Technology

Tuesday Buzz: And the Web Goes Wild

Associations big and small are up for a Webby Award this year, and you can vote for them, too. Also: how one event planner turned a keynote panel into a learning opportunity—and quickly.

With Art Philadelphia. Downtown Seattle. The American Institute of Architects. Hank the Singing Bottle.

These are among the many association-built sites that have won a Webby in the past few years, and now a few good trade groups are hoping to join them in bringing home a statue of their own.

This year’s nominees in the “Web: Associations” category include some high-profile picks—the Internet Association’s front page, CTIA’s “Wireless Is Limitless” campaign site, the American Society of Landscape Architects’ “Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes“—but also a couple of NYC-based entries, including the theater-focused Spotlight on Broadway and the website of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

(Be sure to check out the other honorees in the category.)

Outside of the association-dominated category, the American Institute of Architects is vying for another Webby this year as well: Its “AIA Voice of the Architect” mobile app is up for a prize in the “Mobile & Apps: Guides/Ratings/Reviews” category.

The winners haven’t been announced, but the Webbys are giving the public a say in the matter: Hop over to the Webbys homepage to vote for your favorite before April 24.

Tweet of the Day

Adrian Segar works fast. The author of Conferences That Work had one of his biggest event-planning challenges ever recently, after a keynote panel at the 2014 Sustainable Meetings Conference.

“Immediately after the presentation,” he wrote, “my task was to help over 200 participants, seated at tables of six, grapple with the ideas shared, surface the questions raised, and summarize the learning and themes for deeper discussion. Oh, and I had twenty-five minutes!

Check out what he did over this way. It involved a lot of Post-it notes and giant sheets of paper—and getting a seated audience up out of their chairs and learning a few things.

Other Great READS

A master’s course in thinking differently: Priceonomics takes a good, hard look at the AeroPress, an unusually effective invention that turned the coffee world on its head. Its inventor’s roundabout way to caffeinated success first involved building a better Frisbee. Really.

Listening is a good idea, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Plexus Consulting’s Steven Worth notes that it comes with a lot of headaches along the way.

“The leader isn’t in control any more than you are. The good ones control themselves and their actions, but no leader controls the environment around them.” So says National Fluid Power Association CEO Eric Lanke in a post deconstructing the role of control in leadership.

The standing desk is all the rage these days, but it’s not for everyone. Crew’s Mikael Cho explains why he ditched his.

(Webby Awards screenshot)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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