Can you feel it? Events are more appreciated than ever. The global pandemic is finally being beaten back in Canada. We are so ready to get to our better, bigger life. Thanks in large part to Canadians valuing health procedures and the vast majority getting vaccinated, most areas of our lives are going forward with a new normal. As lock-down restrictions open up, event planning is returning from virtual rectangles to live, in-person events and a mix of both. As…
The process of planning a small gathering or a large multi-day conference is the same but the volume of detail increases. Planning an event means strategically thinking about every little detail. Here are the top 5 steps to planning an event. Step 1: Determine with your client the expected results of the event. In this first step, you had the broad scope of the work conversation with your client. You’re probably researching to identify and bring ideas to the table,…
Recently, Black in Events Network hosted an online event with Kimberly Corbin, co-founder and managing partner for Meeting Shields, LLC, the largest 100 per cent woman and minority owned full-service protection and emergency management preparedness firm globally. Corbin also has 14 years of senior level experience in the hospitality and meetings industry. As we move into live, in-person events again, wherever you are in the world, what matters most is making sure you follow protocol and listen to whatever the…
As the events and meeting industry gradually moves back into in-person meetings (and the when really depends on the province and state and how fast people get vaccinated), event safety measures will become part of normal conversation and habit—as it should be. Even though vaccination rates are climbing, there are still variants to deal with, so event safety measures and protocols need to be kept in place and finessed as we move along into the new normal. Below are a…
Hand sanitizer, check! Wipes, check! Face masks, check! Seating arrangements according to provincial guidelines, check! Individual tracking data, check! Adhering to physical distancing guidelines may appear to be a bit overwhelming. When in-person meetings and events resume, the first events are likely to be quite small and will probably serve as a benchmark for larger gatherings. Lessons learned from each event will be crucial to event planners who want to be successful in the future and generate positive feedback on…
Hybrid events – where in-person audiences are mixed with audiences attending virtually – are the next step in the world getting back to business, including the events and meetings sector. Though, to be honest, that definition is a bit too simplistic perhaps. The Events Industry Council provides this definition: “A meeting that combines face-to-face and virtual aspects.” But what that combination means exactly is up to event planners, it seems. Many events will go this route to ease into getting back into…
Covid-19 vaccine rates globally hover at about five per cent and Canada is sitting at 4.8 per cent as of this writing, which means for the event and meeting planning industry virtual events are still very much a reality for the next while. Soon we can get back to in-person meetings and events, but for now we’re still Zoom-ing. So what points of etiquette should be noted? Well, a few things. Just as we would be considerate and watch our…
The production advantages to creating virtual events are clear. They’re much easier to execute and track for engagement and are far less expensive. There are a few other advantages that you may not have thought about though. Low costs can equal more exciting entertainment: Because of the lower operation costs involved in hosting virtual events, companies have significantly more wiggle room to splurge on more exciting event entertainment than what their budgets previously allowed. For example, a company who hosts…
There are ongoing debates around the efficiency of virtual events. However, a great number of event planners are reinventing themselves and suggesting that their clients convert their conferences to an online platform. It’s true that face to face (F2F) interactions and networking is different than a virtual experience. But many virtual events can be just as good, if not better, than being in person. Below are top seven reasons why virtual events can be better than F2F events: Cost efficiency:…
What if our keynote loses power? What if we have a system failure? What if there’s a network outage? The worry of potential tech challenges fuels the nightmares that keep event professionals up at night in the days leading up to a virtual event. The good news is pre-recorded content can solve a lot of these concerns. Finding the perfect balance of live and pre-recorded content will reduce your risk while still allowing your attendee to sense a shared experience…
