[Video] 5 Tips to Guarantee Engagement at Your Virtual Event April 20, 2020 by Sarah Michel To design a virtual event with the participants in mind, you need to create an engaging, interactive experience that provides relevant content and promotes knowledge sharing and networking value—often the missing link in our new virtual reality. In this short video, we give you five tips to ensure that you’ll achieve amazing and impactful engagement … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , COVID-19, digital engagement, digital events, engagement, hybrid meetings, virtual events, webinars
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
Hybrid Meetings Doomed to Failure? Not So Fast March 17, 2017 by Betsy Bair I’ll admit that in 2011, when the Virtual Edge Institute (now called the Digital Experience Institute) first co-located its conference with the Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders, the experience fell flat for me. At the time, a mere six years ago, the fledgling for-profit entity that wagered its future on the potential of virtual … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Technology, Experience Design, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , engagement, hyrbrid meetings, virtual meetings
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
What Participants Expect From 21st Century Conference Experiences January 30, 2017 by Jeff Hurt Everything we take for granted about conferences, and planning them, faces disruption. Participants from all generations and cultures increasingly expect conferences to mirror their work and personal lives. They expect conferences that are authentic, connected, contextual, mobile, participatory, work-related and transparent. Savvy conference organizers meet these disruptions head-on. They know how to segment their target … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning, Experience Design Tagged With: , 21st century conferences, cognitively stimulating, collaboration, conference experience, conference experience design, engagement, learning spaces, mental engagement, participants, purpose-driven
Creating The Highly Energized And Engaged Conference Participant September 16, 2016 by Jeff Hurt Are 50%-80% of your conference attendees in your programming at any given time? Or are they filling the hallways, hotel spa and lounge, local restaurants, coffee shops and bars conversing with others? Or are they visiting the local tourist attractions? One thing is certain, if your conference attendees are not fully engaged in the experience … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , attendee engagement, conference best practices, engagement, participant, participant-centric
Getting More Value from Conference Keynote Speakers June 29, 2016 by Dave Lutz Not long ago, becoming a professional speaker was a third step in a thought leaders career path. Many built their expertise in an industry or function, shifted to consulting and then wrote a book to launch their speaking career. In today’s digital age, the path to creating a thought leader platform, leading to speaking gigs, … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , engagement, keynote, meeting planning best practices, professional speakers, Speaker Emerging Practices, speaker selection
Your Trade Show Attendees: What Do They Really, Really Want? June 28, 2016 by Betsy Bair This is the first in a series of posts on the findings of reports published by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) based on research recently conducted on attendee retention strategies. It’s likely that the Brexit vote last week is on my mind and that’s why the Spice Girls’ tune, “Wannabe,” popped into my … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , attendance analysis, attendance marketing, attendees, behavioral data, conference best practices, engagement, Trade show marketing
How Conference Networking Improves Participants’ Brain Health [Webinar May 11] May 6, 2016 by Sarah Michel Brain science research continues to prove that our brains function best when we’re engaged in meaningful We-centric conversations. We are a highly social species. This research illustrates our need to design conferences that promote deeper and more meaningful conversations, especially in our networking. These We-centric conversations, as organizational anthropologist and author Judith Glaser states, move … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , community, conference best practices, connexity, conversational intelligence, engagement, event website, I-centric, levels of conversations, networking, We-Centric
Innovators Network Differently November 13, 2015 by Dave Lutz After studying a whole bunch of professional conferences, it’s very clear to me what separates a thriving event from one on life support. For multi-day conferences, a growing number register and return because of who else will be there. Our attendees have more choices than ever for professional development and acquiring purchasing intelligence. Today, it’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , active participation, conference best practices, engagement, Innovation, innovators, networking
