Midwest Meetings | Engagement/Presentation News & Views

Latest Engagement/Presentation News & Views...

Facebook Study: A Few Thoughts for Conference Organizers

Pew Research Center released an interesting report: Why most Facebook users get more than they give.
If thoughts of poring over a 40-page report don't delight you, here are a few highlights that made me think twice about Facebook as a conference event promotion platform: Read More

11 Ways to Think Like a Connector Instead of a Networker

I've recently been asked by several people how it is that I seem to easily find paid work that I love. While I'm not on the fast-track to wealth, I have been very fortunate in the last few years and I've been thinking about what made it all possible.

In all cases, I wasn't actively looking for work though I certainly had my ears perked up. Also, in all cases, I was offered jobs by friends or friends of friends that I had made online. I would say that the number one reason I made such a positive impression on these people was that I helped them without seeking anything in return.

The Top Traits Of Rock Star Event Professionals

Rock stars! Just those two words create images in our minds of fun, money and pleasure. Rock stars get paid to bang on drums, strum guitars and scream into microphones. They get to do what they love daily. So what does it take to be a rock star event professional? Here are the eight top traits of superstar meeting professionals. Full story...

Nobody Cares About Your Event... Until They Have To

One of the more interesting things event planners have been doing over the years is to extend the life-cycle of their events and build year-round communities. While we applaud the effort, I think it’s a bit ridiculous to expect your attendees to stay fully engaged with your event, year round. Let me be clear: I am not advocating no interaction with attendees. I am, however, suggesting you change your paradigm to this: maximize full engagement while you have attendees' attention. Full story...

Defining the Virtual Emcee

I always say that any event requires a combination of content + engagement. The content gets people in the door, and the engagement keeps them there and makes them want to come back for more. This is extremely important when the audience is participating virtually... which is why I created and defined the role of “virtual emcee.” Full story...

Why Requiring Learning Objectives for Great Conference Presentations Sucks

I have been filling out quite a few conference presentation proposals recently, and began to notice a pattern in my behavior. My mood changed when I had to fill out the session’s learning objectives (which are statements of what attendees will be able to do by the end of the session.) Specifically, every time I had to fill out the learning objectives for a proposal, I got really, really annoyed. Full story...

The 10 Best TED Talks of 2011

Watching videos online is usually considered fun, but generally a waste of time. Not so with TED videos, which are uniformly interesting, educational, inspiring, and enjoyable. If you haven't spent much time (or any) checking out TED videos, you should – and to help with that, I've compiled the very best 10 TED videos of 2011. It was a grueling task, combing through the cream of the crop on the TED site, but somebody had to do it. Full story...

Big Ideas, Small Meetings

TED conferences—the events that bring together people from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design—have been happening since 1984. But it wasn’t until the last several years with the rise of social networking and quality, easily streamed online video that TED talks went viral. The most watched TED talk has more than 7 million views, suggesting that the tagline “ideas worth spreading” was well chosen. Full story...

How to Use Social Media During Events

Using social media during events is a no-brainer, but I find that many events still fail to take full advantage of all that social media has to offer. There are many possibilities, so here is just the tip of the iceberg based on my experience over the years. Full story...

Hashtag Spam vs. Event Engagement: Spotting the Difference

Sometimes, it can be challenging for event and conference planners to prevent hashtag spam and misuse. Scenario: I recently attended an excellent event. Speakers were experts with engaging content about hot button issues delivered through interactive formats. Event planners created a hashtag and tweeted to encourage bloggers to cover the event. So far so good. Full story...

Conference Organizers' Top 15 Professional Speaker Pet Peeves

Recently, Velvet Chainsaw partnered with Tagoras, Inc., a leading continuing education company, to survey conference professionals about their use of speakers. One question asked respondents to share their biggest pet peeves regarding professional speakers. Here are their top 15 most disliked. Full story...

How Twitter is Socializing Conferences

Have you noticed an emerging trend of Twitter and Facebook integrating with TV? Smartphones and tablets are now on coffee tables beside the TV remote. Nielsen says that 40% of television watchers are multiscreening everyday. These couch potatoes have a TV remote in one hand and their mobile device in the other! Why? Full story...

Experience Your Event Through Your Audience's Eyes

Despite the proliferation of online meeting software, face-to-face meetings remain the biggest reason why business professionals travel to conferences, according to a July 2011 survey by the Virtual Edge Institute. An important tactic for the event planner to harness new mobile technology and help people remember those connections and moments is through the use of photo galleries in a mobile app. Full story...

Content May be King, But Presentation is Queen

I have watched several webcasts recently related to my hobbies. While they were all informative and worth my time, they suffered from many of the same faults. The content was great but the production values were abysmal. Full story...

Maximize Every Moment Of Your Being At The Conference

I could start by saying come to my session. It is the most valuable use of your time at the conference. While I want this to be true, the fact is that your program committee has been working very hard to secure several outstanding programs for you, and indeed the wisest thing you can do if there are several of you from your school/company at the conference is to split up and cover all of the sessions. Full story...

Hello? McFly? Your Meeting Should Not Be A Time Machine!

My butt was in a chair in a hotel ballroom waiting for the program to begin. I was questioning why I woke up early to attend. The agenda was 7:00 a.m. registration followed by 7:30 welcome and sponsor recognition. The speaker would go from 7:40 until 8:30, and then the race to get out of the parking garage would begin. The vibe of the room was stale. Some might argue the early hour was the cause for the "blah" feeling, but it was more than the need for coffee. Full story...

Event Excellence: The Psychology of Color

First, a few disclaimers: 1) I'm not a psychologist - just insanely fascinated by human behavior triggers. 2) I'm working on revamping my website and now feverishly researching color advice on the Web. What you're about to read are highlights from this quest. Take it with a grain of salt, then think about how best to apply color at your events. Full story...

30 Days of Branding: Why You Should Blog

We all know that blogging can be quite time consuming, and I’m often asked why I blog when there are so many other things going on in my life. While I agree that I could use the time for other things, I maintain that blogging is a great use of my time, and I’m happy to share with you the reasons why. Full story...

10 Resources for Event Marketing Inspiration

It's happened to all of us. All of a sudden, blank, no ideas for our event website, invites, concept, Twitter account, Facebook Page. Where should we look for event marketing ideas when we are desperate for inspiration? Let’s see... The Marketer’s Block. It does exist. I am not the only one to say it. No ideas. Nothing, nada, niente. Full story...

How to Use Facebook’s New Subscribe Button to Your Advantage

Recently, among other changes, Facebook announced the addition of a Subscribe button to user profiles. And it’s something small businesses and nonprofits should be excited about. As a small business or organization, one of your biggest advantages is that you’re not a huge operation. It’s easier for you to humanize yourself because you’re nimble and smart enough to step out from behind the logos that bind your corporate counterparts. Customers are hungry for human faces, interaction, and connection... when, where, and how they want it. Full story...

4 Ways to Use Social Media to Engage Newbies at Conferences & Events

We’ve all been in this situation: first-time attendee to a conference (or “newbie”), not quite sure where to begin and not really knowing anyone. That first time walking into the event can be a shock to the system, but social media can help relieve that shock. We’ve worked on several conferences where social media helped us to engage and help newbies in a way that made them feel more at ease and connected ahead of their show experience. Here are four ways you can use social media to get new attendees involved with your event. Full story...

Event Excellence Starts with Your Team: A 5-Point Tune-Up

In today's economy, we're running lean and mean. Not much in the way of extra resources, be that money, technology, or people. Yet for some event organizers, there are rumbles in the ranks. Quality is slipping at our conferences and events, because we're trying to do more with less. Making matters worse, every time there's a hiccup in the economy, our teams get distracted and quality slips a little more. Full story...

The Heartbeat Of Your Presentation: Do You Know Them?

What’s at the heart of your presentation? Your audience. As a presenter, you need to remember that it’s not about you. Your presentation is not about your information or your data. It’s really about them — your audience. To succeed, you need to place your audience at the center of your action. Make them feel as if the presentation is addressing them personally. Focus your content on meeting their needs. Full story...

5 Traits of Outstanding Online Presentations

The number of poor online presentations is rapidly growing. The number of poor virtual presenters is expanding even faster. Poorly designed webinars, boring online conferences, ineffective hybrid events and emotionless virtual meetings litter our digital landscape like plastic bags on roadsides. Full story...

Why Every Conference Should Pay Attention to Social Media

I’ve worked in social media marketing for many years (including running social media for the largest digital marketing conference), and I speak about social media at over 20 conferences a year, so I have seen a lot in terms of how conferences are using social media. That being said, many conferences are still skeptical about how exactly they can use social media for their event and what the tangible benefits are.
In this post I want to share some of the key reasons that every conference should pay attention to social media.
Read More:

Using Gamification to Better Engage Event Attendees

Engaging members at events and conferences is at the core of every association, regardless if that engagement is online or face to face. Association event planners are acutely aware of the power of engagement and are constantly challenged to build opportunities for networking and learning at events and conferences. In recent years, technology has been the medium of choice to accomplish this, and games deployed via web-based or mobile applications have been shown to be very effective. “Gamification” is a buzzword garnering a lot of attention in this area, and for good reason.

Using Emotional Targeting In Your Event Marketing Materials

If you want to reach an emotional connection with a potential event registrant, you need to find out why they want to attend. You need to uncover why attending is personally important to them. Then you market your materials aimed at their “why.” Full story...

Do You Want Your Conference Attendees to Hear Content or Learn It?

If your goal is for your attendees to hear the information, then continue planning like you always have. The lecture is the quickest, easiest and most efficient way of delivering information. Your focus is on covering content. The aim is for the speaker to do all the talking and the audience to do all the listening. The main objective is to present as much information as possible. You judge the success of your conference based on how much content has been covered. Full story...

Flexible Digital Displays: New Age of One-to-One Advertising

The advent of low-cost, easy to install flexible digital displays, coupled with an imminent 100% smartphone adoption rate, heralds the start of a new age in public “one-to-one” targeted advertising, predicted NanoLumens® president and CEO Rick Cope in a feature presentation made today on the opening day of the 2011 Customer Engagement Technology World conference and exhibition in New York. Full story...

61% of Event Marketers Say Data Capture Must Improve

Most event marketers feel data capture at their events could improve and 5% don't track post-event follow up, according to a survey from IET venues. When asked how effective their data capture was, 61% of event marketers said it needed to improve, including 17% who answered that "it could be a lot better." Full story...

Your Conference Content Is Cheap!

Conferences that provide information dumps are quickly becoming nothing more than outdated and expensive ways to distribute information. Attendees can find most of that conference content online. And usually it’s free. For the majority of conference attendees, the point is not to gather information but to make sense of the information we already have. Full story...

Convert Facebook Fans to Attendees in Three Easy Steps

If you’re like most planners, you’re trying to turn Facebook fans into event attendees or registrants. Getting it done is easier than you think. After a year of interviewing planners and businesses experiencing remarkable success using social media, I found the common thread: they’re giving attendees a reason to offer more than a “like.” Full story...

Social Isolation In the Midst of a Crowded General Session

Rows and rows of chairs in straight lines face the stage. Aisles separate sections of chairs so people can navigate the room. The large ballroom easily seats 5,000 people theater style. The air is cold and stale. The lights dim. A dancing image appears on the front screens and the delay screens hanging from the ceiling. Why this setup? Why this method? What’s the goal of this ballroom-style general session? Full story...

Reducing Your Event Communications Spam-Factor

If you send event emails long enough, you will inevitably run into spam filter issues. When using Eventsforce, or any other online tool, for sending large numbers of invitations, reminders or marketing emails, automatic or ad-hoc emails, they can get caught in the recipients’ spam filter. Obviously, this is not intentional or ideal. Full story...

Are You Ready for “Family” Meetings?

The other night I was reading about generational studies in events. Organizers and exhibitors trying to cope with Generation Y, trying to encourage them to come to their conferences and exhibitions. Searching for answers to this generation’s abundant use of technology, short attention span, here-and-now mentality, and need for instant gratification. Finding a balance between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Wait a minute. Where do I recognize this from? Full story...

Four Conference Model Options

Once upon a time, many, many moons ago, in the days of old, in the rooms of the Inn, in the city of yonder, the time-honored, habitually-replicated, customary conference experience was basically always the same. It was one-directional, from organizers to attendees. Today, meeting professionals can select from a variety of conference models to customize the experience. Here are four conference model options. Full story...

Event Planners and Bloggers: Why They Should Come Together

If you want to get better publicity for your events, you need to reach out to bloggers, according to Michele Price. Known as @ProsperityGal on Twitter, Michele weaves connections between small businesses, authors, speakers, bloggers, and planners. She is known for her high energy and straight talk as a host on two radio shows, Breakthrough Business Strategies and Women in Business Radio, and as moderator of the Twitter chat, #Speakchat. Full story...

Event Camps Serve Up New Model For Corporate Meetings

1) Crowdsource the content. 2) Create a safe environment for experimenting. 3) Add lots of opportunities for collaboration. 4) Toss in some energizers to keep energy levels high. 5) Blend in face-to-face, virtual and hybrid formats. Presto! You've created Event Camp. Full story...

The Value of Face-to-Face Marketing in a Virtual Age

The popularity of communicating virtually—whether via email, instant messaging, LinkedIn, Twitter, or other social media channels—has had a significant impact on the speed at which information can be obtained. Virtual communication has also led some marketers to question the role face-to-face communications can play in building a brand. Full story...

The New Art of Event Marketing: Micro-Campaigns

Ten years ago, planners sent postcards and, if they were really tech-savvy, email announcements to get attendees to register for their events. Now, they’re reaching potential attendees with mass text messages and promotional YouTube videos. “In the past, national campaigns went out over two networks and hit everybody,” says Maurilio Amorim, CEO of The A Group, a full-service marketing and media firm. Full story...

Trade Show Giveaways: An Eye-Opening Experience

My position on promotional products and giveaways has been pretty staunchly conservative over the years. In fact I have probably turned more people away from these products than I’ve sold. It is not that The Trade Group didn’t have access to these products, but rather my belief that giving random products away to prospects provided little benefit. Full story...

Introducing Masters of the Hunt: The Professional Scavenger Hunt People

There are scavenger hunts and then there are Masters of the Hunt scavenger hunts. The difference? Some companies offer hunts “in addition to what they really do.” At Masters of the Hunt, this is what they do. Partners in crime, Lisa Jennings and Jane Lipps have made careers of perfecting “the art of the hunt.” Armed with bachelor’s degrees in their field (yes, there is a curriculum for this) and more than 20 years of experience designing and implementing unique and unconventional events, there are no two people more qualified. Full story...

Events 2.0: The 4 Secrets of Engaging Attendees

Yes – I’m going to share some secrets with you! So remember, this is all just between me and you and your colleagues, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, Facebook friends/fans, kids, neighbors, and anyone else you feel like chatting up. Of course, then it won’t be a secret. Full story...

Social Networking Helps Well-Being

New survey findings show that use of social networking sites is growing and that those who use these sites, especially Facebook users, have higher measures of social well-being. In a national phone survey of 2,255 U.S.adults last fall, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found the following. Full story...

IAEE Study: Virtual Events Remain Affiliated With Physical Events

"More than a majority (59 percent) of past and (65 percent) of future virtual event organizers say their virtual events are affiliated with a physical event," according to the Virtual Event Study, the latest publication from the International Association of Exhibitions and Events™ (IAEE). In collaboration with the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), relate and Tagoras, IAEE funded the study that captures baseline data on the extent of adoption of and future plans to hold virtual events. Full story...

Don't Be an Accidental Jerk While Networking

While attending a large industry trade show, I had the pleasure of being in the audience to watch a nationally respected keynote speaker. I have long admired this professional and following her presentation, during the networking break, I approached to compliment her on a great talk. She was in a conversation with two other people near the cookies and coffee. I politely stood back a few feet waiting for a break, which did not come. Full story...