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 to be insufficient for innovation and new growth. … [Read more...]
The 21st Century Meeting Professional: Act Strategically, Think Both Functionally And Strategically
What’s the role of the 21st Century meeting and conference professional? In the past, the answer was easy. Perform very straight forward, transactional, functional tasks related to the logistics of conferences, meetings and events. S/He fulfilled the same types of tasks on a daily basis. When asked to make improvements, s/he focused on efficiency and cost savings. Today however, many meeting professionals are being asked to balance new strategic roles while still managing their functional … [Read more...]
Many Conferences Lack Connective Tissue
Your conference is lacking! Yes, it lacks the connective tissue to support it participants’ true business objectives for attending your event. Yes, it lacks the connective tissue of an obvious framework for the current and future needs of its stakeholders. Connective tissue is a material that supports the vital organs of your body. It provides scaffolding that binds and surrounds other tissues and parts of the body. It connects organs and forms the walls of blood vessels. The Body’s Use … [Read more...]
Business Improvement Conference Education Trends
Does your conference education drive attendees’ business performance? Or are your offerings more a roll of the dice, leaving it up to chance that they impact the attendees’ job performance. The most effective and successful conferences focus their learning opportunities on sustaining attendees’ critical strategic skills, building evolving organizational capabilities and linking conference education to business performance. Five Business Improvement Conference Education Trends Executives … [Read more...]
More Dangerous Assumptions About Your Conference Education Part 2
The research* shows that much of what we do in our conference education is actually counterproductive. (*See partial list of research and books at the end of Dangerous Assumptions Part 1 post.) We spend too much of our conference time on delivery of information. The web is a better information delivery model than our events. We should shift our conference education focus to our attendees’ real business results. When we emphasize delivery for application instead of delivery for information … [Read more...]
Dangerous Assumptions About Your Conference Education Part I
It’s a very dangerous assumption. We assume that if our speakers are talking, our attendees must be learning. We equate telling from the stage with audience education. Telling does not equal learning. We’ve placed a value on experts talking instead of a value on attendees’ learning. It’s backwards thinking and it’s one of our conference’s most dangerous assumptions. Mimicking The Wrong Model Most of our conference education mimics our traditional higher education model. Attendees listen … [Read more...]
Improving Your Conference Operational Effectiveness Is Not Strategic Positioning
It’s one of the biggest confusions in the meetings industry today. That improving your conference operations—registration, food and beverage counts, room capacities, room sets, project management, vendor practices, partnering, benchmarking, following industry best practices, conference management tools—improves your strategy. It doesn’t! Improving your conference operations is not strategic positioning! Sure improving your conference operations improves your efficiency and operations … [Read more...]
