Blog

The event landscape has shifted, creating opportunities for planners to secure exceptional value from venues.  Many venues are eager to fill their calendars, which often translates into a "buyer's market." This is the ideal time to move beyond standard pricing and negotiate for truly favorable terms, added value, and improved contract flexibility.

The last box of event swag has been packed away, the final thank-you email has been sent, and the calendar flips to a new year.  For the event professional, this isn't the end of the job—it's the beginning of the most critical phase: End-of-Year Event Reporting.

Economic uncertainty is a universal challenge, and it often means that business leaders and consumers alike scrutinize every dollar spent.  For event organizers, this translates directly into a high-stakes question: How do we prove our event is essential, not optional, when budgets are tight?

Hybrid events are no longer a niche concept; they are the standard for future-forward organizations seeking maximum reach and inclusivity.  However, the success of a hybrid event hinges on one critical factor: ensuring the virtual component is not merely a livestream, but a deeply engaging, equally valuable experience for your online audience.

The success of any significant event often hinges on the quality and coordination of its temporary staff.  When peak season hits, you need your contract event staff to be productive from the moment they step through the door.  Effective onboarding is the bridge between hiring a freelancer and having a fully integrated, high-performing team member.

As the calendar flips to November, event professionals know it's a critical time—not just for planning year-end holiday parties or final conferences, but for a crucial task that often gets overlooked in the rush: the year-end budget review.

Our Meeting Revolution family is growing! Our social media guru, Andrea Lee, adopted a new rescue pup two weeks ago! The whole team is so happy for her. She already has one pup, Poptart, but welcomes Mooncake to her pack. The new rescue is terrified of everything, like fridge doors, cabinets, and floorboards creaking. Andrea thinks Mooncake hasn’t lived in a home before. We are so happy for Andrea, Mooncake, and the whole family!   Also...

I recently returned from planning a university-based event and have had some time to gather my thoughts about how we, as event planners, can help improve the event planning process and make all of the events we work on more sustainable. I’ll stop short of deeming myself a hotel snob, but I have some lessons to share from my first large university-based event and the hotel stay that was part of the experience. 

Are you looking to live more sustainably and learn more about what major brands are doing to protect our environment? Some of our favorite brands are leaders in the world of sustainability and are influencing consumers to do the same by their example!  

How could you help decrease the food waste at an event? Are you looking for help planning your event, or do you want to know what to look for when attending an event to reduce waste? We are here to help!

World Environmental Education Day is celebrated annually on January 26th. The goal is to identify environmental issues both globally and locally and to raise awareness about the need for participation to conserve and protect the environment, mitigating the various levels of impact caused by climate change.

Last month, we talked about dreams for the future - and challenged you to dream big for your next event. Did you do it? Did you come up with a list of things to try at your next event? How did the process feel? Were there some moments of negativity? If so, that's OK! You should be proud that you put that aside and came up with ideas you are passionate about! We would love to hear about those ideas, so drop us a note to tell us what is on your list.

What’s your dream? That can be challenging for event planners because we don’t think like that, right? We are so worried about achieving the goals set by leadership, such as event attendance, lead generation, or coming under budget. What if we had a vision for every event we did? Would that make a difference when you planned events?

What began in 2008 as a moral epiphany to stop the seemingly endless waste associated with events and conferences has led to 15 years of innovation and an increased understanding of sustainability throughout the event planning industry. When Meeting Revolution founder Amanda Gourgue began her quest to make business events more sustainable and earth-friendly, she was driven by a desire to make events that weren’t just better for the planet but were more profitable for the planners working so hard to pull them together. 

With changes to government guidelines, virus variants impacting potential attendees willingness to travel to in-person events and continued supply chain strains, the challenges for event planners are bigger than ever. That said, there are some silver linings and new event planning practices that are good for the industry and the environment that we are hopeful will become part of the norm in a post COVID world.

It has been nearly two years since the world was changed irrevocably by a global pandemic and while many industries are rebounding, the events industry is one that has been irrevocably changed. 

As we approach the festive holiday season, social distancing, increased teleworking and other safety measures are changing the way we gather and celebrate. How we celebrate may be different but virtual holiday parties and open houses provide fun and innovative ways to make memories during the season.

What happens to the materials that we recycle? And are we even recycling them properly? The short answer is no - improper recycling and inefficient processes costs our national recycling system more than $300 million each year. David Muller, Meeting Revolution’s Sustainability Director, recently participated in a national collaboration project aimed at improvements to the overall PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastic recycling process and shared a few key lessons with our team.

As the weather warms and vaccinations increase, event organizers are eyeing scaled-down outdoor events as a feasible option for in-person gatherings. Here are some tips to ensure your outdoor event is safe, successful, and sustainable!