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). I … [Read More...]
Time Capsules, Time Machines And Evolution Of Traditional Meeting Planners
Is your annual meeting more like a time capsule or a time machine? Conferences that are like time capsules promote and preserve nostalgia and the past. Conferences that are like time machines teleport people to the future so they can discover what’s next. Conferences that resemble time … [Read More...]
Effective Organizational Change Requires Engagement and Empowerment
I’m still getting my head around what does and doesn’t work with organizational development and change. After eight and half years of consulting at Velvet Chainsaw, one would think I would have figured out this change management stuff. But I haven’t. I have more questions than answers. I have … [Read More...]
Our Preoccupation With Solutionitis, Hammers And Nails
If all you have is a hammer, everything else looks like a nail. The hammer nail analogy is a common business idiom. It describes the bias that we bring to solving problems based on our personal experience and background. Well, hammer meet nail. Nail says to hammer, “Hammer, meet screwdriver, … [Read More...]
Emerging Evergreen Conference Practices—From This To That
You can never get enough of what you really don’t need says Eric Hoffer. To paraphrase Hoffer, you can never get enough of conference fads, gimmicks and trends. We want more, more, more! (Unless your a conference participant and we often have had enough!) Fads and trends are often about … [Read More...]
Do Not Be Seduced By Meeting Fads Or Conference Trends
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 … [Read More...]
When History Is Weaponized To Keep Your Conference Stuck In The Past
We’ve always done it this way and it’s worked. So why should this time be any different? It’s a classic proclamation used to silence any discussion about changing directions. History becomes weaponized and used as a machete to clear the path for personal agendas, influencing others and … [Read More...]
Start Your Conference Improvement Process With Enrollment
As conference organizers, we frequently ignore the evidence all around us of what’s working and what’s not. That evidence is everywhere. It’s just that we don’t know what to do with it once we have it. Often our conference planning teams and volunteer advisors follow our lead as we give more … [Read More...]
Making The Common Conference Uncommon
Who wants to attend a common, ordinary, ho-hum, everyday, I’m-just-like-all-the-others traditional conference? Even worse, who wants to pay to attend one? And who wants to plan or sell one? Your conference growth and revenue depends upon repeat paying attendees year after year. Customer … [Read More...]
