Planning the End of Meetings and Events

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No, we're not putting ourselves out of business by suggesting we do away with meetings and events. Rather, this post aims to look at how we close out events and how we can keep people engaged to the very end.[Tweet "A look at how to keep people engaged to the very end. #GovEventsBlog"]

We've all seen it and done it - sneaking out toward the end of an event to miss the traffic or get in some email time. Many events have relied on incentivizing attendees by saving their best speaker for the closing keynote or doing prize drawings. While this can work, it can backfire and give a great speaker a less than full room and a less than engaged audience, or it can make prize drawings feel more like roll-call in Ferris Beuller. How can meeting planners avoid short changing end-of-day speakers and ensure attendees want to stay and get the full benefit of the event? Continue reading →

Building a Thankful Audience

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As we celebrate Thanksgiving, we thought it would be a good time to go beyond reflecting on what we are thankful for and look instead at what you want your event attendees and sponsors to be thankful for as they leave your events.

Beyond learning something and meeting great people, what do you want your attendees to get out of the event?[Tweet "What do you want your attendees to get out of the event? #GovEventsBlog"] Here are four things we think event planners would be grateful to hear: Continue reading →

Behind the Curtain: I/ITSEC

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1ITSECToday we introduce a new series on GovEvents, "Behind the Curtain."  In these posts, we will talk to the producers of some of the biggest shows for our government audience.  For our inaugural post, we feature Debbie Langelier, CEM, Director of Exhibits and Sponsorships for I/ITSEC.

Held this year from November 30-December 4, the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) is the world's largest modeling, simulation, and training conference.  The event includes peer-reviewed paper presentations, tutorials, special events, professional workshops, a commercial exhibit hall, a serious games competition, and STEM events for teachers and secondary students.

Thanks to Debbie and her team for sharing some of the thought process that goes into putting on this annual event which attracts 15,000-18,000 attendees each year.

Q: We've been hearing recently that travel and training budgets are starting to loosen up a bit.  Are you seeing this? Continue reading →

Living In A Streaming World

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We've talked about how to get quality video and how to best produce hybrid events, but there is a third element to the video and event equation - attendee streaming. With apps like Meerkat, Glide, Periscope, and others (not to mention just general smart phone video), attendees now have the power to share live video of your event.

Video streaming is one technology that we must accept is here to stay. How do we ensure that we are still putting our best face forward when we are not in control of how it is delivered?[Tweet "Video streaming is here to stay. Put your best face forward at your events #GovEventsBlog"]
Continue reading →

Tech Trends in Event Planning

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Many of the events listed on GovEvents.com have to do with technology and how to apply it to meet government challenges. It makes sense then to apply the technology that is being discussed to the event itself. Here are a few major tech innovations and trends that can have a huge impact on the government and event market alike. [Tweet "Tech innovations and trends for the government and event market #GovEventsBlog"]

  • RFID - Radio Frequency Identification is the wireless use of electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. Government and industry use this technology for tracking contents of containers on ships, military equipment, critical infrastructure and more. For events, RFID tags can easily be embedded in wristbands, badges or plastic credit cards. This can help speed up the registration process, collect qualitative and quantitative data, and engage attendees through social platforms and email by serving them information targeted to where they are and what they have been doing at the event.[Tweet "RFID tags can speed up registration and collect data on attendees during events #GovEventsBlog"]

Continue reading →