Wiggio is Wicked Cool

I'm on the NYU Dance Team , and although you might not think so at first, we blow up each others inboxs with rehearsal and meeting times and locations, music files, among many other things. Recently the captain of the Dance Team made a group for us on a site called Wiggio. Wiggio? God bless you! Actually, its an online toolkit that makes working and collaborating in groups much easier.

Personally I love anything fun and easy to use that will compartmentalize my life and keep things in lists and on calendars. Wiggio does just that! In an article on CNET News from Sept, 15, I learned that Wiggio was created by Dana Lampert and Lance Poliby. The two were working on a group project and were going crazy with the complicating features of systems similar to Wiggio such as 37signlas. The point of Wiggio is to make collaborating and working in groups easier for all involved. Wiggio has several key features such as messaging, calendar, poll, folder, meetings, and links. All of these features come with step by step (for the most part steps 1-3 or 4) and easy to follow instructions. Wiggio founders have taken their site a step further to also allow users to send out blast text messages and emails through the site. Signing up for Wiggio is super simple, too! All you have to do is provide your name, email, and phone number (for those mass text messages), create a password and your done! Users can also subscribe to multiple groups should they need or choose to.

I think Wiggio is something that we will see a lot more of in the near future. As of right now the system is geared towards college students, with minimal use coming from high schools. However, it seems like it would be a great way to keep office co-workers all on the same page and updated about what meetings or events are going on in their office or place of employment. I don't see it as a way to help meeting planners keep their conferences and various events organized and well run, but rather a way to keep an office of event and meeting professionals organized and well run. Most companies have shared drives on each employees computer that allow everyone to have access to particular documents. Often times an IT person has to come into an office to give new employees access to such drives. This can be kind of a pain. Wiggio, however, eliminates the need for that by allowing members of groups to have access to documents and messages, polls and posts right form their own computers, either at work, at home, or on their crackberry! I know that I have only been on the site a few days as of right now, and already I love it!

Disneyland Launches Web-Based Resources for Planners, Attendees

Earlier this month, Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, launched a new Web-based resource for meeting planners and attendees. The article, titled "Disneyland Launches Web-Based Resources for Planners, Attendees," from mimegasite.com, , discusses what the product hopes to achieve. Per our lesson last week about online registration systems, I thought this article would be a nice tie-in. The new tool was actually created by the Disneyland convention and group reservation team. As we discussed how expensive it is for companies to make their own reservation systems, I did find myself wondering how much the system cost Disneyland to develop. When I was reading about the different services and features of the product, it actually sounded a lot like GoldReg. Disney's product is also an online registration system that allows for the booking and managing room blocks as well as the ability to monitor registration status. The product also allows meeting planners to customize thier event page with colors and logos particular to their event. One feature of the new Web-based tool that I thought was cool is that it allows planners to access the Disneyland's theme park information and to purchase theme park tickets. It also allows them to preview Disney's speical events and services. I think this feature is what makes the product unique to Disneyland. While meeting planners can still taylor their event page within the system to reflect the theme and aura of their particular meeting, Disney has still kept its special touch to the system by allowing easy access to online ticket and park information and purchase to the planner so that they can take full advantage of everything the Disneyland Resort has to offer. I wonder if it would make sense for large convention centers and hotels to adopt a tool such as Disney's particular to their site, or if they already do?

Technology Makes Meetings Green

I was looking over Corbin Ball's latest newsletter the other day and came across and article entitled, "45 Ways to Use Technology to Green Meetings." Because I am working on organizing the Annual NYU Hospitality Investment Conference I thought it would be an interesting read and possibly give me some ideas as to ways to make NYU's planning process potentially more green. Most of the recommendations were on ways to save paper. Some of the better recommendations were having an electronic database of meeting facilities rather than the directories and brochures that many meeting planners use now. Another was using electronic RFP's instead of sending out bulky Word documents to several different places. A third good suggestion was to use email instead of paper promotion for meetings and events, which I think is something that many meeting planners do already. The article also spoke about using virtual site inspections. I took issue with this one particular suggestion for a couple different reasons. The first reason being I personally feel like it is more beneficial to a meeting planner to see a site in person rather than in a small video box on the computer. Virtual tours tend to make spaces look bigger than they because of the angle and placement of the camera. I feel that virtual tours give a skewed perception of a room. My second reason is this; what if there is a site that does not have it's room inventory online for a meeting planner to explore. Then, a meeting planner is forced to do an in person site inspection anyway. Perhaps more event facilities should focus on putting their room inventory online so that this aspect of the industry becomes more standard and common place.
More ways to make meetings green included, electronic contracts and digital signatures, online housing and room block management, online registration and confirmation, electronic programs that would be emailed to phone/PDA systems, electronic systems. While I believe that all of these "be greener" recommendations are valid would definitely help reduce paper waste, I wonder how long it might take for them to become industry standards, and if they ever will prove to become such. It cannot be ignored that many meeting and conference planners prefer to have hard copies of important documents in their hands rather than looking at them through a computer screen. Also, I feel that people may not have a lot of trust in the electronic world as there is a real fear of system crashes and the possibility of losing data. I guess only time will tell whether meeting planners are willing to go more green through the use of technology.

Google Chrome

I read the 38 page comic strip that Google released about their new browser, Google Chrome, and was really excited to learn about something Google had created just for web users. But, after reading it, I felt rather confused to be completely honest. There was a lot of technological jargon in the comic strip that I had a hard time keeping up with, and I found myself skipping pages because I was literally lost in the translation. However, fortunately I did understand some really fun, convenient, and important features of Chrome. I like that it was designed specifically for the applications that are being used on the web more and more as well as for those who are using the applications. Chrome promises to be faster, more safe and secure, and more stable than browsers currently being used. Though reviews that I read of Chrome said that the product fell slightly short of the promises Google made, I feel that it will eventually meet and exceed expectations of users. I feel that once Google Chrome becomes the browser that it has promised to be, working efficiently and without many glitches, it will impact our industry by making it more organized. When opening up a new tab, the user is presented with all of their most visited sites. It also keeps track of key words and phrases used to search. Chrome will help eliminate searching for sites the people use on a daily basis, and will help make those things easily accessible. It will also keep the industry more efficient by being able to handle higher levels of video and audio streaming, as well as being able to handle an increased level of browser windows and tabs open. Chrome will also help to better the Internet in general. It reports harmful sites to the owners so that they can have the opportunity to clean the site up, and also is an open source browser, allowing others to take advantage of things Google is doing well and use them for themselves. I have also wondered, while reading about Chrome and the different reviews written about the browser, if it will become a monopoly on browser services as it includes email, blogs, search engine capabilities, chat options, and so much more.