Event organizers often face competing needs: Suppliers rely on booth traffic while attendees want to pack in as many sessions as possible. Velvet Chainsaw’s Dave Lutz outlines strategies to please them both.

Looking for a way to differentiate your conference? Drop the ‘something-for-everyone’ program approach and use your event as a setting to deliver wisdom, says Dave Lutz of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting. Here’s what that looks like.

If we are going to dedicate the time, money, and resources to bring people together, then we owe it to them to create a space that changes them in some way. I love the idea of engineering the unexpected.

At every event, our community must lead the charge to create inclusive experiences. We have a global platform where we can create a respectful space for diverse perspectives, where we can learn from each other, share ideas, and find common ground. 

A cooking class — and its no-doggy-bag policy — speaks to the larger issue of how we need to make eliminating food waste a priority at events.

The first step for shifting things at your company — before you jump in, make the commitment and the investment, or take a calculated risk — is to determine if the conditions are favorable for organizational change initiatives.

Organizers spend a lot of time putting together their conference’s education sessions. Models vary, but most include a 15- to 20-person conference committee (slotters) and an army of reviewers (graders). It’s time to rethink the traditional model for creating your conference’s education program.

The business events industry has a role to play in halting the spread of hate.

A truly diverse workforce embraces all ages and respects what each generation brings to the table. That’s our challenge in the workspace as well as in business event settings.

Self-actualization is not the exclusive realm of spirit guides or religious gurus. It should be among your highest priorities in terms of facilitating your participants’ experience.

In the May issue of Convene, we cover loneliness, a health issue that has come to be called an epidemic. Globally, the World Health Organization now lists social support networks as one of the factors determining health, and as our story points out, last year the U.K. appointed a minister for loneliness, making it a

Tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar says that we don’t think deeply about how tech is changing ‘how we live, love, learn, and even die.’