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And thank you for offering to be a part of making this service happen.

Which brings us to the question “where do we go from here?” I have received quite a bit of private support for this approach, but have not heard from any national representatives of the professional associations. Perhaps they are not interested, perhaps they just haven’t read this blog. I think we should reach out to the relevant folks at PCMA, MPI, ISES etc. to check on their level of interest & involvement. If any readers have a personal connection to the right people, please let me know. Otherwise I’d welcome help doing this outreach.

I’ll keep the skeleton website up and running while we do this research, and will post when I have more to report.

First, yes there are many groups on linked in that address different scopes of the event industry. Some are dedicated to conferences, some to trade shows, some just to exhibitors and narrowing the niche even further. The problem I have with LinkedIn groups is the number of “pitches” that are posted and the lack of true discussion. (Side note…I noticed TSEA Trade Show Exhibitors Association has really done a great job of eliminating these types of posts). That is going to be a real challenge of the Q&A site but one that is easily overcome with good moderation.

I would love a place I could post questions related to events in general. One central spot is great without having to go to a separate site that deals only with social media questions, or another site that deals with logistics and yet another site that focuses on attendee marketing and then one for exhibitor marketing. Twitter is great but it’s a crap shoot if someone who has the answer sees your question whiz past.

I also think this gives those wanting to participate more control over their time investment. I would definitely be willing to help out as it seems to me I would not have to be “on call” every moment of the day therefore not hindering my overall productivity. I would be happy to invest an hour or so contributing if I could set aside the time and look thru questions I may have answers to.

Likewise I would love if I could post a question of my own on there and get the help I needed. Sometimes you need a quick referral or a simple question answered. Actually often times you need this…at least I do.

Marketing Profs has an interesting Knowledge Base where people can pose questions and participants get points for answering. Redeemable for Marketing Profs webinars, seminars, etc. Perhaps this is a bit too much to take on in the beginning but it is an interesting case study none the less.

I can see how some vendors might bristle at this idea…too much free advice not enough ROI. I’ve had trouble with this myself but it can also be managed. But I’m sure there are many event professionals out there who are not vendors that would love to pass on some words of wisdom to fellow professionals.

Sign me up!

Conference organizer Adrian Segar has started a public Google Doc “toolkit” list of items to take on pre-event site visit, and invites contributions from all other event management professionals….

Just came across this on your blog. It’s beautifully put and a call to action. Thanks for sharing it.

Barbara Palmer