Will your lack of respect for your customers come back to bite you?
A colleague advised me when I started in the business that I should “do as little as possible while trying to get the maximum out of others.” Left unsaid, but understood, was the presumption that as long as I got mine, making the minimum effort was OK. Fortunately for my bosses and my clients, I rejected that […]
Actually, You Should be Judgmental
Risk and Reward
I’ve worked for myself since 2005. During that time, people have asked me how they can make more money, do interesting things, work on fun projects, etc. It has always been an interesting question, and my answer has changed over the years. From the perspective of having a safe and secure career, having a job working for […]
Has Dealing with Coronavirus Taught Our Event Industry Anything?
The answer is both “yes” and “no”. In terms of “yes”: 1) We have learned to be more agile. If you are reading this – and you didn’t lose your job or your company – then you’ve had to become quicker, bolder, more innovative, and more patient in order to survive. Whether it was developing ideas to retain both exhibitor and […]
Has ‘Quality is the New Quantity’ Become Today’s “The Dog Ate My Homework”?
If estimates are to be believed, though we may be able to run events this year, both attendance and exhibitor participation will be down. Given COVID-19 and responding corporate restrictions, lower numbers and revenues for 2021 events are to be expected. Does that exempt us from trying to understand attendee and exhibitor needs, given we have the […]
Your Event has a Brain. But Does it Have a Heart?
Most long running events are viable because they continue to offer value, making enough money (or otherwise generating sufficient benefits ) to prompt their owners to continue onward with them. These events are supported with strong project plans, sufficient revenue, well-managed costs, the right content, competent staff – and they are proven to be profitable. These events […]
Comfort and Fear – How to use one to get more of the other
In the poem, Sad Cure, Graham Greene wrote that “Comfort and Fear – these two alone make Life / But while the Fear too often stood alone…The Comfort always had been mixed with fear.” * That sentiment characterizes how many now are living: in fear. And because of that fear, they are allowing themselves to […]
Will your exhibitors and attendees come back?
Hey, event organizers! I have some bad news for you. You are going to have to re-engage with attendees and exhibitors all over again – as if it were the first time. They have gone 12 to 18 months without your face-to-face events. They may or may not have done some of your virtual events, but they’ve […]