Blog » Event Tips

We offer a lot of little tips and tricks for events—like doing social media for events, planning events, knowing event industry terms, and more. And this little corner of our blog is where you’ll find all of those event tips. Good luck!

How to Handle Negative Social Media Feedback During and After an Event

Putting on an event is a big deal. From a one day get-together to a multi-day trade show, you are well aware of the challenges. Let’s be honest: it is hard to make it through an event without at least one person getting angry. Many years ago, dealing with such a situation was simple. You would wait for the issue to be presented, and then deal with it one-on-one. The matter was kept rather hush and taken care of in person. In today’s world, where social media is in charge, things are not nearly as clear. Rather than take up […]

Top Tips for Hiring a Catering Company

When putting together an event, there are 101 things that you need to plan for. Obviously it is hard to get every little thing perfect, there is one thing that you should give a little more attention to: the food. You have a lot on your plate (no pun intended), including the task of hiring a catering company. Make the right choice and you will have attendees drooling. Make the wrong choice and you could soon have a problem on your hands. How to Hire an Event Catering Company The catering industry checks in with annual revenue of $9 billion. There […]

Keeping Your Attendees Entertained

Today, we’re going to be addressing a question which has doubtless plagued many event management professionals in the past: how does one keep their guests entertained without sacrificing the value of an event? How much novelty does one need to keep people interested – and how can one tell they’ve crossed the line and lost sight of their event’s original purpose? It’s not an easy question to answer, but I believe I’d like to start with a simple truth: presentation is everything. Every single factor, ranging from what sort of equipment you use to how the conference hall looks right […]

Catering 101: Working Out The Details Of The Perfect Menu

Catering is as much a part of event management as sound design, tech, or marketing.  Making the wrong choice where food’s concerned can be just as bad as selecting the wrong keynote speakers; it could completely ruin the look and feel of an event. That said, it’s not terribly likely that you’ll be designing your menu by yourself (you can, but I’d not recommend it). You’re going to be hiring on a caterer to handle the details involved in keeping your attendees fed and watered. Thing is…that caterer can’t do their job if they don’t know what you expect. For […]

Selecting The Right Music For Events

When you’re applying for a job (or really, doing anything else in life), how you sound is just as important as how you look. Why should event management be any different? A bit of musical flair can be the difference between a good event and a great one. Today, we’re going to discuss what’s involved in making your event sound awesome (literally). Know Your Attendees The first question you need to ask yourself is “who’s going to be attending?” A group of distinguished business professionals aren’t going to enjoy the same music as a bunch of millennial tech geeks; neither […]

The (Not So) Little Details

So you’ve worked for month securing a location, finding the perfect guest speakers, and marketing your event like crazy. You’re exhausted and it may feel like a good idea to skip over some little details. Well, I hate to break it to you but it really isn’t that great of an idea. The food, entertainment, and music can make or break an event. If someone with a gluten allergy is unable to eat any of the food all weekend, I bet that would hold in there memory longer than even the best guest speaker. This week, we are going to […]

The Ten Best Technological Tools For Guest Speakers

The best guest speakers are those who know how to inspire the people who attend their presentation. They’re compelling individuals and natural storytellers, with magnetic personalities, great voices, and boundless energy. They also know their tech – and how best to use it to make their point. The truth is, in many ways the difference between a good guest speaker and a great one is simply how they use the tools they have at their disposal. With that in mind, today’s piece is going to focus on a few presentation tools and gadgets a speaker can use to enrich their […]

The Event Planner’s Guide To Being A Better Guest Speaker

Forget paying for an advertising spot or schmoozing around at a trade show; guest speaking is among the best ways to promote your event management firm. As a guest speaker, you’ve an opportunity to engage with an entire room filled with prospective clients – provided, of course, you fully understand what the job involves. As a result, there are too many guest speakers who are boring or irrelevant, even among event organizers. You want to avoid being one of those. You want to be exciting, interesting, and informative. You want people to leave your presentations passionate, interested, and engaged. How can […]

How to Run an Effective Social Media Contest

Are you looking for a creative way to boost event registration numbers? Are you hoping to get your audience excited about an upcoming event? While there are many ways to make this happen, here is one that you may have overlooked: a social media contest. Social media is hot. Just how hot, you wonder? Here is what Social Times has to say: “Did you know that there are more than two billion active social media users worldwide, representing a global penetration rate of 28 percent?” This statistic alone proves that you are missing the boat if you aren’t using social media to […]

Leveraging The Most Common Types Of Speakers At Your Event

As I’m sure most of you have noticed by now, everyone has their own unique ‘style’ when it comes to speaking. Some people are better at weaving an engrossing, entertaining story, while others can get an audience pumped up just by speaking a few words. Some people know exactly what they’re talking about – and how to present it to the audience – while others are simply able to hold the attention of people based on who they are. As an event manager, it’s important that you understand how to recognize the different types of guest speakers – and how […]

How To Avoid Hiring A Bad Guest Speaker

Even if every other element of your event is planned out flawlessly, a bad keynote speaker could ruin the whole experience for your attendees. Maybe their delivery is boring as watching paint dry. Maybe they’re shamelessly plugging a business or brand the audience doesn’t care about, or peppering their presentation with awful-poorly designed slides. Maybe they’re late – or don’t show up at all. Regardless of why, a guest speaker who isn’t good at their job can become a dark, foreboding cloud over an otherwise fantastic event. It goes without saying that you want to do everything you can to […]

Five Things An Exhibitor Should Never Do

If you’re setting up a booth at a conference or trade show, you’re there to connect with people. You’re interested in one of two things: selling a product, or connecting with people who’d be interested in buying from you (or working with you).  Both are pretty important, right? Today, we’re going to be going over a few of the biggest – and most common flubs – exhibitors tend to make on the show floor. If you’re an exhibitor, have a read-through to make sure you aren’t committing any of these mistakes yourself. And if you’re an event planner, well…you can […]

Stand Out In A Crowd

Last week we focused our series on handling all of the different events that an event planner may be asked to do. This week, we are switching gears and focusing on how to be a good speaker and exhibitor at an event that you are invited to. We want you to be able to make the most out of your situation. Whether you are paying to be at an event, or you are the star of the show, we want to share with you tips on how to get the most out of it for your brand. Stop wasting time […]

How Can You Add More Diversity to Your Tech Conference

The notion that the tech industry has a diversity problem is right up there alongside “water is wet” in terms of startling revelations. By now, mentioning the issue of gender, race, and culture inclusivity in tech seems akin to beating a dead horse. Everybody already knows the problem exists, and they’re getting sick of hearing about it – but no one seems willing (or able) to fix it. As an event management professional in the tech sector, you’re in a unique position to bring about change. After all, your events are (presumably) the place where influencers from all over the […]

The Story Of Suresh Doss Drives Home The Real Cost Of Event Management Blunders

Today, I’m going to tell you about a young man by the name of Suresh Doss. He is – or rather, was – an amateur event planner and freelance food writer. Today, he owes the City of Toronto $36,000. His is a cautionary tale, a story that drives home the importance of knowing who you’re working with and what you’re doing. See, Doss was part of a 2013 experiment to put food trucks in parks all across the city. Armed with an array of different meals, the trucks would keep hungry park-goers fed and content – and make a bit […]

Are Business Conferences Really That Valuable?

It’s pretty common knowledge that meetings can be one of the biggest time-wasters in the business world. They’re a place where people go to talk about doing work – without actually getting anything done in the process. Today, I’d like to address a very simple question: do conferences fall under the same umbrella? You could be forgiven for thinking that they might. After all, a conference is basically a meeting between several or more organizations, isn’t it? With that in mind, what is it about a business conference that makes it so much valuable than a run-of-the-mill meeting? Quite a bit, […]

Concert Management vs. Conference Management: What’s The Difference?

Since we all know a lot more about conferences and trade shows, we’re going to be looking at things from that perspective. Precisely how do the two differ from one another? First, let’s start with how they’re similar. As with conferences, it’s important that you understand your primary demographic when running a concert – what sort of genre do fans of the headlining band prefer? What artists do they like, and which do they prefer to avoid? Promotion is also just as important; you need to know how to get people hyped up about an upcoming show (although with a […]

Five Tips For Running An Amazing Meetup

Not every event has to be a massive exhibition, a bustling trade show, or a huge convention. As an event management professional, you might occasionally seek to run something a little smaller, a little more reserved – a meetup. These informal gatherings are typically planned on a much smaller scale than a traditional conference, and usually tend to be focused on a particular community, interest, or activity. Done right, they’re incredibly fun and rewarding – and as an added bonus, they generally require significantly less work than a large conference. Here are a few tips to help you run a […]

Five Important Tips for Planning an Outdoor Event

With summer just around the corner, more and more events are being hosted in the great outdoors. And why not? Particularly if you live in Canada, weather this warm only comes around a few months a year. Might as well take advantage of it while it’s here, right? Not surprisingly, outdoor events are subject to a whole new set of challenges, complications, and logistical concerns. Here are just a few of the most important factors you’ll need to consider: Make Sure Your Event Will Work In An Outdoor Setting Not every event will work out doors. If you’re running a […]

Thinking Outside The Box

So we have covered the basics for running a trade show or small corporate events, but what about the less commonly requested events such as political events or concerts? The next two weeks our series is going to focus on more out of the box events. We will include the best tips & tricks for how to not only manage but be successful at whatever event you are asked to do. We will focus on the following topics: Five Amenities Every Concert Needs To Provide Everything You Need To Know About Hosting A Hybrid Event Five Important Tips for Planning an […]