[Webinar] Mission Critical: How One Association Transformed its Live Event to Virtual in Record Time May 6, 2020 by Betsy Bair This is not a typical story. The American Association of Suicidology’s annual meeting had been growing steadily in recent years. When their reimagined conference couldn’t take place in Portland, Ore., in late April, staff and volunteers went into overdrive to transition the physical meeting to a virtual one in a matter of days.They knew how … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , association best practices, conference best practices, meeting planning best practices, virtual conference, virtual event, virtual meeting, Webcast, webinar
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
Your Conference Content Has Magnetic Pull July 23, 2018 by Dave Lutz Content marketing has grown by leaps and bounds during the past five years. Unfortunately, too few event organizers fully embrace the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing. Likewise, many conference professionals have no idea what embracing the long-tail, pull benefits of content marketing even means. It’s a foreign concept to them. Most marketing and communications … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , Attendance Acquisition, attendance marketing, conference best practices, content marketing, Education, Education & Adult Learning, marketing, meeting planning best practices, Session Marketing
Ninja Moves for Improved Conference Session Marketing September 8, 2016 by Dave Lutz Better session copy helps put butts in seats! As conference education trumps the exhibit hall experience at many association meetings, or creeps into your trade show experience to create a solutions-driven, holistic experience for your attendees, upping your game with session titles, descriptions, and learning objectives has become more important than ever. In 2013, we … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , Attendance Acquisition, attendance marketing, conference best practices, content marketing, Education, Education & Adult Learning, meeting planning best practices, Session Marketing
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
Four Stupendous Strategic Steps You Should Practice Regularly February 19, 2016 by Jeff Hurt One of the biggest challenges we face—especially nonprofit association and conference professionals–is spending adequate time thinking. For some reason, we believe that doing is better than thinking. When we do something, we seem to make progress. Well, at least that’s what we tell ourselves. When we think, there doesn’t seem to be any forward movement. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , association executives, credibility, event professionals, hospitality professionals, meeting planning best practices, meeting professionals, strategic thinking, strategic value, strategy
What a CEO Can Do For Your Conference December 15, 2015 by Dave Lutz 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. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , community, conference best practices, conference tips, meeting planning best practices
In Today’s Economy, Significance Precedes Momentum October 9, 2015 by Jeff Hurt So many people ask me, “If ______________ (fill in the blank) is so important for conferences, why aren’t more conferences implementing it?” “So you wait to make changes to your event once you see other conferences are already doing it?” I respond. “You wait to copy someone else instead of being the leader?” Frequently, conference … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , change management, conference, conference organizer, conference planning team, Innovation, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional, tipping point
The Future Conference Is About Increasing Attendees’ ROI September 3, 2015 by Jeff Hurt The future conference is not about the environment, the furniture, the venue, the audio visual or the technology. The future conference is about increasing the paying attendee’s ROI. The future conference is about helping the attendee transfer and apply their conference learning to their job. Actually, the fundamental job of future conferences is threefold: To … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning strategies, conferences, connexity, interactive, meeting planning best practices, networking, passive listening, presentation strategies, speaker
Helping Sponsors Turbocharge Through Activation September 2, 2015 by Dave Lutz Activation (or leverage) is the most misunderstood, yet most critical, success driver for sponsorship ROI. Savvy marketing professionals totally get activation. But most of our profession doesn’t. This is why many of us continue to sell non-emotional promotional opportunities and incorrectly call them sponsorship. We need to capitalize on this golden opportunity. Consumer events are … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference best practices, meeting planning best practices, sponsor activation, sponsor leverage, sponsorship activation, sponsorship best practices, strategic sponsorships
