Sponsorship Mattering: From Logos and Noise to Emotional Experiences [Free eBook] July 13, 2015 by Wendy Holliday Sponsorships featuring logos, eyeballs and impressions don’t carry the same value they once did. At the same time, sponsorship buyers are becoming more sophisticated about the dollars they invest and how they leverage emotional marketing. They’re also refining their palate to deliver more intimate customer and prospect experiences including hosting their own exclusive events. Conference … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design, Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference best practices, meeting planning best practices
Ten Ways Conference Professionals Can Gain Credibility And Increase Their Strategic Value July 9, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Are you looking to gain credibility? Do you want to climb the career ladder? Do you want to be seen by your executives as a leader who can add strategic value? Sure you do. And if you’re like most, you want to do this now. You don’t want to wait 10-20 years before people respect … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , credibility, event professionals, hospitality professionals, meeting planning best practices, meeting professionals, strategic thinking, strategic value
Silos Suffocate Your Successful Conference June 25, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Imagine an extended family of eight living under one roof together. Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad and four siblings. Everyone lives in a separate room. Imagine they never speak to each other except once a week at a Sunday lunch. Each engages in their own personal activities in separate schedules. They just pass each other coming … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference planning, conference planning team, meeting planning best practices, silo mentality, Silos, vision
Increase Conference Attendee Acquisition With Targeted Message Maps November 3, 2014 by Wendy Holliday How often are your conference communication pieces in lockstep with your attendees’ needs? Do your conference emails tend to go out as a one-size-fits-all blast to your entire database? Or is your copy customized with critical issues for each primary target audience segment? If you want to increase your conference attendee acquisition, you need targeted … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , conference best practices, engagement, meeting planning best practices
Fostering Planned Serendipity At Conferences October 28, 2014 by Sarah Michel Some people call it luck. Others call it fate. Whatever we call it, serendipity is a wonderful thing. We’ve all experienced it at a conference. That happy accident or surprising discovery when you sit next to someone at a session who deals with the same work challenges as you. This new serendipitous connection introduces you … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Networking, Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference serendipity, meeting planning best practices, networking
Conference Improvement Starts With A Focus On The Attendee Experience September 29, 2014 by Dave Lutz Improving attendee experiences is a top priority for the majority of conference planners. Yet few of us plan the attendee experience correctly. We approach conference planning from the inside-out. Considering the attendee experience is an afterthought. Most conference improvement plans look something like this: Systems & Resources → Procedures → Touchpoints → Interactions → Experiences. Although we don’t usually … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , attendee experience, conference best practices, customer, customer empathy, meeting, meeting planning best practices, user experience design, UXD
Your Conference Logo Needs Policing September 15, 2014 by Wendy Holliday 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. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference marketing, conference tips, event marketing, meeting planning best practices, visuals
Conference & Trade Show Sponsors Want Relevance September 8, 2014 by Donna Kastner As we strive to deliver outstanding attendee experiences, our eyes turn to sponsorship. After all, somebody has to pay for this. Yet sponsorship tends to follow the same random path: Logos are slapped on every last bit of real estate. Banner ads and app alerts multiply. As the promotional noise increases, attendee attention plummets – thus making … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , conference best practices, meeting planning best practices, sponsors, sponsorship best practices, sponsorship sales, tradeshow best practices
365-Day Conferences Are Unrealistic September 3, 2014 by Sarah Michel 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 … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference ecommunity, conference tips, meeting best practices, meeting planning best practices, social networking
Lessons From Bruno Mars on Audience Engagement August 20, 2014 by Sarah Michel What can Bruno Mars teach us about audience engagement for our ballroom experiences? Plenty. Earlier this week, I witnessed 7,000 participants (from Linksters to Boomers) stand, clap, sing and dance for 75 minutes at his sold-out Denver Moonshine Jungle concert. If you saw his performance at the 2014 Super Bowl halftime, you already know the … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , active participation, conference best practices, engagement, meeting planning best practices, virtual attendee
