Event Planning


Conference Reform Requires Cultivating Leaders With Moral Purpose To Make A Difference

Many conferences are stuck in the rut of legacy routines, age-old rituals and cloned programming. Conference organizers and its advisors replicate the past maintaining the traditions and well-established procedures of yesteryear. The event is nothing more than a zombie conference—a conference that appears to be alive yet in reality creates the walking undead. If you … [Read more…]

Developing Your Conference Story Arc To Activate Participants’ Brains

Applying a story arc to the conference can activate participants’ brains. And you want stimulated, motivated engaged brains during your event for sure! A story arc is an extended, continuous storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television series, comic books, video games, films etc. Each episode follows a dramatic arc with the story unfolding … [Read more…]

Use A Conference Story Arc To Shift Your Participants’ Brain Architecture And Strengthen Their Neural Connections

We are helpless story junkies says author, journalist, and storyteller Michelle Weldon. We can’t help it. It’s part of our human nature to crave and connect with stories. Your brain on story acts very differently than when your brain is receiving data, facts and information. It changes its structure and releases cortisol and oxytocin–called the … [Read more…]

Burn Conference Traditions Immune From Criticism

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. … [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 … [Read more…]

Effective Organizational Change Requires Engagement and Empowerment

I’m still getting my head around what does and doesn’t work with organizational development and change. After eight and half years of consulting at Velvet Chainsaw, one would think I would have figured out this change management stuff. But I haven’t. I have more questions than answers. I have seeds of ideas in need of … [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 … [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 … [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 … [Read more…]

Meeting Professionals Anxiously Want To Start Their Improvement Planning Process Yesterday

Conference and meeting professionals like action when planning their events. They are accustomed to juggling multiple demands. They have long to-do lists that require their attention and often exceed their available time. So, they have the tendency to want to hurry up and check-off items on their to-do list–yesterday. Herein likes one of their challenges … [Read more…]