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December 2023
The Olympic Games, the largest sporting event in the world, is aiming to make next year’s edition in Paris its most sustainable ever. What can the events community learn from its plans and its progress?
Cover illustration by Serge Bloch
view digital edition subscribe podcastSpotlighting Trust in 2024
After reading a Convene online story about trends, a reader pledges to cut through the social media noise and demand trustworthiness of others — and herself — in the coming year.
Safe Spaces for Feelings
A Convene reader asks how event organizers can help communities navigate ambivalence, fear, and anger over climate change at their meetings.
Salary Survey 2023: Highs and Lows for Event Pros
The return of face-to-face meetings is good news, but it brings a host of pandemic-related and other challenges for event professionals as well. Convene examines the ups and downs that come with the job — both monetary and otherwise — in the 2023 Salary Survey.
The Seine’s Starring Role in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
After $1.5-billion clean-up, Paris’ famous river Seine will welcome Olympic swimmers for the first time in more than a century.
Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Gets Modern Makeover
French designer Mathieu Lehanneur’s torch concept for the Olympic and Paralympic Games blends themes of equality, water, peacefulness, and environmental consciousness.
Sustainability Isn’t the Only Goal on 2024 Olympic Games’ Agenda
Equality, accessibility are among the 15 recommendations planners — including the director of corporate and sustainable development — are undertaking for Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Meeting Planners Struggle for Recognition
“We are so much more than layers of specs,” said one respondent to our Salary Survey who is seeking consideration from a boss.
A Shift in Mindset — and Behavior
Meeting the challenges of climate change demands that we find new ways of thinking about sustainability.
Thorough About Thoroughfares
The annual meeting of the Governors Highway Safety Association tackles traffic issues — including safety among diverse communities.
What Event Professionals Like Most — and Least — About Their Jobs
Respondents didn’t hold back when asked to share how they feel about their jobs — the good, the bad, and the ugly — in several open-ended questions in Convene’s Salary Survey 2023. Here’s a taste of what they had to say.
Who’s Asking Questions and Why?
Bill Reed, chief event strategy officer for the American Society of Hematology, offered insights from his research and experience on the issue of men dominating Q&A conference sessions, after listening to a Convene Podcast episode on that topic.
The Rise of LinkedIn
The popularity of social media’s most businesslike channel — LinkedIn — has exploded in recent years, including among event professionals.
10 Tips for Event Professionals Using LinkedIn
In the last two decades, LinkedIn has evolved far beyond a platform where professionals could post their resumes. Here are ideas for getting the most out of LinkedIn from three savvy event pros.
Making Your Events Inclusive for Neurodiverse Attendees
The CEO of an organization founded to amplify autistic voices shares how to make events more welcoming to neurodivergent people.
Conference Reimagines Downtown by Expanding Beyond Chicago’s ‘Loop’
The pandemic accelerated problems facing cities around the world. Here’s how one organization’s annual event — in its design and program — is helping to usher in “a whole new era of city building.”
‘Let’s Have These Conversations’ About Civil Rights
An annual summer event produced by the Big Ten Conference for student athletes brings the United States’ civil rights history to life.
Scrap Giant Makes E-Waste Problem Impossible to Ignore
A nearly 20-foot-tall, 1-ton sculpture made of discarded electronics was the centerpiece of a first-ever Sustainability Village at a global consumer electronics and home appliances trade show.
How Exhibitors Can Adapt to Shifting Marketing Realities
Most event metrics, including overall registration numbers, have been on the upswing in this new post-pandemic normal. The long-term outlook for exhibitors, however, may not be as rosy.
How We Do It: Jaimé Bennett on Beginning and Ending an Event With Authenticity
The opening and closing sessions at Convening EMEA 2023, which dared to be a little different, paid off by creating memorable experiences that supported the goals of the event — and what matters most to participants.
Time to Think Outside the Inbox
Email is a tried-and-true tactic for marketing events, but you may be missing opportunities to reach your audience if you’re relying too heavily on email to secure registrations.
Making Flexible Work Pay Off for Women
Harvard University’s Claudia Goldin, the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for economics, links the gender pay gap in the workplace to time pressures on women with children. How does that play out in the business events industry — and what can our industry do to help narrow the pay gap in other sectors?
What Motivates Older Workers?
As the business events industry — and the workplace as a whole — struggles with staffing shortages, the need to recruit and retain older workers is critical. Some companies are introducing a new perk specifically for that demographic.