Event Planning Resources
The resources below were created to help event and meeting organizers create, measure, and expand the potential of corporate events, university events, and association conferences. These reports, ebooks, videos, case studies, and calculators are all available for download. As your trusted partner in the speaker booking process, AAE is committed to helping create engaging and memorable events.
Guides for Successful Event Planning
With the time that goes into planning and executing a great, engaging event, your free time to learn new skills or improve others might be more limited than you’d like. We’ve assembled a list of great resources that can help you on your event planning journey, whether you are an industry veteran or new to the business.
Event Planning Guides
Customer Success Stories
Organizations across industries like technology, financial services, non-profit, and university, leverage the impact that a keynote speaker can make to engage audiences and convey compelling messages to attendees. Here are some examples of the clients we’ve been fortunate to work with who share their success stories.
From the AAE Speaks Blog
- The speaker selection questions that drive event outcomes
Devon Montgomery Pasha, a chief experience officer, outlined seven evaluation criteria for choosing speakers in a recent Meetings Today article. Most event planners don’t use a systematic framework. They default to credentials, availability, or name recognition. Here’s what many don’t realize: speaker selection isn’t just logistics. It’s a strategic architecture decision that shapes whether your
- Why Trust Has Become Central to Leadership Programming
Why trust moved to the top of the agenda Global employee engagement sits at 20 percent, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, tracking across 4,000 organizations. That’s a second consecutive year of decline, and it’s happening even as companies invest more in engagement platforms, wellness programs, and connectivity tools. That gap is
- Event Marketing Strategy: Why Speaker Selection Drives Attendance
Sometimes, event marketing strategy can miss the real foundation. Email campaigns, social promotion, early-bird discounts are all solid tactics, but they’re only effective if you’ve made the right decision first. If we’ve learned anything from orchestrating 20,000+ events, it’s that your speaker choice shapes everything that comes after. When you nail that decision, the entire
- Event Attendee Retention Strategies: Why Speakers Drive Lasting Community Loyalty
Event retention is often overlooked in favor of acquisition. Planners invest millions in registration platforms and networking apps, yet research consistently shows that bringing back the same attendees is harder than acquiring new ones. Breakout sessions are designed perfectly. Venues are top-tier. And yet attendees struggle to return after the closing keynote. The reason isn’t
- Event Planner Best Practices: What Seasoned Professionals Do Differently
After orchestrating over 20,000 events and studying what separates smooth event management from constant scramble, we’ve noticed something interesting about event planner best practices: the planners who tend to move fastest and create the least friction often aren’t doing anything revolutionary. They’re doing three things differently, and these patterns seem to scale across event types.
