This past year, I have transitioned my career to a new role with Choose Chicago, the sales & marketing arm for the city of Chicago for conventions, trade shows, meetings, and tourism. It has been a year of change as I left Texas and relocated back to Chicago, as well as moving forward from 6+ … Continue reading
How Well Do You REALLY Know Your Exhibitors?
This week I had the opportunity to make a presentation on the title subject in Washington, D.C. at an industry conference. This is the 2nd time I’ve spoken directly to this subject, and the 3rd time this year, at an industry conference, I led a discussion around this idea of really understanding who your customers … Continue reading
We’re Emulating the Wrong Education Methods
Khan Academy on 60 Minutes (click here to watch clip) Over the Labor Day weekend I had a chance to catch this segment on the news magazine show, 60 Minutes. It was fascinating…and disappointing at the same time. As a parent it is disappointing that this proven method has been around so long yet not … Continue reading
The 3 A’s Critical to Change
Recently I read another terrific post by Jeff Hurt of Velvet Chainsaw. Jeff is someone I enjoy, respect, and admire. He pushes the industry to never settle for what we have achieved, but he sees the best in all of us…even if we don’t always agree. He drew an aspirational analogy to the Olympics, where … Continue reading
Using Live to Drive Social
It starts with a spark… Hybrid events have caught fire, and rightly so, as the next broadcasting frontier. And, just like the NFL, MLB, NHL, PGA, etc, broadcasting creates greater interest in a live event, and more demand for it. If you don’t believe me, try and buy a face price ticket to the new … Continue reading
“Less Disruptive, More Instructive”
This is a quote I read in a recent article of B to B Online (http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120516/EVENT02/305169995/iab-innovation-days-everything-is-a-screen-these-days), referencing the challenges marketers face utilizing the wide variety of marketing channels that are “screens”…computers, tablets, phones, cameras, and soon…paper! Live events present terrific opportunities to engage the visual senses to enhance attendee education, interaction, and engagement. Exhibit booth … Continue reading
The Price Isn’t Right
In the last five months I have had the opportunity to attend IAEE, PCMA, the Exhibitor Show and others…a pretty fair cross-section of the trade show stakeholder market. Most of the formal and informal conversations that I have been a part of have been focused around: How do we stay relevant to our dues paying members? How … Continue reading
Lifelong Learning
[This is being shared from SmartBlogs.com…http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2011/08/08/live-from-blogher-pepsico-ceo-indra-nooyi-on-the-leadership-principles-that-guide-her/%5D Jessica Miller-Merrell shared her takeaways from the BlogHer (http://www.blogher.com/announcing-our-blogher-11-lunchtime-keynote-pepsico-ceo-and-chairman-indra-nooyi) conference this past summer, and specifically called out Ms. Nooyi’s presentation on the 5C’s of Leadership, and the changing landscape for women, highlighting that 7 out of 10 worldwide buying decisions are made by women. When you consider countries going … Continue reading
Meeting Industry Consolidation: Friend or Foe?
Recent headlines for our industry: * Delta president says consolidation enabling US airline profits. * $174M Sonesta International Hotels sale raises eyebrows * Media Consolidation: The Illusion of Choice (Infographic) – from http://www.frugaldad.com, 6 media giants control 90% of what we see, watch, or listen to. All of these articles deal with consolidation that has … Continue reading
What can you buy for $67,000?
In the coming weeks I will be undergoing a Total Knee Replacement. As with most medical procedures like this, some of my time has been committed to winding through the maze of the medical/healthcare community and hospitals…the pre-operative counseling sessions, physicals, dental appointments (did you know that many infections that happen with artificial joints come … Continue reading