Endless Events

JUNE 21, 2019

But on the matter of inclusion at events, our host Tahira Endean sat down with Maarten Vannest e of the Meeting Design Institute. More specifically, how often do you think about the acronyms that are part of the event industry? Well, probably not frequently enough – none of us do!

Events 256

Events Remote Communications Communications 256

Conferences that Work

MAY 11, 2020

Because participants love these meetings ! Now the covid-19 pandemic has forced meetings online. Unfortunately, most online events are still using a traditional webinar/broadcast-style approach: presenters speaking for long periods, interspersed with chat-mediated Q&A. In person meetings have vanished overnight.

Online 158

Online Conference Platform Publishing 158

Conferences that Work

APRIL 11, 2022

Unfortunately, supplier and practitioner perspectives on having suppliers present don’t usually align. . The practitioner’s perspective on including suppliers at meeting sessions. May not want to talk about supplier products and services when suppliers are present.

Meeting 118

Meeting Vendor Sponsors Attendee 118

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

It’s a good time to invite guest presenters into your online classroom. As an experienced facilitator and designer of participant-driven and participation-rich meetings, I love to share what I’ve learned during my four decades in the meeting industry. You won’t get a canned presentation.

Hospitality 90

Hospitality Online Education Events 90

The MICE Blog

JULY 27, 2022

One of the presentations that highly inspired me to think differently about event design took place in 2019 at the MICE Forum at ITB Berlin (Organised by VDVO ). One of the talks that impressed me the most was ‘Participant experience design – how do we create meetings which move people more deeply?’

Events 147

Events Speakers Conference Attendee 147

Conferences that Work

APRIL 18, 2022

Check out my original post for the details of the session, which explored the unexpected advantages of working together online even when the participants are physically present. You can use this novel hybrid meeting format to explore the effectiveness of employing appropriate online tools to work on problems at an in-person event.

Meeting 169

Meeting Online Conference Booking 169

Conferences that Work

JULY 31, 2017

Although I have good reasons to champion meeting designs where the participants get to choose what they want and need to discuss and learn rather than a program committee , there is invariably a place for some predetermined presentations at conferences. Read the full article at Conferences That Work.

Meeting 88

Meeting Conference Booking Meeting Design 88

Conferences that Work

JUNE 12, 2017

I love my meeting design clients, but there is one mistake I see them making over and over again. Clients invariably ask me to help design their meeting after they’ve chosen a venue! Face The Fear—Then Change Your Conference Design! Here’s why they do it, and why it’s a mistake.

Venue 88

Venue Meeting Conference Design Meeting Design 88

Conferences that Work

APRIL 1, 2019

Often it is more like a discussion than a presentation, but that is why it is effective. I was an amateur in the meeting industry, and that led to some mistakes, but it also gave me a fresh perspective at a time when meeting design wasn’t really a “thing.” Often, the results are unexpected.

Booking 103

Booking Conference Speakers Meeting Design 103

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Some say I have high status in the event industry, but when I’m facilitating a roomful of subject matter experts, I’m the most ignorant and lowest status person present. At a traditional meeting, however, perceived status roles rarely change significantly during the event. Here are a couple of my own unhappy experiences.).

Meeting 143

Meeting Conference Speakers Booking 143

Conferences that Work

APRIL 5, 2021

Only about 10% of adult learning involves formal classroom or meeting presentation formats. And it is easy for it to happen at meetings. Designing for trust, safety, and learning. In general, the more meeting attendees trust each other, the safer they feel. This breakdown of trust can happen anywhere.

Meeting 144

Meeting Conference Booking Attendee 144

Conferences that Work

JULY 19, 2021

If you want maximum learning, interaction, and connection at a meeting, small meetings are better than large meetings. Yesterday, Brandt was presenting at an MPI event on hybrid meetings, so Glenn shared the event so we could kibitz. Increased learning, interaction, and connection.

Meeting 147

Meeting Online Remote Conference 147

Conferences that Work

JUNE 7, 2021

Why am I writing about social learning on a blog that’s (mainly) about meeting design? Which means, to create the best meetings we need to maximize the social learning that takes place. Which means, to create the best meetings we need to maximize the social learning that takes place. Humans’ true superpower.

Booking 123

Booking Conference Meeting Design Online 123

Endless Events

OCTOBER 19, 2018

On their blog, you’ll find great insights into digital marketing and experiential marketing for corporate events, as well as trade show presentation. also share ways to improve audience interaction on their helpful blog, “where meeting design meets technology” – a front-of-mind concern for most event planners today.

Trade Show 333

Trade Show Events Planner Trends 333

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 11, 2021

Their expertise can, therefore, be shared with participants via traditional presentations. However, few presenters incorporate significant interactivity into their sessions, and this format is more the exception than the rule. Sadly, traditional lecture-style sessions are only good for solving participants’ obvious problems.

Conference 148

Conference Human Resources Production Meeting 148

MeetingsNet

MAY 29, 2019

"Conversations & Input" eases presenter pressure, gets all attendees involved, and deepens learning. We're all quite familiar with the Q&A portion of a meeting session: The final few minutes where the audience has its chance to drill down a bit with the presenter. or “What did you find interesting?”

Attendee 85

Attendee Meeting Audience Meeting Design 85

Conferences that Work

MARCH 15, 2021

Recently, I’ve been appearing as a guest at college event planning and hospitality courses to talk about meeting design. (I Rather than lecture for an hour, I’ve been using an Ask Me Anything (aka AMA ) meeting format. I love to do this. Teachers, please contact me , it’s free!) Well…sometimes.

Panel 77

Panel Meeting Design Conference Hospitality 77

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.

Publishing 92

Publishing Speakers Education Booking 92

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

An event that: Asks potential presenters to submit pre-event proposals for sessions isn’t an unconference. Includes breakout sessions as well as presentations isn’t an unconference. [No, When this doesn’t happen (sadly, most of the time in my experience) the conference design, no matter how good it is, suffers.

Preparation 112

Preparation Venue Conference Proposal 112

Conferences that Work

MARCH 21, 2022

This coming June will mark my 30th year of designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich meetings. So I designed the workshop as an “ Ask Adrian Anything ” about meeting design and facilitation. I’ve shared the why? and the details of how I typically run this format here.

Online 154

Online Platform Communications Communications 154

Convene by PCMA

APRIL 4, 2022

(Instructions for how organizations can add their events to the database are available on the Meet Safe website.). This year’s lineup of GMID events reflects not only the surge in 2022 in the number of events that have returned to an in-person format, but a range of meeting-design decisions. Louis and Washington, D.C.,

Meeting 116

Meeting Trade Show Social Media Hospitality 116

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 12, 2024

Religious meetings are a small, fascinating subset of the meeting industry. I learned about them when I presented at The Religious Conference Management Association annual conference in 2014, and I’ve written about what meeting designers can learn from religious services.

Events 96

Events Venue Trends Conference 96

Conferences that Work

APRIL 9, 2018

Meanwhile, it’s clear from a review of industry conference programs that large numbers of presentations are accepted from employees of sponsors or trade show exhibitors. In my case, the demand for the meeting design and facilitation services I provide has been exploding. (In

Education 78

Education Meeting Sponsors Speakers 78

Social Tables

OCTOBER 6, 2018

In many cases, this means crowdsourcing the agenda, sometimes even doing so in real time, to present a personalized event agenda. Experient looks to predetermined personas to present unique experiences. These personas make the lives of industry planners easier — even Experient’s own.

Meeting 158

Meeting Trade Show Events Social Media 158

Social Tables

APRIL 17, 2019

Venues such as Wyndham Hotels are hearing the call and putting wellness front and center as they promote their groups and meetings product. Event seating presents a unique challenge because attendance is dynamic and often changes up to and throughout an event. However, the strongest tactic is making F&B an experience in itself.

Proposal 149

Proposal Communications Communications Venue 149

Conferences that Work

JUNE 3, 2019

At the time, I had no idea that what I instinctively put together for a gathering of people who barely knew each other would lead to: a global design and facilitation consulting practice; over 500 posts on this blog, which has now become, to the best of my knowledge, the most-visited website on meeting design and facilitation; three books (almost!)

Conference 75

Conference Consulting Meeting Design Website 75

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Presentation & panel capability. So you can’t use Rally to create a presenter or panel session for more than (currently) 36 people. Anyone speaking on stage will be heard by everyone in the room, and presenters can hear audience response at a reduced level, rather like as if they were speaking at a live event.

Online 96

Online Platform Panel Venue 96

Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Even post-presentation Q&As rarely evolve into a conversation, which is always between the presenter and a succession of audience members. I have been doing this for 30 years, and it’s clear that meeting designs that integrate meaningful conversations into sessions have a transformational effect on almost all participants.

Meeting Design 71

Meeting Design Conference Online Audience 71

The MICE Blog

MARCH 11, 2021

Yuri van Geest gave an insightful presentation and then Catherine welcomed experts for a roundtable discussion to delve further into the topic of gamification in an attempt to answer the question, ‘What will your event of the future look like using gamification.’. Why use gamification? And we really wanted to bring that online.

Contracts 130

Contracts Contracts Virtual Events Online 130

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 8, 2016

Now I’m bringing my expertise to Chicago for a 1½ day October 6 – 7 workshop, a unique opportunity for you to: Learn how to make your conferences and conference sessions far more engaging and effective ; Gain powerful meeting design insights ; Significantly increase participation and satisfaction at your sessions and events; and.

Education 88

Education Social Network Conference Logistics 88

Social Tables

OCTOBER 6, 2018

In many cases, this means crowdsourcing the agenda — sometimes eve in real time — to present a personalized event agenda. For a recent meeting, the Experient team created “journey maps.” They present different agendas to each persona on each day of the event.

Trends 157

Trends Meeting Trade Show Events 157

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 12, 2016

I’ve been sending e-mails to clients apologizing for NOT coming by their offices and taking them to Adrian’s presentation. ASegar was the best facilitator/presenter…by far!” — De-de Mulligan, CMP, CMM, former Director of Education, Ohio MPI Chapter. Whether you’re in the U.S. I am so ashamed! Techniques covered.

Registration 30

Registration Conference Education Venue 30

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.) Those running stands were able to gather community feedback on their topic.

Logistics 69

Logistics Conference Trade Show Attendee 69

Social Tables

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Industry Performance Trends Attendee Experience Trends Meeting Destination Trends Event Technology Trends Meeting Design Trends. The unprecedented rise in demand for meetings and events will continue this year, with CWT Meetings & Travel predicting a robust 5-10% growth in demand. Industry Performance Trends.

Trends 167

Trends Meeting Planner Venue 167

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

07:45 Behind the scenes: How I got into designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich meetings. 11:00 What participant-driven and participation-rich meeting design means, and the core components. 15:00 Why we need to have participant-driven and participation-rich meetings.

Event Design 62

Event Design Meeting Social Media Sponsors 62

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. I did so, and noticed that the other presenter did not.

Rehearsal 79

Rehearsal Logistics Contracts Contracts 79

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 18, 2023

This annual two-day event, first held in 2006, is an opportunity for event agencies from forty countries to present their best projects in person to juries and BEA World delegates. For this trip, the first time I’d been back to Europe since an Estonian meeting design conference in 2020, I decided to spend a week in Rome. .”

Booking 98

Booking Conference Meeting Design Online 98