Kids in the Office, Kids in the Game

Emily Hite is our employee communications go-to pro and helped coordinate ACTIVE’s Kids in the Office event. Below, Emily shares highlights from the day. 

ACTIVE Network welcomed more than 60 kids to its San Diego headquarters on the national Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

We had a blast engaging them in our mission to power the world’s activities and connect people to the things they love, want and need to do.

True to our values, we powered an abundance of activity. The children checked themselves in on iPads using ACTIVE On-Site™ registration. They learned how to budget their allowance from our finance executives. Kids danced, played red light/green light, and ran a race wearing bibs and earning medals. The WannaDoSM team helped the four to 12-year-old kids create a collective bucket list; items included, “Go on a safari,” “Start my own video game company,” “Ride my bike to Hawaii,” and “Eat pizza with dolphins.”

The day’s festivities coincided with the kickoff of the annual ACTIVEx Charity Challenge, which funds a cause aligning with our effort to make the world a more active place. From now through July, hundreds of our employees will train for a local endurance event and work together to reach our $100,000 fundraising goal.

This year, all of ACTIVE’s offices will race for Kids in the Game (KITG), an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on empowering youth to live up to their full potential through positive sports experiences that form active, healthy habits for a lifetime. Every $30 raised gives a low-income, underserved boy or girl a chance to participate in organized sports for one year. KITG believes every kid deserves a chance to play. We want to help more youth get in the game and stay in it as adults.

At our kickoff brown-bag lunch, Charity Challenge veterans spoke about the impact training and fundraising has had on their work, families and communities. “We do it to challenge ourselves physically, mentally and philanthropically,” remarked Jon Christopher, a software development manager at ACTIVE. “We’re philanthroletes.”

University of Hawaii’s TIM Alumni Hall of Honor Recognizes ACTIVE VP

We’re excited to announce that the School of Travel Industry Management (TIM) at the University of Hawaii inducted ACTIVE’s Kevin Iwamoto, vice president of industry strategy, earlier this week into its prestigious Alumni Hall of Honors.

TIM recognized Kevin for his career achievements that have helped push the travel and meetings industry forward.

In a recent article, Business Travel Executive said, “It is without question that Kevin Iwamoto has delivered countless contributions to travel industry advancements while elevating each individual professional in managed travel. His individual and company level achievements have garnered well deserved recognition.”

Prior to leading enterprise strategy at ACTIVE, Kevin managed global travel and SMM programs at HP, and held positions at The Walt Disney Company and Northwest Airlines. He also served as the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) president and CEO from 2001–2003. Kevin has received many industry accolades including the NBTA’s 2009 Industry Icon Award, which is the association’s highest honor, as well as the 2008 Business Travel NewsBest Meeting Practitioner Award. He was also named one of Business Travel News and MeetingNews’ top 25 most influential executives.

The author of the, “Strategic Meetings Management Handbook: From Theory to Practice,” Kevin penned the first guidebook for developing strategic meetings management programs. He is a distinguished industry spokesperson, representing business travel interests globally, to the U.S. Congress after 9/11, and to national media outlets.

“While I maintain it’s much too early in my career to be receiving this type of recognition, I am nevertheless incredibly blessed, humbled and honored by this Hall of Honors recognition and hope to live up to its ideals and standards of excellence,” Kevin said.

Congrats Kevin! We’re so proud to have you on our team.

2.62 Miles to Boston – United, We Are ACTIVE

Hundreds of ACTIVE employees in San Diego, Shanghai, Saratoga Springs, Bothell, Burnaby, Philadelphia and a half-dozen other ACTIVE offices around the world stepped out today to show their support for Boston, our race directors and the entire running community.

We ran, we walked, we cheered on our colleagues as we completed 2.62 miles for the runners that didn’t have the chance.

Our own Mike Rouse, director of strategic events, completed his 254th marathon when he crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon earlier this week. We chatted with him this morning around how this week’s events have affected the running community and his plans for 2014.

“We are runners and we are strong,” Rouse told us. “As the oldest, most prestigious running event in the world, the Boston Marathon is on every seasoned marathoner’s bucket list. The running community feels like this is OUR event, OUR heritage and we won’t be defeated. ACTIVE employees completed 2.62 miles today to show the world that no one can stop us from being active. I bet that Boston will have four times as many entries next year. I just ran 3:39 at Boston and have qualified for next year. Like many runners, I can’t wait to register in September. 2014 Boston will be the best yet.”

All of us at ACTIVE are proud to be part of this strong, resilient endurance community. United, we are ACTIVE.

Boston, Our Thoughts Are With You

In the wake of yesterday’s tragedy at the Boston Marathon, we wanted to send a message of solidarity and support to the running community and all Bostonians.

We are proud to be part of the endurance community; and are humbled by the strength of spirit shown by the organizers of the marathon, the runners participating in it, the first responders, and the thousands of spectators involved. They are our inspiration.

Boston, our thoughts are with you.

Let’s Connect at HSMAI MEET Mid-America!

ACTIVE Network Business Solutions will be at Chicago’s Navy Pier this month for the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) 2013 MEET Mid-America conference next week.

This is the meeting and event planning industry’s premier show, connecting planners with the right resources and suppliers to move their meetings and events forward.

Participating as a diamond sponsor, ACTIVE will be showing their full suite of SMART EVENTTM technology at booth #419, including ACTIVE RegOnline™ and ACTIVE Conference™ event management software solutions. ACTIVE’s latest, complimentary buyer’s guide, Top 10 Questions Smart Companies Need to Ask, will be available at the booth or you can download your free copy.

To learn more and see the software in action, sign up for a one-on-one meeting with ACTIVE Network on Tuesday, April 23 or Wednesday, April 24.

There will be several great speakers covering a wide scope of topics such as social media, digitalization, strategic negotiations, and stretching your budget.

ACTIVE Network Business Solutions will also be participating in an educational session on April 23rd with our long-time customer, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), on how event management technology is transforming the way PCMA runs their events.

We look forward to seeing you at HSMAI!

My ACTIVE World Takeaway? Our Customers Are Superheroes!

To wrap up our amazing week at ACTIVE World, we put our customer superheroes in the spotlight. I was honored to moderate a panel with leaders who power incredible activities.

Dana Zilinski from the Chicago Park District walked us through how they left paper-based registration and an unstable ACCESS database behind in favor of ACTIVE Net™, a fully hosted online solution for park registrations.

It was no small feat for the the largest municipal park manager in the U.S. Seriously, can you imagine using spreadsheets to manage participation at 280 staffed park recreation centers, over 500 baseball fields, 26 indoor and 51 outdoor pools, 71 fitness centers, 22 artificial turf fields, 8 gymnastic centers and 2 conservatories? Thankfully, this is a thing of the past.

Liesien Benet of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio, emphasized the importance of cross-functional relationships to selling in and implementing technology on a broad scale.

Geoff Buchheister of Park City Mountain Resort painted a vision for the ski mountain of the future. Geoff told us how his organization uses technology to get people seamlessly from the parking lot, through the rental process and onto the ski slope.

And, last but not least, Kent McIntosh from TEDxSanDiego shared a keen insight that really made me think. Experience-focused brands like Nordstrom and Starbucks have raised people’s expectations so much that participants demand a new level of service and experience from every organization – including their local YMCA or an entirely volunteer run organization like TEDxSanDiego. This experience brand is a completely new paradigm for most community-based organizations. Kent argued that only with technology that makes an activity organizer’s job easier will the experiences activity organizers create meet the expectations of the market.

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ACTIVE to Power IRONMAN Athletes Globally

We announced this morning that ACTIVE will continue to power IRONMAN athletes around the world from registration to finish line!

By offering race registration solutions through a single, global technology platform for IRONMAN’s nearly 190 events worldwide, athletes can go through a simple, fast registration process so that their focus can remain on their training journey and breaking that PR.

We spoke with Andrew Messick, Chief Executive Officer of World Triathlon Corporation, i.e. IRONMAN, who said that their goal is to provide their world-class athletes with the best participant experience possible.

“We believe ACTIVE is the only technology partner sophisticated enough to do this for us on a global scale,” Messick said. “For 35 years, IRONMAN has taken pride by offering world-class events, and by continuing our relationship with ACTIVE, our athletes will have access to outstanding technology that enables a simple registration process so that the focus remains on their training journey and race day experience.”

Check out more, here!

ACTIVE World 2013 Kicks Off

Day one of ACTIVE World, our biggest and most comprehensive educational experience for our customers, is winding down. Here’s the recap: it was awesome!

ACTIVE’s CEO, Matt Landa, kicked it off by sharing his personal passion for helping our customers create great experiences, events and activities for their participants. He spoke about a commitment to developing great technology by working closely with our customers to find solutions to their everyday problems.

We then heard from business relationship guru and ex-Yahoo! exec, Tim Sanders, who shared stories on IBM’s transformation, the Starbucks customer experience and the intersection of people and technology. The energy in the room was palpable as we divided into our comprehensive learning sessions.

I sat in on a talk by City of Manhattan Beach who migrated three years ago from Class® to our cloud-based solution, ACTIVE Net™. It was a unique opportunity to hear right from the customer on their experience and how the technology has enabled them to communicate better with not only their City Council, but more importantly, their residents.

I think the most exciting part of this conference so far for me is hearing our customers exclaim, “Wow, I had no idea you guys did that!” I look forward to meeting more customers this week.

Make sure to follow all the conference buzz right here, as well as on Twitter with the hashtag #ACTIVEWORLD and @ACTIVENetwork. More to come this week as the conference rolls on, so stay tuned!

5 Reasons We’re Pumped About ACTIVE World

ACTIVE World kicks off next week and there’s an electric energy in the air here at ACTIVE as we prepare for the big show.

ACTIVE World is our biggest, most comprehensive educational experience for our customers, where we offer them the chance to LEARN from our product experts, CONNECT with other customers and discover ways to GROW their business.

We’re bringing together our best team of product experts and industry thought leaders to discuss the latest industry news and product updates in dynamic keynotes, breakout sessions, 1×1’s and more. What are we most excited about? It’s hard to choose, but here are our top five:

 

Haven’t registered yet? No sweat, click here to get in on the action.

Can’t make it? Follow all the excitement on our social channels. We’re going behind the scenes at the show, recounting unique customer stories and providing an exclusive look into our technology right here on the Always ACTIVE blog. On Twitter, jump in to the conversation using the hashtag #ACTIVEWORLD and follow us @ACTIVENetwork.

What are you most excited about? Leave a comment here or jump on Twitter and let us know!

We can’t wait to show you all that ACTIVE has to offer next week. It promises to be an amazing experience. See you there!

10 Questions You Need to Ask Around Event Management Technology

Event Trends Report 2013Did you know that organizations spend billions of dollars on meetings and events each year, yet determining the ROI of those programs is pretty darn hard?

Choosing smart event management software can not only help organizations increase efficiency and attendee engagement, but also extract the intelligence needed to grow their business.

Today, we published a buyer’s guide on the top ten questions smart companies need to ask when purchasing event management software, including:

1.  How will event tech help me do my job better?
2.  How will event tech help me prove ROI?
3.  How will event tech help me grow my business?
4.  How will event tech help me demonstrate cost savings?
5.  How will event tech make my attendees happy?
6.  How will event tech improve my relationship with attendees?
7.  How will event tech improve my relationship with exhibitors?
………

Want to learn more? Download the free report, here.