November 5-6 in Chicago I was fortunate enough to be a part of the MeetingTechOnline Summit at the Intercontinental O'Hare in Chicago. (sidenote: This is a very nice hotel. It's brand new, very efficient, and extremely comfortable.) MeetingTechOnline, an industry site with resources for trade show operators, producers, planners, etc-- hosts these summits across the U.S. to bring together innovators of new technology and systems, as well as marketers and show planners. I really enjoyed listening to fellow speaker and keynote for the day, David Meerman Scott, who is the author of "The new rules of Marketing and PR".I was there to speak about the impact of 'Green' and Web 2.0 on the industry. Green being a 'mega trend', it was on everyone's radar, and my session was very well attended. One of the things that I learned about this industry (having been involved only marginally in the past) is that show operators and producers are aware of the need to go green, and most even want to-- but most don't know how. This is the exact phenomenon that I see in the consumer research that's been done as a part of the launch of Green Rewards since 2007. Consumers have a desire to 'go green' but often times have no idea what that means, and what they should do. Most resort to the obvious "change a lightbulb" mentality, and assume the problem will sort itself out.
As part of my presentation, incorporating some of the "Inconvenient Truth" slides that I'm authorized to deliver, I attempted to shed some light on the major misconceptions, myths, and sins of the green world. I also used the opportunity to showcase some great examples in the Green space of how websites and organizations are using Web 2.0 tools to promote and expand and engage their audience.
Special thanks to Wendy Friewald and CDShowGuides.com for sponsoring my talk. CDShowguides is a technology innovator for the tradeshow industry that reduces the impact of these huge consumer and B2B shows by putting the massive amount of information, advertising, literature and (otherwise) paper materials on a single searchable disc. Better for attendees, and better for the planet.