Content marketing has grown by leaps and bounds during the past five years. Unfortunately, too few event organizers fully embrace the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing. Likewise, many conference professionals have no idea what embracing the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing even means. It’s a foreign concept to them. Most marketing and communications teams agree that content marketing serves as the foundation to their conference marketing strategy. Still, very few … [Read more...]
The Market Shifts That Led to Commission Cuts
Marriott, Hilton and IHG have announced reductions in group-booking commissions from 10 percent to 7 percent for their North American hotels, to take place over a period of time this year and next. Marriott’s has already begun for most intermediaries. A 30-percent cut in one’s business model is a tough pill to swallow for any company. It's even tougher for those independent meeting companies that survive on commissions. Only time will tell what impact these reductions will have on these … [Read more...]
Conferences Need More Sharing
One of the strongest intangible attributes of a healthy conference is how much sharing takes place. Too often, competition and self-interest get in the way of sharing what’s most helpful. Professions that deliver conference sessions with a high level of sharing – not diluted or generalized from the stage – are often in fields linked to prevention, healthcare, education and philanthropy. Protecting, curing, developing and caring are noble causes, and sharing the secret sauce is viewed as the … [Read more...]
Shifting from Delivery to Discovery Conference Education
So much of our commonplace practices and conventional wisdom about learning is wrong. Educators have been talking about Bloom’s Taxonomy, critical-thinking skills, executive functions of the brain and HOTS — higher-order thinking skills — for more than five decades. However, those foundational learning principles have not transferred to most adult education experiences. Conference organizers still have a tremendous amount of work to do to involve adults in cognitive learning practices. We are … [Read more...]
B2B Buyers Have Changed, Expos Haven’t
The way B2B professionals buy has dramatically changed, but our dependency on expo revenue hasn’t. There are two primary segments that leverage the traditional exhibit business model — conferences with an expo and expos with a conference. Based on our deep analysis of dozens of shows, the former are the event business models being disrupted most. From our view, most industry mega-shows continue to thrive. The slow death of expo revenue is not an indicator that meetings don’t mean business any … [Read more...]
Learner- And User-Design Key To Next-Gen Audiences
Wikipedia defines design as the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object, system or measurable human interaction (as in architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams, and sewing patterns). So, when you read the word design, what pops into your mind? Artists? Fashion Designers? City planning? Interior design? Graphic design? Meeting and conference professionals? Wait! Go back and read that last phrase: meeting and conference … [Read more...]
En Route For Next-Gen Conference Audiences
Will Millennials be joiners and conveners? Who are some of your next audiences to attract? Will your organization accumulate comparable lifetime customer value from next-generation members as it did from loyal Boomers? This is the first of two posts that are intended to be a helpful resource for conference organizers as they develop their attendee succession-plan strategy. Key Indicators For Most Conferences While every association and profession has its unique issues, I’ve picked up on a … [Read more...]
More Marketing Isn’t the Answer
A strategic look at your marketing spend, as well as what you spend on your attendee experience, can be telling. According to Convene’s most recent Meetings Market Survey, on average 6 percent of a meeting’s direct expenses fall in the marketing/promotion category. After studying 100 or so meetings’ profit and loss (P&L) statements in great detail, I can confirm that this expense line item varies greatly. Some organizations spend as little as 2 percent and have a very healthy conference … [Read more...]
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