What's Inside: January 2022
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Planning to Succeed
- By Marie Hunter, Head of IEEE Global Meetings, Conferences and Events
Organize Like a Pro
- 2022 In-Person and Hybrid Event Planning Tips
- Partnering for Registration Success
- Get More Mileage Out of Your Event Content
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MCE Trendspotting: Event Takeaways from PCMA Convening Leaders 2022
Meet the MCE Team
- Kartik Patel, Business Analyst
Available Resources
- On-Demand Conference Role-Based Education
- Insider Poll Results
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In these uncertain times, we are seeing increased staffing shortages across many industries. How can this affect your conference? It is worth talking to your hotel or venue about the staffing that they have in place, as well as what secondary services are in place, e.g. housekeeping, room service, restaurants, and shops. If you contracted with these services and offerings in place; it is appropriate to ask the hotel for concessions if these items are not in place. You could ask for a room rebate, a service tax reduction, flexibility on attrition, and more. For assistance in brainstorming how to negotiate to compensate for drops in service levels, feel free to reach out to MCE for support.
Now is also a great time to think about your contracts and how to right-size the footprint for your particular meeting. It's not 2019! If you are planning a hybrid meeting, did you scale back? If you are planning now - consider thinking about a smaller room block based on your group's travel profile.
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2022 In-Person and Hybrid Event Planning Tips
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As we venture into the new year faced with new pandemic-related challenges, it may be difficult to know how to move forward with your in-person or hybrid event. The IEEE Meetings, Conferences & Events (MCE) team has assembled our top tips to help you plan smarter and minimize risks.
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- When developing contracts for your event, clarity is key.
- Remember that there will be no pandemic insurance coverage for 2022.
- Force Majeure contracts in 2022 need to be carefully worded and reviewed to mitigate risks.
- If you already have contracted services for 2022, please review them now and see if the minimums can be re-negotiated or cancellations waived.
- Each contract, registration, sponsorship, and partnership agreement must anticipate cancellations, refunds, and/or Force Majeure. Remember, renegotiation may be a good option.
- The pandemic is a known business risk and is not considered an emergency, therefore insurance coverage and emergency staff services are not applicable.
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- When circumstances necessitate changes to your in-person or hybrid event, cancellation is not always your only option.
- Cancellation may bring revenue loss, penalties, and loss of time and energy spent. It also deprives authors and participants of the opportunity to present, collaborate, and network.
- When contracts are in place, and Force Majeure is not yet documentable, it may be possible to work with your vendor to create a new agreement that supersedes your original contract and is beneficial to both parties.
- Renegotiating with your vendors may enable you to hold a smaller-scale in-person event augmented with virtual participation, which will ultimately benefit your community.
- The new agreement may include changes like food and beverage reductions, fewer room numbers or nights, or smaller/fewer meeting spaces.
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Partnering with Exhibitors and Sponsors
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- For each of your in-person sponsorship tiers and exhibitor packages, establish a parallel virtual offering as well as clear refund parameters and cut-off dates.
- Provide justification materials that exhibitors can use to support their in-person participation with their employers. Some shows are seeing robust sales even with reduced “traffic.” Many buyers still need a hands-on approach or a face-to-face conversation.
- Communicate that if your event goes virtual or hybrid, purchases will automatically convert to these parallel options.
- Set clear expectations about the ratio and what the refund will or will not be.
- Offering refunds for partners such as in-kind speakers, sponsors, and non-sales contributors is not recommended after certain cut-off dates. Communicate this decision to these partners upfront to stay aligned.
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If you need assistance planning your 2022 event, please contact the MCE Team.
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Partnering for Registration Success
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During a time of uncertainty, when events are shifting from in-person to virtual (or hybrid), partnering with a skilled registration team can guide a conference to success. IEEE’s Meetings, Conferences & Events (MCE) partnered with numerous conferences over the course of the pandemic to provide guidance and support in a multitude of ways.
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Standardized Broad Communication Language for the entire IEEE Conference Community to notify authors/attendees of changes in conference format and registration fees. By standardizing communications, registrants of conferences were familiar with IEEE’s policies and steps forward.
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Craft Health and Safety Guidelines to ensure attendees of in-person events were knowledgeable of IEEE’s efforts to implement a safe and healthy event.
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Software Integrations between registration and virtual platforms to offer participants a seamless experience while eliminating the manual efforts of the team.
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Partner with IEEE Treasury to ensure funds were available for immediate use when registration fees were lowered, or an event canceled. Through close partnership with IEEE’s treasury department, MCE was able to swiftly update and refund a participant's registration fee upon notification of a canceled or postponed event.
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Partner with the IEEE Business Intelligence team to set pricing appropriately to meet your goals, adjust for inflation, and value your offering appropriately.
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As we continue to navigate COVID-19 and the future of events, MCE is committed to helping our conference community. If you have any questions related to registration or overall best practices, please contact MCE.
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Get More Mileage Out of Your Event Content
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You’ve just finished organizing an amazing event with incredible speakers and inspiring content. How can you use your content to sustain engagement and expand your audience? Training, videos, slide decks, and other assets are excellent resources that you can use to keep the conversation going and extend your reach.
Here are some ideas to give your content new life after your event.
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- Make content available on-demand for participants after your event
- Showcase some content like keynotes or plenaries on your website to attract future participants
- Use content to create a highlight reel to promote next year’s event
- Create snackable content like infographics to make connections with your audience
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Consider adding content to your Society’s IEEE Resource Center.
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If you have any questions about creative content ideas, reach out to the MCE team.
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MCE Trendspotting: Event Takeaways from PCMA Convening Leaders 2022
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This month, thousands of professionals from the event community gathered virtually and in Las Vegas for the annual PCMA Convening Leaders. To stay abreast of the latest trends and education in the industry, MCE team members attended both virtually and in person.
Read about their top takeaways and observations to help you navigate the future of events.
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Kartik Patel, Business Analyst
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Kartik has been a Business Analyst with the Conference Business Operations team since 2009. Kartik is primarily responsible for managing all financial-related tasks for financially sponsored events. Kartik manages a portfolio of conferences and assists society leadership by assembling and summarizing event-related activity, preparing reports, analyses, and recommendations. Kartik has also provided training to organizers on the NextGen banking platform via Webex meetings.
Kartik also serves as the liaison to the Audit department where he prepares ad-hoc reports for upper management, performs reconciliations, and creates executive summaries.
Kartik enjoys being able to help others
Kartik graduated from Rutgers Business School with a concentration in Finance. Prior to joining IEEE, Kartik worked at AXA Advisors as a Financial Advisor.
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On-Demand Conference Role-Based Education
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MCE Conference Education has comprehensive education resources. All courses are available in the IEEE Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE).
Conference role-specific learning paths help you gain the knowledge and skills to be successful.
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Role-Specific Learning Paths
- Conference Treasurer
- Technical Program Chair
- Conference Publications Chair
- Event Planning
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The results are in! Here's what readers had to say in last month's poll.
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IEEE Meetings, Conferences & Events (MCE)
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Phone: +1 855 340 4333 (Toll-free US & Canada)
+1 732 562 3878 (Worldwide)
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