[Webinar] Mission Critical: How One Association Transformed its Live Event to Virtual in Record Time May 6, 2020 by Betsy Bair This is not a typical story. The American Association of Suicidology’s annual meeting had been growing steadily in recent years. When their reimagined conference couldn’t take place in Portland, Ore., in late April, staff and volunteers went into overdrive to transition the physical meeting to a virtual one in a matter of days.They knew how … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , association best practices, conference best practices, meeting planning best practices, virtual conference, virtual event, virtual meeting, Webcast, webinar
Five-Step Framework for Effective Collaborative Design September 10, 2019 by Lisa Block Your conference strategy should include a plan to inject fresh content or experiences each year as part of an ongoing improvement process. There are a million ways to make these improvement plans. Some work and many don’t. Working with one of our clients, we devised a simple framework to help develop innovative plans for meaningful … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning, Experience Design Tagged With: , annual meeting changes, change mangement, conference best practices, effective collaborative design, engagement, meeting planning best practices
Your Conference Content Has Magnetic Pull July 23, 2018 by Dave Lutz Content marketing has grown by leaps and bounds during the past five years. Unfortunately, too few event organizers fully embrace the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing. Likewise, many conference professionals have no idea what embracing the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing even means. It’s a foreign concept to them. Most marketing and communications … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , Attendance Acquisition, attendance marketing, conference best practices, content marketing, Education, Education & Adult Learning, marketing, meeting planning best practices, Session Marketing
Why Your Conference Should be Target-Audience Obsessed July 10, 2017 by Dave Lutz In order to design relevant education and networking experiences at our conferences, we need to be focused to the point of obsession with our target audience. Over the past 18 months, we’ve carefully scrubbed and analyzed the attendance of 20 major conferences. These projects had an aggregate attendance of 110,000-plus participants with registration revenue in … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Business Model Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference planning, meeting design, target audience
How to Improve Your Call for Presentations Process April 12, 2017 by Dave Lutz When Velvet Chainsaw Consulting conducted speaker research with 120 associations with research and consulting company Tagoras Inc. in 2013, we found that nearly 77 percent use a call for speakers/sessions process. Associations value member input. One-third of these organizations accept 60 percent or more of the proposals, indicating either a low number of submissions or … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Event Planning Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning principles, call for presentations, conference best practices, Education & Adult Learning, presentation strategies, speaker practices
Specific Strategies To Take Your Conference Full Frontal! March 22, 2017 by Jeff Hurt You can make your conference the purple cow of all conference experiences. That is if you want to be seen as unique and different. So how do you do that? By creating conference experiences that help your participants think smarter! This means designing conference experiences that go full frontal! Going full frontal means engaging the … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , brain friendly strategies, brain health, brain-friendly conferences, brain-friendly meetings, cognitively stimulating, conference best practices, executive functions of the brain, full frontal, higher order thinking skills, lower order thinking skills, neuroscience
Take Your Conference Full Frontal March 20, 2017 by Jeff Hurt It’s time to take your conference full frontal! No, not a full frontal lobotomy. Nor a behind the scenes look at the private parts. It’s time to challenge and encourage your conference stakeholders to focus on engaging their brains at a higher level. It’s time to develop conference experiences that help your stakeholders think smarter. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , brain friendly strategies, brain health, brain-friendly conferences, brain-friendly meetings, cognitively stimulating, conference best practices, executive functions of the brain, full frontal, higher order thinking skills, lower order thinking skills, neuroscience
Mediocrity Is Your Biggest Conference Competitor March 6, 2017 by Jeff Hurt Your real conference competition is not that event held six months after yours. Nor is your competitor time, money and resources. Your real competitor is mediocrity to paraphrase authors Karin Hurt and David Dye. You’re In A Difficult Position: Look Backwards Or Forwards For Programming? Today’s technology driven, hyper-connected, instant gratification, real-time world puts you … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning Tagged With: , audience expectations, average, conference best practices, conference experience, mediocrity, originality
Evolve into a Caretaker of Content March 2, 2017 by Betsy Bair Imagine designing your next conference or annual meeting from scratch around content instead of picking up the template you’ve been using for years and tweaking it. Not just your education programming, but your breaks, meals, even your exhibit hall (which we advocate for evolving into a solutions center, including changing the name). “Please stop designing … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , 21st century conferences, audience-centric, conference best practices, conference design, conference education, engagement
Our Increased Distrust Of Institutions And What It Means To Your Association, Conference November 8, 2016 by Jeff Hurt “I’m done with __________________!” Go ahead and fill in that blank with any type of institution. Big business, conferences, education, government, medicine, membership associations, nonprofits, professional societies, religious organizations, trade organizations, etc. We are witnessing the rise of the Dones, as Dr. Josh Packard calls them. Groups of people that are done with traditional, outdated … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , association trends, co-creation, collaboration, conference best practices, conference planning, conversations, institutions, Josh Packard, participation, The Dones
