Meetings and Events
Virtual, Live, or Hybrid - we do meetings and events from large conferences to board luncheons.
Changing Times
In 2020, COVID-19 dramatically changed the meetings and events industry dramatically. This change continues to evolve every week. Just as every in-person event became virtual in 2020, in 2021 we now move to deepening our skill, quality, and sophistication in virtual meetings, determining how and when to safely resume in-person events, and beginning to learn how and when to make hybrid events.
Many association staff and volunteers have been forced to move their meetings online, without knowing much about the work, skills, and financial resources necessary to make this change.
Virtual Events
This year, Arden Solutions has successfully converted five three-day conferences, as well as other two and one-day board meetings and events from in-person to virtual with great success. The most frequently voiced statement we hear today about virtual events is that clients doing it themselves dramatically underestimated the amount of resources involved, fees they could change, and what they could accomplish.
Dismissing virtual events as needing less resources is common. There is a new lengthy list of resources and details needed for virtual conferences. This includes: video conference software, extra staff or volunteers for manning multiple simultaneous chat rooms and troubleshooting, voting software, prepping and training scores of speakers to have their technology working without a glitch on-time, and recording production quality video in advance and editing that video.
Traditional In-Person
Meeting planning is an Arden Solutions specialty. We are exceptional virtual and live event meeting professionals providing services from conception to venue negotiation, to onsite management, to follow-up.
For many associations and non-profit organizations, conferences, tradeshows and other events represent a substantial percent of their income and are the main industry event of the year. These events need to deliver and share knowledge, facilitate networking, conduct business, acknowledge volunteers and VIPs, and allow the association to close the event in the black. The planning and logistics necessary for events to be successful and flow smoothly for all stakeholders is almost endless.
Our Experience & Qualifications
Our current staff has over 75 years' experience planning and executing events. We have a Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) and Certified Meeting Manager (CMM) on staff. Our experienced staff are adept at winning our clients concessions that less experienced personnel would miss and have helped us create hotel and venue contract clauses that better protect our clients. Arden Solutions has an IATA number, which enables us to get a commission on events held at hotels.
Our staff have more than 60 years experience in meeting and event planning, and have successfully sourced and negotiated over 300 hotel and venue contracts.
Our services are based on your needs — from a few hours of remote advice to the complete design, organization, and facilitation of your meeting.