Inspiration Hub

Businesses today are constantly striving to work out how they can achieve more, improve and work more economically, often through meetings and brainstorming sessions. Brainstorms provide a valuable platform for sharing ideas and planning creative ways to tackle challenges as a business. But how can you make sure that you’re getting the most out of your brainstorming sessions? Whether it’s an intimate team meeting or a business-wide innovation session, it’s important to ensure you’re set up to make the most out of every session instead of wasting precious time.

For the first time in history, there are five generations together in our workplaces. That means those born in the 1940s through those born in the 2000s are all trying to create, shape, and move goals and ideas forward. Some may see this as a barrier to collaboration, but I think it’s actually a prime opportunity to cross-pollinate strengths, experiences, and viewpoints for more innovation and insight.

What marketers used to say was, “Good, fast, and cheap. You can pick two.” So, if you pick good and fast, it can’t also be done for cheap. If you pick fast and cheap, then it’s probably just going to be good enough. That used to be the “Rule of Three.” Marketing isn’t a “You Pick 2” world anymore. Now, nearly every client is able to say, “Yes, I’ll have all three, please. Good, fast and cheap.” In fact, it is now expected when you’re hired to organize an event or meeting.

When you’re trying to decide if you should attend a specific conference or event (or asking your boss if you can attend), often you look at things like the venue, the speaker line up or the session titles. But the thing I think is most important, is the session format. A conference programme particularly appeals to me if I see the words “workshop”, “interactive” “collaborative session” or if I see an innovative/creative session design with lots of time allocated for Q&A.

It’s in your nature to want to ride the momentum of one successful event right into the next one. But hold on – you deserve a break first. How often do you really get to do something relaxing and enjoyable for yourself that has nothing to do with work? Take the time to treat yourself so you’ll be refreshed and ready to hit the ground running for your next event. Here are eight ideas for your next “me” day. Ready, set, relax…

In the latest Smart Meetings webinar, Toni Zoblotsky, director, B2B marketing and sales valet, Hilton Worldwide, offers a wide variety of foods that are healthy, fun and instagrammable, as well as a few recommendations to get attendees active. In “Love your Attendees by Keeping Them Well in Body & Spirit,” she gives some valuable suggestions to show attendees that you care about their health and well-being.

The events industry is primed for innovation. With increasing access to attendee and exhibitor data, new engagement technology, and different ways of delivering content your constituents crave, 2019 is expected to introduce new ways to maximize your event’s value. We can expect this year’s trends to reflect this year’s challenges. Whether those challenges are attendee/exhibitor retention or increasing attendee engagement with on-site activities, this year’s solutions will focus on solving universal challenges for event professionals and show organizers.

Words matter. If you’ve ever done any kind of marketing, you know that. And even as a consumer, you know that. Certain phrases just compel you to make a purchase. So how can you tap into some of that psychology when “selling” your organization’s membership? Below are a few words and phrases you may want to consider utilizing:

In terms of disseminating information onsite at your organization’s conference, how are you currently doing it? Do you give people printed handouts and booklets when they check in at registration? Do you have a conference app where those materials are housed, but also have printed versions onsite? Do you rely exclusively on a conference app, cutting out printed materials altogether?

While I generally recommend that planners look holistically at an event to see where video can play the most effective role, there's one spot where video makes sense most of the time: at the end of the event. Specifically, that general session where you bid everyone goodbye and good luck—and want to charge them up with excitement one last time, in a way that burns an overarching message into their memory.

The motto “there are no bad questions” does not apply to surveys. There is definitely a right and wrong way to ask attendees for feedback. The wrong way can confuse and annoy attendees — and ultimately lead to them giving up on your survey. It can also affect the accuracy of the answers you get. If you’re getting biased answers — and making critical changes to your events as a result — it could seriously undermine the success of your future events.

Earlier this month I noticed a Twitter thread started by an Australian professor organizing a scientific conference and crowdsourcing ideas from conference attendees in the scientific community. His tweet, “What’s the most effective idea you’ve heard of or accessed at scientific conferences to support parents with kids attending?” resulted in a lengthy thread with some great suggestions.

“Our departments are too siloed.”

“I don’t understand how my role makes an impact.”

“There isn’t enough transparency!”

Sound familiar? It can get easy to become so focused on our initiatives that we put our head down and barrel through - especially when times are busy and resources are limited. That said, this approach often leads to an unnecessary disconnect among staff.

With nearly 170 people arrested in connection with sex-trafficking activity around the recent Super Bowl in Atlanta, the FBI emphasized in the days after the game that the issue extends far beyond the premier annual sporting event in America. "Trafficking is not a problem just during large-scale events," the bureau said in a release. "It is a 365-day-a-year problem in communities across the country."

Let's be honest, event planning is a stressful job. At any given time there are a number of jobs that need to get done and it can seem like every deadline comes right down to the wire. The 18 tips in this blog post will help you save time during the event planning process and ensure your next event is wildly successful. Let's dive right in.

You followed all the steps: Before the event, you communicated digitally, created a clever hashtag, and started a buzz around your event. Once on site, you used engaging technology to track attendee behavior, got real-time feedback, and kept your content fresh with real-time social walls that sparked conversation. Every tech tool was a hit! So now what?

It’s easy to get into an afternoon/end-of-day slump. But how you end your day can have a great impact on how you begin your tomorrow. Obviously, you want your work days to be as productive as possible, so to make that more of a daily reality, try ending each day by completing the following six tasks:

Experiential marketing as a business is experiencing explosive growth. But with that growth comes added scrutiny. For brand-side marketers charged with partnering with experiential agencies to deliver breakthrough experiences for attendees, that means issuing more RFPs, more often, with more attention to the bottom line. But as the cultural landscape evolves, so does the search for the perfect agency partner. New priorities, such as inclusion and diversity, have surfaced. And the demand for standout creative has never been higher. Straight from the trenches at Salesforce, Accel, Facebook and Stripe, here’s how some of the industry’s most active event departments are reprioritizing their RFP processes.

Who wouldn’t want to come to a free event? Lots of people, it turns out. You build, they RSVP — but they don’t come. Even the most successful events have no-shows. Things come up; people can’t make it. But for free events, there’s no financial consequence to skipping the event. So free events tend to see much higher dropout rates — up to 50%, according to a survey of free event creators.

Unproductive business meetings cost companies an estimated $541 billion in lost productivity and employee time, according to the 2019 State of Meetings Report from the meeting scheduling platform Doodle. Forbes  reports that this figure does not include additional spending on things like travel expenses involved in sending employees to meetings. Such costs could be significant, since the US Travel Association estimates that American companies spend $154 billion annually on business travel.

Blockchain ticketing is set to change the way event professionals sell tickets works for good. Yet the meaning of blockchain for the event industry is still obscure. The buzzword around it and poor coverage from industry media is making event professionals even more confused. So what is blockchain? Why will blockchain ticketing have an impact on the way we sell tickets? Most of all... Why should you bother and what’s in it for you, event planners? We are bringing the answers to your most burning questions about the use of blockchain in ticketing and events.

You’ve set up the Facebook event page, you’re regularly tweeting and you’re posting about your event on Instagram. You might think you’ve covered all your bases. But you’re missing an important piece: an event website. It might seem difficult and unnecessary, but websites are still key for promoting an event and drawing in attendees. Taking the time to create one can be daunting, but plenty of host sites are making it easier than ever to create a site quickly and in a straightforward, clean manner.