Show 301 Meetings Podcast Food Allergies, Google+, Facebook and Twitter Marketing
On todays show our segments are:
1) Tracy Stuckrath, CSEP, CMM, CHC from Thrive! Meetings & Events
10 things event professionals need to know about food allergies.
In 1998, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, now FARE, created Food Allergy Awareness Week to educate the public about food allergies, a potentially life-threatening medical condition. Nearly two decades later, FARE is expanding this year’s Food Allergy Awareness Week by declaring the entire month of May as Food Allergy Action Month. This is a special opportunity to shine a spotlight on food allergies and anaphylaxis. There are many easy ways you can get involved in raising awareness, educating others and inspiring action.
2) Jessica Levin, Chief Connector at Seven Degrees Communications and Jordan Schwartz, CEO at Pathable Event Apps, take a wonky look at social media and events, including the impending demise of Google+, Facebook changing newsfeed algorithms (and what it means for your hopes of having your event promotions “go viral”) and some new marketing products Twitter has introduced to help businesses promote themselves in their industry.
Transcripts
Mike: Hello and welcome to this episode of the Meetings Podcast. My name is Mike McAllen and this is the Podcast for Meetings and Event Organizers who want to produce engaging programs for their attendees. Plus we want to empower organizers with new tips and resources to take their careers to the next level. You can find links and transcripts on the Meetings Podcast Blog.
So, today I just got back from Las Vegas had a great time visit with all sorts of people I am going to do a podcast about my whole adventure down there with the tech cocktail week which was actually a mini conference with I think there were 12 invited guests that were invited down there and they were entrepreneurs, they were investors, there was someone from hot spot and somebody came down from Canada who is an investor and a lot of different people with apps, interesting apps, a very mishmash of people and I will tell you all about that. It was really interesting, we had dinner at Tony Hsieh’s apartment which was amazing, Tony and Fred they are the ones who are starting the downtown project in Las Vegas which I will tell you more about and of course we took a tour visit Zappos and Tony Hsieh is from Zappos and if you haven’t read his book “Delivering Happiness” you should check it out. It is a pretty cool book and I think he spoke recently or a couple of years ago at PCMA I think or it might have been MPI.
Today’s show we have a great show, this week is food allergy awareness week and so we have of course Tracey Stuckrath who is from Thrive Meetings and Events, Tracey has been on the show before and in 1998 the food allergy-anaphylaxis network now FARE created the food allergies awareness week to educate the public about food allergies, a potentially life threatening condition.
Nearly 2 decades later, FARE is expanding, this year’s food allergy awareness week by declaring the entire month of May as food allergy action month. This is a special opportunity to shine the spotlight on food allergies and anaphylaxis and anaphylaxis is kind of a shock you go into when you take something that has food allergy. When I was a fireman I remember running onto a couple of people who were going into anaphylactic shock and that was from bee stings.
So there is a lot of ways that you can get involved in raising awareness educating others and inspiring action and so what we are doing as we are having Tracey on because that is what Tracey does she is going to be talking about 10 things event professionals need to know about food allergies, that is up first.
Second we are going to have our old friends, they aren’t old but they are friends that we have had for a long time, Jordan Swartz talking tech and social media with Jessica Levin. Jessica as you know my co-founder and co-conspirator for event camp is the Chief Connector at Seven Degrees Communications and Jordan Swartz is the CEO at Pathable Event Apps, Jordan has been on the show many times too. They are going to take a one key look at social media and events including the impending demise of Google + , Facebook changing Newsfeed algorithms and what it means for your hopes of having your event promotions go viral and some new marketing products Twitter has introduced to help businesses promote themselves in their industry.
So let’s get right into it, let’s get right into Tracey and let’s talk a little bit about food which is always my favorite things to talk about so I will see you after the segment.
Tracey: Thanks Mike, hi everyone! My name is Tracey Stuckrath with Thrive Meeting and Events, here for the Meetings Podcast. In honor of Food Allergies Awareness Week 2014 which is May 11th to 18th, I thought I would share 10 things event professionals need to know about food allergies.
As meeting planners, caterers, hoteliers, we are getting more and more requests from our attendees that they can’t eat this, they can’t eat that, they are on this diet, they are on that diet, I am allergic to this, I am allergic to that. It can be a bit confusing and daunting on how to accommodate all of these needs in one meal. How do you do it? But when it comes to food allergies, we need to be very cognizant and aware of what is being served, created and delivered to our attendees because food allergies can be fatal.
Let’s get started, fact number one; globally researchers estimate that 220-215 Million people may suffer from a food allergy. Narrowing it down, in the US nearly 15 million people have food allergy and in Europe 17 million people are affected with food allergy. Narrowing it a little bit further here in the US, of those 15 million people with food allergy, 9 million of them are adults and 6 million of them are children.
Fact number 2, a study released by the CDC in 2013 notes that the prevalence of food allergies in children has increased or did increase nearly 50% between 1997 and 2011. That is a lot of kids that are getting food allergies! You may be wondering whether food allergies are lifelong and why they are happening, some food allergies can be outgrown, some you grow into, but peanut, tree nut, fish and shell fish are usually lifelong allergies. Milk and egg allergies are usually outgrown by someone aged 7 or 8 but researchers are finding that a lot of kids aren’t outgrowing it until they are at least 16 and some of them still keep it lifelong.
Fact number 3, this is pretty scary, every 3 minutes a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room. Annually this results in approximately 200,000 emergency room visits and 200 deaths.
As an event professional, what are your standard operating procedures in case somebody has a food allergy reaction at your event? Do you know how to get to the EMT make sure that you know steps to take to make sure that person is safe?
Fact number 4, the economic cost of childhood food allergy in the US is nearly $25 Billion a year that is from parents being away from the workplace to take their kids to the allergists, that is purchasing food that their child can actually eat versus buying processed food that contain allergens in them. But think about it too on that number where I said there are 9 million adults versus 6 million children, I think that number is quite a bit higher for $25 Billion a year on managing food allergies.
Fact number 5, research suggest that close to 50% of all fatal food allergies are triggered from food consumed outside of the home. That includes conferences, employee picnics, corporate dinners, visits to grandma’s house, visits to neighbor’s house, but it also equates to the fact that individuals of food allergies are eating food that is being prepared by someone other than themselves or a care giver and that is where the risky part comes in.
Fact number 6, although there are more than 120 foods known to cause food allergy reactions, there are 8 foods that account for 90% of all allergic reactions and that is worldwide. Those 8 foods are eggs, milk, wheat, soy, shellfish, fish, tree nuts and peanuts. Again those top 8 allergens are eggs, milk, wheat, soy, shellfish, fish, tree nuts and peanuts. Those 8 foods cause 90% of all allergic reactions. In the US those top 8 allergens must be identified on all package foods if that food contains one of those 8 allergens. And in Europe, they add a few extra allergens to their list that need to be noted, those are glutton; which is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley, celery, mustard, sesame, lupine which is lagoon similar to peanut and Sulphur dioxide. Canada it is health Canada includes identification of mustard, sesame and sulphites to its major list of allergens. And again these are the most prevalent foods that cause allergic reactions in individuals around the world.
Fact number 7, there is absolutely no medicinal cure for food allergy, the only way to prevent a reaction is 100% strict avoidance of the allergen and that even means chromes and that even means the oil from the peanuts that left on a chair of an aero plane. That actually means smelling of the protein of shrimp when it is being sorted in your action station buffet at your event.
Fact number 8, food allergy is not the same as food intolerance, glutton sensitivity or celiac disease, food allergies are an immune system response to a typically harmless food protein that when ingested, touched or inhaled that individual’s body deems it a threat and triggers a reaction. Symptoms can be mild, from rash, itching, hives, swelling to severe which is including wheezing, loss of consciousness, trouble breathing and anaphylactic which is a potentially fatal reaction that happens very quickly. The only way to preclude or help stay off that food allergy reaction is the administering of Epinephrine which can be done through an Epiphen or an aveque which is a different method of administering Epinephrine. You need to understand if your food allergic guests carry those with them in case of an emergency. Food intolerances and gluten sensitivity affects the digestive tract and do not typically manifest life threatening reactions.
Celiac disease which I said is also different from the food allergy is actually an auto immune disease affecting the small intestine and the digestive tract and it is caused by an abnormal reaction to gluten which I mentioned a minute ago, it is a protein that is found in wheat, rye and barley and celiac it can cause three of these complications including malnourishment and intestinal damage.
So clarifying a little bit, a food allergy is where the body actually attacks the protein that comes into contact with that individual’s body whereas celiac disease it actually attacks the body itself and makes it sick instead of attacking the protein and causing reactions.
Fact number 9, eating away from home significantly increases the risk for individuals with food allergies. That is going back to my fact number 5 where I said research suggests that 50% of all fatal allergic fatal food allergies are triggered from food away from the home. I just want to bring that back to point. Eating away from home significantly increases the risk for individuals with food allergies.
As an event planner with food allergies, we are relying on other individuals to make our food and that is how they prepared in the back of the house, to how they serve it, are there cramps on that plate? Is the vertical buffet or the buffet, are you putting the flower tortes and the corn tortes in the same container that provides cross contact and can actually cause somebody to have a reaction? Did you put those tongs from the salad with cheese on in the salad bowl that has no cheese in it? That can actually cause a reaction.
So these are the things that food allergic people when they are eating away from home need to really pay attention to because their risks are highly increased by those individuals making their food and or you and I sitting next to them and eating the same food.
Fact number 10, food allergies adversely affect the quality of an individual’s life; detriments can range from internal stress and anxiety ‘ooh my God how is that person making that food!’ to bullying at school and at work and feelings of exclusion at food functions.
So on that last one; exclusion at food functions, think about it, if you went to your annual conference and you told somebody that you had an allergy to wheat and an allergy to eggs and you’ve got to go to breakfast and the only thing on the buffet are eggs, sandwich, Glutens, that is the only thing that you are offered. That is an exclusion of that individual at that food function, what are they to eat? So they are going, going back to the amount of money that we spent they now have to go somewhere else to buy something to eat or they have brought it with them but they have spent additional money over and above what they spent to attend the conference to eat.
That is a lot of different facts, that is a lot of information, but what can we as meeting professionals do to help our attendees with food allergies? We need to become an advocate for our guests with food allergies and the ways that we can do that is we can improve our registration system so that we understand their needs a little bit clearer, we can label our allergens on our buffets and in our menus to decrease attendee anxiety, be transparent, have your chef and your caterer be transparent about the food that they are serving. Fresh food is much cleaner and safer and the ingredients are easier to take in and out if you understand what they are. Communicate with your chef and your banquet captain so you and all of the servers understand what ingredients are present in the food being served and how to provide options if necessary. And don’t forget to gather information, allergy information or dietary restrictions information from your exhibitors, your speakers, your sponsors and other people including that you are serving in your meal functions. Those individuals are responsible for helping you execute your events and heaven forbid they are fed a food that they are allergic to and they have to go to the hospital.
Again my name is Tracey Stuckrath I am with Thrive Meetings and Events and May 11th -18th is food allergy awareness week. This is one of my first information pieces on food allergy awareness and if you would like some more information you can check my website out at www.thrivemeetings.com each day this week I will be posting information about food allergies one of them is a recap of what I have just talked about and then talking about specific different allergens and how we can advocate and some FAQs.
Thanks Mike and Jon I appreciate being part of Meetings Podcast and I look forward to hearing from you again.
Jordan: Hallo, I am here with Jessica Levin, President and Chief Connector of Seven Degree Communications and I am Jordan Swartz, President of Pathable and we are going to talk today about some new happenings in social media marketing.
Jessica: That is correct; it has been a long time since we last had this conversation.
Jordan: Yeah and if ever there is any area that changes quickly it is social media. So one of the biggest things that we have seen recently is the creaking of Google +.
Jessica: Yeah.
Jordan: So, do you want to talk about that a little bit or would you want me to jump in?
Jessica: Yeah I can talk about it a little bit you know it is that social network that nobody ever really need it, Google had to be in the social networking game I think.
Jordan: Google needed it, that is who needed it.
Jessica: Google needed it yeah and you know I think we have all been dabbling in it and there are people who swear by people who have amazing results and now we see I mean just recently in the news this week or last week that there are three developers leaving and all of the internet speculation is that Google + is going to self destruct.
Jordan: Yeah I mean we have been through this before, right? There was Google wave, there was Google Buzz, all these attempts at getting the activity that Facebook is enjoying and all those eyeballs that they can monetize and it is just hard because people are using Facebook and so you need something that is better in some way to unseat it and nothing they have come up with is really better in anyway.
Jessica: That is interesting I think part of the problem is that we try to compare it to Facebook and use it the same way as facebook and it isn’t, and it is also not twitter it is something in between and something also very different and I mean sadly it has been much more successful than Wave or Buzz ever were. That said you know I still don’t know we need it.
Jordan: Yeah I mean and in terms of its success the numbers that Google has been putting out about their use is like half a billion active users and it just to me that isn’t past the sniff test, I mean facebook claims I think accurately just over a billion users, linked in claims ¼ of a billion so 250M and twitter claims around the same I think it is 200M and so for Google + to say that they have twice as many users as linked in I just, I don’t…I know lots of people who use Linked In I don’t know anyone that uses Google + except social media marketers.
Jessica: Well, yeah but that isn’t necessarily accurate because what they have done is they have forced so many people to create accounts, you aren’t able to write a review on Google without having an account. Your You Tube is tied to Google + so they have forced people who never, ever would have thought about Google + before to open accounts rather than saying I would opt in I really want to be part of the service, they have forced them to be part of it because they are using other Google products.
Jordan: Right, so that is how I think they get to that number because that really represents what they say which is people are using Google + or is it people who have a Google + account in order to use You Tube, in order to use one of the other services. You are right that is where it is coming from and it is ingenuous.
Jessica: Well it is absolutely ingenuous even like Google Talk which a lot of people use G Chat, well G Chat is gone, G Chat is now a Google Hangout. So yeah I mean people are using it and maybe that is okay, if we are looking at Google + in different product and when I think about Google + I think about it as ooh yeah it is that face bookie like, twitter like product but when you really look at it really is Google Hangouts which is now their chat functionality that people do use even if they are never doing a video type of conference like we are doing.
Jordan: Right, yeah so I think we are seeing the end of that with I think Vic Dutra was the head of Google + he just announced last week that he is leaving the company and notably his Chief Lieutenant there wasn’t appointed to replace him it was another engineer from his team but that is being taken as a signal that there is a course change that Google is going to give up on trying to push Google + as this independent service that is going to rival facebook and will relax it into something else. Another driver for use of Google + as a social media marketer was the hint that it was an influence on SEO. So there were a lot of people who were saying that if you had a lot of Google + activity on your business page that that would be reflected in your search results that you would be more likely to show up in search results when people look for you.
Jessica: I think it is more than a hint I mean it works, it is quite accurate that if you post something on Google + it will show up higher than the need of sight I mean that is a fact whether or not it is fair or right or what people actually want, it is a different story.
Jordan: That is interesting I didn’t know that I had seen something recently from Matt Cutts who runs the Google search theme who said that social signals like Google + weren’t being used as an influence on SEO results. Now it might be that the Google + post is getting better listing than the native page but at least what Google is claiming is that that won’t flow through to the native page itself. So if you are trying to boost your business’s listing, it doesn’t help to have a Google + page connected to it that has a lot of activity.
Jessica: Right but on the flip side if you want a particular post or something to be found it is going to be found better at Google + so it is definitely applying into the SEO whether they admit it or not or how they spin it, right?
Jordan: Right, so that will be interesting to see if that continues to be the case or whether to lean of it I mean I think from consumers point of view it isn’t desirable, if I am searching for something I want the most relevant, useful results and I think the Google search team is charged with delivering those and if they are delivering something that isn’t that, that is only that getting top results because it is serves another business unit within Google there is going to be a conflict there between the teams. And if this change that we are seeing in Google + reflects the importance of Google + within Google then I think we are going to know who is going to win that conflict at the end.
Jessica: It is almost like that Google has its own democratic process and you leave it up to the people for those people being the independent states within the Google organization.
Jordan: Right, so I worked at Microsoft for 10 years before starting Pathable and the internal politics of these companies are very much like external politics, each business unit has its champions and people who are seeking to promote their own personal goal or their business unit’s goals and their own personal goals not necessarily always aligned with the company’s goals. So it will be interesting to see how that plays out. Another big change that we are seeing in social media marketing is the decline of organic business page results in Facebook. So if you are trying to promote your business, your event through a facebook page, in the past it was very successful to, you get a page and then you post to it, you get people to like it and those posts that you post will show up in their newsfeeds and you get this viral buzz going. But over the last few months we have started seeing a steady decline in those organic results actually showing up in people’s newsfeeds, they have changed the algorithm.
Jessica: It is incredibly frustrating, mostly people say okay facebook you know it is a free tool and you can expect things from it but myself and on behalf of my clients, we have invested a lot of money in paid advertising through facebook to drive people to like our page. Totally legit saying you know we think you would be interested in this, okay you go ahead and like it. Now we want to engage with you and it is like ooh wait, there is another door, you have to pay this second tool to be able to be seen and it is kind of shady, it is very frustrating and it has changed my perception of facebook as a company because of it.
Jordan: Right, I mean they are a publicly traded profit driven company and so it is understandable. The reason that they are giving is so they are saying that they have a goal of promoting engagements from users, they want people logging on more, posting more status updates and things like that and they said that they had run some internal tests where the presence of business updates in people’s newsfeeds was decreasing the frequency with which people posted updates and seeing updates from their friends was increasing it. So I see my friend’s post I am more likely to post myself and engage with them, I see business posts I kind of signoff facebook and go do something else. Facebook says well we recognize this so we want to make you happy, we have decided to start filtering out business results unless you pay us.
Jessica: So I don’t know if it is for the greater good in anyway and if we had never paid to begin with, but because we did invest I mean look at this investment you want to be seen people said yes I want to see this and then they said well your posts aren’t engaging, well how could they be engaging? Nobody ever sees them. So it is really you know facebook has to figure it out obviously it is the way they make money but they have certainly pissed off people who have their customers essentially, people paid a lot of money and they aren’t a lot of money in some cases but certainly valuable dollars to those companies and then nothing happens I am actually starting to take some of those dollars and allocating more towards Linked In and some of these other platforms that are rolling out these advertising programs just to test the waters to see if it is a better investment for me and I am not sure at this point.
Jordan: Yeah we are still experimenting as well and we do facebook ads, we do Google ads, we do Linked In ads, we do twitter ads, we have actually been having some nice success recently with a new type of ad that twitter is offering that is called the twitter card and essentially twitter will collect the lead for you instead of just sending the user to your site as a click through. And so it is valuable to us because previously if someone clicked through to our site we would have to pay for that click through but they might look around the site and then leave and we wouldn’t get their contact information it was of questionable value. This, if we don’t get the contact information we don’t have to pay for it and that is nice I mean it is safe, it is more expensive of course.
Jessica: Is it working? Are you getting leads?
Jordan: Yes, absolutely so I employed it and maybe somebody who is watching us today will come through one of our services in which case we will be reaching out through that.
Jessica: That will be great.
Jordan: Well this has been great, thank you Jessica, anything you want to add?
Jessica: I just want to say thank you for the conversation and if anybody watching is interested in getting some consulting on social media marketing, or would be interested in having me speak at their conference I am @JessicaLevin on twitter or you can visit my website at www.sevendegreescommunications.com.
Jordan: Yes and I have heard Jessica speak it is well worth the time and if you are interested in online experience for your event including websites online agenda, Mobile App. etcetera that can not only deliver great experience for your attendees but also deliver online community, the Pathable.com, is the place to go, thanks again Jessica.
Mike: Okay, well that was great, really enjoyed both of those segments I want to thank first off Tracey Stuckrath, she is the President and Chief Connecting Officer for Thrive Meetings and Events. I enjoyed learning a little bit about allergies and I am glad we could give you something for Food Allergy Awareness Week and actually month which I found out reading on the inter webs.
I also want to thank Jordan Swartz for taking the time to talk with Jessica Levin about all the things that are going on with facebook, Google + and twitter. Jordan of course is CEO, President at Pathable Event Apps and go check out they have some great products, I have been using them for years now. And then of course Jessica Levin she is the Chief Connector at Seven Degrees Communication, she is great to have speak at your event or give you some social media marketing help, she does some consulting there so give her a call, you can check her at Seven Degrees Communications and of course for Jordan- Pathable.
So I want also to thank our sponsors the imex group if you are headed up to Frankfurt it looks like it is going to be a great show I just have been packing up the last of their podcast that I produced for them for the Frankfurt show, it was difficult for me to have to learn German for them but I am willing to do anything for my clients and so I did and that is a complete lie I didn’t do that, I wanted to thank AV for Planners, my startup company that I have with my good friend Jon Trask, it is surely coming along nicely we have been doing a lot of evaluations, get on over there, check it out it is a lot of free RFP you know get your dashboard and archive all your shows we can do that for free which is great. If you want to do an evaluation we will put them side by side and give you a nice one page evaluation of all the different AV companies in Labor so you can negotiate like crazy and really just find the best company to give you the best value and you can concentrate on your meeting without worrying about the AV.
So I hope you enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the iTunes or listen to it on Stitcher or Swell there is sort of on demands now that you can listen to then if you want to take a picture of yourself right this moment and mark it as meetings podcast, put it up on Instagram I will love you for that and thank you very much.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to meetingspodcast@gmail.com that comes straight to me, you can also call me anytime 925-699-3190 I have had a couple of people do that which has been kind of funny to chat with some listeners that I hadn’t met before, I am happy to talk to you, I will be down in the South San Jose area for the rest of the week so if you are in that area please give me a call we will get a cup of coffee or something to eat or something like that, I would love to talk to you.
So that is it, have a great day, look forward to the next show we are going to talk a little bit about this cocktail downtown project Las Vegas downtown project, it was a really fun time I want to encourage people to head down there and that is it, so see you next time.
