Event Networking Blog

Knowledge on networking & matchmaking.

Practical tips, guides and trends for successful B2B events — from the team behind the Converve platform.

All articles

Event Marketing

Trade Media Events: How B2B Publishers Turn Readers Into Buyer Meetings

How trade publishers and B2B media houses run buyer-supplier meeting events: from selling attention to selling meetings, qualifying readers as buyers, keeping editorial out of the packages and reporting meetings to suppliers.

Software & Features

Best Event Ticketing Software for B2B Conferences and Trade Shows 2026

Six event ticketing platforms compared for B2B conferences and trade shows: fee models, company bookings and invoices, VAT handling, check-in, and what happens to the attendee after the payment button.

Tips for Event Organizers

Conference Ticketing for B2B Events: Invoices, VAT, Company and Group Bookings

How to sell B2B conference tickets: the sales channels that work, the invoice accounts payable needs, EU VAT on in-person and online tickets, company and group bookings, name changes and what each payment method costs.

Event Matchmaking

Defence Industry Matchmaking: How B2B Events Connect Primes, SMEs and Start-ups

How defence industry matchmaking events work: what primes and SMEs want from each other, why participants are vetted before the first request, what stays out of a first meeting, export control basics for organisers and how meetings feed European Defence Fund consortia.

Event Matchmaking

Hydrogen Partnering Events: How to Match Producers, Suppliers and Offtakers

How to run B2B matchmaking for hydrogen projects: map the value chain, bring offtakers to the table, set fair meeting rules and measure what follows. With IEA data on the offtake gap and examples from Enterprise Europe Network matchmaking events.

Event Matchmaking

International Buying Groups: How to Plan Regional Summits and a Global Congress

How international buying groups and cooperatives plan their event year: what the regional summits, the global congress and the leadership meeting are each for, which suppliers attend where, and what to report across the year.

Startups & VC

Investor Readiness Programmes: From Bootcamp to Qualified Investor Meetings

How to design an investor readiness programme that ends in qualified investor meetings: selection, a readiness review, targeted development, pitch review with investors and a gate before matching.

Event Matchmaking

Women-Owned Business Matchmaking: How Programmes Connect Suppliers with Buyers and Lenders

How trade promotion agencies, chambers and supplier diversity teams run matchmaking for women-owned and small businesses: recruit buyers with a sourcing need, prepare the businesses, let the scarce side choose and report contracts and loans, not meetings.

Software & Features

Tendering an Event Platform: Specification, Award Criteria and Timeline

How public programmes, clusters and agencies tender an event or community platform: what to buy, how to estimate the value, how to write the specification as scenarios, which award criteria you can check and how to plan back from the first event.

Event Matchmaking

Ticket Tiers for B2B Events: What Each Ticket Should Unlock

How to design ticket tiers for B2B conferences and trade shows around access rights: days, areas, content, meeting rights and quotas per participant group, with an access matrix you can adapt.

Event Planning

Vendor Golf Outings: How Buying Groups Pair Vendors and Members

How buying groups and associations plan a vendor golf outing that pays off: one vendor per foursome, pairings chosen by purpose, sponsor packages that sell time, a plan for members who do not play and follow-up appointments booked before the round ends.

Tourism

Virtual Travel Trade Workshops: How Destinations Run Online Appointment Days

A virtual travel trade workshop is not a cheaper roadshow. Its capacity is set by the working hours your team and your buyers share, so the day has to be built around the buyer's clock. How to choose the window, structure the briefing and the appointments, price the slots and decide when flying is still the better option.

Event Planning

The Biggest Trade Shows in the World and in Europe in 2027

The largest trade shows taking place in 2027, worldwide and in Europe: dates, exhibitors and attendance of the latest edition from the organisers, how to read the numbers and which giants skip 2027.

Event Matchmaking

Buying Group Conferences: How to Plan Vendor and Member Appointments

How buying groups and cooperatives run the appointment programme at their annual conference: booking rules, fair access to the most wanted vendors, what paying vendors can count on, a planning timeline and what to report afterwards.

Event Matchmaking

Cluster Organisations: How Cluster Managers Run Member Matchmaking and a Year-Round Community

How cluster managers turn members into partners: which formats across the year create new contacts, how to run member matchmaking in a small cluster, how to keep contacts alive between meetings and what drives the cost of a platform.

Software & Features

Community Platforms for Innovation Programmes: Keeping Members Connected Between Events

Why programme communities go quiet after the kick-off, which four roles a platform has to serve, a twelve-month operating rhythm, what to record for your funder and what belongs in the tender.

Event Matchmaking

EU Brokerage Events: How to Run Partner Search That Leads to Proposals

How to organise a brokerage event for an EU funding call: plan back from the deadline, make the cooperation profile do the work, match on missing roles and count the proposals that come out of it.

Event Matchmaking

Inbound Buyer Missions: How to Host Foreign Buyers for Pre-Booked B2B Meetings

How export agencies, chambers, sector bodies and tourism boards host foreign buyers: the formats, how to recruit and qualify buyers, why visits come before meetings, fair rules for the meeting diary and what to report to your funder. With examples from Food Export USA, AHDB, VisitBritain and ApexBrasil.

Tips for Event Organizers

Reporting to Funders: How Innovation Programmes Prove the Impact of Their Events

How cluster organisations and EU programme teams report meetings, follow-ups and cooperation agreements to funders: outputs and results, the evidence that holds up, data protection and a reporting calendar for a three-year programme.

Event Planning

Year-Round Trade Fair Community: How to Stay Connected Between Shows

What a trade fair community has to do between two editions: profiles that carry over, dated meeting days, expert content with bookable conversations and lead care for exhibitors. With a sample calendar and the numbers that show whether it supports rebooking.

Hosted Buyer

Hosted Buyer Summits in B2B Tech: How CIO Events Sell Meetings to Vendors

How CIO and executive summits work as a business: the executive attends for free, the vendor pays for pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, and the buyer contract decides what the organiser can sell.

Event Matchmaking

How Long Does It Take to Set Up Event Matchmaking? A Realistic Timeline

From contract to the first booked meeting: how long event matchmaking takes to set up, what really sets the pace, and a plan you can work backwards from your event date.

Event Matchmaking

Life Science Partnering: How Biotech and Pharma Conferences Run One-to-One Meetings

How partnering works at biotech and pharma conferences: profiles, meeting requests, acceptance, 30-minute slots, partnering tables and rooms, and what stays confidential in a first meeting. With the numbers from BIO and BIO-Europe.

Event Planning

Product Launch Events for B2B: How to Plan a Launch That Books Demos

Plan a B2B product launch around the meetings it should create: demo slots with key accounts, partner briefings before the announcement and press interviews under embargo. With a twelve-week timeline, a sample launch day and the figures that show whether it worked.

Tips for Event Organizers

Business Expo Planning: How Chambers Run a Local Expo Where Exhibitors Meet Buyers

A planning guide for chambers, SBDCs and economic development organisations: formats, table prices, buyer recruitment, a business-only window with scheduled meetings and what to measure afterwards.

Event Marketing

Event Branding for B2B Conferences: A Visual System That Works on Badges, App and Stage

Build event branding that holds up where it is hardest: a logo family for small sizes, accessible colours, readable badges and signs, sponsor rules and one file pack for every supplier.

Event Marketing

Event Recap: How to Turn Your B2B Event into a Post, Email and Video That Sell Next Year

What belongs in a B2B event recap, how to turn one recap into a blog post, segmented emails and a short video, when to publish each part, and how the recap helps exhibitors and sponsors rebook.

Event Planning

Poster Sessions and E-Posters: How to Plan the Slot, the Screens and the Judging

A planning guide for congress organisers: when e-posters beat printed boards, what to put in the author guidelines, how many screens and chairs a presented e-poster session needs, how to judge a poster prize and how to turn a five minute slot into a real conversation.

Event Planning

Science Slam at Conferences: Rules, Format and How to Run One

What a science slam is, how it differs from lightning talks and the Three Minute Thesis, when it suits a conference, and how to plan the call, the coaching, the audience vote and the conversations that follow.

Tips for Event Organizers

Speaker Ready Room: How to Set Up Slide Check-In and Tech Support for a Conference

Plan a speaker ready room that keeps every session on time: the upload deadline, workstations and staff, the equipment list and the speaker flow on the day.

Tips for Event Organizers

Association Event Committee: Roles, Structure and How Volunteers Work With Staff

How to give an association event committee a clear remit: define roles, agree decisions with staff, recruit volunteers and prepare members to host at events.

Event Planning

Birds of a Feather Sessions: How to Let Attendees Run Their Own Topic Meetings

How to add birds of a feather sessions to a conference: choose a proposal process, prepare hosts, allocate rooms and help participants continue the discussion afterwards.

Tips for Event Organizers

Business After Hours: How Chambers Run Evening Mixers That Newcomers Come Back To

How chambers plan welcoming evening mixers: agree the host’s role, help newcomers make connections, keep the programme brief and track participation over time.

Tips for Event Organizers

Conference Code of Conduct: What to Include and How to Enforce It on Site

A practical guide to conference conduct policies: clear expectations, accessible reporting channels, prepared response teams and consistent follow-through on site.

Event Planning

Conference Planning Timeline: A 24-Month Checklist for Association Congresses

A 24-month planning guide for association congresses, covering venue decisions, committees, abstracts, sponsors, registration and follow-up, with a checklist for assigning tasks.

Tips for Event Organizers

Legislative Receptions and Breakfasts: How Associations Host Lawmakers, Staff and Members

How associations plan legislative receptions and breakfasts: choose the date, invite through lawmakers’ offices, prepare member hosts and follow up on the conversations.

Event Planning

World Café Method at Conferences: How to Run Table Rounds and Keep the Results

Plan a World Café for a large conference: calculate tables and hosts, write useful questions, guide the table changes and turn the discussion into a shared record.

Startups & VC

Accelerator, Incubator or Venture Studio? How the Programmes Differ and Which Events Each One Runs

How incubators, accelerators and venture studios differ, and how to plan the workshops, mentor meetings, selection days and investor events each model needs.

Tourism

DMO Partnership Programmes: Tiers, Benefits and What Partners Really Buy

How DMOs structure partner fees and benefits, make access to trade events clear, and show each partner what the programme delivered before renewal.

Event Marketing

Event KPIs: What B2B Organisers Should Track Before, During and After an Event

Which KPIs help B2B organisers make decisions before, during and after an event? A practical guide to formulas, review dates, benchmarks and follow-up.

Tourism

Luxury Travel Trade Shows: Why They Run on Appointments and Vetted Buyers

How luxury travel shows select buyers and organise appointments, why smaller formats can work well, and what suppliers should check before booking.

Tourism

Medical Tourism B2B Events: How Destinations and Hospitals Meet Facilitators

How to bring hospitals, destinations and medical travel facilitators together: qualify participants, prepare useful profiles, plan meetings and site visits, and follow up on results.

Tips for Event Organizers

Strategic Meetings Management: What an SMM Programme Needs From Every Event

What strategic meetings management covers, how to connect event spending with outcomes, and which figures B2B event teams can contribute to a useful programme report.

Software & Features

Trade Show Apps 2026: What Organisers Need and How to Choose One

What visitors and exhibitors need from a trade show app, how to keep its content reliable, and which questions to ask about meetings, offline access and accessibility.

Startups & VC

Venture Capital CRM and Deal Flow Software: 8 Tools Compared for 2026

Eight CRM and deal flow options for venture teams and angel networks, with a practical look at features, pricing and bringing event contacts into your follow-up process.

Event Planning

Advocacy Day, Hill Day, Lobby Day: How Associations Plan Legislator Meetings for Their Members

How associations plan an advocacy day: match every member to the offices that represent them, book the meetings, brief the teams in the morning and follow up within days, with a timeline, the rules to check and the numbers worth reporting.

Event Planning

Ideathon, Makeathon, Designathon: Which Hackathon Variant Fits Your Goal?

Ideathon, makeathon, designathon, datathon or classic hackathon: what each variant produces, who has to be in the room, what it needs and how to choose the format by the result you need on the Monday after.

Tourism

MICE Destinations in Germany: Which Cities Lead and Why

Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt or Heidelberg? Which German cities lead for international congresses and trade fairs, what the rankings actually measure, how delegates get in and how international planners should build a shortlist.

Tourism

Route Development Forums: How Airports and Destinations Win New Air Routes

How route development forums work: airline meeting requests, 20-minute slots, why tourism boards join airports at the table, how to prepare a meeting that leads to a second one, and what to get right when you host a forum yourself.

Tips for Event Organizers

Satellite Symposia: How Congresses Sell, Schedule and Separate Industry Sessions

How medical and scientific congresses run satellite symposia: what the package includes, how slots are priced and allocated, when they take place and which rules keep industry-sponsored sessions apart from the scientific programme.

Event Matchmaking

Sports Business Events: How to Schedule Meetings Between Brands, Buyers and Clubs

Sports trade fairs and sports business summits run three meeting markets at once: brands with retail buyers, rights holders with sponsors, and rights holders with service providers. How to schedule each of them, and what a networking app for a sports summit has to do.

Startups & VC

Startup Career Fairs: How Hubs and Universities Match Students with Startups in Pre-Booked Conversations

Why startups lose out at walk-through career fairs, and how career services and startup hubs run a fair with pre-booked conversations: three formats, a timeline, slot rules and the numbers that bring founders back.

Tourism

Tourism Investment Forums: How Destinations Match Projects With Investors

What a tourism investment forum is, how it differs from an investment conference or a roadshow, and how destinations prepare investment-ready projects, schedule one-to-one meetings with investors and measure what moved afterwards.

Tips for Event Organizers

Young Professionals Programmes: How Associations and Chambers Engage Members Under 35

How associations and chambers build young professionals programmes that last: mentoring matched on written criteria, stable peer circles, speed networking and a YP track at the congress, plus the numbers your board will ask for.

Startups & VC

Accelerator Selection Day: How to Run Interviews and Pitches for Your Cohort

Plan the day that decides your next cohort: an interview matrix in which every finalist meets two panels, the same questions for every team, juror calibration, one deliberation and rejections founders can accept.

Startups & VC

Angel Groups: How to Run Screening and Pitch Meetings That End in Investments

How angel groups turn a monthly pitch evening into investments: a screening committee that says no early, a meeting that names a champion, a due diligence team with a deadline and a syndicated close.

Startups & VC

Co-Founder Matching Events: How Accelerators and Universities Help Founders Find a Co-Founder

How to run a co-founder matching event at an accelerator, university or startup hub: choose the format, match on role and commitment before the evening, balance technical and business founders and plan the second meeting.

Tips for Event Organizers

CPD and CME Accreditation for Conferences: How Associations Get Sessions Accredited

How associations and congress organisers get conference sessions accredited for CPD, CME or CEU credits: the differences between the systems, the application and its deadlines, keeping sponsors separate and tracking each attendee's credits.

Event Planning

Event Seating Styles: Theatre, Classroom, Cabaret and Meeting Zones

Theatre, classroom, cabaret, banquet, U-shape, boardroom or a meeting zone: which seating style suits which session, how much space each needs per person, a room capacity calculator in square feet and square metres, and how to plan tables for one-to-one meetings.

Event Planning

How to Organise a Datathon: Data, Teams, Judging and What Happens After

A practical guide for accelerators, universities and corporate data teams: choose the right datathon format, check and clear the data, plan eight weeks, build mixed teams, judge the insight and organise the meetings after the event.

Startups & VC

Hybrid Investor Events: How to Run Demo Days When Some Investors Join Remotely

Plan demo days and investor meetings with remote investors: decide between livestream, remote 1:1 meetings and an asynchronous track, set time-zone windows, mix slots fairly and follow up at the same speed.

Event Planning

Local Organising Committee: What the LOC Does at an Association Congress and How to Work With It

What a local organising committee does at an association congress, three models for sharing money and work with the association and its PCO, and a working rhythm from bid to handover.

Tourism

Media Marketplace: How to Schedule Appointments Between Destinations and Travel Journalists

A media marketplace is not a buyer-seller day with different badges. This guide shows tourism trade shows and DMOs how to qualify travel journalists, schedule appointments on request, set slot lengths and measure what each appointment produced.

Event Planning

Session Capacity and Waitlists: Workshop Sign-ups Without Meeting Clashes

Five operating rules for capped conference sessions: three capacity numbers, overbooking from your own show rate, a waitlist with a claim window, a fixed release minute and one calendar for sessions and 1:1 meetings.

Tips for Event Organizers

Speaker Bureaus: How They Work, What They Charge and When to Book Direct

A speaker bureau rarely adds to the fee, but it shapes your shortlist, your contract and your right to rebook. How commission, exclusivity and client protection work, and when organisers should book a speaker direct.

Tourism

Sports Tourism: How Destinations and Sports Commissions Win Sports Events

What sports tourism is, why amateur events carry much of the business, how a sports event bid works and how destinations use pre-scheduled appointments with rights holders to get invited to bid.

Tourism

Delegate Boosting: How Convention Bureaus Help Associations Fill a Congress After the Bid Is Won

Coordinate convention bureau support with an association's registration campaign. Covers destination toolkits, previous-edition promotion, responsibilities and tracking registrations.

Event Planning

Hotel Attrition Clauses and Room Blocks: How Conference Organisers Avoid Penalties

Understand room-block commitments and potential attrition charges. Compare measurement methods, estimate demand, track hotel pick-up and review the terms before signing.

Tourism

MICE Buyers: Who They Are and How Hosted Buyer Events Vet Them

Understand corporate, agency and association MICE buyers and the evidence each can provide. Includes published IMEX and IBTM criteria and practical questions for buyer applications.

Tips for Event Organizers

Startup Areas at Trade Shows: How Organisers Plan B2B and Investor Meetings for Startup Exhibitors

Plan meetings for startup exhibitors alongside their trade-show presence. Covers relevant guests, appointment capacity, allocation rules, attendance days and reporting to founders and funders.

Event Matchmaking

B2B Meetings at Events: Formats, Length and How to Schedule Them

Choose meeting formats, slot lengths and booking rules to suit your event's goals. Includes examples, a capacity calculation and the process from registration to follow-up.

Tourism

Conference Legacy: How Convention Bureaus and Associations Plan and Measure What a Congress Leaves Behind

Plan what your congress should contribute beyond visitor spending. Set objectives with local partners, assign responsibilities and measure outputs, outcomes and longer-term effects.

Startups & VC

Curated Founder-Investor Sessions: How to Run a Small-Format Alternative to the Big Startup Conference

Plan a small founder-investor session around relevant conversations. Choose the group size, select both sides, arrange meetings and track follow-up alongside attendance.

Startups & VC

What Is Deal Flow? What It Means for VCs and How Startup Events Feed It

Understand deal flow, where investors find opportunities and how the selection process works. A guide to helping startup events create relevant introductions and follow-up conversations.

Tourism

Economic Impact of Events: How Destinations Calculate What a Congress Brings to the City

Calculate an event's local economic impact with a clear scope, visitor spending data and regional assumptions. Includes direct, indirect and induced effects, a worked example and common errors.

Tips for Event Organizers

Exhibitor Kit and Exhibitor Manual: What to Include and When to Send It

Build an exhibitor kit with clear deadlines and accessible guidance. Decide what belongs in the manual, when to release each part and how to include service orders and the meeting programme.

Tips for Event Organizers

Investor Roadshows and Capital Markets Days: How to Plan the Meetings

Plan investor roadshows and capital markets days around clear objectives and realistic management availability. Covers meeting formats, travel, disclosure requirements and follow-up.

Startups & VC

LP Annual Meeting: How VC and PE Funds Plan the Day for Their Investors

Plan an LP annual meeting with time for performance discussions, portfolio updates and individual questions. Includes an agenda, meeting capacity, LPAC arrangements, costs and follow-up.

Startups & VC

Open Innovation Challenge: How to Run a Startup Challenge That Ends in Pilots

Plan an open innovation challenge from problem statement to operational testing. Agree pilot responsibilities, select relevant startups, arrange clarification meetings and track implementation.

Startups & VC

Ecosystem Builder Events: How to Grow a Startup Community Between the Big Conferences

Build a regular event calendar for a startup community. Compare formats, involve experienced founders, prepare useful introductions and measure relationships alongside attendance.

Startups & VC

Portfolio Summits and Founder Events: A Guide for VC Platform Teams

Choose a portfolio event format, prepare founder introductions and plan the programme together. A guide for VC platform teams to timing, budgets, sponsors and useful follow-up measures.

Tourism

What Is Business Tourism? How It Differs from MICE and Business Travel

Understand business tourism, its overlap with business travel and the role of MICE events. With definitions, examples and implications for destination planning and reporting.

Event Planning

Gala Dinner, Dine-Around or Reception: How to Plan the Conference Evening

Compare gala dinners, dine-arounds, receptions and a free evening. Choose the format for your goals, arrange useful introductions and coordinate restaurants, hosts and local partners.

Event Planning

MC Script for a B2B Conference: What the Host Says, When, and How to Brief Them

Write a B2B conference MC script with clear welcomes, speaker introductions and meeting announcements. Includes adaptable script blocks, suggested timings and a host briefing checklist.

Event Planning

Conference Programme Committee: Roles, Timeline and How Abstract Selection Works

Define programme committee roles, recruit enough reviewers and set clear selection criteria before opening the call. A guide to deadlines, abstract review, conflicts and session planning.

Tips for Event Organizers

Conference Swag Attendees Keep: Sponsor-Funded, Sustainable and Worth the Budget

Choose conference swag attendees want to use, make collection optional and order to demand. Compare sponsorship models, evidence for environmental claims and the cost per item kept.

Event Planning

Customer Advisory Board Meeting: How to Plan the In-Person Session

Plan an in-person customer advisory board meeting with focused questions, the right participants and time for discussion. Includes an agenda, ground rules and a practical follow-up plan.

Event Planning

Customer Appreciation Events for B2B: Goals, Formats and Guest Lists

Choose a clear goal for your B2B customer appreciation event, build the guest list by account and prepare useful introductions. Includes formats, hospitality considerations and follow-up.

Event Marketing

Event Influencer Marketing: How B2B Organisers Work with Creators

Work with creators whose audience fits your B2B event. Agree roles, access, deliverables and advertising labels, then track relevant registrations, attendance and meetings.

Tips for Event Organizers

First-Time Attendee Programmes: How Associations Turn Newcomers into Regulars

Help first-time congress attendees find their way and meet people. Plan orientation, buddy matching and follow-up, then track contacts, member conversion and return rates.

Event Marketing

How to Name an Event: Conference and Virtual Event Names, Plus a Theme That Sells

Choose a conference or virtual event name your audience understands. Separate name, tagline and theme, test your shortlist and complete the practical checks before committing.

Tips for Event Organizers

Networking Breakfasts: How Chambers and Economic Development Agencies Run a Series That Lasts

Build a recurring networking breakfast that welcomes new guests and helps regulars make fresh contacts. A guide for chambers and agencies to hosting, invitations, funding and evaluation.

Event Planning

Sales Kickoff Planning: How to Run an SKO That Changes Behaviour

Plan a sales kickoff around observable changes in the team's work. Set clear goals, build in practice, prepare managers to coach and schedule 90 days of follow-up.

Startups & VC

Side Events at Startup Conferences: How Organisers Curate the Programme Around the Event

Coordinate side events with your startup conference: choose a listing model, set selection and timing rules, maintain a shared calendar and evaluate participation and follow-up meetings.

Tips for Event Organizers

Speaker Agreement: The Clauses Conference Organisers Need

Prepare speaker agreements covering deliverables, recording and AI use, fees, travel, cancellation and personal data. Includes a clause checklist and a schedule for confirming terms.

Tourism

Visa Invitation Letters: What Event Organisers Issue, When and to Whom

Set up a consistent process for event visa invitation letters: confirm participation, include the right details, allow time for applications and protect passport data. Covers Schengen, US and UK requirements.

Event Planning

What Is Event Management? Definition, Disciplines and Process

Event management is the planning, delivery and evaluation of an event so that it reaches a defined goal. The definition, main disciplines, five phases and what changes for B2B.

Event Planning

What Is a Plenary Session? Meaning, Keynotes and Conference Session Types

What a plenary session means, what a keynote is and where it belongs, and how plenary, parallel, workshop and poster sessions fit together into a conference programme, with room maths and an example day.

Event Planning

Corporate Event Planning: From Business Objective to Follow-up

A corporate event is approved and judged by people outside the event team. This guide shows how to plan one event from the business objective to the sales follow-up: an objective chain, a stakeholder map, a one-page brief and five approval gates.

Event Marketing

Event Email Sequence: Invitation, Reminder, Know-Before-You-Go and Follow-Up Templates for B2B Events

A B2B event email sequence works when each email fires on what the recipient has committed to, not on a fixed calendar date. Here are the three tracks, the triggers, eight templates you can adapt, including reminders for booked 1:1 meetings, and the rules that keep it out of the spam folder.

Event Planning

Event Proposal: How to Pitch an Event Internally or to a Client (With Template)

What an event proposal is, how it differs from an event RFP, the nine sections of a proposal that gets approved, what changes between an internal pitch and a client proposal, and how to make the return of a B2B event concrete.

Event Matchmaking

Registration Questions That Make Matchmaking Work: What to Ask, and When

Matchmaking needs profile data, while short registration forms need fewer fields. Which questions belong before confirmation, which belong after, and how to phrase them so your meeting suggestions actually fit.

Event Marketing

Event SEO: How to Get Your Event Page Ranking on Google

How B2B organisers get an event page ranking on Google: one permanent URL instead of a new page every year, a landing page built around the category search, Event schema Google accepts, and the eligibility rules that keep some B2B formats out of Google's event listings.

Event Planning

Event Strategy: How to Decide Which Events to Run and What Each One Is For

Build an event portfolio with a clear purpose, target audience and success measure for each event. This guide shows how to compare formats fairly, identify gaps and overlaps, and decide which events to keep, merge or stop.

Event Marketing

Executive Dinners: How to Plan an Invite-Only Dinner That Turns Into Booked Meetings

How to plan an executive dinner that creates pipeline: assign every seat to an account and a host, invite against realistic no-show rates, keep the evening free of pitches and send a specific follow-up request within 48 hours.

Event Matchmaking

Is Matchmaking Worth It for a Small B2B Event? Four Tests and the Maths

Headcount alone does not tell you whether matchmaking is worthwhile. Matchmaking pays off at a small event when participants have more relevant counterparts than meeting slots, and enough of them to fill a diary. Here are four tests, a worked example with the cost per meeting, and the formats that work below the line.

Tips for Event Organizers

Non-Dues Revenue from Events: What Associations Can Earn Beyond Membership Fees

Membership dues now cover about a third of association revenue, and events carry much of the rest. The event revenue streams associations rely on, what each one really sells, and how to judge them on margin rather than turnover.

Event Marketing

Press Trips and Influencer Trips: How DMOs Plan Them and What They Should Deliver

A press trip and an influencer trip are media bought with hospitality instead of money. This guide shows how destinations plan both, what a journalist and a creator each owe you, and how to measure the result without advertising value equivalents.

Tips for Event Organizers

Bleisure: What the Trend Means for DMOs and Congress Organisers

Most congress delegates already extend their trip. How DMOs and congress organisers plan pre- and post-congress tours, companion programmes and registration data, so the extra nights are planned and counted.

Tips for Event Organizers

Booth Pricing: How Organisers Price Exhibition Space and What to Sell on Top

How trade show organisers set booth prices: the cost floor per square metre, surcharges for corner and island stands, space only versus packages, mandatory fees and the add-ons that decide whether exhibitors book again. With published price lists for 2027 and what a booth costs an exhibitor in total.

Event Matchmaking

What Is the Right Buyer-to-Seller Ratio for a B2B Matchmaking Event?

There is no universal buyer-to-seller ratio. There is a formula: the meetings each buyer can take, divided by the meetings each seller needs. Here is the maths, a worked example and the ratios six real events ran in 2025 and 2026, from Germany Travel Mart to IMEX and a reverse trade show.

Tourism

Congress Ambassador Programmes: How Convention Bureaus Win Association Congresses Through Local Experts

Why convention bureaus cannot win association congresses on their own, what the data says about ambassador programmes, why experts agree to bid, and how to build a programme in six steps.

Event Marketing

DMO Marketing: How Destinations Reach Travellers and the Travel Trade

DMO marketing has two markets: travellers and the businesses that sell travel. This guide covers the channels of both halves, how each is measured, and why the travel trade half is the easiest part of destination marketing to prove when funding is under pressure.

Tips for Event Organizers

Event Industry Statistics 2026: The Numbers on B2B Meetings, Trade Shows and Matchmaking, With Sources

The event industry statistics that hold up in 2026: business events, trade shows, congresses, networking, matchmaking and AI, each figure with its primary source, its year and what it means for organisers.

Event Marketing

Event Press Release: Template and How to Get a B2B Event Covered

How to write an event press release that trade editors actually use: the news hooks that work for B2B events, a copyable template, which release to send when, and how press kits, accreditation and the press room fit in.

Software & Features

Event Technology in 2026: The Stack a B2B Organiser Actually Needs

The six layers of a B2B event technology stack, which one to buy first for your format, when a suite beats specialist tools, and the integration questions to settle before you sign.

Tips for Event Organizers

Exhibitor Retention: Why Exhibitors Don't Rebook and How Meetings Change That

Roughly one exhibitor in four does not come back the following year. Why exhibitors leave, how to measure retention by cohort, and why counted one to one meetings are the evidence that survives an exhibitor's budget review.

Event Matchmaking

Industry Partner Meetings at Association Congresses: Matching Sponsors and Members Without Losing Trust

How associations run one-to-one meetings between industry partners and members: separate opt-in, who may request whom, request caps, the healthcare compliance context and the numbers that show whether members still trust the programme.

Tips for Event Organizers

ISO 20121: What the Event Sustainability Standard Requires and When Certification Pays Off

ISO 20121 certifies how you manage sustainability across your events, not whether one event was green. What the 2024 edition requires, the three ways to prove conformity, what certification costs and when the certificate is worth it.

Event Planning

Lightning Talks at Conferences: Format, Timing and How to Run a Session

What a lightning talk is, where the format comes from, how it differs from Ignite and PechaKucha, how many talks fit into one slot, how to brief speakers and run the clock, and how to turn five minute talks into conversations after the session.

Event Matchmaking

LP-GP Meetings at Investor Conferences: How Organisers Schedule Them

How organisers of venture capital, private equity and fund conferences schedule meetings between limited partners and fund managers: who selects, how many meetings each LP can take, how to size the programme, a timeline and the rules that keep LPs coming back.

Tips for Event Organizers

Member Engagement: How Associations Use Events to Keep Members Active Between Congresses

Members rarely leave after a bad congress. They leave after a quiet year. How associations use regional groups, roundtables, mentoring and online sessions to keep members active between congresses, how a new member orientation carries newcomers through their first 90 days and which three numbers show whether it works.

Tips for Event Organizers

Paid Meetings for Exhibitors: Should You Charge for Guaranteed Pre-Booked Meetings?

More shows sell exhibitors a fixed number of pre-booked meetings. This guide helps organisers decide whether to charge, what exactly to promise, how to price it and which no-show rule keeps the guarantee honest.

Event Planning

What Is a Trade Show? Meaning, Types and Trade Show vs Expo

What a trade show is in one sentence, how it differs from an expo, an exhibition and a trade fair, the main formats, current market figures and how organisers run one, including why more shows now schedule meetings.

Tips for Event Organizers

What Is an Association Management Company (AMC)? Services, Fees and Your Annual Meeting

Association management is the work of running an association: members, governance, finance, communication and events. An association management company (AMC) does that work for associations without an office of their own. This guide explains what an AMC does, how it charges and what changes for your annual meeting.

Event Marketing

B2B Event Marketing Plan: Timeline, Channels and Budget Split for Organisers

How to build a B2B event marketing plan that fills the room with the right people: countable goals, audience segments, a timeline built backwards from event day, one message per phase, a channel and budget split, and the metrics that show what worked.

Event Planning

Conference, Congress, Symposium, Convention: What Is the Difference?

Conference, congress, symposium and convention compared in one table: size, duration, programme logic, call for papers and networking share, plus summit and seminar defined and a decision guide to pick the right label for your event.

Software & Features

Event CRM: What Organisers Need to Track Before, During and After a B2B Event

An event CRM only pays off when it is planned backwards from next year. This guide shows which records organisers of conferences, trade shows and association meetings should keep, how the data should flow, when Salesforce or HubSpot is enough, and what GDPR allows.

Event Planning

How to Run Mentor Office Hours Without Overbooking Your Best Mentors

How to plan mentor office hours at a startup conference or accelerator: choose between one-to-one and group formats, cap the slots of your most requested mentors, plan for cancellations and organise the second meeting that turns a contact into a mentor.

Event Planning

Panel Discussion Format: Panel Size, Set-up and Moderation + Free Moderator Guide

A panel discussion is a moderated conversation on stage between three to five speakers with different views. How the format works, how many panellists fit into a slot, how to set up the stage, brief and moderate the panel, and a free moderator guide with a run sheet, a script and 30 questions.

Tips for Event Organizers

Post-Event Report Template (Free Word and Excel Download): What to Include for Sponsors, Exhibitors and Your Board

A post-event report template you can download and fill in: all eleven sections in Word, a KPI sheet in Excel that does the maths, a separate version for each reader and a timeline from the 48 hour flash report to the debrief.

Event Planning

Types of B2B Events: Which Format Fits Which Goal

A practical overview of B2B event types, sorted by goal instead of alphabet: what each format is, how big it usually gets, who organises it and how much it relies on planned one to one meetings.

Event Planning

Event RFP: What to Put in a Request for Proposal So Venues and DMCs Can Quote Properly

What an event RFP is, the ten sections every request for proposal needs, what to ask about food and beverage, how the brief changes for a venue, a DMC or a site selection company, and how to review and compare the venue proposals that come back.

Event Planning

How to Host a Hackathon: A Guide for Startup Programmes and Corporate Innovation Teams

What a hackathon is, which of four types fits your goal, how to plan one in eight weeks, how to build teams and set judging criteria, and why the 30 days after the event decide whether any project survives.

Event Planning

Association Event Management: Run the Annual Meeting, the Congress and the Regional Days as One Programme

Association event management is not three separate projects. How to plan the annual meeting, the congress, regional days and special interest groups as one programme: one calendar, clear roles and member data that carries from event to event.

Software & Features

Customer Conference Software: What a Customer Day Really Needs

Which software works for customer conferences, user conferences and customer days? Four requirements that set a customer event apart from an open conference: account-based invitations, meetings with the account team, peer exchange between customers and data that flows back into the CRM.

Software & Features

Event App Builder or Your Own App? How to Decide Whether to Build or Buy

Build your own event app, use an event app builder or take the app that comes with your event platform? What each route costs, what app store rules mean for builders, why the download is the hidden cost, and five questions that settle the decision.

Software & Features

Event Floor Plan Software: What Organisers Need Beyond a Drawing

Event floor plan software compared by the three jobs a trade show plan has to do: selling booths, getting the layout approved and guiding visitors. What to check before you buy, what it costs, which system should own the booth number, and what no floor plan does for you.

Tourism

Incentive Travel: How to Plan an Incentive Programme That Pays Off

What incentive travel is, how to set goals and qualification rules, what an incentive trip costs per person by region, how to choose a destination and a DMC, and how to measure whether the programme worked.

Event Planning

Run of Show Template: How to Build One for a B2B Conference

What a run of show is, how it differs from the conference agenda, and a full day run of show template for a B2B conference, with 1:1 meeting blocks and networking as their own lane, owners and cues.

Event Planning

What Is a Fireside Chat? Meaning, Format and 40 Questions to Ask

A fireside chat is a moderated conversation on stage between a host and one guest, without slides. What it means in business, when it beats a keynote or a panel, how to brief the host, a 30 minute run sheet and a free template with 40 questions.

Event Matchmaking

What Is a Reverse Trade Show? How It Works and How to Host One

A reverse trade show puts the buyers behind the tables and lets suppliers come to them. What the format is, how it differs from a trade show, UK meet the buyer events and hosted buyer programmes, and how to plan one that produces real meetings.

Event Planning

What Is a Roundtable Discussion? Meaning, Format and a Free Host Kit

What a roundtable discussion is, how it differs from a round table meeting and a panel, how many people belong at one table, which seating works and how to run one. With a free roundtable host kit for Word.

Event Planning

What Is an Unconference? How to Run One for Your Members or Community

What an unconference is, how it differs from a barcamp and open space, when the format suits an association or community, and how to plan the grid, the session board, the moderation and the one to one meetings that follow.

Tourism

What Is a DMC (Destination Management Company)? Role, Fees and When to Hire One

DMC stands for destination management company. What a DMC does, how it differs from a DMO, a PCO and an event agency, how DMCs price their work, when hiring one pays off and where DMCs win their clients.

Tips for Event Organizers

Trade Missions: Planning B2B Meetings That Turn into Business

What a trade mission is, which formats exist and how chambers, trade agencies and economic development teams plan, qualify and follow up the meetings on the ground. With a backwards timeline, US and UK programme context and the metrics that matter after 6 and 12 months.

Software & Features

Event Project Management Software 2026: Tools and Workflows Compared

Generic project tools or the task module inside your event platform? A 2026 guide for teams running several events in parallel: which tasks belong in the project plan, where Asana, monday, ClickUp, Trello and Notion fit, and why the reusable template matters more than the tool.

Software & Features

Best Event Management Software 2026: A Comparison for B2B Organisers

Nine event management platforms compared for 2026: how each pricing model works, how far registration, programme and onsite scope really reach, which vendors publish prices, and the one question that sorts the shortlist faster than any feature list.

Software & Features

Conference Management Software 2026: A Guide for Organisers

Choose conference software around your submission, review and programme workflows. What call for papers, peer review, session building and speaker management really require, which system categories cover which part, and the documented price references for 2026.

Software & Features

Event Data Analytics: How Organisers Can Assess Their Numbers

Every B2B event produces seven separate data sources, and they rarely agree. This guide explains which number comes from which source, how reliable each one is, how to join them under GDPR, and the four places where event measurement quietly goes wrong.

Software & Features

Exhibitor Management Software: A Practical Comparison for 2026

Seven exhibitor management platforms compared for 2026: exhibitor portals, task and deadline handling, service shops, booth sales and documented price references, plus six checks that decide which system belongs on your shortlist.

Tips for Event Organizers

Hybrid Corporate Events: Benefits, Costs and When to Choose Them

When does a hybrid corporate event pay off? Compare production costs, travel savings, lead qualification and no-show rates, with practical guidance on formats that work well online and those that need closer consideration.

Tips for Event Organizers

Hybrid Events for Associations: Benefits for Members and Organisers

How hybrid annual meetings can support member participation, quorum and retention. Explore the evidence, the demands on volunteers and the governance rules to check before planning.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Attract Sponsors for Association Events: Packages and Partnerships

Associations attract sponsors by selling verified access to a qualified membership, not reach. Where to find partners, how to package that access, and the tax, independence and approval rules that apply.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Make Association Events More Sustainable Without Losing Members

Member travel drives 70 to 90 per cent of an association event's carbon footprint, so reducing emissions also means considering how members stay connected. A practical order for your measures: destination and format first, then catering and materials, then contracts, then measurement.

Event Planning

Event Budget Template 2026: What a B2B Conference Really Costs

Most event budget templates are built for a company party: venue, catering, a line for decoration. An organiser-run conference or trade show has a revenue side, comped tickets, a sponsorship pipeline and, if meetings are the product, a meeting programme that deserves its own block. This guide builds the budget in the order your board reads it, with benchmarks for every line and a free Excel template.

Tips for Event Organizers

Event Check-in Apps and Badge Printing: How Many Stations Does a B2B Event Need?

Calculate check-in stations from arrival patterns and processing time. Compare badge printing setups, plan for exceptions and test the app with the equipment your team will use.

Tips for Event Organizers

What Is a Fam Trip? Meaning, Planning and a Free Itinerary and Budget Template

A fam trip, short for familiarisation trip, is a hosted visit on which buyers or journalists experience a destination first hand. The trade version needs the buyer selection and the measurement of a hosted buyer programme, not media impressions. With a free Excel template for guest list, itinerary and budget.

Startups & VC

What Is Venture Clienting? A Guide for Startup Conference Organisers

Venture clienting means a corporate buys from a startup before it invests in one. For a conference organiser that changes what a corporate-startup meeting is: not networking, but a purchasing conversation. Plan the track like a hosted buyer programme and you get pilots. Plan it like a lounge and you get business cards.

Tips for Event Organizers

Travel Trade Roadshow vs Workshop: A Capacity Guide for Tourism Boards

A roadshow buys markets. A workshop buys meetings. Most tourism boards pick between them on reach and only discover the difference in appointment volume once the suppliers are already sitting at their tables. This guide puts both formats through the same capacity calculation and the same cost per meeting.

Tips for Event Organizers

Why Investors Attend Startup Conferences (and How to Get Them to Yours)

Most conference teams sell investors the one deal channel that works least well for them: inbound pitches. This guide sets out what investors are actually buying, how many of them your event needs for the meeting grid to work, and how to recruit them in the right order.

Tips for Event Organizers

Event Meeting No-Shows: Which Number Are You Measuring?

Ask three sources what a normal no-show rate is and you get 6.5 per cent, 10 to 30 per cent and 20 to 40 per cent. None of them is measuring your event. This guide defines the meeting no-show properly, shows why the denominator moves the number more than behaviour does, and ranks the levers that actually work.

Tips for Event Organizers

Post-Event Survey Questions: What to Ask Visitors, Exhibitors and Speakers

The industry's own benchmark infrastructure separates visitor, exhibitor and non-attendee surveys. Almost every published question list ignores that. This guide gives you three survey sets with the exact wording, a send schedule, realistic response rates and the four numbers your board will ask for.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Write a Sponsorship Prospectus That Sells (+ Free Template)

A sponsorship prospectus has to win a budget meeting you are not invited to. This guide shows organisers what belongs in the document, how to price the tiers, when to publish it and why meetings sell, with a free 12-page Word template to start from.

Tourism

Best Trade Show Management Software for Tourism Events in 2026

Trade show management software is usually sold on booth sales and floor plans. Tourism events live on pre-scheduled buyer-seller meetings. We compare seven platforms against the criteria that actually decide a DMO procurement in 2026.

Event Planning

How to Plan a Conference Agenda That Makes Time for Networking

61% of attendees come for networking, yet most programmes fill every hour with sessions. How to plan an agenda with meeting windows, white space and one personalised schedule per attendee.

Software & Features

The 9 Best Association Management Software Platforms in 2026

Every AMS ranking on page one is written by an AMS vendor, and none of them scores the one capability your members actually renew for: the annual conference. This comparison ranks nine platforms on administration and on event depth, with real price anchors and a GDPR check.

Event Planning

Event Planning Checklist 2026: Every Phase from First Goal to Follow-up

A phase-by-phase event planning checklist for B2B organisers: what to do six months out, three months out, in the final four weeks and after the event. Including the meeting track and the 2026 compliance items that generic templates leave out.

Tourism

What Is a MICE Destination? Definition, Criteria and Examples

What makes a city a MICE destination: a clear definition, the six criteria behind successful bids, ICCA 2025 rankings and what organisers should read from them.

Tips for Event Organizers

EES and ETIAS: What to Tell Your International Attendees Now

EES is live, ETIAS is postponed, and border queues are deciding whether day-one meetings happen. A communication timeline and buffer rules for organisers of international events.

Tips for Event Organizers

Lead Retrieval: Should You Charge Your Exhibitors for It?

Should lead retrieval be included in exhibitor fees or sold separately? Compare delivery models, app and scanner options, revenue assumptions and the handover of data.

Tourism

What Is a Destination Marketing Organization? A 2026 Guide

What a destination marketing organization (DMO) is, how it differs from a CVB, tourist board and DMC, how DMOs are funded, and why the job is shifting from promotion to proof.

Startups & VC

How to Run a Pitch Competition: Judging, Rules and Prizes

Three per cent of entrants win a prize at a typical pitch competition. A practical organiser guide to the rubric, jury, rulebook and prize structure, plus the meeting design that makes the event worth it for the other 97 per cent.

Tips for Event Organizers

Speed Networking at B2B Events: How It Works and When Not to Use It

Speed networking promises 10 to 15 conversations in a single hour, and most guides stop right there. This one goes further: rotation formats with the maths behind them, no-show planning, and the point where pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings become the better tool.

Event Matchmaking

Should You Use AI Matchmaking in Your Hosted Buyer Programme?

AI promises better matches, but a hosted buyer programme runs on accountability. Where AI actually helps, where the black box becomes a liability, and how a controlled meeting matrix keeps every pairing auditable.

Event Matchmaking

The 8 Best Matchmaking Platforms for Investor Meetings

Search for a matchmaking platform for investor-founder meetings and the results split into two product worlds, only one of which solves an organiser's problem. Six criteria that separate a meeting engine from an event app, and eight platforms compared against them.

Hosted Buyer

How Many Meetings Should Each Hosted Buyer Get?

Six to eight pre-scheduled meetings per day is the 2026 industry norm, and the number decides everything else in your programme: how many sellers you accept, your room layout, your cost per delivered meeting. The benchmarks, the planning maths and the formats where the rule does not apply.

Hosted Buyer

How to Qualify Hosted Buyers for Your Trade Show

A hosted buyer who cancels costs you six to eight exhibitor meeting slots and up to 4,000 euros in committed travel. A five-pillar scoring framework, the thresholds the major shows publish, a four-stage vetting workflow and the failure modes that quietly drain value.

Event Planning

What Is MICE Hospitality? A Guide for Event Organisers

MICE hospitality is the supply side of business events: the hotels, venues and convention infrastructure that host structured meetings. A guide for DMOs and trade show organisers, with a three-tier partner framework and fresh 2026 data.

Event Marketing

Will AI Recommend Your Event? How to Get Found in ChatGPT and AI Search

AI assistants now shortlist which B2B events are worth attending and exhibiting at. This guide shows organisers how to become one of the answers instead of hoping for the click.

Tourism

MICE Tourism Trends 2027: What DMOs and Event Organisers Should Plan for Now

Six trends will shape MICE tourism in 2027: costs that rise for every meeting type, AI moving into personalisation, a common method for impact measurement, a shifting event map, more selective attendees and green claims that need proof. With fresh figures from Amex GBT, ICCA and UN Tourism, the 2027 buyer calendar and a free one page trend briefing (PDF).

Software & Features

Association Management Software vs. Event Platform: What Does Your Annual Conference Really Need?

Only 38 per cent of associations grew their membership last year, and the top reason members leave is a lack of engagement. This guide shows when the event module of your AMS is enough, when your flagship conference needs a dedicated event platform, and how to connect the two without creating a second database.

Tips for Event Organizers

EU AI Act Transparency Rules: What Event Organisers Must Do Now

Article 50 of the EU AI Act has been enforceable since 2 August 2026. Which chatbots, AI visuals and matchmaking tools trigger disclosure duties, which obligations sit with your software vendor, and how to check your event stack in 30 minutes.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Get Great Speakers for Your B2B Conference (Without a Celebrity Budget)

The median keynote fee in 2026 is $2,500, according to Talkadot, far below what bureau price lists suggest. This playbook shows organisers what to really pay, how to write invitations that get a yes, and how to turn the lineup into registrations and 1:1 meetings.

Tips for Event Organizers

Was Your Event Worth It? How to Measure B2B Event ROI

Ninety per cent of event teams say their events influence deals that never get credit in the CRM. This guide shows how organisers build a defensible ROI number: one formula, a 180 day attribution window, 2026 benchmarks with their lens attached, and two worked examples.

Startups & VC

What Is a Pitch Event? The Five Formats and How Organisers Choose

A pitch event is not one format but five, each built for a different outcome. Definitions, 2026 examples from Slush 100 to SXSW Pitch, and a four-step framework for choosing the right one.

Hosted Buyer

Best Practices for Tourism Buyer-Seller Meetings: An Organiser's Playbook

Sellers drop trade shows over weak diaries, not weak venues. This playbook walks through the four levers organisers control, slot design, preparation, on-site delivery and follow-up infrastructure, each with 2026 show benchmarks from IPW, IMEX, TRENZ and Tianguis.

AI & Events

How AI Can Improve Matchmaking Accuracy

AI can lift match acceptance rates at B2B events, but only when organisers feed it clean intent data and fair rules. Where the gains are proven, where the black-box trap begins, and how to measure accuracy properly.

Startups & VC

How to Track Investor Follow-ups After Demo Day: An Organiser's Tracking System

Most demo day reporting stops the moment the event ends. This guide builds the organiser-side tracking system in four parts: a meeting log as ground truth, instrumentation for the first 48 hours, a measurement calendar with KPI targets and a cohort report your sponsors can fund.

Event Matchmaking

How Investor Matching Algorithms Work: A Guide for Startup Conference Organisers

Between a founder profile and a confirmed investor meeting sits a stack of logic: rules, scoring, sometimes machine learning. How the four families of matching logic work, where they fail, and the questions that expose a black box before you sign.

Event Matchmaking

KPI Framework for B2B Event Matchmaking: Six Numbers That Show Whether It Works

Organisers have learnt to measure their events, yet only 15 per cent call their networking very effective. This framework tracks six KPIs along the matchmaking funnel, from profile completion to follow-up conversion, with formulas, 2026 benchmarks and two worked examples.

Event Matchmaking

Trade Show Matchmaking Software: How Exhibitor Matchmaking Turns Profiles into Meetings

What actually happens between a participant profile and a confirmed trade show meeting? This guide explains exhibitor matchmaking from the data points to the meeting matrix, what a trade show matchmaking app does, how large retail and industry shows schedule meetings and which numbers tell you whether it delivers.

Software & Features

Networking Apps for Conferences: 1:1 Meeting Scheduling Put to the Test

65 to 75 per cent of meeting requests at large B2B events never get an answer. We test how five conference networking apps handle 1:1 meeting scheduling, from request logic to no-show handling, and which numbers prove the meetings actually happened.

Software & Features

The 9 Best B2B Event Networking Platforms for 2026

61 per cent of attendees come to events primarily to network, and the platform you pick decides whether that intent turns into booked meetings. We compare nine B2B event networking platforms by category, entry price and organiser fit.

Software & Features

Event Matchmaking Software: The 10 Best Tools for 2026 Compared (+ Free Scorecard)

Ten event matchmaking software tools compared, with vendor details last checked on 4 November 2026, a four-point transparency test, what each vendor publishes on price and a free Excel scorecard to rank your shortlist.

Software & Features

GDPR-Compliant Event Software: The Checklist for Organisers

A GDPR badge on a vendor website proves nothing. This checklist gives organisers five verifiable criteria, the exact documents to check them in, and the extra questions matchmaking software must answer.

Hosted Buyer

Hosted Buyer Software Compared: The Leading Platforms for 2026

Five hosted buyer software platforms compared for 2026: qualification workflows, meeting obligations, data location and documented price anchors, plus the five checks that separate real hosted buyer software from a matchmaking add-on.

Event Matchmaking

7 Ways to Improve B2B Event Matchmaking in 2026

58 per cent of attendees come for the networking, yet only 15 per cent of organisers rate their own networking as very effective. Seven levers close that gap: from intent-based profiles and mutual confirmation to connection caps and stacked no-show defences.

Tourism

Where International B2B Events Are Moving in 2026: The European Opportunity

International meetings are leaving the US. Data from GBTA, Oxford Economics and the Incentive Travel Index shows where they are going, and how European destinations can win them.

Event Matchmaking

7 Ways to Boost Hosted Buyer ROI Through Matchmaking

A hosted buyer costs 1,500 to 4,000 euro before the first meeting starts, yet the return is decided elsewhere: in matchmaking quality. Seven levers, from qualification depth to guaranteed meeting quotas, each with a 2026 benchmark and the one control metric that shows whether it works.

Software & Features

AI Agents in Event Management: What Agentic Event Tech Actually Does in 2026

Five agent launches in nine months, but only 11 per cent of agentic pilots reach production. What AI agents can take over at your event today, what they cannot, and the five questions to ask before you believe the word agent.

Tourism

EU Green Claims Rules for Event Organisers: What Changes on 27 September 2026

From 27 September 2026 the EU bans generic green claims, offset-based carbon neutrality and self-made sustainability labels. Here is what that means for tourism trade shows, DMOs and convention bureaux, touchpoint by touchpoint, with six claims rewritten.

Startups & VC

The 90-Day Countdown Before Your Startup Conference: An Organiser's Playbook for Investor Meetings

What startup conference organisers must lock at T-90, T-60, T-30 and in the final week: investor curation, matching rules, platform opening and follow-up infrastructure, with KPI checkpoints for every phase.

Event Planning

The 90-Day Checklist Before Your Trade Show: A Guide for Tourism Boards

Ninety days before a tourism trade show, the venue plan is largely contracted and the critical path shifts to meetings: closing buyer applications, opening matchmaking, locking agendas and preventing no-shows. This countdown playbook gives organisers four phases with deadlines, benchmarks and KPI checkpoints.

Software & Features

Event Matchmaking Software Pricing in 2026: Models, Hidden Fees and the Cost per Meeting

Five pricing models, twelve vendor price anchors and a cost-per-meeting framework that makes quotes comparable, plus the hidden fees and 2026 price rises to budget for.

Tips for Event Organizers

How Big Is the Startup Conference Market in 2026? A Data Reference for Organisers

No analyst report isolates the startup conference market. This data reference triangulates its 2026 size from business events data, verified flagship conference numbers and venture funding, and reads the three market signals organisers should actually plan around.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Qualify Investors Before a 1:1 Meeting Marathon: A Vetting Framework for Conference Organisers

Six vetting criteria, an application form schema and tier-based request caps: how startup conference organisers keep consultants, tourists and funds without a mandate out of the founder meeting programme.

Tips for Event Organizers

The 15 Best Startup Conferences in Europe 2026/2027: Dates, Ticket Prices and a Free Planner

Fifteen European startup conferences ranked by tier, with 2027 dates, ticket prices and investor density checked at each organiser, plus a free Excel planner for your conference budget.

Event Matchmaking

Why Is Matchmaking Important for Tourism Trade Shows? The Business Case in Numbers

Buyers choose events by the diary they arrive with, structured meetings convert into contracts, and counted meetings are the number funders accept. The business case for matchmaking at tourism trade shows, with benchmarks from ITB Berlin, WTM London, IMEX and peer-reviewed research.

Tips for Event Organizers

How Big Is the MICE Market in 2026? The Honest Numbers for Event Organisers

MICE market estimates for 2026 range from 1.03 to 1.34 trillion dollars. Why the figures differ, where growth happens and how organisers should quote them.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Host a Virtual Networking Event That Produces Real Meetings

Virtual networking events are back on B2B agendas in 2026, but attendees no longer accept breakout-room roulette. This guide covers four formats, a seven-step plan, a 60-minute agenda and the KPIs that separate a tired video call from an event that produces business meetings.

Event Matchmaking

Multilingual Buyer-Seller Meetings: Best Practices for Trade Show Organisers

At international trade shows, English-only planning quietly kills meetings that looked perfect on paper. This guide shows organisers how to treat language as a matching criterion: capture language data at registration, match for compatibility, tier meetings to decide between human interpreters and AI translation, and measure results by language pair.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Attract International Buyers to a Tourism Trade Show: A Five-Lever Playbook

International buyers choose fewer events and expect more from each one. This playbook covers the five levers organisers use to win them: incentive packages, hard qualification, regional sourcing, guaranteed meeting diaries and published proof, with benchmarks from IMEX, IBTM, WTM and ITB for 2025 and 2026.

Tips for Event Organizers

25 Networking Event Ideas for Business, Corporate and Fun Events (+ Printable Cards)

25 networking event ideas for business, corporate and fun events, from speed networking and human bingo to quiet formats and pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings. With a framework to choose, the numbers to measure success and free printable format cards.

Event Matchmaking

What Is Investor Matchmaking? A Guide for Startup Conference Organisers

Investor matchmaking pairs founders with relevant investors through pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings. This guide explains the three layers behind it, why research on VC deal flow makes it necessary, how it differs from demo days and pitch competitions, and the four KPIs that show whether it worked.

Event Matchmaking

How to Plan a Demo Day Step by Step: The 12-Week Playbook

A twelve-week operational playbook for accelerator organisers: investor curation, venue and AV, pre-scheduled meetings, the day-of run-sheet, budget benchmarks, and the four KPIs that decide whether the cohort raises.

Event Planning

How to Prevent Investor Overload at Demo Days

Four operational levers organisers can pull to distribute pitch requests across the room: tiered invites, hard caps, three-axis fit scoring, long-tail deflection.

Event Planning

How to Choose a Virtual or Hybrid Event Platform in 2026

A buyer's guide for B2B trade shows, hosted-buyer programmes and hybrid associations. Five decision criteria, a comparison by event type, a realistic 500-attendee pricing model and a migration checklist.

Event Matchmaking

How to Maximise Investor Meetings at a 2-Day Startup Conference: An Organiser's Playbook

A six-layer organiser's playbook for 2-day startup conferences: pre-event curation, platform configuration, the 1:1 meeting engine, the multi-format layer, real-time operations, and follow-up architecture. With 2026 benchmarks from Slush, Bits & Pretzels and IMEX, the six-number KPI framework, and an honest critique of when the playbook is the wrong tool.

Event Matchmaking

Event Matchmaking FAQ: 15 Questions Organisers Ask Us Most in 2026

Only 15 per cent of organisers rate their networking as very effective. This FAQ hub answers the 15 operational questions we hear most about matchmaking, from cost and KPIs to GDPR and Hosted Buyer fit, with 2026 data and links to the deeper Converve pillars.

Event Matchmaking

Matchmaking Software for Startup Pitch Events: Costs and Results Compared

Six matchmaking platforms compared on cost per completed founder-investor meeting, including the first tier to offer 1:1 meetings on each platform, a hidden-cost checklist and a decision tree for pitch events under 500 attendees.

Hosted Buyer

What Is a Hosted Buyer Programme? Meaning, Costs + Free Calculator

A hosted buyer programme pays some or all of a qualified buyer's travel and hotel costs in return for a set number of pre-scheduled meetings with exhibitors. This guide explains the meaning, the mechanics, the 2026 format spectrum, the software it runs on and what it costs, with a free budget and quota calculator for your own numbers.

Matchmaking

Event Networking vs Matchmaking: The Real Difference in 2026

Networking is the chance you'll meet the right person. Matchmaking is the system that ensures you do. A 2026 guide for event organisers, with the data, KPIs and format decisions that follow from the distinction.

AI & Events

AI Matchmaking at Events: How It Works and When It Doesn't

A practical guide to AI matchmaking at events: how the three generations of technology work, what the data shows, when organiser control must come first, and why uploading attendee lists to ChatGPT is a GDPR risk.

Tourism

Tourism Trade Show ROI: A KPI Framework for DMOs and Event Organisers

The 4:1 industry-standard ROI ratio is written for exhibitors, not for tourism trade show organisers. This three-phase KPI framework, with a multi-stakeholder model and a worked DMO example, gives you a measurement system that satisfies sellers, buyers and a tourism ministry alike.

Matchmaking

Best Matchmaking Apps for Startup Conferences 2026: 8 Platforms Compared

Startup conferences have matchmaking needs that generic listicles ignore. Here are the eight platforms that actually fit demo days, accelerator events, and founder-investor conferences, scored against an eight-criteria framework.

Tourism

Best Matchmaking Software for Tourism Trade Shows in 2026: 8 Platforms Compared

Tourism trade shows have unique matchmaking needs that generic listicles ignore. Here are the eight platforms that actually fit DMOs, convention bureaus and tourism trade-show organisers, scored against an eight-criteria framework.

Matchmaking

How to Match Founders with the Right VCs: A Conference Organiser's Playbook

A practical playbook for conference organisers: the seven match layers, the three matching mechanisms, how Slush, Web Summit and Bits & Pretzels run it, and the KPIs that tell you if it worked.

Event Matchmaking

Hosted Buyer Programme vs. Open Registration: Which Format Delivers More Qualified Meetings?

Hosted, open or hybrid? Compare the three trade-show formats on cost, meeting guarantee and ROI predictability, with a 6-row decision matrix for tourism trade shows in 2026.

Startups & VC

Demo Day Structure: A Six-Phase Playbook for Maximum Investor Follow-ups

A six-phase operational playbook for organisers: investor curation, pre-scheduled meetings, pitch-day discipline, the 48-hour warm-intro window, the 14-day follow-up hub, and the Day-90 cohort review. Includes the four KPIs that predict whether a cohort raises.

Hosted Buyer

How to Run a Hosted Buyer Programme: A Step-by-Step Guide for Tourism Trade Shows

Seven steps for a well-planned programme: buyer profile, seller inventory, funding model, application funnel, matchmaking, diary lock and follow-up. Includes the three ways 2026 programmes pay for hospitality and the four dates that belong in your buyer terms.

Startups & VC

What Is a Demo Day? A Guide for Organisers, With a Free Run Sheet and Follow-up Tracker

A demo day is the closing event of a startup programme: a cohort pitches to invited investors, then meets them one to one. Here is how the day runs, the four formats, and a free template for the run sheet and the investor follow-ups.

AI & Events

AI in Event Management: Where the Value Actually Lies in 2026

91% of event professionals use AI, but only 16% say it has made a significant difference. This guide identifies where AI delivers proven ROI in event management and where it is still finding its footing.

Virtual Events

10 Types of Virtual Events Ranked by Networking Results (2026 Guide)

Not every virtual event produces meetings. This guide breaks down 10 types of virtual events, from webinars to hosted buyer programmes, and rates each one by the number of real business conversations it delivers, so you can pick the format that fits your goal.

Event Marketing

The 9 Best Event Website Builders in 2026: A Comparison for B2B Event Organisers

Compare the 9 best event website builders for B2B conferences, trade shows, and matchmaking events. Covers registration depth, matchmaking integration, pricing, and GDPR compliance.

Event Marketing

How to Promote Events on LinkedIn: The 2026 B2B Guide

LinkedIn rebuilt its event-marketing toolkit in late 2025 and early 2026. Here is the step-by-step playbook for promoting B2B events: setup, organic reach, the new Event Ads, CRM and matchmaking, and post-event engagement.

Virtual Events

Hybrid Event Planning in 2026: A Practical Guide for B2B Organisers

Hybrid event planning in 2026 means designing two experiences, not one. A practical 9-step guide for B2B organisers: tech stack by event size, AV budget benchmarks, ROI framework, and a checklist you can hand to your team this week.

Event Matchmaking

The 23 Best Event Networking Apps and Platforms for 2026, Compared (+ Free Comparison Matrix)

23 event networking apps and platforms for 2026, grouped into four categories and checked on 4 November 2026: matchmaking, pricing, data location and which app fits which event. With a free Excel comparison matrix.

Virtual Events

Virtual Event Sponsorship Packages: A 2026 Guide to Tier Design and Pricing

Build virtual event sponsorship packages that sell in 2026. A clear framework for tier design, value-based pricing, and what sponsors actually want, beyond logo placement.

Tourism

MICE Tourism in 2026: A Strategic Guide for Event Managers

MICE tourism is on track to nearly double by 2035. Six trends are reshaping 2026: ESG, second cities, AI personalisation, hybrid formats, purpose-driven incentives, and wellness-first design, and this guide breaks each one down with hard market data and practical advice for event managers.

Tips for Event Organizers

Why ISO 27001:2022 Should Matter to Event Organizers (It Does!)

B2B events involve sensitive attendee, corporate and payment data. Here is why ISO 27001:2022 certification should not be optional when choosing event software, and how to verify it is genuine.

Business Matchmaking

Business Matchmaking: How It Works and What Makes It Effective

Business matchmaking is a structured process in which an organiser decides who may meet whom and schedules those meetings before anyone travels. The three forms it takes, how the process runs, and how to tell a good programme from a bad one.

Software & Features

B2B Event Registration Software: 9 Best Solutions Compared

Nine event registration software solutions compared for B2B events in 2026: pricing models, check-in and badge printing, published price references and the one question that decides whether a tool saves work or creates it.

Event Marketing

How to Find Sponsors for a B2B Event: The Ultimate Guide

Where to find event sponsors in 2026, how to qualify and approach them, what your packages and pitch have to contain, and the twelve-month timeline that gets contracts signed. Seven steps for conference, trade show and association organisers.

Event Planning

Event Sponsorship Packages: How to Build Tiers, Price Them and Prove the Value

Build sponsorship packages from what your event can deliver: list benefits, estimate costs, set tiers and agree how sponsors will receive evidence of the results.

Event Planning

Best Practices for Healthcare B2B Matchmaking

Discover how to prepare for, communicate at, and leverage technology for healthcare B2B matchmaking events so you can build meaningful partnerships and grow your network.

Tips for Event Organizers

Diversity and Inclusion at Events: A Practical Planning Guide

Inclusion at B2B events rarely fails for lack of good intentions. It fails in three places nobody plans: the registration form, the networking format and the accessibility of the event platform. Here is how to fix all three, what the European Accessibility Act changed in June 2025, and eight practical ways to make your events more inclusive.

Event Planning

Ticket Pricing Strategies for B2B Events: How to Set the Right Price

How to price tickets for a B2B conference or trade show: cost floor, value anchor, early bird depth, price tiers, discounts and how to tell whether the price worked.

Event Matchmaking

Do virtual events need randomness? A deeper look at chance encounters

Encounters by chance are an important part of events and we can use the pricipals of serendipity to re-create them in a virtual setting. Here's how

Tips for Event Organizers

The Event Community Trend you don't want to miss in 2023

With 365-day events you create a platform that keeps customers active all year round. Here is what an event community is, why it pays off, and how to build one.

Software & Features

The 2 Types of Event Platforms: Standard or Customised, and How to Pick the Right Fit

Standard or customised event platform? How to tell configuration from integration and custom development, what each level costs, and when a tailored platform is worth paying for in 2026.

Tips for Event Organizers

Digital Events in 2026: A Guide to Choosing the Right Format

A 2026 stock-take of digital events: which formats held up, attendance benchmarks, a five-question decision guide, an honest look at hybrid and what an organiser runs in-house rather than handing to an agency.

Event Planning

Returning To In-Person Events? Here’s How You Can Transition Safely

Offline events are back, but the on-site landscape has changed. From proof of vaccination to flexible contracts and exposure plans, here is how to pivot to in-person events safely.

Tips for Event Organizers

How to Find and Manage Speakers for Your Event: 8 Tips for Organisers

Most conference agendas are filled by expert speakers, not celebrities. Here is how to find them, run a call for speakers, vet a shortlist and manage your speakers from confirmation to stage day.

Tips for Event Organizers

A 12 Step Guide To Build Your Event Landing Page On Converve

Create an event landing page that turns visitors into attendees in 12 simple steps. Here's a step-by-step guide to nailing your event website goals with Converve's page builder.

Tips for Event Organizers

Virtual Event Sponsorship: 7 Tips to Attract and Retain Sponsors

How to win sponsors for virtual and hybrid events and keep them: seven steps from the first call to the post-event report, the sponsor benefits that matter beyond the logo, and the opportunities sponsors actually pay for in 2026.

Tips for Event Organizers

Hybrid Events: Benefits, Drawbacks and When to Choose One (2026)

Hybrid events reach 2.5 times the audience of an in-person event, and most of them still waste the virtual half. The benefits, the drawbacks and a four-question test for deciding whether your event should go hybrid at all.

Event Planning

Virtual Matchmaking Events: What They Are and How They Work in 2026

A virtual matchmaking event turns registrations from twelve time zones into pre-booked 1:1 video meetings. Here is how the format works in 2026, what changes compared with the trade show hall, which benchmarks apply online, and what a platform has to deliver.

Tips for Event Organizers

5 Hybrid Event Examples from 2025 and 2026, and What B2B Organisers Can Copy

Five hybrid event examples from 2025 and 2026, from Apple WWDC to MWC Barcelona and the ESC Congress: what the online audience got, what stayed in the room, and what B2B organisers can copy.

Event Marketing

Social Media for Events: Which Platforms Should B2B Organisers Be On?

LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X, Threads, Bluesky or WhatsApp? Which social media platforms are worth it for B2B event marketing in 2026, what job each one does, and how to tell which posts actually bring registrations.

Tips for Event Organizers

Live Stream Setup for Virtual Events: What a Professional Event Stream Needs

What a professional live stream setup for virtual and hybrid events needs: audio, cameras, encoder, upload speed, platform and crew, plus the right setup for each session format.

Behind the Scenes

Guest Post by Katrin Taepke: Your guide to virtual events with Converve

As soon as we can hold live events again, they will most likely have their comeback, because not every event can offer the same things digitally as they can on-site. However, there is a lot of potential for new “hybrid” events which have both on-site and virtual components. For this purpose, the new feature "virtual B2B matchmaking" from Converve can provide you with a solution.

Tips for Event Organizers

Who Should Meet Whom? The 3 Mistakes Business Matchmaking Organisers Should Avoid at All Costs

Structured matchmaking has arrived at B2B events, but many organisers roll it out too hastily. Avoid these three mistakes around free-riders, participant types, and communication timing to make your platform a success.

Tips for Event Organizers

37 Creative Event Sponsorship Ideas with Examples, by Sponsor Type and Budget

37 creative event sponsorship ideas with examples, sorted by sponsor type, budget tier and what the sponsor can prove afterwards. With 2026 price ranges, a FAQ and a free Excel sponsorship menu for price, margin and availability.

Tips for Event Organizers

Why Event Apps can Harm the Success of Your Event

Native event apps seem like the obvious answer to mobile attendees. Here is why they are often more of a barrier than a help, and which alternative actually works.

Tips for Event Organizers

Event Planning: 5 Reasons Why the Event Programme and Matchmaking Go Hand in Hand

People who visit B2B events want to network and learn new things. The best way to do this is by linking the matchmaking platform and the event programme. Here are 5 reasons why.

Tips for Event Organizers

B2B Matchmaking Platform: 10 Reasons Why Business Events Need One

What a B2B matchmaking platform is, 10 reasons why business events need one, and how to shortlist a platform for your event. With 2025 and 2026 figures from IMEX, Freeman, UFI and Fáilte Ireland, plus six answers to the questions organisers ask most.

Event Planning

Gamification: How Much Sense Does It Make for Business Events?

What is behind the mega trend of gamification and is it even worthwhile for B2B events? We look at leader boards, real examples and the limits of playful elements.

Tips for Event Organizers

Matchmaking-Workshop Review: 4 Learnings for Your Success!

At Converve's workshop during TechXperience 2018, event professionals developed exciting ideas for successful matchmaking. Four key findings: dramaturgy, casting, monetisation and gamification.

Tips for Event Organizers

Business Matchmaking at Events: 18 Success Factors for More Meetings

Matchmaking succeeds or fails on decisions you make before the algorithm runs: who may meet whom, when requests open, and what counts as a result. Here are 18 factors that separate a full meeting calendar from an empty one.

Event Matchmaking

"Personalisation offers added value for event participants" - Interview with Dominik Deubner, MICE Club

MICE Club founder Dominik Deubner talks about current EventTech trends such as personalisation and matchmaking, and looks ahead to the first hands-on TechXperience conference.

Tips for Event Organizers

5 Reasons Why Experience Design Is So Important For Trade Fairs And Events

The trade fair, event, and conference industry is being reinvented: the customer experience now decides between success and failure. Five reasons why experience design matters for organizers, and how to get started.

Tips for Event Organizers

Facial Recognition at Events: A Blessing or a Curse?

Facial recognition is becoming part of everyday life, from unlocking smartphones to passport control. What can face detection offer the event industry, and where are the risks?

Tips for Event Organizers

GDPR for Event Managers: An Expert Opinion

On 25 May the European General Data Protection Regulation comes into force. We asked data protection expert Dr Ralf Schadowski what it really changes for event managers, and how to prepare without panic.

Event Planning

Self-Motivation for Event Managers Working from Home

More and more freelancers and mobile employees work in the event business. Ten practical tips to stay focused and productive while working from home.

Event Planning

YouTube for Event Managers: How to Draw Inspiration, Know-how and Reach from the Video Platform

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. We show how event managers can use the video platform as a content channel, a training resource and a source of inspiration.

Event Planning

New Business Models for Traditional Trade Fair Organisers

Selling square metres alone has its limits. Five mostly digital business models that help trade fair organisers unlock new revenue streams.

Event Planning

Are Event Managers 'Multiple Personalities'? The 9 Roles of Event Managers

A day in the life of event manager Julia shows how many hats the job demands: from finance manager and experience designer to social media manager.

Tips for Event Organizers

Event Newsletters: 10 Steps to Emails That Bring Registrations

A successful event newsletter does one job per edition, goes only to people who asked for it and is judged by clicks and registrations, not opens. Ten steps for 2026, including the Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook sender rules, five example editions and the numbers worth reporting.

Tips for Event Organizers

Matchmaking Software: Avoid These 5 Typical Mistakes

Business matchmaking gives exhibitors and sponsors measurable results, but rolling it out comes with common pitfalls. Avoid these five typical mistakes when using matchmaking software at your event.

Tips for Event Organizers

Offline Reading Tips for Event Managers

Sometimes a printed book just feels good. Four offline reading tips for event managers, from experience design to the Event Canvas.

Event Planning

What Should It Cost? Pricing Models for Trade Fair and Congress Tickets

Paid tiers, member rates, free entry, freemium, pay what you want, meeting packages, hosted buyers or online passes: which ticket pricing model fits a trade fair or congress depends on who pays for the event. Eight models with 2026 examples and a decision guide.

Tips for Event Organizers

The Best Event Videos

Event videos communicate impressions of the event, transport emotions and whet the appetite for the following year. Here are 9 examples, from B2C music festivals to B2B corporate events, where this has been achieved particularly well.

Behind the Scenes

What draws Coen regularly to Iceland?

In our Behind the Scenes series, Project Lead Manager Coen de Jong reveals what fascinates him so much about the country of glaciers and geysers and keeps drawing him back to Iceland.

Event Planning

Chatbots, AI, Voice Recognition: Just Hype or Very Relevant for Event Managers?

Artificial intelligence, bots and voice assistants are reshaping marketing and communication. What does this mean for the events industry, and where is the value already today?

Behind the Scenes

Values, Ethics, Morals and the Events Industry

Interview with Bernd Fritzges, initiator of the annual WerteEvent, about ethics, morals, and his tips for event planners who want to offer matchmaking.

Tips for Event Organizers

The Most Important #Hashtag Rules for Event Managers

#Hashtags brought a system to chaotic social worlds. Follow these easy rules to elevate your social media game and spread the word about your events.

Tips for Event Organizers

Top Performance under Pressure: Stress Relief for Event Managers

Event managers juggle deadlines, clients and constant conflict. Here are practical strategies to relieve stress and stay centered, even in the biggest chaos.

Tips for Event Organizers

Mid-year Statement: Exciting Blog Articles for Event Managers in 2017

A small reading and link list for the summer: the most interesting topics in the event blogosphere in the first half of 2017, from live streaming and VR/AR to security and the Oscar fail.

Tips for Event Organizers

Go home with 30 new business cards from your next business event, guaranteed!

Despite digitalisation, business cards remain a key networking tool. These checklists show what to keep in mind before, during and after a business event so you collect as many new contacts as possible.

Event Matchmaking

Survey: User Experience Decisive factor of Software-based Business Matchmaking

A Converve survey of more than 60 trade fair, congress and event planners reveals what matters most in business matchmaking: ease of use, responsive design and a strong user experience.

Event Planning

New Event Formats and What They Mean for Business Networking

Participative event formats and meeting design are hot topics, and even B2B events rely on interactive elements. We look at what this means for business networking and matchmaking.

Tips for Event Organizers

The 11 Worst B2B Networking Mistakes at Events

Trade fairs, congresses and events are top occasions to expand your business network. Here are the 11 networking mistakes you definitely need to avoid.

Tips for Event Organizers

Conference Icebreakers: How B2B Organisers Get Strangers Talking

Practical icebreakers for B2B conferences: choose the right moments, prepare opening questions and offer ways into conversation for both outgoing and reserved attendees.

Event Matchmaking

Matchmaking at Career Fairs: TALENT DAY Case Study

How TALENT DAY Media + IT in Hamburg uses matchmaking technology to connect over 850 school pupils with 50 companies. A behind-the-scenes look at a successful career fair.

Tips for Event Organizers

A Solid Argument: Why Should Your Exhibitors Use a B2B Matchmaking Tool?

B2B matchmaking professionalizes the exchange between exhibitors and trade fair visitors. Here are 8 arguments you can use to motivate your exhibitors to embrace a matchmaking tool.

Tips for Event Organizers

Conflict Management at Events: How to Deal with Difficult Clients, Exhibitors and Attendees

Most conflicts at events start with a promise that was never made clear. How event teams prevent them, de-escalate in five steps on site and fix the cause afterwards.

Tips for Event Organizers

More Team Productivity With Podio

E-mails and Excel no longer suffice for managing event team collaboration. Here is why and how Converve uses the Podio online platform instead.

Tips for Event Organizers

20 Sources for Free Photos, Videos, Graphics and Music: 2026 Licence Check

20 free sources for photos, videos, icons and music, each checked against its licence page in October 2026, plus what free media may and may not do in event ads, social posts and AI visuals.

Event Planning

What is the Ideal Timing for Pre-Event Matchmaking? Tips from Linda Hull, Silicon Valley Telecom Council

Linda Hull of the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley shares why timing is crucial for B2B matchmaking and how she condenses the matchmaking process for the TC3 Summit into just three weeks.

Tips for Event Organizers

8 Tips for Sustainable Events

A lot of people talk about sustainable events these days, but few actually know what that really means. Sustainable events are more than just „green“. Here are 8 tips on how to organize your trade fair or congress sustainably.

Tips for Event Organizers

Hosted Buyer Programme Pitfalls: 7 Mistakes Organisers Still Make in 2026

Hosted buyer programmes rarely fail at the meeting table. They fail months earlier, in the rules nobody wrote down: who qualifies, who may contact whom, what a missed meeting costs, and how a remote buyer is treated. Seven pitfalls, each with the fix.

Tips for Event Organizers

Work-Life Balance Tips: Especially for Event Managers Plagued by Stress

Do the usual work-life balance approaches even fit the hectic events world? Tips for event managers and their executives to keep stress in check.

Event Planning

CO-BRANDS: Cooperation Speed-dating for Brands and Media

Since 2009, the CO-BRANDS event in Hamburg has brought marketing decision makers together for cooperation speed-dating. Organizer Nils Pickenpack explains the concept and the role of the Converve platform.

Tips for Event Organizers

Five tips for successful event networking

Whether you are an organiser or a participant: the Converve platform helps you prepare for exhibitions and meetings. Five practical tips for making the most of an event.

Event Planning

Interactive Events: What Audience Response Tools Can (and Can't) Do

Live polls, Q&A with upvotes, word clouds and quizzes: what audience response tools really deliver at conferences in 2026, where they stop helping, and what organisers need to settle on accessibility and data protection.

Behind the Scenes

ABM Events in Canada Case Study: Aboriginals and Private Sector Get Together

How event organizer Raven Events uses the Converve matchmaking platform to power its ABM events (Aboriginal Business Match), connecting Canada's indigenous peoples with the private sector.

Event Planning

Web Apps vs. Native Event Apps: What are the pros and cons?

Is a downloadable native app worthwhile or is a web app enough? We compare both approaches and explain why Converve relies on web-based event apps.

Tips for Event Organizers

Graphics Software Shootout: Where Does Canva Beat InDesign?

The brave new colourful marketing world of content and social media is very demanding for graphic designers and marketing managers. We compare free graphic tools like Canva against pro gear such as InDesign and Photoshop.

Event Matchmaking

Case Study GDC 2016: How Do You Attract More Than 26,000 Game Developers to San Francisco?

For 30 years the Game Developers Conference has been the meeting point of the gaming industry. A look at how UBM gathers 26,000 experts in San Francisco and how Converve powers the B2B matchmaking behind it.

Behind the Scenes

Beer and Networking? Not Such a Bad Match!

In our Behind the Scenes series we introduce the Converve team: CTO Sören Gregor talks about why he brews his own beer in his spare time.

Tips for Event Organizers

Time Management: Don't Get Overwhelmed By Your E-mail Inbox

Drowning in e-mail? With clear routines, fixed inbox-checking slots and the right tools, event and marketing managers can take back control of their working day.

Tips for Event Organizers

5 Tips to Market Your Event Apps

Building a great event app is only half the job. These 5 tips help you market it well and secure a strong adoption rate.

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