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
Better Because You Were There November 4, 2021 by Dave Lutz According to The New York Times, living with the pandemic “has pushed us to reckon with our deepest questions … [about] how we make meaning of our time on this earth.” In particular, COVID-19 has brought the issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, social responsibility, and wellness to the fore. A number of our consulting … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
Will Use-It-or-Lose-It Budgeting Negatively Impact Expo and Sponsor Revenue? October 14, 2021 by Dave Lutz Our crystal balls are pretty foggy when it comes to predicting the return of in-person expo and sponsor revenue. Three of the big questions are: With the advancement of digital demos, will exhibitors opt for smaller booth spaces? If marketing budgets intended for show participation in 2020 or 2021 were reallocated, or not spent, will … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Sponsorship & Exhibits
Conference Organizers: What Is Your Duty of Care? August 31, 2021 by Dave Lutz Just when we thought we were turning the corner on a rise in Covid cases, we are hearing about short-term cancellations of conventions once again as the Delta variant causes cases to rise. Several conventions that occurred in June and July resulted in a number of positive COVID tests, including breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , conference organizer duty of care, duty of care, event organizer duty of care, risk management
5 Post-Pandemic Conference Program Design Changes May 20, 2021 by Dave Lutz “Never let a good crisis go to waste” has become a popular adage in the business world over the past year, for good reason. As it becomes more apparent that face-to-face events will return in some form this year, conference organizers have an opportunity to make changes that would have been more difficult to sell … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , community spaces, hallway conversations, hybrid conferences, hybrid meetings, main room events, more white space, post pandemic conferences, virtual conferences, virtual meetings
Special Recognition for Sarah Michel, CSP May 13, 2021 by Dave Lutz Please join the Velvet Chainsaw team in congratulating our very own Sarah Michel! Last week she was presented with the National Speakers Association – Colorado Chapter Lifetime Achievement Award. Sarah is in an exclusive club: She is only the sixth person to receive this honor in the past 25 years. Sarah is a Past President … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings
Risk, Revenue Recognition and Recovery April 14, 2021 by Dave Lutz For well over a year, we’ve consulted with dozens of associations on their go/no-go event strategies. One of our early — and still applicable — recommendations was for conference organizers to communicate and publish the date when they expect to make the decision for their in-person conference. Over the summer and the fall of 2020, … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Hybrid & Virtual
Beyond Hybrid: Repackaging Your Conference Content February 8, 2021 by Dave Lutz Over the past nine months, many industry experts have proclaimed that meetings and conferences are forever changed and hybrid is here to stay. While I agree in principle, I think the future is so much more than hybrid. Meetings of the future will be improved and monetized by embracing the tenets of strategic product management. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , content creation, content on-demand, content repackaging, digital conferences, hybrid meetings, virtual conferences
