May 21, 2024

For this week’s newsletter, we’ve scoured our extensive podcast library to uncover some of the best advice from leading experts in the event planning field.

? We’ve distilled these invaluable insights into a collection of noteworthy quotes that will inspire and equip you to create extraordinary events. Read on to gain wisdom from some of the industry’s top minds and elevate your event planning game. Stay tuned for more insights in future newsletters!

Partnering With a Speakers Bureau for Peace of Mind and Optimal Results

“As a meeting professional, I can’t be expected to go through 100,000 different keynote presentations searching for the right person who’s going to get my audience where they need to be. So you absolutely, 100% have to have a great partner to help you sift through the incredible amount of amazing speakers out there to find the one person who’s going to help your audience.” – Jessie States, CMP, CMM, vice president of MPI Academy

“Oftentimes, clients will say to me, ‘Hey, this guy’s written a book, and in his book, he’s given information about how to contact him. Why don’t you reach out to him.’ [sic] I always say to them, ‘Let me go through a speaker’s bureau [sic] because God forbid if I hire that guy and something happens at the last minute, and he has to back out, he doesn’t replace himself.’ If I use [a speaker’s bureau] and [sic] at the last minute, they cancel, [they] say, ‘I’m on it Glenna, I’ve got somebody lined up. Let me make a few phone calls. Don’t worry, I’m all over this.'” – Glenna Fulks, B.A., M.S. , president, founder, and chief connection officer at Kite Meeting Management

Understanding the Psychology of Events

“If you’re in business, you’re in the business of behavior. I cannot think of any other industry that’s more about people than events, hospitality, and tourism. Even if you are a seasoned event professional, you have to learn more about human behavior and mind if you want your job to become easier. I can assure you that science-backed solutions are very low-key but high-impact.” – Victoria Matey, co-founder of Matey Events, award-winning business events professional, and event psychology expert

“It’s really our ultimate objective to eliminate loneliness in events. It’s entire rooms filled with introverts and extroverts, and you still walk in and feel like you’re all alone. That’s because networking is being done wrong. What we try to do is help people connect over actual shared experiences and actual problems and solutions and not over wine and cheese cubes and nametags that hang over your belly button.” – Liz Lathan, CMP, engagement expert, community strategist, and co-founder of Club Ichi, a community designed for corporate event professionals

Impactful Content and Format Matters in a Digital World

“Now that we live in a world of Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, the event world needs to evolve. You cannot have one-hour sessions anymore with 5 minutes for Q&A. Who’s interested in that? No one. The point is that TikTok is like 45-second videos; Instagram might be a little more than that; YouTube might be a little bit more than that. TED Talks, I think, are the best example of event format. They do not cross 20 minutes. And they are the most-watched content in the universe. Yes, the speakers obviously are world-class, but the bottom line is it’s not the technology. It’s not watching the screen. It’s the content.” – Ike Singh Kehal, co-founder and CEO of Social27, a pioneering event platform that supports dynamic digital and hybrid communities across the globe

“Content is critical. I always say it’s like an empty picture frame. Doesn’t matter how beautiful the frame is. It’s what’s inside that counts. Same with an event. Content has to drive impact, and in order to drive impact, it has to be relevant. [sic] Freeman has put out some really amazing research over the past few years when they do their trends surveys. What are people looking for from keynote speakers? Only 1% of people said they want celebrities. One percent. Because relevance and credibility matter.” – Nicola Kastner, ‘The Event Strategist,’ one of the world’s most recognized experts in building effective event strategies

“I have a very simple exercise that I do with my clients. I used to do it with potential keynoters or potential speakers when I was working for CES or any of the events we were producing. One of the questions I would always ask someone is, ‘If you could write your ideal headline from this experience — you as a keynoter, you as an organization creating an event — what would it say? Most of the time, people don’t have an immediate answer to that question. You have to think about it. But thinking about allows you to really hone in on what’s most important, and prioritize, {[sic] and think more purposefully about what it is that you want to accomplish.” – Kara Dickerson – Content/Brand Strategy , founder of Content With Impact, former head of content, strategy, production, and logistics for the Consumer Technology Association’s CES event