One of my biggest pet peeves is the way some conferences approach first-time attendees. Being intentional and having a plan for how you welcome someone who is experiencing your conference for the first time is not only the right thing to do, it’s also a smart attendee acquisition strategy. It’s a pivotal time to onboard and help them make … [Read More...]
So Teamwork Can Make the Dream Work!
Hallelujah! The Washington Nationals won game seven of the World Series to become world champs. This is a huge deal for Washington sports fans and their story should resonate for all of us in the meetings industry as we are dependent on our teams to successfully execute our events. As I listened … [Read More...]
5 Improvements for Event Registration Data Collection
It’s difficult to determine what to include — and not include — when collecting attendee data at the time of conference registration. We need to make it easy to click “yes” during the registration process, while also collecting intelligence to drive personalization. Data fields and pick lists … [Read More...]
Katie Winter Joins the Velvet Chainsaw Team
We’re excited to announce that Katie Winter has joined the Velvet Chainsaw team as Client Projects & Stories Specialists! Lucky for us, Katie and her family recently relocated to Cleveland, OH from Chicago, IL. Katie will work closely with our Director of Client Project & Stories, Michele … [Read More...]
Deliver Superior Conference Education Value
Here’s what hasn’t changed: Education continues to be essential to a participant’s experience. 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 … [Read More...]
Five-Step Framework for Effective Collaborative Design
Your conference strategy should include a plan to inject fresh content or experiences each year as part of an ongoing improvement process. There are a million ways to make these improvement plans. Some work and many don’t. Working with one of our clients, we devised a simple framework to help … [Read More...]
Transform Your Expo into a Networking and Learning Destination
Expos are the most disrupted element of association conferences today. If you’re still using “tradeshow,” “market place” or “exhibit hall” as names for the area where you feature solution providers—who are there to help your attendees deal with the problems and challenges they’re facing—it’s time … [Read More...]
Expo Decisions: Attendee Preferences over Exhibitors—Always
For those of you who organize large annual conferences and trade shows, there undoubtedly is a chicken-vs.-egg debate. On the one hand, your organization might receive as much as 50 percent (or more) of your event’s revenue from supplier investments in exhibits, sponsorship and advertising … [Read More...]
Education Committee: More Advising and Curating, Less Slotting
Most meeting organizers invest a significant amount of time creating the educational programming for their annual conference. Models vary, but most include a 15- to 20-person conference committee (slotters) and army of reviewers (graders). Progressive organizers are shifting to a blended model, … [Read More...]
