Wanted: An individual with a laser focus on, and advocate for, the conference customer. Someone to educate leadership on the advantages of being customer and experience focused. A silo buster. A strategic professional with a high empathy quotient. Many conferences are planned and implemented leveraging a variety of departmental silos and often, several volunteer committees. One person or group owns education. Others are owned by marketing, business development, meeting planning, … [Read more...]
Your Conference Logo Needs Policing
Ok, you get it – Your Conference is a Brand. You’ve moved beyond the “annual meeting” into something more meaningful to your attendees. You’ve got your conference mission. You know how your conference will advance the profession and what’s in it for your participants. Now it is time to put your hard work into action. Design your conference logo. Adopt a repeatable look and feel (visuals) for communicating the benefits of attending. Creating A Conference Logo Why take the time to create … [Read more...]
365-Day Conferences Are Unrealistic
We’ve been hearing it for years. Conference organizers have been on a quest to create a 365-day community around their big annual event. As a result, industry education sessions and event technology products have adopted the year-round concept and branding. But there’s a problem, attendees and exhibitors aren’t falling in line. They’ll give you their attention for a limited time and then move on with their pressing priorities. They’re not interested in 365. They’re interested in solving … [Read more...]
Conference Education List Sessions Are Deliciously Temptatious
“37 Mobile Apps In Less Than 60 Minutes!” Tina Brown’s “12 Tips For Engaging Events.” “15 Industry Trends You Need To Know.” Lists! We love them! We are drawn to them. We fancy them. The Lure Of The List Conference session titles that contain a numbered list have become ubiquitous ways to attract a crowd and pack content. Why are we so attracted to lists? Why do conference session titles and descriptions that feature lists lure our brains like a moth to a flame? 1. It’s A Natural … [Read more...]
Six Tips To Create The Conference Introvert Advantage
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? If you’re an introvert, you’re trendy right now. There is a lot of media buzz about introversion and their inner strengths in a primarily extrovert world. One In Four... At least one in four people tends to listen more than they speak, often feels alone in large groups, and requires a lot of private time to restore their energy. They are introverts says author, researcher, educator and psychotherapist Dr. Marti Olsen Laney. According to Susan Cain, … [Read more...]
Three Conference Speaker Ahas You Need to Know
How does your conference speaker selection process compare to other organizations? What’s working and what isn’t when it comes to selecting and securing industry and professional speakers? The Use Of Professional And Industry Speakers The past summer, Velvet Chainsaw partnered with Tagoras, a leading market research and consulting company for learning, to survey conference professionals about their use of speakers for our second speaker report. This research was initially conducted in … [Read more...]
5 Conference Conditions That Lead To Attendee Focused Attention
Note: This post was originally published on July 11, 2011 and has been slightly edited. Attention is a payment of the brain's resources. It requires that we adjust, engage and sustain each of our nine brain areas involved in attention. We must also exclude, suppress or ignore external and internal distracters--and often that's the real difficult part. Ultimately, we need a highly disciplined internal state and the right brain chemical balance to maintain attention. This is why paying … [Read more...]
Are You Designing For The Four Stages Of Conference Experience?
As a conference organizer, are you designing for the four stages of a conference experience? Or are you only designing for attendees to consume information? If you are planning only didactic, one-way, information transfer such as lectures and panels, you are missing some great opportunities to give your attendees a more robust experience. Four Stages Of Conference Experience Most meeting professionals are unaware that there are four stages of an attendee's conference experience. They are only … [Read more...]
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