Nth Degree Trade Show and Event Marketing Blog

In a matter of weeks, our society has had to pivot from physical to virtual; we’ve been unexpectedly thrust into a world of new technology.  Our meetings, classes, family dinners, concerts, and game nights with our friends are now all virtual. We are living our lives at home, in front of a webcam with our families and roommates in close proximity.

COVID-19 caught the world by surprise, forcing countries to close down industry, severely limit travel, and make a host of changes they never could have foreseen. These choices will be studied, second-guessed, and scrutinized for many years. We may never see a clear picture on which decisions were incontestably correct and which were undeniably wrong. But there is one reaction, specifically in the B2B events world, that I think needs to be reviewed now, before it is too late. 

Social media is the means to the end of broadcasting the most exclusive and exciting aspects of your life. Curating those highly-coveted and picture-perfect events are what we are in the business of doing. Social media can help you take your event to the next level – for your customers and attendees alike.

Social media is the newest way to see and be seen. If you’re at an exciting event, you want everyone to know you are. If you aren’t there, then you’re living vicariously through everyone who is.

So, how do you take your next event from amazing in real-time to equally as amazing online?

We all know how hard maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be (Hello, UberEats!). Throw long travel days and multiple days on the road into the mix, and any health routine goes out the window.

Full disclosure: I’m an eager (and slightly tense) bride-to-be, so this post is mildly self-serving and inspired by my personal life. My lunch hours are spent researching ideas that will help give our guests an #eventexperience worthy of their time and money to travel and celebrate with us. Through countless hours thinking about my guests and ways in which to make them feel welcome and show them an amazing time, I realized the same thought and detail can (and should) be applied to a B-to-B event. After all, we all want to have memorable and happy experiences whether it’s breaking it down on a wedding dance floor or socializing with like-minded #professionals.

After spending a few years curating content for your event, it has gained traction to the point where people are vying for a spot on the agenda. Does this sound familiar? Nice work! Now that you’ve reached this important milestone, what should you do? You launch a Call for Speakers, of course.

A Call for Speakers (CFS) is an open invitation to your community to submit a proposal to speak at your event. This process is critical to ensuring your content measures up to attendee expectations. Therefore, it needs to be carefully planned and executed—a strategy most event planners are familiar with. In the spirit of being prepared, here are 7 things to think about before launching a CFS. 

Between airports, convention centers and hotel restaurants, there isn’t much time for dealing with the home office when traveling for work.  

According to the study, "Traveler Friction: Insights from U.S. Road Warriors," conducted by MMGY Global, 42% of road warrior respondents said they "find it hard to keep up with my workload while traveling."

We surveyed some of our most consistent road warriors on our client services team and the sentiment was much the same, but they helped give us some tips for managing the ever-increasing workloads and the mountain of emails streaming in to their devices at all hours.

Summer is quickly coming to an end and with that, college graduates are starting to face reality and are polishing their resumes in anticipation of applying for their first “real” jobs. It’s likely this group of millennials is eager and full of expectations as to what this first job out of college will look like (and yes, images of ping pong tables and weekly happy hours are likely dancing in their heads).

Do you remember sitting in class as a student and fighting the urge to close your eyes as your teacher or professor droned on through his or her lecture for the day? A similar feeling may wash over your exhibit attendees if you’re not careful. Between countless one-sided product demonstrations and sales-tinged conversations with booth staff, attendees often leave the show floor without absorbing your key message or worse, they leave not wanting to engage further with your company. 

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As an Atlanta transplant, I can’t help but feel more and more excited as we inch closer to #SB51 to watch the Falcons bring home a win. Rather than spend these last few days of work analyzing my football square picks or planning my party menu (okay, I will share just one recipe I’m making – and yes, it has bacon), I am trying to channel my enthusiasm into something well, productive.  

Aside from football fans seeking good food and Texas-sized fun, many #eventprofs and #tradeshowprofs are in Houston to entertain the masses with events and experiences like the NFL Experience Driven by Genesis at the George R. Brown Convention Center. With this in mind, below are some practical tips and some decadent recommendations for filling your bellies and your time.