Meeting Planners International - Went GREEN!

Last week I was an attendee at the Northern California Chapter Meeting Professional International Tradeshow. It took place at the new Moscone West in San Francisco. The venue was really nice and easy to get to by car.

I was pleasantly surprised to see sheets of paper donning the dining tables announcing that "MPI is Green". Wow, what a major step (but of course this is San Francisco). Anyway, the sheets that followed the announcement was a list of the eatery utentils and how they were manufactured. They were all bio-degradable!!! Fabulous.

The plates were made of sugar cane, the cutlery was potato starch, the cold cups cornstarch, the hot cups paper with cornstarch liner and of course unbleached paper for napkins. What a remarkable shift for this group.

But to say that MPI is GREEN is a very large statement. The lunch ware is a move in the right direction but by no means qualifies the boasting they did. But what does qualify a meeting or and event to say they are green? Good question. Because behind the overt environmental showing, there were hundreds of booths exhibiting at this tradeshow. I'd like to have seen perhaps the statics of what happened to all the extra stuff (promotional materials). And what about the cardboard used in shipping, etc. It's one thing to "green up" one part of an event but to call yourself green - I think steps need to be made from beginning to end.

But.....it's a wonderful start and I'm so elated to see it. Here are some links to the greenware used at the tradeshow:

Starch base products
Cold drink cups
Hot drink cups
Plates

Book Signing with John Lescroart!!!

Yep, that's me and John. He's was on the New York Times bestseller list for his latest mystery/thriller The Suspect last month. And he took the time to have a duel book signing event with me! What a great sport and nice guy to boot. One day I will return the favor - when I'm rich and famous I'll pay it forward.

He even bought my book for his wife who loved it.

This book promotion is whole other world and I'm just beginning to experience to good, the bad and the joys and follies. Great adventures ahead I'm sure.

The Secret to Successful Event Planning

Wow, time flies! It's been far too long since my last confession. So, I'll just get on with it. Who hasn't heard of "The Secret" yet? Not such a secret any longer is it? And what does it have to do with Successful Event Planning. Well, everything and nothing. It all depends on what you believe.

To get a little esoteric here - I believe that life is about event planning - planning your life. One great big involving / evolving event. People, places and things weave into and out of your event. It's all a process. And the more you do it, the better you get at it. Practice does make it better at least.

I believe in the The Law of Attraction at work! It has worked for me. I mean, I published a book for goodness sake! And the book is selling..... That alone is proof to me! Try it. Give it up to the possibilities, the opportunities and the potentials. It's fun and rewarding.

My secret to Successful Event Planning is explained in detail in my book!!!! Buy it and you too can begin using the "knowing" found in the book. In fact, you can become an expert event planning.

The Podcast Interview is Out!

I'm pleased to say that my interview with David Martin of http://planitpodcast is availalbe on itunes. We are on podcast 84. If you aren't set up yet with itunes, David makes it easy for you to download and get started. You do not need an ipod or m3P player to listen.

I just love this form of promotion, publicity, information sharing, etc. If you aren't listening to podcasts you are behind the times. I was relucant at first and thought those people with those white strings hanging out of their ears were just listening to music. But no, there is a whole new world out there of information sharing. Come on board.

Great Book Review

I had some great reviews on Amazon this week and wanted to add one of them here! I'll add more later.

Don't miss this book, February, 2007
This book will make your next event planning fantastically easy. I have never seen a better book on how to create the event. It is concise but no detail or list has been omitted. The CD-ROM will let you access all the working materials on your computer. It facilitates your creating the ambiance and context you wish to realize through your event. It even helps you "green" your event.
We could say much more but think you will know how great this book is the moment you have your hands on it or view it on this site. The commonsense, dedication, and competence of this quite amazing book will grab you right away.
At The Family Institute of Berkeley we have had to plan many special events ranging from small groups to audiences of hundreds including workshop settings, meals, and lodging for people who have come from all over the world over a period of some thirty years. This book would have spared us a lot of inventing and pouring over lists and reminders. You may be able to do all this work yourself but why not have it done for you?
We have worked with Shannon Kilkenny, participated in events and have come to respect and admire her integrity, determination, kindness, and incredible competence. It is that which makes this book uniquely helpful.
Robert Shaw, M.D. Director, The Family Institute of Berkeley
Judith Shaw, M.A. Education Director and Event Coordinator, The Family Institute of Berkeley

Makes you want to run out and buy one! Please do!

Greening the Hospitality Industry

I just returned from Portland, OR where I attended an awesome conference about changing the way we plan events through environmental practices. Greening the Hospitality Industry is a large task but the people gathered at this event were filled with passion and fabulous ideas. The collection of brilliant people in the event planning industry was inspiring. The ideas that were shared and built upon will have an enormous impact on the industry and ultimately on the planet. All facets of the industry were represented. Unfortunately there were only 100 people attending. There should have been three times the number. By the way, Portland is the number one "green destination" on the planet. Visit Portland Oregon Visitors Association for more information on this facinating City.

My biggest surprise was to see several people from Las Vegas. LV was represented by the Convention and Visitors Authority, the University of Nevada, the hotel/casino industry - MGM Mirage and Mandalay Bay and the Big Springs preservation organization. If Las Vegas can become an environmental destination for meetings and events, then any place can. Kudos to the LV contention.

The host of the event was Green Meeting Industry Council. The event planners for this conference was Meeting Strategies Worldwide. They have been producing green meetings and events for many years. Kudos to all the women from these two groups who's passion and experience were weaved throughout the conference.

This is the new wave of energy and the new way of doing business. If you are not thinking about making some enviromental changes now, you will be left behind! Come on Event and Meeting Planners, join the ever-changing landscape of green techniques and trends. Become a member of GMIC now! And join us at the next conference. Stay tuned for more..............

New Week of Planning

I love Mondays. I have a whole new week of opportunities and possibilities ahead of me. Today it's back to working my timelines and checklists - so much to do - so little time. I'm leaving tomorrow for Portland, Oregon. There is a great conference on "Greening the Meeting and Hospitality Industry". I'm really excited to learn as much as I can so I can pass the information off to everybody I know and through every venue I have. My book, The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning has an extensive chapter on Planning for the Environment. This is a hot topic right now and we all have to get on the bandwagon. It's not hard to do. Soon we will be going from mainstream to mandate. Be ahead of the game.

I'm having a book launch party this Saturday in my home town of Bolinas, California. I'll get a lot of locals coming out of the wood works. It will be fun and informative to hear what they have to say. This will be my first. I have other book events scheduled and hope to sell lots and lots of information.

I've been writing a lot of articles lately and just agreed to write one for Perspective, the Meeting Planners International (MPI) publication. Hope for some great publicity from that. You can find me all over the ezine world as I am trying to get my name and "expert status" out to the world. My book, The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning is for everybody, not just the special event promotors and planners. This is a How-To book for everyone.

Thanks for visiting!

Promoting My Book is Similar to Planning an Event

I decided last night that promoting and marketing my new book The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning, on event planning, was incredibly similar to actually planning an event. 1. I need to know my target market and 2. I need to write an awesome piece of marketing material to invite people to buy my book. So, as I inch my way into the world of publicity and public relations, I am pulling all the tricks of my trade out of my hat for help. I need to use some of my planning tools that I promote so brilliantly in the book. Timelines and checklists!

So what I learned is that my book, SEP is a great resource for project planning for just about anything and everything. I just increased my market 10 fold. Are you managing a project now? Then you could definitely use these timelines and checklists.

Now, in getting the most out of this blog, I've asked for assistance from David Martin from Planit Podcast. I want to link to his site http://planitpodcast.com/ and he sent me some other code that I'm having a hard time knowing where to place it. So, in the meantime I'll give him this shout out. Visit him today, there is some really great resourses for event and meeting planning.

I'll post more about his podcasts and how to hear my interview with him when it becomes available.

Plan Well, Plan Often, Expect Success,
Shannon

My first entry into the blog world / buy my book

My first post! Yippee, yeehaw. I'll keep it short because I'm a very busy lady these days trying to promote my new book - The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning. It's crazy out there in the publicity world. Everyone wants me to "write" a little something and send it to them. Well, I say, I just wrote over 60,000 words....it's called a book. What more do you want from me? Then they say tell me about yourself, I say, go to my website: www.successfuleventplanning.com. It's all there.

Then they tell me to get a blog. So....here it is! My new blog. And Here's the cover of my book.

I suggest that you all go to my web site and buy this book. I'd make the book cover a direct link to my purchasing site if I knew how. I see a large learning curve coming my way.

Anyway. I'll be chatting with you soon. If you read this say Hey!

Shannon