Inspiration Hub

On the heels of multiple studies showing that event professionals are increasingly being asked to do more with less, Smart Meetings asked a veteran planner for tips on how to create “wow” on a budget. Doug McPhee, Experient senior global account manager, recently spoke at CMP Conclave in Birmingham, Alabama, on this very topic and shared the 10 things that can trim the bottom line without sacrificing the end-product.

According to our Eventbrite Survey, Millennials will account for 75% of the UK workforce in a decade and spend over £419,556,233 each month on attending live events. But while this is good news for event creators, the demand for live experiences also means more competition.

Meetings are made for extroverts. They’ll talk to anyone about anything. They’re gregarious, and they get their energy from interacting with other people. But extroverts only make up about half your attendees, says Sharon Fisher, president of experiential communications company Play with a Purpose. The other half, she says, are the introverts whose personal style is almost the opposite, and those attendees need to be considered in your meeting design.

For the longest time, the ”breakout session“ felt like the forgotten stepchild of event marketing. Throw in a stage and a projector, invite a category expert and hope for the best. Because all the killer keynotes were on the plenary stage, a decent breakout was considered a bonus.

One of the most daring and complex high-wire acts is organizing a citywide event. Spanning multiple hotels, thousands of rooms and millions of square feet of event space, a citywide requires a planner to manage a long list of responsibilities to make it successful. According to recent Smart Meetings webinar hosts Elaine Williams and Sallee Pavlovich, however, the answers are right at planners’ fingertips.

Event Design is constantly evolving, and participants are starting to expect a lot more from the design of an event. There needs to be a synergy between all event design elements. Coming directly from MCI Germany’s finest, Dr. Christina Buttler and Thomas Wüthrich, here are some insights into what participants are expecting:

Events are a great member benefit but can become a huge expense without proper planning. Here are 30 great ways to consider saving money:

It’s been gratifying to see the evolution of the concept of Event Design over the past decade. Where once “design” was restricted to the province of aesthetics, now event planners all over the world understand that events must, yes, delight the senses, but they must also motivate, engage and move individuals and organizations to action.

With the announcement of The Ideation Studio at Park MGM, Senior Vice-President and Chief Sales Officer Mike Dominguez notably said, “We’re not just building space; we’re building the right space.” That is the mindset more than a few venues are beginning to adopt in the ever-increasing race to entice groups and redefine expectations. High tech—or “smart”—conference rooms, and the advances that go into them are giving new shape to the future of meetings and events.

At a recent event in New York City, we heard a truly inspiring presentation on design thinking. The speaker (David Solsbery, VP of Creative and Marketing at the event production company Hargrove) made the case that event professionals are actually designers, in that we always search for solutions, designing and mapping experiences. The talk got us thinking a lot about design thinking, so we broke down the principles of this innovative school of thought to show you how it can drive results at your next event.

There’s no doubt that conferences are one of the most popular event types in the business world. But just because demand is high doesn’t mean success is guaranteed. Pulling off a wildly successful conference like Dreamforce, for example, takes a lot of hard work — and a total shift in mindset.

 Tahira Endean, CMP CED, author of Intentional Event Design, and Mariela McIlwraith, CMP, CMM, MBA, director of industry advancement, Events Industry Council, recently hosted a session on welcoming events at IMEX America.  

In this day and age, any hotel worth its salt has to provide food and beverage options. In recent years, food and beverage has become an integral part of the hospitality business, thanks to growing consumer interest. Moreover, hotel restaurants and bars are broadening their appeal to attract locals and guests alike.

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.

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:

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.

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.

Networking events are always a useful way to get people to come together and form professional and personal bonds. As with any other event, though, there is a way you should approach the function. Otherwise, it’s just a social event with no direction. That means it ends up being a money waster with no long-term benefits for your company or the attendees. We’ll explain all there is to know about these come-togethers and how to follow up after a networking event for best measurable results.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon banned the PowerPoint. It’s a bold move, especially when it is the standard. But going through photos, graphs and data can be, well…boring. Meetings are difficult enough, let alone meetings that revolve around clicking slide after slide. Consider pulling a Bezos, or at the least, incorporating something unique to keep morale and spirits high.

Thanks to social media—and a whole host of event marketing platforms—it’s never been easier to set up a networking event. The challenge is ensuring that the event is a genuine success for those in attendance. Before starting, it’s worth asking the following questions: Will the event make it easy to facilitate introductions? Will there be enough engaging activities? Will there be a good balance between party and genuine networking opportunities?

The interview for that new job you’re hoping to get. The coffee date with your personal hero and, hopefully, future mentor. The make-or-break sales demo with that perfect-fit client. The last-ditch attempt to mend a broken partnership. When everyone in the room understands what’s at stake, engagement is automatic. We don’t worry about engagement in these situations. Instead, we focus on success.

As you know, conferences are the bread and butter of event planners. You plan so many conferences of a similar nature each year that it can be easy to get stale. But, just because conferences have a heavy business-focus, doesn’t mean they need to be (or should be) lifeless! Even on a small budget, there are simple ways to get the most out of conference staging ideas.