Meeting Planner Careers

ASAE, the American Society of Association Executives, and The Center for Association Leadership, now known as ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership, will stream live video from its three general sessions plus 24 seminars at its August annual meeting in Los Angeles this year. The video-taped sessions will be archived for 90 days, allowing virtual attendance at a 20% reduction in the real time attendance rate for three additional months. Eventually, the general sessions at least will probably be posted at the ASAE YouTube channel.

On top of that, ASAE has a page at their site http://www.asaecenter.org/ titled “Social Media.” With links to in-house blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and more, they are a textbook example of an organization using social media for internal and external two-way communication.

If you want to use social media to publicize and/or invite participation in your next event, a case study on ASAE will go a long way. Another site you’ll enjoy visiting is courtesy of our wry friends in Scotland. “Contently Managed” writes a valuable contribution titled “25 Social Media Engagement Tips for Event Organizers.” If you need a primer on Twitter, check out Nancy Marmolejo’s short video.

Oh. And since the ASAE’s membership is comprised of thousands of executives planning events for the thousands of associations in America, it might be worth listening in on their public conversations.

MIAMI–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Cruise event specialists Landry & Kling Inc. have announced a strategic partnership between their company Seasite.com, the first cruise portal for meetings and events, and i-Meet.com, the professional and social network for meeting and event planners and suppliers.

“Facebook and Twitter are important to our overall social media strategy, but with our new Seasite online community, we’re giving our customers and users an expanded experience in i-Meet’s global community”

The partnership introduces a unique, online community on i-Meet.com for Seasite.com users and prospects worldwide. Leveraging i-Meet’s fast-growing network and social media platform, Seasite’s online community will feature industry leading technology, group special interest “hot spots”, and provide a way for people to connect and interact with over 20,000 industry professionals around the world.

“Our customers have expressed an interest in a community-based social platform to complement Seasite’s cruise sourcing and planning tools,” said Jo Kling, CEO of Seasite.com. “We are excited to be partnering with i-Meet and its meetings industry-specific social network approach; we can now deliver a unique experience to our customers that’s in line with the way people do business today.”

“It’s really a very natural progression to introduce social networking to cruise meetings customers,” said John Pino, i-Meet’s Founder and CEO, “and marrying Seasite’s cruise sourcing technology with an online communications and collaboration channel enabled through i-Meet’s global community of planners, buyers and suppliers will create advantages for everyone.”

“Facebook and Twitter are important to our overall social media strategy, but with our new Seasite online community, we’re giving our customers and users an expanded experience in i-Meet’s global community,” said Jo Kling “This is an industry first that will allow our users to network with other professionals and communicate what’s on their minds.”

The partnership will allow the growth of active mini-communities for i-Meet and Seasite.com members based on their areas of interest. The groups will be hosted and administered by Seasite’s expert cruise industry professionals. “Friend-ing” others, “following” suppliers, and subscribing to and publishing blogs will round out the experience.

About Landry & Kling and Seasite.com

Landry & Kling Inc., cruise event specialists since 1982, recently introduced Seasite.com, the first online cruise platform for meeting professionals. Seasite is an industry sourcing tool to search, select and plan group cruises, with access to 35 cruise lines in one site, meeting-friendly search criteria, e-RFP’s, meeting/function room capacities, dining details and other unique tools available nowhere else. Visit www.seasite.com or www.landrykling.com.

About i-Meet

Created by the Founder of StarCite, www.i-Meet.com is focused on building the industry’s most relevant worldwide online community for the meeting and event industry. With 20,000 members from 130 countries around the world to date, i-Meet brings social networking, web 2.0 tools, work flow and relationship opportunities, and industry intelligence to its members and suppliers. Visit i-meet.com.

At the recent 2009 Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Southeast Educational Conference at the Edon Roc in Miami Beach we had the opportunity to hear Brad Nickel, VP of Marketing for Landry & Kling, speak. He gave a presentation called “Find Yourself Online”  and agreed to let us publish that presentation here, for those meeting professionals who were unable to attend.

Here is the presentation – let us know if you have questions!

Brad was also excited to tell us a little about the upcoming launch of a new resource for meeting and incentive professionals: Seasite.com.

Seasite.com, a new Landry & Kling company, will be the industry’s first online cruise marketplace for global meetings and events. Mr. Nickel, explained, “Seasite.com puts cruise sourcing on par with hotel site selection along with easy RFP generation for multiple brands and ships.”

The site will be launching in late September but in the meantime they are running a contest to win an inaugural cruise aboard the new Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas, billed as the worlds largest and most innovative cruise ship. To enter simply go to their web site, Seasite.com, and sign up to recieve their newsletter and be notified of the official Seasite.com launch. The contest winner will be selected at random on Sept. 10, 2009.

2009 MPI Southeast Educational Conference was held at the Edon Roc Hotel, Miami Beach, August 13th-15th. For more information visit http://mpisec.org/

Our thanks again to Brad – and here’s his bio: