2024 Events and Communications Conference Recap

More than 100 chamber professionals from 32 states gathered in St. Paul, Minnesota, this month to learn the latest events and communications trends. ACCE’s annual Events and Communications Conference helped attendees gain fresh ideas, learn best practices and develop new skills to enhance their chambers' initiatives.

The sold-out conference began with a rebranding workshop presented by the St. Paul Area Chamber, which showcased its process, success metrics and lessons learned from its rebranding effort. Participants also gained insights into brand archetypes and received tools to help their chamber strengthen its brand and tell its story.

Conference speakers covered topics such as graphic design, inclusivity at events, using data to improve events, communication in a divided landscape and how to use short-form videos to tell engaging stories across chamber activities.

Here are some takeaways and highlights from the conference.

• Welcoming Everyone: With approximately one in four adults living with a disability, inclusive event design is crucial. Katie Battis-Troyer and Ryan Kroening, co-founders of Convening Toward Liberation, discussed strategies chambers can use to ensure that event attendees feel welcome and supported throughout the event. This requires chambers to adapt their planning and internal processes to:
  • Capture attendee accessibility needs and anticipate potential barriers to full event participation during the registration and planning process.
  • Talk to venues about physical accessibility, accommodating diverse dietary needs and relevant hospitality staff training.
  • Consider and track the diversity of your speakers.
  • Review your registration and marketing processes with an eye on inclusion and accessibility, including your registration method, check-in area, marketing language and on-site signage and materials.
     

• Eye-Catching Design: Great graphic design is an essential element for event success. Chandler Johnson, art director at the Greater Kansas City Chamber, encouraged attendees to break barriers, be consistent, choose a key visual element and apply it throughout all materials. Keep it simple, then go big. Use color to create mood and enhance messages, find a readable typographic style that expresses the right tone, understand element hierarchy and don’t shy away from white space.
   

• Strengthening Sponsorships: Ashley Odil and Becca McCulloch from the Portland Metro Chamber and Fuyumi Hashimoto from the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce highlighted the significance of bundling sponsorships and creating renewal opportunities. Chambers can maximize sponsorship revenue by tailoring their offerings to large and small businesses to ensure that all organizations can find an opportunity to meet their needs. This not only boosts revenue but also enhances your chamber’s visibility.
  
  
• Telling Your Story: An interactive session covering best practices in short-form video storytelling. Lauren Getts, vice president of economic development and strategic communications at The Greater Manchester Chamber, New Hampshire, and Amber Hawton-Hill, senior marketing and communications manager at the Boise Metro Chamber, Idaho, provided tips to create better and more engaging content. Attendees learned a few simple tips that can make an outsized impact on their short-form videos, including using a microphone for quality audio, cleaning your phone’s camera lens, prioritizing vertical over horizontal orientation, utilizing templates and applying trending audio where appropriate.

ACCE thanks the conference’s sponsors and exhibitors for their support and attendance in St. Paul. 
Host: St. Paul Area Chamber
Platinum Sponsor: Livability Media
Exhibitor Sponsors: Élan Speakers Agency, GrowthZone and Momentum for Chambers

The 2025 Events & Communications Conference information and registration details will be available soon.