-- Attendee Networking Event Rewrites the Playbook, Fulfills Important Role in Building Attendance and Revenue -- [...]

Choosing the ideal location for your conference is key to a successful event and essential for attracting attendees.

[...]

If this economy has become your Kryptonite, Designing Events is here to help. No need to achieve your association goals alone.

Designing Events can help guide you to the top by advancing your membership, association and industry through your annual conference. Your annual conference should be a major contributor to your organization's success.

The Value Leader

Designing Events ensures the investment in your conference generates exceptional results. That's [...]

Life as an association executive director is anything but easy.

Delivering a successful annual conference just adds to the to-do list. Choose Designing Events as your trusty sidekick and let us help from start to finish. We'll create a custom-tailored strategy, target possible opportunities upfront, provide on-site support and help with post-event analysis. Designing Events has over 10 years of experience planning and executing successful conferences.

Maximizing [...]

Attendance at three recent conferences planned by Designing Events [...]

ASAE's Annual Meeting & Expo in Toronto may be over, but we have two valuable tools available for attendees. Take advantage of these opportunities to help your organization's annual conference over perform and be a major contributor to your overall success strategy.

New and Exclusive from Designing Events!
Online Conference Performance Analysis

Conference Performance Analyzer (CPA) is an online, interactive [...]

Advancing Your Membership, Association and Industry

New white paper reveals how an over-performing conference moves your organization forward without costing more.

As every organization works to maximize results from every effort, the accepted definition of a successful conference isn’t working anymore. Today, conferences must over perform in advancing the membership, the association and the industry.

An over-performing conference is carefully designed [...]

Discover conference strategies that create unique revenue opportunities -- before, during and after the actual event. While an annual conference may only have a few onsite days, our proven approach to conference planning delivers value and increased non-dues revenue year 'round.

Learn more now: Non-Dues Revenue [...]

Turn to Designing Events

Associations turn to Designing Events when they want more from their conferences.

-- More Results
-- More Value
-- More Sustainably

The Value Leader
Designing Events ensures the investment in your conference generates outstanding results. That's why associations around the world trust us to deliver conferences that are built on strong strategic foundations. We deliver!

-- Strategy-First [...]

Trust Designing Events

Executive directors around the world trust Designing Events to defy challenging conditions and deliver high performance conferences.

-- Maximum Attendees
-- Delighted Boards
-- Outstanding Value

Learn how we can help. Get a complimentary conference strategy evaluation. Learn more (and stop worrying.)

Visit Us At ASAE's Annual Meeting

Does your annual conference over perform? Join us this August in [...]

Tips for hosting an environmentally friendly conference

You may have noticed that green is the new black - more people are becoming environmentally conscience and as a result, many companies are making efforts to be more green. This new trend of corporate responsibility has made its way to the meeting planning industry. There are some very simple changes that you can make when planning your conference that can have a positive impact on the environment and [...]

When used correctly, e-mail can be one of the most effective marketing tools to take your event to the next level. Not only is it cost effective, but you have the ability through e-mail to send out timely information quickly and often.

Here are some tips to use e-mail marketing more effectively for your next association conference.

Plain Text vs. HTML – Today’s spam filters are increasingly filtering out non-spam e-mails. To get around this, send both html [...]

There are very simple changes you can make when planning your conference to make it more environmentally friendly. If everyone made just a few of the changes listed below, we could make a huge impact! Going green is not just a passing fad, we believe it will soon be a staple for all meeting planners, so start now!

Site Selection

• Inquire about existing green programs
• If a program does not exist, at the property you chose, create your [...]

In today’s age of e-mail, instant messaging and the internet, it is possible for a person to go an entire work day without speaking to a single person. In this type of environment, where face-to-face communication is becoming less common, it is more important than ever to help foster communication skills. To do this, many associations are incorporating teambuilding activities into their conferences.

The term teambuilding doesn’t mean the same thing as it did 30 years ago, in fact it [...]

Over the past few years cruise lines have been building and releasing ships that are more geared toward conferences - making conferences on cruise ships more attractive to planners. These new ships are equipped with more meeting space, a greater variety of services, and in some cases onboard conference services managers. In addition to meeting space being a consideration on new ships, older ships are also being renovated to accommodate larger conferences.

Cruise ships bring other [...]

Function room set-up is an important consideration when planning an association conference. Ensuring that the function rooms are properly set-up, can be changed easily if needed and are comfortable for attendees and planning for any "what ifs" can be a daunting task - especially for a large conference.

Below is a checklist to help make planning function room set-up at your conference more manageable.

Study the Physical Aspects, [...]

No matter how big or small, a conference will not be successful without proper planning. One of the key components of planning is a conference timeline. Much more than a to do list, your conference timeline creates a roadmap for what needs to be accomplished, assigns tasks and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Below are some tips to help you create an effective timeline for your next conference.

1. Starting On the Right Foot – Your timeline will [...]

One of the largest costs in hosting an association conference is the food and beverage. Food and beverage can also play a huge factor in an attendees experience and the overall success of your conference. Below is a checklist to assist you with planning the food and beverage for your next conference.

Records of Previous Functions

• Projected Versus Actual Attendance
• Number, Type of Functions
• Menus, Including Special Dietary or Religious [...]

Finding your way around a large resort, hotel or conference center can be hard enough – now throw in hundreds of conference attendees going to multiple workshops, keynote presentations and events all while other conferences are going on in the same location! An attendee that can’t find their way can quickly become frustrated – resulting in an unpleasant conference experience.

Here are 4 ways that you can help your association conference attendees find their way. The result will be [...]

One of the first impressions that a potential attendee will have of your association's conference is the website. Whether it is gathering information, registering to attend or an exhibitor signing up for a booth, your website needs to make a good impression on all who visit.

Association Conference Website Goals and Objectives

Before creating your association's conference website, be sure to have clearly defined goals and objectives that you want [...]