Jonas and I have a tradition every year at the National Business Travel Association convention of getting registered a few hours ahead of our networking responsibilities to leave enough time for recycling. All that crap. You know, in the bag. Then, we ask, what's that bag for? Anyway, this year NBTA deserves praise for not only cutting down on all the crap but also for giving us an app. [more]
Thanks to sponsor BCD Travel and maker QuickMobile, I was able to check my iPhone whenever I needed to know what room my next session was in, where the lunch was (never made it), where the opening reception was (convention center ... good idea), what was "on now" at the main stage, speaker titles, bus routes and other info.
It was also very handy to be able to look up and email attendees. I arranged an interview for
this story that way. For people who don't prefer another Twitter client, there was the stream of conference tweets and the ability to post. You could upload your own photos and look at the photo gallery or sponsor lists. There was a city guide and an easy link to NBTA's YouTube channel.
But back to our ritual. As mentioned, in the past I typically chucked everything I got at registration, including the bag. I would keep the full program guide and the pocket agenda. Now that pocket agenda is obselete. Oh, pocket program. I will not miss you.
Next year I hope to see the full program agenda made redundant, as well. Maybe that will allow The Beat
Live to follow suit! The only reason I kept the NBTA one this time was to be able to check speaker names and titles.
If NBTA does that, I guess we can skip registration altogether.