If Your Conference Metrics Feel Good, Use Discernment July 2, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Yahoo, our conference attendance is up 30% from last year. Whoa, don’t be fooled by that conference data! Too many organizations pat their leaders on the back for increased attendance, selling out the show floor or selling all of their sponsorship packages. We need to use discernment to look deeper into what that conference data … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference indicators, conference performance indicators, KPI, KPIs, lagging indicators, leading indicators, shatterpoints
Impotent Conferences Are Powerless To Influence Forward Movement July 1, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Imagine a radio station that played adult contemporary, classical, country, dance, electronic, golden oldies, heavy metal, news, pop, R&B, rock, southern gospel and talk alternating between each. What if this commercial radio station tried to appeal to everyone’s musical taste as well as news and talk radio? How successful would it be? It wouldn’t work, … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , attendee experience, conference best practices, conference experience, conference organizer, learning, meeting professional, networking, strategic thinking, target market
Follow Your Dreams – A Bitter/Sweet Day at VCC June 30, 2015 by Jeff Hurt We’re very blessed to have an incredible team here at VCC! But, today marks the final (official) day of one of our MVP’s, Donna Kastner. Donna is a go getter! Prior to joining us, she developed a business/community concept called Retirepreneur. (Pretty cool, right?) She’s leaving our company so that she can invest more of … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , Donna Kastner, follow your dreams
Silos Suffocate Your Successful Conference June 25, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Imagine an extended family of eight living under one roof together. Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad and four siblings. Everyone lives in a separate room. Imagine they never speak to each other except once a week at a Sunday lunch. Each engages in their own personal activities in separate schedules. They just pass each other coming … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference planning, conference planning team, meeting planning best practices, silo mentality, Silos, vision
Feeding A Zombie Project And Getting No Results June 22, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Is your organization stuck maintaining and nurturing a zombie project? A zombie project is one that continues from year to year regardless of its effectiveness. It sucks the very life and resources from your team and organization says authors Scott Anthony, David Duncan and Pontus M.A. Siren. Often many people feel these zombie projects have … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , association best practices, conference best practices, conference evaluation, Conference Financials, conference planning team, strategic planning, strategic thinking
Getting Leadership Buy-in For Your Conference Upgrades June 19, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Your conference planning team has bought in to the idea that their traditional conference model needs to change. They’ve even agreed to some of the unique changes that should happen. Now you have to convince your leadership including the C-Suite, possibly the Board of Directors, and others, that these changes are the right move to … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, dealing with resistance, education best practices
15 Disruptive Conference Realities You Need To Adopt Now [PPT] June 15, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Healthy conferences change. They adapt to new contexts, society trends and business shifts. Those that don’t change become stale, stagnate and stuck in a rut. Here are 15 disruptive conference realities that you should adopt before they are forced upon you. 15 Seismic Conference & Attendance Predictions from Jeff Hurt Read More Read more about … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , association future, association issues and challenges, association trends, attendance patterns, conference predictions, meeting industry trends, meeting predictions, nonprofit predictions, nonprofit trends
Attitudes That Separate Growing, Healthy Conferences From Declining Ones June 10, 2015 by Jeff Hurt So what’s the difference between a growing, healthy conference and a declining one? Well, there are a lot of differences. Leadership—boards, committees, volunteers, staff—of growing, healthy conferences share some common attitudes. And leaders of declining conferences share similar outlooks as well. These mindsets have a huge influence on a meeting’s outcomes. Here are five leadership … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference growth, conference health, Conference Profitability, Conference Revenue Performance, conferences, long term growth, strategic planning, strategic thinking, strategy
Faulty Governance Models Can Obliterate Your Conference June 9, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Does your organization have a permission-withholding culture or a permission-granting culture? One of those cultures is empowering, healthy and life-giving. The other is stifling, frustrating, dysfunctional and can annihilate your conference success. Unfortunately, I’ve found that more organizations have permission-withholding cultures. They foster three characteristics: bureaucracy, control and mistrust. These three dysfunctions disempower leaders and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , association best practices, association governance, conference best practices, conference governance model, governance model, meeting planner, meeting professional, nonprofit governance
Measuring Actionable Or Vanity Conference Metrics June 8, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Your conference needs a checkup! Just like you need an annual doctor’s appointment for routine health checkup, your conference needs a routine checkup. Sure, you may feel like your conference doesn’t need it, just like you feel you don’t need a medical checkup. Regardless of how you feel, it is important. You need to assess … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning Tagged With: , actionable metrics, conference best practices, conference evaluation, conference indicators, conference performance indicators, KPI, KPIs, metrics, shatterpoints, vanity metrics
