Betsy Bair to Retire from VCC March 29, 2023 by Dave Lutz Betsy Bair, Vice President, Strategic Narratives at Velvet Chainsaw, will retire as of March 31, 2023. For the past seven years, Betsy has been instrumental in project managing many of VCC’s most complex client engagements. Her passion for studying and learning the business of each of our clients is unparalleled. Betsy is a client … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , Betsy Bair, retirement, Velvet Chainsaw Consulting
Event Planning Has Risen in the Ranks of Most Stressful Jobs March 15, 2023 by Dave Lutz Before the pandemic, one could argue that jobs with life-and-death consequences were surely more stressful than planning an annual conference. But things have changed. According to a study by the World Scholarship Vault, event planner stress levels are hitting a new high — the third-most stressful job in the world for 2023. Meanwhile, nearly every article … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , annual meeting, conference, convention, event planner stressful job, high costs, lower revenue, stressful job
David Beckett Joins the Velvet Chainsaw Team December 12, 2022 by Dave Lutz We are extremely excited to welcome David Beckett, Vice President, Business Model & Performance to the Velvet Chainsaw Consulting team! To me, this is kind of like getting the band back together! I had the privilege to hire and work closely with David at Experient as well as when I was on the board of … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , business model expertise, David Beckett, Velvet Chainsaw Consulting
Panel Sessions 3.0 for 2023 December 7, 2022 by Dave Lutz For years I’ve been a fan of bringing in more outside voices to make mainstage sessions more valuable and deliver more impact. While keynote speakers can still be a significant attendance driver, I think 2023 is the year to resurrect the industry panel. What you don’t want to do is go back to the same … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design, Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , new panel formats, panel formats, panels 3.0, panels for 2023, trending panel formats
Do’s and Don’ts: Six Tips to Help Justify Attendance at Your Event November 30, 2022 by Dave Lutz As we progress through the event industry’s recovery to 2019 levels, conference organizers must have a laser focus on helping potential attendees make their business case for attending their events. The best path for helping them get approval to attend is to ensure that the majority of your education program is aligned to advance business … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , attendee marketing, business case, Education, event business case, justification for attendance, workforce challenges
Making Up for Fewer Skilled Workers at Your Conference November 16, 2022 by Dave Lutz Throughout 2022, nearly every meeting service provider continues to be short-staffed and plagued by last-minute no-shows or insufficiently skilled workers. This is having a huge impact on event organizers and their teams during both planning and execution phases of events. More than ever, we need to be running several steps ahead — checking, double-checking, and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference planning, Covid effects, labor shortage, no shows, short staff
Seeking a Hybrid Conference Steady State? Here’s a Framework August 3, 2022 by Dave Lutz With live conferences’ comeback, event organizers need to make complex decisions about how to incorporate digital product extensions into their business model. Based on our research, we estimate that there’s an even split between conference owners who are including synchronous or asynchronous hybrid options and those who aren’t. The half who is pursuing hybrid knows … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , asynchonous, hybrid conferences, hybrid experiences, hybrid meetings, simulcast, synchronous, virtual conferences, virtual meetings
Five Tips for Conference Sponsorship Pricing June 15, 2022 by Dave Lutz In my experience, most large conferences this year are realizing about 80 percent of their 2019 revenue performance. For some of the major annual meetings we’re tracking, sponsorship revenue has been a bright spot when compared to exhibit revenue performance. The textbook outcome of a successful sponsorship is improved attitudes and behavior for that brand. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , annual conference sponsorships, convention sponsorships, cost-plus pricing, event sponsorships, expense recovery, pricing, value-based pricing
2022 Conference Registration Pacing April 5, 2022 by Dave Lutz Before March of 2020, pacing data was a useful tool for predicting final attendance and revenue. If you were pacing behind, you could make midcourse corrections. As we come out of the pandemic, we need a different playbook to drive attendance and earlier commitment. Use these five tips to develop a plan for optimizing registration … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Business Model Tagged With: , marketing in covid, pacing models, registration pacing, worry-free cancellation
7 Design Considerations for Your Conference Hub February 16, 2022 by Dave Lutz High-tech user conferences like Dreamforce and Microsoft Ignite have been designing innovative hub spaces to engage and nurture their top customers for years. While some of the elements in these areas can be costly to implement, they don’t have to break the budget. Creating a town-square-like experience can help grow your community through valuable connections. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , conference hub, experience design, hub experience
