Wednesday Buzz: Take Your Passport Mobile

Stopping in Atlanta after a long international flight anytime soon? You might want this app.

Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released Mobile Passport, an iPhone and iPad app  (opens in a new tab) meant to expedite the passport control and customs process, allowing travelers to file their passport information and declared items using a device rather than a sheet of paper.

You still have to meet with a U.S. Customs officer on the way out, but instead of filing paperwork, you scan a QR code.

The agency hopes to decrease wait times with this and other technologies by up to 40 percent for American and Canadian travelers flying globally.

Sound appealing? Download the app over this way  (opens in a new tab).

Tradeshows as Messaging Platforms

New video! #Association  (opens in a new tab) Newsmakers with @drehr  (opens in a new tab). Up now: @NRFnews  (opens in a new tab) CEO Matthew Shay on energizing trade shows #assnchat  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/pX6vaUhLyV  (opens in a new tab)

— CEO Update (@ceoupdate) September 9, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Want to hear an association leader who just gets tradeshows? If so, be sure to watch CEO Update‘s interview with National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay, who described how his association has slowly started to integrate its tradeshows  (opens in a new tab) into the NRF’s overall strategy.

“The thought was, instead of using them only from a financial perspective and an operating perspective, let’s turn them into strategic opportunities to deliver the core advocacy message,” Shay explained to professor David Rehr of George Washington University. “And there, we built on it.”

Among NRF’s strategies: getting advocacy messages out front and inviting prominent politicians to take part in the association’s events each year.

The video is the first in the publication’s new Association Newsmaker series. (ht @TheCEOUpdate  (opens in a new tab))

Other good reads

Need some community management insight? Check out this interview Socious did with its own Katie Bapple  (opens in a new tab), a longtime online community pro.

“Think about #GivingTuesday as disaster fundraising in reverse.” Network for Good’s chief giving officer, Jamie McDonald, talks about the benefits of the December 2 event  (opens in a new tab).

If you’re thinking about taking things global, Virgil Carter of Plexus Consulting Group has some important factors to consider  (opens in a new tab). (And check our own Rob Stott’s piece this week on taking certifications to other countries.)

(U.S. Customs and Border Protection)