Misguided And Misinformed Conference Barometers May 8, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Many of us who plan conferences have become so busy at the logistics of the event that we lose sight of the goal. When planning an event, we immediately go into automatic overdrive. We do the same things we’ve always done because it’s efficient and familiar to us. The over arching goals of the conference—providing … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , attendee experience, conference best practices, conference experience, conference indicators, conference performance indicators, KPI, KPIs, shatterpoints, traditional conferences
Do Your Suppliers Habitually Skip Out On Your Conference Education? April 30, 2015 by Dave Lutz Do you know where your suppliers are? Seriously, do you? Are they attending your conference education? Or just hanging around for the networking and social events? Side-by-Side Learning Should Be a Must for Suppliers The home page of the Meetings Mean Business website sums up the coalition’s main message: “Great things happen when people come … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Conference Education Tagged With: , active learning, active participation, association best practices, conference best practices, Education & Adult Learning
Quantitative Or Qualitative Conference Measures. Which Matters Most? April 2, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Many conference organizers and their organizations tend to focus only on linear, incremental improvements. Most of those improvements are transactional in nature. Improving online registration, ecommerce, confirmations, lodging, CEU tracking, etc. Or they tend to copy what another conference is doing. Rarely do they explore the actual reasons behind number trends. Instead, they just twist … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference design empathy, conference empathy, customer empathy, design empathy, empathy, empathy mapping, Qualitative measures, Quantitative measures, strategic empathy
Conference Attendance Growth Realized Through Group Plans March 20, 2015 by Dave Lutz Most of the time, we don’t have a good handle on who is truly attending our conference. Seriously, we don’t. But there is a way to glean insight just by using emails provided at registration. Mining Registration Data for Insights One way to mine attendance data is to scrub and normalize company names based on … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Business Model Tagged With: , attendance analysis, conference best practices, meeting best practices
Conference Investors Crave Strategic Sponsorships: Will You Satisfy Them? January 23, 2015 by Donna Kastner 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…] Filed Under: Business Model, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference revenue optimization, sponsorship sales strategy, strategic sponsorships, trade show sponsorship
Six Early Behavioral Warning Signs To Monitor Your Conference Sustainability December 12, 2014 by Donna Kastner 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…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference indicators, conference performance indicators, early conference warning signs, KPI, KPIs, shatterpoint precursors, shatterpoints
365-Day Conferences Are Unrealistic September 3, 2014 by Sarah Michel We’ve been hearing it for years. Conference organizers have been on a quest to create a 365-day community around their big annual event. As a result, industry education sessions and event technology products have adopted the year-round concept and branding. But there’s a problem, attendees and exhibitors aren’t falling in line. They’ll give you their … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference ecommunity, conference tips, meeting best practices, meeting planning best practices, social networking
Measuring What Matters To Your Conference July 11, 2014 by Jeff Hurt If the only conference numbers you care about are attendance, exhibitors, revenue and profits, you will never be able to understand why those numbers fluctuate. You’re only guessing and planning conference programming through a shot-gun approach if you don’t get serious about measurement. It’s time to stop relying on your gut. Or your volunteer conference … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning Tagged With: , Attendee Acquisition, conference best practices, conferences, empathy mapping, measurement, target market
What You Are Doing Today Probably Will Not Drive Your Long Term Conference Growth June 26, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Most conference strategy is stuck! It’s stuck in strategic thinking based on ideas and frameworks designed for a different era. Our current conference growth strategy is out of context with today’s dramatic accelerated pace of change. We have taken for granted a set of growth strategy assumptions that served us in the past. But they … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference growth, conferences, long term growth, strategic planning, strategic thinking, strategy
Changing Conference Metrics To Design For Attendee Loyalty June 10, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Quick, name any business that makes money from one-time customers only. Can you do it? What business model depends upon a one-time customer purchasing services or products from the company and never returning? You probably can’t think of a successful business model that works that way. Repeat Business Is Required For Success Imagine a restaurant … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , attendee loyalty, conference best practices, conference data collection, conferences
