Attracting & Engaging High-Po’s April 16, 2025 by Dave Lutz Annual conferences can be a valuable platform for helping your attendees — and their organizations — develop and retain future leaders, aka “hi-po’s.” According to the Forbes Human Resources Council Expert Panel, a modern high-po (high-potential) workforce strategy involves more than having a list of candidates for succession planning. “It is about having actively engaging … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing
DOGE and It’s Potential Impact on Scientific Meetings April 9, 2025 by Dave Lutz It might be premature to sound the alarm, but here goes. The executive order that is intended to transform government spending will likely have a significant impact on meetings in the scientific, healthcare and academia sectors. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost efficiency initiative executive order includes a section for “Non-Essential Travel Justification”. Here’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
High-Beam Insights for Applying AI March 13, 2025 by Dave Lutz Most conversations around the use of Artificial Intelligence in the event industry are around use cases that improve workforce productivity and performance for repeatable processes. Here are three other approaches. Tech strategy firm Future Point of View (FPOV) recently released its Humalogy® Trends Report 2024, which includes responses from thousands of leaders across many industries, … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning, Event Technology
Associations are in the Learning Business November 25, 2024 by Dave Lutz Our friends at Tagoras are conducting a survey to help guide your association’s future learning strategy. We’re sharing this because Tagoras has a great track record of doing high-quality research and sharing the insights with those participating in the survey. To contribute and learn about the trends that will have the most impact on association … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education
Amplifying Your Industry Awards October 1, 2024 by Dave Lutz During a recent client roundtable, we had a lively discussion around the challenges of changing up the way awards are presented during general sessions at events. While all agree it is important to celebrate professional accomplishments, award presentations are one of the hardest event features for leaders to agree to modernize, change, or make more … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design
Advocating for Your Exhibitors August 6, 2024 by Dave Lutz The Exhibitor Advocate recently released its 2023 Annual Survey of Exhibition Rates. This report compares material handling, labor, and equipment costs across 24 major U.S. destinations. Here are two takeaways you should consider. Not only is the Annual Survey of Exhibition Rates a handy tool for comparing exhibitor costs in one city vs. another, it … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits
Conference Metrics That Matter July 24, 2024 by Dave Lutz “What gets measured, gets managed,” is a phrase coined by management guru Peter Drucker. For annual conferences, this is best accomplished by identifying and adopting a combination of leading and lagging performance measures. Not all metrics can give you the insights you need right now. Lagging indicators look at the past — the end results … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning
Streamlining Internal Communications July 17, 2024 by Dave Lutz Here’s a simple project-management tool that can help streamline internal communications — and clarify accountability — for annual meetings. Some components of planning an association annual meeting involve multiple departments and competing priorities. Membership wants one thing; publications, marketing, and chapter relations, another. Having too many cooks in the kitchen — and no clear owner … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
Know Thy Customer June 5, 2024 by Dave Lutz I’ve been a big fan of Customer Centricity, a book written by Wharton’s Peter Fader for quite some time. Fader advocates that “in the world of customer centricity, there are good customers … and then there is pretty much everybody else.” He recommends focusing and investing in retaining the former, while not ignoring the latter. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing
Time to Prune Your Sponsor Offerings February 1, 2024 by Dave Lutz A number of associations we work with have seen their annual convention exhibit space sales lag attendance, which has recovered since the pandemic. Conversely, sponsorship revenue is back to pre-pandemic levels and has upside potential. If your sponsorship menu and prospectus look similar to 2019, a refresh can help you seize this growth opportunity. Here’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits
