Tina Behl’s Post

Events are in full swing now, and the entire event community can definitely feel it. While you’re still holding up, let me remind you about the main business seasons that require advance preparation: September-December; February-June. These are the periods when companies focus on conferences, product launches, and major internal events. The fall is packed with conferences like Web Summit, where brands showcase their innovations, while winter is the time for corporate events that motivate teams and wrap up the year on a high note. The key tool for a successful event is time. Early planning is your best tool for saving budget and nerves. By starting early, you not only allow your team to work calmly but also secure the best contractors, book the perfect venue, and stay within budget. The dream of every event organizer is for clients to approach them three months before the event – this timeframe is enough to develop a concept, compare contractors, and optimize costs for any format. Here’s hoping these dreams come true more often.

Maximize Your Web3 Conference Experience! 💡 EthCC in Brussels just wrapped up, and more conferences are on the horizon. After three years of attending countless web3 events, I've noticed many people approach these conferences inefficiently. Here are my top hacks for making the most out of web3 conferences: 1. Skip the Main Conference: Contrary to popular belief, attending the main conference isn’t always essential. Most high-profile attendees don’t show up, and the main venue often feels empty. Focus on the side events instead. If you have a booth, avoid placing senior managers there unless it’s a prime location. 2. Embrace Side Events: Side events are where the real action happens. Sometimes there are over 300 side events in a week, and you may need to register weeks or months in advance. Here’s how to manage this: ✅ Step 1: Bookmark events based on your interests and potential partners. ✅Step 2: Hire a personal assistant to handle registrations. This costs $30-50 but saves hours. ✅Step 3: Prioritize events and list the people you want to meet. ✅Step 4: Add target companies to an automated LinkedIn drip campaign and schedule meetups. ✅Step 5: Attend the events but be ready to leave if they aren’t valuable. 3. Schedule Strategically: To avoid social exhaustion and wasted time, schedule meetings with partners and clients at least 2-3 weeks in advance. Choose locations near the main venue for convenience. 4. Use Telegram and Take Notes: Telegram is the preferred communication tool in the web3 space. Make it easy to connect by using your Telegram QR code as your wallpaper. After connecting, take notes on your conversations to ensure effective follow-up. 5. Follow Up Thoughtfully: The best time to follow up is a few days after the conference when people have settled back into their routines. Use your notes to personalize your follow-up messages. Mention details from your conversations to show genuine interest. These tips have significantly enhanced my conference experiences. How do you maximize your time at web3 conferences? Share your tips in the comments!

Spot on Julius Solaris - Event participants are more discerning than ever before, as they should be. Time is too valuable, funds too sparse, and attention spans too short. Events are now measured on experience more than anything else, and cream rises to the top! The great thing about this shift is that when you plan incredible events with positive feedback, you know the feedback is genuine praise from a discerning audience. It makes the process much more challenging and rewarding! 🙋🏻♀️🙋🏾🙋♂️Poll: What do YOU need from in-person events to make them worth your time, investment and attention?

If you're wondering, it's not just me saying event teams are OVERWHELMED and are reacting. Too many events, too little value... I've had MULTIPLE clients approach me as we are their last attempt at value from events, seeing week after week of fluffy talk and no real substance to the interest. The world is too busy now to waste half of your weeks out of office waiting for someone who might be lost on the way to the coffee stand so you might strike up a conversation. People are now refining their event schedules, picking the few that provide true value and going all in. It's better to own one room of powerful people than to stand in the shadows at 10. #events #marketing #trends

Our team attended 100 events last year. We’ll attend over 200 in 2024. Here’s how to combine quantity with quality when you’re attending so many conferences: 📓 Issue field reports for every event 📓 A field report is a simple documentation of every event. When someone on our team wraps a conference, they fill out a short survey about their experience. This helps us remember the most important takeaways from this event. And perhaps most importantly, it serves as a reminder of which events were successes and which ones were duds. 🤝 Right people, right place 🤝 When you’re dealing with high volume, it’s easy to lose sight of the details. At Vendelux, we use our own product. That means we determine in advance (based on data) which team members should attend which event. We look for overlaps between attendees and our current customers & prospects. We plan serendipity instead of waiting for it. 💥 Leverage high-impact activities 💥 There are two ways to attend events: You can show up and hope for the best or do your homework to maximize impact. Of course, we prefer that second option. One of our favorite high-impact activities is hosting satellite events. This means creating an adjacent conference to the main event.  This can be as easy as inviting existing customers or leads to a happy hour. Sure, it takes a little more effort. But in our experience, it tends to deliver an outsized impact. Think outside the box.

💡If you’re looking for a budget-friendly way to reach international audiences, this type of event should be part of your strategy... While in-person events have their magic, online events continue to be valuable, especially for organisations with an international audience. Supporting several of our clients to bridge continents, I’ve seen firsthand how online events bring people together in ways that transcend borders. If you’re no longer convinced about the role of online events, here’s why they’re still worth considering: 👉 Access for All: No travel barriers – whether you’re connecting with teams across time zones or bringing in speakers from around the globe, online events remove logistical limits. 👉 Scalability: With the right platform, there’s no venue cap. Your event grows as your goals do. 👉 Cost-Effective Impact: Online events deliver high value without the hefty price tag. The hype may have slowed in recent years, but online events remain a powerful tool for reaching global audiences without the high costs. Are online events still a key part of your event strategy? Share your thoughts below! 👇

We do 5-6 events a year, and just wrapped up our largest event, the Mind Your Own Business conference held in an Atlanta brewery. There were 130 people there, and both Jonathan and I consider it a great success. I thought I'd make a few comments on the role speakers play, too, for any of you who do events regularly. This isn't the only way to do events, but it's our way. /We focus on professionals who also speak, and not professional speakers. The difference is that the latter will tailor the presentation, but it's largely a well-worn theme based on a book or whatever. A speaker's skill at speaking needs to be sufficient that they aren't a distraction to the audience, but I'm fine with actual humans who talk in front of others, and some rough edges are okay. /One thing we like to do is to help launch speaking careers of people with a lot of meat to offer, but who haven't yet had a chance to do that. We had two speakers in that category this year, and they were both excellent. /Trust your speakers or don't invite them. Don't try to "approve" their decks. Yeah, agree on a subject, but otherwise turn them loose. Some people like to prepare weeks in advance, and some like to be inspired in the moment. I had no input in what they said. /Speaking of which, expose people to different perspectives. They are adults and the best gatherings give attendees something that helps them see things differently. /Create an event where speakers LOVE to participate. Every speaker who comes (except the occasional @sshole) has a lifetime invitation to return. We had seven, I think, who paid their own way and gave the attendees all kinds of opportunities to interact with them. /Pay your speakers a flat fee and let them make their own travel/lodging and pay for it out of that. Every speaker has their own set preferences, and there's no need to complicate things. /Support your competitors by giving them a platform. It's the right thing to do FOR THE AUDIENCE, and your control freak tendencies need to be stomped on when you do something like this. /Make it an event where the speakers WANT to share their participation with their own audience. Don't require it, and don't invite people to speak because you expect them to sell tickets for you. /Run things tightly, and treat time as a precious commodity. It's a respectful way to honor speakers and attendees. If someone goes long, as in more than a few mins long, pull them off the stage. Start on time. End on time. /Set expectations about not selling from the front. If someone wants to hire a speaker, they'll figure it out. Instead, the entire vibe is what can we do to inform and inspire attendees rather than what can we sell to them. We don't accept sponsors for this same reason. /Don't talk about DEI. Just do it and let that show up in your choices. We don't need any performative declarations--we should just quietly let our choices influence the outcome.

Great post Julius Solaris. Creating meaningful experiences and cater for interest in the untraditional are "must dos" for event organisers. I was curious about your image and asked ChatGPT about it. The lanyards and badges made ChatGPT conclude it it is an organised event or conference :). ChatGPT 4o: "In this picture, four individuals are standing behind red podiums on a stage, indicating they are participating in a quiz or game show event. They each have a button on their podiums, suggesting they need to press it to answer questions. The background features a golden curtain with some decorative elements, and a scoreboard is visible on the left side. All participants are wearing badges or lanyards, which is typical for organized events or conferences. The atmosphere seems formal yet competitive."

2023: We attend as many events as possible. 2024: We attend events that matter. The change is evident. 2023 benefitted from: The pendulum still swinging to in-person. The need for experiences. The travel boom. We attended as many events as possible. 2024 is a different story. Events are still growing and are projected to keep growing into 2025. But things are changing. ———————————————————————————— / We look for meaningful experiences that have an impact. This may sound fluffy, but it means that events that don’t deliver are passed on. / We look for belonging. Large events offer serendipity, and that’s great, but we also want to keep our identity. Smaller gatherings around larger events are in. We call them microevents. / We look for the untraditional. The past three years have raised the bar immensely. Expectations are at an all-time high. Only true creative juice and business acumen can make your event thrive. What differences are you seeing in events compared to last year? ———————————————————————————— P.S. Help me fight the evil algorithm. Repost this to make sure I will pop up on your feed with more free advice.

We had an incredible time attending the NZ Events Association Conference and Awards last week! Here are some key takeaways that left us inspired and excited for the future of events in New Zealand: 🔑 Community & Partnerships: It’s clear that successful events hinge on strong relationships. Building a sense of community and fostering partnerships are essential for creating memorable and impactful experiences. 💻 Tech for the Win: Leveraging technology isn’t just about keeping up with the times—it’s about scaling efficiently and driving profitability. The tools we have at our disposal can truly revolutionise how events are executed. 🏗️ NZICC Update: The New Zealand International Convention Centre is looking phenomenal! We’re thrilled about the opportunities it will bring for hosting larger-scale events in Auckland. The future is bright! 🌟 Kevin Biggar's Insights: Kevin delivered a highly inspirational session focusing on: 1️⃣ Dealing with doubts 2️⃣ Framing challenges 3️⃣ Teamwork 4️⃣ Handling setbacks His insights were a perfect reminder of the resilience and mindset needed to thrive in our industry. 🎤 Panel Sessions: The panels provided deep dives into risk management and event tourism, emphasising the benefits and challenges while encouraging collaboration for the best outcomes. 🎸 Industry Updates: A big thanks to Live Nation for their update on the international acts’ schedules—great to hear how these major tours are planned and executed. 📊 Funding Insights: Minister Lee’s update on event funding, followed by Kylie Hawker-Green’s deep dive into The Major Events Fund, was invaluable for anyone looking to bring large-scale events to life. 👏 Closing Remarks: Elaine Linnell from the NZEA wrapped up the 2024 Conference beautifully, leaving us all motivated and ready to take on the next big challenge. We’re so excited to be a part of the vibrant and dynamic events industry! With everything we’ve learned, we’re eager to continue driving positive change and making every event unforgettable.