Post authored by De-De Mulligan, Chief Content Strategist for Mulligan Management Group You and your team have been trying to book a big-name, big draw keynote speaker for years. Finally, the stars align, and their bureau and booking agent say yes! But at the last minute, they’re out. What do you do? You shared the news the day the contract’s signed via a press release, your event website, and social media. The result? Attendance is at an all-time high, and energy at your convention has never been better. You are four-eight hours away from their arrival time, and you get the dreaded call ..read more

In such a demanding industry, it’s important for meeting and event professionals to find new ways to destress and avoid burnout. It’s not a secret: event planning is a hard career. Event planning is consistently ranked at the top of the Most Stressful Jobs list, right behind active military, firefighters, pilots and police officers. With that kind of pressure, it’s important to find helpful ways to fight the urge to flame out. Luckily for you, we have a tremendous group of meeting and event professionals who offered us tips on how you can keep your head above water and avoid burnout. 27 Ways ..read more

Post Authored by Taylor Ward, Strategic Accounts Manager, Live Events Gaming and esports are two of the fastest-growing segments in the event space. From high fan engagement to unquestionable brand loyalty, gamers are pushing the boundaries of how an event experience looks from a physical and digital perspective. I have been operating in the game space since I started my own company—Hubtag—in 2011, where we produced livestreaming software for top-tier brands and streamers in the gaming industry. When I joined the Maritz Global Events team in 2018, my goal was to spearhead new gaming and Esport ..read more

Post authored by De-de Mulligan, President and Chief Content Strategist, Mulligan Management Group Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a global credit card processing standard that is designed for one purpose only – to ensure your guests’ payment data stays secure through the entire payment cycle. Formulated by the PCI Security Standards Council, the PCI DSS applies to any organizations—or events—that store, process or transmit cardholder data. Even if you run a small association with minimal credit card transactions, your organization may still be obligated to comply wit ..read more

Post authored by Donna Kastner, Founder, Retirepreneur Our world has plenty of complex problems to solve, and generational friction isn’t helping us move the needle. No single generation has all the answers, but when we come together for more fruitful dialogue, that’s when real progress happens. “OK, Boomer…” I sigh heavily when this torpedo is fired in generational battles. Then, when I hear a few small-minded Boomers respond with “Snowflake remarks,” I sighed even more. Event organizers have a golden opportunity to seize in brokering more peaceful and productive exchanges across the generati ..read more

Post authored by Rachel Stephan, Event Marketing Strategist, sensov/ event marketing For many associations, events are key strategies for member outreach and growth. To increase event attendance, yearly conferences must consistently achieve their goals for growth and evolution. Reaching new attendees remains a consistent challenge for 90 percent of meeting planners, and it is of critical importance. It means the world to attendees, who crave meeting new people at events: 75 percent of them said that networking and making connections was important to them. Networking with the same crowd ever ..read more

Post authored by Mike Godsey, Senior Vice President of Exhibitor & Customer Service, Experient One of the best tips we can give would be to make lead retrieval for exhibitors a priority in the first place. When you think of lead retrieval as a cog in a well-oiled marketing machine, you’ll begin to see that your other preferences (visibility, product launch, etc.) do not compete with lead retrieval, but complement it.   Understand Your Audience Qualifying your leads is incredibly important. This means going beyond the basic demographic questions you may ask of your booth visitors and diggi ..read more

Post authored by Donna Kastner, Founder, Retirepreneur The 8-Phases of a Successful Event is an outstanding blueprint for mapping out steps (large & small) you can take to improve event experiences across their entire event journey – before, during, and after the live event. For this post, I’d like to focus on one make-or-break phase that happens mid-way through the event journey – the ENTERING phase. This stage follows the taxing ARRIVING phase, where guests travel to your event destination. Let’s face it – many won’t enjoy the comforts of Pre-TSA status or cocktails on their first-class ..read more

Post authored by Rachel Stephan, Event Marketing Strategist, sensov/ event marketing When it comes to trade show lead retrieval, lots of exhibitors have decided to exercise an abundance of caution and not initiate a strategy. They’re letting valuable sales leads fall through the cracks in the name of playing it safe legally. For many trade show exhibitors, GDPR stands for “gosh-darned problematic regulation.” Many don’t understand its many facets, and are afraid of getting sued should their business practices not be up to par. It throws a wrench in their trade show marketing routine. “GDPR i ..read more