'Into the Heart of Meetings: Basic Principles of Meeting Design' by Eric de Groot and Mike van der Vijver
"This provides a wonderful introduction to meeting design," says Adrian Segar of Vermont's Conferences That Work. "Unlike the many books on the profession that emphasize logistics, Eric and Mike's book delves into core questions about meeting design, such as uncovering desired outcomes, working with meeting owners, and what to do to create truly innovative meetings that deliver results. In addition, the wealth of real-life examples included make this a fascinating and thought-provoking read."
Photo: Courtesy of MindMeeting.org
'Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change In Your Work and In Your Life' by Spencer Johnson
Howard Givner, executive director of the Event Leadership Institute, says that this book is "broadly applicable, and short and easy to read. It provides a great parable for learning how to take curve balls in stride and not dwelling or complaining about what's happened to you. The proactive, 'let's move forward' approach is one that every planner should adopt, as things rarely go as planned in live events, and it's important to be able to roll with the punches. It helps you go into an event with the mindset that unexpected changes will happen, so when they do you're not thrown off guard."
Photo: Courtesy of G.P. Putnam's Sons
'Marketing Your Event Planning Business: A Creative Approach to Gaining the Competitive Edge' by Judy Allen
"I enjoyed reading this book by Judy Allen," says Eva Gouldbourne, a wedding and event planner at Chicago's Diamond Events. "This book has many specific examples of how to get the kind of business you want and avoid doing things that will make you stand out negatively."
Photo: Courtesy of John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd
'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking' by Susan Cain
A self-proclaimed introvert, Adam Sloyer is the managing director of New York's Sequence Events and president-elect of ISES New York's Metro Chapter. Of this Susan Cain book, he says: "I found this to be a fascinating read, regardless of whether you consider yourself to be an introvert or an extrovert—and after reading this, you may have a different opinion. Quiet dispels many of the standard biases against introverts and also showcases some of the competitive advantages. Yes, events is a 'people business,' but I found this book to reinforce how introverts can be just as successful."
Photo: Courtesy of Broadway Paperbacks
'Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business' by Danny Meyer
David Beahm of New York's David Beahm Design recommends Setting the Table by Danny Meyer. "I was having problems justifying one of my managers' style of management. He wasn't very nice and I didn't like it," Beahm says. "I found Mr. Meyer's concept of fear-based versus trust-based control very validating as to how I want to run my business. If you trust and empower people to do a good job, they will."
Photo: Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers
'Corporate Excellence: How to Maximize Long-term Productivity & Profits by Aligning Purpose, Culture & People' by Jim Harris
France Langan, sales director of Chicago's Holiday Inn Mart Plaza, recommends checking out this title. "It's an easy read, designed for the busy executive," says Langan. "I think for me, it validated how I try to motivate and work. It also reminded me of how easy business can be if you focus on the individual goals at hand. And, get the right people involved to help. Never do it alone."
Photo: Courtesy of AGR Press
'The Wedding Book: The Big Book for Your Big Day' by Mindy Weiss
Susan Berg Gladstone, director of the Miami Wine and Food Festival, says: "I am not even a social event planner. But this book covers numerous crucial elements of event planning for any type of event."
Photo: Courtesy of Workman Publishing Company
'How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day' by Michael Gelb
Tahira Endean, the director of creative and production at Cantrav Services Inc. in Vancouver, says that all of Michael Gelb's books are must-reads, including this one about Leonardo da Vinci, which "includes a great story about catering in that century." Gelb, she says "truly is a Renaissance man, and I am always inspired by these books. I've read each more than once, and I've given them out to friends between 14 and 70 years of age. I consider these mandatory reading if you want to consider how to live and create better."
Photo: Courtesy of Dell
'Think and Grow Rich: Your Key to Financial Wealth and Power' by Napoleon Hill
Junou Bernadin, a projects administrator at Food for the Poor in Florida, says that this book by Napoleon Hill is a "must-read for any professional." The lessons it contains are more complex than the title suggests, she says, explaining that it covers the process of overcoming limitations and "striving for the very best. This is what all event planners do. We strive for the best the overall 'wow' factor."
Photo: Courtesy of Success Co.
'Rework' by Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson
Kristen Kaza, principal at No Small Plans Productions in Chicago, says that this "is a brilliant book from Chicago's 37Signals that gave me the encouragement to start my own company. It has chapters like 'Meetings are Toxic,' 'Fire the Workaholics,' and 'Planning is Guessing.' It's a great, short read with messages that make sense and stick. Everyone should read it."
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'The Wiley Event Management Series' Special Events: A New Generation and the Next Frontier' by Joe Goldblatt
Julie Ramirez, a production intern at Jonny Stax Presents in Chicago, recommends this title for her peers just getting started in the industry. "The author takes you step-by-step through every process of event managing," she says. "I found this book so helpful when I took my first classes for event management during college, and I still use it as reference from time to time."
Photo: Courtesy of Wiley
'The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice' by Todd Henry
The book "provides guidance on how to make adjustments in your daily routines to facilitate and increase your creativity, which is a vital asset when your profession requires creativity on demand," says Christina Mihalek, corporate events and meeting planner at Western & Southern Financial Group in Cincinnati.
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'The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work' by Shawn Achor
"This book should be titled Want Your Staff to Make Better Impressions on Your Clients, and Get a Free 15% Productivity Boost?" says Jason Harmer, who works in sales and development at Vancouver's GetWorkers. "Even if your boss is only concerned with the bottom line, this will give you a compelling argument to improve the happiness of your support staff."
Photo: Courtesy of Crown Business
'Meeting Architecture, a Manifesto (Volume 1)' by Maarten Vanneste
"This is where meeting planning is headed, I believe," says Dan Cormany, a faculty member at Florida International University. "I use it in my graduate class on convention management.
Photo: Courtesy of Meeting Support Institute
'StrengthsFinder 2.0' by Tom Rath
Every staffer from Reiventing Events in San Francisco is required to read this book to learn more about teamwork. "It's so important to know each person's strengths when working together" to execute a flawless event, says a company rep.
Photo: Courtesy of Gallup Press
'Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity' by David Allen
Taylor McQuiston, the marketing manager at San Diego's Portable Bar Company, says that this book provides "the best organization and productivity system I've found to date."
Photo: Courtesy of Penguin Books
'Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life' by Andrea Michaels
"You probably know who she is, but just in case, Michaels is a legendary event producer who's won too many awards to even start on, and she was the first inductee into the Event Industry Hall of Fame," says Sandy Allen, executive producer at the Water Coolers in New York. "Her book takes the tone of a tell-all and covers both personal and professional experiences and perspectives on the industry. I think it's a gem."
Photo: Courtesy of Outskirts Press
'The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market' by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
Sean Leo, the director of sales at Delicate Products in Los Angeles, says that this book "helped me understand how to focus my products and services to the event production community."
Photo: Courtesy of Basic Books
'Boring Meetings Suck: Get More Out of Your Meetings, Or Get Out of More Meetings' by Jon Petz
Rosemary Vaughan, senior national account manager at Event Technology Services in Ottawa, says that the lighthearted tome "is a very engaging book and reads like it preaches: not boring! It totally resonates with anyone who has ever attended a conference or meeting, and it is quite funny in places. It might compare to Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Little Prince in writing and content style."
Photo: Courtesy of Wiley
'Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose' by Tony Hsieh
Guirlaine Belizaire, donor relations manager at Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in New York, says that this book is a crash course in "hospitality at its finest."
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Electric Slide
Electric Slide launched in February and allows presenters to wirelessly transmit PowerPoint slides, documents, and videos to any screen without the need for a laptop or cables. Users swipe a finger across their smartphone or tablet screen and the presentation is displayed on any screen—across the room or across the Web—in real time. The app creates a unique URL from which the speaker begins and attendees watch the presentation. The app also allows multiple devices to work in sync through Bluetooth. "As a presenter in front of a room of people, you’ve got enough on your plate without worrying about why you can’t get your computer connected or whether those on the phone can see your slides. We’re also seeing users who just don’t want to lug a laptop around anymore," said Jim Phelan, co-founder of parent company Elucidate.
Photo: Courtesy of Elucidate
Slide.li
Slide.li is a plug-in for PowerPoint and Keynote that allows presenters to add extra content such as Web links, images, and quotes to each slide. Attendees then use the Slide.li mobile app to view that content as the speaker advances each slide. Co-founder Cedric Deweeck said the purpose is to provide engaging content as an attendee’s “second screen,” so they listen more and drift off less. After the presentation, attendees can access the content and supplementary materials through the app.
Photo: Courtesy of Slide.li
Presentain
Presentain is a new iPhone and Android app that generates a unique ID, which the presenter types into a laptop connected to a projector. The presentation is displayed on the screen, and audience members can follow along on their personal devices by accessing the URL. They can watch the slides on their devices, send questions to the speaker, participate in polls, and share slides on social networks. After the session, the app automatically creates a video that combines presentation slides with the speaker’s voice to create a “slidecast” which can be emailed to the audience, posted to the Web, or shared on social networks.
Photo: Courtesy of Presentain
Epson BrightLink Pro
Available since April, Epson’s BrightLink Pro turns a traditional whiteboard, wall, or virtually any flat surface into a digital presentation space. Speakers can present and annotate on content and then save it, print it, or email it through the network without the need for a computer or special software. The projector can be connected to most tablets, smartphones, documents cameras, and DVD players to share content. The device creates a 100-inch widescreen display area, so users can display presentations and a live meeting at the same time with the split-screen option. In addition, users can connect as many as four BrightLink Pro units that all reside on the same network, regardless of location, for remote collaboration.
Photo: Courtesy of Epson
SlideShark
SlideShark, an app for viewing, presenting, and sharing PowerPoint presentations on iOS devices, launched a new version in March that enables meeting attendees to access slides on their own device, whether they are in the same room or across the globe. SlideShark Broadcasting creates a unique URL for the presentation so guests can view the session in real time from any Internet-connected device. Presenters receive visual alerts when someone enters and exits the broadcast. After the meeting, speakers can share the slides online and access analytics to track viewing. The new version of SlideShark also adds drawing capabilities that gives presenters a choice of six colors and three sizes to highlight elements of the slides.
Photo: Courtesy of SlideShark
Moxtra
Moxtra is a collaboration app that functions as a mobile binder. Presenters can collect various multimedia files into the app and then record their voice and annotations on top of the files to create a video or real-time presentation. Multiple users can collaborate on presentations using Moxtra Meet. Evernote, Salesforce.com, and Kaffeine are also integrated into the platform, so users can access content from those applications for presentations, as well. Moxtra launched in January.
Photo: Courtesy of Moxtra
Prezi
Zooming presentation platform Prezi marked its fourth anniversary this spring by passing the 20 million user mark and adding sound capabilities. Other new features added in the past year include the ability to create 3-D backgrounds from a 2-D image. Users can load as many as three background layers and the system will cross-fade as the presenter zooms in and out.
Photo: Courtesy of Prezi
Camtasia
Camtasia is screen recording software to save presentations. From parent company TechSmith, Camtasia has an extensive library of music, animated backgrounds, and graphics that can be added to recorded presentations using the system’s editing tools. Videos can also include Web links, a table of contents, search functions, and quizzes. Once it is saved, presenters can post the video on YouTube, embed it in a blog, or share it on social networks. Another option: record the presentation in advance and deliver it to attendees before the meeting, then use the time together to discuss the content as a group.
Photo: Courtesy of TechSmith
Haiku Deck
Haiku Deck is a free iPad app to create presentations. The product launched in August 2012 and released version 2.0 in March. The update adds more photos to the image library, better image management features, new list layouts, and enhanced options for creating charts and graphics. The app automatically offers image suggestions based on keywords in the slide (pulling images from the photo-sharing site Creative Commons), or users can import their own photos. The free app provides five free themes with the option to purchase additional themes for $1.99 each. Once created, a Haiku Deck can be viewed on any browser. It can also be shared on social networks and through email or embedded on a Web site or blog.
Photo: Will Foster
Doceri
Doceri is an iPad whiteboard and remote computer control app. Presenters can remotely access, project, and annotate over presentations, images, and other content on a host Mac or PC while still being free to move around the room and interact with audience members. Annotated presentations can be saved as Doceri files and reused or emailed to attendees as a PDF file. Version 2.0, released in July 2012, added audio and video recording functions so the presentation can be uploaded to YouTube or Facebook right from the app. It also added better drawing capabilities for handwritten presentations and graphics. A dual-screen model also allows the platform to be used in conjunction with Webcasting platforms.
Photo: Courtesy of Doceri
