7 Fundamental Ways To Drastically Improve Conference Breakouts February 25, 2014 by Dave Lutz Concurrent sessions, often known as breakouts, are the meat and potatoes of conferences. They are also one of the most difficult areas for your continuous improvement efforts. In many associations, volunteers vet submissions, decide topics and select speakers for their annual meeting’s concurrent sessions. While well intentioned, volunteer committees rarely are equipped with a big-picture … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , conference education, conference session, conferences, learning trends, meeting industry trends
Proving Conference Emotional Marketing Sponsor Spend January 14, 2014 by Dave Lutz Exhibit-booth footprints are shrinking across nearly every industry. The Good News There is a silver lining though: the opportunity to develop fruitful strategic partnerships. Just be ready to prove why a sponsor’s dollars are well spent on your organization. The Bad News More companies are demonstrating their products and services via digital technology rather than … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference revenues, conference sponsorship, expo revenues, expo sales, sponsor acquisition, sponsorship activation, sponsorship sales
Time To Reboot Your Conference And Event Marketing December 16, 2013 by Dave Lutz Is your event and conference marketing like this… We’d love for you to attend our open house. There will be 99 dishes, 15 colors of napkins, seating for 75, and two buffet tables. Five speakers will present 15 minutes each while you watch in amazement. I bet you can’t wait! If yes, it’s time to … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , Attendee Acquisition, conference marketing, event marketing, target market
Engaging Conference Attendees At Hello Results In Big Rewards November 22, 2013 by Dave Lutz Are you looking for ways to improve your conference attendee loyalty? If yes, and I’m sure you are, here’s an effective strategy: Integrate a deliberate on-boarding effort for new attendees into your attendance-marketing plan. Master this and you’ll receive big rewards! First Time Attendee Trend Our industry is experiencing an interesting trend with the increase … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , attendee loyalty, conference marketing, connexity, event marketing, networking
The Sponsorship Whisperer Builds Trust With Each Encounter November 8, 2013 by Dave Lutz Horse whisperers move carefully, listen intently, and earn trust through each encounter, even with the most unruly of horses. And there’s a lot they can teach us about sponsorship sales. Many conferences struggle with flat or declining revenue from exhibitors and sponsors. For some, it’s because their attendees don’t have enough buying influence or authority. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference revenues, conference sponsorship, expo revenues, expo sales, sponsor acquisition, sponsorship activation, sponsorship sales
Three Conference Speaker Ahas You Need to Know November 6, 2013 by Dave Lutz How does your conference speaker selection process compare to other organizations? What’s working and what isn’t when it comes to selecting and securing industry and professional speakers? The Use Of Professional And Industry Speakers The past summer, Velvet Chainsaw partnered with Tagoras, a leading market research and consulting company for learning, to survey conference professionals … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , association trends, conference education, conference tips, conferences, industry speaker, meeting industry trends, speaker
Budget Benchmarking Drives Smarter Conference Spend Decisions September 25, 2013 by Dave Lutz It’s budget planning season for many meeting professionals. Many are poring over spreadsheets, as they seek out creative ways to do more with less. The burning question: What items can be trimmed without negatively impacting the attendee experience. One of the tools we like to use when we look at how to stretch a meeting … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , Benchmark Data, Conference Budget, Conference Financials, conferences, Meeting Spend
Wendy Holliday Joins the Velvet Chainsaw Team September 3, 2013 by Dave Lutz We’re excited to welcome Wendy Holliday, Vice President, Attendee Acquisition & Experience to the Velvet Chainsaw Consulting team! Today is her first day on the job. For the past nine years, Wendy has served as the Vice President, Marketing and Member Services for the National Association of College Stores (NACS). Her responsibilities included directing both … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings
How Are Your Conference Attendees Preprogrammed And Hard Wired? August 21, 2013 by Dave Lutz What type of “P” mindset do your conference attendees have? You need to know before you can start programming for your conference. In order to help answer three of your most conference planning pressing questions: Who are we designing this experience for? Who do we need to attract today, so that we’ll be relevant for … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , conference marketing, conferences, market segmentation
Leeches, Poachers And Outboarders: Controversial Tradeshow Challenges August 9, 2013 by Dave Lutz Recently, Rick Calvert, CEO & Co-Founder of Blogworld & New Media Expo, wrote How Suitcasing and Outboarding Harm Events. The post attempts to tackle two very controversial challenges for our industry: suitcasing and outboarding. Go ahead and take a few minutes to read Rick’s entire blog post and leave a comment with your opinions … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , exhibitions, exhibitors, outboarding, suitcasing, tradeshow
