Events Management 9

Live vs Virtual event amongst coronavirus outbreak: how framing can help us with this dilemma

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve seen large events cancelled or postponed indefinitely during the coronavirus outbreak, and most likely we’re going to see more of such cases in the near term. I think no need to describe how challenging the times are for the events industry and  – given how huge its economic and social impact of just one event can be – basically, for everybody else. I find this tweet very telling.

sxsw

There are many things that we as industry are discussing now. I recently sat with Attendify team to discuss some actionable tips from event psychology perspective, and one of the things we talked about was transition from a live event to a virtual version and some obvious practical challenges for such rapid and imposed change. I’d like to elaborate more on one of the points I made during that discussion, namely – our perception of such change.  Although to a large extent it’s true virtual can not replace live, I believe we should really re-consider how we think about it – and here is where behavioral science can help us understand how.

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9 [More] Event Industry Blogs to Follow

Events industry is thriving because there are so many bright and smart professionals involved and contributing to its development every day. Check out my newest list of resources and event industry blogs to follow this season.event industry blogs (more…)

Doing Business in Russia

Many years ago I worked on a project called ‘Doing Business Safely in Russia’ together with some Nordic partners. Time passed, the headline is still vital. Just maybe it could be slightly re-worded to more general ‘Doing business in Russia’ – an issue that is kept being discussed, is kept being seen as attractive and at the same time risky thing – as is Russia itself. I was thinking about it when reading and writing my notes within the project we are now doing with the Meeting Design Institute on publishing the Meeting Architecture book in Russian. We are inviting companies interested in the Russian market, to join us, and therefore I reached out to those organisations that might have not heard yet about this exciting opportunity we offer. So, I have been reading a lot about doing business in Russia as you may imagine.

discoverrussia

Image source: investinregions.ru

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How to choose ‘your’ event? Participant’s check list, part 1.

We all know we live in the era of TMI (too much information) effect. We experience avalanches of useful (and not so much) information falling on us every minute, every single day. To escape being under such burden, we choose to go into twitter-mode: reading just headings, hundreds of N-symbol headings, and if they happen to catch our eyes – we go and like/RT, and then again and again. Found guilty on this? Yes we probably all are. It seems like we find 140 (upd: 280) symbols is quite enough information to not go further and read the whole thing.. Yet this is why finding the right information – just now and just for you – has become such a quest nowadays.

Thinking about it in the context of event planning, it came to my mind that being an event participant today might be quite complicated role. For instance, your boss told you to choose an event you think brings a lot of value. Or you are on holidays and plan to visit some festivals. Or take my own example: when studying at the University of Surrey, I was awarded with grant for participating in any interesting educational event in my field, and could choose it myself. I got delighted and thought it would be easy and fast. Well. First I had to filter through a massive number of events which seemed interesting just at first sight and did not have any value when studying it deeper. Then I had a long list of those events I selected. So to choose one was not an easy task at all – too much information plus budget and time  restrictions made this task quite hard.

So today our post is one of those I would like to devote to event participants. And the first question – and the first step – is: how to choose ‘your’ event? The one worth visiting? The one worth to you particularly?

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A post in Russian Salad style

The festive season is in full swing, the New Year eve is coming, and therefore our today’s post is somewhat a combination of various news and findings related to the current mood and season as well as to the events, of course. Such mix resembles the infamous Russian salad, or Olivier salad, which is a mix of quite a variety of ingredients together making up a tasty dish, and a traditional one to appear at every Russian family’s table for the New Year Eve.  Thus we decided it would make perfect sense we’ve got our very own Russian-salad styled post.

оливье

Image source: oede.by

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Why do events and startups need each other

Last time we congratulated SETsquared – the Partnership of five UK Univesities has been ranked Number One University business incubator in the world. Business incubators are not recent phenomenon, but it’s only few of them recognised as the best. It’s no surprise though: it is a combination of many factors that lead to such success. First of all, the right strategy, as well as a team of high qualified professionals who provide various support to startups and entrepreneurs. Events are one of the key tools in the business incubator work and thus are key to the startups’ development. However, it is not a one-way street. Read more and learn, why.
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What’s in your swag bag?

A swag bag is an essential element of any event; most often of business events, but also any other type like a birthday party or sports event. Today we are discussing why it is so important to think over what to put in a swag bag and what the trends for that are.

Image source: etsy.com

Image source: etsy.com

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Eight rules to keep the event circle going

I have already talked about the event circle and the summary of my MSc research findings (mentioned in that article) is available for you to read here. Today’s post is to reiterate I consider it very important to keep the event circle going round and round. For that I have combined a list of eight basic rules to follow.  (more…)