1k registered in 8 hours for AI for Events Demo Day Oct 22 -> 25 companies, 5 min demos FREE

A printed schedule for a 50-person event, with every attendee's name, bio and email on it, was the best networking tool I have used. If your event is small enough, give people the full list on paper.

Free events with heavy no-shows have a value problem. A small entry fee will not change that for a networking night. Overbook by 40 percent and work on the reason people should come.

35% of planners say AI is changing why people attend events in person. Attendees ask for live moments and for authenticity, and among planners running 50 or more events a year nearly one in four hear authenticity cited. Build unscripted moments into programming deliberately.

Roundtables are the sessions worth selling to a sponsor, with the sponsor's own expert moderating. Match attendees to tables before the event and announce the topics early, since people need a reason to justify the trip. One less keynote usually covers the cost.

People don’t like business events because the events really spending time on the experience are few. The rest is a lot of copy/pasting, hotel commissions, use of trends for lack of ideas, poor tech knowledge and low understanding of business impact. The words used to excuse these traits are: Serendipity Human nature People first It’s an experience Some events survive or sometimes thrive because of hype (vertical or community) but the reality is that the whole structure is shaky. Recently someone in my community said ‘it’s too much work’. That comment stayed with me. The narrative that event people are overworked is true, but they are doing a lot of of the wrong things Some operators run huge events with two or three people on the team. If you run events and getting nowhere, focus on: ROI Connection (meetings, roundtables, workshops) Moment planning Operational excellence Strong tech powered experience Constant data analysis Expert team Obsession with NPS

Your main stage needs an MC who guides the audience through the day. Interviewing a guest in depth is a different skill, and plenty of good MCs do not have it. Book a journalist or a podcast host for the interviews and let the MC run the flow.

Can’t resist

Events without a data strategy are the ones that get shut down. Put several stakeholders and teams in one conversation and opinions will not win it. Walk in with data on what the event delivered.

Attendee-to-attendee is the right priority if you run an event under 5,000 people. Attendee-to-sponsor is the right priority above 10,000, and the planners who put sponsors first run nearly double the personalized networking.

Exhibitor feedback forms almost always carry the same two complaints: low traffic because too much is happening somewhere else, and a bad match between attendees and sponsors. Read yours before you plan the next show.

Plan receptions by persona and interest instead of one big party. Attendees get pockets of people who share their identity and what they came to do, which one reception for everyone never creates.

Under 2,000 attendees, the connection tech that proves a return is the mobile app with networking built in. Above 5,000, AI matchmaking starts to pay for itself. Pick the tool for the size of the event, and ask the vendor for proof at that size.

Everybody says connection matters most at an event. Almost nobody designs for it. 49% of planners rank peer networking as the most important thing for event success. Only 8% dedicate more than half of their programming to it. Insane

3,000! Registered 1200 live right now Join us here!!! boldpush.registration.goldca…

Content by itself onstage may not be enough. Live podcasts, ask-me-anything sessions, and attendee participation across the board.

Most event registration plans depend on one channel, and that channel's open rates are sliding for everyone. Seventy-five emails to the same list only works at an open rate nobody has. Text messages have to carry part of the load before the email closes the deal.

Venues that want repeat bookings should offer solutions instead of negotiating. Help the planner's idea come to life by showing how another client did it. In a seller's market, resist profit maximizing, because planners remember charges like tap water for a long time.

The play is now clear Buy an event and build community and media around it Buy media and communities and build events around them

Do you measure attendee satisfaction by format? Nearly a quarter of planners don't. 23% pick between keynotes, panels and roundtables with no feedback loop at all. Put format-level questions in the next post-event survey.

I’ve worked with and hired editors or writers for the past 17 years. Doing content today is one of the most difficult challenges - possibly ever. What I am looking for in content operators is: HATE towards AI slop understanding of the tone required direct words extreme taste One word of slop and you are out