--- title: "Event Headaches: The Front Row Blues" id: "36888" type: "post" slug: "event-headaches-the-front-row-blues" published_at: "2017-02-07T23:56:11+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-09T16:22:52+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/02/07/event-headaches-the-front-row-blues/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/02/07/event-headaches-the-front-row-blues.md" excerpt: "Convincing attendees to sit in the front row is hard, but it’s not because of the front row itself. Also: One company’s clever strategy to get in on the Super Bowl action." taxonomy_category: - "Meetings / Events" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "audience engagement" - "conference spending" - "event planning" - "Meetings" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "Director" - "Manager" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Event Headaches: The Front Row Blues Getting people to sit in the front row of an event session is really, really hard. Yet, if you’re talking about a popular concert or sports event, [as Julius Solaris of the Event Manager Blog (opens in a new tab)](http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/boring-conferences) [notes (opens in a new tab)](http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/boring-conferences) , people are raring to get up front. What gives? Solaris suggests a variety of reasons, including indifference to the speaker or topic, concerns about aggressive salespeople, or a general fear of public speaking. And none of those problems has anything to do with the seating itself. “We need to fix the front-row issue at conferences, and seating has nothing to do about it,” he writes. “Are we creating events people want to attend? Are we planning sessions attendees can’t wait to sit on the front row for? Are we creating excitement, or are we scaring people away?” [Check out Solaris’ post for insights (opens in a new tab)](http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/boring-conferences) on how to fix the disparity. ### The Anti-Ad [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcWW-pN_niE (opens in a new tab)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcWW-pN_niE) **Some viewers got an eyeful** out of an oddball ad created by the jokesters at Cards Against Humanity. Because potatoes have a lot of eyes. See, the folks who make the card game created a fake Super Bowl ad, featuring a potato with the word “advertisement” written on it, then told people they wasted millions of dollars on the ad. “While we succeeded creatively, the advertisement showed a disappointing return on investment ($0), and we are now going out of business,” [the company wrote in a tongue-in-cheek Medium post (opens in a new tab)](https://medium.com/@CardsAgainstHumanity/why-our-super-bowl-ad-failed-2af66e6a976c#.dlzgeaf9r) . It didn’t go out of business, and the avant-garde work never actually aired with the Super Bowl—[just on local Chicago television (opens in a new tab)](http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2017/02/06/cards-against-humanitys-superbowl-ad-featured-a-potato/) during the pregame festivities. But merely saying it aired during the Super Bowl, with a parody postmortem, has proved a massive success story for Cards Against Humanity—thus far, the potato has received nearly a quarter-million views on YouTube. Fake it until you make it, apparently. ### Other Links of Note **A necessary fix.** Google’s project for speeding up mobile pages, known as AMP, has turned off some publishers because of its tendency to create an extra URL for every story. But the company [just announced a fix for that (opens in a new tab)](https://developers.googleblog.com/2017/02/whats-in-amp-url.html) . It’s not perfect, but it’s getting there. **Beyond lists.** The [new note-taking app Milanote (opens in a new tab)](http://milanote.com) combines the best features of Evernote, Pinterest, and Trello into an incredibly creative result. **Worth a gander.** The newly released NGO Online Technology Report is here—check the site for [a few great infographics (opens in a new tab)](http://www.techreport.ngo/) . (iStock/Thinktock) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. [More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Tags: [#audience engagement](https://associationsnow.com/tag/audience-engagement/) [#conference spending](https://associationsnow.com/tag/conference-spending/) [#event planning](https://associationsnow.com/tag/event-planning/) [#Meetings](https://associationsnow.com/tag/meetings/) **Stay Informed** [Subscribe to our free newsletter](https://associationsnow.com/newsletter/) , *Associations Now Daily News*, to find out what’s happening in the association world every business day. ## You Might Like - [PodcastAssociations Now Presents: Beyond the Contract: Building Stronger Destination PartnershipsSeptember 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/24/associations-now-presents-beyond-the-contract-building-stronger-destination-partnerships/) - [VideoMelvin Tennant, CAE, President & CEO of Meet Minneapolis, Welcomes You to Great Ideas 2026September 2, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/02/melvin-tennant-cae-president-ceo-of-meet-minneapolis-welcomes-you-to-great-ideas-2026/) - [VideoASAE TV Daily Recap: Final Day at the 2026 ASAE Annual Meeting & ExpositionAugust 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/08/24/asae-tv-daily-recap-final-day-at-the-2026-asae-annual-meeting-exposition/) - [VideoTerin Bates, MBA, CAE, CX-PRO, Shares Her Experience at the 2026 ASAE Annual Meeting & ExpositionAugust 18, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/08/18/terin-bates-mba-cae-cx-pro-shares-her-experience-at-the-2026-asae-annual-meeting-exposition/) ## Comments **Comments are for ASAE members.** [Learn more about comments on this site.](https://associationsnow.com/comments/) [Log in](https://associationsnow.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fassociationsnow.com%2F2017%2F02%2F07%2Fevent-headaches-the-front-row-blues%2F%23comments) to your member account or [join ASAE](https://my.asaecenter.org/select-a-membership-type/) !