Recently I shared some ideas to keep those attendees awake at your meetings. And none of those suggestions include yelling anything like, “Wake up, people!” Instead, I talked of more graceful ways of keeping them engaged and alert. One of my suggestions was to offer various ways to deliver educational opportunities, which are outside of[...]

Recently, I came across a blog from Successful Meetings titled “How to Resuscitate a Tired Association Education Program.” The article shares that though association education programs are highly important, the programs are failing due to attendees’ shortened attention spans. Chris Ballman, Senior Director of Education at SmithBucklin is quoted as saying: “Recent studies show that[...]

As meeting planners, it is our responsibility to ensure a safe environment, to the best of our ability, for our attendees. This comes into play when choosing the location of the meeting, the hotel, the choice of transportation, and now, another area of concern is data. Your attendees are physically present at your meeting, but[...]

In just a few days we celebrate Valentine’s Day. There will be wine, flowers and heart shaped boxes filled with chocolates for some. Kids will pass out Valentine’s Day cards to classmates and hold sugar laden school parties. Others may go out for a night on the town with friends and celebrate single-ness. Meeting planners[...]

According to FlippedLearning.org, Flipped Learning is defined as a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.[...]

As a meeting planner, can you enjoy the events of others? You don’t want to be hypercritical, but at the same time you cannot help but think, “What were they thinking?” And though they probably should have asked for your advice, you are also sort of happy that they did not ask for your advice.[...]

There be pirates about, Meeting Planners. And I am not talking about the eye patch wearing, rum drinking types. These pirates are not out for your ship, but for your rooms. With growing frequency, conference organizers are seeing false companies, posing as housing bureaus or hotel representatives, and offering discount room rates to attendees. This[...]

Return On Investment (ROI) is so very important to you as a meeting planner and to your bosses. However, I think ROE (Return on Experience) is even more important: for your attendees and for you because when you know what your attendees want to experience at your meetings, you can make it happen and, in[...]

I came across this quite funny list from Buzzfeed the other day; 33 Things Every Conference Attendee Knows To Be True.  If you notice, actual attendees of the Northeast Festival & Conference compiled the list. While some of these items are beyond a meeting planner’s control, some could actual get a little bit closer to[...]