Inspiration Hub

Libations have been a part of social gatherings for ages, and have certainly been a big to-do in event planning of all types. However, as we continue to shape this new millennium, it’s time to reconsider how we include a growing number of attendees who don’t consume alcohol. Read on for our thoughts on why mocktails and/or booze-free drinks are important, and how to serve them at your next event. 

In a meetings world that is changing faster than the table set-ups from business lunch to gala dinner, event professionals have to be able to spot trends and leverage them quickly to meet the needs of evolving audiences. That is why serial entrepreneur, author and futurist Michael Tschong kicked off the first Smart Meetings Experience of 2020 at Hyatt Regency Renaissance at SFO.

Mental health in the workplace is gaining more attention these days as study after study is revealing how stress can negatively impact employee wellness and performance. As road warriors, there are ways that you can mitigate the strain on your relationships that frequent travel can cause. While you may love your job and don’t mind the travel, being away from family and friends can still take a toll in part due to something called ambiguous loss, which is a term that describes the uncertainty about how a relationship with a loved one may change due to separation. Below are strategies for keeping your relationships strong when your job keeps you apart.

Nearly 60 percent of planners surveyed said that they would be taking steps to address environmental issues at their events, according to the 2020 Events Trends Report recently issued by Eventbrite.

The survey included feedback from 6,800 event and experience planners worldwide—one-third of them from North America—to find out their expectations for 2020. Planners expressed more satisfaction with their jobs and indicated they’re focused on sustainability, inclusivity, and upping the original and immersive nature of their events. The biggest challenge they face is finding ways to involve more attendees.

Overall, the findings present insights into taking no “green” initiative for granted, navigating the needs of an evolving, diverse market and deconstructing the hot term “experiential.”

As sustainability has taken on a new importance in the global meetings and events sector, planners have struggled to make the right decisions to reduce their events’ impact on the environment.

Evidence shows, however, that planners are beginning to make the hard choices to improve their events despite the increased costs that often come with them.

Do you ever get so overwhelmed with work that you start to feel paralyzed? The to-dos keep coming, and you don’t even know where to begin. It’s ALL important, and it all HAS to get done. 

If so, you’re certainly not alone. Even if you’re an extremely organized person, it can be hard to determine what tasks to tackle first. If your to-do list is no longer cutting it, and prioritization is starting to become an issue, try this alternative approach to time and project management.

Any step toward more sustainable meetings and events is a step in the right direction, and new resources created by talent buyer and booking agent Stefan Lohmann, based in Hamburg, Germany, provide some good ideas and food for thought.

Most planners travel a lot. They are productive people, making it happen from California to Paris and everywhere in between. Traditionally, sourcing venues starts when a meeting or event is presented (or assigned), we seek out the right venue and then book the perfect space. One secret for finding that just right venue is maintaining a practice of continually seeking out other spaces to site while traveling.

The Harris Poll’s John Gerzema, who is the CEO of Harris Insights and Analytics, spoke at last year’s CEIR Predict Conference. His session, Trends Shaping Our Future, was the highest-rated session of the conference. Monitoring trends and being proactive in questioning how emerging trends might impact exhibitions are helpful in developing proactive strategies.

You may be vaguely familiar with feng shui (uhm…it’s a Chinese organizing thing, right?). Whether you feel the flow of chi or not, the issues that the practice aims to tackle with energy optimization have scientifically established effects on your performance.

“We have a lot of uncertainty out there,” Mike Dominguez, chief executive officer and president of Associated Luxury Hotels International, started off by stating in the first Smart Meetings’ Accelerator “2020 Hospitality Marketplace: Everything You Need to Know.”

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.