Togetherness 2.0: Meeting Technology, Online Registration Services, Event Registration Services, Online Registration System

Collaborative Software You Can Use to Increase Team Productivity

Jeff Rasco, CMP

Originally Published 4/7/2010 in Talking Tech for Meetings Focus

When Web 2.0 arrived on the scene in 2001, it was soon dubbed "The Collaborative Web." Web 2.0 is not so much a group of technologies that signify an upgrade from the original, but rather the usage of technology in a radically different way. No longer does the end user have to make sacrifices in the name of the Webmaster to get things done, the end user becomes the master of the Web.

Websites no longer need be unidirectional electronic brochures, but become multidimensional and more functional with the addition of blogs that open communication channels, RSS feeds that allow customization of the information reaching you, XML which helps translate data from one source to another, and Web services that further expand the distribution of information between previously disparate systems.

You have almost certainly benefited in the office from Web 2.0 applications, from content management programs to Facebook pages to wikis. We are going to briefly run down three programs we have found to be very useful in working within the office and with others - Google Docs, SharePoint, and Smartsheet.

Ganging Up On Social Media

Collaborative Software You Can Use

Christina Rasco and Jeff Rasco, CMP

Originally Published 4/7/2010 in Talking Tech for Meetings Focus

Like many in our industry, we've struggled a bit getting our heads completely around social media. Who gives a twit about Twitter? Who has the time to face off with Facebook? Will they even still be around by the time we've mastered them? Where do we even start?

We decided to get some advice from some colleagues who we know to be active bloggers, posters and/or tweeters, and share what we learned from them. Our panel includes meetings technology mavens Corbin Ball, Rod Marymor, and Jim Spellos; meeting and event planners Cindy Lo and Marla Watson-Werst, who are also owners of their own businesses (Red Velvet Events and PeaPod Productions, respectively), and Cheryl Rivas, meeting planner and marketing communications manager for Meeting Sites Resource. We asked about their favorite tools, how they use them for their meetings and in their businesses, what they've learned from their experiences, and what advice they would give someone starting out in social media.

Howdy, Welcome To Our World

Christina Rasco and Jeff Rasco, CMP

Originally Published 12/7/2009 in Talking Tech for Meetings Focus

We are thrilled and honored to begin writing the Talking Tech column for your Meetings Media publications. "Long time readers, first time writers" – at least on these pages. Christina is an award-winning journalist, and Jeff has been published around the industry for twenty years or more. We hope to provide our readers with a practical look at technology and how it can be intelligently applied to your meetings and events in this and coming editions and online at Meetings|focus.

We will bring a cross-generational perspective to the column, which should bring some fun exchanges as young-upstart-versus-old-fogey on issues such as social media and technology in the workplace. As small business owners, we also hope to appeal to the ever-growing numbers of meeting professionals operating under their own shingles whose technology decisions directly affect their pocketbooks.

Improve Your Outlook

10 Tips To Make You More Productive

Jeff Rasco, CMP

Originally Published 12/6/2010 in Talking Tech for Meetings Focus

Our first use of Microsoft Outlook was in 1997. It was discovered wrapped in relative obscurity within the release of Office 97. We were all happy to get the upgraded versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but none of us really knew anything about the Little Program That Could.

Back in the mid-90's, our e-mail was handled down in the basement somewhere, our calendars were in neat little spiral binders, to-do lists on scraps of paper, and contacts managed in bundles of business cards wrapped in rubber bands. Someone suggested managing our e-mail in Outlook, and we began to discover what a powerful program it can be.

The Gift of Technology

Layton Rasco

Originally Published 12/6/2010 in Talking Tech for Meetings Focus

It's the time of year when many people start putting together their holiday lists. While you can't wrap them up as neatly as an iPad (hint, hint), Cloud Computing and Open Source technologies are the gifts that keep on giving.

Commercials and recent articles seem to imply that "the Cloud" is some mythical land where all earthly information lives and computers frolic together like dragons in 60's folk songs. The Cloud is a great and ever growing resource, not a mythical land. Simply put, Cloud computing is the sharing of resources by many computers and users. Those resources can be software, memory, and information provided to computer or smartphones over the internet.

Togetherness 2.0: Meeting Technology, Online Registration Services, Event Registration Services, Online Registration System

Ganging Up On Social Media

Howdy, Welcome To Our World

Improve Your Outlook

The Gift of Technology

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