Author: Dave Lutz


Associations are in the Learning Business

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…]

Amplifying Your Industry Awards

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…]

Advocating for Your Exhibitors

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…]

Conference Metrics That Matter

“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…]

Streamlining Internal Communications

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…]

Know Thy Customer

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…]

Time to Prune Your Sponsor Offerings

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…]

Meeting the Needs of Lifelong Learners

Our friends at Leading Learning/Tagoras are conducting a survey to help guide your association’s future learning strategy. We’re sharing this because Leading Learning 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 … [Read more…]

Two Tensions Keeping Senior Event Professionals Up at Night

According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), the business-to-business exhibition industry is still in recovery mode. The bad news is that full year performance for 2023 participation and revenues is expected to be 9.5% below 2019. The good news is that 2024 is expected to eclipse 2019 results by 3.6%. (One can only … [Read more…]

Configurable Conference Journeys

For many annual meetings, the Great Resignation has resulted in erosion of loyal, regular attendees and an increase in first-timers, whose experience can be improved with guidance on the best course for them to follow during your program. In his book, The Paradox of Choice, author Barry Schwartz writes: “Learning to choose is hard. Learning … [Read more…]