Transform Your Expo into a Networking and Learning Destination August 28, 2019 by Sarah Michel Expos are the most disrupted element of association conferences today. If you’re still using “tradeshow,” “market place” or “exhibit hall” as names for the area where you feature solution providers—who are there to help your attendees deal with the problems and challenges they’re facing—it’s time for a rebrand. Attendees make buying decisions so differently now, … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , exhibit hall, expo, market place, solutions center, solutions circles
Expo Decisions: Attendee Preferences over Exhibitors—Always August 6, 2019 by Dave Lutz For those of you who organize large annual conferences and trade shows, there undoubtedly is a chicken-vs.-egg debate. On the one hand, your organization might receive as much as 50 percent (or more) of your event’s revenue from supplier investments in exhibits, sponsorship and advertising categories, making it a priority. On the other hand, you … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , booth sales, exhibitor advisory, exhibitor advisory committee, exhibitor advisory council
Education Committee: More Advising and Curating, Less Slotting June 24, 2019 by Dave Lutz Most meeting organizers invest a significant amount of time creating the educational programming for their annual conference. Models vary, but most include a 15- to 20-person conference committee (slotters) and army of reviewers (graders). Progressive organizers are shifting to a blended model, where conference committees act more like content curators and advisors and less like … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , abstracts, curation, Education, education committee, grading, posters, rubric, slotting, submissions
Leveraging Team Learning at Conferences May 22, 2019 by Betsy Bair Traditionally teams from organizations attend a conference with a divide-and-conquer game plan, as they split up and attend as many different sessions as they can. The challenge with that strategy is that it’s very unlikely any real change will occur when the one team member who experienced the learning returns to work. Will they share … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Experience Design Tagged With: , collaboration, design for teams, leverage teams, organizational learning, team discounts, teamwork
Practicing Conference Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less And Better January 10, 2019 by Jeff Hurt It’s hard for conference organizers to stick to planning the essential elements of their events. We are bombarded from every side from people who want us to add their components to the schedule. Various departments and committees see the event’s gathering of people as an opportunity for them to showcase their programs, services and agendas. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , all things to all people, conference essentialism, conference essentialist, essence, essential, essentialism, less but better, someting for everyone
Has Your Leadership Evolved For The New Normal? January 4, 2019 by Jeff Hurt Change is hard. Foresight—looking forward—is hard. Why? Because we prefer certainty and concreteness to ambiguity and abstraction. Becoming a new normal leader requires shifting your perspective. It means becoming biased towards consistent, persistent evolution, not inclined to keep things the way they are which results in stagnant-status-quo-sameness. Your organization’s sustainable success depends upon you transforming … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , 21st Century mindset, ambigious, association leaders, board, board of directors, complex, exponential change, leadership, new normal, uncertain, volatile, VUCA
On Becoming A New Normal Leader January 3, 2019 by Jeff Hurt It’s a common, well-accepted, well-worn and overused term: the New Normal. It’s also stealthily deceptive and destructive. It’s critical that successful leaders understand that linear thinking is just an exit ramp in a world of exponential change. Many of today’s leaders, especially association board of directors and CEOs, think that the new normal will eventually … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , 21st Century mindset, association leaders, board, board of directors, curate experiences, curate the future, curation, exponential change, hockey stick curve, leader as curator, linear thinking, new normal
Your Conference Needs a Hub To Entice Customers and Prospects October 12, 2018 by Dave Lutz At a recent conference consultation with a client, a millennial made me think that I wasn’t keeping up with the times. We were discussing their marketing and communication strategies for their event. I voiced my strong opinion that conference organizers should embrace inbound marketing (pull) over traditional outbound marketing (push). I explained that a blog … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Experience Design Tagged With: , conference blog, conference marketing, conference narrative, home base, hub and spoke, hub and spoke marketing, inbound marketing, outbound marketing, outposts, pull strategy, push strategy
Emerging Evergreen Conference Practices—From This To That September 18, 2018 by Jeff Hurt 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 … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , chief participant experience officer, conference fads, conference gimmicks, conference trends, Customer Centricity, emerging practices, evergreen conference principles, insights, metrics, strategy
Do Not Be Seduced By Meeting Fads Or Conference Trends September 17, 2018 by Jeff Hurt 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 … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , conference bandwagon, conference fads, conference gimmicks, conference trends, emerging practices, evergreen conference principles
