Short can still be sweet. We've talked here about Spidell's California Minute podcast that's 3-5 minutes long and brings in many new subscribers (partly by allowing only subscribers to get transcripts). "We're finding that the education is what [our audience] wants," said Spidell president Lynn Freer. And short snippets can work better for some.

Balance continuity with surprise, says Don Neal, founder and CEO of 360 Live Media, in an article on Associations Now about making your event even more popular the second time around. "No company plans a flawless conference, so some elements—logistics, entertainment, content or programming, for instance—should change going into the second iteration. However, [organizations] should also preserve the elements that worked, as a way of establishing continuity."

Some recent headlines:

"We have a specific way of putting together our events, a branding way we do it," Anne Holland, co-founder of Anne Holland Ventures Inc., told me a couple weeks ago. She and co-founder Cassandra Farrington—they both also run Marijuana Business Daily (MBD)—will be keynote speakers at the SIPA 2017 Annual Conference, June 5-7, in Washington, D.C.

In a session titled Events and the Integrated Enterprise at BIMS last November, three industry experts recommended that publishers stay on the cutting edge for their events. This may not always be easy, but in discussions with publishers who have experienced drop-offs in attendance, it must be considered.