Inspiration Hub

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.

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? 

Think about how difficult it once was for two people attending a conference to arrange a meeting. 

First, you had to figure out who was going to be there by browsing a printed directory. Then, you would look up the email address (or phone number!) of the person you wanted to meet and contact them to see if they were interested. If they were, you would check your schedule, hoping for an overlap, and agree on a time.

It was April 2005 when the thought first struck me. I was in Hall 8 of Messe Frankfurt, walking down one of the aisles of IMEX—the international trade show I was working for at the time. It was 3 p.m. and the noise was incredible; everywhere I looked people were interacting: discussing, debating, gesticulating, negotiating, smiling, sharing, influencing and convincing and it was then, as I surveyed this sea of human connectivity, that I realized what powered the most successful global business events.

In the events industry, connections count. Networking is one of the keys to success — and getting good deals with vendors, venues, and other events managers. Whether you’re working your first event job or have afew years (or a lifetime) under your belt, you always need to build new relationships and keep existing ones warm. Here are some networking tips for every stage of your event planning career.

In his book The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, Daniel Coyle explains that humans use “belonging cues,” or behaviours, that create safe connections in groups. You’ve felt these before: eye contact, turn taking, attention, body language, vocal pitch and whether everyone talks to everyone else in the group. If a group isn’t inclusive, you sense it immediately.

Events are all about creating connections—connections between attendees, connections between an organization and its members, connections between a brand and its audience. No matter the industry, networking games are one of the best ways to connect a community. But the importance of networking often gets overlooked in the grand scheme of the event planning process. But it shouldn’t. Sure, a mix and mingle welcome reception is something, but is it really the best way to bring people together? And is it even memorable?

Networking events are always a useful way to get people to come together and form professional and personal bonds. As with any other event, though, there is a way you should approach the function. Otherwise, it’s just a social event with no direction. That means it ends up being a money waster with no long-term benefits for your company or the attendees. We’ll explain all there is to know about these come-togethers and how to follow up after a networking event for best measurable results.

Thanks to social media—and a whole host of event marketing platforms—it’s never been easier to set up a networking event. The challenge is ensuring that the event is a genuine success for those in attendance. Before starting, it’s worth asking the following questions: Will the event make it easy to facilitate introductions? Will there be enough engaging activities? Will there be a good balance between party and genuine networking opportunities?

Icebreakers are one of the most effective ways to kick off a meeting or conference. These interactive sessions are widely used to help attendees to get to know each other, feel more comfortable in a group and have some fun before the official program starts.

One of society’s greatest paradoxes is that we have more connections today than we did in the past but there is less community and conversation. As a conference organizer, you can seed your annual meeting with experiences that nurture authentic conversations, deep connections and community. You don’t have to sacrifice honest talk for today’s casual chat through digital communications or to sidestep sensitive polarizing topics.

We’re lonely. And not just a little lonely. We’re experiencing a global epidemic level of loneliness. Last week, the U.K. appointed Tracey Crouch as the Minister of Loneliness after the British parliament released a five year study on loneliness that found more than 9 million people in the country reported they often or always feel lonely. Across the globe, loneliness is fast becoming one of our most serious health epidemics and is a greater predictor of early death than obesity, smoking and excessive drinking. So what does this mean for those of us responsible for organizing and executing conferences and events? A lot!

Networking can be a tricky thing. It's best to yourself for your networking experience. Checkout these tips to help you network and feel good doing it! You’ll find that the connections you make happen may not have an immediate advantage. However if you keep in contact over time, stay engaged to you will find that contacts will have more value as time passes.

Facilitating great networking at your event is a lot of work. Yet, it’s incredibly important because it’s one of the top draws of events. There are many ways to promote better networking but most of them boil down to this recipe for success. Networking has a strange appeal. It draws crowds and terrifies all at the same time. It’s one of the main reasons people attend professional events but it’s also dreaded by introverts. Creating a successful networking event means you’ll secure a place in your attendees’ hearts and they’ll be more likely to attend your events in the future. Let’s face it, while there’s plenty of online competition for networking opportunities, it’s still in-person that seals the largest deals.

In the meetings and events industry, one of the key predictors of your success is your ability to build relationships with influential people who connect powerfully and create high-trust relationships fast. And just like them, you can learn to effortlessly create profitable, winning relationships with anyone you want. While industry events are ideal places to find potential customers and partners, often the results are disappointing. You do everything the experts say: shake hands confidently, look people in the eye, and give them a well-rehearsed pitch. The person shows interest so you hand them your business card. But then nothing comes of it.

As an event organizer, connecting with clients is the key to a successful business relationship. A particularly powerful way to sell your skills to clients is to use Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) — an advanced way of mirroring someone. “When highly influential people communicate with others, they match everything from the other person’s tone of voice, hand gestures, buzzwords, acronyms, and body language,” writes Asher. “Using this technique allows them to accomplish mirroring in a natural, unobtrusive way, quickly establishing uncommon rapport with little effort.”

From the moment you leave your house in the morning until you come home at night your day can consist of hundreds of professional and personal interpersonal interactions, and research suggests that if you could improve the experience for both parties in each of these interactions the benefits could be greater than you think.

Engagement keeps attendees coming back, right? And that adds to the pressure of needing to create more interactive sessions. So what do you do when group interaction isn’t living up to your expectations? Here are a few ways to increase engagement and interaction in your breakout sessions.

There’s something killing intelligent conversation these days. And the irony behind it is that people think using these words makes them sound more intelligent. It’s time we put an end to these overdone buzzwords. Join us in our quest to identify the 35 most annoying buzzwords in the event industry.

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.

Networking is too important for the success of your event to simply leave it at “we’ll give our participants a 15 minute coffee break to network.” According to the latest IAEE report, 75% of delegates attend conferences with the aim of building new connections.

Do you generally prefer emailing, texting or talking on the phone? Do you love it when people write their whole message in the email subject line or does it make you cringe? How do you feel about voicemail? Emoticons? Infographics? What these types of questions reveal is commonly known as your “communication style,” that is, your preferences about how people ideally should communicate with you. And understanding other people’s communication styles is essential to building successful working relationships with them. But, oddly enough, it’s a topic we rarely discuss.

Our recent survey of more than 180 meeting planners from around the world for the IACC Meeting Room of the Future  report delivered many interesting insights. We heard from people who are new to event planning as well as long-timers, and many provided candid comments.  Some of their remarks were anticipated, but some certainly surprised us. So what do meeting planners say venues need to do to appeal to the changing nature of today’s meetings? Here are ten of my insights into the most essential elements of sought-out venues.

Do you love networking events or do you rather feel uncomfortable? Maybe you don’t have any problems when you are entering the room, when you look in the faces of all those strangers, maybe you are not insecure to join the conversation but maybe the exact opposite is the case.