Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

I make conferences better by dramatically increasing attendee satisfaction. Increasing attendee satisfaction increases the effectiveness of the event for all stakeholders: attendees, sponsors, and event owners. I’d argue that hiring me is the most effective and cost-effective way to improve any event.

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Conferences that Work

AUGUST 29, 2016

Whenever I’ve had the pleasure of meeting David (not often enough!) However, one recurring theme in David’s magazine irritates me, because it perpetuates a common misconception in the events industry. The cover proclaims “What’s Next in Event Design?” 2 — Elementary Meetings.

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Logistics Event Design Conference Design Conference 54

Stova

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

A hybrid event is one that combines a face-to-face (F2F) event at a physical location with a “virtual” online component for remote attendees. There will likely be reduced travel funds available for event attendance due to economic downturns. The onsite group has social connectivity, focus, and high sensory input.

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Remote Audience Events Meeting Design 111

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

Companies bombard me with offers to check out online meeting platforms. Butter is an online meeting platform that is designed to support the facilitation of great interactive meetings. So here’s my review of Butter, a meeting platform for facilitators to shine. The usual caveats. Butter — the big picture.

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Platform Meeting Online Production 62

Conferences that Work

APRIL 25, 2022

Hosted by CSAE Manitoba , this free one-hour online Participate Lab will introduce you to the design of participation-rich events through the direct experience of participatory meeting techniques and formats. All are welcome to attend this event at no charge (both CSAE members and non-members). Where & When.

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Online Registration Meeting Design Conference 116

Brightspot Incentive Events

MARCH 18, 2021

Transforming an In-Person Sales Kickoff into a Virtual Meeting. Face-to-face events, conferences, and meetings were postponed or cancelled for the near future. Virtual Event Platform and AV Partner. Attendees have shorter attention spans when viewing a screen for several hours.

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Virtual Events Meeting Speakers Platform 52

Conferences that Work

MARCH 13, 2017

How do we get people to participate at meetings? 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. Seth Godin, What Would Happen.

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Attendee Education Booking Meeting Design 80

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

But Julius didn’t see them catch on and now focuses on other aspects of the meeting industry. I’ve been a facilitator, designer, and proponent of unconferences (aka peer conferences ) since 1992. For example, figuring out what attendees actually want and need to talk about doesn’t happen at the drop of a hat.

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Preparation Venue Conference Attendee 106

Convene by PCMA

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

We’re tapping the talent of PCMA’s staff so they can share the design thinking and process behind the innovative experiences they create for PCMA events. In other words, we’re showcasing the event professionals behind the events for event professionals. One participant later said she cried during the song.

Events 72

Events Attendee Audience Conference 72

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

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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Online Conference Platform Attendee 150

Conferences that Work

JULY 3, 2023

Back in 1992 , I developed The Three Questions as a fundamental opening process for participant-driven meetings and conferences. Answering it gives every person present, in turn, an opportunity to share what they would like the ensuing meeting to be about. Those who offer it are usually first-time attendees.

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Conference Attendee Meeting Design Booking 62

Conferences that Work

JUNE 18, 2018

I’ll bet that even today, if you asked attendees what they remembered about the event, most would immediately recall the There Was No Coffee moment. Experienced meeting planners know that every meeting has its share of unexpected surprises. Surprising Meetings But not all meeting surprises are bad.

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Meeting Conference Planner Attendee 70

Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Meetings of every kind offer these opportunities. Personal meetings like these, whether brief or extended, between good friends or strangers, are fundamental. Read any of my books to learn specific techniques and designs that create meaningful and valuable conversations during meeting sessions.).

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Meeting Design Conference Online Audience 65

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 24, 2020

Here are five meeting design books I especially recommend. Into the Heart of Meetings: Basic Principles of Meeting Design ( ebook or paperback ). 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

APRIL 1, 2019

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

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Booking Conference Meeting Design Speakers 97

Social Tables

OCTOBER 14, 2016

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? Attendee engagement is an oft-overlooked component that is just as important as the venue or food and beverage.

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Audience Social Media B2C Networking 68

Meeting Tomorrow

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Tracking event industry trends is a favorite activity here at Meeting Tomorrow. Rising: AR/VR at events. As a bonus, this format also seems to encourage much higher usage of digital engagement tools as a unifying platform which means as a planner, there is more data to help you improve the next meeting. Final thought.

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Trends Event Apps Events Planner 57

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. That’s the way to improve meetings! A day to get to know people a bit already.”

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Conference Meeting Design Proposal Retreat 62

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Let’s look at these three conclusions in the context of meeting design. Most meeting presenters still lecture. And most meeting session presenters resort to lecturing as their dominant session modality. Attendees learn more when presenters use active learning modalities. Conclusion.

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Publishing Speakers Education Booking 85

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Under pandemic conditions, former alumni, faculty, staff, and other friends of the institution cannot even meet in person to grieve. So I decided to design and run an online memorial service. I decided to design the wake as a three or more hour event. This timing is not great for potential European attendees.

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Online Registration Logistics Affiliate 126

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

The MICE Blog

MARCH 11, 2021

This new set of values brings significant opportunities for the gaming industry and events. Now, after one year of hosting and attending virtual events, the events industry is facing the challenge of how to engage attendees and combat ‘zoom fatigue.’ Attendees must take the essentials of a certain problem area (e.g.,

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Contracts Contracts Virtual Events Online 130

Travel Daily Media

AUGUST 16, 2020

Marina Bay Sands has launched a state-of-the-art hybrid event broadcast studio at Sands Expo and Convention Centre in a first for the industry, as the award-winning venue paves the way to redefine the future of meetings. The post Marina Bay Sands unveils industry’s first hybrid event broadcast studio appeared first on Travel Daily.

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Certification Events Audience Tourism 40

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Participant-driven and participation-rich peer conference designs improve on traditional events because they don’t treat openings and closings as necessary evils but as critical components of the meeting design. Let’s examine each phase of the peer conference arc in more detail.

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Conference Conference Design Meeting Design Education 64

Conferences that Work

MARCH 28, 2022

My work at a pre-con is different from that of a typical meeting planner since I focus on the meeting’s design and facilitation. I’ve been convening meetings for decades, though, so I know a fair amount about meeting planning. The traditional bread and butter of a meeting planner’s job.

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Logistics Meeting Meeting Design Site Selection 169

Conferences that Work

MARCH 25, 2019

Though it’s clearly sensible to keep a conference running on schedule, we’ve all attended meetings where rambling presenters, avoidable “technical issues”, incompetent facilitation, and inadequate logistics have made a mockery of the published program. Ultimately, the attendees are the losers when this happens.

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Rehearsal Logistics Contracts Contracts 70

Endless Events

JULY 27, 2018

You can also ask the potential attendees to pay a sort of “attendance deposit”, which will be returned when their attendance has been confirmed. Up Your Learning and Event Networking Experience at Meetings. That’s why it is important to design your meetings for event networking. Click To Tweet.

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Networking Attendee Registration Events 200

Social Tables

OCTOBER 6, 2018

Change is imminent — and in the meetings industry, it’s upon us. From more engaging, holistic experiences to the the bold new expectations of “bleisure,” event planners and suppliers are racing to adapt in an industry that’s as dynamic as it’s ever been. Millennials are the decision makers now.

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Meeting Trade Show Events Planner 158

Social Tables

OCTOBER 6, 2018

Meetings don’t look how they used to. Today, planners are racing to adapt to trends that make conferences and events more engaging and dynamic than ever before. But when it comes to trends, where should meeting industry professionals put their focus? Here are five meeting industry trends that are changing the game.

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Trends Meeting Trade Show Events 157

Conferences that Work

JULY 19, 2021

Ever since my first encounter with the hybrid hub and spoke meeting topology at Event Camp Twin Cities in 2011, I’ve been a big fan of the format. Yesterday [see below], I realized that hub and spoke is a great format for purely online meetings too. What’s a hub and spoke meeting? But first…. Flexibility.

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Meeting Online Remote Conference 132

Conferences that Work

APRIL 18, 2022

I’ve been writing about hybrid meetings for a long time; my first post was in February 2010. The COVID19 pandemic created an explosion of interest in hybrid meetings, and the marketplace and event professionals are still defining what “hybrid” means. (No, 1—In-person attendees participate in an online session!

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Meeting Online Conference Booking 164

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 16, 2021

And it made me think about meeting design. And, me being me, I thought about what Marcy had just said in the context of meeting design. And meetings are no exception. But when we are fully engaged in a meeting, we are just there , immersed in and responding to what is happening. Attendees want to feel safe.

Rehearsal 126

Rehearsal Meeting Design Conference Planner 126

Endless Events

JUNE 15, 2018

Forever gone are the days when event registration meant signing a sheet of paper. Today there are multiple options for attendees to check in to events, whether offline or online. Also, take into account the real-time feedback of your attendees. Embracing the Weirdness of Meetings. Click To Tweet.

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Registration Events Sponsors Event Marketing 258

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Venue owners can make other attendees co-hosts. The host can broadcast a text announcement to all attendees in all rooms. Another feature that could be useful when in stage presentation mode is that Rally allows the meeting host to randomly shuffle table occupants into tables of 2, 3, or 4 people. next to their name).

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Online Platform Panel Venue 80

Conferences that Work

JULY 30, 2018

Afterwards, we saw many people swapping business cards and making arrangements to meet up again. Such workshops routinely meet the outcomes they’re designed to achieve: creating useful and memorable learning experiences and connections. A participant started crying and his group members rushed to console and support him.

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Education Consulting Venue Conference 54

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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Conference Attendee Meeting Benefits 144