Event Planning

Let's talk about "disability simulation" activities. You've likely heard about or participated in them. They involve having nondisabled people try to push a wheelchair around, put on a blindfold, or pop in a pair of earplugs with the intention that it'll bring about more empathy and awareness toward the disability experience. The problem? These activities can do way more harm than good. It's essentially playing a game of pretend with an identity, and it completely ignores the nuances that come from lived experiences. In many cases, simulating disability can have the opposite of the intended effect to promote genuine understanding, instead evoking confusion, fear, and pity. Skift Meetings recently sang the praises of disability simulations hosted by PCMA as a way for event planners to learn how to make events more inclusive. (I'm sharing the article only for context, not because I wish to promote it.) They recommended having nondisabled planners use a wheelchair in an event space as a "top tip" for ensuring an environment is accessible. Please, DO NOT take this advice. An hour of a supposedly "immersive" and "experiential" activity barely offers a glimpse into the nuanced day-to-day experience of navigating the world as a disabled person who uses a custom piece of mobility equipment. Disability is a part of me, and how I get around is intrinsic to my existence. The disability community constantly advocates for access and repeatedly shares insights based on what we know about inhabiting our minds and bodies. Event organizers shouldn't have to "try on" a disability like a new pair of shoes in order to take us at our word about accessibility needs. Especially considering that it's Disability Pride Month, it cuts just a little bit deeper knowing that a major organization is being so willingly reductive toward disability under the guise of promoting accessibility and inclusion. The best way to ensure accessible events? Simple: hire disabled accessibility consultants as part of your planning process. Instead of trying to roll a mile in my chair, please move alongside me and I'll gladly be your guide. #DisabilityInclusion #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityPride #DisabilityPrideMonth #Accessibility #A11y #EventPlanning #MeetingPlanning #LinkedInTopVoices

How you leave an event is AS important as how you are welcomed. 2025 will be the year we move from event planning to moment planning. What does that mean? Successful events will obsess over every moment of the attendee’s journey. Great events are stepping up the welcome. They offer: - Airport badge pick-up - Registration areas with music and food - AI-powered chatbots for key info - Hotel reception and registration What about the goodbye? In January I was in beautiful San Diego for PCMA Convening Leaders and they had a wonderful event person at the airport waving goodbye at the TSA lane. It clicked for me. The way you bid farewell to attendees matters. Quite a lot. Here are some starting points: - I remember attending the first Cvent Connect at the Peabody in 2015. They gave be a bagged lunch for my trip. It’s been almost 10 years, and I still remember it. - When you attend a Boldpush+ event, we provide the video recording, the slides, an audio-only version of the session to listen to podcast style, an executive summary, and key takeaways. I attended the Event Leadership Summit at Connect Marketplace, and we had a very useful Zoom call one month after the event to discuss key industry challenges as a group. A community can be as heavy as a follow-up call. - The video recaps events like MPI’s WeCon, C2 Montreal and Connect Marketplace you can find on my LinkedIn profile are more than brochures with people drinking champagne, they provide practical takeaways I attended AdWorld last year, and as soon as the event was over, I received a sizeable discount for next year. I used it. Can you share any more ‘goodbye’ items from events you planned or attended?

Thrilled to share a cool breakthrough I had today with AI in learning. It’s a method you can apply to any event you curate. ✨ I was running a full day workshop on innovation for the Entrepreneurs' Organization in Winnipeg (thanks Samantha Duha for hosting me!) and I wanted to give the participants some async “pre-work” to get their creative juices flowing BEFORE they arrived at the workshop. 🧠 As an entrepreneur and educator, I’m constantly exploring new methods to inspire and provoke thoughtful learning in my workshops. ✏️ So I ran an experiment and created an AI prompt that attendees could copy and paste in ChatGPT (or Claude, or Co-Pilot), which directed the AI chatbot to have a focused back-and-forth conversation with the participant about the workshop topic before they arrived. 💬 For any optional activity before a workshop, I’d normally expect only 20% of participants to follow through. 🤷🏻♂️ But 100% of the attendees did the optional homework! I was blown away by the engagement! I’ve never seen that before! 🤯 So going forward for all my workshops and important meetings, I will always assign async prework with an AI prompt to stimulate ideas. 💡 I want attendees to come engaged and excited to discuss solutions to a problem, and AI makes it so much easier! 🙌 Try it out and let me know what you experience! *** Here’s a VERY simplified version of the prompt: 🟢 Dear AI, please ask me these 3-5 questions about my knowledge of this workshop on topic ABC [insert topic]. Wait for my answer to each question, before going to the next one. 🔵 [Then you, the workshop curator, should create 3-5 important questions you want your attendees to consider, and insert them here, Q1… Q2…Q3…] 🟡 Based on my answers, please identify any assumptions I’m making, and offer suggestions for any alternative perspectives. Keep it simple.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the 90 minute virtual meeting paradox. We spend the first 30 minutes on welcoming everyone and introductions, the next 15 on framing, and then a few people share thoughts. Then, just when the conversation gets meaningful, the host abruptly announces "We're out of time!” and throws a few rushed closing thoughts and announcements together. Sound familiar? We crave deep, meaningful, trust-based exchanges in virtual meeting environments that feel both tiring and rushed. It seems like as soon as momentum builds and insights emerge, it’s time to wrap up. Share-outs become a regurgitation of top-level ideas—usually focused on the most soundbite-ready insights and omitting those seeds of ideas that didn’t have time to be explored further. And sometimes, we even cite these meetings as examples of participation in a process, even when that participation is only surface level to check the participation box.  After facilitating and attending hundreds (thousands?) of virtual meetings, I've found four practices that create space for more engagement and depth: 1. Send a thoughtful and focused pre-work prompt at least a few days ahead of time that invites reflection before gathering. When participants arrive having already engaged with the core question(s), it’s much easier to jump right into conversation. Consider who designs these prompts and whose perspectives they center. 2. Replace round-robin introductions with a focused check-in question that directly connects to the meeting's purpose. "What's one tension you're navigating in this work?" for example yields more insight than sharing organizational affiliations. Be mindful of who speaks first and how difference cultural communication styles may influence participation.  3. Structure the agenda with intentionally expanding time blocks—start tight (and facilitate accordingly), and then create more spaciousness as the meeting progresses. This honors the natural rhythm of how trust and dialogue develop, and allows for varying approaches to processing and sharing.  4. Prioritize accessibility and inclusion in every aspect of the meeting. Anticipating and designing for participants needs means you’re thinking about language justice, technology and materials accessibility, neurodivergence, power dynamics, and content framing. Asking “What do you need to fully participate in this meeting?” ahead of time invites participants to share their needs. These meeting suggestions aren’t just about efficiency—they’re about creating spaces where authentic relationships and useful conversations can actually develop. Especially at times when people are exhausted and working hard to manage their own energy, a well-designed meeting can be a welcome space to engage. I’m curious to hear from others: What's your most effective strategy for holding substantive meetings in time-constrained virtual spaces? What meeting structures have you seen that actually work?

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve witnessed or participated in a conference panel that sucked. Maybe you were an audience member who paid hundreds of dollars for a ticket, only to watch speakers say nothing of substance. Or you were the moderator, struggling to keep speakers focused while they shamelessly promoted their own agendas. Or you were a featured speaker who had to endure generic questions and an awkward atmosphere, wondering why you even bothered to join in the first place. I have personally found myself in all three roles multiple times. And yet, I’m here to tell you that panels don’t have to suck. They can even be fun! As the spring/summer conference season quickly approaches, I've written up a comprehensive guide below on how to organize and moderate panels with lasting impact, based on my experience speaking at 40+ conferences throughout my career (including organizing Water & Music's own Wavelengths Summit last year). While pulling off a successful panel is difficult work, there are several recurring patterns among bad panels that I think are preventable with the right mindset and preparation. I have two particular takes on this that might be unconventional: - Not every topic is a good fit for a panel in the first place. Panels are the public-speaking equivalents of tweets — leaving little room for nuance or depth, as a tradeoff for being accessible and concise. Event organizers can wield this limitation to their benefit by framing panels as macro overviews of trends and problem spaces, with clear messaging that the event is meant to be just the start of a longer-term conversation. But panels that try to brainstorm solutions or "solve" endemic industry problems are an immediate red flag to me. - For curating speakers, there is a *massive* opportunity to move beyond seniority alone as the primary filter for “expertise.” While senior execs can speak to high-level strategy, entry- and mid-level employees often have deeper insights into day-to-day execution. Similarly, while seasoned public speakers bring polish, first-time panelists can bring much-needed fresh stories and perspectives to the table. And lastly, I always say that by a pure numbers game, the collective wisdom and experience of everyone in the audience far exceeds that of the people onstage. Some of the most fun and enlightening panels I've been a part of wielded that collective wisdom in unexpected ways. Curious if my experience lines up with yours! Hope this guide is a small step towards making panels more fun and manageable for us all 😁 #musicindustry #panels #conference #musicbiz #publicspeaking #speaking #musictech #musicbusiness

MEMBERS ONLY: a new interview series by me, exploring the minds behind the world’s most sought-after experiences. My friend Molly Bridges is making the case for a role most events completely overlook: A dedicated host. As a master of experience design and the Senior Director of Events & Experiences at Bilt Rewards, Molly is behind some of the best events in NYC and SF. But it’s not just good taste, it’s strategy. She engineers these gatherings with a mix of psychology, hospitality, and her background in education, making sure every detail is designed for connection. We got deep into the nuances of event design and how Molly applies Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to design experiences that actually make people feel something. At the core of Molly’s approach is a simple truth: Adults are a lot like kids. We crave routine, structure, and clear expectations, and if those things aren’t in place, no amount of fancy decor will save your event. The Five Needs to Address for a Well-Designed Event 1️⃣ Physiological Needs (The Basics) If your guests are texting you day of asking what to wear or where to go, you've already lost them. Great events start before they even show up, with clear, actually helpful communication. Tell them what to wear, where to go, when to arrive, and make it easy. Email marketing isn’t just for hype; it’s there to eliminate confusion. If people are second-guessing the details, the event is already off to a bad start. 2️⃣ Safety (Feeling Comfortable & Welcome) First impressions set the tone. Signage should be obvious, ppl should never feel lost in the space physically and they should feel connected emotionally. That means a host that knows their name, greets them at the enterance. Take a page from Anna Wintour, who has an assistant at every event whispering key guest intel in her ear. A great host isn’t just friendly, they’re prepared. Know people's names, greet them like they matter, and watch how the energy of the entire event shifts. 3️⃣ Love & Belonging (Fostering Connection & Community) Smart seating makes or breaks a room(see my Members Only on Jake Sacks). Structured intros cut the awkwardness, and intentional space design, cozy nooks, group seating, natural gathering spots, does the rest. No forced networking, just effortless conversation. 4️⃣ Esteem Needs (Ensuring People Feel Seen & Valued) An event should exceed expectations. Deliver what you promised…Did guests meet someone interesting? Did they gain what they came for and more? Whether it’s networking, learning, or community-building, the experience should feel intentional and worth their time. 5️⃣ Self-Actualization (Scaling Magic While Keeping It Personal) Anyone can pull off one great event. The real challenge? Scaling experiences without losing intimacy. A strong brand identity and structured playbook ensure that every gathering feels personal, even at scale. 🔹 🔹 🔹 If you’re not already following Molly Bridges, you should be.

WANT CUSTOMER DELIGHT? GO THE EXTRA INCH, NOT THE EXTRA MILE In a world where companies strive to “go the extra mile” for their customers, I propose a counterintuitive thought: You don’t need to go a mile. You just need to go an inch. The smallest, low-cost gestures can have a massive impact on customers, turning ordinary transactions into memorable experiences. The secret - search for the asymmetry between cost and impact. Going the extra inch requires minimal effort and often costs next to nothing. It could be a handwritten note, a smile, a gesture of personal recognition, a small act of kindness. But the effect on customers is profound. It creates emotional connections, fosters loyalty, and makes customers into advocates. The irony - while everyone is busy trying to “go the extra mile,” it is the extra inch that nets you miles of customer loyalty. THE I.N.C.H. FRAMEWORK To master the art of the extra inch, use this simple yet powerful framework: I – Identify Moments of Truth: Look for touchpoints where expectations are neutral or low. These are prime opportunities to surprise and delight. For instance, when I got my car serviced at the Lexus dealership, they washed and vacuumed the car and left a red carnation flower on the dash. I have told more than 10,000 people about the 50-cent carnation. How’s that for ROI? N – Notice the Little Things: Train employees to observe and remember small details about customers—preferences, moods, or special occasions. At the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, I asked for a memory foam pillow. Every time I stay there, they put a memory foam pillow on my bed. C – Customize the Experience: Personalize the interaction or gesture. Even the smallest customization can create a huge emotional impact. At Chewy, when a customer returned dog food after their pet passed away, they received a condolence card and flowers. It wasn’t about making a sale; it was about showing empathy. H – Humanize the Interaction: Move beyond scripted conversations. Authenticity and empathy resonate more than robotic efficiency. At Café Lucci, our favorite Italian restaurant in Chicago, the valet, the server, and the owner Bobby - all know us, know our kids, and always ask about the family. We are customers for life! In the race to “go the extra mile,” it’s easy to overlook the power of the extra inch. The secret to exceptional customer service isn’t grand gestures or expensive perks—it’s the tiny, thoughtful actions that leave a lasting impression. Going the extra inch is about mastering the art of the unexpected. It’s about creating emotional connections through small acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. So, the next time you think about how to delight a customer, remember: You don’t have to go the extra mile. Just go the extra inch. You will get miles of loyalty. #Marketing #CustomerExperience #Loyalty #Advocacy

7 Icebreakers That Actually Work At Networking Events: 1. “What’s Something Exciting You’re Working On?” This is so much better than "So, what do you do?" This shows genuine curiosity and invites people to talk about what matters to them. You’ll often uncover hidden projects, side hustles, or cool trends in their industry. 2. “What Inspired You To Attend This Event?” This question gets past the surface quickly and helps you understand their goals. And that gives you a window to offer meaningful value. This shows genuine curiosity and invites people to talk about what matters to them. You’ll often uncover hidden projects, side hustles, or cool trends in their industry. 3. “How Did You Get Into Your Field?” People love telling their origin story. It gives them a chance to reflect and helps you learn something valuable. Bonus: It opens the door to career path tips or industry insights. Use it to start meaningful convos instead of awkward intros. 4. “What’s A Challenge You’re Facing Right Now?” This one is powerful if asked appropriately. Frame it lightly, “anything you’re trying to figure out these days?” If you can help them solve it or connect them to someone who can? They’ll owe you one big time. 5. “What’s Something People Misunderstand About Your Role?” This sparks a surprisingly fun convo, especially with folks in niche or technical roles. It lets them vent (in a good way) and gives you interesting insights. Plus, it shows you care enough to go deeper than surface-level stuff. 6. “Who Should I Meet Before I Leave?” This is a networking power move. It creates a flywheel where every conversation turns into two. And it helps narrow the focus of your networking to the people who matter most. Bonus: Ask them if they’d be willing to make an introduction! 7. Comment On The Moment If all else fails, comment on what’s around you or a potential shared experience from the event. “Did you try the [insert snack or drink]? Surprisingly good for one of these events.” “Not sure how I feel about these name tags, kind of feel like I'm at prom.” Humor = connection. —— ➕ Follow Austin Belcak for more 🔵 Ready to land your dream job? Click here to learn more about how we help people land amazing jobs in ~3.5 months with a $44k raise: https://lnkd.in/gdysHr-r

Someone said "You should teach a transition class at events like these" while at the Air & Space Forces Association annual event in DC yesterday I explained that I have done that before...but attendance at these major events typically fell into 2x buckets: 1 - many of the senior leaders attending weren't even thinking about their transition, so they focused on talking with friends, attending events & industry engagement 2 - the ones in their transition window were hell-bent focused on "finding a job" by going to pitch themselves to every major defense contractor in attendance #quinnsights Going to these booths and saying "I'm the ...." doesn't tell them anything about what you want or can do Companies don't come to these major events to hire (they come to sell and form partnerships) And that events like these (AFA & AUSA) don't typically "get you a job" They give you an entry point (someone to speak to & maybe build a relationship) #militarytransition But the key to every event is FOLLOW UP What should you do? 1 - connect with them on LinkedIn every time Show them your QR code right there and wait for their connection request to come through (sneaky way to ensure they do) 2 - Go into My Network each night and look at your newest connections They are organized chronologically, so they will all be people from the event 3 - Send them a quick note on LinkedIn saying how great it was to meet them at (insert event name) and that you would love to stay in touch for advice This locks in that you met face-to-face in their Inbox...always leaving a reminder there in case either side reaches out (not a cold pitch) 4 - Make a networking spreadsheet that tracks the people you met AND who responded For the ones that responded, asked some simple questions or for a short advice phone call, if appropriate For the ones that didn't - send an additional follow up message one week later to thank them again and add a short easy question (they'll be back from the event & likely have more time) #militarytransition Once you get to the calls, ask questions to learn and listen more than talk to find your success Questions? Is there anything you would add? And will I see you at the AUSA Fireside Chat/Transition Panel on Tuesday Oct 15 from 1300-1500 in Rm 147A/B in the Washington Convention Center?

I've noticed a new trend appearing, so I wanted to mention it out loud after discussing it with our volume build clients over the past few months. LED Volumes might have been designed for Virtual Production, but they are increasingly being used for Live Events and Location-Based Experiences, too. We've seen an uptick in enquiries about using our spaces in LA and Melbourne in this way. And it's not really a surprise, if you think about it. As you can see below from the BYD event we did in Melbourne last year, volumes can provide a vibrant, dynamic and engaging backdrop for premium live audience events or pop-up location-based experiences. The wrap-around screens can immerse customers, audiences, attendees or fans in a completely different world, or any other stylized visuals you want, which could be responsive to music or other cues throughout the event. The tracking technologies we have throughout our volumes could also be used to facilitate any number interactive experiences. And the great thing about studios is that they usually have plenty of open spaces and most, like ours, also include adjoining production offices, corporate areas and green rooms, giving a large events team all of the spaces needed to stage something incredible. I've worked on a couple of things like this before and to me, the key to holding an incredible event in a VP space is to lean right into the sense of immersion and perspective it can create. Imagine walking into a key building/location from a major IP franchise - and everything you see outside looks like a live environment from that world, no matter how surreal it might be. Think a settlement from The Last of Us. As an audience, you could freely watch a story unfold or an attack happen through the windows while never feeling like you are in a volume. And then you could also have the ability to interact with the screens using props, or gestures tracked by our mocap systems. These are all brilliant capabilities that would be applicable to most of the largest volumes around the world. But I think there is another reason we've seen an uptick in interest in our LA studios, too. Most volumes are contained spaces that aren't great for large crowds or audience movement. But our Dynamic Volume System in LA changes that by allowing every wallPod, or section of LED wall, to quickly be driven into any configuration that fits any unique plan; you could even change the config and experience on different days to keep things fresh. Being able to create a nice wide, open arc, or an enclosed immersive space with the same volume components - or floating sections that encourage exploration, gives event planners a virtually unlimited canvas with which to get creative. The only thing I'd like to see is more creative events people turn their minds to the possibilities here. Exclusive dance events, striking product reveals, gamified storytelling experiences or fan engagement opportunities; it's all possible in a volume..