Inspiration Hub

This is the 9th year MGI has conducted this benchmarking survey, and it gives great insights into how associations (in the U.S. and around the world) are recruiting, engaging, and retaining members.

Imagine you could save your company millions of dollars every year. That’s the savings large companies let fall through the cracks by under-leveraging their total meeting spend. How to stop all the waste you’re probably wondering? The key is to think differently about an often-overlooked part of your total meeting spend – small meetings.

Global data benchmarking and analytics firm STR (formerly Smith Travel Research) has taken what it learned from Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy to forecast potential effects Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath may have on the U.S. hospitality industry. 

Post-event, if you did your job, everyone is high on love: Loved the program! The speakers rocked! You did great! It’s a Kudos Fest. But, let’s admit, it, not every single attendee is always completely happy. 

Exhibitions are valuable ways to connect with customers, but it can be tough to grab attendees’ limited time on the show floor, especially when they already have a game plan in mind.

We’re always on the lookout for the latest research on employee engagement and performance motivation. In fact, I’m honored to serve on the board and as the Research Committee chair for the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) so that we can be sure we’re guiding our clients with the most relevant and recent information available. Every once in a while, a real game-changer comes along and I think the IRF’s new research on top performing companies does just that.

When it comes to planning an event choosing and understanding your AV can be overwhelming. Have no fear! I am going to walk you through everything you need to know in our 3 part series. First, we are going to tackle the basics, major AV terms you need to know. These AV terms will lay the foundation for your understanding of the rest of the series. For more information on how to make your AV at your event flawless see our guide to make your AV foolproof. 

There are few things that annoy me more than boring venues. We have all been to – and no doubt hosted – events in boring venues. You know the ones; dark, dreary and devoid of atmosphere. But things are changing. It’s no surprise that an increasing number of event planners are looking to take their events to “unique venues”.

Event proposal often evoke mixed feelings among event professionals. Some see them as an opportunity to shine and share their brightest ideas to win a new business, others take a more cautious approach due to risk of copying ideas, and see them rather as time consuming and tedious. One way or another, every event business needs them to grow and prosper.

The room layout can have a huge impact on the engagement and learning at your event. Find out which are the best seating layouts for different events and some ways to mix it up with more unusual layouts to increase engagement in meeting design.

In this fast-paced global business environment, the event industry has also been quite affected by the growing rate of Internet adoption and technological advancements, particularly in the areas of performance optimisation, product and service offering. Moreover, this is evident by the new roles that keep emerging within the event workplace.

Well-known author and political activist, Helen Keller, once noted that “the most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.” Stricken by serious illness at age 2 that left her both deaf and blind, Keller’s dogged perseverance over seemingly insurmountable odds is a testament to her personal vision. Keller’s quote leads me to consider contemporary visionaries like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk who have radically transformed our realities regarding what is possible. But for every Steve Jobs and Elon Musk there are countless other brilliant individuals whose visions will never be realized simply because they cannot effectively communicate the organizational vision in their heads to the hearts and minds of their teams.

While the purpose of meetings and events is for knowledgeable speakers to share information with their audience, there’s another important reason why attendees go to events. Many of them are seeking to increase their network and meet valuable people to build connections with.

Mobile event apps have turned attendees into active participants and opened up previously unimaginable opportunities for your event and its sponsors. The data speaks for itself, too. Frost & Sullivan recently found that event technology can increase your attendance by 20%, increase productivity by 27%, and decrease costs by 20-30%.

It is easy to assume that conference delegates know what to do when they attend your event. Of course some attendees do know how to make the most of their time, however, most of our attendees could do with some more support from the event planner. Even good delegates need support to be “great” delegates.

If you’re regularly feeling overwhelmed by your day-to-day duties, it may be time to check in with yourself and ask “What can I delegate to others?” Sometimes we can take too much upon ourselves and it can decrease our overall productivity. Unfortunately, there is a stigma sometimes attached to delegating in the work force as it can be perceived that you are just passing off your work to someone else.

Let’s face facts; anything that speeds up the processes, like check-ins, at your event is going to make attendees happy. And smart badges are making things easier than ever. The old way of managing the process, which typically required manually logging who has arrived, was a time-consuming venture that resulted in long lines and, inevitably, some level of frustration. Even scannable badges have shortcomings, leaving plenty of room for smart badges to improve the overall experience.

Managing events has more than its fair share of frustrations and stressors. From last-minute changes to procrastinating clients, the profession isn’t for the faint of heart. Luckily, executing a successful event makes everything else (like the crazy long hours) worth it.If you’ve been feeling a little fed up lately with a certain aspect of the job, don’t worry — you’re not alone! Here are the biggest frustrations experienced by nine of your fellow event organizers.

Bonnie Canal is a managing partner of The Resiliency Institute, a New Orleans–based company that specializes in business continuity — how to keep a business operating in the face of disruptive events. As a New Orleans resident, Canal has witnessed more than her share. From the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the city “just seems,” she said, “to be in the epicenter of these terrible disasters.”

Speakers are fundamental to any conference or event’s success. They are the primary sources of motivation and inspiration, the actors whose role is to stimulate conversation and spark attendees’ attention not only during sessions but also when the curtain falls. Therefore, you must always treat your audience’s experience as a priority when deciding on the best candidate.

There’s no denying it — improving your event experience doesn’t come cheap. To offset the costs, you can use VIP packages to charge more for deluxe experiences. Or, you can use the enhancements to fuel your marketing and sell more tickets. But one of the best ways to fund a more advanced experience is through sponsors. Specifically, you can partner with your sponsors to create experiential marketing campaigns.

Whether you’ve found them or not, your association’s membership is filled with potential volunteers. The trick is just getting them to come forward. Where, oh where are they?! How can you entice them to get involved? Here are a few tricks.

The future will see events break away from their current nature of a static point-in-time and transform them into engaging, shareable moments that occur throughout the exhibitor and attendee journey as they seek innovative knowledge and experiences.

How do you become an independent meeting planner? In many cases, if the five veteran independents who participated in a recent Convene virtual roundtable are any indication, it happens partway through your career and somewhat accidentally. Some of our participants went out on their own for personal reasons, while others were interested in the professional opportunities it presented. But all five agree that it was one of the best career choices they ever made.