Velvet Chainsaw

APRIL 9, 2020

This is the second in a series of blogs posts, written collaboratively by our team, which uncover lessons learned in advising dozens of our clients on their events in the time of COVID-19. Although each situation has its own unique issues, we hope you find nuggets to help you with your disruption response and planning.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JULY 20, 2016

Just like potholes, conference planning thinkholes can be an expensive problem for your event. They can create some major cavities and damage to your participants’ conference experience. Defining Conference Planning Thinkholes. Four More Hazardous Conference Planning Thinkholes.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JULY 25, 2017

Our conference learning spaces affect our audience. Then we can focus on changing our conference participants’ learning spaces with the right goal in mind—nurturing their learning. Are You Putting Lipstick On Outdated Conference Education Models And Calling It A Success? Think About These As You Plan And Design.

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Velvet Chainsaw

OCTOBER 20, 2020

While things have changed, these tenets will hold true and the principles can be applied to other D&I conferences and events. After studying and consulting on several successful association women’s conferences, I can confidently say – they need to be very different than other conferences in your portfolio.

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Velvet Chainsaw

MARCH 6, 2017

Your real conference competition is not that event held six months after yours. Today’s technology driven, hyper-connected, instant gratification, real-time world puts you as a conference organizer in a difficult position. Too often our current conference planning processes focus on the greatest common denominator.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 4, 2018

As conference organizers, why can’t we also have a fun, fulfilling, and collaborative experience planning and designing the conference? And our planning team members should too. Here are six ways to focus on designing your team’s experience during your next conference planning process. (I confess: I have!).

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Velvet Chainsaw

JULY 14, 2016

Why do so many people rate the conference experience as stale, predictable and average at best? Why do conference leaders miss the mark at preparing their own unique DNA conference experience? Why do so many conference organizers miss the opportunity to create a matchless thumbprint on their event’s identity?

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Velvet Chainsaw

JULY 27, 2018

Who wants to attend a common, ordinary, ho-hum, everyday , I’m-just-like-all-the-others traditional conference? And who wants to plan or sell one? Your conference growth and revenue depends upon repeat paying attendees year after year. Customer loyalty is the cornerstone for your event’s success. Nothing new for me.”.

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Velvet Chainsaw

DECEMBER 23, 2020

In spite of all the bad, there is also much that is positive for the next phase of association conferences. Inspired by one of our clients, last week we convened a roundtable of forward-looking association Event Directors. Planning virtual events takes more time, resources and energy. Right now, it’s just harder!

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Velvet Chainsaw

MAY 3, 2017

Most conferences are stuck in a rut! So how do you create a conference experience that is not like all the others? Start by considering one or more of these conference big ideas. They are the conference planning road less traveled that harvests success! Big Conference Ideas On The Road Less Traveled Part 1.

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Velvet Chainsaw

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Applying a story arc to the conference can activate participants’ brains. And you want stimulated, motivated engaged brains during your event for sure! You can use the story arc concept to carefully craft the messages and issues you want your conference participants to explore, experience and learn. Where do you start?

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 28, 2017

It’s as if Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore’s Experience Economy is just now hitting its stride—for conferences at least. The word is out: we’ve got to create conference experiences, not just conferences that feel like a patchwork quilt of our great grandmother’s dresses. A Disturbing Conference Trend. Read on…).

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Velvet Chainsaw

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Most conference and meeting professionals want the coolest, hippest, latest ideas and trends for their events. We want to know what unique things other conferences are doing so we can borrow their ideas. We pursue fads, gimmicks and trends as the silver bullets of our conference woes. Conference trend and fad bandwagons.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 21, 2018

The North Star is the perfect metaphor for your annual conference purpose. When your conference purpose serves as a North Star, it guides all decisions, tasks, behaviors and strategy. Uncovering Your North Star Conviction To Find Conference True Target Market. What’s your conference conviction?

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 7, 2019

Many conferences are stuck in the rut of legacy routines, age-old rituals and cloned programming. Conference organizers and its advisors replicate the past maintaining the traditions and well-established procedures of yesteryear. Conference organizers and advisors can breathe new life into their events. Robert Evans.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 25, 2018

Too often conference and meeting professionals assume that their role is best suited to planning and executing the conference. I get that from the education section or the conference technical teams.”. They own designing the conference customers experience journey. From Touchpoints To Customer Journeys.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JULY 9, 2018

And just as important, how and what do we think about our conferences and events? How do we understand our conference planning processes, its underlying assumptions, and our customers, partners, exhibitors, and stakeholders? What is the result of our conference assumptions and perceptions? How do we think?

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 29, 2018

Conference organizers and their planning teams should understand, identify and quash organizational debt. Refactoring As A Metaphor For Conference Improvement. What we need is a conference refactor to fix our organizational debt — to make it possible for our planning and event to evolve. Refactor it?”

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 9, 2019

Do your conference learning opportunities—from the general session to networking to breakouts to deep dive workshops—empower registrants to participate in their own learning journey? Or do your conference education sessions motivate participants to see the finish line? So exactly how do conferences promote learning as a finish line?

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Velvet Chainsaw

SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

Too often when we think about conference growth or sustainability, we assume it means attracting next gen customers. Then we discuss how to plan, program and market to that specific age group. Eventually our planning discussions turn to generational differences. We can think and plan for next audiences.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JULY 18, 2018

Yet deciding to abandon a conference programming element can clear the way for new successful traditions to take hold. It is creating a habit of regularly questioning every conference planning practice and programming component that we currently use. What’s the purpose of our event? Purposeful Abandonment.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 10, 2019

It’s hard for conference organizers to stick to planning the essential elements of their events. Various departments and committees see the event’s gathering of people as an opportunity for them to showcase their programs, services and agendas. Some of essentialism’s guiding ideas apply well to business and conferences.

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Velvet Chainsaw

MAY 29, 2018

We are used to thinking of our conference and its planning process as a one-way transaction from the company to its customers. Sometimes we view the planning process as a backbreaking, arduous, life-draining experience. We may even dread working with a new conference advisory committee due to our negative past experiences.

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Velvet Chainsaw

OCTOBER 17, 2018

Your association, annual conference, and governance are all institutions. One of the sacred cows for associations and their annual conference is attributing notoriety to the office of the president, board chair or annual conference committee chair. Smith’s year” or “Sally’s year” when referring to past annual conferences.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 20, 2016

And the conference and events you plan can be unique too. As a one-of-a-kind meeting professional, you are called to create one-of-a-kind conferences. Still they just copy what everyone else is doing with their conference. Caged Conference Visions. This results in caged conference visions. The result?

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 9, 2016

A Momentous Catalyst To Conference Attendee Behavior Change. I am often asked how to get conference attendees to adopt 21 st Century learning habits. The majority of conferences treat attendees as consumers of information. To Get Conference Registrants’ Buy-In For Behavior Change, First Re-Label Them.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 13, 2018

Does your event have a clear and inspiring purpose? (If Now imagine someone asking your conference participants that question. Then they would launch into a passionate description of your event’s annual Party with a Purpose, its pre-conference feel-good community service projects and its ongoing student scholarship fundraisers.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JUNE 28, 2018

There is one debt every conference organizer must face and vanquish. It can cripple a conference. Organizational debt—the interest your conference pays when its structures, policies, procedures, practices, committees and leadership roles stay fixed and accumulate even as the world around it changes.* What is this debt?

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Velvet Chainsaw

MAY 4, 2017

This list of conference big ideas just doesn’t belong to the traditional, average conference planning process. Big Conference Ideas On The Road Less Traveled Part 2. Here are the remaining five conference big ideas to create a conference experience that is not like all the others. Read the first five here.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 26, 2018

Once you’ve observed the conference through the lens of your target customer and gained insights from conference data, you can move to the next steps. These steps are critical for you and your conference planning teams to embrace, enlist and employ. Define A Common Purpose And Goals Of The Conference Customer Journey.

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InitLive

MARCH 4, 2021

Conferences are an important part of professional development and business networking for all industries. A successful conference can come in all shapes and sizes, from 200 people over a weekend to 15,000 for a week. InitLive has had the privilege of working with many conferences, some of which are the largest in their industry.

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Eventmobi

JANUARY 10, 2024

Without a doubt, conference apps are a must-have tool for any event organizer. In fact, an overwhelming 91% of event organizers claim event apps are crucial to their success. Even attendees themselves enjoy using event apps and consider this technology an integral part of their event experience.

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Eventinterface

JUNE 11, 2016

Planning conferences and events takes great organizational skill and a close attention to detail. It does not matter where you hold your event. Bad weather can kill outdoor events stone dead. Bad weather can kill outdoor events stone dead. Bad weather can affect indoor events too. CHECK THE WEATHER.

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Velvet Chainsaw

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

Developing Your Conference Story Arc. Conference organizers that grasp our brains’ need for stories can use narratives to help their participants develop and grow. As you plan your conference, take into account one of the biggest challenges that your target market faces. Then make it the central focus of your conference.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JULY 12, 2018

These mental models are deeply embedded in our conference planning and management practices. Savvy conference organizers realize that their mental models have much more influence over their outcomes than their decisions and actions. This is especially true of our conference mental frameworks. Our Mental Model Lens.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 10, 2018

This is the first of two posts that are intended to be a helpful resource for conference organizers as they develop their attendee succession-plan strategy. Key Indicators For Most Conferences. Don’t schedule committee, board, or invitation-only events during your main program. Josh Packard states. A Seat At The Table.

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Eventmobi

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

With so many moving parts to juggle, planning a conference can seem like a daunting task. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through how to plan a conference from A to Z. What Does It Take to Plan a Conference? But how long does it take to plan a conference?

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