Here’s something that many conference organizers suspect but rarely act on: Big-name keynote speakers don’t make your event memorable. In fact, they’re probably sabotaging both your budget and your attendees’ experience. I’ve spent decades designing and facilitating conferences that people […]
After four decades of founding associations, serving on non-profit boards, and designing and facilitating countless association meetings, I’ve seen a lot. Enough, in fact, to spot patterns—especially when things go wrong. Earlier this year, I documented three common-but-overlooked mistakes associations […]
Do I trust you? I live in rural Vermont, so if I want to go to an in-person conference that isn’t close to me, I need to get on an airplane. The closest airport to me is a two-hour drive. […]
I get some of my best ideas from my clients. (That’s because consulting—when I listen well—is a two-way street!) So I wasn’t surprised when, during a recent debrief, a client mentioned a simple way to improve the human spectrogram maps […]
I love the folks (especially my good friend, Jan-Jaap In der Maur) at Masters In Moderation, a company that has been providing meeting and facilitation services and training in the European Union since 2012. Why? Because their core beliefs about […]
Aside from my first book, I haven’t written much about the effects of attendee status — attendees’ “relative rank in a hierarchy of prestige” — at events. It’s time to revisit this important topic because you can improve your meetings […]
Event planners often overlook the importance of attendee conversations. Why does this happen? For a clue, read this AT&T advertisement promoting telephones in the 1900’s! Here’s Kevin Kelly’s analysis of what AT&T totally missed about how telephones could be used. […]
Are for-profits stepping into territory traditionally held by associations? Lately, I’ve seen signs that they might be. Recently, I’ve received inquiries from suppliers of products and services wanting to hold events for the communities they serve. In fact, I’m currently […]
If you are serious about improving your conferences, my meeting design workshop can be the game-changer your organization needs. Here’s what happens at a typical one-day workshop. In a world where passive listening no longer satisfies attendees, traditional lecture-based conferences […]