2010 Bridge Conference
by Alan Rich
The Bridge Conference this year is coming together swimmingly. There is a ton of education sessions in dozens of tracks to please any palate. The Solutions Showcase is nearly sold out, so there will be close to 100 vendors showing and educating you, the attendee, so please, be sure to walk through, say hello, and bring your questions.
We are a wealth of information. It is important to know that the Bridge Conference is an educational conference, your golden opportunity to learn from the best and brightest about goods and services to make your direct marketing more unique and efficient.
Make the most of your conference experience. Take advantage of the social media. There will be Twitter (@bridgeconf) and LinkedIn (Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference) feeds throughout the two days of the conference. This is your opportunity to stay in touch with the goings on and to communicate and add rich content to help, communicate, and inform others.
Network, Network, Network. There will be two networking social events in the Solutions Showcase. You are strongly encouraged to network with the exhibitors and fellow attendees while in the Solutions Showcase.
Sustainability…please do your part. In order to steward the mission of being “Environmentally Responsible,” the 2009 Bridge Conference created the Sustainability Committee. The Sustainability Committee suggests the entire Conference to be as eco-friendly as possible. We understand, that in the business community, we have to demonstrate our desire to be environmentally responsible, but not at the risk of losing substantial revenue.
Our focus for this event is to minimize impact on landfills, and therefore be mindful that wherever possible all items generated for the conference be made from recycled materials and be recyclable.
The Committee is encouraging everyone to work towards the goals above and do the best you can this year. We are realistic enough to know that this year is not the one where 100% sustainability is achieved. We do hope that with every year in the future we move that bar so eventually we have a paperless conference with nothing to take to the landfills.
To help guide you and your organization to be more environmentally responsible, here are some Goals to achieve a Sustainable Conference.
1. Think before you drink – bring a refillable BPA-free or stainless water bottle instead of relying on bottled water. If you prefer bottled water, check that it is a #1 or #2 bottle.
2. Minimize your own environmental impact – Please bring your collateral materials home with you at the end of the Conference, or recycle in the appropriate container.
3. Before you trade business cards, think about exchanging information electronically first. Consider signing up for DUB Me Now, this is a great mobile business card.
4. Consider your Carbon Footprint – be mindful of the energy you use getting to the Conference, or the energy you use in your hotel room.
5. Extraordinary effort has been undertaken to make this conference “paperless”.
Please use the resources that have been made available to obtain conference materials electronically.
If there are any questions or concerns, you can contact me anytime via email, alan@novalabel.com, or by phone, 301.386.4433. You can also follow and communicate with me on Twitter @ilabelu.
See you at the conference!
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Alan Rich is the Bridge Conference Advisory Council Chair and is President of Nova Label Co., Inc, a company that specializes in manufacturing custom printed pressure sensitive labels for industrial, food service and direct marketing industries.
Alan has been a Board Member at the Direct Marketing Association of Washington since 2006.