It's been a while since I updated my blogroll, so I figured I'd spend my Friday off going through my various feeds and adding some of those new-to-me blogs I want to share. Here are some of the ones I've been adding, in no particular order:
The Forum Effect, by the Association Forum of Chicago. They have new bloggers coming on all the time, and topics range all over the association management field, but do include a fair amount of posts about meetings.
The Edge, by the Conference Publishers, is all about conference and content. It has several excellent contributors, but my favorite is Mitchell Beer, who also has started writing a few things for MeetingsNe t (including this great Eulogy for Concepts Worldwide and his commentary on the Social Security Administration's secret videotaping of a meeting).
SocialFishing, by social media maven Maddie Grant, who formerly was on the blogroll as writer of the Diary of a Reluctant Blogger (my how times have changed!). Great social media content. Her partner Lindey Dreyer's blog, Association Marketing Springboard, also is a recent-but-way-overdue add.
Illumination Galleries, a blog by Jay Smethurst about exploring the future of meetings and events, is the one that started me off on this today when Jay sent me a note and, after scoping out his blog, I wanted to add to the blogroll.
Midcourse Corrections by Jeff Hurt is one of my new favorites. He always has something thought-provoking to say (remember this post on MPI charging for online access to WEC? It sure got a lot of people talking, including me.)
Then there's John Folks' (un)Conventional blog, which so far hasn't given me a lot of insight into PCMA or John's perspectives on planning (he's PCMA's chairman), but I hold out hope that it'll pick up. It has a great title, anyway. Wish I'd thought of it!
The Meeting Support Institute, by Maarten Vanneste, gives you the meeting architect view of the industry.
Meet Prepared, a blog about risk management and contingency planning, really should be on everyone's must-read list. Excellent, excellent, excellent.
The CEIR blog is, well, the CEIR blog. I do like the videos they include pretty regularly.
Trade Show Help is more aimed at exhibitors than exhibition organizers, but it's a great way to gain insights into what your clients are thinking about.
Ready 2 Spark by Lara McCulloch-Carter is full of great ideas and tips for special events. Plus it's just great fun to read.
Event Manager Blog is another group-authored blog, full of great tips and info on, duh, managing events.
Association Meetings (have to love that name--oh wait, we liked it so much we used it for a magazine) is Julie Hewett's thoughts on how associations can improve their meetings.
Professional Event Production, by Pat Ahaesy, is all about event and conference planning, production, and management.
Meetings Podcast offers a bunch of great podcasts on all things meetings-related. They're great fun to listen to, and you might even learn something. I'm particularly partial to Mike McCallen's posts and podcasts, but they're all good.
And I can't forget to mention that TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Blog is back! Rich Westerfield had wandered away from us into the land of coffee entrepreneurship, but he's back blogging about trade show marketing, and we're all richer for it.