President's Message
by Rich Gibbons
RGibbons@SpeakInc.com

I hope and trust everyone enjoyed their summer. It’s hard to believe it’s come to a close already.

Your IASB Board met recently in Chicago to review some important initiatives, including the following key items:

Ethics - Further to our discussions at the latest conference, IASB is taking a zero-based thinking approach to revamping our Code of Ethics. Committee Chair Brian Palmer stopped by the meeting in his native Chicago to present the latest draft. The new code promises to be a much more clear, streamlined and effective document.

Technology - See Jo Cavender's update in this newsletter as some exciting developments are in the works to help our bureau members use technology more effectively. In addition, you'll see Jo and her committee continue to refine the conversation around best practices in marketing speakers on the internet.

Education - Having recently celebrated 20 years as an association, we realize there's a wealth of knowledge within IASB to be shared and used by all members. We're reviewing best ways to access and make available educational content to help both our new and experienced members grow their business and understanding of our unique industry.

Convention - The energy and enthusiasm for designing an event that combines business-focus, networking and entertainment is evident in the preliminary plans by Convention Chairs Darlene and Marcia Snow . See the update in this newsletter below for more on the convention. I look forward to seeing many of you again at this great event next year.

Best wishes for a successful fall season.

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Membership News / Please Welcome Our Newest Member

Speakers.com
Ms. Barbara Bartos
Annapolis, MD
410-897-1970
bbartos@speakers.com

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2008 CONVENTION -
PROGRAM CONFIRMATIONS

In designing our annual IASB conferences, part of our mandate is to bring members the best speakers in the industry featuring the hottest topics for discussion. With Chicago as our host city, highlighting impressive design and innovation, we've picked up on those themes to help us in our planning and programming.

We're pleased to announce our first headline speaker for 2008's IASB Annual Convention as best-selling business strategist, Daniel Pink, author of this year's influential book A Whole New Mind. Pink charts the rise of right-brain thinking in modern economies and explains the six abilities individuals and organizations must master in an outsourced and automated world. His earlier book applies to many IASB members as well; the bestseller Free Agent Nation is about the growing ranks of people who work for themselves. Our thanks go to Shayna Stillman and the Washington Speakers Bureau for helping to secure Dan Pink.

In addition, we have arranged for a fun and colorful night out in Chicago with tickets for all conference attendees to enjoy the theatrical and ever-innovative Blue Man Group.

And our event host this year is a favorite of many of our bureau members. Dale Irvin has graciously agreed to return to this year's convention and host the show.

We're excited about how the convention is shaping up and hope these scheduled speakers and entertainers help reconfirm your desire to attend next year's conference.

Watch for more convention announcements in near future as we finalize the program.

Thanks again to Darlene and Marcia Snow, our convention chairs, for their diligence in working through our convention planning.

SAVE THE DATE:
2008 IASB Convention
April 24 - 26, 2008
Renaissance Chicago Hotel
Chicago, Illinois

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IASB West Virginia Office

Surely, that got your attention.  For a number of years, the office for IASB has been in Indianapolis, Indiana and that still remains the official address.  However, on June 23, 2007, the IASB Executive Vice President, Jim Montoya moved to the hills of West Virginia.  His wife, Carole, and he have built a long home on Carole’s family farm and they are both continuing their jobs from there.

With satellite internet and two telephone lines, Carole is able to continue her work as an Instructional Designer working with nursing at Clarian Health Partners in Indianapolis and Jim continues his work for IASB from the cabin.  Jim’s Administrative Assistant, Pam Bernard, continues to provide support from the Indianapolis office.

Jim’s telephone number has remained unchanged, (317) 328-7790, as well as his email, jim@iasbweb.org.

Technology is a marvelous thing.  At least once a month Jim will be in the Indianapolis office.

Below is a photo of the “office.”

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Technology Committee Update
By Jo Cavender, Technology Committee Chair

The Technology Committee has met twice since our IASB convention with our first meeting at the NSA Convention in San Diego in July.  Our members include: Holli Catchpole, Kiela Hine, Brian Lord, Paul Schmidt, Canada Stefl and myself.  We also agreed to ask Scott Klososky to be an ex-officio member and provide expert guidance and build on the great information he presented at our annual meeting at the IASB Conference.

We established our two top priorities:
1 – Developing a central repository for speaker information
2 - Focusing on internet marketing strategies and ground rules for accepted practices

We identified that IASB member bureaus having access to a central repository of current speaker information on the IASB website, including bio, topics, fee information, etc., would be a beneficial member benefit and use of current technology designed by eSpeakers. It would provide speakers and member bureaus one location for shared information and avoid individual requests on both sides for current information.

Holli Catchpole agreed to be our liaison for this project and to report to the board for feedback and meet with eSpeakers’ representatives. More to come…

On to Internet marketing…and a lively debate it was! We are interested in establishing ground rules for accepted practices. As your Technology Committee, we all agreed we will be working within the framework that, when accessing speaker information:

1 - One bureau cutting and pasting speaker information from another bureau website, with the exception of permission being granted by the original bureau, is inappropriate.
2 – Using information directly from speakers' websites is acceptable if the bureau is representing that speaker for marketing.

Search Engine Adword campaigns were next; now the meeting gets interesting! We debated the merits of bureaus buying speaker names.  As your Technology Committee we felt that:

In order to effectively market speakers, individual bureaus should have the right to buy a speaker's name for purposes of promoting their speaking. Should the speaker expressly deny such action, however, the bureau should honor the speaker request and further decide how to continue working with the speaker. 

As bureau representatives, committee members voiced concern about restrictions in their marketing services. They look to the Internet to promote their speakers and secure new sources of revenue. By not allowing bureaus to utilize adword marketing services, speakers would be restricting the very efforts they rely on bureaus to engage in, for marketing on their behalf.

As you can see, our discussions are not boring and I’m sure we have not heard the last of this line of questioning!
We will continue to review bureau marketing strategies (direct, email, internet, etc) and make recommendations for acceptable practices as it pertains to technology.
We also plan to focus on forward thinking areas, like where our businesses are going in this world of technology and identifying tools that can be helpful to the individual member bureaus. If you have any suggestions on these topics, please contact me or one of our committee members.