Midwest Meetings | Featured Stories

Click here to submit your News & Views for MidwestMeetings.com!

Recent Featured Stories...

The Way You View Your Annual Meeting Changes The Way You Look At Things

We see the world as we are.
Scientists will tell you that there is no objectivity. Researchers influence the outcome of their research. The questions that we ask influence the information we uncover.
If you change how you think, you’ll change how you see the world. Read More:

Want To Be A More Strategic Meeting Professional? Adopt These Perspectives!

Meeting professionals often hear they need to be more strategic in order to succeed.

The successful meeting professionals that can move seamlessly back and forth from the logistics to the big picture are those that rise to the top. They are the ones that gain a seat at the executives’ table.
Read More...

Meetings can make you, uh, stupid

We all know that meetings can be dull and boring. A new study shows that they can also make you stupid.

"You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well," says study co-author Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute.

7 Sponsorship Practices that should be Hit by a Meteor – Part 1

I was recently reading about the two different schools of thought on what killed off the dinosaurs. The “gradualists” believe that there was a gradual dying off, due to climate change, competition from mammals, or any number of other factors. The “catastrophists” believe there was one major event – with a meteor crashing into Earth often referenced – that was responsible. As usual, my thoughts turned to sponsorship, and I saw some parallels.: READ MORE

Build a Custom Event Page in 6 Steps

Creating a custom event page requires a bit of HTML and CSS know-how, or a little help from the Eventbrite Design Team. In my previous post I gave you tips on how to create your own custom event page. Since then we have made some changes to our ‘create an event’ feature. Here are some new and hopefully easier steps in creating a great custom page.

Memo To Planners: Issues Awareness is Crucial

Taking a strong interest in what’s going on in the political, social and technological arenas is an essential part of being a good meeting planner. This is the long-held viewpoint and practice of veteran planner and educator Joan Eisenstodt, who made this the central message of a recent presentation at the New Jersey Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI). Full Story...

How to Hire Catering Companies_

Let’s say you’re charged with planning a corporate meeting, casual reception, formal dinner or maybe a wedding. You want to host the event at a venue that doesn’t have its own catering staff. More:

Medical Emergencies and the Meeting Planner: How Would You Respond?

Many meeting professionals have experienced an attendee’s medical emergency at an event. How a planner deals with such a situation it as it happens and after it happens affects not only the attendee’s quality of life but also an organization’s image. Full story...

Decoding Corporate Social Responsibility for Meetings

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the biggest corporate buzz words of the past few years. But it’s one of those things that needs decoding to be effective. We hear about carbon footprints, LEED certification, and Energy Star standards, and while they are all important programs that keep corporations on their toes, what does it all mean? When you’re planning a meeting are you being socially responsible? Are you CSR meeting savvy? Full story...

Top Ten IT Tips for Meeting Planners

Etherlive, a company specializing in event IT, has published its list of the top 10 ways to maximize face time at meetings using information technology, it announced this month. "The purpose of meetings and events is to get people to engage face-to-face," said Etherlive Director Tom McInerney. "We are in a transition period whereby conference organizers can benefit from IT to maximize both delegate retention and also engage with extended audiences across the globe. It is imperative to remember that IT should enhance the event and not take it over. Full story...

"Suckiness" is Opportunity: Make Your 2012 Events Better

As IDEO partner Chris Flink states so simply and eloquently, "Suckiness is opportunity." In other words, Flink challenges us to identify annoyances and inconveniences in our daily lives, and to invent solutions to those annoyances and inconveniences - to embrace "suckiness" as a chance to come up with something better. Full story...

Confusing? Valuable? Baffling? CVB Mystery II

Yesterday I reviewed what a Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) does as well as highlight some of the confusion surrounding how CVBs can help. As promised, today I’ll tackle the top misconceptions that clients have about CVBs. Full story...

The #Eventprofs Pre-Holiday Soiree: Only The Beginning

On a faraway Monday night back in the month of November, Liz King Events, together with eventwist and a host of other wonderful partners, hosted a lively evening of food and fun at the financial district’s first gastropub, The Fulton. Actually, it was only a couple of weeks ago, on the 14th, but it seems like a million years ago. Full story...

Firing Up for 2012 Meetings Business

With the meetings industry on the rebound, it’s a good time to make your pitch for a bigger meetings budget. Once your budget gets the go-ahead, use the following red-hot meeting trends as a starting point for spending it wisely. Full story...

Why It’s Okay to Outsource Your Ticketing

All six of my office telephone lines light up. Stepping away from my desk for even the briefest of moments means at least 20 missed calls, so if I allow myself to do the math, I should have over 100 calls if I dare step out for lunch. Full story...

Open Bar vs. Cash Bar: A Right Answer?

Recently, I attended an annual fundraiser that featured a cash bar. In addition, there was a champagne table that was $10 per glass. In exchange for this, you received a raffle ticket for prizes announced at the end of the night. I raised an eyebrow at this for a couple of reasons. Full story...

Finding Cost-Effective Ways to Create Slick Virtual Networks

Remember when your only source of income was an allowance? Yes, there was a time when you waited patiently all week for your parents to fork over a meager sum of cash, which you then had to find a way to stretch over the next seven days. This meant that you had to dream up particularly creative ways to give off the appearance of having enough money for all the cool clothes, new music, or tickets to that movie everyone else was going to. 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...

R.I.P. the "Wow"

Back in 1993, Rick Rubin, the founder of Def Jam records, held a funeral for the word “def” after it had been added to the standard dictionary. “When advertisers and the fashion world co-opted the image of hippies,a group of the original hippies in San Francisco literally buried the image of the hippie. When ‘def’ went from street lingo to mainstream, it defeated its purpose.” Full story...

Turning a Negative into a (Semi) Positive

While I don’t claim to be an expert on hotel lobby renovations, I have not once, not twice, but three times experienced firsthand the challenges of managing a meeting during the final phase of a major venue refurbishment. As a result, I feel qualified to share a few pointers on how to minimize the damage and ensure a successful event. Full story...

LinkedIn Reaches Top Decision-Makers - Not Gatekeepers

For meetings professionals and travel agents, LinkedIn can be an effective tool for facilitating and building business. That’s the experience of former meeting planner Brian Harris, president of Destination Site Selection. Through LinkedIn, Destination Site Selection has connected with meeting planners in the legal, financial and medical industries, said Harris, whose firm specializes in corporate groups and luxury leisure. Full story...

Plan the Best Employee Party Ever

Company parties and events are supposed to be fun ways to build team spirit and congratulate employees on a job well done. So why do so many events remain so notoriously boring and unimaginative that employees flat-out dread them? 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...

7 Virtual Event Best Practices Every Company Needs to Know

One of the things that I appreciate most about working in the virtual events industry is the level of customization that the technology provides. From profiling and listening tools to game dynamics and user-generated content, virtual events provide more flexibility than event managers could have dreamed of just a decade ago. 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...

Shortcuts Can Short-Circuit Corporate Event Effectiveness

Instant coffee. Instant messages. Emails that circle the globe with the click of a mouse. We've come to expect everything in an instant. When it comes to corporate event planning, many companies also expect instant results. This shows up in these ways. Full story...

Planner’s Diary Part II: The Mankato Marathon

Once upon a time, a marathoner came to the Greater Mankato CVB and said, “You know, Mankato should put on a marathon.” The conversation went to the Chamber of Commerce, then to the City of Mankato, and from there, the CVB took the reins to bring that runner’s vision to life. Full story...

How to Recognize the "AIG Effect" Before It Happens to You

It's happened before and it just happened again. The most dramatic scenario involved the Greek subsidiary of a multi-national company requesting proposals for luxury incentive travel a couple of months before thousands of layoffs and the Greek economic crisis were announced. This scenario involves a multi-national company with a North American head office. Full story...

Four Questions to Ask When Planning Your Next Non-Profit Event

To host a successful event, you always want to have the end goal in mind. After all the invites have been sent and your guests have left the venue, after all your post-event surveys have been returned and you’ve added up the donations or sales, how will you know that you’ve gotten the return you wanted on the investment of time and money you put into the event? Full story...

iPhone 4s Features That Will Matter to #eventprofs

As you probably already heard, October 5 was the much-awaited announcement from Apple about the release of their newest phone. I know that at my way-geeked-out-house, my husband and I spent most of the evening speculating about what would and wouldn’t be included in this update. Well, then the news dropped. It was less than titillating, but certainly the new iPhone 4s and iOS 5 will bring some useful, practical updates. Full story...

12-Step Guide: How to Live-Tweet an Event

Whether you are hosting an event such as a fund-raiser or a conference, or you are signed up to attend one, Twitter can help you to expand the event’s reach, grow your organization’s audience, and connect with potential collaborators or partners. Full story...

A Behind-the-Scenes Look At An Event Planner’s Behind-the-Scenes Work

"Do you want round tables?" the janitor asked. My first thought was, Does it matter? But Charissa Bowditch, program coordinator for the Department of Continuing Education, treated the question seriously. Full story...

The Great $16 Muffin Myth

I've been reading all day about the $16 muffins the Department of Justice served at one of its conferences, and I finally got curious about this. Is it really true? So I went to the DOJ Inspector General's website, got the report, and searched for "muffin." The following paragraph looks fairly impenetrable, but go ahead and plow through it anyway. Full story...

Skip the Seat and Take a Stand During Meetings (or not)

If time’s a wastin’ then you’d better get to standing. Or should you?
There’s a common consensus going around in articles featured on the Wall Street Journaland Business Insiderthat the days of sit-down meetings that last for over a couple of hours are on their way out, along with other dying old school workplace practices including the traditional 9-5 workday, leisurely lunches, and engraved watches to commemorate x years of hard work. For the tech culture world especially, stand-up meetings are becoming all the more commonplace. The upsides to some of these meetings is fairly worth the standing while- noticeably shorter amount of time spent with colleagues and with no tables or chairs that get in the way or encourage drifting off. Read More:

3 Signs you're dealing with a control freak

Is it just me or have you noticed a major spike in the Control Freak population?

The conference event industry is fertile ground for "control freakism." So much to do, so little time to do it. We're scrambling to meet high expectations for conference events, yet doing so with limited resources. The margin for error is slim.

Break away from meeting planner stress

Is Stress an Occupational Hazard?
Last year, a US News & World report proclaimed “Meeting Planner” one of the best careers for 2011. The report also noted “stress levels can be high”. No kidding! Full Story...

Gaining Conference Market Share Through Legal Stealing

Unless your conference is growing, you are on the road to decline.

All conference attendance plateaus eventually erode.

Unless you are taking conference attendee market share from others, you are not growing significantly.

Stealing And Trespassing Are Legal When Attracting Conference RegistrantsThere is a closed market for conference registrants. Yes, that’s right. There is not an infinite market.

Click It and Share It: Pinterest, Meebo, and Buffer - Oh, My!

Still holding strategy meetings to discuss effective uses for Twitter and Facebook? Trending now: social apps and platforms that offer yet more immediacy to the sharing of one’s every online thought and action. Can these Web goodies double as outreach tools for savvy event pros? Full story...

Get Out of Your Office Chair in 2012: How New Media Adds Value to Business Meetings

Catching up to talk business... during a New Year’s drink, during a meetup at Starbucks, or during a professionally organized business event. Thanks to a strong influence of social media and an increasing workload, the ways in which we connect have changed tremendously. Full story...

Five Things Meeting Planners Will Have to Do This Year

What’s in store for meetings this year? I thought about renting a crystal ball but decided it’d be easier just to go from my gut. After all, I spend the year attending, planning, and writing about meetings. Because PYM’s focus is always on how meeting and event planners can put innovative ideas into practice, I’m not going to waste space on things that are cool but impractical for most of you. Full story...

40 Ways to Save Big on Your Next Conference

To help you keep your next conference on budget, here are 40 cost-saving ideas that work. 1) Timing is everything: If you have some flexibility in the timing of your conference, there is big money to be saved by picking “off-peak” times. Ask your short-listed venues what their off-peak or "hot" dates are to save on both meal, accommodation and meeting room rates. Full story...

Congratulations to Winner Laurie Guptill!

On December 16, 2011, independent event planner Laurie Guptill of Unique Occasions in Farmington, MN became the winner of the Midwest Meetings giveaway drawing for a free Kindle Fire®! Laurie says, "What a wonderful job you guys do on the magazine! I read it cover to cover whenever I get it, and I've used it so many times to contact various venues and vendors. I even keep my copies in a bin in case I need to go back. I really like the website as well. Wow, you guys really made my year! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!"

Defending Fannie and Freddie

Here we go again: another "lavish" conference, another "junket," another "boondoggle." Right? That's what some voices of public perception are trying to tell us... even though a federal regulatory agency has already "defended the spending as a whole." So what is it this time? On the heels of public incomprehension surrounding justifiable conference costs in relation to the supposedly nefarious Muffingate "scandal," here's the scoop on Fox News. Full story...

To Record or Not to Record?

An issue that comes up more and more these days when hiring a speaker is that of “electronic transcription,” or simply put, making a recording of a presentation. Meeting planners and speakers both complain about this issue, and a big part of the problem is a lack of communication. Now, I am not an intellectual property lawyer; I am, however, a speaker, publisher, and former union musician. So here goes. Full story...

Seven Steps to Transform Workers Into Event Staff Superstars

What is the wifi password? You asked a doorman who doesn’t know, who asked the lighting technician who also doesn’t know, and now you have been told to look for Jean wearing a red top who is walking around with a folder. You can’t see Jean anywhere. The joys of uninformed teams. They waste our attendees’ time and don’t leave a good impression on your guests. Full story...

5 Things You Need to Know Before Rolling Out the Red Carpet

Celebrities, photographers, and an insanely cool award-winning indie film premiere (check, check, check!). What other elements do you need to ensure a perfect, hyper-chic A-lister event? The Carpet. While red is classic, sexy, universally flattering to a wide array of dresses (yes, even red), you are not limited to the conventional. Full story...

Bridezillas May Be Fined For Freakouts

Here comes the bride tax. Some wedding venues are so fed up with – how does one put this delicately? – detailed-oriented brides, that they’ve imposed a fine for excessive kvetching. The betrothed may want to be careful about wearing out the patience of event planners with questions about the color of flower arrangements. 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...

Make it Work: The Zen of Event Planning

This was my motto long before the ever-dapper Tim Gunn coined it on Project Runway. Although I must admit he sounds a lot better saying it then I do. I don’t know one successful meeting planner, or any other professional, who hasn’t found herself in a do-or-die, make-it-work situation. And the people who make the final cut find a way to roll with the punches. 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...

The Headaches of Doing It Yourself

I know, I know: you do it all by yourself. You program your meetings, decide your catering, perfect your invitation lists, plan your seating arrangements, set up your venues, book your own speakers, and work all day and all night to pull off your perfect event. Now you’re absolutely exhausted, and you’re too stressed out to enjoy the work you’ve done. 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...

Event Planning Tools Megalist: All at Your Fingertips…

Planners are being challenged to work faster, harder, and more efficiently. The past few years have seen a cumulative number of tools created to help us accomplish more. I take great delight when I find a tool that helps my clients and me, so I thought I’d share some of my favorites. Full story...

IMEX America Association Day Kicks Off Debut Show With Energy and Business Focus

Two hundred association meeting planners from across the U.S. and 20 countries around the world are coming together today for a power-packed afternoon and evening program of learning and networking as part of the first-ever IMEX America Association Day. Full story...

The Evolution of an Event

I’m a dreamer. I love to think of ways to make a situation bigger-better-bolder. So when Eventbrite formed a St. Jude fundraising/running team for the upcoming U.S. Half Marathon in San Francisco, I knew it was an opportunity to use our software for a great cause. Here’s how we’re doing it. Full story...

Jury Duty Through the Lens of an Event Planner

Three decades, a half dozen summonses, and I've managed to sidestep this civic duty every time. My employer would send a letter and I would be excused. A few weeks ago, the next summons arrived, but now I'm a solo-preneur. I'm sorely tempted to write a letter. I'm incredibly busy (who isn't?), but then, my conscience kicks in. Looks like this is my time to serve. Full story...

Four Reasons Why Meeting Planning is Like Playing Rugby

About 10 years ago, I helped found a women’s rugby football club in New York City. For those first few years, as we struggled to build a strong team, we often felt like the Bad News Bears. Now, the Village Lions RFC Women’s Side features players who represent the United States in international play and is a serious contender in national championships. Full story...

5 Tips for Using Google+ for Your Event Marketing and Planning

While it is still early days in the lifespan of Google+ we've identified five ways you can use it as part of your event marketing and even for planning. Not to mention impressing all your colleagues with your social savvy. Full story...

Most Event Planners Lack Liability Coverage

Among professional liability coverages, errors and omissions insurance for event planners probably is the “most innocuous,” said Letha Heaton, the vice president of marketing at Admiral Insurance Co., a subsidiary of W.R. Berkley Corp. Other underwriting and broker executives agree with that assessment of the coverage, for which rates are soft and capacity ample. Full story...

$16 for a Muffin? A Justice Department Boondoggle

The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General Tuesday released a report blandly titled "Audit of Department of Justice Conference Planning and Food and Beverage Costs." The menu may be tough to digest - it's 148 pages, after all - but political gourmands of all persuasions are likely to find its main entrees simply delectable, especially since they are being presented for public consumption at a time when official Washington is supposed to be tightening its belt and pushing itself away from the table. Full story...

Gen X and Gen Y: Growth in the Meeting Planning Industry

The future of meeting planning is in the hands of younger planners who are enthusiastic about their careers and eager to bring change to the industry. They may belong to a generation that lives and works in cyberspace, but these young planners agree with their older colleagues that face-to-face get-togethers are crucial and cannot be replaced by texting, Skype and webinars. Full story...

How to Use Twitter Hashtags to Generate Event Marketing Buzz

Two weeks ago, HubSpot hosted the world’s biggest webinar, which attracted over 30,000 registrants and close to 11,000 attendees. The event also achieved a serious level of buzz on Twitter with a trending hashtag of #smsci. Not only did the 11,000 attendees learn about the science of social media, but they also benefited from the related conversations with thousands of other Twitter users. Full story...

Action Alert: Help Protect the Corporation for Travel Promotion

This week, House Republicans are threatening to eliminate the Corporation for Travel Promotion as a part of their "YouCut" campaign. Congress established the Corporation for Travel Promotion, a private non-profit entity, in 2010 to create a marketing and promotion program that would help the U.S. compete for more visitors. Each week, spending cut proposals are posted on the YouCut website, where citizens are able to vote for which government program to end. Full story...

Event Experts Debate Whether Collapsing Stages Can be Prevented

The frightening story of the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair on Saturday, which killed five people and injured more than 40, has ignited debate in the event industry over whether such incidents can be prevented. Last month, the stage at Bluesfest in Ottawa also collapsed, injuring three people. In both cases, sudden gusts of powerful wind have been blamed for the accidents. Full story...

The Event Planner's Guide to Twitter

Creating and using a dedicated event Twitter account brings some particular logistical issues for the professional event planner. As with every other aspect of event planning, attention to detail is king, so knowing how to design a robust strategy to incorporate Twitter into your event in a way that's reliable and useful to your audience is vital. Here are the Top Seven Tips any obsessive compulsive event planner should consider when using Twitter as part of their event. Full story...

Scam Alert: Are Poachers Responsible for Your Attrition?

I got a call from an association planner friend of mine the other day asking if I had ever heard of a certain company. I had to admit that I never had, but asked why and what was up. The tale she began to weave was familiar to me. 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...