Getting Leadership Buy-in For Your Conference Upgrades June 19, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Your conference planning team has bought in to the idea that their traditional conference model needs to change. They’ve even agreed to some of the unique changes that should happen. Now you have to convince your leadership including the C-Suite, possibly the Board of Directors, and others, that these changes are the right move to … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, dealing with resistance, education best practices
Attitudes That Separate Growing, Healthy Conferences From Declining Ones June 10, 2015 by Jeff Hurt So what’s the difference between a growing, healthy conference and a declining one? Well, there are a lot of differences. Leadership—boards, committees, volunteers, staff—of growing, healthy conferences share some common attitudes. And leaders of declining conferences share similar outlooks as well. These mindsets have a huge influence on a meeting’s outcomes. Here are five leadership … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference growth, conference health, Conference Profitability, Conference Revenue Performance, conferences, long term growth, strategic planning, strategic thinking, strategy
Faulty Governance Models Can Obliterate Your Conference June 9, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Does your organization have a permission-withholding culture or a permission-granting culture? One of those cultures is empowering, healthy and life-giving. The other is stifling, frustrating, dysfunctional and can annihilate your conference success. Unfortunately, I’ve found that more organizations have permission-withholding cultures. They foster three characteristics: bureaucracy, control and mistrust. These three dysfunctions disempower leaders and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , association best practices, association governance, conference best practices, conference governance model, governance model, meeting planner, meeting professional, nonprofit governance
Measuring Actionable Or Vanity Conference Metrics June 8, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Your conference needs a checkup! Just like you need an annual doctor’s appointment for routine health checkup, your conference needs a routine checkup. Sure, you may feel like your conference doesn’t need it, just like you feel you don’t need a medical checkup. Regardless of how you feel, it is important. You need to assess … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Event Planning Tagged With: , actionable metrics, conference best practices, conference evaluation, conference indicators, conference performance indicators, KPI, KPIs, metrics, shatterpoints, vanity metrics
Treating Attendees As Human Beings Not Machines June 1, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Creating a conference culture of connection is a robust competitive advantage. One of the most powerful and often misunderstood aspects of successful conferences is authentically connecting with others. Too often our conference networking experiences disintegrate into ego driven, self-promotional, self-exploiting opportunities. It is irrational not to intentionally create conference experiences that nurture and promote authentic … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , community, conference best practices, connections, connexity, engagement, networking
Converting Three Hugely Popular Complaints About Changing Conference Education May 22, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Some conferences have begun to make the transition from passive listening experiences to active participatory education sessions. Participatory conference education is moving from a buzzword to a normal practice. And ultimately, attendees benefit greatly from the change. Some conference organizers have discovered that this transition requires more work than the traditional model of sit-‘n-get lectures … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, dealing with resistance, education best practices
Four Ways To Attract NextGen Conference Participants May 21, 2015 by Dave Lutz Attracting the next generation of participants is an urgent priority for most professional conference organizers. Too often we think that means injecting conference botox to give our event a more youthful, trendy hip vibe. Yet it is much more than giving our conference a face-lift. The Conference Demographic Bell Curve Recently, I was involved in … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Business Model Tagged With: , attracting millennials, conference best practices, conferences, generations, Millennial, next-generation conferences
Conference WOW Moments Require Perpetual Reinvention May 20, 2015 by Donna Kastner Your mighty event team managed to transform a “what if?” idea into a five-star, conference greatest hit. The attendee WOW factor was off the charts. This big moment gave your brand a major boost, with social shares rippling out to others who didn’t attend, but now wish they had. Everyone’s talking about this incredible experience, … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , attendee satisfaction, conference best practices, conference experience design
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
Misguided And Misinformed Conference Barometers May 8, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Many of us who plan conferences have become so busy at the logistics of the event that we lose sight of the goal. When planning an event, we immediately go into automatic overdrive. We do the same things we’ve always done because it’s efficient and familiar to us. The over arching goals of the conference—providing … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , attendee experience, conference best practices, conference experience, conference indicators, conference performance indicators, KPI, KPIs, shatterpoints, traditional conferences
