Convene CMP Series

Known for its high-quality content, Convene offers a monthly series of must read articles organized around CMP knowledge areas that, along with an online test and essay, enables readers to easily earn CEs.

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Jan-Feb 2024 Convene CMP Series

Convene CMP Series: January-February 2024

Article: Learning to Listen

Listening is a skill essential tor the knowledge exchange that takes place at business events, but how can organizers cultivate better listening behavior among our audiences? Convene reached out to four listening experts and one of the world’s top experts on coaching for their advice

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EIC DOMAIN F: STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

Convene Digital Edition - December

Convene CMP Series: December 2023

Article: Game Changer: Paris 2024 Olympics Takes Bold Strides Toward Sustainability

The Olympic Games, the largest sporting event in the world, is aiming to make next year’s edition in Paris its most sustainable ever. What can the events community learn from its plans and its progress?

Clock Hour: 1.0
EIC DOMAIN G: MEETING OR EVENT DESIGN

Convene CMP Series: November 2023

Article: Events Industry Forecast 2023: Where We Are Now

For this year’s Industry Forecast, we’ve culled the latest research on business events and the sectors that support them — travel, event technology, lodging, and the workplace — asking experts to provide insights about what to expect next. Here are some of those insights.

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EIC DOMAIN G: MEETING OR EVENT DESIGN

Convene CMP Series: September-October 2023

Article: Events and Venues Face New Challenges to Safety, Security

As face-to-face events return in full force, organizers and venues are assessing additional new risks, like potential disruptive behavior, that can make their events feel less safe and welcoming.

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EIC DOMAIN C: RISK MANAGEMENT

Convene CMP Series: July-August 2023

Article: The AI Tool You Can’t Ignore

Event professionals who are trying out generative Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT to help them brainstorm, streamline, analyze, and execute in their everyday work share their tips, approaches, and results.

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EIC DOMAIN G: MEETING OR EVENT DESIGN

Convene CMP Series: May-June 2023

Article: Practicing Empathy at Work and Events

Empathy is not just a soft skill that’s necessary to cultivate to lead teams and design events post-pandemic, it’s practical and effective.

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EIC DOMAIN E: HUMAN RESOURCES

March-April 2024 Convene CMP Series

Convene CMP Series: March-April 2023

Article: Meeting in the Metaverse

How the events industry is exploring the metaverse’s current and future potential.

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EIC DOMAIN A: STRATEGIC PLANNING

Convene CMP Series: January-February 2023

Article: The Transformation of Business Events: What event organizers have learned about what their audiences want now.

For the CMP Series/cover story in our January/February issue, Convene examines how a handful of organizations are incorporating lessons learned from the ways the pandemic affected their audiences, stakeholders, and members into their go-forward strategies — and how they continue to transform (or at least tweak) themselves and their events. Find links to our series of stories below.

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EIC DOMAIN G: MEETING OR EVENT DESIGN

Convene December 2022

Convene CMP Series: December 2022

Article: Designing Events That Create a Sense of Belonging

Now that in-person events have resumed, organizers can reignite among participants the sense that a common purpose bonds them together. Here’s how, according to experts across different fields.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

Convene CMP Series: November 2022

Article: Events Industry Forecast for 2023

After a two-year COVID-induced break, Convene editors have brought back our Annual Industry Forecast, scouring through a wide variety of sources to offer the latest data and trends research on the travel, lodging, exhibitions, and event tech sectors. New this year, for obvious reasons, we’ve added the hybrid work environment to the mix. It’s not a crystal ball by a long shot, but our hope is that whatever insights you glean from these pages will help in your calculus for near-future events. Here’s to training our eyes on what may come in 2023.

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EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning

October 2022 Convene Cover

Convene CMP Series: October 2022

Article: 3 Shifts in Event Sustainability

Meeting professionals aren’t going back to planning exactly the same events they held in 2019, and they aren’t returning to the same conversations about sustainability they were having before the pandemic. Here are three ways industry experts in sustainability say the landscape is changing.

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EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning

Convene CMP Series: September 2022

Article: Salary Survey 2022: Calculating the Pandemic’s Effect on Event Organizers’ Compensation, Day-to-Day Work

Planners may be better compensated than before COVID but there’s also a sense of unrest over the continuing uncertainties in the business events industry, according to our latest Salary Survey.

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EIC Domain G: MEETING OR EVENT DESIGN

Convene CMP Series: August 2022

Article: Is the Talent Challenge Choking the Business Events Industry’s Recovery?

The events industry, hit particularly hard by the pandemic, is feeling the sting as business returns with a lack of talented professionals — on the planning and supplier sides — to pull off events.

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EIC Domain E: Human Resources

Convene CMP Series: July 2022

Article: Using Data to Chart a Path Forward

Data is not just a matter of what information you collect about your events and its participants — the most important part of the data journey is how you communicate stats and numbers to others. It’s about taking a point of view about the data and creating a compelling story to take action. Here’s how to get started.

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EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning

Convene CMP Series: May-June 2022

Article: How Are You Feeling?

It’s time to have a healthy conversation about mental health and wellness in the business events industry — how we foster it for each other in our workplaces and our participants at our events.

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EIC Domain E: Human Resources

Convene CMP Series: March-April 2022

Article: How Convention Centers Are Evolving in a New Events Landscape

In the wake of the pandemic’s disruptions, convention centers are going all in on human-centered needs — plus broadcast capabilities, nature, and outdoor spaces — to bring back groups.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

Convene CMP Series: January-February 2022

Article: How Event Professionals Can Think Like Futurists

Amid continuing uncertainty around planning events during COVID’s wild ride, we turned to professional futurists to help put us on the path to envisioning business events going forward. Here’s a shorthand guide to thinking like a futurist.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: November-December 2021

Article: A ‘Watershed Moment’ for Events — and the World

How the United Nations’ biggest climate conference — and a critical moment in human history — could change the event industry’s “business as usual” narrative on sustainability.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

Convene CMP Series: September-October 2021

Article: The New Now: How the Pandemic Changed the Events Industry

As the COVID-19 crisis has rocked the business events industry, new business models have spring up — not as short-term workarounds, but as lasting shifts.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

Convene CMP Series: July-August 2021

Article: What Changes Caused by the Pandemic Will Stick?

The pandemic’s effects were so profound and far-reaching that not changing ceased to be an option for almost everyone on the planet. But which changes will be permanent, and how will they transform events?

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

Convene CMP Series: May-June 2021

Article: Real-Life Examples Show the Importance of In-Person Events

Perhaps we once took for granted the larger role that face-to-face events play in our society, but the past year has shown us that they are far more than economic engines. These case studies show how physical events have given fledgling industries a foot-hold and path to success.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

Convene CMP Series: March-April 2021

Article: Virtually There: Connecting Digital Event Attendees to Physical Places

These digital gatherings connect participants to the physical world, transporting them to real places and engaging their senses and emotions.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

Convene CMP Series: January-February 2021

Article: The Challenge of Virtualizing Trade Shows and Exhibit Halls

There’s no such thing as a virtual exhibition, said Jochen Witt during a Web Summit 2020 panel discussion in December. “It’s nonsense. It does not exist. An exhibition is feel, taste, smell, touch. It’s not possible virtually, it’s not possible digitally. Did you ever take a digital swim or a virtual meal?”

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


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Convene CMP Series: Oct. – Nov. – Dec. 2020

Article: Mother of Invention: Rethinking Business Events in Light of COVID-19

‘Necessity’ is a mild way to describe the impetus for invention brought by COVID-19. We’ve learned in 2020 that creativity is, as business strategist Natalie Nixon argues, ‘incredibly practical and crucial to survival’ — in the business events industry especially, where the pandemic has forced us to go digital or go dark.

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EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning


Convene CMP Series: July – Aug. – Sept. 2020

Article: What Matters Now: How the Pandemic Has Changed Priorities

If we’ve just been waiting for the COVID-19 crisis to pass to go back to business as usual, we’ve missed a rare opportunity to see our lives and our work in a new light. Here are some ways our world has changed and what we hope will stick once the pandemic is behind us.

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EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning


Convene CMP Series: May-June 2020

Article: Embracing the Digital Opportunity

As the pandemic pushes record numbers of business event planners toward new ways of connecting online, it may ultimately strengthen the ability of meeting professionals to serve their audiences and to reach their business goals.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene

Convene CMP Series: April 2020

Article: Scientific Meetings That Aren’t Afraid to Experiment

Scientific collaboration and innovation are needed now more than ever. Several scientific and medical conferences are changing to meet the demand.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


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Convene CMP Series: March 2020

Article: A To-Do List for Planet Earth’s Planners

Event organizers are embracing the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The goals featured individually throughout this story are the ones that planners most often mention when surveyed. (Courtesy UN)

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene Sept 2019 cover

Convene CMP Series: February 2020

Article: Business & Pleasure Seekers

As global travel booms and the world shrinks, destinations are upping their leisure and business events offerings in equal measure. Here are a handful from around the world that are raising their profile to appeal to both planners seeking a sound meetings infrastructure and attendees, who increasingly make decisions about what events to attend from a tourist’s perspective.

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EIC Domain I: Marketing


Convene Sept 2019 cover

Convene CMP Series: January 2020

Article: Brand-New Experience

Building an authentic brand identity is a complicated process for destinations. Here’s how CVBs have tackled that — and how organizers have meaningfully hitched their events’ theming to those brands.

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EIC Domain I: Marketing


Convene Sept 2019 cover

Convene CMP Series: December 2019

Article: Driven to Indistraction

As workers in the knowledge economy, you’re valued for your creative problem-solving abilities and the innovative ideas that come from focusing deeply on tasks and challenges. But with so many things — mostly digital, some environmental — competing for your attention and taking you off course, how is that even possible? Put your phone aside, set your laptop to sleep mode, and let’s concentrate on solutions.

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EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning


Convene Sept 2019 cover

Convene CMP Series: November 2019

Article: Can Events Help Solve the Global Food Crisis?

It’s clear that our food systems will need to change — and change radically — if we are to safeguard the planet and feed a growing population. What can be done? The best place to start, and where we, the business events industry, can have the greatest impact, is with a renewed focus on food waste.

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EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning


Convene Sept 2019 cover

Convene CMP Series: October 2019

Article: When Conferences Lie

Be a speaker. Serve on the organizing committee. Present your abstract. Sounds like traditional association conferences’ calls for subject matter experts. But it’s also how fake and predatory events reach out to students, academics, and professionals across a swath of industries. Providing little or no substance, these events — if they even take place at all — not only create confusion in the market, they siphon off the very same audiences legitimate events work so hard to attract and educate. What can be done?

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EIC Domain: Multiple Domains


Convene Sept 2019 cover

Convene CMP Series: September 2019

Article: Crowd Control

As cities around the world recalculate the cost of tourism to their communities, business event organizers have an outsized opportunity to make a positive difference. But that doesn’t mean that it’s business as usual.

Clock Hour: 1.0
EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning


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Convene CMP Series: August 2019

Article: Human Intelligence at Work

As AI makes inroads into areas that have traditionally been the domain of humans, the question becomes: Where will people fit in, particularly when it comes to work? Let’s take a peek into the future. You might want to buckle up.

Clock Hour: 1.0
EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning


July 2019

Convene CMP Series: July 2019

Article: Deeply Engaging

Join us as we take a behind-the-scenes look at an experiential marketing event that delivers on the top trends identified in a recent attendee-engagement study. Plus, here’s how one event venue embodies five consumer trends spotlighted in the PCMA Foundation/Marriott study, ‘The Future of Meetings & Events,’ by designing environments that connect with attendees at a human and emotional level.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: June 2019

Article: Wisdom of the Ages

Age discrimination in the workplace is routinely called “the last acceptable prejudice”. Here’s what an ageism activist, communications exec, and serial hospitality entreprenuer say about why a truly inclusive and diverse workforce must be multi-generational – and what that looks like and how it benefits society as a whole.

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EIC Domain E: Human Resources


2019-05

Convene CMP Series: May 2019

Article: Making a Healthy Case

From beacon-collected data to lead scanners to third-party evaluations, here’s how two medical meetings are tackling the exhibitor ROI challenge.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


April 2019

Convene CMP Series: April 2019

Article: Property Wide

From escalating F&B and AV costs, to room-block angst, to the difficulties of negotiating in a consolidated market, working with hotels has become increasingly challenging for event organizers. We know this because you told us. If you’re looking for some insights to help make things easier for you, you’ve checked in to the right place.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


March 2019 Convene

Convene CMP Series: March 2019

Article: Why Joy Matters at Events

Participants’ experience at an event is shaped more by their emotions than you might think. Joyful author Ingrid Fetell Lee thinks planners have an opportunity to interject moments of joy into their event environments — and she shares easy ways to do just that.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


February 2019

Convene CMP Series: February 2019

Article: Like a Local

Most travelers now want to venture off the beaten path and explore a destination like the locals do. Here’s how that desire for an authentic sense of place — along with four more trends — is changing meeting design.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


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Convene CMP Series: January 2019

Article: Leading From Within

We’ve long thought that the only way to lead others — whether you’re the CEO of an organization or managing a small team — is top-down. But as organizations struggle to navigate a rapidly shifting economy and increasingly complicated marketplace, a slew of experts say it’s time to ditch that model. They point to a different way forward: It’s called humble or servant leadership. We explore what that means and speak to a bestselling business author and two association executives who subscribe to that approach.

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EIC Domain E: Human Resources


Convene CMP Series: December 2018 

Article: Teaming of Business Events, Startups Hooks New Audiences
Objective: The next wave of breakthrough innovations will bring startups and business events together

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: November 2018 

Article: Balancing Act 
Objective: Sure, it’s tough to negotiate in a seller’s market, but hotels don’t hold all the chips. Event organizers and negotiation pros share their tactics for reaching a fair deal.

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EIC Domain D: Financial Management


Convene CMP Series: October 2018 

Article: On The Streets
Objective: How the meetings industry is responding to homelessness.

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EIC Domain C: Risk Management


Convene CMP Series: September 2018 

Article: This Is Your Brain on Events
Objective: The attendee experience is not just one thing, it’s many. It’s how people think about an event before they arrive on site, how they experience the event while it’s happening, and how they remember it afterwards — all shaped by unconscious influencers. This, says behavioral scientist Charlotte Blank, represents a ‘whole new world of opportunity’ for event design.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: August 2018 

Article: ‘An Exciting City Environment’
Objective: What’s the common denominator in the perception of large and small cities as desirable places to live, work, or visit as a tourist or attendee? It’s their vibrancy, according to one destination-branding firm, which has found a new way to measure just that.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: July 2018 

Article: Well-Timed
Objective: Daniel Pink applies the scientific insights in his bestselling book “When” to the scheduling of event programs.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: June 2018 

Article: Mindfulness: Working With Your Emotions
Objective: Meditation is a powerful tool for increasing focus and reducing stress, but who has time to sit on a cushion at work? Leah Weiss teaches business students and organizations the skills to bring mindfulness into the fray of the workplace.

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EIC Domain E: Human Resources


Convene CMP Series: May 2018 

Article: Design Thinking: An Event Strategist’s Toolkit
Objective: Challenge your assumptions, look at your events with fresh eyes, remove judgement. Does design thinking sound like a warm and fuzzy approach to meetings planning? Warm, yes, because it’s human-centered. And considering our handful of clear strategies, there’s nothing fuzzy about it.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: April 2018 

Article: Community Service 
Objective: In her 2011 book Alone Together, MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that the technological innovations that have created greater interconnectivity – email, texting, social media – and have also made us feel more alienated from each other. We connect more via digital social networks than in person.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: March 2018 

Article: Is Science Under Fire? 
Objective: Amid stories of a drop in the participation of U.S. government-funded scientists at conferences, a year of uncertainty over international travel to the U.S., and global shifting in funding for scientific research, three experts weigh in on the pressures on international scientific meetings.

Clock Hour: 1.0
EIC Domain A: Strategic Planning


Convene CMP Series: February 2018 

Article: Screen Time 
Objective: Online events will continue to cannibalize in-person events! No one will ever figure out the right balance of virtual and face-to-face content for a hybrid meeting! And after all the hype, virtual reality will never come to anything!
Right? Not at all. Log on to our portal of stories for an exciting 360-degree look at what’s possible in digital events – today and tomorrow.

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EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design


Convene CMP Series: January 2018 

Article: The Future Will See You Now 
Objective: The convergence of healthcare and technology is reaching an inflection point at a time when other pressures are putting the squeeze on medical meetings. How can they stay relevant in a shifting landscape?

Clock Hour: 1.0
EIC Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

 


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