Familiarization or FAM trips allow meeting planners to visit a destination and determine if it’s a good fit for future conferences or other events.

As planners face increasing pressure from association stakeholders and attendees to provide memorable experiences on limited budgets, they’re turning to engagement technology to achieve those goals.

When it comes to growing a trade show, planners have critical questions to ask. We asked several high-level industry experts to weigh in on how best to drive trade show growth.

To get the best deals, planners must raise their negotiating game by thinking like sales managers, knowing the value of their business and being more flexible with dates, rates, meeting space and other logistics.

The directive for planners is simple: Seek what is genuine, what is real, what is original — not what is manufactured.

For growth-minded international associations, convening in new locations outside the United States is a key way to raise awareness of their educational offerings and, ultimately, gain new members across the world.

The experiential trend seems to be reaching every corner of the meetings industry, including conventions held by associations.

It’s no secret in the industry that SMERF meeting planners are sometimes considered to be the red-headed stepchild of the meeting biz.

Nothing is more central to the continued success of associations today than the value of the educational content presented at their conferences and meetings.

While that knowledge gap remains a constant for many planners, especially at smaller
associations, the demand from attendees for state-of-the-art Wi-Fi capabilities is driving the market.