In January I committed to making 2019’s columns about YOU. From lifelong learning and goal setting to finding a support team and being accountable, we’ve covered a lot of ground. With the year 80% completed, how are you feeling in the present moment? 

With October comes Halloween, a day devoted to eating too much candy and donning costumes, both of which we associate with children. I’d like to speculate that an overwhelming number of adults wear costumes and masks every day. (And I’ll speak for myself on eating chocolate year-round.)

The event industry is at the front line of a massive evolution in data handling and privacy. Meanwhile, the modern consumer demands (quite rightly) better data security, privacy and accountability from the brands they use. According to a CMO Council survey of global marketing leaders, 57% ranked this as a top critical demand by customers:

As an event professional, you know that your job is about managing people as much as it is about logistics. You also know that having the right people in your address book can often make or break an event. Here’s how you can be better at networking and connecting. 

Event management is about people as well as logistics. As a corporate event professional, success in your career is as much about who you know as what you can do.

Though live events are among the oldest forms of marketing, the industry continues to evolve and change at a dizzying pace.

Generational differences are driving changing expectations. Technology vendors are striving to stay ahead of the curve. Event planners are challenged to produce consistent results while pushing the envelope with unique venues and new experiences.

In January, I decided to reach out my helping hand and make all of 2019’s columns about YOU. From lifelong learning and goal setting to finding support teams and being accountable, we’ve covered a lot of ground. With the year 75 percent completed, how are you feeling in the present moment? Are you marveling at how much time has passed and falling into despair at how little has been accomplished — or are you reveling in all you have accomplished and super-charged at what you can achieve in the final few months of the year?

With all the logistics you have to manage for your company’s trade show program, you might feel justified in skipping trade show promotional activities. But that would be like planning a party, and not sending out all the invitations.

Sure, the show organizer will get people to the showfloor. But it’s up to you to get them to your booth space. Here are seven reasons why trade show promotional activities are so worth your effort:

Managing an event can feel like a cat rodeo, with huge groups of people headed every which way and different things on their minds. It’s easy to become frustrated when attendees do not do what we want them to do. Event planners predict behaviors based on activity history, then use those projections for forecasting and budgeting. When the target audience does not “behave” as projected, it can impact the success of the event.

Don’t sit by and watch. Here are nine actions you can take to achieve desired attendee behaviors. 

Incentive Trips. These two words provoke vastly different feelings from different people. Traditionally, incentive trips were exclusively for sales people and executives. They would go to an exotic locale, get a little bit of sun and celebrate their big wins. Incentive trips were a reward for being top sellers and leading the company. Simple enough.

Event marketing is often the largest single line item in corporate event budgets because of its effectiveness at achieving key marketing objectives and building trust.

That is the bottom-line conclusion from four separate studies highlighted in the Top 20 B2B Marketing Charts report from Marketing Charts.

The faint nip of fall hasn’t yet reached the east coast, but signs of it are everywhere. My local HomeGoods is showcasing Halloween decorations and an avalanche of back to school sale advertising has blanketed all forms of media. While you may be long past the butterfly-inducing feeling the first day of school brings, you’re never beyond pushing yourself to level up your knowledge, tackle a challenge, and graduate to a new area of higher learning over a lifetime. The question is, are you doing it?