Education Committee: More Advising and Curating, Less Slotting June 24, 2019 by Dave Lutz Most meeting organizers invest a significant amount of time creating the educational programming for their annual conference. Models vary, but most include a 15- to 20-person conference committee (slotters) and army of reviewers (graders). Progressive organizers are shifting to a blended model, where conference committees act more like content curators and advisors and less like … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , abstracts, curation, Education, education committee, grading, posters, rubric, slotting, submissions
Are Your Speakers Speaking to Speakers? June 4, 2019 by Dave Lutz I wonder about the future of peer review for conference abstracts. While it is a critical filter for high-quality journals, it is a very inefficient process for accelerating innovation and discovery at conferences. Many healthcare and STEM conference business models are heavily dependent on participants who are able to justify their attendance in part because … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education
Looking into the Future of Event Tech April 24, 2019 by Dave Lutz Your guidepost for event-technology decisions should be to put your customer’s experience before your staff efficiency. As the event-tech space continues to evolve with a number of mergers and acquisitions, I see four changes coming for larger annual conferences. #1. Security is Expensive, but Critical Conference organizers are generally unaware that last year most event-technology … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Technology Tagged With: , AMS, big data, CRM, event technology, GDPR, lead retrieval, trade show
What True Learning Is at Participant-Centered Conferences March 7, 2019 by Dave Lutz Putting the participant at the center of your conference programming by becoming more learner-centric, that is planning and offering education sessions that go beyond surface learning, is one of the biggest challenges facing conference organizers today. You need to enable participants to find meaningful and mentally stimulating experiences. The knowledge gap between the stage and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , knowledge gap, learner-centric, learning process, participant-centric, speaker-centric
Free-Agent, Lisa Block, Joins Velvet Chainsaw February 27, 2019 by Dave Lutz While many have been focused this winter on who is going to land free agents like Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, Lisa Block inked a deal to join the Velvet Chainsaw Consulting team! Lisa will join our team just in time for opening day – April 2, 2019 – as Executive Vice President, Conference Strategy … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , EVP conference strategy and design, Lisa Block, PCMA, rockstar, SHRM, VCC
How Much Do Sellers and Buyers Trust Our Tradeshow Environments? February 21, 2019 by Dave Lutz The most glaring reality I’ve pointed to previously in this space — that three out of four B2B buyers conduct the majority of their research before talking to a salesperson — greatly affects the sustainability of the tradeshow business model. That, and the others explored in the five realities of today’s B2B buyer post, and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , buyers, exhibits, expo, face-to-face events, sellers, trade show, trust
The Right Rewarding Student Strategy For Your Conference January 11, 2019 by Dave Lutz Many associations struggle with the right strategy for involving students in their organization and events. Some attract students to join and participate in the organization’s programs and services while still in college. They offer significant membership and registration discounts as well as ample presentation opportunities. They usually have a “get them while they’re young” and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , conference student strategy, customer loyalty, early-career professionals, get them while they're young, job hopping, loyalty, measuring student conversion, membership student strategy, mid-career practitioner, put the kids in the show
Burn Conference Traditions Immune From Criticism October 17, 2018 by Dave Lutz People don’t trust institutions today says sociologist Dr. Josh Packard. We don’t think institutions have our best interests in mind he says. We believe they serve the interests of the professionals who created and run them, and they serve the interests of perpetuating their own existence. Your association, annual conference, and governance are all institutions. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , authenticity, conference tradtions, servant leadership, transparency, trust in institutions
Your Conference Needs a Hub To Entice Customers and Prospects October 12, 2018 by Dave Lutz At a recent conference consultation with a client, a millennial made me think that I wasn’t keeping up with the times. We were discussing their marketing and communication strategies for their event. I voiced my strong opinion that conference organizers should embrace inbound marketing (pull) over traditional outbound marketing (push). I explained that a blog … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Experience Design Tagged With: , conference blog, conference marketing, conference narrative, home base, hub and spoke, hub and spoke marketing, inbound marketing, outbound marketing, outposts, pull strategy, push strategy
Your Conference Content Has Magnetic Pull July 23, 2018 by Dave Lutz Content marketing has grown by leaps and bounds during the past five years. Unfortunately, too few event organizers fully embrace the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing. Likewise, many conference professionals have no idea what embracing the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing even means. It’s a foreign concept to them. Most marketing and communications … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , Attendance Acquisition, attendance marketing, conference best practices, content marketing, Education, Education & Adult Learning, marketing, meeting planning best practices, Session Marketing
