Ángeles Moreno has more than 20 years of experience in the meetings and events sector, and has been dedicated to strategic consulting for 2 years. Her objective is to achieve the success of events through defining the expectations of the client and the participants.
Sep 18, 2018
For over 20 years now, I’ve been working in the meetings and events sector, 16 of which I’ve worked at my own events agency. During the last 2 years I’ve devoted myself 100% to what has been my real passion for years: strategic consulting. I’ve done this through my own company, the Creative dots, where we’ve been able to develop our own innovative methodology, the tCd methodology. With this formula, we analyze procedures for excellent event management. We also analyze customer experience in order to design customer-centered procedures with agile methodologies, helping teams to be innovative and excellent.
In 2016 I took my first steps in the strategic events design with Event Canvas. For this purpose, I obtained my Certified Event Designer (CED) certification with the Event Design Collective GmbH. I also became partners with the Spanish Event Design Collective, where I currently perform as the director.
My goal is to leave a legacy in this sector that I am passionate about. I reinforce my contribution to it through my role as Past President in the Iberian chapter of MPI, and currently as Chair European Advisory Council at MPI. I combine this role with my worldwide participation in conferences about innovation in the Meetings and Events sector, as well as with our daily work at the Creative dots.
Event Canvas is a well-defined innovation methodology with highly creative steps based on Design Thinking and the Business Model Canvas. Event Canvas enables to transfer the importance of event design to stakeholders, not just to attendees. We work to achieve success by defining the expectations generated by the event in the participants, while establishing a common language between the event owner and the event planner. In this way, an optimal experience of all the stakeholders involved is guaranteed.
We achieve success with Event Canvas by defining the expectations generated by the event in the participants, while establishing a common language between the event owner and the event planner.
The CED Level 3 Certified Event Designer Program is an immersive 3-day training course plus 6 months of coaching that concludes with the presentation of an event design project. There are several locations to obtain it worldwide.
In addition to this level 3, we offer levels 1 and 2 in Spanish, English and German, and it is possible to obtain them directly in the Spanish territory. They are focused on opened groups, but also as consultancy services for companies in the sector.
With this strategic event design tool, professionals can design events based on customer experience, focusing on value creation for all stakeholders. In addition, the methodology is based on collaborative work, fostering creativity and encouraging the calculation of ROI. Undoubtedly, they are very differentiating advantages to respond to the trend, increasingly evident in the industry, to consider the event as a strategic tool within companies.
An Event Designer requires very specific professional knowledge and skills, which I can hardly establish only in 5. Not only do you have to be an expert in designing events of value, but they should also be excellent at planning and executing them. Event Designers must also develop high doses of empathy, understand different cultures, have negotiation techniques and be experts in measurement systems, ROI, etc.
From my point of view, the most common mistake is that logistical needs often divert the team from pursuing the main objective of the event. Another frequent mistake is the lack of consensus and team work. Event Canvas encourages teams to reach general agreement about the event, without diverging from its main goal. When designing events with Event Canvas, the teams consider the expectations of the stakeholders and aim to change the behavior of attendees. This way, we can measure the ROI of the event and obtain data to apply in following editions, keeping strategically aligned with business objectives.
The most common mistake is that logistical needs often divert the team from pursuing the main objective of the event.
Personally, I try not to give so much advice, but if you ask, I encourage professional meeting planners to rethink and reinvent themselves. It’s a traditionally despised profession, turned into a purely logistical task. As professionals, we need to bring real value to this sector, and that added value is no longer where it was before. In analysis, strategy, experiential measurement and ROI, planning, common language and customer experience lies our pending subject.
Many companies want to start a transformation process in their Congresses/Meetings and Events departments with the goal of turning them into strategic partners to provide added value, besides the execution of the logistics of the event. The main goal is to leverage the event to a strategic tool that helps the company achieve its business objectives.
Through the Event Canvas Methodology, we work with teams on real or fictitious projects. We analyze the behavior of the stakeholders, we generate a design and we establish a prototype. In conclusion, we co-create an effective strategy with the event design team, based on a clear structure and a common language.
WEC (World Education Congress) 2018, MPI’s main event, that provides opportunities for education, business and first level networks for meetings and events professionals. It was redesigned with Event Canvas methodology. In addition, we were chosen by MPI to measure the customer experience in real time during the event and to design the WEC22 edition, along with key stakeholders’ groups.
When I came back from Indianapolis, I reviewed the event we designed in August 2017 in Amsterdam and I identified many of the touchpoints we had foreseen. That is amazing for me. We must design measurable experiences according to the impact we want to cause, not just organize entertainment.
[bctt tweet=”We must design measurable experiences according to the impact we want to cause, not just organize entertainment. Ángeles Moreno, Certified Event Designer” username=”NHMeetings”]
I totally agree with Roel. I have been professionally working in the meetings and events industry for over 20 years with clients from all over the world, and it’s time for us to justify the strategic value of events. And above all, we need to position the meetings and events industry in the place it deserves. We need to design, define, structure and plan events according to a strategic plan and a goal. And we need all of this to be measurable.
Steps are being taken and the most innovative and evolved companies in the world have already joined this initiative. Of course, there’s still a lot to do, but we will be in the forefront no matter what.
The main objective of the event is to change the behavior of its stakeholders and for that purpose we must empathize with them. To achieve this change of behavior (ROI) we need to apply the formulas that the market offers us, either through technology, gastronomy, gamification, decorations and a long etcetera.
To sum up, the main trend that I see is that we’re going to start analyzing and designing the reason and purpose of the event before planning and executing. To give a very clear example, do we need a video mapping in a certain event? Could be, but what is the objective to be achieved with that action? How do we measure the results of that investment? How is that impact aligned with the customers’ experience in their relationship with the company, the product of the service?
