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.

Your organization might receive more than half of your conference’s revenue from supplier investments. On the other hand, you have the attendees to get suppliers to invest in the first place. Here are two scenarios that may help develop your approach for optimal revenue and attendee experience.

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.

If your scientific or medical event is heavily dependent on participants who justify their attendance because you’ve accepted their oral or poster abstract, you may be diluting the quality of the conference experience. Think about this strategy instead.

When it comes to event-tech decisions, your rule of thumb should be that customer experience trumps staff efficiencies. This means that instead of organizing around your organization’s products or silos, organize around your customers.

The most glaring of five realities of the B2B buyer — that three out of four B2B buyers conduct the majority of their research before talking to a salesperson — remains a major issue a year after we first discussed it.

Getting the convention learner experience right — planning and offering education sessions that go beyond surface learning and enable participants to find meaningful and mentally stimulating experiences — is one of the biggest challenges facing program organizers today.

Your conference is for professionals — not the elite membership.

Will a new rule prevent your event app from being accepted in the App Store?

Can a conference for hundreds or thousands of attendees capitalize on the mass-personalization trend — making it seem like a program for one?