In Today’s Economy, Significance Precedes Momentum October 9, 2015 by Jeff Hurt So many people ask me, “If ______________ (fill in the blank) is so important for conferences, why aren’t more conferences implementing it?” “So you wait to make changes to your event once you see other conferences are already doing it?” I respond. “You wait to copy someone else instead of being the leader?” Frequently, conference … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , change management, conference, conference organizer, conference planning team, Innovation, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional, tipping point
Release Your Conference Trojan Mice! October 8, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Forget releasing your conference Kraken—that legendary giant sea monster sent out to destroy anything that gets in your way. And by all means, don’t release your Trojan horse. You don’t need a trick, stratagem or gimmick for your target audience. You need to release your Trojan mice! These are small, well focused changes that add … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , cause and effect, change, change management, complex adaptive systems, organization structure, organizations as systems, systems thinking, Trojan horse, Trojan mice
The Conference Lecture Paradox October 1, 2015 by Jeff Hurt When talking about conference education, most people think about the traditional lecture. It is perceived as the holy grail of much of the conference. Many attendees swear they learn a lot from those subject matter expert speeches. It’s a paradox. Attendees flock to general sessions and breakouts to hear a lecture. Yet science says they … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult education, conference best practices, conference education, conference lecture, Education & Adult Learning, lecture, participatory learning
Business Improvement Conference Education Trends September 29, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Does your conference education drive attendees’ business performance? Or are your offerings more a roll of the dice, leaving it up to chance that they impact the attendees’ job performance. The most effective and successful conferences focus their learning opportunities on sustaining attendees’ critical strategic skills, building evolving organizational capabilities and linking conference education to … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult education, building organizational capacity, business improvement, business performance, capacity building, conference education, conference evaluation, conference strategy, institutional capabilities, learning metrics, organizational learning
Getting Attendees Wrong: The Age Of Discontinuity September 28, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Some conference planning teams get their attendees wrong! So why do we get it so wrong? It has everything to do with the rapid pace of change—the age of discontinuity as Drucker called it—and our default thinking. The heart of our current organizational challenges is that we rarely diverge from our default thinking. We assume … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , Attendee Acquisition, attracting attendees, conference audiences, conference best practices, conference planning team, Qualitative measures
You Choose: Bloated Painfully Slow Blimp Or Stealth Agile Fighter Jet September 21, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Recently I saw the Goodyear Blimp circling a major Dallas freeway. It bounced up and down with the intensity of a bobble-head-frenzy. Several times it plunged nose-first in a new direction. It was clunky and off target—at least it looked like it was astray. It was also painfully slow.Some association governance structures have bloated into … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , #assnchat, association future, association governance, decision-making, governance model, leadership, nonprofit governance, organization structure, strategic planning
Do You Have A Fixed Or Growth Conference Mindset? [Infographic] September 18, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Your perspective on whether you can grow your conference or whether it will stay the same has everything to do with your future. Your conscious and unconscious beliefs have a profound impact on your success says Stanford Psychology Professor Carol Dweck. Changing one of those beliefs greatly influences your future. Here are the two mindsets … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , attitude, conference best practices, fixed mindset, growth mindset
Grow Your Conference By Becoming An Attendee Action Hero September 17, 2015 by Jeff Hurt You don’t have to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Nor do you have to fly at the speed of light to respond to a conference crisis. Nor do you have to use your special hidden super powers to meet your attendees’ expectations. Instead, it’s more about reliability than heroics. It’s about creating a … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , attendee growth, attendee ROI, attendee satisfaction, conference best practices, conference growth, conference improvement, conferences, listening, long term growth
Using Human Sciences To Navigate Your Conference’s Future Through The Fog September 11, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Our linear and rational conference business models are our default thinking. Unfortunately, those traditional models cause us to navigate in a fog when the conference challenge is less straightforward. There are better ways to understand how to grow your conference than what you’ve done in the past. As conference professionals, we are inclined to continue … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , anthropology, big data, big insights, conference best practices, conference evaluation, education best practices, human sciences, measurement, phenomenology, Qualitative measures
An Anthropologist Walks Into A Conference September 9, 2015 by Jeff Hurt As your conference grows, it faces increased complexity. According to a recent IBM study of 1,600+ CEOs, the biggest challenge their companies face is the complexity gap. Eight out of ten of those CEOs expect their business environment to grow in complexity but less than half are prepared to face that change. Your conference’s growth … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , anthropology, big data, big insights, conference best practices, conference evaluation, education best practices, human sciences, measurement, phenomenology, Qualitative measures, speaker evaluations
