As an events organiser, my mission is to create platforms for voices and ideas which are misrepresented and excluded by mainstream narratives. The events we produce at Thorny are provocative, colourful and sometimes a bit silly, and bring together artists from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines in unlikely spaces around the city.

MPI’s Meetings Outlook 2018 Summer Edition planner responses indicated that while “66 percent predict favorable business conditions, only 3.1 percent say negotiations are becoming simpler.” In contrast, 54.9 percent of respondents claim contract negotiations are becoming more complex. Today’s hotel meeting contracts are getting longer and longer and that would certainly indicate more specificity, if not more complexity. Whether contract trends are new or old, it is the meeting professional’s responsibility to read every single word of the contract carefully and seek advice from their legal counsel as warranted.

There’s good reason why the position of event planner is consistently named to the top ten most stressful jobs each year. There are so many moving parts, demands, and unexpected complications that can arise. And through it all you not only have to find viable solutions, you need to ensure you keep your composure and remain gracious to attendees, sponsors, and vendors.

Before you can perform meeting magic, you first have to find your next gig. That requires a killer resume. When you have a lot to brag about, it can be easy to overlook important skills that you bring to an organization and emphasize irrelevant information. Let’s take your CV one section at a time to make sure your event cred is obvious even at a glance.

Effective social media marketing means taking the proper steps before, during, and after the show. To ensure you cross everything off your social to-do list, refer to the following checklist:

Having helped to plan and oversee thousands of meetings during my career, it has been interesting to see how the meeting and convention industry has changed and continues to evolve to this day. From today’s high-tech capabilities and mindfulness practices to more experiential and cultural influences, we are working in a really exciting time where we have more access than ever to technology, unique activities, and authentic experiences that can provide an unforgettable event for attendees.

Event planners know that work and life are all about the little details. Small luxuries like a coffee bar with the type of milk you take or a swag bag that you won’t immediately throw away are what make an event great. Here are thirteen things in life that thrill event planners — to the bewilderment of most of your friends.

Building your event budget can be a daunting task. With details changing daily and even more unknown elements, it can be hard to know where to begin. But begin you must. Your event budget becomes your guide throughout the event planning process to help you make key decisions. Creating a detailed and realistic budget template goes hand-in-hand with a successful event. All good event professionals know the first step to making sure nothing gets left out is to start with a checklist.

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.

Sleeplessness. Overeating. The pace of change. The stress of everyday life. Information overload. It all contributes to fatigue. Fatigue is the collateral damage of our time. Whether chronic or non-chronic, most of us have experienced it. So how do we design events that optimize energy and minimize physical and cognitive fatigue?

Distractions—a constant in the workplace, a thorn in a boss’ side, the enemy of the common employee. While a few workers may be able to power through for eight hours, with only a short lunch break and a phone in their bag all day, distractions are inevitable.

Arranging a hotel block and finalizing the contract is one of the most important parts of planning an event. It can also be one of the most overwhelming and confusing processes. There’s hotel jargon, legal terms, and the idea of facing off against someone over the negotiating table. We’re here to walk you through the basics of negotiating hotel blocks.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon banned the PowerPoint. It’s a bold move, especially when it is the standard. But going through photos, graphs and data can be, well…boring. Meetings are difficult enough, let alone meetings that revolve around clicking slide after slide. Consider pulling a Bezos, or at the least, incorporating something unique to keep morale and spirits high.

Attention to detail is one of the more important qualities of a great event manager. After all, perfectionism is a natural side effect of making a living providing people with flawless live experiences. Once your perfectionism starts creeping into your social life, though, you know you’ve really been in the biz for a while. Especially when you’re at a friend’s wedding and you find yourself paying more attention to the coordinator’s choices than the reception. (Oops.)

Members are the lifeblood of any association. Trying to retain new members is one thing, but how can associations ensure that their existing members are engaged? Now that’s a conundrum for almost all association leaders. While an organisation might be seemingly thriving within the highly competitive market, a closer look at its membership status may reveal significant gaps in the membership databases, and subsequently, in the overall engagement approach.

Conference-goers are willing to travel far distances for the right speaker lineup. But finding and securing conference speakers isn’t always easy. In fact, a majority of conference creators (89%) say it’s their greatest challenge this year.

Master the principles of landing page copywriting and design to build the perfect event registration landing page that will help you register more attendees. Learn how to build an event registration page, capable of converting visitors to event registrants efficiently in 2018.  

You love meeting new people, are calm under pressure, and are a whiz at prioritizing tasks. But is the event planning business right for you? Whether you’re a student looking for advice on how to break into the event planning business or an experienced professional wanting to change tracks, this roadmap can help guide your way. Discover the skills, tools, and tactics you need to know before becoming an event planner.

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?

The business world has radically changed in the last decade with the introduction of social media and ‘upgrade’ of data configuration and analysis. Core segments of any successful business, from marketing to business development and procurement, develop their strategies around this change, making PR pros the true ambassadors of the shift as they find themselves in the intersection of marketing, sales and customer service.

Have AV quotes bamboozled you before? You’re not alone there. And if you don’t understand the quote, it can be tricky to know how to negotiate on the price, or if you hold any power to negotiate whatsoever! The good news is, you do have that power. And all you need to put it into action is a little knowledge, which we’re about to arm you with.

Using social media to promote your next live event? Of course you are. In this blog post we highlight the use of Twitter as an incredibly useful platform for event promotion, featuring four examples of how other industry leaders have leveraged Twitter as part of their event strategy. 

People in the events industry are witnesses to a wide range of human behavior. From sponsors with unreasonable demands to attendees who are more high-maintenance than your star performers, every day is a new experience. After all, working in events is a like a crash course in keeping calm and carrying on!