I was introduced to live polling in my first year of university during Psychology 101. Sitting in a lecture hall with 300 people, I responded to questions the professor put to the class by answering on a small remote, which immediately registered my response along with everyone else’s on a screen at the front of the hall. Polling was a quick way to engage us, and it encouraged us to pay attention. It’s a two-way street, too: He often used…
Event Operations
Inclusive by design: Creating the perfect environment for all event attendees
By Mariela McIlwraith As event planners and designers, we create the environment in which our participants live, learn, share and innovate. In creating these environments, we have an opportunity to design them to be welcoming, inclusive and accessible in a way that encourages full and dignified participation for all. It’s not only the right thing to do — it’s also good business sense to expand your audience, improve the quality of your events, and strengthen your reputation. Here are some easy…
Mindful meeting choices: The details that make the difference
Logistics are the bread and butter of a meeting planner’s diet. It’s easy to get distracted by the shiny objects of 21st-century planning – event apps, virtual reality, meditation breaks – but it’s well-executed basics and details that allow those elements to augment the show. Having attended my fair share of conferences, I can attest that it’s the little things that make or break an individual participant’s experience. Request a vegetarian meal and receive a surf-and-turf plate instead, pick up your name…
Building the right team can make – or break – your event
You’ve gone through the request for proposal process, won it (congratulations), and inherited the conference management team. It’s probably made up of the conference chair and organizing committee from the organization – or organizations — that hired you. You’re stuck with this team for better or worse, but the event day team is yours to build from the ground up. You get to recruit and train the event novices and conference pros that will make the big day a success…
Ramadan is coming – Are you prepared?
Experienced meeting professionals know to check the calendar very carefully when choosing event dates. Statutory and religious holidays are simple – we need to just avoid them altogether! Examples of some dates that are completely off limits: Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur and Passover. One of the religious holidays that causes some confusion among event planners is Ramadan. Ramadan is observed by Muslims worldwide, it falls in May/June and it lasts for about a month. The timing is different every year.…
Venue contract wisdom is often woefully insufficient
By Heather Reid A side-by-side examination of 12 signed and negotiated contracts for booking events into unconventional venues unveiled disturbing discrepancies to me. The “unconventional venue” contracts included the following Canadian locations: cultural centre, city-owned sport facility, entertainment complex, music hall, high-risk recreational facility, heritage facility, aquarium, brewery, two recreational/amusement facilities and museums in three different cities. A wide variety of unconventional venues for sure! Here are a few of the disturbing findings of my side-by-side review: Indemnification Clause: 6…
Six marketing tips to promote your next event
By Brent Taylor Let’s talk marketing. It seems today that there is a plethora of marketing materials, opinions and experts advising us on how to best market any product or service we have to offer. Why is that? Why is there so much attention being given to marketing? I recently read Seth Godin’s books, All Marketers are Liars and Purple Cow. I recommend both these books along with Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. I was intrigued by what Godin identifies as…
Unexpected added costs when planning an event
At one point in every event planner’s career, there has been the situation of receiving a final invoice from a venue with added costs that were never included in the budget. This refers to power costs, internet costs, extra catering labour costs, and so on. This is especially problematic when a third party such as a DMC has given an inclusive price to the client and must absorb the extra costs or an in-house planner must go back to their…
What you need to know about shipping event materials
By John Santini Like most people shipping to a trade show or conference, once your shipment leaves your premises you likely give little thought to its journey to your booth space in Canada. We’re just happy to see it there when we arrive! It is important, however, to understand what happens between points A and B to ensure your material makes it there, on time and during the move-in hours. Move-in day and labelling You would be surprised how many…
Prevent becoming a commercial casualty by avoiding current events debates
On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were killed and 17 more wounded. It seemed yet another tragic shooting of numerous innocent victims that provokes intense political and media interest for a few days and then is eclipsed by other events. In this case, the Parkland shooting has gained a momentum that has grown in news coverage, causing a number a special interest groups to wade into the…
