STEP CONNECT2’s Post

Save on conference registrations when you purchase a Conference Group Pack. A Conference Group Pack nets you three or six conference seats to use any way you choose. Whether attending multiple conferences yourself or spreading the wealth between team members, a Conference Group Pack lets you experience the benefits of in-person, off-campus learning at a discount. https://lnkd.in/dAJ_Wk_3

Great to see the UK's leading online event course Event Crowd incorporate OnePlan as a way to teach planning events. All educators in the event planning space should really utilise its user friendly interface to teach. I still remember trying to get the text to try and be the right size on my dimensions in Autocad at Uni while not being actually able to focus on the event planning. #education #eventplanning #teachingevents #eventcrowd

WOOHOO! We hit our 300th sign-up for Virtual Fringe! We have a totally FREE set of sessions - 10 of them - so if you need a bit of inspiration, motivation and a spot of learning then sign up, we start on Tuesday. Why is it free? - we know that everyone needs a bit of help to boost student recruitment. - we know not everyone is able to pay to attend our in-person event - our sponsors kindly fund them (so remember to say thanks! 😃 ) - we are passionate about supporting the education sector, and have been for 29 years. This is us giving back a little. If you can't make the sessions live, sign up and get the recordings. We realise that we operate in a global sector where time zones can make attendance tricky, but you wont' miss out, they'll all be neatly uploaded for you to watch for the next few months. There is a VIP ticket available too, which gives you more sessions and networking opportunity, but there is no obligation to buy that ticket at all. You're welcome to go to the free ones, which are HIGH quality expert-led, 30 minute sessions, totally free. You do need to sign up, though, to get the links etc. and the sign up is here , just scroll down to the end. https://lnkd.in/ej8VHK-j

Why are some conference programmes incomplete when early bird tickets are realised? I’m talking about unnamed workshops. Where the programme lists that there will be X number of workshops and that’s it. It’s frustrating because without knowing what the workshops are on, how would one know the value of booking tickets and or what tickets to book? Without previous experience at a given conference, there is no way to know. I appreciate with event organising, not all of the answers will be available straight away. All I ask is that there is at least an indication, theme, or note about workshop content displayed for early bird booking. If the information isn’t ready, delay opening early bird tickets? Otherwise it makes booking early inaccessible for first time conference goers. Think about it, you wouldn’t offer pre-order for a phone without disclosing its specifications, why treat conferences like that? Thoughts? #Conference #Conferences #EventPlanning

Maximize Your Savings for AMA Higher Ed! Here are some great ways to cut costs while securing your spot at this year’s conference: 1️⃣ Early-Bird Registration: Don’t miss out! Register by October 7 to take advantage of our early-bird pricing. 2️⃣ Group Discounts: Save 15% on group registrations when you sign up 3 or more attendees. It’s a great opportunity to collaborate with your team! 3️⃣ Become an AMA Member: Join AMA before you register! The combined cost of an annual membership and the discounted member registration rate is less than the non-member conference rate. Plus, membership prices increase in October—join now to lock in your savings! Don’t miss out on these fantastic opportunities to enhance your skills and network with industry peers. Secure your spot today! #AMAHigherEd #Marketing #HigherEdMarketing

With our call for speakers now closed and the process of session ranking underway we want to re-share a post Craig Porteous published last year on how we do session selection and how we make it fair and transparent 💙💚 Our first stage is Session Ranking -         We have reached out to about 15 people across the wider data community to help us with this first part to give us a diverse set of opinions and expertise on what makes a good session. -         It helps us identify popular sessions, highlight any that maybe don’t fit the event so well, and overall prioritise those that are good quality. -         We run this for about 10 days, giving our team of community volunteers time to compare and review as many sessions as they can. -         Evaluation is done anonymously, so no speaker info is shared with evaluators to make this as objective as possible. The next stage is a First-Pass Selection -         This is the point where the organising team get together. -         We take the top ranked sessions and de-duplicate speakers. We want as many different voices as we can get and only ask speakers to do multiple sessions where their topics fill gaps or they help us cover a cancellation. -         This is also where we consider the diversity of our speaker pool and do what we can to ensure that the final list represents the community we want to see, that local speakers and minorities are represented. -         With different session lengths, we also make sure we have the right number of sessions for our planned schedule. The third stage is to carve out our New Speakers -         We’ve had LOADS of new speaker submissions this year so this is the difficult task of working out how many sessions we can support and pairing them with our many willing mentors. Fourth up is a Content Check -         With our top ranked sessions, we look again at whether all of our core topic areas are represented, dropping sessions, and adding others to balance this the way we want. -         Again, this is another point where we make sure that our speakers represent the community. The fifth stage is Attendee Journey -         This is where we start to build the schedule and place sessions to give attendees a full day of potential content based on our content categories and role expectations. Everyone is free to go to any sessions, but this is a great way to inspire our attendees and we aim to publish these suggested journeys in the lead up to the event. The sixth and final stage is Publishing the Schedule -         We take everything we’ve pulled together, notify speakers, and schedule announcements. Assuming all speakers accept, we have a schedule! 🚀 -         We’ll often hold back a few sessions as speakers may be unable to accept as circumstances change. We always find a fantastic group of speakers who are willing to step in last minute to fill any gaps ♥ #data #ai #datacommunity #DATAScotland2024 #CallforSpeakers

Hooray!! It's Global Meetings Industry Day! To celebrate, MPI is offering 30% off memberships when using code “Journey30” to join or renew! Offer valid TODAY ONLY and cannot be combined with discounts including faculty, students, retired, dual memberships, and MyFriendMPI. What better way to celebrate the importance of live meetings than to join the most recognized organization out there for event professionals! Have any questions - please let me know! #meetingsmeanbusiness #myeventlife

I’m working this weekend... I tend not to but there are a few things I still want to do for Elevate Live Online this week. When I create experiences I go all in, and I’m known for it. High quality, first class, client first with a few surprises is my driver. So getting this feedback as I open up our summit portal to our guests, and get our speakers organised, means the world. This is my third Elevate Live Online, and this one is bigger and better than ever. Because, actually, this is my last one. I’ve been running online and offline events since 2019, they are transformational - for me and my guests. But the event space got busy, and when everyone goes left, I tend to go right. My two day Elevate Uplevel Retreat in July was also my last in person event. I have huge ambitions, for our next phase of growth, I’m clear what will move the needle in our business and I need laser sharp focus to bring it to life. Events aren’t part of that plan - apart from a few one day masterminds soon, I’m currently securing the perfect venue for that. So if you’re thinking “I’ll wait until the next one … there is no next one” And I intend to go out with a BANG! FOR THAT REASON… ✅ And 40 exceptional speakers - many of whom will offer new perspectives as they’re not on the current speaker circuit. ✅ And a virtual gift bag full of trainings and tools worth between £50-£500. ✅ And a prize draw with business changing prizes with thousands. ✅ And a week with me, holding you in a safe space as you uplevel. ✅ And a workshop after the event to create your implementation plan so you don’t forget all the song ideas you have once the event is over. ✅ And a week masterminding with our other guests (as many say - I attract the best people). 🎟️ It might be time to get a ticket. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eT4AduDa

Yesterday, a CEO I am coaching signed up her 11 Staff for TURN-TRANSFORM CONFERENCE holding this weekend (Friday and Saturday). All Staff of Cerca Africa are also attending TURN-TRANSFORM CONFERENCE and we are paying for everyone. We cannot take away the POSSIBILITIES that the more we invest in our people, the better the chances that we can improve our processes. Investing in our people DOES NOT automatically make them better … but it definitely is a PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT that counts for you. Yesterday’s CEO asked me ‘do they all have to attend?’ My response was an echo of what Austin Okere always says: THE MORE PEOPLE IN YOUR BUSINESS WHO ARE BEING EXPOSED TO THE SAME LEARNING INVESTMENT, THE EASIER IT IS TO IMPLEMENT THE LEARNING. So, send not 1 staff alone.. but 3, 5, 7, many of your staff (or all, if you’re around 10). Their Group learning will have huge impact faster. Register them on https://lnkd.in/d7T5PvCE or call BRENDA on +234 706 884 0545 See you at TURN-TRANSFORM CONFERENCE 2024. PS: You can still take Exhibition Stands and Sponsorship Slots. All materials are going to print press TOMORROW so today is the last day if you want your brand to feature in any printed materials. DO NOT WASTE TIME. Call Brenda now. m a k t u b !!! The Octopus 🐙

Mark your calendars! MPI Members are welcome to register for our next dedicated DE&I Lunch & Learn happening on September 10th at 12:00 noon ET. The intention of this virtual gathering is to cultivate, develop, & perpetuate the DEI conversation, learnings, & application within the chapter, and broader membership towards a more inclusive meetings & events profession at large. This forum is designed to encourage active learning through discussion/ questions/ dialogue in community as opposed to passive or solo consumption of resources. In this session we will be sharing: Best practices integrating DE&I into our events Venue perspective/sharing Planner perspective/sharing AV/Technical Support perspective/sharing Artists/Talent/Entertainment perspective/sharing Register here: https://loom.ly/BOQt10w #MPITorontoDEI #diversity #inclusion ID: An image of a laptop screen with many faces of people attending a virtual event, and a container of pens on a desk. A blue text box with white font reads: Virtual DEI: Lunch and Learn: Let's Talk About Best Practices. Additional text in black reads: Join the MPI Toronto DEI Committee for a virtual session to chat about DEI Best Practices for your meetings & events. September 10th 12:00pm ET-1:00pm. This session is for MPI Members Only