This post, Delivering Experience, by Anthony Iannarino stuck in my mind as it sparked new ideas about conference experience design. Iannarino recounts a dining experience with his wife at a “funky, cool, eclectic” restaurant. Within moments of arriving, drink orders were swiftly taken and delivered. Entrees arrived moments later. Then the check, lickety-split. The Speed … [Read more…]
Your mighty event team managed to transform a “what if?” idea into a five-star, conference greatest hit. The attendee WOW factor was off the charts. This big moment gave your brand a major boost, with social shares rippling out to others who didn’t attend, but now wish they had. Everyone’s talking about this incredible experience, … [Read more…]
Since the dawn of time, things tend to follow the Pareto Principle with 80% of results driven by 20% of customers, give or take 10%. Translating this dynamic to the world of conferences and trade shows, more often that not: A very high percentage of revenue will be primarily dependent on (or influenced by) key … [Read more…]
There’s a major shift going on. An increasing number of conference and trade show investors are scaling back on booth space and shifting that spend to sponsorships. It’s a ripe opportunity for organizers to diversify their conference business model. The Shift To Strategic Sponsorships There’s another shift that has even greater ramifications for conference and … [Read more…]
Understanding conference shatterpoints is critical to comprehending your conference’s financial sustainability. Essentially, conference shatterpoints are fault lines pointing to areas of vulnerability. They’re leading indicators that illustrate areas of weakness that usually don’t fully appear in your results until years later. You want to know about these imperfections before it’s too late. Detecting them early … [Read more…]
The closing keynote was a big hit. Attendees head home. Your team has worked tirelessly for weeks. And they delivered beyond your expectations. You would love to get packed quickly. You know everyone on your teams deserves some time off now. Gathering The Team For One Final Meeting You think, “If I can just gather … [Read more…]
Your email marketing blast generated plenty of clicks. But the registration needle hardly moved. What’s up with that? Conference Registration Frustrations For every smooth registration journey, there are many other frustrating moments that cause people to bail. You worked hard to earn that maybe click. Now they’re skidding and losing interest. Three Marketing Roadblocks Here … [Read more…]
As we strive to deliver outstanding attendee experiences, our eyes turn to sponsorship. After all, somebody has to pay for this. Yet sponsorship tends to follow the same random path: Logos are slapped on every last bit of real estate. Banner ads and app alerts multiply. As the promotional noise increases, attendee attention plummets – thus making … [Read more…]
Secret shopping conferences and trade shows is something we do regularly. We don’t call it secret shopping. At the end of the day, it’s an apt description, as we’re immersing ourselves in the attendee (buyer’s) experience. We’re evaluating every component through the attendee’s lens to assess what’s working, what needs to be tweaked, and what needs … [Read more…]
No matter how open minded people profess to be, we’re all hard-wired to some degree for confirmation bias. It is a filter that we use to see reality that matches our thinking. It can cloud our thinking and distort our pursuit of facts. Confirmation Bias And Change Confirmation Bias is our default preference for consuming information … [Read more…]
