Moscone Center — Attraction in San Francisco

6 Ways Meeting Planners Can Get More Value from Their Speakers

Bring more value & visibility, enhancing the experience for both attendees and speakers: After you hire a speaker, ask that presenter to submit three actionable tips (under 100 words each, with embedded links) that they will offer in their presentation, plus a two-sentence bio with a link to a site where attendees can learn more tips from that speaker. Then create a valuable conference souvenir that you email to attendees as they are leaving the conference: an ebooklet of all speakers’ tips plus a list of “who else contributed to the success of our conference”—a list of the conference committee members and others. Strengthen the connective thematic thread of your conference by sending all speakers the collective list of speakers' tips and ask them to find at least one tip from another speaker that relates to their topic to refer to in their presentation. During the conference, ask each speaker to creat e e one-minute video tips, with explanatory text titles using the free app Gloopt and their iPhone. Ask them to include the hashtag for the conference in each video, and suggest that they share them on social media while at the conference. This will boost the value and visibility of the conference itself, the ideas explored at the conference, and the speakers. In advance of the conference, invite attendees to download the free app so that during the conference they can use their iPhone to video themselves asking other attendees for a tip they heard at the conference, and who they heard it from. Attendees might cite a speaker or exhibitor or other attendee from whom they learned something helpful. This gives four people bragging rights that can spur them to share these videos: the interviewee, the person interviewed, the person cited, and the meeting planner. Act like a movie director and storyboard the sequence of meaningful moments attendees experience at a conference to increase the positive elements and reduce or eliminate the boring ones. See how here. When attendees sign up, ask them to send you, by X date, the name of a book that helped them in their work last year, even if it does not seem to directly relate to their work. You can display the top 10 most-cited books at the conference, along with the names of the people who cited them. When you receive responses, send the respondents a PDF that reinforces the value of their attendance with some exciting news. Also include three alphabetical lists: a list of attendees, followed by the book title they submitted; a list of books, followed by the name of the attendee(s) who submitted them and a list of the attendees’ 10 favorite/most relevant books. Get 10 copies of each book from the publisher—for free—by telling them that you will display them throughout the conference then give them away, from the stage, to attendees you want to honor.

BIO: sent by a client: Kare Anderson is an Emmy-winning former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter, now connective behavior and quotability speaker, author and former columnist for Forbes. Anderson’s TED talk on The Web of Humanity: Be an Opportunity Maker has attracted over 2.6 million views. Her clients are as diverse as Salesforce, Novartis, and The Skoll Foundation. She was a founding board member of Annie’s Homegrown, co-founder of nine political PACs, and author of Mutuality Matters, Moving From Me to We, Getting What You Want, and Resolving Conflict Sooner and 2 other books. Anderson served on the advisory boards of The Business Innovation Factory, Gloopt, TEDxMarin and World Affairs Council Marin. As David Rockefeller Jr. said after hearing her speak, “Kare forever changes how you see yourself and...

While I love the Yerba Buena Gardens which is the roof of Moscone Center, I am conflicted about Moscone Center itself.

The regular conventions that come here are disruptive enough.

The APEC SUMMIT a few months ago made the local residents feel like inmates in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation!

We were actually told to buy enough to stay home for the week!

The food banks that feed the elderly and needy citizens of San Francisco’s “RED ZONE” were suspended during the conference!

The disabled veterans were forced to go up to four blocks farther to get public transportation to the Vererans Administration Medical Center!

All so some inconsequential “Summit” between nations could be held here to further the political agendas of Mayor London Breed, and others.

I understand that some merchants made a lot of money from this, but at what cost?

The city, county, state and federal governments could have shown more compassion for those people living in the “Red Zone” and provided free transportation to those in need like our veterans, elderly, and economically challenged. And denial of food banks created hunger issues where it was unnecessary!

Thank you Mayor London Breed, Governor Newsom, and President Biden along with the Secret Service for making all our lives so difficult and uncomfortable so you could rub elbows with rulers of nations who care as much for their citizens as you showed San Francisco’s residents.

Next time hold International Conventions in NYC, they are set up for it, they have the United...

The Moscone Center, located at 747 Howard Street in San Francisco's SoMa district, is the city's largest convention and exhibition complex. Established in 1981 and named after former Mayor George Moscone, the center comprises three main halls:

Moscone South: Reconstructed in 2017, this three-story building stands south of Howard Street.

Moscone North: Situated north of Howard Street, it connects seamlessly with Moscone South.

Moscone West: A three-level exhibition hall located across 4th Street from Moscone North.

Collectively, Moscone North and South offer 504,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space, including two ballrooms, 82 meeting rooms, and 107,000 square feet of pre-function lobby space. Notably, the center features a 60,000-square-foot solar array installed in 2004, reflecting San Francisco's commitment to sustainable energy. EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

The Moscone Center's prime location provides easy access to downtown hotels, restaurants, and major transportation systems, including the nearby Yerba Buena/Moscone Muni Metro station and the Powell Street BART station. EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

In February 2025, the Moscone Center hosted the NBA Crossover Fan Experience as part of the NBA All-Star Weekend, marking the first time this event was held in San Francisco. SFCHRONICLE.COM

For more information on upcoming events and facilities, visit the official Moscone...