Deal Or No Deal: Overcoming Barriers With Hotel Contracts March 23, 2012 by Dave Lutz You’ve found the perfect hotel for your meeting. It’s a great location. You were able to negotiate a good room rate. The concession package and your meeting space flows well too. The Contract’s T&Cs Cause You To Pause The hotel sends you a contract to secure the deal. As you review the 14-page document, you … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , contract negotiations, contracts, meeting planner, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional
Improving Conference Attendee Experiences March 19, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Experiences are better when conferences are built around people. The conference experience greatly improves for all stakeholders when they are built around people and their relationships. Traditional Conference Experience The traditional conference is built around logistics and content. The majority of the conference organizer’s time is spent selecting and scheduling speakers. Organizers choose speakers based … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, engagement, event experience, meeting planner, meeting professional, network, social networking
Six Shifts From Meetings Logistics To Designing Experiences March 16, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Our world continues to change rapidly. Today conference organizers must respond to fundamental shifts in attendees’ needs and expectations. Attendees want more connectedness, customization, interactions, personalization, group problem-solving and mobility. Conventional thinking for meeting professionals is to focus on the logistics of the meeting space. We spend our time and energy on designing the container … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional
Savvy Meeting Professionals Need These 21st Century Skills February 10, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Society is undergoing some sweeping transformations today. Conferences and meetings face radical disruptions as attendees integrate mobile devices and personal expectations for authenticity, participation, ROI and documented proven value. Meeting and event professionals cannot afford to keep their heads in the sand and ignore major culture and societal shifts. These changes are creeping into the … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conferences, meeting planner, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional
We Need A New Conference Drug September 19, 2011 by Jeff Hurt I want a new drug One that won’t make me sick One that won’t make me crash my car Or make me feel three feet thick I want a new drug One that will stop the flow Of conference information indigestion So that I can grow (With apologies to Huey Lewis And The News) Needed: … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional, speaker tips
Are You A Glorified Scheduler Or Strategic Meeting Professional? September 6, 2011 by Jeff Hurt As a conference organizer, are you focused on checking off your daily to do list or focused on fulfilling your participants’ needs? When you focus only on completing your task, you deliver what’s required. But not what’s expected. You follow the standard operating procedure precisely. And yet you miss the point completely. You comply with … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, meeting best practices, meeting logistics, meeting planner, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional, strategy
Five Steps To Become Conference Content-Strategist-Curators (Part 1) August 12, 2011 by Jeff Hurt If you are a conference organizer, imagine your job as a museum curator. Art gallery and museum curators use judgment and a distinguished sense of style to select and arrange art. They juxtapose art pieces against one another to create a narrative, evoke a response and communicate a message. Conference organizers must approach a conference’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference curator, conferences, content design, content strategist, content-strategist-curator, curate, curator, integrated content, meeting best practices, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional
Seeing The Meeting Professional As Content Strategist And Conference Curator August 11, 2011 by Jeff Hurt Our conference participants are becoming progressively more sophisticated. At the same time, our digital network is becoming increasingly complex bringing current information and our audience closer. Often our conference participants walk into our events knowing more than our speakers. Their experiences applying knowledge and information frequently surpass that of our presenters. So how can we … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference curator, conferences, content design, curate, curator, integrated content, meeting best practices, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional
Go Ahead. Reinvent The Wheel! July 1, 2011 by Jeff Hurt Every day I read dozens of blogs and articles about new technologies arriving at our door steps. I am always intrigued by the technology people create. Even more so, I am fascinated by their inventiveness. Their ingenuity. Their originality and resourcefulness. It’s very appealing and captivating. I want to hang around with those inventors and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference tips, conferences, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional
Screening Steps To Improve Your Conference’s Health June 27, 2011 by Jeff Hurt How healthy is your conference? Is it time for your conference to have a thorough physical exam? Is your conference experience in need of a health check-up? Is it in a state of dis-ease? Why Your Conference Needs A Checkup Here are three reasons why your conference needs a health checkup: 1. Avoid Dr. Fix-it … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference tips, conferences, meeting planner, meeting planning best practices, meeting professional
