Inspiration Hub

Can your next conference, corporate get-together, or annual meeting be fun? Yes—in fact, unless you are dealing with a truly serious matter, I would say it needs to be. Whether you’re building brand awareness, promoting a new product, or team bonding, kicking up the level of fun may be the difference between “It was the event of the year!” and your participants playing games on their phones.

One element that is constantly under serious scrutiny by event planners, is the budget. Event budgets of course vary depending on the event’s scale, however, throwing a large amount of resources into it does not guarantee  success. Cost-effective doesn’t have to mean cheap in the world of event planning, therefore experiences with a smaller budget can be equally impactful and engaging, as long as event planning is executed strategically to activate and excite attendees. After all, it is the value that needs to be high, not the price.

Now that digital personal assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Home have begun to fully infiltrate the everyday life of so many potential attendees, is it any wonder that their stripped-down cousin, the chatbot, is starting to gain inroads in events? Not really, said Brandt Krueger, owner of Event Technology Consulting and an instructor at the Event Leadership Institute, during a recent MeetingsNet webinar. Krueger, who has seen his own home become overrun with personal assistants—“They’re really quite invasive as a species”—did have some initial hesitation about event chatbots, but he now finds himself bullish on the technology.

We’re inundated with emails — in the time it took you to open this article, you probably received a few new messages. But according to Miguel Neves, CMP, head chef at digital engagement firm Social Media Chefs, that’s all about to change.

The term sustainability strategy refers to any measurable objective aiming at optimising (reduce environmental impact and cost), innovating to improve participant experience, engaging organisations and attendees to change behaviour and leave positive social impact and finally communicating sustainability initiatives while building brand reputation.

As market leaders are often all-too-aware, today’s cultural and business environments are rapidly shifting—often in highly unpredictable and disruptive ways. In the past few years alone, physical has quickly given way to digital (including cloud and app-based solutions); meetings and events have evolved into virtual and streaming solutions; and promotional and outreach efforts once aimed at connecting with Gen Xers and Baby Boomers are quickly being transformed into initiatives targeted at Millennials and Gen Zers. 

You can’t build a house without laying a strong foundation first. The same goes for marketing your event. Before diving into marketing channels and logistics, you need to figure out what you’re going to say — and who you’re going to say it to. Each event attracts a unique crowd. The best marketers focus on reaching the people most likely to attend their specific event. In other words: you need to define who your attendees are before you decide how to reach them.

Perhaps more than ever in this age of online interaction and communities, physical exhibitions and conferences offer a major asset that the virtual world cannot: genuine human contact. How can exhibition organisers best use their physical location to optimize matchmaking and knowledge transfer? How do you ensure that visitors and exhibitors return home inspired by useful, new experiences?

Consider this: in today’s world there is an abundance of information. From the latest technological developments and emerging social media trends, to engagement models and destination details, the constant barrage of information from various sources makes it more difficult for audiences to retain information overtime.

I just returned from a trans-Atlantic cruise. Initially, I was going to dedicate this article to the value of going on holiday: disconnecting 100 percent and recharging for a fresh perspective and renewed energy. However, the cruise was full of people from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, England, Canada, the Philippines, Europe, and more. It made me realize once again that so many of us from the States are "U.S. centric." We think that everything is better if it is from the United States. As a result, many of us have no clue what other countries are dealing with unless it is a big issue like Brexit or the North Korea nuclear threat. Therefore, I decided to focus this article around global habits, in the hopes that we can all expand our knowledge and understanding of those things affecting our colleagues, clients, and friends across the globe.

Gamification is an exploding trend as more planners and organisers recognise how guest engagement factors into a lively and well-received event. Statistics also reveal more attendees actually prefer some sort of gamification experience. Furthermore, 40% of corporations indicated they would employ some form of gamification for improving business operations.

Carina Bauer is CEO of the £22 million-turnover exhibition business IMEX Group. She tells why female leadership is leading the agenda at this year's shows.

Using SEO  to achieve higher search ranking increases your odds of converting those browsers to buyers. In fact, if you show up first in Google results, you’ll receive about a third of searcher’s clicks. But if you’re not on page one, less than 10% of searchers will see your event at all. For most events, search can be expected to drive between 5 to 10% of ticket purchases or registrations. Still, SEO remains a mystery for many event creators. Here are five straightforward steps to take to improve your SEO.

Every year, $165 billion of food is wasted in the United States; while at the same time, many families go hungry. Two events industry experts, Courtney Lohmann, CMP, director of culture at Koncept Events, and Mariela McIlwraith, CMP, CMM, MBA, director, industry advancement at the Events Industry Council, participated in a recent MeetingsNet webinar on reducing food waste in the meetings industry. Lohmann and McIlwraith focused on two strategies, reducing the amount of food that is wasted at an event, and using any extra food in a planet-friendly way.

Spring and summer are synonymous with event season. Whether it be conferences, concerts, community events or festivals, chances are we are all heading to at least one in the next few months. In honor of Earth Month, now is a great time to reflect for a moment on impacts these events are having on the environment; particularly in the area of single-use plastics, which given their prevalence in event settings as well as their difficulty to recycle & break down, present a unique challenge to attendee, venue, and planner alike.

Whether it’s managing worse-for-wear guests or forgetting to focus on delegates, every event organiser has learned a lesson or two along the way. Here, we speak to seven about their biggest mistakes made (and what they now do differently as a result).

Looking back at the last decade, there were four huge tipping points for the international meetings industry. Now, on the other side of these changes they’ve become normalized, but when the industry was living through them, they caused a lot of fear and uncertainty. With hindsight, it’s easy to see how these periods of intense disruption have ultimately led to positive transformation for many parts of the meetings and events industry.

We’ve all seen it: Some bad public relations comes out about a company and their representatives end up handling the whole ordeal terribly. And all the public can do is stand by and watch! If you’re looking to get ahead of any potential PR trouble before it even starts, check out these dos and don’ts to properly handle damage control when it comes to your association’s brand.

Planning a successful event is hard enough without having to worry about how presenters are going to consistently sustain interest and buzz for large and often diverse audiences over extended timeframes. Thankfully, you don’t have to schedule 87 networking breaks, provide each registered guest a custom coffee IV drip, or hire fire-eaters and dancing horses to keep attention and conversation levels consistently high.

Whether you're a seasoned or first-time exhibitor, the busy trade show season can sneak up on you fast. Here is a great infographic with some important tips to help you prepare for a successful trade show.

Feedback is a positive thing. It helps us identify ways we can improve our personal and professional lives, and yet we dread the idea of receiving any form of criticism. Why? According to a New York Timespiece, “Why It’s So Hard to Hear Negative Feedback,” it’s all about how we think — and feel — about it.

In 2016, Gartner analysts predicted that by 2020 the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse. While that is a depressing thought, there is no doubt that chatbots are popping up everywhere, including hotels and events. 

Some innovations can be lifesaving (hello dishwashers! Also, heart transplants, airbags, and carbon monoxide detectors) so advances in technology are always exciting. But “exciting” does not always mean “useful,” and for meeting planners there is a fine balance between upgrading an event and wasting resources on a fad.