Smart Event Academy

Is your events client work leaving you feeling stuck or uninspired? 🫣

If so, then tomorrow’s newsletter is for you. I’m sharing:

✅ How to align your strengths with your career for more happiness

✅ A simple way to bring the magic back into your work

The data backs it up – we're more successful at work when we are happier in our day-to-day.

More than just inspiration, I have some practical things for you to do as you wind down your year. Sign up now 👉 https://eventtech.news/

Feeling like you get lost in event tech?

No, it's not just you. Everyone goes through it.

The key is to start small, learn consistently, and build your skills over time.

Need help wrapping your arms around your event tech?

An easy way to start is with eventtech.news -- my weekly newsletter where I share straightfoward, practical advice for navigating this side of events.

Check the link in bio! 📩

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).

🤖 Have you started using AI in your event planning yet? And if not, why not? 🤔

If it’s because you don’t know where to start, I’ve got you covered!

It’s not coming for our jobs, but you know who is? Those event pros who know how to use AI to save time, level up your events, and make a deeper client impact.

I created this non-techie friendly intro to ChatGPT to help my fellow event pros get started.

It has:
✅ 7 event-specific AI prompts
✅ 3 training videos so you can see it in action
✅ The best practices and safeguards you need to know to use it safely
✅ The tips and tricks to help make the tone and voice your own

And I’m making it available for free because it truly is something that all event pros should learn to leverage. I promise you, it will make your life easier.

AIForEventPros.com or the link is also in my profile.

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I make event tech simple and easy to understand. I teach event tech project management and digital event strategy in my Smart Event Academy.

🤖 Get my free mini-course, ChatGPT Made Simple: using AI to save time, level up your events, and make a difference. 🤖

I've been doing post-mortems with my teams for over a decade, and the value of a well-run post-mortem cannot be overstated.

My top six tips:

1️⃣ Run your post-mortem as close to the end of the event as you can. The longer you wait, the more you forget and the less value the post-mortem will have. I have even started a post-mortem document before the live event to make sure I didn't forget.

2️⃣ Start with a celebration of successes. Every event, no matter how chaotic it was, has some successes. You executed the plan, you got deliverables in on time, you launched the scheduler on schedule. I like using dates and numbers for celebrations, because they can't be disputed.

3️⃣ Don't let the post-mortem devolve into a whine-fest. For virtually everything that didn't go according to plan, there is something that can be learned and improved upon for next time.

4️⃣ Make it actionable. Lock on content two weeks sooner. Do your dry run the week before. Complete pre-records earlier. Never use that venue again. 🤣

5️⃣ Write it all down. Write down what went right so you do it again. Write down what you need to do differently for next time so you have it ready.

6️⃣ Get it all into your playbook. You have a playbook, right?

Tell me, my event tech PMs, what did I miss?

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. Be sure to sign up for our Run of Show mini-course at https://runofshow.info.

💡 What’s your best event tech tip for exhibitors? 💡

Exhibitors definitely create challenges in the event tech stack. It's the one place where non-event-planners who have a significant financial investment in the event have direct access to our tools.

So when we get it right, everyone's lives improve. Here are two of my favorite tips:

1️⃣ Enforce file type and aspect ratio requirements when exhibitors upload their logos. It’s a simple tweak that can save hours of resizing headaches.

2️⃣ Ensure there is a lead capture mechanism for hybrid events – with the appropriate opt-ins, of course. I feel like we all figured it out in virtual, but don't let your hybrid events get left behind.

What about you? What’s one exhibitor tip or trick that’s worked wonders for you?

Looking for more exhibitor event tech tips and tricks? In this Friday’s newsletter, I’ll break down how to optimize ERCs, lead retrieval, and exhibitor directories to ensure your event is a win for everyone.

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).

7 events in 10 business days across 3 continents? 😱

Yep, that's been my past few weeks. And four more events in the next few weeks.

You can't wing something like that, so how do you not only survive, but thrive?

Here is what we did:

💡 Templates, templates, templates 💡
Our event series had templates for everything — marketing site, agenda, sponsor benefits, speaker and sponsor displays, and even core sessions. Cities were free to localize all sessions, including language and customer stories. Our ticketing system was templatized and each city had a specific set of checklists we followed.

💡 Leaning into local teams 💡
In addition to empowering local city teams, we identified regional leads for our technical partner.

Then when the live event came around we’d have someone “in time zone” who had a good understanding of the event tech side of things.

💡 Strong documentation and playbook 💡
Onsite ex*****on was managed through an extensive onsite playbook that not only listed out key contacts and production timelines, but also detailed exactly what we expected to be tested and validated during setup, ensuring that even somebody walking into our events for the first time knew exactly what was expected.

💡 Asynchronous communication tools 💡
We used an online project management tool and Slack to communicate with our city teams in the leadup to the event. By keeping things out of email and in these tools, it gave visibility to the larger team, meaning anyone on our distributed team could pick up a ticket at any time to keep things quickly moving forward.

Overall, I think our system worked really well — I won’t lie. There are some places where I’d like to tighten up the documentation, but it generally worked. If I could control the schedule, I certainly wouldn’t put five events in the same week again, but it’s been incredible knowing that it’s possible.

For you – wherever you are in your events journey – templates and processes are your friend.

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).

We’ve all been there – getting ready to go live (or sure as heck trying) and the bug reports just won’t. stop. coming. in.

Except…

They aren’t bugs. They are change requests.

🐞 Somebody doesn’t like an approved image.

🐞 Somebody else wants a text tweak.

🐞 Oops, forgot to run it past brand.

🐞 Somebody else wants another text tweak.

🐞 Now some key stakeholder wants their thing highlighted on the home page.

The implementation team works like crazy to get it all done – at the expense of the team and their budget.

Now you’ve got budget overruns because of all of the change requests, and the event tech team is blamed for not being able to properly manage resources.

❓ Sound familiar? (Rhetorical question)

The way I managed to solve this at a very large client of mine was to implement a change log. Every time a change request came in, it got logged in a separate tracker. Big or small it all got logged. Who made the ask, who originated the ask (exec, etc), a date, what the ask was, and who had to make the change.

We also changed our verbiage when talking about these “bugs” to refer to them very clearly as changes when they were changes and bugs when they were bugs.

It took a few months, but the process worked.

✅ When we got asked why our hours were so high on a show or why things just felt “unstable”, we could pull up the change tracker.

✅ The people filing the “bug” reports started to become aware of what they were asking for and told me they got embarrassed at the quantity of changes they were submitting.

✅ Client leadership started emphasizing getting sign-offs at the right place in the process.

You may be thinking, “that’s great Jen, but my company or client will never go for it.” To which I would respond, maybe you’re right. But also, maybe you are wrong.

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).

🚨 Data security reminder for all event pros: Convenience shouldn’t come at the cost of security. “Anyone with the link” sharing might seem like an easy option, but it opens the door to serious risks. Devices can get lost, emails can be forwarded by mistake, and bad actors are always on the lookout for vulnerable links.

🔒 Keep your attendee and client data safe by only sharing with specific users. Prioritizing security builds trust and protects your reputation.

Want more actionable event tech tips? Newsletter goes out tomorrow!

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).

💡 Tip(s) of the day: 4 at-your-desk ways to reduce overwhelm, anxiety, or worry.

Cuz there's a lot going on in the world right now. 🌎

✅ Singing or humming -- in tune, out of tune, doesn't matter (unless you have officemates)

✅ Deep breathing -- shoot for the exhale to take twice as long as the inhale

✅ A deep belly laugh -- bookmark a few fave videos so you always have one at the ready

✅ Think positive thoughts about other people

Why this works...

Each of these techniques stimulates the vagus nerve -- the longest nerve in the body and the most influential nerve on the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest side of our nervous system).

Personally, I'm getting a lot of benefits out of the humming right now. YMMV.

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The path to being an event planner who specializes in digital event technology is easier than you think. Follow to learn how.

Here's something I don't see people talking enough about: protecting our attandee and speaker data.

43% of cyber attacks are against small businesses – because we're easy targets.

And, as event pros, let's just think about what data we have access to. The amount of PII is actually somewaht staggering.

The top three mistakes I see people make are:

❌ Downloading speaker or attendee lists and then not cleaning up their downloads folder on a regular basis

❌ Emailing PII 😱

❌ Creating anonymous sharing links

In this week's newsletter I talk about yet more common mistakes, talk more about what constitutes PII, and how we can protect our client's data – which in turn protects our livelihoods.

Not on the mailing list? You've got time to right that wrong by signing up at https://eventtech.news. Newsletters go out Friday mornings.

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).

Skip perfection. That’s not actually a thing.

For this Friday, let me leave you with this idea:

I wish I could take credit for it, but I got the idea from the amazing coaches at Girls Gone Strong.

Don’t worry about doing enough. Because who defines enough, anyway?

Incremental progress will get you to your goals.

What I love about AllOrSomething is that it co-opts all or nothing. It takes a hustle phrase and makes it anti-hustle. It’s easy to remember. And, it makes a great hashtag. What’s not to love?

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).

Don’t let your emails get lost in the inbox abyss.📬

Start with strong subject lines, readable formats, and strategic follow-ups—then watch your response rates soar.

Want all six of my email tips? Sign up for my mailing list, and it'll be in your inbox on Friday!

Link in bio.

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Like and follow to get more event and event tech insights. You can also sign up for a weekly dose of event tech insights via eventtech.news (link in bio).