Lunchtime Links: What to Expect When You’re Attending

There are times when it’s the little things that matter most to your meeting attendees.

They sound modest, but quite often, focusing on basic elements like name badges and power outlets can alleviate some of the biggest headaches your attendees might face.

But one of the most useful things you can do ahead of time, argues Event Manager Blog contributor Kelvin Newman  (opens in a new tab), is to simply give people a quick heads-up as to what they should plan for pre-conference.

“Early on in my conference organising days it amazed me the number of emails I used to get about dress codes,” explained Newman, the organizer of the BrightonSEO conference. “I was organizing marketing conferences, not gala dinners. It’s one of the things people legitimately get concerned about in the run up to events.”

Newman’s suggestion? Send out an email ahead of time—and leverage the opportunity to keep your attendees in the loop.

“Think about every small question your attendees have asked ahead of your events. Turn then into a helpful piece of communication,” he writes. “You’ll save your attendees a lot of mental energy fretting.”

Tweets of the Day

Sorry Mardi Gras, but IHOP’s National Pancake Day may be a better take on Fat Tuesday. The ninth annual event, taking place today, even helps out charity—with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Shriners Hospitals among this year’s nonprofit beneficiaries:

Ready? Set! PANCAKES! @marieosmond  (opens in a new tab) has hers, who else is headed to @IHOP  (opens in a new tab) for #NATLPancakeDay  (opens in a new tab)?! pic.twitter.com/qNBHYTJebE  (opens in a new tab)

— Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (@CMNHospitals) March 4, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Today is Nat’l Pancake Day! Visit select locations, enjoy pancakes & support @shrinershosp  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/e5y87TPUGd  (opens in a new tab)

— Shriners Children’s (@shrinershosp) March 4, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Hop on IHOP’s website  (opens in a new tab) to learn how to get your free short stack.

Other Links of Note

On her Miss Information blog, Maggie McGary gives you an idea of what a conference’s tweets look like in visual form. It’s pretty trippy  (opens in a new tab).

“How can anyone in the nonprofit sector profess any lofty aspiration of any kind if we are not ready to scrutinize our own governance and management practices to ensure efficiency and effectiveness?” Here’s the story  (opens in a new tab) that led the Plexus Consulting Group to raise this lofty governance question  (opens in a new tab).

A journalism nonprofit group scored an assist as conflict overtook the Ukranian peninsula of Crimea: The Global Investigative Journalism Network archived the work of the Crimean Center for Investigative Journalism  (opens in a new tab) after the media outlet’s offices were attacked by masked gunmen  (opens in a new tab).

Does your website’s global navigation really help your users? One usability expert pushes back  (opens in a new tab) against a long-held belief of web design.

(iStock/Thinkstock)