What Do You Do When Your Customer Becomes Your Competitor?
Again I welcome back Michael Hart, the industry renown journalist and thought leader for his views on a recent twist on the competitive landscape in the events industry: ————————————————————————————————————– What would the message to any business be if its best customers became its strongest competitors? And this has been happening in the traditional tradeshow industry […]
You Need a Creative Guy in Your Organization or You Are in Trouble!
I came back from Expo! Expo! in December thinking that many event companies which either don’t: have a lot of money to acquire shows or hire ‘ringers’ to build new events are in trouble. Why? Because, there is hardly anything new being produced in our event ecosystem that isn’t a knockoff of an existing event, […]
Is the Trade Show a Dying Elephant? Only If WE Don’t Become CHALLENGERS – Insight from Lawrence Dvorchik
I met Lawrence Dvorchik around 2006 as his self service event overlapped one of my client’s events and I wanted to see if we could create some synergies by working together. Sadly nothing happened with that, but we remained in loose touch. As I got to know Lawrence better I realized his was a man […]
The Complex Sale – A Few Guidelines – Wisdom from Dan Cole
Dan Cole is easily one of the best sales trainers in the events business. His manner, style and his effectiveness enabled CES to reach the revenue height of which most of us can only dream. I have been delighted to have had a series of conversations with him focused on driving event revenues and one […]
An Interview with David Audrain: New Event Development, New Technologies and the Challenge of Millennials
EM: David, good to chat. Let’s talk about where the money is in the business, what’s your opinion about what’s happening with recent acquisitions? DA: There’s been a dearth of acquisitions in the past few years. We’re seeing some now, but there has been quite a backlog until recently. There’s been some interesting ones recently-like […]
One Trend That Won’t Get You to the Sweet Spot in 2015
As mentioned previously, I am looking forward to featuring other voices on Events Matter! in the next year. One of the writers I have followed for a while is Michael Hart, formerly of Expo Magazine and TradeshowWeek among a few other important industry media outlets. I saw him in Los Angeles last month and had […]
How Will We Find Our New Events?
Hope everyone had a fun and peaceful holiday. I was at Expo! Expo! in early December, as were many of you. The event provided me a great opportunity to sit down with a number of you to take your pulse on a few things. The events industry is certainly changing and those changes have prompted […]
Have I Met my Career Expectations?
Circumstances that signal a transition in life become opportunities to reflect on what has happened in the past. Some of these events are profound (marriage, death, and similar major inflection points.) Others are less so, but still represent opportunities to look back and consider what happened – and what didn’t. My father recently asked me […]
Launching New Events without Losing Your Shirt
Launching a new event can be so risky that many won’t even attempt it. After all, who wants to lose money and possibly look foolish? But if you are courageous or want to take advantage of an untapped market opportunity, how can you proceed in a sensible manner, given the potential risks? Here are the […]
Is Event Innovation Overrated?
Jessica Levin is a well known Engagement Expert, and since I am fascinated with the relevance of attendee engagement and innovation, I asked her to guest write this column. Hope you enjoy her thoughts as much as I did! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Over the last few years there has been a strong movement to make events innovative. […]