A reflection on life by Christopher Chakwana

At times it just takes the death of someone really close to you, especially a friend ,a  peer for you to reflect on the seriousness of life. Often we spend a greater part of our lives chasing things that are no of any value, things that make us appear better than our friends, our siblings, our workmates, yet forgetting to reflect on the seriousness of life, you will find out that at the end of the day the things we spend a major part of our time chasing do not bring any spiritual fulfilment on our lives whatsoever, we just move about an spiritually empty lot. We make plans and even plan months and years ahead yet we forget that we are mortal beings whose days are numbered. We act like we have keys to this life, we are guaranteed that next week we will be alive yet in actual fact tomorrow is not promised us, the fact that we are alive today or tomorrow is because of God’s grace. Whilst we plan life is happening, yes because remember life is what happens when you are busy planning other things. In this makeshift called life we tend to forget to appreciate the smaller pixels that build up the bigger picture called life. You know just sitting in that funeral service of my former classmate and friend, hearing all those beautiful testimonies of his life and on how he had made a positive impact on people’s lives really got me thinking about what i have been doing with my own life. You know funerals have this way of knocking sense into people’s lives, well at list for those few days during and after the funeral. Going back to the beautiful testimonies that were said in the funeral service of this fine gentleman my friend made me question one thing, well my question is ,did all these people, me included ever bother to show appreciation for the wonderful stuff he did in our lives or when he was alive we were too busy to notice he was doing all the fabulous stuff, we just took it for granted that it was entitled to us after all he was our friend, church mate or sibling what more could he have done. Of what use is showing this appreciation now, when he is already gone and not there to see or listen to it? An occasional whatsapp message, facebook inbox or text message would have done the trick, to call and check up on him, to call and say hie ,how have you been and thank you for inspiring me in a, b, c ways. To find out how he is doing and most probably celebrate his personal achievements, most of all to be there to be his friend. Now what is left are the constant eulogies that we sing in his absence, of what he did in our lives. The death of this friend also allowed me to reflect on my life its direction or its lack off. Just hearing the beautiful things he had done for people in his church, all of which were true considering I really knew the kind of character he was, just then, sitting on that Church bench, it suddenly hit me, I am going to die one day, scary right?, well I know the whole me being locked up in the casket scares me but what I mean, as in one day my life and yours too will end. Will people celebrate my life and feel the loss of losing someone so dear to them, or will it be just be my family mourning , mainly because they have biological links with me and the mourning  will  merely be  out of a sense of duty. Will all the people I have encountered in my twenty something years of existence from my  high school days, teaching days and varsity days have something positive to say about me ,or will they just stammer and say something more abstract like “Chris was just a complicated character that was misunderstood, may his dear soul rest in peace, all will they write a long epitaph whose length fill a volume of bond paper as thick as an oxford thesasaurus .You see life should be lived with an impact, it should not just be about “me, myself and I, but it should be about me and the community, I mean after all we are Africans, the spirit of ubuntu comes in to play, “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”,I am because we are. In my view ones success amounts to nothing if that individual has not made any positive impact on people’s lives. Remember its never really about the song’s lyrics but it has to do in great part about the way the choir tunes their voices and their right emotional application in giving that melodious feel to the song, it’s never about the useless rhyme in the poem but the emotion and message that the poet conveys to the reader of the subject matter being discussed. Maybe I am confusing you, after all these are just random thoughts, anyway all am saying is that life isn't about just living and sucking all the earth’s oxygen. Life is about making change in the world, to people, doing something meaningful that leaves people’s lives better than you found them. It doesn't really take too much effort like building an Ark like Noah, or writing a great inspirational speech like Martin Luther King, or you staying in a prison for a long period and forgiving the people that incarcerated you like what Nelson Mandela did, No!!!!,it just takes you using you time and effort in making the people around you smile and feel better about themselves. It takes you speaking words of encouragement to those that need them, sparing a minute to those that are alone  that merely need to be listened to, in brief just making a positive lasting impression on people’s lives. To me living a life that has a positive impact on people is a life well lived. Above all life should be lived in close connection with the creator Jehovah God. Constantly thanking him for the little that you have, the precious life that He grants you every day, trust me it’s when you have encountered people that lead worse off lives than yours that you will see that God is at hand. I talk a lot; let me stop here lest I confuse you even much more about the images you had built in your small little minds about life. In conclusion stay strong no matter how difficult it becomes, fight on and never give up on life!

The Future for the Meetings Industry by Christopher Chakwana

  

This article explores ideas on how emerging computer and electronic technologies will influence the meeting industry in the next ten years. It assesses how innovations like architectural software, artificial intelligence, blue tooth technology; videoconferencing and social media will influence meeting event planning, revenue models and participant experience.

Technology continues to advance at an exponential rate and this is having a ripple effect to all industries in particular those in the field of events and meeting management where it has triggered research and innovation. Through the incorporation of emerging trends in technology the meeting industry has evolved over the years and continues to do so from the traditional boardroom set up to a more exciting engagement of meeting participants thus helping in the creation of better decisions as that is the prime objective of meetings.  This article serves to highlight how trends in the meeting industry will change within the next years that is in terms of evolution of live meetings setup to strategic events were venue design, destinations and participant experience and event marketing will create a conducive atmosphere for business leaders to make better decisions in industry. The reason for this change will be driven by addressing the meeting attendees needs, wants, and concerns, and connecting meeting participants physically, intellectually, and emotionally thus fostering the creation of business networks that will last beyond the meetings

Recent trends in meeting set ups are abandoning the traditional set up and becoming technologically advanced incorporating trends in the computer industry were the face to face board room set up of meetings were people physically meet are being seen as   rather costly and an inconvenient and thus replacing these with Videoconferencing, Web based meetings and chat rooms as an easy way that by passes the normal face to face meetings. Currently this is being done through the use of laptops and computers but these are slow, boring and lack reality that fosters the teamwork spirit found in real life meetings. The advent off high speed internet access coupled with continued research in the field of computer artificial intelligence will create three-dimensional technologies that will make video conferencing real thus creating that much needed atmosphere of comradeship. These new technologies will allow people to experience 3-D worlds and highly realistic renderings in cyberspace that will in turn create real time communication on almost any device like mobile phones thus abandoning the laptops and computers making meetings much more exciting and flexible. In most cases the video conferencing will mean less moneys spent by organizations on traveling expenses and this will affect those in destination marketing, as they will be a sharp decline in the use of their venues. However video conferencing will remain disadvantageous as its application is relevant when dealing with small groups of people, when applied to a large audience they tend to be slow and boring.

Innovation in architectural design is improving, incorporating new design software’s that are coming up. In the near future this will influence the meeting industry allowing venue designers the capacity maximize on venue space by the production of real life design models that simulate the actual venue set up before actual construction hence giving them flexibility in deciding on what they want for their venue in order to create that much needed atmosphere of creativity and learning associated with meetings. Event designers will also begin to tailor make venue designs for their participants that is future meetings will be designed with the participants in mind, not the products or services being offered and this will help in generating a memorable experience for them. The introduction of broadband wireless connectivity connections will also redefine meeting venues. This is so because with the introduction of such high speed internet technologies meetings will not have to be confined to specific locations thus taking the meeting venue anywhere from cruise ships to a winery abandoning the current trends were meetings are set up in buildings that have technological requirements that support the meeting setup and this will in turn lead to a stiff competition in meeting venues. Venues will be ranked and rated by meeting planners thus giving them the capacity to select the best venues for their meetings at much more affordable prizes thus giving event organizers the chance to maximize on the profits obtained through meeting participation. Venue ranking will also trigger destination innovation as venue hosts try to improve on their facilities so as to attract business. 

With the adoption of the use of social media like facebook, blogger, twitter just to mention a few in event marketing the event marketers will have the ability to market inexpensively to the targeted audience through the use of these social media. Marketing of meetings will be more creative and will not be driven simply by what we have but it will be driven in part by what the target audience expect. Instead of waiting for the actual meeting day to fill the audience in on the meeting content, event content managers will give participants a sneak preview of what they are to expect thus creating a certain level of hype about the particular meeting before it is convened. Through the use of twitter hush tags interactive blogs and other social media event participants will be given a chance to asses the content of the actual meeting presentations giving them the chance to comment and ask questions to the speakers. Event participants will also use these social media to rank events by their content and vote for their speaker of choice, event activities and other event details This will in turn create participant excitement foster participant involvement in meetings and in turn shape the crafting of better solutions during meetings. Through the use of interactive blogs event participants will get to know each other before the actual meeting thus building a fertile ground for effective business networking.

The meeting format will move away from a lecture kind of system were the event speakers simply talk to the participants to a more interactive one were meeting speakers will engage their audience thus making the whole meeting climate interesting. Like the strategy used in marketing meeting participation will begin from the time the event is marketed. Event planners will use the social media discussed above to create a community site were the event participants will engage in open dialogue about the meeting before and during the meeting. Meeting managers will adopt the use of podcasts, RSS feeds and twitter   to get the meeting participants talking as the meeting is in progress thus leading to a faster resolution of business deals. These blogs and online mobile survey will allow meeting participants’ feedback and voting during the event rather than waiting for surveys after the meeting. As meeting participants are more mobile and rather interactive the use of new blue tooth technologies that are being developed by software vendors will allow the sharing of information much more easily thus fostering social partnerships between meeting participants. Match making programs like Intro Networks (www.intronetworks.com), mobile devices and proprietary hand held products like spot me (www.spotme.com) popular in singles scene will find their way in meeting event designs allowing meeting participants of the same likes and interests to discover each other thus helping in the connection of people which will in turn increase the value of meetings by fostering that much needed “team spirit ” which makes meetings successful.

Technological advancement and innovation in the holding of meetings will greatly affect the revenue models. As technology makes marketing   easy, technologies like radio frequency identification will provide many events related applications like verifying the number of meeting attendance, catering count verification thus minimizing the costs incurred in the holding of very large meetings. Innovation in meetings will also mean event managers will strive to give participants a product that is unique and compelling and this is especially important at functions were there are registration fees. Poorly planned meetings will mean reduced attendance and subsequently less revenue and in a case were the audiences are sponsoring the event it will mean less revenue to payoff the debt incurred during the preparation of the event. In conclusion the above mentioned technological developments are just a few of the breakthroughs that will revolutionize the meeting industry and these will help in creating faster, better and cheaper means of hosting meetings within the next ten years.

 REFERENCES.

1. Patty Keller “Five meeting design principles, invitation, innovation and intellect”, Big Ideas Blog Online posting June 10 2011 http://blog.omnipress.com/2011/03/five-meeting-design-principles-inviting-innovation-and-intellect/ accessed 3March 2012

2.Bernie Mitchell “5 Ways to Break the Ice with Social Media”, Eventbrite blog online posting February 10, 2012,  http://blog.eventbrite.com/5-ways-to-break-the-ice-with-social-media accessed 3 March 2012

3.Sara Olbrantz ,  “3 Must-Have Tools for Conferences”, Big Ideas Blog Online posting February 23, 2012 http://blog.omnipress.com/2011/03/five-meeting-design-principles-inviting-innovation-and-intellect/ accessed 4 March 2012

4.Sara Olbrantz  ,“Get Attendees to Network Before Your Conference”, Big Ideas Blog Online posting February 23 ,2012 http://blog.omnipress.com/2011/03/five-meeting-design-principles-inviting-innovation-and-intellect/ accessed 4 March 2012

5.Doug  Fox , “Predictions and Trends for Meetings” Religious Conference Manager,Event web newsletter, June 1, 2001  http://meetingsnet.com/religiousconferencemanager/meetings_predictions_trends_meetings/ accessed 5 March 2012

She....

Her clothes scantily placed
cleavage out,short miniskirt lasciviously dressed
womanhood exposd
loose man's feelings aroused.

She moves about in search of her prey
lurking the dark city night in notes and coins
they must pay.
To quench their sexual appetite that hunger the ache of their loins.

Her face laden wth too much mascara,hides her age,her past her history
her love's in a cage her past just but a mystery.

The noise she makes as she paces the quiet night wth her stilleto
This darkness hides her deeds
her fear of being caught in this flagrante delicto
all her clients,loose adultrous man she has tamed
fear of the disease thrown through th window,that wife soön to become a widow,all in search of her eternal pleasure.