Strauss Articles
Knowledge, Insight, and Experience
Every Thursday, our experts provide insights into industry trends and issues that readers can leverage to improve their associations and signature events.
Creating Rock Solid Relationships with Your Event Vendor
Event planners rely on great vendors to make the events we manage a success. We are typically highly organized, type A [...]
Perception is Reality – Managing Conflicts at the Board Table
As an association management company, we advise boards of directors on many issues, including managing conflicts of interest. In an earlier [...]
How to Create a Great Name Badge for Your Conference Attendees
A name badge seems simple at first glance; it’s just a piece of paper with a name on it. But on [...]
Sales Tax Tips for Meeting Planners and Association Managers
Unfortunately, the amount of sales tax to charge on conferences and events is far from straightforward. It is important to collect [...]
Breaking Down Your Food and Beverage Budget
Event planners and event managers are often tasked with creating the food and beverage budget for conferences or meetings and it’s [...]
Connect Your Association Members With Golf
Part of being an association manager or event planner is looking at ways to connect members of the association with suppliers [...]
Tips for Becoming a Great Host City
An event may last only a few days, but the planning process can begin years in advance. Many annual conferences begin [...]
Increase Networking Opportunities at Your Next Conference
In our post-conference surveys we often ask delegates to tell us what their main objectives were for attending. One of the [...]
Event Management and Association Management Credit Card Security Best Practices
Have you ever wondered about the type of people who provide personal information in reply to emails from “lawyers” in Nigeria, [...]
Working with a Conference Planning Committee for an Association Annual Conference
We are the event planners for several association annual conferences and each group functions with a different format for their conference [...]
Just Do It: Evaluating Your Chief Executive Officer or Executive Director
Evaluation of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Executive Director (ED) is as important as evaluating your own board members and their performance [...]
Your Event Planning Timeline is Ready, Now What?
A timeline is a key tool in planning a conference, as it provides all those involved (event planner, client, planning committee [...]
Help Your Exhibitors Drive Traffic to Their Booth
Providing exhibitors with a valuable and vibrant experience not only profits exhibitors, but is also key to gaining their loyalty ensuring [...]
The Power Goes Out and Guests Are on Their Way
As event managers there are so many parts of our job that are completely out of our control and we often [...]
Planning an Event in a Unique Venue
Let’s look at a hypothetical situation. Your client read my article “Not Another Boring Conference Room: Bringing Your Event to a [...]
Simple Tricks for Creating an Effective Conference Registration Site
As an event co-ordinator one of the most important jobs I have is creating a simple yet effective conference or event [...]
Should You Grow Your Association Membership?
Membership growth is top of mind for board members to ensure sustainability of an association. Is it always in the best [...]
“Each One, Reach One”: Membership Drives and More
“Try it, you’ll like it”[1] is reportedly the earliest reported word of mouth campaign slogan. Word of mouth (WOM) is an [...]
Planning Audiovisual for Your Association Conference
When you see an AV quote, do you feel overwhelmed and confused? I know I do - and with experience and [...]
Planning a Great Exhibitor Trade Show as Part of Your Next Conference
More and more conferences now have an exhibitor trade show. A trade show is a great addition to a conference as [...]