I love a cloned conference! Don't you? Jeff Rodgers of Zap Creative has launched The Meetings Department that offers a plug and play template for your next meeting. Starting at $5,000, you purchase a cloned conference experience with a minute-by-minute show flow, script for general sessions and awards, walk-in and walk-out music and videos to use that have won Telly Awards. [Update 6/23/11 : Please make sure you read Jeff Rodgers comments at the end of this post. Jeff clarifies what the … [Read more...]
The HIPPO In The Room: You Are Not Your Audience
Dear Conference Organizer: You are not your audience. You are not your customers. Yes, you have your own preferences, your own likes, your own tastes. But you are not planning that event for yourself. And what you like is probably far from what your audience likes. You have to get out of your own mind. You have to get beyond your personal inclinations. You must get beyond your own fondness for things done a specific way. You are no one except yourself. You are but one bit of anecdotal … [Read more...]
Your Conference Attendance Marketing Silver Bullet
It’s rare to find a silver bullet that actually works. And I've seen one lately. The Registrant List As A Lure For conference attendance acquisition, that bullet is the attendee list. The attendee list acts as a lure attracting those that have not registered yet. So let potential attendees see who else is already registered. Your conference participants want to hang out with the cool kids. They want to be part of the in crowd. They want to capitalize on the hallway conversations and … [Read more...]
Create An Event Pre-Mortem Instead Of An Event Autopsy
The knife plunged into the skin creating a diagonal slash starting at the shoulder. The gloved hands plunged the knife into the body again creating a second diagonal cut in the opposite shoulder. The two incisions met at a point and then continued in a vertical downward slice. The letter Y was scarred permanently into the body. No one screamed. No pain was felt. Little blood flowed from the body. The Common Autopsy This procedure is repeated daily in cities across the world. Clinical and … [Read more...]
Your Memory: The Engine And Bottleneck Of Learning
Myth: The more we sit and listen to conference lectures, the more we learn. Fact: Our memory is both the engine and the bottleneck of learning. The more information we receive without thinking about it, the more we corrupt our learning. Three Critical Factors Of Working Memory Working memory is the part of your mind that manipulates information. It is responsible for awareness, learning and thinking. We often call our working memory our consciousness. 1. Active Processor Working memory is the … [Read more...]
The Brain As A Gambler And Conference Camouflaged Listeners
If we wanted to create an education environment that is directly opposed to what the brain is good at doing, we would design something like today's conference lectures. Listening to a 45-, 60- or 90-minute lecture floods the working memory with information. We can't store everything we hear in our memory. The Brain As A Gambling Winner So, how can the brain's memory know what we'll need to remember later? If the brain gambled, it would lay its bets like this: if you think about something … [Read more...]
Meeting Planners Cheat Sheet: Food
Here's the second in a series of four quick tip sheets for meeting and event professionals regarding food and beverage, and meeting room setups. Here's the first tip sheet: Meeting Planners Cheat Sheet: Beverages. Most venues consider food and beverage as a significant revenue center. Often hotels give free meeting space based on the amount of money spent for food and beverage. So, the time to begin food and beverage negotiations is during the contract stage. Breakfast Breads Amount to … [Read more...]
Meeting Planners Cheat Sheet: Beverages
Here's the first in a series of four quick tip sheets for meeting and event professionals regarding food and beverage, and meeting room setups. It's also a great referral sheet for those appointed to handle meeting logistics for their company's meetings and need some insight. Morning Beverages Amount to serve: 1 gallon regular coffee per 30 attendees 1 gallon decaf coffee per 75 attendees 1 gallon hot water (for tea) per 100 attendees Provide soft drinks and bottled water for 25% of … [Read more...]
