Want To Help Your Attendees? Stop Calling It Networking! May 19, 2015 by Sarah Michel Attendees value the connections they make at your conference. It’s one of their most treasured intangible benefits of attendance. They come to your event looking for their people. They meet many of your attendees at receptions, meals, sessions and in the hallways. Unfortunately, many of those introductions are nothing more than empty interactions. They don’t … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , community, conference best practices, connections, connexity, engagement, networking, networthing
Leading Others Through Organization Change Requires Effective Brain-Friendly Plans May 18, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Yes, when dealing with change, the details of the change are important. Equally important are the plans we develop to bring others along with the change. We often omit creating a plan that our team can own. We make a barbaric blunder and create a plan about the details of the change. We forget about … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , brain friendly strategies, brain-friendly meetings, change, change management, leadership, neuroleadership, neuroscience
Rebalancing Conference Vertigo By Starting With Design-Less Strategies April 17, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Leaping to action without a solid comprehension of your conference target market and their needs causes all sorts of mayhem. Some conference organizers and their planning team members don’t even realize they are in the eye of a storm. That mayhem is their blind spot. Planning a conference without a deep understanding of what makes … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , conference design empathy, conference organizer, conference planning, conference planning team, constrained collaboration, culture of learning, customer empathy, empathy, learning organization, meeting planner, meeting professional, strategic empathy, strategy
Putting Design Empathy Into Conference Practice March 31, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Empathy is powerful! It plays a fundamental role in our connections, our networking, our learning, our problem solving, our innovation and our collaboration with others. According to research, when we are empathetic, we actually enhance our cognitive abilities. (Decety and Ickes, 2011). Putting ourselves into others shoes helps us improve our thinking. We improve our … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference design empathy, customer empathy, design empathy, empathy, empathy mapping, strategic empathy
Your Conference Needs To Adopt Design Empathy Practices March 25, 2015 by Jeff Hurt The group kept returning to this word. I thought we were finished discussing all of its nuances and implications. Then another small group would underscore its importance. It’s as if this word was a floating bobber in a lake constantly tossed around due to wind and waves. It wouldn’t disappear. Just when we thought no … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference design empathy, customer empathy, design empathy, empathy, empathy mapping, strategic empathy
Sponsorship Ideas From Super Bowl Fan Experiences February 12, 2015 by Wendy Holliday Super Bowl fans paid big money to attend the experience in Arizona. Sponsors paid big money for game day ads. And some paid for unique customer experiences, some onsite and some online. The savviest sponsors engaged fans before they ever hit the turnstiles or clicked their remote. They knew that getting the most from their … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference sponsorship, sponsor activation, sponsor leverage, sponsorship best practices
Borrowing Great Ideas Leads To The Risks Associated With Mimicry January 20, 2015 by Dave Lutz We seem to always be looking for the next quick tip, idea, or feature to implement for our next conference. But not so fast — there’s some work that needs to be done first. Just copying someone else’s success and ideas is an easy way out. Give Me Your Great Ideas…Fast! We like to see … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, conference best practices, conference education, copying great ideas, education best practices, exhibit, Learning Lounge, list education sessions, mimicry
NetWORTHing: The New Way to Network At Conferences January 15, 2015 by Sarah Michel Have you ever been a victim of a network drive-by at a conference? Violated by someone who only talks to you if they think you can do something for them? The whole time they’ve got one eye searching for a more influential target to move to. Everyone has been burned by someone who in the … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, networking, networthing
Four Commitments That Block Conference Reinvention December 22, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Some conferences keep pace with changing times. Others seem stuck in a time warp. Tradition led them to success in the past and they expect it will in the future. Most organizations respond to changing times in some way. Many respond by increasing the flurry of activity that has resulted in past success. Usually, that’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference reinvention, mindset, revolutionary conference, strategic thinking, transformation
Improving Conference Experiences With The Ground Breaking Discovery Of Brain-In-The-Heart November 14, 2014 by Jeff Hurt We’ve all heard people say: “Go with your gut.” “Just follow your heart.” “Trust your instinct.” These colloquial sayings feel more like fuzzy-thinking, sensitive touchy-freely speeches or lyrical metaphors. It’s not normally something that you expect experts to say at a conference. Nor is it something we strive to create in conference experiences. But should … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , adult learning principles, brain-friendly conferences, brain-friendly meetings, Brain-in-heart, conference best practices, education best practices, heart coherence, neuroscience
