Inspiration Hub

CES just happened. 100,000 attendees ventured to the Las Vegas jungle to find out what’s new in technology. Event planners shouldn’t care about 95% of what is presented at CES. That remaining 5%, though, may have quite a big impact. 

In-person events like conferences, conventions, and trade shows remain crucial to associations and organisations who want to attract new members and draw people to understand the value of their products or services. These events require reliable sources of funding, which means organisers must be willing to work side-by-side with sponsors, who can benefit from enhanced exposure and access to a highly targeted audience at conferences and exhibitions.

Women in the event management industry, just as everyone else in the industry, have a lot to worry about day-to-day. However, expecting equal salaries and respect to match shouldn’t be on those virtually endless to-do lists. Unfortunately, securing both remains a persistent issue that requires an unprecedented amount of attention. Three issues are at play when it comes to the gender pay gap.

2020 is here! With a new year AND new decade, why not try some new ideas at your association or chamber’s upcoming event(s)?

To bump up attendee engagement and elevate the overall attendee experience, here are two tactics worth a try.

Engaging those who have been in an association for less than three years is perhaps the single most difficult task for associations,” according to Shaun O’Reilly, vice president of marketing for MemberSuite. It might also be one of the most critical. “Retention directly correlates to revenue,” notes O’Reilly, and associations “with a solid engagement plan will lose fewer of those newer members.

Event professionals of all types—corporations, associations, vendors and agencies—around the world are “very optimistic” about the outlook for the events industry in the coming year. That’s one of the key findings from the just-released 2020 Global Meetings and Events Forecast from American Express. Following are four of the most important takeaways from the survey.

What do our attendees really want when they ask for more networking opportunities? We’re here to suggest a brand new way to think about connection experiences at events: What if instead of networking, event organizers planned for collaborative learning? 

For many, January is a month replete with resolutions. Goals often include some kind of improvement in healthy behavior—exercise more, eat better, drink less. One way to keep committed to the latter is to share the effort in a monthlong (totally hashtaggable) campaign.

The year started off with a powerful push as PCMA Convening Leaders 2020 gathered 5,300 people—4,450 of them at Moscone Center in San Francisco and the rest through a live feed—for education, inspiration, connection—and a concert.

The pace of innovation and growth in the meetings and events industry accelerated rapidly in 2019. It’s exciting to think about what could happen in 2020! After attending over a dozen industry conferences last year and speaking with so many corporate planners, travel managers, hospitality suppliers, technology companies, and many others, I’ve put together a master wishlist of changes that could deliver a more effective, efficient industry. Here are the top five innovations and advances meeting professionals would like to see:

Breakout sessions are one of the few times during a conference or event where guests get to interact with one another in a more structured way.

During a breakout session, the crowd is broken up into smaller sections where attendees can get more one-on-one attention and speakers get to answer more direct questions. This format works well to give guests a more intimate experience and can be less overwhelming than the larger crowds on the mainstage. 

If speakers contribute to the draw of your event, then their bios are essential components of your promotion. Fact is, it’s not enough to simply include educational and background information and point people toward your speaker’s latest projects. Truly impactful bios have a certain je ne sais quoi that captures the reader’s attention and leaves them intrigued. Here are a few tips for crafting a fantastic one for you or a speaker at your event.

Are you traveling to San Francisco’s Moscone Center for PCMA Convening Leaders next week? San Francisco Travel Association has suggestions for things to do when you aren’t discovering your “why” with Simon Sinek or practicing your “Jagger moves” with Maroon 5.

It’s that time again: prepping for the airport. You lug your suitcase and carry-on out from the back of the closet. It’s the same closet you’ll sloppily pull clothes from and—just as sloppily—stick into your suitcase. But, no matter the arrangement, you did it. You feel as though you have everything you need, from TSA regulated bags for your liquids to that pair of sunglasses you always manage to forget. Your ride-share is about to take off without you, but by some miracle you make it out of the house in one piece. Everything is going to plan, you get through security and to your gate, luggage and all, only to be hit in the face by reality: the gate just closed, and you missed your flight.

Movies are almost as much a part of our holiday traditions as food. It’s a Wonderful Life has such a strong association with Christmas it is shown in independent movie theaters like New York’s IFC Center, and cinema chains such as Bow Tie, 73 years after it was made.

Being an effective meeting planner means you’re an ace at multi-tasking, plus your networks are wide and your personal tool kits expansive. As we age and start thinking about the future, those assets will come in handy when exploring new paths of happiness or finding a truer sense of purpose throughout our golden years.

You want to create an event that no one will feel excluded from, so you actively market your event to all types of people. Your lineup is carefully curated to feature a diverse set of talents. And your venue is entirely ADA compliant.

But there might be a fatal flaw in your diversity efforts: your team. If your staff and volunteers are a homogenous crew, it sends a subtle message to attendees that’s not as inclusive as you think.

So much of sustainability is about making do with less: less meat on menus, fewer plastic water bottles at meetings, carefully curated giveaways to eliminate waste. But Air New Zealand has introduced a green initiative which gives passengers an extra treat: Edible coffee cups which taste like biscotti.

Trade shows have the biggest opportunity in the event industry right now. They are the perfect recipient for all that extra budget coming from marketing companies. Still, they get a bad rap. Are they just dying or are we just witnessing a powerful transition?

From #metoo to white supremacy, the lens on diversity issues is bright these days. It’s a good time to be an advocate for equality and fairness for all people. Within the world of events, you can take a stand and cultivate a culture of inclusivity.

Meeting professionals are behind the scenes at big conferences, but they’re front and center for the meetings with department colleagues, stakeholders, and suppliers that bring their events to life. Unfortunately, these everyday meetings can be time-wasters if they’re not well executed. In fact, Doodle’s 2019 State of Meetings Report calculates that professionals spend an average of three hours a week in meetings, and of those, two hours are unnecessary or ineffective, resulting in a cost to organizations of $541 billion per year in lost work.  

Are you ready to enter the age of experience? A new study from the global agency George P. Johnson Experience Marketing singled out the effective emerging practices smart planners used in the last year to produce transformational messaging. David Rich, senior vice president of client services for the company, drilled down on the trends that are motivating employees and consumers.