Conferences that Work

MARCH 13, 2017

We know that participants — people who are active learners — learn more, retain more, and retain more accurately than passive attendees. They are also far more likely to make valuable connections with their peers during the event. Ask a hard question every time we go to a meeting…. Seth Godin, What Would Happen.

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

And yes, I admit it, during the second day of my vacation while enjoying the harmonies I hear, I’m jolted to think about religious meeting design…. Religious services are thought to be around 300,000 years old — by far the oldest form of organized meeting that humans have created. Include lots of communal activities.

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Meeting Design Meeting Speakers Conference 61

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Events and media consultant Julius Solaris shared at the Unforgettable Experience Design Summit that he was initially very enthusiastic about unconference format events. But Julius didn’t see them catch on and now focuses on other aspects of the meeting industry. Why aren’t unconferences more popular?

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Conferences that Work

MAY 11, 2020

I’ve been designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich in person meetings — aka peer conferences — for almost thirty years. Because participants love these meetings ! Now the covid-19 pandemic has forced meetings online. Zoom has rapidly become the dominant platform for online meetings.

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Conferences that Work

AUGUST 24, 2020

Here are five meeting design books I especially recommend. In an outrageous display of chutzpah , I wrote three of these books. [If Into the Heart of Meetings: Basic Principles of Meeting Design ( ebook or paperback ). Intentional Event Design ( ebook or paperback ).

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Meeting Design Booking Meeting Publishing 114

Conferences that Work

JULY 3, 2023

I’ve used it myself at hundreds of events, and many facilitators and meeting designers have also adopted it as an effective way for attendees to get to learn about each other and uncover what they would like to discuss while they are together. Those who offer it are usually first-time attendees.

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Conference Attendee Meeting Design Booking 62

Conferences that Work

APRIL 1, 2019

This (slightly edited) interview by JT Long appeared in the March 2019 issue of Smart Meetings Magazine. What led to writing the book, Conferences that Work ? At traditional conferences with fixed programs set in advance, at best half of sessions offered are what attendees want. If you had told me then that the.

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Booking Conference Meeting Design Speakers 97

Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Traditional events relegate conversations to the hallways, to breaks and socials. Given the fundamental human need to tell, meeting stakeholders owe it to participants to create opportunities and environments for rich conversations in the sessions, rather than just the gaps between them. No conversations occur during lectures.

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Meeting Design Conference Online Audience 65

Social Tables

OCTOBER 14, 2016

Imagine this: you’re busy planning your next big event. You have all your ducks in a row: awesome venue booked, killer catering secured and tickets to your event are sold out. But you’ve forgotten one important piece of the puzzle: how do you plan on engaging your attendees? Social Media. I am going to #CASEDI in January.

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Audience Social Media B2C Networking 68

The MICE Blog

MARCH 11, 2021

Yuri van Geest gave an insightful presentation and then Catherine welcomed experts for a roundtable discussion to delve further into the topic of gamification in an attempt to answer the question, ‘What will your event of the future look like using gamification.’. A common example is booking websites. Why use gamification?

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Contracts Contracts Virtual Events Online 130

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

” I think it’s reasonable to concentrate on fairness to participants : the majority of those involved with the meeting. In his influential 1971 book A Theory of Justice , John suggested that “the fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.”.

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Meeting Conference Speakers Booking 129

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 29, 2016

The first time I met him—at the premier EventCamp in 2010 —he immediately purchased my just-published book, sight unseen. The following year, David was kind enough to honor me in his flagship publication BizBash as one of the most innovative event professionals. Whenever I’ve had the pleasure of meeting David (not often enough!)

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Logistics Event Design Conference Design Conference 54

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

For a full explanation of why active learning modalities are superior, see Chapter 4 of my book The Power of Participation.). Let’s look at these three conclusions in the context of meeting design. Most meeting presenters still lecture. Attendees learn more when presenters use active learning modalities.

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Publishing Speakers Education Booking 85

Conferences that Work

MARCH 29, 2021

The essential characteristics of meeting professionals. If there is a heaven on earth in the event industry, there are four essential characteristics of successful meeting professionals you’ll meet there. Every successful meeting involves thinking about, planning for and executing countless details.

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Meeting Communications Communications Logistics 121

Conferences that Work

APRIL 9, 2018

In a nutshell, I think that our industry associations have become too focused on justifying their continued existence financially, and are neglecting their core mission of supporting and representing their members and association meeting attendees. In the first quarter of 2018, I’ve booked more business than all of 2017.)

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Education Meeting Sponsors Speakers 74

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

After I talked about my meeting design work with pioneer tester James Bach at the 2004 Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference, the testing community somehow adopted the term peer conference for their get-togethers. I miss hanging out with the folks I got to know at these events. My code development days are long gone.

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Conference Meeting Design Proposal Retreat 62

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

So here’s my review of Butter, a meeting platform for facilitators to shine. In this review of Butter, I’ll share a big picture overview, what I think is Butter’s finest feature, an example of how to implement a meeting design in Butter, and my closing thoughts. The usual caveats.

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Platform Meeting Online Production 62

Conferences that Work

JUNE 13, 2016

Why mention this on an event design blog? Well, the most effective aspect of China’s online censorship regime illustrates what happens when you don’t incorporate covenants into your meetings. The Chinese government runs a massive online censorship program. Tech In Asia explains: “Imagine being near a steep cliff.

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Meeting Conference Online Education 63

Conferences that Work

APRIL 16, 2018

Fun fact: the testing community often uses my term “peer conferences” for their get-togethers, due to a chat about meeting design I had with tester James Bach at the 2004 Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference.) Most meeting conveners concentrate on feedback about meeting content (“great speakers!

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Logistics Conference Trade Show Attendee 58

Conferences that Work

APRIL 8, 2019

Invent a way to make the conference successful based on the collective needs, wants, and experience of the attendees. Organizations hear about these conferences and ask me to design and facilitate them. I decide to write a book about it, and in… 2009: I self-publish Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love.

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Publishing Consulting Manufacturing Conference 58

Conferences that Work

JUNE 26, 2017

The meetings industry is far more aware of the importance of treating and supporting attendees as active participants rather than passive consumers of education. I also moderated the #eventprofs Twitter chats for several years, and until recently, ran the weekly #Eventprofs Happy Hour Hangout for meeting professionals.

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Booking Conference Education Meeting Design 50

Social Tables

APRIL 17, 2019

And with each survey and stat, we learn a little bit more about how all of us can come together to create better face-to-face events. At the end of the day, it’s the stats that bring us all together, open up new conversations, and spur collaboration, that have the biggest and most holistic impact on our events.

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Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 12, 2016

significantly increase owner and attendee satisfaction and participation at your sessions and events. significantly increase owner and attendee satisfaction and participation at your sessions and events. Learn more about Adrian and his books. The attendees are still here talking to each other!

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Registration Conference Education Venue 25

Conferences that Work

APRIL 18, 2022

The COVID19 pandemic created an explosion of interest in hybrid meetings, and the marketplace and event professionals are still defining what “hybrid” means. (No, No, sticking a streaming camera in the back of the room does not make an in-person meeting hybrid.) 1—In-person attendees participate in an online session!

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Meeting Online Conference Booking 164

Social Tables

DECEMBER 27, 2018

What does it mean to be a part of the events industry in 2019? Meetings are growing and evolving rapidly, and each is an experiment in applying new methods to find a perfect formula. To succeed, you have to be dynamic, you have to be flexible, and, above all, you have to be in tune with attendee desires.

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Trends Meeting Planner Venue 167

Motivation Excellence

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

An in-house or outsourced corporate event planner is responsible for planning the logistics. End-of-event assessments are a critical tool in evaluating the subjective success of the incentive travel event. Event attendance gives earners public recognition for their achievements. Why do incentive travel programs work?

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 5, 2021

My books and this blog provide plenty of information on how to do this. And it is easy for it to happen at meetings. Designing for trust, safety, and learning. In general, the more meeting attendees trust each other, the safer they feel. Potentially, everyone has something to contribute and to learn.

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Meeting Conference Booking Attendee 129

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 24, 2022

Have you attended in-person meetings where your hallway conversations were the highlight of the event? But I see meetings where hallway learning trumps a majority of, if not all, conference sessions as failures of design, rather than a fact of life. Give your attendees plenty of breaks. Don’t get me wrong.

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