From In-Person Meetings To Virtual

Magdalena Bonnelly • October 5, 2020

 

As all meeting planners know, relevant content and audience engagement for your meeting needs to be implemented together but taking your meetings to virtual space these days puts even more pressure on meeting planners to excel at content creation and preparation. The quality of an event is dependent on the quality of the content creation like event website, event registration, live components, pre-recorded components, Q&A etc. If any of these areas of event planning is giving your team trouble, contact us via THIS FORM. 


Let’s start deciphering what it takes to ensure you have a successful virtual event.


At the moment, we know all events have transitioned to virtual conferences and with that said, most event staff has limited experience overseeing events in the virtual space.. so as it usually happens in meeting planner’s life, we are all learning on the job, while trying to produce a successful event. Here are a couple things to keep in mind when planning hybrid or virtual conferences.


Start with your main event objectives at its core - what elements do you need to ensure success for your new virtual event. Using the same approach for virtual attendees as it was done for in-person conferences, is one of the biggest and most common mishaps. Other areas of hybrid/virtual event fails are: poor production planning, navigating through time zones and event session lengths (think “zoom fatigue”), choosing too simple or too complicated platform for your event, lack of beta testing of your platform and many others, which hopefully we will help prevent with series of articles about these topics.   


In our next “breakout sessions” we will dive deeper into the topic of virtual and hybrid events to help our fellows meeting planners with ideas for networking, content and community building. Stay tuned for more!

 (updated June 19, 2023)


Corporate Event Planning

view of clouds from airplane window, incentive trip flights, incentive trip travel

Should an Incentive Trip Include a Few Hours of Meetings?

By Magdalena Bonnelly • October 30, 2024
Discover the pros and cons of including meetings in an incentive travel itinerary. Should reward travel for employees remain purely about relaxation, or can a few strategic hours of meetings add value? This guide explores both sides to help companies make the best choice for their next corporate incentive trip. Perfect for anyone interested in incentive trip planning, maximizing ROI, and creating rewarding experiences that motivate and inspire teams. Read on to find out what’s best for your team!
plan profitable conferences, successful conference, strategic meetings management

Go beyond "break-even"! How to plan profitable conferences.

By Magdalena Bonnelly • July 30, 2024
Conferences are a fantastic way to bring people together, share knowledge, and build a community. However, if you've ever been involved in organizing a conference, you'll know that they can be expensive to run. Most conferences struggle to break even, let alone turn a profit. But what if I told you that it's possible to plan a conference that not only breaks even but actually turns a profit? In this blog post, we'll explore one key strategy for planning profitable conferences and moving beyond breaking even. Today, we're delving into the world of profitable conferences and how to make them not just successful, but truly memorable and lucrative. And to add a touch of intrigue to our event planning arsenal, we introduce the cutting-edge service of Event Forensics. Planning a conference that not only meets but exceeds your financial goals is a daunting task. With so many moving parts, it's easy to get lost in the sea of different charges, quotes, and contracts. But fear not, dear event planners, for we're here to guide you through the maze and help you emerge victorious. So, what is the secret sauce to planning a profitable conference? Should you CUT cost on decor or activations? Maybe on food and beverage at the hotel? Or maybe you should forgo a 4 piece band during awards dinner and just use the good ole' Spotify list on your iPad? What if I told you that you do not have to cut costs on anything? What if I told you that the only thing you need to do, is put your analytical hat on? Or even better, hire us to do it for you! Let's shine the spotlight on Event Forensics. This innovative service is like having a detective at your side, uncovering valuable insights and data that can significantly boost the profitability of your conference. By analyzing financial info from past conferences, Event Forensics unveils a hidden road to profitability! Imagine being able to identify what drains your budget year after year, because ... inflation.. cost of doing business... leap year... election year.. you get what we are saying! With Event Forensics, every invoice and contract from past conferences is analyzed to identify three things: Your conference's economic impact on the destination Your buying power Opportunities for savings Imagine a store that doesn't do inventory every few months. It loses leverage with its vendors and negotiating better deals looks like "throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks". There is no meaningful strategic conversation possible. And while our competitors will tell you about relying on their negotiating and buying power, we want you to build and rely on your own. Here is what one of the clients said about the Event Forensics service: "It's a guiding tool to help you see whether you are staying within the budget, but it also helps you see whether you have room to play with. And what you helped me do was to get everything together, compare it year to year, to the sponsorship allocation..." Are you curious about the Event Forensics service? Contact us today to get more info!
More Posts