Event Operations

  • Unconventional: The Metro Toronto Convention Centre does local, and they do it big

    2018/09/25

    Last year, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre saw 1.5 million conference goers, event planners, salespeople, presenters, exhibitors, speakers, tech workers and myriad other people and professions stroll through its massive atrium in downtown Toronto. Week to week the MTCC shifts from the centre of one professional universe to another, enabling thousands of people at a time to gather, network and transact. It amounts to a lot of commerce for the out-of-towners and Toronto both. Last year, the MTCC reported that…

  • Inspiring Food: A recipe for success

    2018/09/19

    By Leanne Andrecyk and Remi Lefebvre For generations, people have been gathering in groups to confer for myriad reasons — to share knowledge, exchange views, strategize, review practices and develop new solutions. Regardless of the conference or event goal, bringing a group of people together successfully requires more than just satisfying the hunger for knowledge. You don’t have to be a foodie to realize food is an automatic connector between people and can be the conversation starter in any group…

  • Non-Profit, Pro-Revenue: Making money in the not-for-profit sector

    2018/09/10

    It’s that time of year again: More financial considerations for not-for-profit meeting planners. I’m not sure what it is about this time of year, but at the end of the summer season my financial concerns are always top of mind. It might be due to the timing of client budget planning for 2019, or that I’ve overextended my own budget from summer weekends trying to make the most of this nice weather (as I tell myself), but in past years…

  • Mindful Planning: Minimizing cognitive fatigue in event design

    2018/09/05

    By Ben Moorsom Sleeplessness. Overeating. The pace of change. The stress of everyday life. Information overload. It all contributes to fatigue. Fatigue is the collateral damage of our time. Whether chronic or non-chronic, most of us have experienced it. So how do we design events that optimize energy and minimize physical and cognitive fatigue? The Cognitive Quotient First you need to understand what it is. When we say fatigue, we really mean brain-tired cognitive fatigue. Imagine your brain is a glass…

  • Alcohol-focused team-building events: Is it time to rethink them?

    2018/08/18

    When planning meetings and events, it is our job to step out of our own preferences and think about the perspectives of all attendees. This can be challenging as the majority of event planners fall into the same demographic and it can make seeing different perspectives even more difficult when most of your peers see the world through a similar lens. Meeting professionals have a real opportunity to bring diversity and inclusion to life, which is a strategic priority for…

  • Bringing it Together: How Business Process Management can help hotel operators

    2018/08/15

    By Mark McGregor More than ever before, hoteliers need ways to increase their productivity and leverage technology for staff, customer and client communications. Events are getting more complicated, hotel guests more demanding and everything is getting faster. Business Process Management (BPM) can help hotels and airlines sustain innovation and optimize their operations to ensure the consistent delivery of better  customer experiences, ensuring ease of use for everyone involved. Business Process Management brings hotel operations together, simplifying things for staff, stakeholders and customers while also offering actionable insights into the…

  • Speak Easy: How presentation management sets your conference up for success

    2018/08/15

    By Andrew Tyne Your presentation starts in 10 minutes, while frantically trying to find the room where you’ll be presenting you look down at your hand and see the USB key that contains your talk. You whisper a quiet prayer to the conference gods that whatever laptop is waiting for you in the room has the correct version of QuickTime installed and that you’ve embedded those videos properly. When we design an event experience, we very often think of ways…

  • Skip the Plan, Embrace the Pop-Up

    2018/07/25

    Spontaneity is anathema to a well-planned event. Spontaneity isn’t planned, which means it’s probably getting in the way of something that is, which means attendees’ sacrosanct schedules are being upended and taking the planner’s reputation with it. Planners might be forgiven, then, for wanting to smother the impromptu — something they’d plan for, surely — under the weight of timetables, clear instruction to staff and precise allocation of resources. Trade show attendees are counting on them. Right? Turns out, they might…

  • The Hospitality Connection: The dish on industry F&B best practices

    2018/07/20

    By Michael O’Doherty While technological advancements have reduced the amount of face-to-face time we spend with each other, there truly is no substitute for being together at a live event in person — among your peers, your colleagues and your friends. And yes, I am biased, but let’s talk today about one of the most important yet overlooked parts of a successful meeting or trade show. I’m talking, of course, about the food. The food and beverage offerings are a…

  • You Still Need Facebook: The best practices of marketing on the largest social network

    2018/07/18

    By Dan McCarthy Despite the rise of Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, even in 2018, Facebook remains king when it comes to event marketing. In EventMB’s State of the Events Industry Survey 2018, nearly three-quarters — 73.3 per cent — of planners said social media is their most important tool for marketing their events, while 88.1 per cent said they’re active on Facebook, as they should be. Facebook is by far the largest social network, with 2.20 billion active users as of…

Venue & Supplier Profiles