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by Michael Hart The shopping center industry is the latest disrupted business model that events can learn from. According to a research report from Credit Suisse, 25 percent of today’s malls will close by 2020. What makes us think 25 percent of our shows won’t exist in their present form in three years? The fall […]
by Scott Schenker The relationship we have with our cars is the stuff of legend. In fact, Sir William Lyons, one of the founders of Jaguar Cars, said, “The car is the closest thing we will ever create to something alive.” While I can’t imagine how Sir Lyons would feel about today’s technology, I know many […]
by Don Peppers As a business author and professional speaker “living mouth to hand” (as Winston Churchill once described the speaking circuit), over the last 20 years I’ve made presentations in 63 different countries. Which means I have personally had a ring-side, up-close view of literally hundreds of conventions, conferences, and single-company events–big and small, […]
by Gary Slack For seven years, from 2009 to 2015, I organized and ran the world’s largest annual business-to-business marketing conference. Sponsored by the Business Marketing Association, the conference in 2015 drew just over 1,000 B2B marketers from 550 companies, 36 states and 12 nations. At least one-fifth of the attendees were senior directors and […]
by Caroline Meyers It is all too common to find sales and marketing—the two most influential departments in a corporation—at odds with each other. In our industry, we see the clash—in all of its splendor—play out on the trade show floor every day. We all know the arguments: Sales thinks marketing is detached from the […]
by Bob James and Michael Hatch Brick-and-mortar chain store owners everywhere are sweating “the retail apocalypse.” Traffic is abysmal. Sales have tanked. Stores are vanishing (over 8,600 are predicted to close this year). Job losses, bankruptcies and liquidations are legion. A tidal wave of disruption is shaking retailers to the core. Could an “apocalypse” beset association […]
by Jim Curry I am neck deep in exhibitor sales brochures at the moment. That involves reading endless exhibition statistics, questionable exhibitor testimonials, and vomit-inducing openers from organizers. It is a very boring and predictable process, because 85% of them are templated tosh. When reading the brochures, you can normally tell quite quickly the 15% of […]
by Carl Landau As a seasoned veteran in the niche event world, I’ve pretty much seen it all. What event organizers should do, mistakes to avoid, and most importantly—how to generate more revenue! I recently sat down with Magnificent Media’s Dave Reimherr for a podcast about live event management for niche publishers. We talked about how to go from thee sponsors […]
by Michael Barnett Virtual reality, drones, artificial intelligence, big data, live streaming, the list of buzzwords “revolutionizing events” is endless, and therefore meaningless. If everything is a threat to the events industry, then nothing is. But here are four trends indisputably affecting events: Isolation. Instead, consider that a majority of Americans do not have someone […]
Ever wonder why a new trade show director’s hair goes gray by Day 3? by Tony Compton Johnny’s smartphone alarm rang precisely at 5:30 in the morning, but today he didn’t need it. He was already sitting in the drive-thru of his favorite fast food restaurant awaiting his routine cup of coffee. It was Johnny’s first […]
