| |
|
| |
RIP Intel’s co-founder, Gordon Moore, a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-it-done engineer with a dreamer’s imagination. Moore may be best known for Moore’s Law. |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| April 20 | 3PM EST | Zoom |
| |
|
| Has Our Planet Taken a Post-Lockdown Beating? |
|
| |
| Before the pandemic, there was a robust movement toward making events more sustainable. Have we regressed to simply making events viable and to hell with sustainability? Four great leaders discuss the future of sustainable events. (We will plant a tree for each attendee!) |
| |
|
|
| |
|
 |
| |
| QR Codes: Customized, Sustainable, Free and on the Rise |
|
| |
|
| |
They’re not new, and in China, they were ubiquitous long before they were in the States, but the QR code is quickly replacing paper for all sorts of things: the business card, the printed brochure, display signage, the fine print on packaging, and more. One of the biggest benefits of a QR code is that you can change the content on the backend but have
the QR code remain current.
Alfred Poor, our Technical Editor, explains how to use your Chrome browser to create a simple QR for free.
Open the web page you want to create a code for in Chrome (your company website for example). On the Chrome menu bar, at the far right, click on the “Share this page” icon.  Click on the third choice on the drop-down menu: “Create QR Code”. You’ll see something like this: |
| |
|
| |
|
|
| |
| Click on the Download button to save it to your computer. Like most QR code generators, Chrome puts its brand on the image with the little T-Rex in the center of the code. Here’s a secret; though. You can erase it, create your personal black-and-white image of the same size, and add your branding to any QR code. |
| |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
| How Generative AI Will Generate Your Next Event |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
Logistics
Find a venue by giving the parameters to Bard or ChatGPT. Also, check out Hivr.ai. You can be super specific like “Find me a space in NYC that holds 500 people, can support breakout sessions and has a group event hotel rate.”
Social Media
Try Copy.AI or Writesonic for writing SEO-friendly social media to advertise your event.
Communications
You can produce speaker welcome letters, bios and headshots in a fraction of the time using Bard or ChatGPT.
Posters, Images, Art
Dall·E 2, Midjourney and StableDiffusion are great
idea generators for your event’s look and feel.
Live Booth Creation
Blender can help you visualize your physical presence.
Meetings, Meetings, Meetings
Chorus uses AI to record and transcribe your meetings, analyzing the data to identify trends such as which topics were discussed most frequently, who spoke the most, and how long the meeting lasted. Similar tools include Notion and Sembly.
|
| |
|
|
|
Dirk Zee runs the AI Academy, getting us all smarter about how to use AI. With his permission, I’ve listed his summary of the new (some not yet released) AI tools in Microsoft Office. Many of us had written off MS Office as a cumbersome dinosaur. No more. Dirk calls out the game-changing AI infusion:
|
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
AI-Enhanced PowerPoint: Instant Slides from Word Documents
Powerpoint will never die because it just keeps improving. With the AI-powered features in PowerPoint, you can generate slides just by uploading your Word document and let AI extract the key information.
Smart Data Analysis with Excel
The AI-driven features in Excel can automatically identify patterns and trends in your data, making it easier for you to derive insights and make informed decisions.
Auto-Generated Reports in Word
The new AI capabilities in Word can help you produce comprehensive reports based on your existing Office documents, such as PowerPoint presentations or Excel spreadsheets. The AI will intelligently extract relevant information, organize it logically, and even suggest insightful conclusions, all in a matter of
minutes.
AI-Powered Insights in Outlook
AI features can prioritize your emails, suggest quick responses, and even remind you of important follow-ups.
Collaborative AI with Microsoft Teams
From smart scheduling to real-time language translation, Teams’ AI integration makes global communication and teamwork a walk in the park.
CoPilot
CoPilot is Microsoft’s new AI assistant that can help you to write code, translate languages, write creative content, and also help you to get answers to your questions.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
| Early Microsoft fans might want to read Bill Gates's thoughts on AI and its importance.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
| |
| Julius Solaris is a master of lists, especially ones of hot event tech products. Here’s his latest. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
| Robin Raskin with Fred Fishkin (Fred’s are real, mine are Faux) Image credit: Kaare Christian
|
| |
| Google Glass Becomes a Footnote in History |
|
| |
| On March 23rd Google Glass was formally put out of its misery and discontinued. In 2013, I was one of the Glassholes who shelled out $1,800 for a peek at the future. It was so weird (and overpriced) that I decided to create a knock-off named Faux
Glass. Faux Glass looked like Google Glass, but didn’t function like the real thing. It actually didn’t function at all, other than to light up when you tapped it. It cost $19.95. It was designed for Glasshole wannabes on a budget, with a serious dose of sarcasm. Engineering, manufacturing and promoting a product, even a stupid one like this, was a totally humbling experience. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
Free Blue Jeans
Late to the party, and trailing far behind Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, and other video conferencing systems, Verizon’s BlueJeans just entered the “free” foray with its new BlueJeans Basic. The offering includes no time limits and accommodates one-on-one or groups of up to 25 people. Verizon has its massive wireless infrastructure supporting it, but needs to integrate with calendaring and scheduling programs if it has any hopes for wide adoption.
Tax Time Tip: Clean Up Your Subscriptions
Whether you’re the CFO of your company or your home, tax time is a good time to purge unwanted subscriptions. (I ditched an unused VR exercise class, an underwear club, and a handful of niche publications that I’d forgotten about.)
Those pesky auto-renewing subscriptions reminded me that years ago I predicted that information would be expensive, eventually costing more than hardware. We’re getting there. One downside of subscriptions is that we lack access to news that could make us smarter. If you’re a subscriber to 5 or 6 major news sources, you’re already spending a pretty penny to keep
informed. Micropayments ― the ability to pay for individual stories instead of signing up for a full year ― just haven’t happened and it’s making us dumber. (I wrote about the need for micropayments a few months ago.)
Adobe Firefly Takes on AI with Panache
Don’t get too excited because there’s a line for the beta (there seems to be a line for every beta), but Adobe is slowly introducing Firefly, its answer to Dall·E 2, Stable Diffusion and MidJourney.
Much more ad and marketing oriented, it’ll include custom textures, video editing, and variations on photos.
|
| |
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
| NAB Show Meets the Creator Economy |
| April 15-17 | Las Vegas |
| |
NAB explores the world of Web3 with a series of podcasts by VEG member Lori Schwartz. VEG will also be producing a slice of the NAB Show devoted to the Creator Economy. Let us know if you’ll be attending and want to be involved.
Contact Gigi@virtualeventsgroup.org. |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
| An AI Fest |
| May 18 | 3PM EDT | ZOOM |
| |
Ben Parr, An AI Founder and analyst will share his takeaways on how AI can be used to create better meetings and communications. Evo Heyning, author of Promptcraft, will show us her secret sauce for creating great prompts.
RSVP NOW |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
Missed our Creator Session? Here’s the video.
Also be sure to check out Engagez’s new EZ Live, a permanent home for your meetings.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
| Sign up for our newsletter |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
