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Welcome About Lehman Associates Services Presentations and Articles Our Customers Home Call Us Today 1-888-221-0081 Or Send an Email Tlehman@ansible.com		Losing the paper in a flash Association NOW, May 2006 © Tom Lehman, 2006 For years associations have moved away from passing out reams of printed session handouts at conferences, replacing them with CDs or online resources. The latest entrant is a USB flash drive, including brand names such as Jump, Pen, Thumb, and Pocket drives. The drives are either preloaded with content (the CDs are) or are used to download materials from onsite Internet kiosks. Given the direction of the industry and anticipated reductions in cost for these drives, many more associations are likely to make use of this technology in the future. Flash drives are easy for attendees to carry with them at the conference and can be readily used to capture the latest materials right there in the conference center. Another big selling point is that after its first use for conference materials, the flash drive is a tool that can be used by the attendees for other purposes. This greatly enhances its value as a branding tool and makes the flash drive a good candidate for sponsorship. TMA Resources distributed flash drives to 300 participants at its TIMSS Annual User Group (TAUG) meeting last year in Tucson . Internet kiosks were available for attendees to download materials that were constantly updated during the course of the three-day meeting. The 64 megabyte flash drive branded with the TMA Resources name and logo cost about $30 per person, comparable to theme gifts provided to attendees in previous years. TMA Resources was able to combine a needed function at the conference with a branded item that would be used and valued by attendees long after the meeting. ASAE & The Center made use of flash drives at its recent Technology Strategies and Solutions Conference in Washington , DC . In this case, conference materials were pre-loaded on the drives while other materials were available for download from the conference website. In addition, program information, attendee lists, and other conference materials were also pre-loaded on the drives. The 1 gigabyte drives cost about $80 per attendee and were sponsored by the ASAE Services, Inc. subsidiary. The substantial capacity of these flash drives ensures continued use by attendees after the meeting and the brand visibility that goes with that use. One point made by contacts in these organizations is the need to clearly communicate prior to the conference that printed handouts will not be available at the meeting. Another caution: these drives are simple to use, but may not be the best option for all audiences. A wide variety of flash drives, shapes and sizes currently range in capacity from 64 megabytes up to 4 gigabytes. They are available from most vendors of other branded conference items. Prices go down to as little as $10-12 dollars for low-capacity drives in large quantities, but for most association meetings, figure at least 20 to 30 dollars per attendee. What’s on the horizon? A new drive format called U3 enables users to run programs directly from a flash drive with all of the user’s preferences while maintaining the security of user data. This would enable associations, for example, to load applications to access special portions of a conference website or run a demonstration training module. As drive capacity grows, the range of uses of the U3 drives will expand. See www.u3.com for more information. Update July, 2007: We just purchased a 2 gigabyte, U3 enabled flash drive for $16. What a difference a year makes! Tom Lehman is president of Lehman Associates, LLC, a management consulting firm that partners with association executives to improve organizational performance through insight, strategy, and the application of information technology.

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Losing the paper in a flash

Association NOW, May 2006

For years associations have moved away from passing out reams of printed session handouts at conferences, replacing them with CDs or online resources. The latest entrant is a USB flash drive, including brand names such as Jump, Pen, Thumb, and Pocket drives. The drives are either preloaded with content (the CDs are) or are used to download materials from onsite Internet kiosks. Given the direction of the industry and anticipated reductions in cost for these drives, many more associations are likely to make use of this technology in the future.

Flash drives are easy for attendees to carry with them at the conference and can be readily used to capture the latest materials right there in the conference center. Another big selling point is that after its first use for conference materials, the flash drive is a tool that can be used by the attendees for other purposes. This greatly enhances its value as a branding tool and makes the flash drive a good candidate for sponsorship.

TMA Resources distributed flash drives to 300 participants at its TIMSS Annual User Group (TAUG) meeting last year in Tucson . Internet kiosks were available for attendees to download materials that were constantly updated during the course of the three-day meeting. The 64 megabyte flash drive branded with the TMA Resources name and logo cost about $30 per person, comparable to theme gifts provided to attendees in previous years. TMA Resources was able to combine a needed function at the conference with a branded item that would be used and valued by attendees long after the meeting.

ASAE & The Center made use of flash drives at its recent Technology Strategies and Solutions Conference in Washington , DC . In this case, conference materials were pre-loaded on the drives while other materials were available for download from the conference website. In addition, program information, attendee lists, and other conference materials were also pre-loaded on the drives. The 1 gigabyte drives cost about $80 per attendee and were sponsored by the ASAE Services, Inc. subsidiary. The substantial capacity of these flash drives ensures continued use by attendees after the meeting and the brand visibility that goes with that use.

One point made by contacts in these organizations is the need to clearly communicate prior to the conference that printed handouts will not be available at the meeting. Another caution: these drives are simple to use, but may not be the best option for all audiences.

A wide variety of flash drives, shapes and sizes currently range in capacity from 64 megabytes up to 4 gigabytes. They are available from most vendors of other branded conference items. Prices go down to as little as $10-12 dollars for low-capacity drives in large quantities, but for most association meetings, figure at least 20 to 30 dollars per attendee.

What’s on the horizon? A new drive format called U3 enables users to run programs directly from a flash drive with all of the user’s preferences while maintaining the security of user data. This would enable associations, for example, to load applications to access special portions of a conference website or run a demonstration training module. As drive capacity grows, the range of uses of the U3 drives will expand. See www.u3.com for more information.

Update July, 2007: We just purchased a 2 gigabyte, U3 enabled flash drive for $16. What a difference a year makes!

Tom Lehman is president of Lehman Associates, LLC, a management consulting firm that partners with association executives to improve organizational performance through insight, strategy, and the application of information technology.

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Losing the paper in a flash