Belonging precedes believing. It’s true for our association members. It’s true for our organization’s leaders. The ways we include or exclude others influences their thoughts and actions. It’s more than what we say or write. It’s how we invite others to join and belong, how we greet them, how we appreciate them, how we accept … [Read more…]
One of society’s greatest paradoxes is that we have more connections today than we did in the past but there is less community and conversation. As a conference organizer, you can seed your annual meeting with experiences that nurture authentic conversations, deep connections and community. You don’t have to sacrifice honest talk for today’s casual … [Read more…]
Who owns the overall experience that customers have at your conference? Who oversees and manages the conference customers’ journey? Is it you or someone else? Or perhaps no one is considering the holistic experience of your conference customer? Are you functioning as a scheduler and executor of the conference with a divide and conquer mentality … [Read more…]
How does your conference treat its participants? How do you and your leadership team view them? Are your conference customers more like tourists? Seeking conference swag, amenity room drops, welcome bags and quick ideas? Or are they more like explorers? Craving authentic experiences, no matter the size, that enhance their lives and change their attitudes, … [Read more…]
Established, successful conferences have leadership that are usually adept at incrementally improving their event each year. They focus on securing better content and speakers. Or improving registration and marketing practices. Or creating unique receptions and parties. Or decreasing expenses and increasing revenue. One improvement tactic–curating conference programming that meets your customers’ needs–is foundational yet proving … [Read more…]
Wikipedia defines design as the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object, system or measurable human interaction (as in architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams, and sewing patterns). So, when you read the word design, what pops into your mind? Artists? Fashion Designers? City planning? Interior design? Graphic … [Read more…]
Your conference could be a place for your customers to experience unrestricted curiosity and play. But most of the time it’s not. Curiosity becomes codified into bureaucratic traditional expert-centric instructional models—lectures and panel discussions. And that passive sedentary process actually controls and squelches most curious thinking. And forget play! Authentic curiosity does not come from … [Read more…]
Personalization—it seems to be the 2017 buzzword for nonprofit associations and conferences. Everyone seems to be talking about it like here and here. Yet, personalization is more than technology. It means more than our past purchases or posts in social media. We have likes, dislikes, preferences, strengths, weakness, emotions, experiences and knowledge that do not … [Read more…]
As a conference organizer, how purpose-driven are you? Successful conference organizers are purpose-driven! They grow into purpose leaders that influence others with a shared vision and purpose. They evolve into meaning-machines. They design conference experiences that become meaning-making opportunities for their participants. And they make their planning teams’ work important. Not clichéd or trivial. Critically … [Read more…]
The world has drastically changed in the past several decades. But most conference experiences have changed very little, if at all. They compete with the Internet to distribute content and deliver information. So what type of conference education are you serving your customers—shallow learning, advancement learning or deep learning? Do you even know the difference … [Read more…]
