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. As such, you’ll need to earn more trust and loyalty from your members, attendees, and suppliers, who now have higher expectations … [Read more...]
Time Capsules, Time Machines And Evolution Of Traditional Meeting Planners
Is your annual meeting more like a time capsule or a time machine? Conferences that are like time capsules promote and preserve nostalgia and the past. Conferences that are like time machines teleport people to the future so they can discover what’s next. Conferences that resemble time capsules defend the status quo and traditions. Events that are like time machines invest in preparing their audience for what’s coming around the corner. Ultimately, our conferences should be where the … [Read more...]
Our Preoccupation With Solutionitis, Hammers And Nails
If all you have is a hammer, everything else looks like a nail. The hammer nail analogy is a common business idiom. It describes the bias that we bring to solving problems based on our personal experience and background. Well, hammer meet nail. Nail says to hammer, “Hammer, meet screwdriver, pliers, wrench, saw and the entire toolbox of unique tools to solve different challenges. You see hammer, there’s more to fixing the problem than pounding nails.” Our Drive To Solve Problems We love … [Read more...]
Emerging Evergreen Conference Practices—From This To That
You can never get enough of what you really don’t need says Eric Hoffer. To paraphrase Hoffer, you can never get enough of conference fads, gimmicks and trends. We want more, more, more! (Unless your a conference participant and we often have had enough!) Fads and trends are often about gaining attention. They also want access to your conference budget. Evergreen conference practices that have promising results are often obscured by our obsession with fads and trends. Seven Emerging … [Read more...]
Do Not Be Seduced By Meeting Fads Or Conference Trends
Most conference and meeting professionals want the coolest, hippest, latest ideas and trends for their events. We are on the hunt for the next meeting, seating, session format, technology, and food and beverage fad. We want to know what unique things other conferences are doing so we can borrow their ideas. We pursue fads, gimmicks and trends as the silver bullets of our conference woes. We expend resources searching for the mysterious conference trend panacea. These fads and trends appear … [Read more...]
When History Is Weaponized To Keep Your Conference Stuck In The Past
We’ve always done it this way and it’s worked. So why should this time be any different? It’s a classic proclamation used to silence any discussion about changing directions. History becomes weaponized and used as a machete to clear the path for personal agendas, influencing others and legitimizing staying the same. Ultimately, weaponizing your conference’s history when making future decisions is lazy thinking. Peddling historical conventional wisdom is superficial and unproductive. The … [Read more...]
Start Your Conference Improvement Process With Enrollment
As conference organizers, we frequently ignore the evidence all around us of what’s working and what’s not. That evidence is everywhere. It’s just that we don’t know what to do with it once we have it. Often our conference planning teams and volunteer advisors follow our lead as we give more precedent to what feels right. Together, we willingly ignore the evidence in favor of what’s worked in the past even if our past outcomes point to the fact that we should change. So before assuming we … [Read more...]
Making The Common Conference Uncommon
Who wants to attend a common, ordinary, ho-hum, everyday, I’m-just-like-all-the-others traditional conference? Even worse, who wants to pay to attend one? And who wants to plan or sell one? Your conference growth and revenue depends upon repeat paying attendees year after year. Customer loyalty is the cornerstone for your event’s success. And your customer loyalty is built upon making your common conference uncommon. Routine Been-There-Done-That Conferences How many people will go out of … [Read more...]
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