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EXHIBITOR Learning Events
Event Marketing - Planning
While effective events are based on solid, big-picture strategies, you still need to keep the snap-shot size details in check. Learn the tricks, tactics, and tools necessary to organize, manage, and execute your corporate event program.

Single Article PDFs
Click an article title for detailed information.
How to Create an Attendee Survey
This article will help you decide: A. How long to make your survey B. What questions to ask C. When to send your survey D. All of the above.
The Sweet Smell of Success
Gold Canyon Candle Co. uses candles, karaoke, and crème brulee to train – and retain – its key customers.
How to Get the Most From a Venue Inspection
Five corporate event experts share their on-site inspection secrets – from customized checklists to undercover detective work.
Lean Cuisine
Is your food budget skinnier than a supermodel? Then follow this smorgasbord of savings tips.
Steal This Invitation…
…and five other ideas sure to kick-start your imagination, entice your invitees, and conjure the spirit of your event long before your guests cross the threshold.
When the Bates Motel Is Booked…
Five spooktacular venues for your next event.
Will Your Speaker Self-Destruct?
Sexist jokes, faked videos, blatant self-promotion – some speakers make you wish they'd come down with laryngitis. Here's expert advice on how to choose a speaker you won't regret.
Sign Me Up
Five steps to choosing the right online event-registration system, as told by corporate event managers who survived the process – without resorting to strong drink.
Intel's Eight Strategies for Event Success
How Intel took its developer conference from an event for 200 in San Francisco to a must-attend global program for 23,700.
Tips and Formulas for AV Presentations
If you're giving a presentation to an audience of five, how big should the screen be? If you have a crowd of 500, how many microphones do you need?
10 Hotel-Contract Negotiation Tips
When it comes to hotel contracts, everything is negotiable, from amenities to food. Here's what experienced corporate event managers have learned about how to negotiate the best deal.
Bottoms Up
Quick tips on how to buy liquor, what to buy, and how to control consumption.
Learn to Talk to Anyone in 10 Minutes or Less
Best-selling author Susan RoAne offers a crash course in networking, designed to turn wallflowers into super schmoozers.
Four Dirty Little Secrets Your Venue Won't Tell You
As told by event planners who had to learn the hard way.
What's In Your War Room?
Learn to stop worrying and love your event with the help of a well-organized war room.
Risky Business
From espionage to rowdy guests to centerpieces that walk out the door under coats, security risks abound at corporate events.
To Catch a Caterer
How to select a caterer for your next corporate event.
How to Talk Catering
Shuckers, amuse-bouche, English service, and more. A glossary of catering terminology.
Vacancy
How to negotiate a more favorable attrition clause.
Face the Music
Deejays are a hot new way to brand your service or product, instead of the same old song and dance.
Kaboom!
From walls of fire to indoor blizzards to the scent of grandma's kitchen on Christmas morning, special effects can add drama and impact to your event.
Liquor Liability
Alcohol may liven up your event – but it may also leave your company liable if something goes wrong.
Admit One Adult
TiVo lures the press with a 1964 New York World's Fair theme.
An Event in Three Acts
Cemex firms up its corporate message – with actors, dancers, and near-naked people in plastic.
Bring Up the Lights
Your buffet looks green, your attendees gleam yellow, and your speaker glows like nuclear waste. It's time you learned the basics of corporate event lighting.
Under the Big Top
Everything you ever wanted to know about tent rental – and more.
Sharpen Your Clause
When it comes to hotel cancellation clauses, what you don't negotiate can cost you.
A Chair for Every Guest
A beginner's guide to choosing the right room set.
Inside Henry Ford's Lost Factory
Ford Motor Company broke every public relations rule in the industry to create a media event 600 press people couldn't resist.
Makeover
Hughes Network Systems reinvents its 15-year-old user group event.
The Customer is the Event
Quality Bicycle Products grew a backyard picnic into a legendary event by treating customers like they're the boss.
The Best of Everything, Anywhere!
Destination management companies are the event industry's experts in everything regional and city-specific. Here's how you can use them.
Mashed Potato Martini, Sir?
Food trends in a cost control climate. Industry experts share their secrets for serving up low-cal budgets.
Who'd You Have to Sleep With to Get This Space?
How Samsung used the Guggenheim Museum to wow the business press.
A Corporate Guide for VIP Attendance
Use Hewlett-Packard's three-part attendance strategy to lure busy executives and important customers to your private corporate events.
Event Planning by the Numbers
Tips and formulas to save you money.
Bratwurst or Beef Wellington?
How to select the right menu for your hospitality event.
Online Articles
To Keynote or Not to Keynote?
Should you hire an expensive ''name'' keynote speaker to generate attendance, or should you allocate the money to a lesser-known speaker with industry-relevant expertise? Three experts weigh in.
HP's Accidental Event
To help customers feel like company insiders, HP transforms its trade-show-affiliated customer meeting into an annual, standalone event – now worth $33 million.
The Face-to-Face Advantage of Events
These days, getting face time with business-to-business customers is harder than ever. Corporate events are a golden opportunity for dialogue with customers, but only if you ask the right questions.
Customer Evangelists: Spreading the Word
Customers who believe in your company can become your most potent sales force. Here are 10 ideas you can use at your next corporate event to cultivate customer evangelists.
C-Level Events
How do you differentiate an event and add value for key executives so that they'll choose your event over your competitors' events? Three event experts weigh in.
The Amazing Race
MC2 lures jaded exhibit and event managers off the Vegas strip with a city-wide scavenger hunt.
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Unique event venues where the temperature is 100 degrees, the wind is 200 miles per hour, and the room is more than 300 miles long.
Signs of the Times
Cisco Systems Inc. trades in its printed signage for digital signs to cut costs, decrease revision time, and improve customer communication.
PeopleSoft: Growing Event Attendance Through Market Segmentation
Aiming for a 20-percent attendance increase at its user conference, PeopleSoft Inc. developed a targeted-marketing promotion that segmented customers based on demographics and behavioral responses. Attendance soared – smashing PeopleSoft's goal.
Event Outsourcing
Three experts weigh in, offering their views on the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing event management.
What's Hot Now
Industry expert Rebecca Coons targets the latest trends in corporate events, from chocolate fountains to female rock bands to splitting the check.
Disaster Strikes
How to negotiate your hotel contract so you don't have to pay cancellation fees when natural disasters, terrorism, or travel restrictions threaten your event.
Inflatables
Ten ways to use inflatables at your next corporate event.
Fourteen Last-Minute Budget Busters
Corporate event planner Mark Chaplowitz identifies unexpected expenses that can blow your budget.
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EXHIBITOR2009 Seminars:
Advanced Learning Session: Transitioning from Event Marketing to Experience Marketing (continued)

The Basics of Event Logistics and Implementation

The Basics of Event Planning and Management