Budget Benchmarking Drives Smarter Conference Spend Decisions September 25, 2013 by Dave Lutz It’s budget planning season for many meeting professionals. Many are poring over spreadsheets, as they seek out creative ways to do more with less. The burning question: What items can be trimmed without negatively impacting the attendee experience. One of the tools we like to use when we look at how to stretch a meeting … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , Benchmark Data, Conference Budget, Conference Financials, conferences, Meeting Spend
Wendy Holliday Joins the Velvet Chainsaw Team September 3, 2013 by Dave Lutz We’re excited to welcome Wendy Holliday, Vice President, Attendee Acquisition & Experience to the Velvet Chainsaw Consulting team! Today is her first day on the job. For the past nine years, Wendy has served as the Vice President, Marketing and Member Services for the National Association of College Stores (NACS). Her responsibilities included directing both … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings
How Are Your Conference Attendees Preprogrammed And Hard Wired? August 21, 2013 by Dave Lutz What type of “P” mindset do your conference attendees have? You need to know before you can start programming for your conference. In order to help answer three of your most conference planning pressing questions: Who are we designing this experience for? Who do we need to attract today, so that we’ll be relevant for … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , conference marketing, conferences, market segmentation
Leeches, Poachers And Outboarders: Controversial Tradeshow Challenges August 9, 2013 by Dave Lutz Recently, Rick Calvert, CEO & Co-Founder of Blogworld & New Media Expo, wrote How Suitcasing and Outboarding Harm Events. The post attempts to tackle two very controversial challenges for our industry: suitcasing and outboarding. Go ahead and take a few minutes to read Rick’s entire blog post and leave a comment with your opinions … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , exhibitions, exhibitors, outboarding, suitcasing, tradeshow
Designing Education Theaters On The Trade Show Floor July 12, 2013 by Dave Lutz Attracting and keeping quality attendees on your show floor isn’t getting any easier. The way we, as consumers and businesses, research and buy products and services has evolved — and so must the trade-show experience. The trade show of the future will focus on helping over selling, which is best accomplished by delivering valuable education … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , Education & Adult Learning, engagement, exhibit floor, expo, trade show
Conference Speaker Benchmarking Report – Last Chance July 9, 2013 by Dave Lutz Are you responsible for designing the education program for a conference that attracts 500 or more attendees? Does your organization contract professional speakers? Do you manage a call for papers or abstracts? If you answered YES to two or more of the questions above, we encourage you to take 10 minutes and contribute to the … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , professional speakers, speaker
The Transformative Power Of Peerology June 21, 2013 by Dave Lutz In the world of conference education, the future is not necessarily about the next technology gadget or innovative session format. It’s about something that is as old as disco balls, platform shoes and shag carpeting: peerology. SME — Subject Matter Experts — has long been an important component of education session development. But it’s time … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference education, conferences, education best practices, paragogy, peerology
We Need Your Help: Industry And Professional Speaker Research June 10, 2013 by Dave Lutz Two years ago, many of you contributed to a special research project that we conducted with Tagoras, a leading market research and consulting company for learning. This research identified trends for hiring professional speakers and provided insight for selecting and delivering concurrent sessions with industry speakers at major conferences. If you’re like us, you believe … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , conference education
Why Your Conference Needs More Connexity: Community And Connections May 15, 2013 by Dave Lutz With information accessible 24/7 online, networking has become one of the primary reasons people choose to attend your conference. The opportunity to connect face-to-face is too critical to be happenstance. Creating Conference Connections That Matter Conference attendees want dedicated time that they can connect with individuals to share stories, insight and experiences. Speed networking is … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , community, conference best practices, conferences, connect, connexity, meetings as connections, networking
Two Extremes Of Conference Content Capture: Bite Size Best April 18, 2013 by Dave Lutz Do you provide content capture of your conference sessions? If you do, are your conference recordings experiencing a decline in consumption, especially those synced to PowerPoint? If not, I predict it’s just a matter of time before your royalties evaporate. Learning Re-enforcement and Attraction Capturing content at your premier face-to-face conferences is a must! Capturing … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Technology, Experience Design, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , conference recordings, conferences, content capture, hybrid meetings, virtual event
