2016

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8 Meeting & Event Trends that Could Explode in 2017

SmartMeetings

These meeting trends have already made an appearance in 2016, but some experts suggest they’ll really blossom in the coming year. Ofer Yatziv from Better Venues , a U.K.-based event venue company, shares his thoughts on the latest trends for those in the meeting and events industry. 1. The 5-minute meeting. Are your clients sick of meetings about meetings?

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Event Technology: The Strongest Driver for Change in the Event Industry

EventMB

Technology has allowed us to become more efficient and paperless but it has also altered attendee expectations. Meeting planners are no longer simply coordinating details. They are now offering personalized, engaging experiences. Are you ready? When I was a child they took us on a field trip to the local university. There the computer science […].

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Creating The Highly Energized And Engaged Conference Participant

Velvet Chainsaw

Are 50%-80% of your conference attendees in your programming at any given time? Or are they filling the hallways, hotel spa and lounge, local restaurants, coffee shops and bars conversing with others? Or are they visiting the local tourist attractions? One thing is certain, if your conference attendees are not fully engaged in the experience you provide, there is little, if any, chance that they will leave your event with any real ROI.

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Is paid influencer marketing ethical in the event industry?

Conferences that Work

Paid influencer marketing is spreading to the event industry, and I doubt that it’s an ethical practice. Last week I received the following voice mail (identifying details have been bleeped; transcript below.). [link]. “ Hi Adrian, my name is __, I work for an influence marketing agency __, and I’m reaching out to you this afternoon about an opportunity with __, who is one of our clients, and I know you are an influencer in the meeting/event/conference planning sphere which is the fo

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Engage Better, Gift Smarter, Win Big: Events That Deliver ROI

Speaker: Hanan Polinovski, Events Manager and David Brown, Sr. Marketing & Events Lead

Are your events living up to expectations? Are you getting quality leads from your sponsorships? Have you ever wondered if that branded notebook actually makes an impact? Get ready to transform your event strategy! Join event marketing pros Hanan Polinovski from Printfection and David Brown from Bonusly for a fast-paced webinar about turning your event efforts into serious ROI.

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What Event Trend Will Take Off in 2017?

BizBash

More Trending

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Going Vegetarian at Events

Gallus Events

One of my favourite columnists is the environmentalist George Monibot. He’s a rather opinionated fella (kind of helpful if you are going to write your opinions I guess) and I was particularly struck by one of his articles a few months back. I referenced the article in a piece I wrote about having a controversial KEYNOTE speaker. Basically he was saying that “environmental” conferences weren’t being very sustainable when they served meat and or fish.

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Interviews with Planners - Shelby Olivier

Eventinterface

Shelby Olivier is a Program Manager for Red Velvet Events, a Global DMC Partner in Austin, TX. Shelby first began in the events industry as a Catering Sales Representative to earn money while attending college. She then moved on to become The Director of Marketing and Special Events for a venue in Georgia, earning her bachelors degree at the same time.

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13 Event Planning Tools to Make You More Efficient

Eventbrite UK

"Work smarter, not harder" and get more done, more efficiently with these brilliant event planning tools that will boost your productivity. The post 13 Event Planning Tools to Make You More Efficient appeared first on Eventbrite UK Blog.

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Public Relations Event Planning: 6 Ways to Get the Word Out

Social Tables

A public relations event is your opportunity to showcase your company and specific products or services to the general public. Obviously, with attendees and the press being present, you want to be professional, presentable, and engaging. Here are a few tips to help you get your public relations conference going on the right foot: 1.) Set a Goal. Why are you holding the event?

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Prospect, Personalize, Profit: The New Way Sales & Marketing Teams Are Aligning with AI

Speaker: Kevin Burke, Founder & Managing Director at Digital One and AI & Automation Consultant

AI and automation are currently transforming the way sales and marketing teams operate. Generative AI crafts personalized outreach at scale, while conversational AI bots are engaging prospects in real time. Robotic process automation streamlines manual workflows by triggering tasks the moment a prospect takes a key action, and advanced AI analytics surface hidden patterns in the pipeline, improve forecasting, and help teams make data-driven decisions with confidence.

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9 Things Every Meeting Planner Should Carry in their Toolkit

SmartMeetings

It’s event day, and you’re ready to tackle every problem that comes your way! You’re sure you have every tool necessary, until you reach in your bag and discover you’re missing the one thing you need right now. Sound familiar? Every planner has been there. Just about anything can happen at a meeting—a broken shoe heel, contract confusion , a sudden headache or the dreaded dead phone battery.

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20 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics to Promote Your Next Event

EventMB

Guerrilla marketing involves low-cost options that make bold statements and make you memorable so that you don’t have to worry about splashing out big to be trending on social media. Have you spent all your event budget already and are struggling for ways to promote it without the cash? You are not alone, marketing can […]. The post 20 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics to Promote Your Next Event by Editorial Team appeared first on [link].

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What If Attendees Remember Nothing From Your Event?

Velvet Chainsaw

Yes, what if they remember nothing from your event? “Meetings are often so overloaded with material that learning may be hurt more than it’s enhanced,” says Andrea Driessen, Chief Boredom Buster, No More Boring Meetings. (Read her article for seven ways to boost learning.). What’s worse than remembering nothing from the event? If attendees learned something and can’t apply it.

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Your Conference Needs To Focus On Providing 4D Experiences

Velvet Chainsaw

Conferences need 4D experiences: deep learning, deep play, deep reflection and deep connections. You probably recall a time in your life when you viewed a 3D movie. You wore 3D glasses and the images looked like they popped out of the screen. Your conference needs more than the gimmick of 3D glasses. It needs authentic 4D experiences. It needs opportunities for participants to experience deep learning, deep play, deep reflection and deep connections. 21st Century 4D Experiences.

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Elevate Your Event Experience to the Next Level

In order to create a successful event, you must: Optimize Event Website and Registration Process Utilize Social Media Platforms Effectively Implement Targeted Email Campaigns Harness the Power of Video Content Benefit from a Mobile App Download now and learn how to simplify this process with Eventpedia.

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Exhibitor Priority Points System that Rewards Loyalty

Velvet Chainsaw

Your Points System Should Influence Current Spend Decisions. Like any storefront business, exhibitor booth selection is heavily influence by three factors: location, location, location. Most trade-show organizers use a priority-points system to help determine the order of booth-space selection for next year’s expo and their system has been in place for quite a while.

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We Must Stop Promoting Conference Fast-Track, Artificial, Butt-In-Seat, Surface Learning

Velvet Chainsaw

How are your conference attendees learning? Yes, of course we should ask, “What are they learning?” More importantly, we need to ask, “How are they learning?”. We’ve got to confront the ineffectiveness of our conference education approaches! We must begin to offer effective alternatives to the traditional “sit and get” lecture. If we want to increase conference participant ROI and loyalty, we’ve got to just stop accepting speaker proposals, assigning speakers a time slot and then offering an exa

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Embracing Otherness for Conference Uniqueness [Webinar]

Velvet Chainsaw

Think about the last time you approached a stranger and asked if you could help them? Now ask yourself; Did that person look like me? Robert Putnam , Harvard Political Scientist claims that when most of us are faced with diversity, we retreat and close our doors. As a species we are attracted to sameness and reject otherness. The future success of your conference will depend on changing your culture to be one of inclusiveness.

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Great Questions Define Great Conference Experiences

Velvet Chainsaw

It is much more effective to provide opportunities for conference participants to solve their own problems, then telling them how to solve it. (Paraphrase Dr. A. Gidget Hopf, President & CEO of The Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired—Goodwill Industries.). Conference organizers automatically assume that if someone is attending their event, they expect the conference to help them solve their problems.

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Unlock the Secrets of Event Marketing Masters

The greats learn from the greats. Set yourself and your team up for success with tried and tested strategies and insights from event marketing geniuses at Vanta, Partnership Leaders, Quantum Metric, Rocketlane, and Explori.

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Blow-The-Bugle-Awesome 21st Century Conferences Emulate These Core Beliefs

Velvet Chainsaw

Your conference-slip is showing! I once worked for a Texas elected official. I quickly learned to tell her if her slip was showing, she had a run in her pantyhose or she had lipstick on her teeth—especially before she went on stage or met with the public. Well conference professionals, your conference-slip is showing. Your organization’s beliefs—as well as your beliefs—about business, connecting, learning, relationship-building, and today’s society, are showing.

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Many Organizational Leaders Prefer Dysfunction

Velvet Chainsaw

Your organization needs to change because it’s broken! Or is it? “There is no such thing as a dysfunctional organization, because every organization is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently ge ts,” says Jeff Lawrence. The Illusion Of A Broken Organization? So is your organization broke? Or is it working just fine…. Even though some of its stakeholders feel it is dysfunctional in some areas….

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Common, Yet Hazardous, Conference Planning Thinkholes That Inhibit Uniqueness

Velvet Chainsaw

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? We as conference organizers often have the common habit of neglecting what makes our event’s experience unique.

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Getting More Value from Conference Keynote Speakers

Velvet Chainsaw

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, is shifting to a second career play.

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How to Get Speakers, Exhibitors, and Attendees to Promote Your Event With Video

In this best practices guide, you’ll learn how to tap into the cost-efficiencies of advocacy and word-of-mouth marketing with video. Examples include speakers providing a preview of their upcoming sessions, exhibitors creating “please stop by” invitations and attendees creating “looking forward to seeing you” introduction videos. Learn about best practices and programs created by leading companies and associations including ASIS, AUVSI, SuperZoo, National Restaurant Association, World of Concret

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Your Trade Show Attendees: What Do They Really, Really Want?

Velvet Chainsaw

This is the first in a series of posts on the findings of reports published by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) based on research recently conducted on attendee retention strategies. It’s likely that the Brexit vote last week is on my mind and that’s why the Spice Girls’ tune, “Wannabe,” popped into my head as I wrote: “Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want.”.

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When Your Conference Planning Process Eclipses Your Purpose

Velvet Chainsaw

Did you ever play the board game of Chutes and Ladders? The object of the game is to get to the end of the path first. You avoid landing on a chute, which makes you slide backwards. And take advantage of the ladders which help you climb ahead. I played this game a lot with kids in my early teaching career. Some of my students were fascinated with sliding on the chutes because it reminded them of playground slides.

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Getting Serious About Forecasting Future Conference Topics

Velvet Chainsaw

Savvy 21st Century conference organizers can effectively demonstrate strategic learning alignment of their conference networking and education programming. (Can you?). Smart conference professionals are skilled at articulating the value of their event’s networking and learning opportunities. They can discuss how their programming helps their target market achieve their business goals.

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Relabel Conference Registrants

Velvet Chainsaw

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. We encourage them to attend our programming and passively listen. Some of them resist any changes we make to that model. They don’t want to be involved in small group discussions.

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Download Now: 2022 Virtual + Hybrid Event Platform RFP Template - Enterprise Edition

Download 200+ new RFP questions for hybrid and virtual event technology success. After 10,000 downloads, the SpotMe Virtual + Hybrid Event Platform RFP Template is the ultimate procurement tool for event technology. This template is ideal for companies looking for a vendor to fulfill their specific virtual + hybrid event platform needs and requirements!

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Avoid These Hazardous Conference Planning Thinkholes [Part 2]

Velvet Chainsaw

Ever run your car over some severe potholes? It can do some major damage to your tires. And to your vehicle too. Potholes can be an expensive problem for both drivers and cities. 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.

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Five reasons NOT to use a Conferences That Work meeting design

Conferences that Work

I’ve been promoting the Conferences That Work meeting format for so long, that some people assume I think it’s the right choice for every meeting. Well, it’s not. Here are (drum roll!) two meeting types and three situations when you should NOT use a Conferences That Work design: — Most corporate events. Many corporate events have a tight focus.

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Copycat Cookie-Cutter Conference Or Unique Event

Velvet Chainsaw

You are unique. 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. You have an infinite amount of possibilities to create something new. Something different. Something unique. Thanks to Will Mancini for continually challenging me to think and be different.