The recent opening keynote of the American Occupational Therapy Association Annual Conference & Expo was a master class in how to make an authentic emotional connection with the audience — and came as a complete surprise to the speaker.

The Savannah Bananas recently inked a deal with ESPN, ABC, and Disney+ to stream 25 games in 2026 — proof of their large and growing fan base. Here’s how events can take a page from their marketing playbook to cultivate a strong following.

One of the greatest opportunities for leveraging AI in 2026 for your session content is not creating more of it, but rather chunking it into digestible, bite-sized snacks.

What questions to ask — which ones to avoid — to increase your chances of getting the highest number of responses that yield insights.

Concurrent sessions are the meat and potatoes of professional conferences. Use AI to improve the recipe.

InfoComm, billed as “The Coolest Pro AV Gathering on the Planet,” offers attendees a firsthand experience of the latest audiovisual tech. Here are three top trends to use at your own meetings.

These strategies will help you be proactive in navigating shifts in policies and the economic and geopolitical landscape.

It may seem premature to sound the alarm, but here goes: Trump’s executive order directed toward transforming government spending will likely have a significant impact on meetings in the scientific, health-care, and academic sectors.

Gross profit is the metric that matters most to leaders. By understanding and tracking this key measurement, you can enhance your credibility and value as an event organizer with senior leadership during the recovery process.

Annual conferences can be a valuable platform for helping your attendees — and their organizations — develop and retain future leaders, aka “hi-po’s.”

Most conversations about the use of artificial intelligence in the events industry focus on use cases that improve workforce productivity and performance for repeatable processes. Here are approaches that not only help you but help your event participants implement AI within their own organizations.

It’s important to recognize those who make significant contributions to our communities — and engage our audiences while doing so.