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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Spring is officially here, and with it come food and beverage trends for meeting breaks that will be popping up all over. Here are our best bets on trends you’ll be seeing at a grand ballroom near you this season.

Marketing guru and best-selling author Seth Godin famously said, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” The quote makes perfect sense, especially in the digital age where brand loyalty is earned through unique, shareable experiences and moments; where empathy and transparency win far more trust than advertising. Experts have noted that people today want an experience as much as a product or service, and research reveals that consumers are “less worried about spending money and more concerned with using it to enhance their lives.”

Creating a memorable attendee experience should be the top priority of any event. A memorable event raises your credibility, encourages future event growth, and expands your influence.  Planning for an unforgettable event means striving to meet the needs of each attendee. This may seem like a tall order (after all, how can you anticipate everyone's needs?), but it’s not unattainable. 

In this post, we share a variety of green meeting ideas and walk you through how you can create green policies to further your sustainable reach. Plus, we are going to show you how to do it in a way that keeps costs down and actually save money through your sustainable efforts. Above all, we promise not to use jargon or bamboozle you with science that busy eventprofs simply don’t have time for.

As the White House Director of Events during the Clinton Administration, IACC keynote speaker Laura Schwartz created events that represented a nation and inspired the world. Today, as a professional speaker, respected television commentator and author of Eat, Drink & Succeed,  Laura shares the secrets to building powerful, effective connections within companies, communities and events.

Why was I not surprised to see the first example of an employee who is highly engaged, but also burned out, in this Harvard Business Review article was a conference planner? Like so many of her planner peers, she threw everything she had into planning her event. Sadly, she ended up not leaving enough of herself for herself—she crashed before the conference happened and had to take time off to recover.

The concept of “sustainable” and “green” events is not new. Over the years, we have seen a shift towards making events more eco-friendly. This has been most noticeable with more hotels and convention centers coming up with detailed eco-friendly initiatives. With venues stepping up to the plate, planners and producers (myself included) need to do our part to prioritize sustainability.

I just took an interesting 41-question survey that aims to figure out what event participants value by asking respondents about what types of events they’ve attended recently, what they found most and least useful about the learning formats and technology used, and several other factors about the event experience. It got me thinking. 

Make 2018 the year of memorable meeting experiences. Attendees are demanding it. They want to move beyond lectures to more personal experiences, more networking, and more creativity. But how do you do that? What does this mean for the meeting environment? Here’s my take on what’s happening—and what needs to happen—in your meeting environment in the year ahead.

Most companies have one (or more) morning meetings; unfortunately, attendees often find them annoying and disruptive to their daily routine. The National Statistics Council says 37 percent of employee time is spent in meetings, and 47 percent of employees consider too many meetings to be the biggest waste of time on any day—more than social media or email.

As we head deeper into 2018, the web is abuzz with event trends. One area of event marketing that’s getting a lot of airplay is experiential marketing. There are countless anecdotal tales of experiential success, and the actual metrics to back them up.

What defines culture? And how does culture impact meetings? These were a few of the topics during “Multi-Cultural Design Thinking: Custom Touches for Remarkable Events” at Convening Leaders 2018.

It’s January and everyone is trying to make wise food choices for themselves and those they care about. Events are no exception. If you are responsible for selecting the food for your event guests, you know how complex it can be in today’s world. Allergies, dietary preferences, local experiences, budgets and current trends all impact your decisions. Do you know your food choices also affect your event’s environmental impact?

One of the most popular sessions at the 2018 Professional Convention Management Association Convening Leaders conference this week in Nashville, Tenn., was a panel discussion on F&B issues and trends that meeting planners can expect to see in the year ahead.

Will Millennials be joiners and conveners? Who are some of your next audiences to attract? Will your organization accumulate comparable lifetime customer value from next-generation members as it did from loyal Boomers? 

What are you doing to build a succession plan with your next audience? How are you attracting next-gen conference attendees? Here are key indicators and four areas you should address in your conference planning.

At some point in their lifetime, 70% of all Americans will have a temporary or permanent disability. Many disabilities aren’t visible to the naked eye — mental illness, heart conditions, or deafness, for example. When you’re planning a business event, chances are, you’ll have registrants of different abilities. It’s definitely your job to know what ADA rules you must follow. But disability awareness extends beyond simply understanding the law. The more accessible your event, the more your attendees feel welcome — all of them.

Meetings are an important tool in any business, but they can often go awry. With poorly defined agendas, individuals speaking up for self-validation and poor leadership, catch-ups can easily overrun, breaking up the flow of the day and reducing productivity. Poorly planned meetings can cause more harm than good. So how can you improve meeting outcomes and what is the best way to get the most out of your team? We’ve done a deep dive into the psychological research surrounding well-being in the workplace and meeting efficiency and here’s what we found.