Don't Forget the Basics - Breathing

Tomorrow I have the privilege of taking my entire PCMA membership team off-site for an entire day of planning. I say privledge because when was the last time you just detached yourself from your computer/phone and thought about stuff, planned instead of reacted?

If you had a year similar to people I know, you were asked to do more, with less...nose to the grindstone with barely enough time to come up for air. For a lot of us that strategy worked last year to a large extent, but that is no way to consistently operate a business/department. It just doesn't work - it will burn out your team members (and you).

Tomorrow is the time for my team to take a deep cleansing breath of fresh air!

I'm so curious to know what you are doing to plan for the year - knowing we need to keep our focus strong, but also be forward looking/thinking. Please share your thoughts with me so we can learn from each other.

Christine

Happiness Project

My new favorite website/blog of the day (thanks to a Tweet by @JeffHurt) - http://www.happiness-project.com/

Gretchen Rubin (@gretchenrubin) has written a book, Happiness Project, which I have not read, but I can tell you that if it's on Kindle, it will be downloaded on my commute home.

Have you read this book/blog? If so, what one great idea have you come up with that brings you more happiness in your day-to-day world?

Here is a sample from today - Ten Reasons Why Using Twitter Will Boost Your Happiness http://ow.ly/17xfn

Christine

Two Cool Tools

Two new tools I just learned about. Have you used them? Did you like one over the other?

http://www.jingproject.com/

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

Basically, both tools allow you to record your desktop in a video format. Jing appears to be free for up to a 5 min. video. Camtasia has a free trial.

For more ideas on screencasters - check out this blog by Betsy Weber:
http://visuallounge.techsmith.com/

-Christine

I Heart Twitter!

I love Twitter. Here are the reasons I love it, add yours!

1. It helps me stay connected to members
2. I get to meet new and interesting people who "live" in the association space
3. I get to meet new and interesting people who "live" in the social media space
4. I'm learning how to communicate in 140 or less
5. You can find out cool stuff about interesting people
6. You can find new blogs to read
7. You can keep an eye on the trending topics to stay on top of world issues (even if it's just the latest Lady Gaga gossip)

My favorite hashtags:
1. #pcma (of course!)
2. #eventprofs
3. #assnchat
4. #tradeshows
5. #ec10

My newest follow discovery that I love (at least this today/week): @MemberClicks

What are your favorites?

-CM

The Shoes

So, I was a skeptic. I admit it freely. Everyone told me about these clogs made by Dansko and how my feet and back would NOT hurt after wearing these same shoes for the entire conference.

I didn't believe them. BUT, I bought them because really what's the harm, right?!

It's true - they were the most amazing shoes. My feet didn't hurt once and my back lasted the entire event. It only started hurting after I made the unwise decision to wear my computer bag for 4 hours!

So, if you are in need of tried and true (and tested) shoes for your next event, and you don't mind a slightly ugly shoe to hide under your slacks - try the Dansko clog.

Do you have other shoes you like for events? If so, please share!!!

Christine

Awards and Recognition

I have the absolutely fun job of working with our awards and recognition program and committee. We wrapped up our award nominations at the end of July and the committee has been working hard the last couple of weeks evalutating all the nominations. We come together as a group on Monday to select the winners.

This is my first year as the staff liaison to this committee so there has been a lot of "learning on the go" but nothing could have prepared me for what I have learned about PCMA's members.

I am totally not surprised by how amazing our members are, but what does amaze me is how their complete commitment to the industry is unfaltering. They mentor, they teach, they write articles, they Tweet, they blog, they share, and share and share.

After selections are made by the committee, my time focuses on planning the award celebration with our meetings team. But before I finalize too much, I'd love to hear from you on the following:

1. If you've won an industry award, what is the one thing that made the ceremony most special?
2. If you had time to say a few words after receiving the award, what did you say? Who did you recognize?
3. Any thoughts on what would make a great awards celebration?

Send me your thoughts no later than October 15!

Christine

Labor Day...

Looking forward to recharging my battery this long Labor Day weekend. Going into the sprint to the Annual Meeting and I know it will be here before I know it. How does that always seem to happen?

We're also excited to see so many new members coming into PCMA...WELCOME!

And to those returning - THANK YOU!!!

I'll be back in touch after the weekend!

-christine