Expert insights. Personalized for you.
At a recent conference consultation with a client, a millennial made me think that I wasn’t keeping up with the times. We were discussing their marketing and communication strategies for their event. I reiterated that their conference needed a home base to optimize. MORE
These mental models are deeply embedded in our conference planning and management practices. Savvy conference organizers realize that their mental models have much more influence over their outcomes than their decisions and actions. Surfacing our cognitive conference constructs. MORE
Here are nine mythodologies about conferences. At least half the sessions programmed at traditional conferences are not what attendees want. Mythodology: Event socials are a good way to meet people. Reality : People tend to stay with people they already know at event socials. Participant-driven and participation-rich events provide far more opportunities to meet people you actually want to meet. Reality : Sadly, conference curators don’t exist. MORE
I have been struck by the disparity in how an association’s organizational culture translates (or doesn’t translate) to the on-site implementation or planning of its live events. But when it gets to “go time,” does that culture manifest at your conferences and meetings? MORE
It is much more effective to provide opportunities for conference participants to solve their own problems, then telling them how to solve it. Conference organizers automatically assume that if someone is attending their event, they expect the conference to help them solve their problems. MORE
Too often conference and meeting professionals assume that their role is best suited to planning and executing the conference. I get that from the education section or the conference technical teams.”. They own designing the conference customers experience journey. MORE
The events industry has been behind some of the most innovative tech conferences in the past decade. Opening the doors for new business prospects, these conferences are places where the top professionals meet and showcase their innovative concepts and bold theories for the future. MORE
Your association, annual conference, and governance are all institutions. One of the sacred cows for associations and their annual conference is attributing notoriety to the office of the president, board chair or annual conference committee chair. MORE
Once you’ve observed the conference through the lens of your target customer and gained insights from conference data, you can move to the next steps. These steps are critical for you and your conference planning teams to embrace, enlist and employ. MORE
Applying a story arc to the conference can activate participants’ brains. And you want stimulated, motivated engaged brains during your event for sure! Here’s where the story arc concept gets really cool for your event. MORE
When you’re in the events industry, you should know the main event management conferences for 2019 so you can visit them to improve your knowledge and share your own experiences of working long hours while trying to pull off amazing corporate events for your clients. MORE
A Momentous Catalyst To Conference Attendee Behavior Change. I am often asked how to get conference attendees to adopt 21 st Century learning habits. The majority of conferences treat attendees as consumers of information. Conference Planning Registrants Relabel MORE
It’s as if Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore’s Experience Economy is just now hitting its stride—for conferences at least. The word is out: we’ve got to create conference experiences, not just conferences that feel like a patchwork quilt of our great grandmother’s dresses. MORE
Your real conference competition is not that event held six months after yours. Today’s technology driven, hyper-connected, instant gratification, real-time world puts you as a conference organizer in a difficult position. Have you normalized conference mediocrity as acceptable? MORE
Conference organizers and their planning teams should understand, identify and quash organizational debt. Refactoring As A Metaphor For Conference Improvement. Thus we refactor to improve the conference experience for our customers. Consider it as your conference source code. MORE
Are 50%-80% of your conference attendees in your programming at any given time? One thing is certain, if your conference attendees are not fully engaged in the experience you provide, there is little, if any, chance that they will leave your event with any real ROI. MORE
To paraphrase Hoffer, you can never get enough of conference fads, gimmicks and trends. Unless your a conference participant and we often have had enough!). They also want access to your conference budget. You can never get enough of what you really don’t need says Eric Hoffer. MORE
Everything we take for granted about conferences, and planning them, faces disruption. Participants from all generations and cultures increasingly expect conferences to mirror their work and personal lives. Savvy conference organizers meet these disruptions head-on. MORE
In physics, the second law of thermodynamics says all things—bodies, businesses, conferences, energy, organizations, relationships—move toward chaos and disorder. As your conference matures, it experiences entropy. As a conference professional, you know this to be true. MORE
Do your conference learning opportunities—from the general session to networking to breakouts to deep dive workshops—empower registrants to participate in their own learning journey? Or do your conference education sessions motivate participants to see the finish line? MORE
I spoke at IBTM in Barcelona ( you can read the “review” here ) at the end of November on one of my favourite topics, Meeting Design or fresh formats for conferences. Think of the future when you create an event today, take baby steps towards that future! MORE
As conference organizers, why can’t we also have a fun, fulfilling, and collaborative experience planning and designing the conference? Here are six ways to focus on designing your team’s experience during your next conference planning process. MORE
Many conferences are stuck in the rut of legacy routines, age-old rituals and cloned programming. Conference organizers and its advisors replicate the past maintaining the traditions and well-established procedures of yesteryear. Conference Reform Requires These Leadership Traits. MORE
As you embark on a new vision of conference renovation and reform, you may feel that you are crossing from a comfortable, familiar space to one that is unknown and unsettling. Conference Improvement As Your Threshold To New Growth. What’s your favorite room in your home? MORE
The first peer conference I convened and designed was held June 3 – 5, 1992 at Marlboro College, Vermont. So, as of today, the community of practice that eventually became edACCESS has enjoyed 27 years of peer conferences. Twenty-three people came to the inaugural conference. MORE
Who wants to attend a common, ordinary, ho-hum, everyday , I’m-just-like-all-the-others traditional conference? Your conference growth and revenue depends upon repeat paying attendees year after year. Customer loyalty is the cornerstone for your event’s success. MORE
The North Star is the perfect metaphor for your annual conference purpose. When your conference purpose serves as a North Star, it guides all decisions, tasks, behaviors and strategy. Uncovering Your North Star Conviction To Find Conference True Target Market. MORE
Why not make your entire conference a braindate? One of Skift’s “ 10 event trends for 2020 ” is networking. The report predicts: “Activities such as braindates that deliver more meaningful connections will become mainstream at events.” MORE
Unfortunately, too few event organizers fully embrace the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing. Likewise, many conference professionals have no idea what embracing the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing even means. A Poverty Of Conference Content Marketing Success. MORE
A recent Wired article argues that “ Science Conferences Are Stuck in the Dark Ages “ Unsurprisingly, I agree — but there’s some light in the darkness! Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Are science conferences stuck in the Dark Ages? MORE
Here’s my article “ Five Reasons to Change Conferences “ , published in the December 2018, NSA Speaker magazine. But our conference programs still focus on lectures, where a few experts broadcast their knowledge to passive listeners. MORE
It’s hard for conference organizers to stick to planning the essential elements of their events. Various departments and committees see the event’s gathering of people as an opportunity for them to showcase their programs, services and agendas. MORE
Help your event shine with this useful planning checklist for conferences and corporate events. The post Your Essential Conference and Corporate Event Planning Checklist appeared first on Eventbrite US Blog. MORE
And just as important, how and what do we think about our conferences and events? How do we understand our conference planning processes, its underlying assumptions, and our customers, partners, exhibitors, and stakeholders? Your Conference Mental Models Control You. MORE
Does your event have a clear and inspiring purpose? (If Now imagine someone asking your conference participants that question. Your Conference Purpose. So what’s your conference purpose? Your conference purpose is about building sustainable conference value. MORE
Most conference and meeting professionals want the coolest, hippest, latest ideas and trends for their events. We want to know what unique things other conferences are doing so we can borrow their ideas. We expend resources searching for the mysterious conference trend panacea. MORE
Here’s what has changed: I’m convinced that “something for everyone” programming — including basic content for the novice or intermediate practitioner — is no longer the right strategy for positioning your conference as a can’t-miss experience. How Conference Sessions Can Deliver on Wisdom. MORE
The unique story of any conference should begin with the goal and then a detailed plan on how to reach this goal. If you understand your target audience, it’s not a challenge to build such a conference vision. What is a corporate conference planning checklist? After a conference. MORE
If there’s something strange in your conference-hood. And your event don’t look good. Our cognitive frameworks—our mental models and paradigms—shape our thinking, behavior, operations and success of our conferences. Today’s winning conference program is part of yesterday. MORE
The Association for Software Testing (AST) has just issued a free guide to creating peer conferences. I believe the software testing community adopted my term “peer conference” for their get-togethers after a conversation I had with pioneer software tester James Bach in 2004. MORE
Who owns the overall experience that customers have at your conference? Who oversees and manages the conference customers’ journey? Or perhaps no one is considering the holistic experience of your conference customer? Do you know what your conference target market customer wants? MORE
Velvet Chainsaw
JUNE 17, 2019
I have been struck by the disparity in how an association’s organizational culture translates (or doesn’t translate) to the on-site implementation or planning of its live events. But when it gets to “go time,” does that culture manifest at your conferences and meetings?
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 21, 2019
In physics, the second law of thermodynamics says all things—bodies, businesses, conferences, energy, organizations, relationships—move toward chaos and disorder. As your conference matures, it experiences entropy. As a conference professional, you know this to be true.
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Velvet Chainsaw
JULY 27, 2018
Who wants to attend a common, ordinary, ho-hum, everyday , I’m-just-like-all-the-others traditional conference? Your conference growth and revenue depends upon repeat paying attendees year after year. Customer loyalty is the cornerstone for your event’s success.
Conferences that Work
JANUARY 20, 2020
The Association for Software Testing (AST) has just issued a free guide to creating peer conferences. I believe the software testing community adopted my term “peer conference” for their get-togethers after a conversation I had with pioneer software tester James Bach in 2004.
Velvet Chainsaw
SEPTEMBER 18, 2018
To paraphrase Hoffer, you can never get enough of conference fads, gimmicks and trends. Unless your a conference participant and we often have had enough!). They also want access to your conference budget. You can never get enough of what you really don’t need says Eric Hoffer.
Velvet Chainsaw
JUNE 21, 2018
The North Star is the perfect metaphor for your annual conference purpose. When your conference purpose serves as a North Star, it guides all decisions, tasks, behaviors and strategy. Uncovering Your North Star Conviction To Find Conference True Target Market.
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Velvet Chainsaw
NOVEMBER 8, 2018
Applying a story arc to the conference can activate participants’ brains. And you want stimulated, motivated engaged brains during your event for sure! Here’s where the story arc concept gets really cool for your event.
Conferences that Work
DECEMBER 24, 2018
Here’s my article “ Five Reasons to Change Conferences “ , published in the December 2018, NSA Speaker magazine. But our conference programs still focus on lectures, where a few experts broadcast their knowledge to passive listeners.
Velvet Chainsaw
SEPTEMBER 17, 2018
Most conference and meeting professionals want the coolest, hippest, latest ideas and trends for their events. We want to know what unique things other conferences are doing so we can borrow their ideas. We expend resources searching for the mysterious conference trend panacea.
Conferences that Work
JUNE 3, 2019
The first peer conference I convened and designed was held June 3 – 5, 1992 at Marlboro College, Vermont. So, as of today, the community of practice that eventually became edACCESS has enjoyed 27 years of peer conferences. Twenty-three people came to the inaugural conference.
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 25, 2018
Too often conference and meeting professionals assume that their role is best suited to planning and executing the conference. I get that from the education section or the conference technical teams.”. They own designing the conference customers experience journey.
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Attendease
JANUARY 22, 2020
The events industry has been behind some of the most innovative tech conferences in the past decade. Opening the doors for new business prospects, these conferences are places where the top professionals meet and showcase their innovative concepts and bold theories for the future.
Velvet Chainsaw
JUNE 4, 2018
As conference organizers, why can’t we also have a fun, fulfilling, and collaborative experience planning and designing the conference? Here are six ways to focus on designing your team’s experience during your next conference planning process.
Velvet Chainsaw
JULY 12, 2018
These mental models are deeply embedded in our conference planning and management practices. Savvy conference organizers realize that their mental models have much more influence over their outcomes than their decisions and actions. Surfacing our cognitive conference constructs.
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 7, 2019
Many conferences are stuck in the rut of legacy routines, age-old rituals and cloned programming. Conference organizers and its advisors replicate the past maintaining the traditions and well-established procedures of yesteryear. Conference Reform Requires These Leadership Traits.
GEVME
MARCH 15, 2019
When you’re in the events industry, you should know the main event management conferences for 2019 so you can visit them to improve your knowledge and share your own experiences of working long hours while trying to pull off amazing corporate events for your clients.
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 10, 2019
It’s hard for conference organizers to stick to planning the essential elements of their events. Various departments and committees see the event’s gathering of people as an opportunity for them to showcase their programs, services and agendas.
Velvet Chainsaw
OCTOBER 2, 2019
Here’s what has changed: I’m convinced that “something for everyone” programming — including basic content for the novice or intermediate practitioner — is no longer the right strategy for positioning your conference as a can’t-miss experience. How Conference Sessions Can Deliver on Wisdom.
Velvet Chainsaw
OCTOBER 17, 2018
Your association, annual conference, and governance are all institutions. One of the sacred cows for associations and their annual conference is attributing notoriety to the office of the president, board chair or annual conference committee chair.
Conferences that Work
JANUARY 6, 2020
A recent Wired article argues that “ Science Conferences Are Stuck in the Dark Ages “ Unsurprisingly, I agree — but there’s some light in the darkness! Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Are science conferences stuck in the Dark Ages?
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 26, 2018
Once you’ve observed the conference through the lens of your target customer and gained insights from conference data, you can move to the next steps. These steps are critical for you and your conference planning teams to embrace, enlist and employ.
Velvet Chainsaw
JULY 13, 2018
If there’s something strange in your conference-hood. And your event don’t look good. Our cognitive frameworks—our mental models and paradigms—shape our thinking, behavior, operations and success of our conferences. Today’s winning conference program is part of yesterday.
Velvet Chainsaw
SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
It is much more effective to provide opportunities for conference participants to solve their own problems, then telling them how to solve it. Conference organizers automatically assume that if someone is attending their event, they expect the conference to help them solve their problems.
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 30, 2017
Everything we take for granted about conferences, and planning them, faces disruption. Participants from all generations and cultures increasingly expect conferences to mirror their work and personal lives. Savvy conference organizers meet these disruptions head-on.
Velvet Chainsaw
OCTOBER 12, 2018
At a recent conference consultation with a client, a millennial made me think that I wasn’t keeping up with the times. We were discussing their marketing and communication strategies for their event. I reiterated that their conference needed a home base to optimize.
Velvet Chainsaw
JUNE 29, 2018
Conference organizers and their planning teams should understand, identify and quash organizational debt. Refactoring As A Metaphor For Conference Improvement. Thus we refactor to improve the conference experience for our customers. Consider it as your conference source code.
GEVME
JUNE 13, 2018
The unique story of any conference should begin with the goal and then a detailed plan on how to reach this goal. If you understand your target audience, it’s not a challenge to build such a conference vision. What is a corporate conference planning checklist? After a conference.
Velvet Chainsaw
JULY 23, 2018
Unfortunately, too few event organizers fully embrace the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing. Likewise, many conference professionals have no idea what embracing the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing even means. A Poverty Of Conference Content Marketing Success.
Velvet Chainsaw
MARCH 6, 2017
Your real conference competition is not that event held six months after yours. Today’s technology driven, hyper-connected, instant gratification, real-time world puts you as a conference organizer in a difficult position. Have you normalized conference mediocrity as acceptable?
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 24, 2018
Who owns the overall experience that customers have at your conference? Who oversees and manages the conference customers’ journey? Or perhaps no one is considering the holistic experience of your conference customer? Do you know what your conference target market customer wants?
Velvet Chainsaw
JUNE 13, 2018
Does your event have a clear and inspiring purpose? (If Now imagine someone asking your conference participants that question. Your Conference Purpose. So what’s your conference purpose? Your conference purpose is about building sustainable conference value.
Conferences that Work
MAY 14, 2018
Here are nine mythodologies about conferences. At least half the sessions programmed at traditional conferences are not what attendees want. Mythodology: Event socials are a good way to meet people. Reality : People tend to stay with people they already know at event socials. Participant-driven and participation-rich events provide far more opportunities to meet people you actually want to meet. Reality : Sadly, conference curators don’t exist.
Velvet Chainsaw
JUNE 9, 2016
A Momentous Catalyst To Conference Attendee Behavior Change. I am often asked how to get conference attendees to adopt 21 st Century learning habits. The majority of conferences treat attendees as consumers of information. Conference Planning Registrants Relabel
Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 9, 2019
Do your conference learning opportunities—from the general session to networking to breakouts to deep dive workshops—empower registrants to participate in their own learning journey? Or do your conference education sessions motivate participants to see the finish line?
Velvet Chainsaw
JUNE 28, 2017
It’s as if Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore’s Experience Economy is just now hitting its stride—for conferences at least. The word is out: we’ve got to create conference experiences, not just conferences that feel like a patchwork quilt of our great grandmother’s dresses.
Velvet Chainsaw
SEPTEMBER 16, 2016
Are 50%-80% of your conference attendees in your programming at any given time? One thing is certain, if your conference attendees are not fully engaged in the experience you provide, there is little, if any, chance that they will leave your event with any real ROI.
Picatic by Eventbrite
MARCH 26, 2019
Help your event shine with this useful planning checklist for conferences and corporate events. The post Your Essential Conference and Corporate Event Planning Checklist appeared first on Eventbrite US Blog.
Velvet Chainsaw
JULY 24, 2018
As you embark on a new vision of conference renovation and reform, you may feel that you are crossing from a comfortable, familiar space to one that is unknown and unsettling. Conference Improvement As Your Threshold To New Growth. What’s your favorite room in your home?
Velvet Chainsaw
JULY 9, 2018
And just as important, how and what do we think about our conferences and events? How do we understand our conference planning processes, its underlying assumptions, and our customers, partners, exhibitors, and stakeholders? Your Conference Mental Models Control You.
Gallus Events
DECEMBER 11, 2018
I spoke at IBTM in Barcelona ( you can read the “review” here ) at the end of November on one of my favourite topics, Meeting Design or fresh formats for conferences. Think of the future when you create an event today, take baby steps towards that future!
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