MeetingsROI
September 2008

With the possibility of showing up on YouTube only a cell phone click away, corporations become proactive in ensuring their confidential meetings remain private. Follow these tips to make sure what goes on behind closed meeting doors doesn't leave the meeting room.

ELECTRONICS BAN
At the most high-security meetings, some planners ban electronics entirely -- laptops, cameras, BlackBerries, even cell phones. To ensure attendees respect an electronics prohibition, Event Screen is a company based in Irvine, California, that provides a digital walk-through system sensitive enough to pick up even the smallest electronics.

"It's used in situations where it could be detrimental for someone to take a picture with a cell phone or record part of the meeting," says Metin Odemis, the company's vice president of business development. "It's fast and unobtrusive -- not like an airport metal detector. It doesn't show the person's body, just detects distortions in the magnetic field."

Obviously planners have to inform attendees ahead of time, as well as provide a safe place to put valuable items that attendees might have on their person.

In addition to high-profile celebrity events, Odemis says the technology has come in especially handy in the pharmaceutical, automobile, and oil industries, as well as with boards of directors for any industry.

Trade Show Executive
February 2007

Secured Entry/Event Screen, Newport
Beach, Calif., provides a digital walk-
through security system that distinguishes
banned items from ordinary items like car
keys and displays where the items are
concealed on a computer monitor. The
person being screened need not empty
pockets or disrobe for the screening to be
effective. It can also be used to protect
proprietary information by preventing
attendees from bringing cameras or
recording devices into a session.

Secured Entry has an affiliate,
EventScreen, which mounts liquid-crystal
displays at the walk-through sensors to
show video and advertising to the guests
as they're being screened. Ticket and cre-
dential scanning options can be integrat-
ed into the walk-through system, provid-
ing real-time information for crowd man-
agement. As people are scanned, their
images are captured on the screen, mak-
ing it easier for registration personnel to
create a personalized badge by the time
the person is through security.

The system has been used at the Golden
Globe Awards and the GRAMMY Awards
for several years. Last year, the company
provided services at the Volkswagen North
American Dealer Meeting, the United Jewish
Communities General Assembly and the
California Tourism Safety & Security
Conference Tech Expo.

These shows are just some of the early
adopters of new technology. Others will
come, and technology will continue its
slow and steady trek into trade shows.