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 voiced my strong opinion that conference organizers should embrace inbound marketing (pull) over traditional outbound marketing (push). Then she could use links in emails, newsletters and social media posts as spokes to connect back to the conference home base. 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. To be successful in the future, conference organizers must become paradigm busters–examining, challenging and changing their conventional mental models. This is especially true of our conference mental frameworks. 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? Her boss apparently thought she should spend all her time out “doing meeting planning” and not hanging out in a hotel conference room. How to Create an Effective Event Culture. 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. They believe that the conference should provide the answers. Telling attendees the answer is not the key to conference success. MORE
During my career leading association event teams, I regularly recalibrated and redefined team member roles in order to drive innovation and improve our meeting experiences. What should we expect for hybrid or virtual conference attendance? 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.”. However, savvy meeting professional know that their conference’s success depends upon moving from customer fragmented touchpoints to designing holistic conference customer experience journeys. 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. Needless to say, 2020 is set to be another bar-raising year for event management professionals. Event Planner Expo. 120 conferences with speakers from leading brands. 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. Smith’s year” or “Sally’s year” when referring to past annual conferences. If your conference includes a presidential address, reception, or other similarly branded event, you probably need to make some changes. 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. You want to move from conference touchpoints to conference customer experience journeys. And remember, someone needs to own and to advocate on behalf of the conference customer’s experience. MORE
Applying a story arc to the conference can activate participants’ brains. And you want stimulated, motivated engaged brains during your event for sure! You can use the story arc concept to carefully craft the messages and issues you want your conference participants to explore, experience and learn. Here’s where the story arc concept gets really cool for your event. So exactly how do you use a story arc for your conference? MORE
Live events are all about bringing people together. Whether it’s to get inspired, to share knowledge, or to do business, the human connection is the number one reason to attend events. At virtual events, by their very nature, this connection is much harder to achieve. Our #OneCommunity Virtual Event Platform offers incredible networking features to enhance your virtual and hybrid events. Contact Conference Compass to find out more. MORE
How can we entwine content and connection during an online conference? During a MeetingsCommunity (MeCo) discussion thread “ Networking at conferences ” last week, Sharon Fisher posted this. As it happened, I’d just completed facilitating an online conference that I think did entwine content and connection. I thought it might be helpful to share an outline of how we blended content and connection throughout the 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. Discover the current top event management conferences with GEVME. The top 13 event management conferences to attend in 2019. The Special Event 1/8–1/1,0 San Diego, CA. MORE
Achieve Virtual Event Success. While many planners haven’t yet had the opportunity to run a virtual or hybrid event, pivoting from an in-person to virtual format offers new opportunities to engage your attendees and sponsors, while extending the reach of your event. While your event goals and objectives will remain the same, you’ll need new tools and tactics to achieve them. In a virtual format, your event tech will take center stage. MORE
Conference organizers and their planning teams should understand, identify and quash organizational debt. Refactoring As A Metaphor For Conference Improvement. What we need is a conference refactor to fix our organizational debt — to make it possible for our planning and event to evolve. Thus we refactor to improve the conference experience for our customers. That sounds very familiar to an established annual conference planning process. 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. Evergreen conference practices that have promising results are often obscured by our obsession with fads and trends. To avoid being fad-like in our conference planning process, here are seven emerging evergreen practices to consider and invest in instead. 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. They expect conferences that are authentic, connected, contextual, mobile, participatory, work-related and transparent. Savvy conference organizers meet these disruptions head-on. Key Drivers To Make The 21st Century Conference An Experience. 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. It is also the natural law of evolution for any conference. Why do we falsely assume that our event and its customers are self-perpetuating? Entropy Examples In Your Event. MORE
While things have changed, these tenets will hold true and the principles can be applied to other D&I conferences and events. The six attributes of women’s leadership conferences that have stood out for me: [1] Movement. Conference Planning 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. The session was entitled “Fresh Formats and Engagement” and I thought it would be worth doing a blog post around the key points from my session which are: Conferences need to change. 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. Embrace Your Event As A Giving Field. Read more about embracing your conference as a giving field here. It may seem paradoxical at first as we are used to focusing outward on the conference outcomes. 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. The event is nothing more than a zombie conference—a conference that appears to be alive yet in reality creates the walking undead. Conference organizers and advisors can breathe new life into their events. 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. 27 years of peer conferences. Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post 27 years of peer conferences appeared first on Conferences That Work. MORE
Webinar description: Monetizing Your Virtual Conference When Competing with Free. Join us to: Explore virtual experience quality filters that will best position your event for participation, value and revenue. Discuss and evaluate emerging pricing models to consider for your Fall 2020 event. Lisa Block, Executive Vice President, Conference Strategy & Design, Velvet Chainsaw Consulting. 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. And your customer loyalty is built upon making your common conference uncommon. Routine Been-There-Done-That Conferences. When your conference experience is no-frills run-of-the-mill…. MORE
If you’re inbox is anything like mine, you could spend a good portion of our day consuming webinars, virtual events and networking in Zoom or Facebook Messenger Happy Hours. The dynamics that we’re seeing impact conferences and their business models are very similar to the Freemium movement we experienced way back in 2009. Go ahead and read Seth’s post and then come back for the linkage to conference monetization. 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. Before your conference can find its true target market, you as the conference organizer must find your conviction. What’s your conference conviction? What’s your conference North Star? 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.” I like the braindate approach , but it doesn’t have to be something that’s grafted onto a conference. Because good event design is about how a conference works. MORE
Please stop treating adults like children at your conferences. for Sessions , described in Chapter 26 of my book Event Crowdsourcing , is exactly what you’ll need for an in-person session. So, please stop treating adults like children at conferences. MORE
I took to the stage as part of the content, curated by Julius Solaris and his team at Event Manager Blog at IBTM in Barcelona, in December. Supporting conference speakers. A conference needs great content as much as a blog does. My five main points (which, when you watch the session you will see why that’s the maximum number of points any session should aim for) are: EVERY single speaker (almost without exception) needs the support of the conference organiser. MORE
Conference Compass is an all-in-one platform that includes mobile and web apps and offers features for virtual, hybrid, and live events. Conference Compass Virtual Event Platform: What Is It? MORE
Here’s my article “ Five Reasons to Change Conferences “ , published in the December 2018, NSA Speaker magazine. OUTSIDE IN Five Reasons to Change Conferences Peer sessions provide greater connection around content The most important reason people go to conferences is to usefully connect with others around relevant content. 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. As a conference professional, it is your mission each day to keep your focus on the essential elements of your event for your customers’ sake. Some of essentialism’s guiding ideas apply well to business and conferences. 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 pursue fads, gimmicks and trends as the silver bullets of our conference woes. We expend resources searching for the mysterious conference trend panacea. Avoid The Faddish Trendy Event Bandwagon. Conference trend and fad bandwagons. 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. To distinguish your conference from the also-rans, you want your participant’s learning and understanding to grow from the ubiquitous “data and information” categories to “wisdom.” 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. In his article for Smashing magazine , the founder of HybridConf, Zach Inglis, states that the aim of every conference organiser should be to create experiences that reenergize people and fill them with new zeal for their work. If you understand your target audience, it’s not a challenge to build such a conference vision. Corporate conference planning checklist. MORE
So for many event planners looking for the right tool to host a virtual conference, Zoom is the first thing that comes to mind. As one of the first virtual event platforms, EventMobi is now available in the Zoom App Marketplace. Added security for event organizers. 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. We falsely believe that future conferences are just an extension of the past. We have to bust our conference paradigms to avoid seeing our future through the lens of our old paradigms. 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. Reminiscent of my first book, Conferences That Work , AST’s guide provides a comprehensive entry-level guide to starting, preparing for, and running a peer conference. MORE
Velvet Chainsaw
JULY 23, 2020
During my career leading association event teams, I regularly recalibrated and redefined team member roles in order to drive innovation and improve our meeting experiences. What should we expect for hybrid or virtual conference attendance?
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? Her boss apparently thought she should spend all her time out “doing meeting planning” and not hanging out in a hotel conference room. How to Create an Effective Event Culture.
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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. It is also the natural law of evolution for any conference. Why do we falsely assume that our event and its customers are self-perpetuating? Entropy Examples In Your Event.
Velvet Chainsaw
OCTOBER 20, 2020
While things have changed, these tenets will hold true and the principles can be applied to other D&I conferences and events. The six attributes of women’s leadership conferences that have stood out for me: [1] Movement. Conference Planning
Speaker: Mike Damphousse, Managing Partner of Category Design Advisors and Founder of Green Leads
Business as we know it is never going to be the same. Working from home has become the norm, conferences and meetings are going online, marketing budgets are being shifted, reduced or put on hold – it's time to adapt. Join this insightful and informative webinar with Mike Damphousse, Managing Partner of Category Design Advisors and Founder of Green Leads, who will discuss how businesses can be resilient during these challenging times.
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. Reminiscent of my first book, Conferences That Work , AST’s guide provides a comprehensive entry-level guide to starting, preparing for, and running a peer conference.
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Eventmobi
NOVEMBER 26, 2020
So for many event planners looking for the right tool to host a virtual conference, Zoom is the first thing that comes to mind. As one of the first virtual event platforms, EventMobi is now available in the Zoom App Marketplace. Added security for event organizers.
Conferences that Work
DECEMBER 24, 2018
Here’s my article “ Five Reasons to Change Conferences “ , published in the December 2018, NSA Speaker magazine. OUTSIDE IN Five Reasons to Change Conferences Peer sessions provide greater connection around content The most important reason people go to conferences is to usefully connect with others around relevant content. But our conference programs still focus on lectures, where a few experts broadcast their knowledge to passive listeners.
Velvet Chainsaw
APRIL 30, 2020
If you’re inbox is anything like mine, you could spend a good portion of our day consuming webinars, virtual events and networking in Zoom or Facebook Messenger Happy Hours. The dynamics that we’re seeing impact conferences and their business models are very similar to the Freemium movement we experienced way back in 2009. Go ahead and read Seth’s post and then come back for the linkage to conference monetization.
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.
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. 27 years of peer conferences. Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post 27 years of peer conferences appeared first on Conferences That Work.
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|
Conferences that Work
NOVEMBER 25, 2019
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.” I like the braindate approach , but it doesn’t have to be something that’s grafted onto a conference. Because good event design is about how a conference works.
EventMB
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
Conference Compass is an all-in-one platform that includes mobile and web apps and offers features for virtual, hybrid, and live events. Conference Compass Virtual Event Platform: What Is It?
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! You can use the story arc concept to carefully craft the messages and issues you want your conference participants to explore, experience and learn. Here’s where the story arc concept gets really cool for your event. So exactly how do you use a story arc for your conference?
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. Evergreen conference practices that have promising results are often obscured by our obsession with fads and trends. To avoid being fad-like in our conference planning process, here are seven emerging evergreen practices to consider and invest in instead.
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. Before your conference can find its true target market, you as the conference organizer must find your conviction. What’s your conference conviction? What’s your conference North Star?
Velvet Chainsaw
MAY 8, 2020
Webinar description: Monetizing Your Virtual Conference When Competing with Free. Join us to: Explore virtual experience quality filters that will best position your event for participation, value and revenue. Discuss and evaluate emerging pricing models to consider for your Fall 2020 event. Lisa Block, Executive Vice President, Conference Strategy & Design, Velvet Chainsaw Consulting.
Conferences that Work
AUGUST 31, 2020
Please stop treating adults like children at your conferences. for Sessions , described in Chapter 26 of my book Event Crowdsourcing , is exactly what you’ll need for an in-person session. So, please stop treating adults like children at conferences.
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 pursue fads, gimmicks and trends as the silver bullets of our conference woes. We expend resources searching for the mysterious conference trend panacea. Avoid The Faddish Trendy Event Bandwagon. Conference trend and fad bandwagons.
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. To be successful in the future, conference organizers must become paradigm busters–examining, challenging and changing their conventional mental models. This is especially true of our conference mental frameworks.
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. Discover the current top event management conferences with GEVME. The top 13 event management conferences to attend in 2019. The Special Event 1/8–1/1,0 San Diego, CA.
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. The event is nothing more than a zombie conference—a conference that appears to be alive yet in reality creates the walking undead. Conference organizers and advisors can breathe new life into their events.
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. Smith’s year” or “Sally’s year” when referring to past annual conferences. If your conference includes a presidential address, reception, or other similarly branded event, you probably need to make some changes.
Event Industry News
JULY 15, 2020
Live events are all about bringing people together. Whether it’s to get inspired, to share knowledge, or to do business, the human connection is the number one reason to attend events. At virtual events, by their very nature, this connection is much harder to achieve. Our #OneCommunity Virtual Event Platform offers incredible networking features to enhance your virtual and hybrid events. Contact Conference Compass to find out more.
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.”. However, savvy meeting professional know that their conference’s success depends upon moving from customer fragmented touchpoints to designing holistic conference customer experience journeys. They own designing the conference customers experience journey.
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. Needless to say, 2020 is set to be another bar-raising year for event management professionals. Event Planner Expo. 120 conferences with speakers from leading brands.
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. In his article for Smashing magazine , the founder of HybridConf, Zach Inglis, states that the aim of every conference organiser should be to create experiences that reenergize people and fill them with new zeal for their work. If you understand your target audience, it’s not a challenge to build such a conference vision. Corporate conference planning checklist.
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. To distinguish your conference from the also-rans, you want your participant’s learning and understanding to grow from the ubiquitous “data and information” categories to “wisdom.” How Conference Sessions Can Deliver on Wisdom.
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. You want to move from conference touchpoints to conference customer experience journeys. And remember, someone needs to own and to advocate on behalf of the conference customer’s experience.
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. Embrace Your Event As A Giving Field. Read more about embracing your conference as a giving field here. It may seem paradoxical at first as we are used to focusing outward on the conference outcomes.
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. They believe that the conference should provide the answers. Telling attendees the answer is not the key to conference success.
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 voiced my strong opinion that conference organizers should embrace inbound marketing (pull) over traditional outbound marketing (push). Then she could use links in emails, newsletters and social media posts as spokes to connect back to the conference home base.
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. We falsely believe that future conferences are just an extension of the past. We have to bust our conference paradigms to avoid seeing our future through the lens of our old paradigms. Today’s winning conference program is part of yesterday.
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. As a conference professional, it is your mission each day to keep your focus on the essential elements of your event for your customers’ sake. Some of essentialism’s guiding ideas apply well to business and conferences.
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. They expect conferences that are authentic, connected, contextual, mobile, participatory, work-related and transparent. Savvy conference organizers meet these disruptions head-on. Key Drivers To Make The 21st Century Conference An Experience.
Eventmobi
APRIL 14, 2020
Achieve Virtual Event Success. While many planners haven’t yet had the opportunity to run a virtual or hybrid event, pivoting from an in-person to virtual format offers new opportunities to engage your attendees and sponsors, while extending the reach of your event. While your event goals and objectives will remain the same, you’ll need new tools and tactics to achieve them. In a virtual format, your event tech will take center stage.
Conferences that Work
JULY 13, 2020
How can we entwine content and connection during an online conference? During a MeetingsCommunity (MeCo) discussion thread “ Networking at conferences ” last week, Sharon Fisher posted this. As it happened, I’d just completed facilitating an online conference that I think did entwine content and connection. I thought it might be helpful to share an outline of how we blended content and connection throughout the event.
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. What we need is a conference refactor to fix our organizational debt — to make it possible for our planning and event to evolve. Thus we refactor to improve the conference experience for our customers. That sounds very familiar to an established annual conference planning process.
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. The session was entitled “Fresh Formats and Engagement” and I thought it would be worth doing a blog post around the key points from my session which are: Conferences need to change. Think of the future when you create an event today, take baby steps towards that future!
Gallus Events
DECEMBER 7, 2016
I took to the stage as part of the content, curated by Julius Solaris and his team at Event Manager Blog at IBTM in Barcelona, in December. Supporting conference speakers. A conference needs great content as much as a blog does. My five main points (which, when you watch the session you will see why that’s the maximum number of points any session should aim for) are: EVERY single speaker (almost without exception) needs the support of the conference organiser.
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