Inspiration Hub

Events are there to let people hear about what you have to say. Events serve as a great way to reach out to your current customer/client base, they can be used to pitch a new idea to the world and of course, to close deals. And it’s safe to say that events can be quite useful. However, getting the desired number of attendees isn’t an easy job. Getting people hyped about your event requires a few tricks and at least one marketing maestro. Fortunately, with the help of social media, things can be a bit easier. Let’s see how you can take that to your advantage.

When it comes to environmental impact, there is no getting around the rather large footprint the meetings industry has left behind in the past. Add to that the fact that we have been talking about how to throw green events for years, and you’d be forgiven for feeling a little overwhelmed with the ever-growing sustainability checklist. But making your events eco-friendlier is easier now than ever before.

This fall, Salt Lake City’s Salt Palace Convention Center installed a stunning 20-foot-tall mosaic depicting Martha “Mattie” Hughes Cannon, the first female State Senator elected in the U.S. in 1896. While Cannon’s tale is truly remarkable—she was a physician, a suffragist, and defeated her own husband to win the state senate seat—the origin of the artwork is a story in itself.

An event design seminar at October's IMEX America in Las Vegas began with a slide showing a photo of a group of happy couples on a beach eating seafood and drinking Champagne. The invitation to the event read, “Join us for a beachfront crab boil featuring live bands and fireworks.” It looked like a lot of fun.

The meetings industry is changing, and this is good news. The Fall 2018 Meetings Outlook by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) confirms that the industry is alive, well and thriving. The report described the results of an MPI survey that underscored that these changes could result in events being more impactful for their attendees.

Sales and marketing teams are hungry for leads and the more data attached to these leads, the better. Yet some of the best, most promising leads often come to sales teams with few details about interests and behaviors attached. We’re talking about the attendees of your company’s in-person events. We call these prospects Event-Qualified Leads (EQLs) and they are the first step in linking events to sales.

Risk management is a dedicated preparedness rather than simply a mental exercise, according to Lisa Sommer Devlin, the most recent Smart Meetings webinar host. In her talk, “Risk Management 101,” she outlined strategies for dealing with the risks of the industry, as well as how to actively avoid them.

You have put in the years doing site visits, balancing event budgets, negotiating contracts and you have spent so much time carrying your CMP International Standards Handbook around that one arm is noticeably stronger than the other. But are you really ready to sit for the exam? In advance of the annual Events Industry Council CMP Conclave in Birmingham, Alabama next week, we have put together a quiz so you can test your prep skills and brag to your friends. Or, better yet, take the next step and sign up to begin the journey to CMP status.

Meeting professionals aren’t a shy bunch—but if you really want to get them talking, bring up the topic of cost savings. Everyone’s in the same doing-more-with-less situation and eager for new ideas to stretch the budget. At the Financial and Insurance Conference Professionals Annual Conference in Orlando this week, a packed educational session provided attendees a chance to share their cost-saving strategies. Here are 15 of our favorites:

Though several recent studies indicate that workers are keen to undertake business trips, a new survey shows an increase in people’s levels of stress, burnout and anxiety while travelling for work.

Business-related events can often feel stale and predictable. But that doesn’t mean they have to be. To avoid awkward speeches, bland catering, and a conventional setting, all it takes is a bit of imagination. Check out these six common corporate event types and learn how to make yours more memorable.

It can be difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance when so much is at stake. But — surprisingly — your phone can be a source of relief (instead of endless notifications). Here are apps that will help you find your happy place, take a moment to breathe, and (finally) get a good night’s sleep.

As if meeting and event planners aren't dealing with enough negotiating and budgeting difficulty thanks to a multi-year sellers’ market, new data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that wages are rising at the fastest clip in 10 years. The growth in wages between October 2017 and October 2018 was 3.1 percent, the strongest one-year rate of growth since 2009. This development will probably raise the cost of many elements not yet contracted for 2019 meetings and events. 

You love meeting new people, are calm under pressure and brilliant at prioritising tasks. But is the event planning business right for you? Whether you’re a student looking for advice on how to break into the event planning business or an experienced professional wanting to change tracks, this guide can help guide your way.

Discover the skills, tools, and tactics you need to know before becoming an event planner.

Planning a meeting, conference or company event can often be full of starts and stops and not always moving in the same direction. The focus, size or even location of the event can change, and the meeting planner may not have insight into the overall goals of the client or group for whom the training or conference is being planned. Yet, nailing down as many of these details as far in advance as possible can be the key to a successful meeting.

Americans are attending more live events than ever before. But while four out of five people in the U.S. attended an event last year, the demand for live experiences also means more competition. So if you want your event to stand out, you need to offer attendees an engaging, interactive experience. Get started — and inspired — with these 9 interactive event ideas worth trying.

Association members, especially next-gen members, are exponentially growing in numbers. Increasingly, however, they are not passionately engaged with association membership. That is because the competitive association landscape has changed the rules of engagement. Associations who fail to act on those changes are the ones who struggle to remain relevant amongst their members. In come online communities.

You have a vision for what your event will look like in five or ten years. But if you want to make it a reality, there are a couple of challenges that could stop you from achieving that dream. However, with insight gathered by your event technology, unexpected surprises can be minimised or avoided altogether. Find out how to identify and prevent two common pitfalls with these two strategies.

Sustainable art is making an impact at events, showing thoughtfulness behind a sustainable approach. See how MCI UK did it for Quiksilver. Today, brands and event professionals are using toxic materials that are slowly polluting our planet as clever forms of art to make a point about what it means to be sustainable.

According to a recent survey, more than half of expo attendees said that event vendors are a deciding factor in whether to attend an event for the first time. That means retaining high-quality vendors is key to attracting attendees. Disappoint your vendors, and you’re risking potential sales. Keep on reading for three ways to keep your event vendors happy — and signed on for another year.

Although 90% of conference creators express struggle to reach new attendees. At the same time, a number of out of this world conferences — like Salesforce’s Dreamforce — welcome hundreds of thousands of registrants each year and continue to see positive growth. If they can, so can you.

Sure, robots and artificial intelligence technologies work more efficiently, like clockwork, with no emotions involved to cloud their vision. But that is exactly why robotics and AI technology together with human interaction create an unbeatable powerful partnership. We interact with AI daily. Chatbots, virtual assistants and social media algorithms are some common examples.

You put a lot of work into your event, finding expert speakers and offering rich, insightful content. Your event is a content gold mine. Now that it’s over, don’t let those golden nuggets go to waste. Keep the buzz going by reusing event content to serve your overall marketing strategy — without having to start from scratch.