Take Your Event to Five New Levels... BRIDGEHOUSEM C CORMICK TRIBUNE & CHICAGO RIVER MUSEUM Truly Chicago Offer your guests the unparalleled experience of an intimate dinner or cocktail reception at the five-story McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum. They will talk about their evening inside Chicago's most iconic bridge tower for years! Truly Unforgettable Nestled inside the southwest tower of the Michigan Avenue Bridge, the Bridgehouse Museum tells the story of the Chicago River and offers your guests a rare chance to view the inner workings of one of Chicago's famous moveable bridges. The top floor of this Chicago landmark reveals stunning views of Michigan Avenue and the river. Truly Exclusive With a capacity of 30 people, the Bridgehouse Museum is ideal for small weddings, executive and board events, cocktail parties, and luxurious, unique dinners for two or more people. ■ ■ ■ The Bridgehouse Museum is located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. For more information, visit www.bridgehousemuseum.org, or contact Ozana Balan at (312) 939-0490, ext. 23, or at [email protected]. A project of FEBRUARY 18, 2008 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT BB1 10 ways to recycle content BY JANE ADLER based manager of audio content. Presentation slides were synched OK, so the meeting was a success. The months of hard work to to the audio, uploaded to the association’s Web site, and emailed fine tune the content was worth the effort. Sessions archived on to attendees. Those who couldn’t attend the meeting received the CDs are ready for distribution. email, too. “We’ve cut out producing CDs and audio tapes of ses- All done? Maybe not. Planners, and their bosses, want to con- sions,” says Trish Uhl, ASTD board member and president of tinue the conversation with attendees. And new tools are available Owl’s Ledge LLC, a consulting firm in Wheaton. “This new way of to extend the meeting and recycle content. distributing content is much more cost effective.” Web-based technologies (of course) make it all happen. Here’s Web-archived audio sessions should be easy to access, notes how: Tammy Christensen, senior director at ASAE & the Center for 1. Podcasts Association Leadership, Washington, D.C. “No plug-ins or fire- Inexpensive and easy to produce, podcasts are rapidly growing walls.” in popularity with planners. Short programs posted on Web sites, 4. Videocasts podcasts can be used to promote meetings and redistribute con- “There’s a huge explosion of video usage,” says meetings con- tent. sultant Corbin Ball, of Bellingham, Wash.“We’re just seeing the tip In advance of last year’s meeting, the Chicago-based Word of the iceberg.” High-quality videos streamed live on the Web are of Mouth Marketing on the horizon, he adds. Cisco Association (WMMA) con- Systems Inc., for example, is ducted brief phone inter- rolling out Telepresence, a high- views with session speakers. definition videoconferencing The interviews (no longer system with lifesize plasma TV than 10 minutes) were edited screens. and then uploaded to the Videotaped sessions can be meeting Web page. “These posted online, though a lot of were pre-conversations, not server capacity is required. the speaker’s entire presenta- Another approach is to upload key tion,” says Greg Fine, an portions of meetings, giving access executive at the Association to those who couldn’t attend or Forum of Chicagoland who weren’t invited. previously worked at A.T. Kearney Inc. holds an WMMA. “The podcasts were annual worldwide meeting for the nothing fancy.” But, Mr. Fine top 250 highest ranking partners. adds, “It was a good way to Photo courtesy of StoryQuest The exclusive nature of the event start the conversation with attendees.” has given it a sense of mystery, according to Pam Bronkema, who Long podcasts should be indexed, advises Rick Olson, president handles global meetings for the Chicago-based company. At the and CEO at KRM Information Services Inc., Eau Claire, Wisc. A start of last year’s conference in Caan, France, the CEO taped a presentation by a top executive, for instance, should include book- video about what the meeting would cover. The video was imme- marks or a directory of key points. “Otherwise,” he says, “it’s like diately posted on the Web site for employees. “People were able to listening to an album with no tracks.” feel they were part of the action,” says Ms. Bronkema. 2. Mobile devices At the end of the meeting, the CEO and other leaders made Planners are piggybacking content on personal mobile tech- short videos that summarized key points. The videos were posted nologies such as iPods, MP3 and MP4 players. on the company Web site. “Before the partners were headed back At the Midwest meeting of Grant Thornton LLP, attendees to the U.S., the employees already knew what was happening,”says received iPod Shuffles. After the conference, presentations were Ms. Bronkema. boiled down to three minute podcasts and emailed to attendees. 5. YouTube “The beauty was that they could pull up the content on their desk- High-quality video is expensive to produce. But video recycled top computer or download it to their iPod,” says David Heinke, for YouTube doesn’t have to be professional looking, says Mr. Fine sales director at the Chicago-based accounting firm. at the Association Forum of Chicagoland. Most people expect 3. Mixing audio and PowerPoint YouTube videos to look homemade. “That’s the style,” he says, Video content can be expensive to capture and produce. adding that meeting planners can easily capture and recycle meet- Audio alone doesn’t have much punch. A recycling technique ing content for the popular video portal. gaining favor with planners is to link the audio portion of a pres- 6. Blogs entation with PowerPoint slides. A meeting blog distributes content and creates a feedback loop At a technology conference sponsored by the Chicagoland with attendees. At a client summit, bloggers were assigned to cover Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development, the sessions and write recaps posted on the Web. The blog was the presentations were recorded by StoryQuest Inc., a Chicago- + 10 ways ON PAGE BB20 BB2 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT FEBRUARY 18, 2008 resources for meeting planners The following pages Arlington Park Race Course Chicago, IL 60604 2200 W. Euclid Avenue Phone: (312) 922-3432 ext. 224 AND SPECIAL SITES include information on Arlington Heights, IL 60006 Web site: architecture.org CONFERENCE CENTERS Phone: (847) 385-7500 E-mail: [email protected] resources in the Chicago Web site: arlingtonpark.com Number of meeting rooms: 3 E-mail: [email protected] Largest meeting room: 3,000 square feet area for planning meetings Number of meeting rooms: 5 Maximum capacity (largest mtg. room): 300 The Chicago Bar Association and special events. These Maximum capacity (entire venue): 35,000 321 S. Plymouth Court Chicago, IL 60604 listings also appear online Art Institute of Chicago Phone: (312) 554-2124 at ChicagoBusiness.com. 111 S. Michigan Avenue Web site: chicagobar.org Chicago, IL 60603 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: (312) 443-3530 Number of meeting rooms: 16 Web site: artic.edu Largest meeting room: 1,800 square feet CONFERENCE CENTERS Contact: Bryan J. Bruin E-mail: [email protected] Chicago Botanic Garden AND SPECIAL SITES Maximum capacity (largest mtg. room): 350 1000 Lake Cook Road Maximum capacity (entire venue): 2,500 Glencoe, IL 60022 Phone: (847) 835-8370 Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum Bobak’s Signature Events Web site: chicagobotanic.org/events 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive 6440 Double Eagle Drive Contact: Ann Babich Chicago, IL 60605 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: Woodridge, IL 60517 (312) 542-2428 Phone: Number of meeting rooms: 6 Web site: (630) 968-7778 adlerplanetarium.org Web site: Largest meeting room: 3,360 square feet Contact: signatureevent.com Jodi Daily and Karen Van Lente Contact: Maximum capacity (entire venue): 400 E-mail: Angie Hibben [email protected] E-mail: Number of meeting rooms: 4 [email protected] Number of meeting rooms: 5 Chicago Children’s Museum 700 E. Grand Avenue Advanced Center for Training Largest meeting room: 13,500 square feet Maximum capacity (entire venue): 1,850 Chicago, IL 60611 4072 E. Main Street Phone: (312) 527-1000 St. Charles, IL 60174 Web site: chichildrensmuseum.org Phone: (877) 99-TRAIN E-mail: [email protected] Web site: trainatact.com Number of meeting rooms: 3 E-mail: [email protected] Largest meeting room: 6,500 square feet Number of meeting rooms: 13 Maximum capacity (largest mtg. room): 40 Largest meeting room: 25,000 square feet Maximum capacity (entire venue): 600 Maximum capacity (entire venue): 1,000 Brookfield Zoo Chicago Club 3300 Golf Road 81 E. Van Buren Street Brookfield, IL 60513 Chicago, IL 60605 Phone: (708) 688-8350 Phone: (312) 427-1825 Web site: czs.org Web site: chicagoclub.org AMA Chicago Executive Conference Center Contact: Diane Wehrmeister 8655 W. Higgins Road E-mail: [email protected] Chicago Cultural Center Number of meeting rooms: 11 78 E. Washington Street Chicago, IL 60631 Largest meeting room: Phone: 5,700 square feet Chicago, IL 60602 (773) 693-5511 Maximum capacity (largest mtg. room): Web site: 400 Phone: (312) 744-2080 amanet.org/meetings Maximum capacity (entire venue): Contact: Lee Colbourne 10,000 Web site: chicagoculturalcenter.org E-mail: [email protected] Just 14 miles west of Chicago on 216 acres of Contact: Lara Ziemba Number of meeting rooms: 19 beautifully landscaped grounds, Brookfield Zoo Number of meeting rooms: 8 Largest meeting room: 3,000 square feet offers a unique setting for any corporate event. Largest meeting room: 7,000 square feet Maximum capacity (entire venue): 220 Guests can explore world-class exhibits depicting Meeting rates up to 40% less than comparable exotic locales, see a Dolphin Show, or relax on a Chicago History Museum facilities.