Getting Rid Of Banquet Table Blues
PCMA experiments with new way to select seatmates at meeting lunch
By Rachel Wimberly -- Tradeshow Week, 1/22/2007
Toronto—Attendees at just about any size meeting have had this experience: The doors open on a 2,000-plus-person luncheon, and there's a mad dash for tables that quickly fill up. People make frantic cell phone calls trying to track down colleagues and clients to sit with but, before all is said and done, some still inevitably end up at a table full of strangers.
One could argue that isn't such a bad thing — after all, meeting new people is one of the main reasons for going to an event.
Nonetheless, the Professional Convention Management Assn. decided to spare attendees the awkwardness and try another way. PCMA tested an alternate seating arrangement during the awards luncheon that took place during its Annual Meeting at the Metro Convention Toronto Centre Jan. 7–10.
ProActive debuted the new convention-industry service, Seat-Select, at the annual meeting. It allowed registered attendees to go online in advance of the meeting and pick exactly where, and with whom, they wanted to sit.
ProActive's digital media producer Rebecca Gitles said the system was affordable. It costs $2,500 per event plus $1 per registered attendee, and it can be used for multiple functions (i.e., every meal) at no extra cost.
Deborah Sexton, PCMA's president and CEO, said, "It's a new opportunity, using technology, to simplify what can become a very complicated project."
The main problem at PCMA was the dearth of so-called early adopters: Of the more than 2,600 attendees registered for the awards luncheon, only 212 actually used SeatSelect.
"It's brand new, and I think a lot of people didn't understand it," Sexton said.
Besides, she pointed out, "We e-mailed a lot of stuff, and it gets lost."
In fact, only one of the multiple advance e-mails that PCMA attendees received mentioned it.
When Gitles saw the final numbers, she was devastated.
"The good news is PCMA loves the technology," she said.
For people who read the right e-mail, the effort paid off.
"It gives people an opportunity to sit with people that they feel comfortable with," said Sandi Strother, conference coordinator for the University of Missouri's Conference Office.
Strother saw the e-mail describing SeatSelect and, though she was at the event alone and knew few other attendees, figuring out where to sit at lunch was something she appreciated being able to cross off her list beforehand.
"I knew what plane I was on, what hotel I was staying in and where I was sitting at lunch," she said.
As attendees who signed up for SeatSelect walked through the doors of the luncheon, sensors read their RFID-enabled badges, and a welcome message came up on video screens with the location of their table on a floorplan.
"PCMA approached us, said they had a seating service for attendees and they knew we had an RFID-enabled application," said Tony Melis, vice president of development for Laser Registration.
Melis thought SeatSelect might be even more useful as a networking tool if it was combined with an online matchmaking program — thereby allowing people to dine not only with others they already know, but also those they wanted to meet.
PCMA provided a separate matchmaking opportunity before the event through PCMA Connect, but Melis said the next challenge would be integrating all the components, including Laser Registration.
"It would truly be a networking luncheon," he added.
Other industry techies also recognized its value.
"ProActive's SeatSelect is an excellent example of the emerging technologies that promise to shape the future of the meetings industry," said Stephen Nold, president of Advon Technologies and an advisory team member for the Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events' E2 eMERGE Tech Showcase this spring.
In fact, Nold added, he was so impressed that he asked ProActive to submit an application to be a part of the showcase.
