An event planner’s relationship with a speaker for an association conference often starts with a formal speaker agreement. With this being the initial interaction with the speaker, you want to make sure you get off on the right foot and ensure the details of the engagement are clear and [...]

Your association may be in the habit of sending out Requests for Proposals for every event that you host, and we have written an article just for that purpose, What to Ask and How to Ask It , but often the RFP process is extremely time consuming and unnecessary. [...]

The crazy, busy event season has just wrapped up, all financials have been settled, and final reports have been submitted to the association leaders. Now what? It is difficult to switch gears and adjust to not having to work at such a hectic pace. Issues and client requests are [...]

In my last article, A Real Life Crisis: The Speaker’s Flight is Canceled, I provided you with a detailed real event crisis and some simple steps to follow when you encounter a calamity. In this article, I will delve a bit deeper into those steps and provide you with [...]

As an event manager I spend months and months planning an event, but no matter how much time I spend planning there are always things that happen onsite that are completely out of my control. In these instances, I have to make in-the-moment decisions. Have you ever had a [...]

Generally association event managers focus on improving the event or conference based on previous years. They use post-event survey results to gain feedback from attendees and make slight changes based on that data - and this process works well. However, the focus is solely on existing event attendees and [...]

I am sure we are all tired of walking into an event with banquet rounds in our plenary rooms or rows of chairs theatre style for our breakout sessions. It is easy to go back to this set up year after year, but is it really working for you? [...]

One of the first steps in the association event planning process is venue selection. Whether the event is being planned for a local or national association, the need to book space early is often a requirement. Because of the growing availability and flexibility of meeting spaces, there will likely [...]

As event managers, we are always looking for ways to reduce costs for the association events we manage. Two areas that we have been looking at more closely are printing costs and the value of printed materials. Over the past year, we have noticed a significant shift in the [...]

With new developments in technology and more options becoming available to association event managers, audiovisual (AV) is becoming an increasingly complex piece of the conference and special event planning process. However daunting it may appear, it is important to take the time to understand the various components that make [...]