Offline Reading Tips for Event Managers
Sometimes it does you good to simply put your smartphone, laptop and tablet to one side and grab something printed, right? For example, one of our offline reading tips for event managers!
Do you ever feel the same? Of course, these days we’re all super digital and always ‘on’. No doubt, many of you also have an e-reader as well as your smartphone and tablet. Nonetheless, however practical these things may be, at one point or another you need a good old (printed) book or magazine.
It is simply a different reading experience, nothing better, nothing worse than the digital experience, but still really relaxing.
Particularly now in the darker months of the year, amid the cozy, homey atmosphere where there’s nothing more comfortable than tucking in under a warm cover with a cup of tea and a good book.
Why not then with one of these reading tips for event managers?!
X: The Experience When Business Meets Design / Brian Solis
What accounts for the success of many strong brands these days? It is often not the well thought out product quality, rather more the experience that customers connect to the brand and its products. This can be seen clearly with such examples as Apple, Disney or LEGO. Behind exceptional experience design you’ll find technologies that can also be used at events.
These technologies are presented by Brian Solis, an internationally recognized expert for digital business and experience design. His book design alone is worth taking a closer look. As Brian Solis puts it, “the future is experience”.
Link: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00JZOZDUO/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_i0-gAbJ6FMG8M
Into the Heart of Meetings / Eric de Groot, Mike Van der Vijver
Eric de Groot and Mike Van der Vijver have a background in the theater and so to say lateral entrants to the world of conferences, trade fairs and business meetings. However, it is exactly this that makes this book so charming; it helps you to see event design from a completely different perspective and ‘reinvent the wheel’.
Eric and Mike present in this book that most meetings are purely looked at from a logistics perspective and not from human dynamics that trigger meetings. The book has a wealth of practical tips and inspiration on how to utilize this point.
Link: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1482553945/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_l2-gAbZR46375
Trending Topic / Gerrit Heijkoop, Paula Vos
An event that doesn’t also take place in the social web these days effectively didn’t ‘happen’ at all – or so they say. Social media are perfectly suited to increase the effect of events and to fuel the experience.
Gerrit Heijkoop accompanies a wealth of B2B conferences and trade fairs in their social media presentation, including the IMEX. Using humorous and likeable campaigns, he ensures that events resonate online as well. The book, published together with Paula Vos, is a management novel. Follow Victor VanWely, a fictional director of the “National Society of Rodent Professionals” as he makes his conference a success using the power of social media!
Link: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01N3SJQ46/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_62-gAb60HXTBT
Event Design Handbook / Roel Frissen, Ruud Janssen
Design thinking as a concept is the basis of many successful startups. Based on prototypes, creative minds develop new products and business models and test them before they enter the market.
Roel Frissen and Ruud Janssen used this principle in the events industry. They developed the Event Canvas; a graphical approach to event design. It analyses the expectations of different stakeholders at an event, the initial situation and the desired behavioral changes, which then flow into an overall concept.
Although it sounds very theoretical, it has in the meantime developed into a very successful method to perceive and design events holistically. Highly recommended!
Link: https://www.amazon.de/dp/9063694342/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_M3-gAbHFEG15J
Bottom Line
It is highly enjoyable to immerse yourself in a good book. Our offline reading tips are not only well written, but also help event managers to progress and broaden their horizons. Enjoy!
