Three Luxuries You Cannot Afford That Harm Your Conference Planning July 28, 2014 by Jeff Hurt When we were younger, many of us dreamed of changing the world. Nothing could get in the way of our dreams. We were out to make a difference. We wanted to change lives across the globe. Then we grew up. We began to think of our dreams as unrealistic or childish. We see our aspirations … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences
Measuring What Matters To Your Conference July 11, 2014 by Jeff Hurt If the only conference numbers you care about are attendance, exhibitors, revenue and profits, you will never be able to understand why those numbers fluctuate. You’re only guessing and planning conference programming through a shot-gun approach if you don’t get serious about measurement. It’s time to stop relying on your gut. Or your volunteer conference … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning Tagged With: , Attendee Acquisition, conference best practices, conferences, empathy mapping, measurement, target market
What You Are Doing Today Probably Will Not Drive Your Long Term Conference Growth June 26, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Most conference strategy is stuck! It’s stuck in strategic thinking based on ideas and frameworks designed for a different era. Our current conference growth strategy is out of context with today’s dramatic accelerated pace of change. We have taken for granted a set of growth strategy assumptions that served us in the past. But they … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference growth, conferences, long term growth, strategic planning, strategic thinking, strategy
Conference Growth Is Connected To Unique Attendee Experiences June 25, 2014 by Jeff Hurt If you want to grow your conference, you need to annually create a unique conference experience. You also need to create an emotional bond with your registrants. We have to remember that our registrants are people too. And your conference experience should help them solve the issues that are keeping them up at night. Our … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , attendee experience, attendee growth, conference experience, conferences, emotional connection
Changing Conference Metrics To Design For Attendee Loyalty June 10, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Quick, name any business that makes money from one-time customers only. Can you do it? What business model depends upon a one-time customer purchasing services or products from the company and never returning? You probably can’t think of a successful business model that works that way. Repeat Business Is Required For Success Imagine a restaurant … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , attendee loyalty, conference best practices, conference data collection, conferences
How To Create An Entirely Unique, Clangorously New Conference Experience June 9, 2014 by Jeff Hurt The conference market is saturated with commoditized information-driven attendee experiences. Most conferences are nothing more than status-quo, average, predictable information overloaded experiences. They reek of sameness. After you’ve attended a conference for the first time, it loses its freshness and excitement. It feels too familiar. Focus On Creating The Attendee’s Experience So how can a … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , attendee experience, conference best practices, conference experience, conferences, emotional connection
Delivering Community And Connections at Conferences June 3, 2014 by Sarah Michel Does your conference have connexity? Not sure what that means? Or even if your conference has it? Well, the success of your face-to-face meetings depends on it! Connexity Happens When… Connexity happens when community and connecting collide! In a good way of course. Your attendees crave these two things: They want to connect with others … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference community, conferences, connections, connexity, sponsorship
Conference Improvement Means People Improvement June 2, 2014 by Jeff Hurt The quality of a conference’s education program cannot exceed the quality of its speakers. The message is simple. What speakers do during keynotes, breakouts, concurrents, symposiums and workshops, matters. The greatest variance in our conferences relates to our presenters. In short, a conference education program cannot give what it does not have. If it doesn’t … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, Speaker Emerging Practices
Revamping Your Conference Social Media Strategy May 29, 2014 by Dave Lutz Are you bald yet from pulling your hair out dealing with recent social medial platform changes? Or perhaps you’ve spent all afternoon biting your nails wondering how to adapt your conference social media strategy to the platform changes. Social Media Platform Changes Yet Again In the past few months, Facebook has dramatically changed how company … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , conference ecommunity, conferences, inbound marketing, social media best practices
Your Conference Needs An Innovative Strategy May 22, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Executives and conference organizers need to train themselves to look for change! Innovative organizations look out the window, away from the organization as well as look inside the organization for opportunities. They embrace change as an opportunity to innovate. Not as a threat. Your Success Can Be Your Failure Many conferences that have got into … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, Innovation
