By Bruce Rose, Head of Strategy at Live Group
Your event problems. Solved – live.
The Event Clinic is a monthly session dedicated to bringing event professionals together to share, vent, and get practical, bespoke advice from subject experts
Event planning today is full of complex hurdles, and they’re often completely unprecedented. After working with hundreds of event professionals, I’ve heard a lot of unique problems that the guidebooks won’t tell you about.
The Event Clinic is our new monthly webinar series at Live Group, to give event professionals the chance to vent and get bespoke advice on whatever challenges they’re dealing with – big or small.
We’re doing this because we think progress in our industry comes from openly sharing both ideas and challenges – and working together to find solutions.
Here are some of the problems we tackled in our last clinic, with snippets of the solutions we gave:
1. Hybrid Event Divide
“Virtual attendees often feel like second-class citizens.”
The fix? Appoint a “digital ambassador” to actively engage online participants, and use platforms that give everyone an equal voice. This means virtual attendees feel like they’re getting access to perks, rather than being penalised.
2. No-Shows Are Costing You
“Last-minute dropouts can hit 20-30%, despite cancellation fees.”
Start your engagement early with valuable, exciting updates. Make it easy to transfer tickets so people won’t just skip the event.
3. Surveys Nobody Completes
“Post-event surveys get barely 5% response rates.”
Capture feedback during sessions with simple, in-the-moment pulse surveys — think happy/sad face buttons at exits.
4. Speaker Management Mayhem
“Late slides, tech issues, last-minute demands”
Sound familiar? Centralise speaker info in one portal, assign a dedicated manager, and set clear expectations upfront.
5. Agenda Politics
“Everyone wants prime slots, causing overruns and boring sessions.”
Create clear rules like no PowerPoints only, varied session formats, and strict time limits. Let your attendees vote on sessions. Data beats politics.
Got a problem you want tailored advice for? Or just want to hear what your peers in the industry are dealing with? Join the next Event Clinic webinar.
Submit your toughest challenges in advance at event.clinic@livegroup.uk or connect with me on LinkedIn.
