Sched.org Blog

Google's Data Highlighter Now Supports Movies, TV, Articles, Products, Local Biz & Apps

mmctaw — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:26 -0400

Google's Data Highlighter Now Supports Movies, TV, Articles, Products, Local Biz & Apps:

I am ecstatic about new Gmail actions. Its going to be awesome!

Map Mashup

mmctaw — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:37:56 -0400

Check out this mashup using the from Benevolent Media Festival. The mashup allows attendees to see events happening during the festival on a map. It’s complete with search, filters and is powered by the Sched.org API. The mashup of Google Maps and festival data will make it easier for attendees to navigate activities happening in and around Washington, D.C.

To learn more about Benevolent Media Festival go here.

Registrations: Selling Out Early Is Easy

mmctaw — Thu, 31 May 2012 09:53:51 -0400

by Marvin McTaw

I recently came across a pretty common event marketing question: how do you get attendees to register early?

If You’re Thinking About It Now…

Its probably too late. Selling out your event early should probably be the last thing on your mind, regardless of your role within the event. You see, selling out your event begins with one simple thing that’s hard to do…

Create An Excellent Experience

This might sound a little weird but the best way to get people to buy your tickets early, is focus on executing an excellent event. There are tons of studies and evidence which show attendees don’t pay attention to events until they need to. Simply put, your audience of potential attendees are busy and at this moment in time, your event isn’t important enough to them.

Focus On Quality

Make your event a can’t miss gathering and you will have no problem selling out your event early. For example, C3 Presents which puts on Lollapalooza and ACL, routinely sells out their ticket inventory…before even announcing the lineup for their music festivals! Attendees have come to know and respect the quality of their festival experience which means they don’t need to know all the details in order for them to take early action.

Discounts = Destruction

If you focus on the quality of the event you are putting on now it will become easier every year to sell your tickets/registrations earlier. This means you won’t have to rely on discounting which rarely works and adversely impacts the events financial situation.

Tell Us On Facebook, Twitter and in the comments below…

What is your experience with discounting registrations? Do they help you sell out your tickets early?

Etix Partners with Sched.org

mmctaw — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:56:00 -0400

Etix Partners with Sched.org

Six tips for moderating a panel without boring your audience to death.

stomptokyo — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:50:42 -0400

The panels hosted by conferences and festivals are, by and large, pretty boring. The intentions are always good but the execution is so often terrible – and so the level of boredom during your average panel ranges from mildly yawn-inducing to excruciatingly dull. You can gauge the level of boredom by watching for the percentage of heads in the audience that are bowed down towards cell phones instead of looking up at the speakers. Granted there are always Twitter & text addicts in any crowd, but if a panel is doing its job then most of the audience should direct its attention to the front of the room, not towards the tiny screen hovering over its collective crotch.

The problem isn’t that panelists have nothing interesting to say, it’s that they are simply bad at saying it – and much of the blame should fall on the moderator. In the same way that a great film director can coax amazing performances from mediocre actors, a good moderator can shape a panel conversation into something both informative and entertaining. As with film, the bad moderators outnumber the good.

Personally I’ve only moderated a handful of panels, and I don’t claim to be great at it. But having participated in (and watched) dozens of panels over the years, I have been able to identify what good moderators do – and the things I strive to do when I’m entrusted with the success of a panel. There are plenty of other articles about “how to be a great moderator,” but they mostly boil down to “be prepared” and “don’t let the panelists introduce themselves.” Here instead are my favorite rules for making your panel experience memorable and fun.

1. Not everyone can be a great moderator.

Like any performance skill, moderation requires finesse and experience. Good moderators read the audience and the panelists and identify those opportunities where a quick word or a well-placed question can keep a panel on track or steer it in an exciting new direction. What you’re aiming for is conversational judo – redirecting the energy of the panelists and audience into something delightful for everyone, with a minimum of apparent effort on your part. If it’s your first time moderating, just concentrate on not embarrassing yourself by talking too much, and try to ask questions that will give all of the panelists an opportunity to speak.

2. A great moderator is (almost) invisible.

The worst moderator I ever saw began his panel by reading a post from his blog. A post that he’d printed out. On paper. And it was three pages long. His reasoning was that his blog post on the state of the industry would make a great springboard for comment by the esteemed panelists. The message? “I’m important. Talk about me.”

The audience left the room in droves.

As a moderator, you should be an authority on the subject of the panel, but the audience should only be able to tell that by your occasional comments and questions. Your role is to guide the panelists into an illuminating discussion of the topic at hand, not to display how smart you are. This isn’t to say that you can’t answer the occasional question, but you should only do so after you’ve given your panelists the opportunity to express that information or opinion themselves.

3. It’s a conversation, not a presentation.

Ideally your panel is a conversation between everyone in the room with a few noisy participants- the panelists. If you can’t manage that, try to encourage conversation between the panelists themselves. The dullest talks are those in which the moderator asks a question and the panelists go down the line, answering the question in turn. (Warning signs are phrases like “I agree with Jim, but I’d like to add… .”) Get the conversation going between the panelists by asking little “mini-questions” in between answers.

Expanding the conversation to include as many people as possible into the conversation is one of the best ways to convert a disaster into a triumph. When your panel has only a few attendees (as occasionally happens when you’re scheduled against a keynote speech or a celebrity appearance), turn off the microphones and invite the audience into the front row. A run-of-the-mill panel can become an intimate workshop that the audience will never forget – all because you had the presence of mind to adjust to the reality of the situation.

4. Whenever possible, start a fight.

This is my favorite piece of panel advice, and something I strive to do every time I’m participating on a panel. As humans we’re geared to tune into conflict. The audience loves it when sparks fly. Take advantage of that by finding ways to turn your panelists against one another. Not in a mean way, of course, but in a way that illustrates the honest differences of opinion between industry professionals. So long as those opinions are genuine and you stick to challenging ideas (rather than just making ad hominem arguments), encouraging panelists to butt heads is one of the best ways to turn ennui into excitement.

5. Pretend you’ve never met.

Having a meeting before a panel is standard operating procedure, but make sure it doesn’t alienate the audience. There’s nearly always a moment during a panel when a panelist will say: “Like Courtney said, before the panel… .” This makes the audience feel like they were excluded from the real conversation, which took place backstage. It’s one thing to be prepared, it’s quite another to make the audience feel excluded from the “real” conversation. Do your best to make sure the panelists never refer to a prior conversation, or the audience will feel like they’re missing out.

6. Be funny - or at least have fun.

Humor is key to a memorable conversation, but if you’re not a stand-up comic, don’t try to be one. Instead, listen to your inner voice of subversiveness and let it out where appropriate. If you’re having fun without being mean, the chances are that your panelists and audience will have fun too. If you’re not having fun, what’s the point?

Extra credit reading: 10 Tips for Moderating a Panel by Jared at PornoKitsch.

Pay attention to tips 4, 5, and 10.

Searching For A Venue? Here's MeetingsBooker.com

mmctaw — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:00:00 -0400

Finding the right venue, at the right price at the right time can be tough. MeetingsBooker.com makes it easy. I recently came across the site and was impressed by its ability to make the sometimes complex venue selection and booking process incredibly simple.

60,000 Venues, Worldwide

The site boasts almost 60,000 locations around the world and has particular strength in Europe. I loved the fact that while searching for venues I could find out exactly what they had available and explore alternatives I might not have considered.

No Booking Fees

MeetingsBooker.com is also free to search and has no booking fees. This means more money can go towards your event and it’s budget.

Easy RFP’s

One of the other things MeetingsBooker has nailed it on is its simplified RFP process. You simply add your requirements and available venues get back to you by your deadline. It’s a pretty simple process and one most events would highly benefit from.

Check It Out

If you’re looking for a location for your next meeting, be sure to check out MeetingsBooker.com

XOXO: The Alternative To SXSW

mmctaw — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:57:12 -0400

XOXO: The Alternative To SXSW:

…Kickstarter doubles as the ticketing, registration and payment system for the festival. “We can even use it to collect T-shirt sizes,” he said.

Read more about XOXO festival here

Track That! [Google Analytics]

mmctaw — Mon, 28 May 2012 09:59:56 -0400

Now you can directly add your Google Analytics tracking code to your Sched.org tools! Google Analytics is the premier website analytics tool used to track your website visitor’s behaviors. It’s an easy to use tool designed to provide you with objective measurement of attendee engagement with your event.

Objective Measures of Engagement

Our goal is to eliminate your event management headaches. One headache is not having objective measures of attendee engagement and interest in your event. If you don’t know what people are really interested in, then any action you take will be flawed. Google Analytics tracking coupled with the other Sched.org reporting capabilities helps to slay this particular problem.

To add your Google Analytics tracking code

Go to Settings » Google Analytics
Input your Google Analytics Account Code e.g. UA-XXXXXX-XX
Click the blue “Save” button

Image: Add your Google Analytics Account code to your Sched.org tools to measure attendee activity and engagement with your event

Sched.org Simplifies Your Conference Management Experience

mmctaw — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:38:00 -0400

All our product updates and partnerships are designed to eliminate your event management headaches and impress your attendees. We’ve now simplified the event management experience even further with our Admin Console re-design.

The specific goals of this re-design are to help you:

Save time by providing direct access to the most common tasks: managing participants and sessions
Better understand your event with objective, high-value reports
Engage your active and important attendees

If you’d like to learn more or see the re-designed Admin Console in action, sign up free here.

Facebook Ads? No. Fan Page? Yes!

mmctaw — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:23:26 -0400

by Marvin McTaw

Last week was huge for the business of social media with Facebook’s $100 billion IPO. The general excitement about the IPO was thrown a curveball when GM, the huge auto manufacturer, announced its decision to pull its entire $10 million Facebook Ads budget. GM’s decision was a result of what they deemed to be the low effectiveness of Facebook Ads for their business.

Facebok Ads vs Fan Pages

Many conferences and festivals feel they must be active on Facebook. They typically promote themselves in much the same way as GM: creating content and engaging Fans. The good part about a Facebook Fan page is that there is no upfront cost…but that doesn’t mean it is free. Although GM is pulling it’s $10 million advertising budget, they still spend $30 million a year generating content and maintaining their accounts. I imagine with most organizations it is the same.

Goal: Engaging Attendees

Facebook Fan pages are by far and away the better choice if you’re looking to engage with attendees. Fan pages allow you to connect directly with your community and engage in conversations with them. You can also install Facebook Apps to your Fan page to engage your attendees even more.

Goal: Finding Registrants

I’ve increasingly seen conferences and festivals advertising on Facebook. While these ads may help in building awareness for events, GM’s decision throws into question the effectiveness of Facebook Ads.

Can Facebook Ads Work?

While Facebook Ads can work, whether it is the best use of your limited marketing budget is an entirely different question. Ben Kunz of Businessweek Magazine summarizes it best:

Facebook can be a wonderful platform for both paid advertising and social communication. It is also extraordinarily difficult to fulfill its promise.

Tell us on Facebook, Twitter or in the comments below…

Does your event use Facebook Ads & have they been successful for you?

Forget Sponsors, Use Kickstarter!

mmctaw — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:52:00 -0400

by Marvin McTaw

Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. It is being used in new and exciting ways every day. One of the more interesting ways I’ve seen it being used in the event space is to fund entire conferences!

Reduce Risks

Andy Baio and Andy McMillan’s are using Kickstarter to fund the XOXO festival in Portland, Oregon. One of the big benefits of using this funding platform is that it allows them to leverage the Kickstarter community to raise funds. The platform also helps to reduce their event management risks by providing a gauge for attendee demand.

The Drawbacks

Kickstarter could very well be the next big thing in finding resources to help put on your conference. It helps centralize funding and determine demand for your event. The one drawback: if you don’t meet your funding goal, you get nothing. This might cause some organizers to lose large deposits for venues and payments to speakers.

UPDATE: from Andy Baio, the festival founder

50 hours after launching, we’re sold out of conference tickets! Thank you! If you missed it, you can still grab the DIY Kit to experience some of XOXO at home. Or come out to the market, which will be open to the public on September 15-16.

Tell us on Facebook, Twitter or in the comments below…

Would you use Kickstarter to fund your event?

Getting the Best Video Straight from Your Event

bwc — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:58:29 -0400

I’ve talked a lot before about why Twitter chats are awesome, and how to get involved. Yesterday’s #Expochat is a great example of how you can both share great ideas as well as learn from awesome experts at the same time.

Yesterday’s topic was video marketing at and around events. There was a lot of knowledge shared that I highly recommend you go through and read, including promoting your event with video, what your attendees want to see (and more), but one link in particular stood out: once you’ve decided to do video at your event, how do you actually do it well? Watch this clip for great tips on making the best mobile video setup possible:

When it comes to having video at your event, what is more important to you: portability or professionalism? And do you have any homebrew tips on getting the most out of your event’s video?

Special thanks to Scott Lum for originally sharing this with the group.

Constant Contact Registration Integration

bwc — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:30:00 -0400

Our primary goal is to eliminate your event planning headaches by making easy tools for you to use and providing great services to enhance your attendees’ experience.

Today we’re thrilled to announce a brand new partnership to help even more. Contstant Contact is a leader in helping organizers make their events less stressful and more affordable.

Why is this important?

Now you can directly import attendees from your Constant Contact account into your Sched attendee directory and schedule. Connecting your Constant Contact account helps by:

Continuously synchronize newly-registered attendees. Whenever attendees register on Constant Contact, they’ll automatically gain access to your Sched.org tools
Take care of letting your attendees know for you. Once someone registers, they’ll receive an invitation email letting them know all the cool new tools they have access to, and we do all the work.

If you haven’t already signed up for a Constant Contact account, go ahead and get started. For those of you who have, login to your event on Sched and import everything in just a few clicks:

Have you used Constant Contact for your event? Tell us on Facebook and Twitter

Must-Attend Twitter Chats

bwc — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:29:29 -0400

We’ve talked about the importance of Twitter chats before—specifically what they are, and how to join them. In short, they’re a great way to stay connected to people in any industry, engage in great discussions on an array of topics, and hear what the smartest and most respected folks in a community have to say.

Here are just a few of our favorite weekly Twitter chats:

#EventProfs: The gold standard of event professional Twitter chats. With an awesome, large community of participants and moderators who come up with diverse interesting topics, it’s a must-attend for anyone in the professional (or amateur!) event community. Hosted by Adrian Segar and Lara McCulloch (founder). Tuesdays, 9 - 10 PM and Thursdays 12 - 1 PM (EST).
#AssnChat: For all members of the Association community, from members to organizers. Hosted by Kiki L’Italien. Tuesdays, 2 -3 PM (EST).
#EventTable: Another great event industry chat hosted by Iani Ciatti. Mondays, 3 - 4 PM.
#ExpoChat: One of my personal favorite Twitter chats, hosted by Traci Browne and Stephanie Selesnick. While focused more toward folks in the trade show community, I find the topics chosen and the discussion that ensues to be some of the most insightful. Wednesdays, 3 - 4 PM (EST).

Do you join in any of the chats we mentioned? If not, what are some of your favorite Twitter chats? I’d love to join!

Music Festival Technology: Then & Now

mmctaw — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:33:36 -0400

Check out this incredible infographic on music festival technology since Woodstock

Photo

mmctaw — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:05:12 -0400

Privacy & Customization

bwc — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:19:05 -0400

We constantly hear that one of the main reasons conference and meeting planners like Sched.org is the direct control over something that, in the past, they were only able to indirectly influence: their website’s content. One element that we’ve worked to provide even more control around is privacy, and we’re proud to announce the launch of even more granular privacy settings for events. Attendees can already make their personal accounts private and organizers have the ability to make all their Sched.org tools private. For those organizers that choose to keep their Sched.org tools public, however, we’ve released a bevy of new privacy and customization options including the ability to hide:

The Attendee Directory: while your event stays public, a public list of who all the attendees are can now be made private.
Interested attendees per session: while knowing how many attendees are interested in a particular keynote, panel, or session, sometimes you don’t want attendees to see how many others are interested in going. Now you can.
The Most Popular Sessions: if you feel like showing attendees what the most popular session among all attendees is playing favorites, you can now hide the list of most popular sessions. The sessions themselves will still appear in the overall calendar with all the others.
Social sign in capabilities: Don’t want attendees to login via Facebook? Don’t let ‘em.
Social Connect Features: Clicking this will disable all social features of your event, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and LinkedIn.
Personal schedule creation: Want to use your own login page, or limit access before your event.
Comments: You can now disable comments on sessions.

To learn more about customization options go to Settings » Privacy in the administrative portion of your Sched.org site. And let us know in the comments, or on Facebook & Twitter: what reasons have you had in the past to keep an event private?

On Event Sustainability & Savings

bwc — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:34:39 -0400

by Mariela McIlwraith

What’s In This Article?

A Reponse to our ongoing discussion about the viability of green meetings
Detailed tips on how to save money and go green at the same time
Takeaway thoughts on how to target your attendees where it counts

Background: Mariella McIlwraith, CMP, CMM, MBA, is the President of Meeting Change. She specializes in sustainability, pricing, and membership engagement for associations and events.

In the past couple of weeks, Marvin has written two great posts on my favourite topics: sustainability and budgets. The first was on the exuberance over green meetings, and, as one of the people working in the sustainable event space, it was refreshing to see someone voice an opposing view to the topic (more on this at the end of this post). The second was on 125 ways to save on meetings. I see a chance to link these two topics by showing how sustainability can save time and money for events.

To get things started, consider these easy, cost-saving tips that won’t add any more work to your event planning:

Use less, plan less and waste less

At its heart, sustainability is about being more efficient. My business partner, Elizabeth Henderson, likens it to a good operating system for a computer – it makes things run better and faster. A few ways to use, plan and waste less:

Stop buying stuff that people don’t really care about for your meeting. Switching from bottled water to tap (where there is good water) is the one that is always touted as the example for this. Other examples: eliminate totes or lanyards, and encourage people to use their own. Fairware even has a lanyard library if you need to borrow some.

Make it easier to reuse your stuff: Keeping a consistent logo and not including dates and locations on things like signs makes it easier to reuse them by adding replaceable printed material. Secondary benefits: it’s much easier to make changes onsite when you inevitably need to. Also, consistent branding means not spending time and money redesigning event logos and materials every year and strengthens brand recognition.

Cut back on the quantity of food served. Events throw away a ridiculous amount of food. Start by cutting back on quantity and frequency of food service, especially the high sugar stuff that makes you fall asleep. Andrea Sullivan’s work on brain food proves the point.

Use existing infrastructure rather than building your own

No need to reinvent everything. A few examples include:

Encourage public transportation and walking by choosing venues in proximity to each other and transit routes. You’ll save on carbon emissions and shuttle costs.

Work with décor companies that reuse their sets.

Use venues with great architecture, views or other features that don’t need dressing up.

Be more flexible and trust your partners

Rely on the expertise of your partners, especially in food & beverage in making decisions about how to make your event more sustainable.

Chefs are great at working with priorities and budgets. Give them the flexibility to make choices close to the event without confirming months or years in advance.

If coffee and dessert are included in a lunch menu, ask to have it served during the afternoon break (additional service charges would be reasonable to expect).

Always cross-check your room block pattern to your food and beverage guarantees or ask people for their arrival and departure information on registration forms to help you cut back on food waste and costs.

I’d also add a word of caution for all event planners looking to save money and to track their savings: don’t fall in to the subtractionality trap (I must admit I had hopes that I had invented this word, but after googling, found it in use already here.) What is subtractionality? I look at it as not counting savings for things you wouldn’t have bought in the first place. For example, I can’t claim to have saved $17,000,000 in transportation costs by not having bought a Learjet. Paper savings is one of these areas. I see lots of conferences claiming to save money on paper, but at some point we need to recognize that conferences today use less paper than they did 5 years ago, and not just for sustainability reasons. So when you’re tracking your sustainability savings, make sure that they are real.

Before I wrap up, I’d like to respond to some of Marvin’s comments on green meetings. Some of Marvin’s strongest points were:

People don’t go to meetings because they are green. I generally agree, (with an exception being events that are about teaching you how to do “green” better, like GMIC). What Marvin is alluding to here is what Jacquelyn Ottman refers to as Green Marketing Myopia – which boils down to making sure that the product (in this case, the meeting) is actually a good product, not just a green product. On the flipside though, I think that lower costs can influence participation, and many sustainability measures help with this. As my business partner, Elizabeth Henderson compares it to the operating system, as opposed to the hardware – it’s what makes things run more efficiently.

Sustainability can result in unintended negative consequences: Agreed. Marvin’s example of reducing the amount of paper to the point of damaging the effectiveness of the learning is also true or encouraging the consumption of other products (like iPads). The goal should not be to be paperless for the sake of being paperless. The goal should be to get the most benefit from the meeting while using the least amount of resources, including financial and environmental.

Implementing sustainability can result in having to expend much more time in the planning process: Agreed as well, particularly if you’re planning on implementing standards for the first time. That said, implanting sustainability can also save you an enormous amount of time. One of my favourites is that choosing a location with great public transportation means not having to coordinate shuttle service.

Other points I didn’t agree with as much:

Sustainability does not save money. When done well, it does. I always like to back things up with some proof, so here goes:MeetGreen clients have saved over $3.9 million by implementing sustainability practices - one client of which, Oracle, saved $420,000 from changes to signage alone. Another great example is Hilton’s LightStay program, which has saved the company $74 million in just two years.

Sustainability does not increase sponsor or exhibitor revenues: This one I disagreed with for two reasons. First, many sponsors are looking to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability by associating themselves with sustainability aspects of events. I have seen great response to sponsorship calls for supporting a community service or sustainable features of the conference. I love that Via Rail is sponsoring a sustainability train for the GMIC Conference as an example. Secondly, it can also reduce costs for exhibitors and sponsors if event planners place restrictions in advance about giving away SWAG at tradeshows. Cost savings are experienced in the cost of promotional products, shipping and waste pulls. By implementing it as an across the board policy, it levels the playing field so people aren’t trying to one up each other.

Standards will not save time: I said above that I don’t think that standards will help you save time, but there are a few exceptions and ways to make it easier, faster and cheaper. Currently, suppliers need to respond to a range of RFPs covering different sustainability related topics. Standards have the potential to make it much easier for suppliers to develop a template to respond to sustainability related RFP questions. On the planner side, the first time you implement standards is the most time consuming, but after that, it is much easier. There are also tools to help you do this, like the Sustainable Event Management Tool (free to all MPI and GMIC members and all suppliers) that will help you to enter data, run reports and not have to reinvent the wheel.

What are your thoughts on the ongoing discussion about sustainability and green meetings? How will this affect your choices? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter..

Price Cut, A-La-Carte Options & Package Updates

bwc — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Our mission is to help you eliminate your event management headaches. Your direct feedback helps us to not only provide you with the best tools possible, but also to make sure we can serve events of all sizes. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce updates to our packages and pricing to make our services more cost effective for your organizations.

Price Reduction

We’ve reduced the price of our Professional Package from $1,999 to $999.

Customization

You can now customize your package with features from any package. For example, if you wanted to use the native mobile applications or reporting module, you can now obtain this on an a-la-carte basis. This will allow you to choose what makes the most sense for your event.

Package Rationalization

With the added ability to customize your package based on the features you want, we’ve decided to eliminate the Plus Package. If you’re an existing Plus Package customer you will still have access to all the features you purchased.

New Features & Pricing Info

To see full pricing (and all the new goodies we’ve released) go here and sign up for free. If you’re an existing customer, click the Packages & Add-Ons tab in the top right corner of the administrative section of your Sched.org tools. You can also contact us if you have any questions.

Sched.org Blog

Google's Data Highlighter Now Supports Movies, TV, Articles, Products, Local Biz & Apps

Map Mashup

Registrations: Selling Out Early Is Easy

If You’re Thinking About It Now…

Create An Excellent Experience

Focus On Quality

Discounts = Destruction

What is your experience with discounting registrations? Do they help you sell out your tickets early?

Etix Partners with Sched.org

Six tips for moderating a panel without boring your audience to death.

Searching For A Venue? Here's MeetingsBooker.com

60,000 Venues, Worldwide

No Booking Fees

Easy RFP’s

Check It Out

XOXO: The Alternative To SXSW

Track That! [Google Analytics]

Objective Measures of Engagement

Sched.org Simplifies Your Conference Management Experience

Facebook Ads? No. Fan Page? Yes!

Facebok Ads vs Fan Pages

Goal: Engaging Attendees

Goal: Finding Registrants

Can Facebook Ads Work?

Does your event use Facebook Ads & have they been successful for you?

Forget Sponsors, Use Kickstarter!

Reduce Risks

The Drawbacks

Would you use Kickstarter to fund your event?

Getting the Best Video Straight from Your Event

Constant Contact Registration Integration

Why is this important?

Have you used Constant Contact for your event? Tell us on Facebook and Twitter

Must-Attend Twitter Chats

Music Festival Technology: Then & Now

Photo

Top 5 Links of the Week - 4/13/2012

Did you read+love any of these articles this week? Have others you think I’d love? Let me know in the comments, Facebook, and good ol’ Twitter.

Privacy & Customization

On Event Sustainability & Savings

Use less, plan less and waste less

Use existing infrastructure rather than building your own

Be more flexible and trust your partners

What are your thoughts on the ongoing discussion about sustainability and green meetings? How will this affect your choices? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter..

Price Cut, A-La-Carte Options & Package Updates

Price Reduction

Customization

Package Rationalization

New Features & Pricing Info