All Topics
Accessibility & Inclusion
Meetings can be a stressful setting for people with anxiety, depression, substance abuse issues, and other challenges. Here are ways to help these attendees get the most out of your meeting.
5 Tips for Accommodating Halal and Kosher Diets at Meetings
Planning ahead is the key to meeting attendees’ special dietary requirements, especially for kosher and halal meals.
7 Tips for Creating a Lactation Room at Your Meeting
The days of pumping milk in public bathrooms are gone, replaced by comfortable private spaces for nursing moms. Here’s how to create one for your event.
Announcements
Introducing Keynote Listeners: Elevating Voices and Ideas at Skift Meetings Forum
Keynote Listeners debut at Skift Meetings Forum 2025 to spark deeper dialogue, spotlight emerging ideas, and carry the industry’s most important conversations far beyond the stage.
Who Attends Skift Meetings Forum (And Why You Should Too)
Skift Meetings Forum has firmly established itself as a premier event for senior planners and event industry leaders who are driving change and shaping the future of global meetings. If…
Skift Meetings Forum Returns to NYC With a Sharper Lens on Event Strategy
This is where real event strategy happens. Skift Meetings Forum returns this September, built for senior planners navigating higher expectations, tighter budgets, and an industry that refuses to stand still.
Budgeting & Cost Savings
10 Must-Know Terms for Budgeting
The world of budgeting has its own vocabulary – and you, as a planner, need to speak the same language as the CFO.
Meeting Budgeting 101
Planners spend most of their time on design and logistics, but at the foundation of every successful event lies a balanced budget.
Tipping Etiquette for Planners
A mandatory service charge doesn’t always get back to the team, some employees can’t accept cash, and minimum wages differ by state. There’s nothing simple about tipping.
Careers & Personal Development
AI Prompts to Help Planners Achieve Clarity, Build Confidence, and Stay Organized
Who better to create supportive and empowering AI prompts for event planners than a former planner-turned-coach with firsthand experience?
Thinking of Starting Your Own Business? Planners Share Their Biggest Challenges
From managing cash flow to juggling responsibilities, there’s a lot to learn when planners open their own shop.
Tax Time Means Stress for Independent Planners. Here’s Some Advice.
A tax expert offers some advice for independent planners facing their least-favorite task — filing their taxes.
Contracts & Duty of Care
Time for Plan B: Five Situations Where You’ll Need a Backup Plan
Flight delays. Unexpected weather. Renovation snags. The list of things that can go wrong at a meeting is a long and winding one.
Tariffs, Riots, Travel Bans: Contract Language to Protect Planners
Tariff-driven price increases and international attendee cancellations can cost companies big bucks — unless they’ve addressed these in their contracts.
How to Address Tariffs in Event Contracts
Tariffs can trigger unexpected cost spikes for both planners and suppliers. Building flexibility into contracts through substitutions and force majeure protections can help mitigate financial surprises and keep events on track.
Coronavirus
Planners Beware, Covid Cases on the Rise
A new Covid variant is sweeping across the United States. One industry professional raises the alarm after contracting the virus at a recent convention.
What E3’s Cancellation Means for the Meetings Industry
65,000 attendees, 4,000 jobs, and $88 million in revenue won't be coming to Los Angeles in June, with leading video-game-industry trade show E3 canceled for 2023. It was meant to be the first in-person show since 2019. However, major exhibitors were unwilling to commit. Will other events follow suit?
China Shutters Major Event 9 Hours Before Opening Due to Covid Outbreak
TCT Asia, a major trade show, was shut down by Shenzhen authorities nine hours before it was set to open due to Covid numbers in the city creeping up to 24. Navigating policies and enforcements like this is a challenge for show and event planners, but it’s a reality that’s here to stay.
Destinations
Montréal Attracts Top Meetings With Worldly Charm and Local Warmth
Montréal is poised to maintain its position as a top destination for international conferences as the city leverages its support services to ease travel concerns, while welcoming visitors to enjoy its unique French culture like a local.
Cincinnati Invests $800 Million to Overhaul Convention District and Attract Larger Events
Cincinnati is making an $800 million bet that a fully modernized convention center, a new headquarters hotel, and two-acre public plaza will help the city leapfrog into the top tier of U.S. meetings destinations.
From VidCon to the Olympics: Anaheim’s Bold Vision for the Future of Events
With the largest convention center on the West Coast, Anaheim has always made life easier for meeting planners. Now, the city’s grand vision for $10 billion of updates over the next decade will make every program more exciting for attendees.
Diversity and Inclusion
How Wordly Enables Inclusive Meetings With AI: Watch Video
Everyone deserves a seat at the table, no matter what language they speak. Wordly helps organizations create more inclusive meetings and events by using AI to provide real-time translation and captioning, making it easier for global teams to participate fully and stay connected.
How Louisville’s Award-Winning Charm Built a Top Event Destination
With two convention centers, accommodation options that cater to every type of attendee, and an airport with nonstop service to 38 destinations, Louisville checks all the boxes of a premier convention city. To understand its magic, though, you need to look at something that cannot be built: the authentic sense of Southern charm that defines the community.
One of Nation’s Largest Trans Conferences Ends Annual Event, Latest LGBTQ Cancellation
As anti-LGBTQ+ legislation escalates in the U.S, events serving these communities are shifting away from in-person conferences. Some feel more cancellations are to come.
Event Design
Do Companies Need a Chief Meeting Officer?
Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg says meetings are a bigger expense than IT when you add the cost of attendees’ time and salaries. So why is no one at the top in charge?
Inside a Wellness-First Approach to Meetings, Caesars-Style
Caesars Entertainment prioritizes wellness by making it part and parcel of successful modern event strategies. They even took the show on the road to demonstrate the difference their approach makes for wellness-minded (and wellness-challenged) event and meeting planners.
How Louisville Looks at the Bigger Picture of Event Sustainability
As event organizers aim to uplevel their sustainability efforts, Louisville is the place to make it happen. Bourbon City is leading the way toward a brighter future with programs that are building a better community.
Event Logistics & Operations
What Your International Attendees Need to Know to Enter the U.S.
U.S. entry requirements vary by country and can be confusing. We break it down for you.
Why is it So Hard for Planners to Donate Food?
Despite laws that protect food donors and apps that simplify the process, planners keep hitting roadblocks with hotels unwilling or unable to donate food.
5 Best Practices for Successful Sales Kickoffs
The sales kickoff is a huge opportunity to pump up the sales force — and unquestionably a company’s most important meeting of the year.
Event Management
Speakers Bureaus to Planners: Stop Wasting Our Time
Today’s uncertain business climate is putting pressure on planners to hold off on making decisions until the last minute. Not only does this put speakers bureaus in a tough spot, it can mean lost income for the speakers.
Mitigating the Effects of Extreme Weather on Your Events
A new report tracks disruptions caused by extreme weather across thousands of events, revealing a growing and insidious challenge — extreme heat.
Planner Left Stranded After Hotel Changes Hands
No rooming lists, diagrams, or BEOs — and no responses to her calls or emails — left this planner on edge as her hotel went through a change of ownership just weeks before her meeting.
Event Marketing & Promotion
5 Strategies for Marketing Events to a Younger Audience
Planners spend a lot of time and effort tailoring meeting content and delivery to younger attendees. Make sure your marketing efforts get the same level of attention.
Pop-Up Events: Do’s and Don’ts
Pop-up events might have started out as a trend but they’ve become an integral part of the marketing mix.
Event Promotion Wording: A Key to Effective Event Marketing
Effective event promotion wording attracts attendees and strengthens your marketing strategy. Craft clear, engaging messages that resonate, create urgency, and highlight key benefits to make your event unforgettable.
Event Technology
5 Tech Tools Making Planners’ Lives Easier
There might be an initial learning curve, but planners say once they are up to speed, these technologies are not only improving their meetings but lightening their load.
7 Ways Next-Gen Attendees are Reshaping Event Tech
Planners need to rethink how they use technology in every aspect of their meetings, or they risk losing the attention of the biggest percentage of their attendees — Millennials and Gen Zers.
“Think of AI as an Idea Generator”: One Planner Shares Her Prompts
Think of AI as a starting point for sparking creativity — not as the final word — says this event strategist.
Ideas & Inspiration
5 Ways to Design a Transformational Event: Advice from Disney
As attendees crave deeper meaning and stronger emotional connections, Disney Meetings & Events is leaning into its storytelling roots. At the heart of its strategy is the Disney Creative Studio, a collaborative hub where storytelling drives experiences that truly transform.
48 Strategic Icebreakers for Meetings, Conferences, and Corporate Events
Icebreakers are evolving from cheesy to strategic. Here’s how to use them with intent, create stronger connections, and drive participation across formats.
Walking Meetings Are a Thing: What Planners Need to Know
Planners are finding that meeting and networking while walking is not just good for your health — it also increases productivity and creativity.
Incentive Travel
Strategies for Dealing With Attendee Travel Fears
Some incentive winners and their partners are less keen on traveling. A trifecta of anti-DEI sentiment, new government policies, and fear of flying is to blame.
5 Ways Planners Are Rethinking Incentives
Skift Meetings' upcoming incentive report, which will be released in August, reveals an industry that remains resilient and innovative as it is forced to continuously change and evolve.
Geopolitics, Inflation, Staffing: Incentive Planners Share Their Top Pain Points and Solutions
Incentive experts stress the importance of a Plan B and C as the geopolitical landscape shifts and costs continue to skyrocket.
Industry News
Human Connection Will Save Your Event (Not More Content)
As costs rise and loyalty declines, connection can’t be an afterthought. Planners who fail to prioritize it risk losing attendees, and with them, their event’s future.
For These Meeting Planners, It’s All in the Family
Children whose parents work in the meetings industry grow up being exposed to interesting people from all over the world and taking trips their friends could only dream of. So it’s not surprising when they decide to follow in their parents’ footsteps.
Trade Shows Rethink Hosted Buyer Model: More Freedom – But Less Free Stuff
Hosted buyer models are shifting from rigid schedules to buyer-driven engagement. As planners demand more autonomy and exhibitors seek qualified leads, shows like IBTM and IMEX are rewriting the playbook.
Inspiration
Experiential Marketing for Events: 21+ Examples That Actually Worked
Get these four things right, and your experiential marketing campaign will drive engagement, brand loyalty, and measurable ROI for your event.
Planner Turns Job Search Struggles Into Support Group
A senior planner who lost her job twice decided to channel the challenges of her unemployment journey into an online support group for fellow planners.
How Visit Atlantic City Is Rethinking What Blended Travel Really Means
Many destinations still separate blended travel into distinct categories: There’s business time and leisure time before or after the meeting or event. But in reality, this isn’t how meeting attendees view their trips. Visit Atlantic City is making major changes to deliver a more unified experience and challenge the traditional boundaries between work and play.
Meetings Innovators
Meetings Innovator: Liz Lathan
Liz Lathan is reinventing business events with emotional clarity and bold ideas, reminding the industry that connection is the real return on investment.
Meetings Innovator: Claus Raasted
Claus Raasted wants to disrupt the default settings of the meetings industry — one bold, low-stakes experiment at a time. His legacy goal? Make the world a little less afraid, and a lot more willing to try something new.
Meetings Innovator: Tahira Endean
IMEX Head of Programming Tahira Endean lives and breathes creativity. So it makes perfect sense that she would dream up the idea of categorizing ‘joy’ as a KPI — and then write an entire book about it.
On The Road
17 Must-Have Gadgets for Planners on the Go
These gadgets will make your travel to your meeting easier, and ensure that once you are on site, you’re ready for whatever comes up.
Expert Advice for Surviving Long-Haul Travel
The goal for meeting planners flying long-haul is to arrive fresh and ready to work. Who better to ask for advice on how to do that than fellow travelers and flight attendants?
Where Can On-the-Go Planners Find Healthy Airport Food?
Believe it or not, healthy food does exist when you’re traveling — you just need to know where to look.
People
Meetings Innovator: Anh Nguyen
When Anh Nguyen realized the events industry's "do-it-all-yourself" culture wasn't compatible with motherhood, she built a solution: a collaborative network of senior planners. But that's just one of her many innovative approaches to working in the meetings industry.
Mary Jo Blythe: Meetings Innovator
Forever changing the lives of front-line hospitality workers – one person at a time – is Mary Jo Blythe’s mission as founder of The Above and Beyond Foundation.
Megan Henshall: Meetings Innovator
Rehumanizing corporate life is the new mission of Google Xi. Its founder, Megan Henshall, is Skift Meeting's first-ever Meetings Innovator.
Skift Meetings Podcast
AI and the Human Touch
On this episode of the Skift Meetings Podcast, we delve into the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the events industry while emphasizing the enduring importance of human connection.
Has Wellness Reached a Tipping Point?
With all the talk in the industry about integrating wellness into events, have meetings really become healthier?
IMEX America 2024 in Review: From Baseball to Pickleball, the Industry Is All-In on Personalized Experiences
In this episode of the Skift Meetings Podcast, we recap the record-breaking IMEX America 2024, diving into industry trends and the innovations shaping the future of events.
Sustainability
Meet in Fort Myers With Eco-Friendly Event Options
With over 290,000 square feet of meeting space, sustainable venues, and immersive CSR experiences like mangrove planting and oyster bed restoration — all set against stunning natural backdrops — Fort Myers' islands, beaches, and neighborhoods are a top choice for eco-conscious event planners.
Sustainability and Inclusion: How Melbourne Elevates International Conferences
Melbourne stands out as a premier conference destination, offering the perfect blend of business and leisure. With Australia's largest conference facilities, Indigenous cultural experiences, sustainable venues, and a vibrant city atmosphere — all within 90 minutes of natural attractions and wineries — it creates inclusive, memorable events for global attendees.
MCI's Green Push: Rethinking Event Sourcing
MCI's sustainability push could disrupt site sourcing. Its bespoke, standardized metrics call for transparency, and may set the tone for industry-wide change.
Technology
7 Red Flags to Avoid in Event Tech
Event tech vendors often make big promises. Here are seven warning signs that separate reliable partners from problematic providers, and how to spot them before signing contracts.
Event Tech News Roundup: June 2025
As AI sweeps across the event tech landscape, June’s developments show a sector racing to redefine value through smarter tools, deeper data, and strategic consolidation. The real winners? Planners who can keep pace with the change.
Cvent’s AI Makeover Targets Planners, Hotels, and the Future of Sourcing
The launch of CventIQ represents a significant bet on AI becoming the backbone of Cvent's entire ecosystem, predictable buzzwords included.
Toolkit
Meetings Face New Hurdles for LGBTQ+ Attendees. Here’s What Planners Can Do.
Planners can take steps to ensure that their events remain inclusive.
6 Fresh Takes on Wellness at Meetings
The focus at meetings today is no longer about making the case to include wellness but on finding new and creative ways to do so.
How Can Speakers Bureaus Help With Your Meeting?
It can be a daunting task to choose a speaker from the thousands listed online. Enter speakers bureaus, which not only represent curated collections of speakers but also manage all the details for planners.
Trends & Insights
Events Industry Recovery Hits Geopolitical Headwinds
The industry is facing its first non-pandemic resilience test. The numbers aren't terrible, but they're a wake-up call for an industry that's gotten too comfortable with its comeback narrative.
CEO Turnover Hits Record High – That Means More Corporate Events
A wave of CEO turnover is creating new demand for in-person gatherings. From leadership summits to town halls, companies are convening under new leadership.
How Risk Managers Keep Their Own Attendees Safe
Other events could take a page from the volumes of safety advice that Riskworld, the world’s largest gathering of global risk professionals, creates for its attendees.
Venues
How Meeting and Event Spaces Foster Employee Connection in Today’s Hybrid World
Planners can maximize interaction among office staff members by meeting in person and creating experiences outside of the office in unique venues. Learn how Convene has designed its venues to meet the demands of companies bringing together teams of remote workers.
How Historic Destinations Can Spur Innovation Among Meeting Planners
Budapest’s rich history and modern amenities make it an ideal location for planners, particularly for large conferences. Learn how to utilize the Hungarian capital’s culture to spark innovation at your next meeting.
Independent Properties: When the Hotel Becomes the Experience
With the transformation of events into experiences, planners say that independent hotels offer distinct advantages, such as flexibility, creativity and authenticity.
Wellness
Keeping Cool and Connected: Attendee Wellbeing Strategies for Summer Outdoor Events
Ensure attendee wellbeing at summer outdoor events with tips on heat, hydration, accessibility, and real-time engagement.
Want More Engaged Attendees? Focus Less on Time, More on Energy
Event professionals are moving beyond traditional scheduling and focusing on energy management to design experiences that support how people process and retain information.
Yoga, Vegan Menus: Events Get a Wellness Makeover
Wellness at meetings has evolved from a perk into an intentional business strategy, making them more productive for both the organizer and the attendees.
Women Leaders in Meetings
Women Leaders in Meetings: Lori Allen
Lori Allen, vice president, global event operations at MetLife, strives to be the kind of leader who understands what her team needs and creates an environment where they're safe to express that.
Women Leaders in Meetings: Janet Traphagen
Janet Traphagen has spent her career helping define what leadership looks like in the business events space, not just through her rise at Creative Group, but through the values she champions: emotional intelligence, authenticity, and culture as a performance driver.
Women Leaders in Meetings: Anne Marie Rogers
Anne Marie Rogers believes in the power of women to elevate other women — and she lives it every day.