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Event Security: The Planner’s Guide

Security and safety considerations are becoming increasingly important for professional conference and event organisers to address in their meetings. But best practice and typical execution are rarely one and the same thing. This planner’s guide is a checklist of proactive thinking across a meeting’s entire timeline: before the event, during and after. From tmf dialogue marketing…

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Don’t Ignore the World Outside the Meeting

Too often business travel to events and meetings pays no heed to the wider attractions a destination has to offer. Too often organisers don’t either. From the recent 2017 PCMA Global Professionals Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, here are some thoughts about creating experiences that are engaging, fulfilling and memorable for those attending them. From PCMA…

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Fam Trip: Forbidden Words

After the contentious issue of blacklisting freeloaders – and the idea of requiring a charitable donation to attend – it seems there’s a re-evaluation underway of what the familiarisation trip should be. According to a comment from the Site GB Incentives Summit, perhaps it’s time to ban the phrase and coin a new name. From Meetpie.com…

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Event Insurance: The Hurricane Question

In the wake of the devastation left across the Caribbean and Florida by Hurricane Irma – just after Hurricane Harvey’s in Texas – the industry has been discussing the delicate subject of meetings insurance. Hiscox, which has been insuring against such risks for 30 years, says three quarters of organisers fail to purchase adequate cancellation cover. From Meetpie.com…

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Getting Exercised About Engaging Attention

It’s a familiar problem. After a great start to the opening session, the room’s energy dips over a couple of hours. The morning break is supposed to revive and refresh, but somehow that initial dynamism never quite seems to return. Perhaps instead of tea or coffee, the secret sauce is an exercise break. From the Event…

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No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Rather than controversial name and shame blacklists, here’s a rather more creative solution to the problem of discouraging the attendance of FAM trip freeloaders. Charge an appropriate token entry fee… and then donate the proceeds to industry charity Meeting Needs. Some clever thinking at Cliveden House in Berkshire, United Kingdom, from the editor’s blog at Meetpie.com…

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Meetings are Serious… Just Don’t Forget the Joy

As we switch from “business tourism” to “economic development” and “knowledge transfer” – and as we quantify the return on investment our events create – let us not forget the human values also at the heart of this industry. Let us not squeeze the joy out of meetings. From the editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…

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Feedback from a Speaker

We all know what professional conference organisers want from speakers they engage in constructing content for meetings and events. But what do the speakers want in return from organisers? Consultant and Strategic Meetings Management guru Kevin Iwamoto offers a list of eight peeves and pointers from the speaker point of view. From Meetings & Conventions…

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Some Blue Sky Thinking on Event Disruption

According to the Incentive Research Foundation’s 2016 Event Disruption study, 59% of planners in 2015 and 2016 and had to deal with outside disturbances to their meeting itineraries. One brave Iceberg partner journalist signed up to sample a unique dinner-in-the-sky experience in London. Sadly sometimes even a suspended event has to be… erm… suspended. From the editor’s blog at Meetpie.com…

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Event Design: Ten Guiding Principles for Organisers

“Uneasy lies the head of the PCO” to adapt Shakespeare. But what should a PCO’s guiding principles be in designing a conference or exhibition? What works really well and what really does not? Principles 1 – 5 are listed on the article page. Click through issue 7 of the full magazine at the bottom for 6 – 10. From the Event…

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How Affordable is Affordable?

Whether it’s all about the cost of the airfare itself or of the transportation from the airport, whether it’s about the pricing of the meeting’s accommodation, food and beverages, Wi-Fi access or off-site venues, views on what constitutes affordability in the meetings industry are as many and varied as are the events themselves. From Successful Meetings…

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