Events Industry Advice That Stands the Test of Time

These 10 columns from Convene’s Dave Lutz, CMP, have timeless wisdom about the meetings industry. Photo: Adobe Stock

We’re halfway through Convene’s 40th anniversary this year, and for half of those years (since 2006), I’ve had the privilege to pen 180-plus columns for the magazine.

While always pushing the envelope on emerging issues, Convene has also published evergreen content that can continue to guide your conference-improvement plans. Here are 10 columns that have withstood rapid technological changes and post-COVID realities that deserve another look:

Updating Your Conference

1. Personalizing a large meeting, May 2017 
The Breakout sidebar provides solid insights on how you might train AI to deliver intelligent recommendations for your attendees. Hint: Use explicit — not implicit — data.

2. Rethinking award presentations, July/Aug. 2024 
This column tackled the most holy of conference sacred cows: awards. Share this article with leadership or members of your board. If you can help be an award winner’s publicist, you’ll take things to another level.

3. Session descriptions, Aug. 2016 
Last year, the Velvet Chainsaw team used this article’s framework to train AI to rewrite session titles, descriptions, and learning objectives as well as score session submissions.

4. Conference hubs, Jan./Feb. 2022
In one of my favorite intentional design articles, we put the attendee at the center of the design. More conferences should lean into “broadcasting” in their hub.

Sponsorship

5. Business modeling for sponsorship, Sept. 2019 
Even though it was written before the pandemic, the business model benchmarks and strategic applications hold true today.

6. Refreshing sponsorship inventory, Sept./Oct. 2023 
If you’re not selling 65 percent or more of your sponsorship inventory, this article provides a good how-to for organizing and right-sizing your sponsor menu.

7. Sponsor ROI, Jan. 2014 
Twelve years later, this article covers something many organizers still struggle with: compiling post-conference proof of sponsorship activation. Learn how to help sponsors stand out and how to get the attention of the budget maker, not the budget spender, at their organizations.

Future Audiences

8. Next-gen attendees, Nov. 2017 
For the past 15 years, this has continued to be the biggest challenge to solve. The solution is not to get ‘em while they’re young, but rather own the mid-career segment.

9. Developing your high-po audience, Nov. 2024 
Early retirement and career-jumping make succession planning even more urgent. Think beyond conference attendance and develop future leaders for your organization.

10. Wisdom conference sessions, July 2019
Share this article with your conference or education committee. With the rapid advancement of AI, the bar for helping attendees become more critical thinkers and better at solving complex problems is at an all-time high. Conference sessions need to go beyond offering data and information to knowledge sharing and wisdom building.

Dave Lutz, CMP, is managing director of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting