Velvet Chainsaw

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

High-tech user conferences like Dreamforce and Microsoft Ignite have been designing innovative hub spaces to engage and nurture their top customers for years. A conference hub should be a destination that participants want to go to when not attending sessions or walking the expo hall. Here’s what we came up with.

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Conference Sponsorships 2022 Tech 487

Conferences that Work

JULY 11, 2022

It’s time to stop networking at meetings. No, I’m not saying we should only listen to lectures at meetings. This post was inspired when Victoria Matey shared the following thought about networking at meetings: Random thought. No related posts.

Meetings 425

Meetings Conference Event Design Events 425

Conferences that Work

APRIL 18, 2022

I’ve been writing about hybrid meetings for a long time; my first post was in February 2010. The COVID19 pandemic created an explosion of interest in hybrid meetings, and the marketplace and event professionals are still defining what “hybrid” means. (No, Sounds crazy, yes, but stay with me!

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Meetings 2010 Conference Events 407

Velvet Chainsaw

AUGUST 9, 2023

For many annual meetings, the Great Resignation has resulted in erosion of loyal, regular attendees and an increase in first-timers, whose experience can be improved with guidance on the best course for them to follow during your program. What advice can you share for helping attendees configure their conference journey?

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Conferences that Work

JUNE 27, 2022

Want a simple way to improve meeting session learning? Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Improve meeting session learning with this simple tip! appeared first on Conferences That Work. Provide a shared Google doc where all participants can take notes, ask questions, and get answers!

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Meetings Conference Event Design Events 399

Conferences that Work

MARCH 28, 2022

My work at a pre-con is different from that of a typical meeting planner since I focus on the meeting’s design and facilitation. I’ve been convening meetings for decades, though, so I know a fair amount about meeting planning. The traditional bread and butter of a meeting planner’s job.

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Meetings Food and Beverage Event Design Meeting Design 419

Velvet Chainsaw

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Most conference and meeting professionals want the coolest, hippest, latest ideas and trends for their events. We are on the hunt for the next meeting, seating, session format, technology, and food and beverage fad. We want to know what unique things other conferences are doing so we can borrow their ideas. What are they?

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Conference Meetings Food and Beverage Social Media 350

Velvet Chainsaw

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

Over the past nine months, many industry experts have proclaimed that meetings and conferences are forever changed and hybrid is here to stay. Meetings of the future will be improved and monetized by embracing the tenants of strategic product management. While I agree in principle, I think the future is so much more than hybrid.

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Conference Sponsorships Meetings Education 366

Velvet Chainsaw

MAY 20, 2021

As it becomes more apparent that face-to-face events will return in some form this year, conference organizers have an opportunity to make changes that would have been more difficult to sell up the ladder in the past. It’s a good time for planners to challenge their organizations to make the meeting experience more valuable than ever.

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Conference Conference Design Events Entertainment 397

Conferences that Work

MAY 15, 2023

It’s time for a “sound of silence” roundup of meetings industry pet peeves.

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Meetings Conference Speakers 296

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. Not every effort was a rousing success but attempting to inject new conference elements made us more nimble, creative and smarter as a team. Do virtual expos work?

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Conference Travel Events Meetings 448

Velvet Chainsaw

AUGUST 31, 2021

As conference organizers, it can be helpful to consider our responsibilities from the viewpoint of duty of care — the legal definition of which is “a requirement that a person [or organization] act[s] toward others and the public with the watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would use.

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Conference Risk Management Events Contracts 459

EventMB

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Expert meeting designers lead the call for rethinking conference agendas. Miguel Neves Read the Complete Story On Skift Meetings Skift Take: The results are in. Keep keynotes short and dedicate more time to face-to-face interaction.

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Meeting Design Meetings Conference Event Design 214

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 10, 2022

Most of the event industry and our clients continue to assume that if you can make the meeting bigger it’s a good thing. Online and hybrid meetings have seen less drastic reductions. One bright spot has been the normalization of online meetings for routine connection and collaboration. It ain’t necessarily so.

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Conferences that Work

JANUARY 18, 2021

Why people continue to speak for free at meeting industry conferences : Another issue of an occasional series— Dear Adrian — in which I answer questions about event design, elementary particle physics , solar hot water systems, and anything else I might conceivably know something about. an unknown level of expertise.

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Conference Meetings Speakers Events 246

Velvet Chainsaw

APRIL 5, 2022

It’s expected that meetings in Q3 or Q4 will outperform those held in the first half of this year. A lot of meetings operating in Q1 and Q2 ended up extending their early-bird deadlines multiple times. The post 2022 Conference Registration Pacing appeared first on Velvet Chainsaw. Adjust your date fees. Market differently.

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Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 17, 2022

But what does it mean in the context of meetings? Surely we sometimes become attached to people we meet? Isn’t creating and strengthening attachments one of the desirable functions of meetings? So what is the relationship between connection and attachment when people come together? No related posts.

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Meetings Conference 264

Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 15, 2022

In my experience, most large conferences this year are realizing about 80 percent of their 2019 revenue performance. For some of the major annual meetings we’re tracking, sponsorship revenue has been a bright spot when compared to exhibit revenue performance. Some of the indicators for using this model: A) They’re in high demand.

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

Though I don’t teach college anymore, I’m interested in educational class design because a class is a meeting. And much of what we can do to design great meetings is applicable to college classes too. Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post A class is a meeting appeared first on Conferences That Work.

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Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 9, 2023

A [MARKETING PERSON] has invited me to share my expertise at a meeting industry event. I’m regularly asked to speak, present, or run a workshop at meeting industry events. ‘Attendees to [MEETING INDUSTRY EVENT] genuinely need the help and expertise of companies and advisors just like yourself. No, you pay us!

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Meetings Venues Events Conference 265

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 11, 2021

What makes attending conferences worthwhile? As I described in Conferences That Work , the two most common reasons for attending conferences are to learn useful things and make useful connections. But there are numerous other ways that conferences provide value to stakeholders. Obvious problems. Complicated problems.

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Conference Events Meetings 2010 337

EventMB

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Meetings and conferences in the country have yet to be impacted. Andrea Doyle Read the Complete Story On Skift Meetings Skift Take: Iceland has experienced more than 2,000 mini-earthquakes with a volcano close to erupting on the Reykjanes Peninsula.

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Meetings Conference 146

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

What is the mix of presentation versus interaction at your meetings? Traditional meetings focus heavily on presentation. Presentation versus interaction at meetings. But our meeting designs, in large part, haven’t changed to reflect this shift in cultural awareness. What should it be? The written word.

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Meetings Meeting Design Conference Event Design 299

Eventmobi

AUGUST 14, 2023

What do you remember most about your last conference? They break up the pace of the conference day and diversify the attendee experience. They break up the pace of the conference day and diversify the attendee experience. Read on for 37 creative conference breakout session ideas to add to your next conference program!

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Conference Events Event Tech Venues 195

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 7, 2023

Now that small hybrid meetings are commonplace, what meeting room designs work for a mixture of in-person and remote participants? Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Meeting room designs for both in-person and remote participants appeared first on Conferences That Work.

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Meetings Conference Event Design Events 156

Conferences that Work

JULY 19, 2021

Ever since my first encounter with the hybrid hub and spoke meeting topology at Event Camp Twin Cities in 2011, I’ve been a big fan of the format. Yesterday [see below], I realized that hub and spoke is a great format for purely online meetings too. What’s a hub and spoke meeting? But first…. A terminology reminder.

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Meetings Events Conference 2011 326

SpotMe Blog

OCTOBER 7, 2023

Organizing a medical conference that brings results can be stressful. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best medical conference apps to ensure you come away with actionable HCP insights and invaluable connections to drive your business forward. Want to jump straight to the list of the best medical conference apps?

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Conference 2024 Events Event Management 130

Conferences that Work

JUNE 30, 2022

What can meeting planners who support women’s rights do? Here are two concrete suggestions for action: Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post What meeting planners who support women’s rights can do appeared first on Conferences That Work. No related posts.

Meetings 296

Meetings Conference Contracts Events 296

Conferences that Work

JULY 25, 2022

Event professionals: it’s time to talk about COVID, duty of care, and the meeting industry. Yet the meeting industry seems to be abrogating its traditional responsibilities to keep attendees and staff safe. Actually, we should all have been talking about this for the last couple of years, but better late than never.

Meetings 308

Meetings Hospitality Conference 2019 308

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 30, 2021

The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) has published some useful lessons learned from organizing six online scientific meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online meetings improve access and attendance. Conferences are an important learning and support resource for early career scientists.

Meetings 295

Meetings Conference Events Travel 295

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 9, 2021

Far too much money is spent on meeting glitz at the expense of good meeting design. “There’s no budget” I’ve noticed over the years that every meeting has a budget for F&B. But “there’s no budget” for core event design, which is actually about designing great meeting process.

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Meeting Design Meetings Event Design Conference 320

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Software testers do peer conferences right! They even call them a peer conference , rather than unconference , a term I don’t like.) As evidence of software tester conference awesomeness, I offer three examples below. a short history of the peer conference. The 2022 SoCraTes peer conference. But first…. …a

Conference 156

Conference 2022 Meeting Design Meetings 156

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

What are the fairest rules to use when running meetings? ” I think it’s reasonable to concentrate on fairness to participants : the majority of those involved with the meeting. All meetings have rules, whether overt or covert, conscious or unconscious, that influence how they proceed. Status and power at meetings.

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Meetings Conference Events Speakers 320

EventMB

MAY 24, 2021

Could there be an upsell opportunity in offering conference attendees extra rooms for C-suite meetings? A recent EventBrew podcast speculated about the possibility of combining C-suite and senior leadership team meetings […].

Conference 222

Conference Meetings Events 222

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Many event professionals are hoping and waiting for a meeting industry new normal. We want to believe that, at some point, in-person meetings like the ones we’ve held for decades will return. Such areas are already holding local in-person events, but safe inter-regional meetings are not possible.

Meetings 374

Meetings Events Conference Hospitality 374

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 11, 2021

I think it’s also a meeting problem: “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.” And so it goes with meetings. It’s why businesses sponsor meetings. All meeting design needs to recognize this reality. ” — E.

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Meetings Conference 2009 Meeting Design 286

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 19, 2020

The meeting industry old normal is over, and many event professionals are hoping and waiting for a new normal. What will the meeting industry new normal look like? The meeting industry old normal. For most of human history, of course, this has been the only meeting option. The meeting industry new normal.

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