The Best Advice for Event Professionals: Here’s What We Learned at EventCamp

Earlier this month, we welcomed more than 200 attendees from across the United States ― and a few international folks ― to Tripleseat’s sixth annual EventCamp, held in Boston.

Every session offered a wealth of information, and these are some of our top takeaways:

Tripleseat CEO and Founder Jonathan Morse said the events industry is undergoing a considerable period of growth and change. 

• Consumers will seek out experiences/unique spaces and competitive socializing.
• Consumers will expect easy, frictionless event booking.
• Venues will create and sell tickets to their own events.
• Large parties/reservations will be a new trend for events.

Joi Alexander, National Director of Sales & Catering at Slutty Vegan, told attendees that their hospitality business has opportunities to promote Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DE&I) and create a more equitable workplace by:

• Making sure that your hospitality organization is open to promoting diversity.
• Leading your business with intention rather than intuition.
• Surrounding yourself with people that are smarter than you.
• Don’t be afraid to go against the grain. Ask uncomfortable questions.

Panelists from the “Optimizing Your Workday: Advice from Event Professionals” panel discussed their own professional strategies, including:

• Prep for a good day by reviewing your inbox and calendar. 
• Organize your to-do list by priority. Address urgent issues first and then organize lower-priority items for the day or week.
• Block specific times in your calendar for projects, known as time-blocking, or silence your inbox notifications to be able to focus.
• Approach delegation of tasks like a teachable moment and mentoring opportunity. Build up your team and invest in the future of your business.

Latasha James, who presented “How to Create Videos That Get Results and Revenue for Your Venue,” said your hospitality business can create videos that get results and revenue for your venue.

• Videos are the most important type of content to be shared with prospective customers. To get started, use your smartphone to record up to an hour of video that can be turned into so many smaller pieces of content.
• Long-form video is good for brand identity, highly discoverable through SEO (Search Engine Optimization), easy to repurpose into smaller pieces, and great for YouTube and Facebook.
• Short-form video is best for trending time-sensitive content. They’re quick and easy to create, they’re the fastest-growing content type and are perfect to use on Instagram and TikTok.
• Use a pro for things like user-generated content meant to highlight a particular event, feature, angle, or pillar brand content that you’ll want to reuse for years to come or a recurring, long-form series with lots of moving parts.

Andy Husbands, Pitmaster, Owner, and Author, of the Smoke Shop BBQ, shared advice during the “Growing Your Professional Network: Strategies for Connecting with Peers and Creating Opportunities for Growth” session. As a hospitality professional, you can grow your professional network with these strategies:

• Overcome fear of networking. Talk to people. Approach with curiosity. Ask them, “What’s difficult?” “What works?”
• Get a mentor, but have a goal in mind and do the work. Start with your boss. It doesn’t have to be formal. Grab a coffee. Generally, people are generous with their time.
• Try to mentor others. Help people that need it. Build each other up.

Members of the “Maximizing Your Profits: Strategies for Successfully Selling Your Space” panel shared important tips.

• Don’t undervalue your work and your space — remind the client about what they will be getting for their money.
• Review your reports to find out how much events actually cost so you can charge prices that make the best business sense.
• Maximize profits by making connections in your neighborhood with your local convention and visitors bureau, local businesses, meeting professionals organizations, and other local groups.

Panelists from “The Grass is Greener: How Sustainable Practices Can Help Your Event Business” shared recommendations on how to get started:

• Repurpose your ingredients. Use every part of your produce, meat, and other food. Turn ingredients into something else, like cocktails or apps.
• Grow your own ingredients in your outdoor space or in a rooftop garden.
• Use local ingredients to avoid transportation and reduce the carbon footprint.
• Start small with sustainability efforts, such as installing LED light bulbs.

We closed the day hearing from your customers — event planners. Here are some top tips from the “From the Mouths of Event Planners” panel:

• Event planners want to know that a specific event they are planning can happen at the venue. They want to see different rooms and spaces with different event styles.
• Planners love venues that proactively answer questions and have guest counts and room capacity on websites. They also appreciate documentation on everything, such as space measurements, recommended vendors, and the load-in process.
• Response time is important as their clients can lose faith and interest if too much time goes by.
• Planners and venues share the same goals and should work together to pull off successful events.

Relive the EventCamp experience

Check out our favorite moments from the 2023 EventCamp conference by viewing the video below: