Sweat the Small Stuff July 10, 2025 by Dave Lutz **Lost Post written five years ago. This blog post was published in Convene, but not published on our site in 2020 due to the pandemic and changing priorities during that time** When it comes to making your event more attendee-centric, even adding a few inches between chairs can go far. For my first job, I … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
Proactive Planning in Uncertain Times June 26, 2025 by Dave Lutz It’s really hard to provide advice for navigating changes that could significantly impact your next meeting’s performance. Trade shows and gatherings with a significant deal-making benefit could end up just fine. It’s the scientific, academic, and research meetings and those with a large international attendance that potentially face the strongest headwinds. We’re all seeking answers … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
Growing Your Credibility May 8, 2025 by Dave Lutz Gross profit is the metric that matters most to leaders. As a business event strategist, you can grow your credibility and value with your senior leadership by having your finger on the pulse of this metric. To arrive at your largest event’s gross profit, you need to connect the dots to apply attendance, revenue, and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
DOGE and It’s Potential Impact on Scientific Meetings April 9, 2025 by Dave Lutz It might be premature to sound the alarm, but here goes. The executive order that is intended to transform government spending will likely have a significant impact on meetings in the scientific, healthcare and academia sectors. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost efficiency initiative executive order includes a section for “Non-Essential Travel Justification”. Here’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
High-Beam Insights for Applying AI March 13, 2025 by Dave Lutz Most conversations around the use of Artificial Intelligence in the event industry are around use cases that improve workforce productivity and performance for repeatable processes. Here are three other approaches. Tech strategy firm Future Point of View (FPOV) recently released its Humalogy® Trends Report 2024, which includes responses from thousands of leaders across many industries, … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning, Event Technology
Conference Metrics That Matter July 24, 2024 by Dave Lutz “What gets measured, gets managed,” is a phrase coined by management guru Peter Drucker. For annual conferences, this is best accomplished by identifying and adopting a combination of leading and lagging performance measures. Not all metrics can give you the insights you need right now. Lagging indicators look at the past — the end results … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning
Streamlining Internal Communications July 17, 2024 by Dave Lutz Here’s a simple project-management tool that can help streamline internal communications — and clarify accountability — for annual meetings. Some components of planning an association annual meeting involve multiple departments and competing priorities. Membership wants one thing; publications, marketing, and chapter relations, another. Having too many cooks in the kitchen — and no clear owner … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
Two Tensions Keeping Senior Event Professionals Up at Night October 26, 2023 by Dave Lutz According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), the business-to-business exhibition industry is still in recovery mode. The bad news is that full year performance for 2023 participation and revenues is expected to be 9.5% below 2019. The good news is that 2024 is expected to eclipse 2019 results by 3.6%. (One can only … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
Creating Memorable Events with the Customer Journey Canvas: A Facilitator’s Guide October 2, 2023 by Sarah Michel This is a guest post by Diana Kander. Diane is a keynote speaker on curiosity and innovation and a New York Times Bestselling author. Her latest book, Go Big or Go Home, outlines five ways to create a memorable customer experience. The event planning industry is one of immense creativity, innovation, and personal touches. In … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
Better Because We Will Be There September 12, 2023 by Sarah Michel Many of our clients have had to navigate unchartered waters as venue contracts (that were secured years ago) are now being questioned and challenged by members in states that have adopted discriminatory and women’s health laws that go against the mission and values of the association. In response, we posted this article back in April … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning
