face interaction is paramount in creating and maintaining lasting business partnerships, as are the industry gatherings that make these opportunities happen. Along with our own Elite Meetings Alliances, one such event we at Elite Meetings look forward to is MeetDifferent, MPI’s annual conference on innovation within our industry. This year we are pleased to announce that our own proprietary FaceTime™ Appointment Scheduler will [...]

by Mark Ley on February 12, 2010

Top 10 Tips for Reducing Meetings Costs in 2010

About the author: Steve Auer, CEO of Cadence, Inc., is a 20 year veteran of the live event and meeting production industry. Since 1997, Cadence has been helping companies like Mercedes-Benz, Ford, PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, and Novartis deliver cost-effective meetings and events. Cadence provides creative services, venue sourcing, meeting planning, and audio-visual support for meetings and tradeshows worldwide. For more information about Cadence, please visit www.cadence-inc.com. With what appears to be [...]

by Mark Ley on February 11, 2010

Who is Elite Meetings?!?!

Not bad question and one we have answered frequently over the past few years. You see, all of us develop professional habits as we mature in our careers. We learn tips, tricks and shortcuts that allow us to do more with less time and energy. When a new technology comes out, we will generally give it a glance and then go back to using the tools we know are tried [...]

by Mark Ley on January 18, 2010

Beginners guide to Social Media

Are you unsure what do with social media? You’re not alone. Many meeting professionals feel overwhelmed by the idea of establishing a presence in the social media world. Social Media Marketing is on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days. Most though are unsure how to use these new mediums and struggle with understanding where to get started. Fortunately, it’s easier than you think. Meeting professionals that want to increase [...]

by Mark Ley on December 22, 2009

New Technology changing the Face to Face Meeting

One of the great joys of our business is the development of new technologies that transform and enhance the landscape of our industry. The development of FaceTime was one such technology. From it’s inception for our own use at the Elite Meetings Alliance through the most recent IT&ME, we have seen it change the way that suppliers and buyers interact. It has provided a space for more open communication and [...]

by Mark Ley on December 1, 2009

How to build and promote and event on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the “Go To” network for today’s professionals. It provides a solid platform for networking and endless possibilities for business development. With over 50 Million members it has passed the infancy stage breezed through puberty and is now into it’s life as a young adult. With so many members it only makes sense to use it as a platform for driving attendance to your event and cementing buy in [...]

by Mark Ley on November 25, 2009

5 Reasons every hotel should adopt FourSquare

When asked about FourSquare, Dennis Crowley (a founding member), described it by saying “What we wanted to do is turn life into a video game. You should be rewarded for going out more times than your friends, and hanging out with new people and going to new restaurants and going to new bars–just experiencing things that you wouldn’t normally do.” Having just read that statement, you’re probably now wondering. “Why [...]

by Mark Ley on November 25, 2009

PhoCusWright Conference 2009 – Travel Innovation Summit

We really didn’t know what to expect when we entered the Travel Innovation Summit this year. Would we be chosen as one of the 32 presenters that are able to demonstrate their latest technologies? If so, how could we possibly pack everything we had to say into only 10 minutes of a presentation? We were about to find out. Word was delivered that we were chosen to present and we [...]

by Mark Ley on November 18, 2009

Tomorrow’s Tools

“You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.” As Meeting and Event professionals it is easy to get caught up in the world that we know. We spend a great deal of time managing, or better yet, taming, the chaos of the group mind. The process of planning an event is time consuming and challenges us to be creative [...]

by Mark Ley on November 11, 2009

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