Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

I am asked to speak at a number of events and conferences.  One of the things that I see is on the rise is the fact that many speakers are cutting there speaking fees to the bare minimums to get more work.  This is undercutting the industry for those that have been charging fees for their services for a number of years at the same rate.  The competition is creating price wars due to the sliding economy.

Some of the things that I see speakers are doing is not figuring in their normal fees are things like expenses for travel, expenses for being on site, and the expense of their time.

Conferences will often times pay for the plane fare to their event, pay for a hotel room for them to be at the event for the duration, and will provide the stipend for their speaking fees.  This is becoming a rarity for the event space or conventions and trade shows.  We are now seeing speakers lining up to speak at events for the exposure they get and not charging for those other areas.  They figure that this is a marketing or an advertising vehicle for their true businesses.  They are giving away their expertise on the bet that they may get business from the speaking gig.  If that proves not the case, they have lost that opportunity and they are then on to the next gig.

Meanwhile, speakers are devaluing their services and the services of their peers.  Their peers are unable to compete with those that are giving away services for free and not charging for things that they normally wold as they are hoping to make that up in the sales cycle.  The enabling of this are event planners and convention organizers that are having to cut costs and cut budgets for the content they are providing their attendees. We are seeing the economy change how we do business in this industry and speakers are being hard hit by the new changes.  How is the economy changing how you do business?  Would love to hear your opinions here.

Going the extra mile is what I have been preaching to others as I visit with event planners and convention planners at their events across the country.  I recently attended a conference and wanted to share something that I thought might also be going that extra mile that was done at this event.

Many of the attendees that go to events and have never been to the location or have never been in the city where your event is held may not know what the local best restaurants or the local best bars or attractions might have to offer. This is a great time to tap into the visitors and convention bureau staff to get the best places for a drink maybe the best late night dessert bar or even the best place to sing karaoke.  The conference I recently spoke at had a buy one get one free deal for anyone that showed their conference badge at the local ice cream parlor.  I decided it would be a good idea to buy one and take the free one too! I love ice cream.

Find out where these places are in the area and then see if they will give your attendees a little discount or a special offer.  The local business would love the additional customers and your attendees get a good deal on their wares.  It truly is a win-win.  Go that extra mile or even that extra scoop of ice cream.  Iy may make an attendee, or in this case, one your event speakers very happy.

I have been meaning to write this post for a while but I thought that it was interesting to note that Las Vegas convention attendance in the month of July showed an increase of 28%.  Trade Show News Network reports:

The month of July, though, saw a huge uptick, with 320,724 attendees coming to the city, compared with 249,692 during the same time period last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority’s Executive Summary.

They say that the upswing was due to some new shows that are in town and that makes sense as Las Vegas has a better draw for those going and attending conventions.  The economy is driving shows to where they can have the best attendance and where the professional convention planners and the capital of conventions occurs.  This is actually good news as we see some solid numbers increase in Las Vegas the good news will only begin to spread.

Other indicators like room rates that have increased slightly may point to further indicators of economic recovery in the world of conventions and trade shows.  We will continue to take a look a the numbers as they are released.  Are we looking at a recovery?  Or perhaps a short blip in the screen?  My gut tells me not to start throwing a party.

I am constantly going over submitted speaker submissions for ideas about speaking at the events I manage.  Many of the speakers have much the same talk and it is some of the usual suspects that I see get a shot at speaking.  Some of the speaker agencies out there submit 10 applications to speak and all they do is change the name of their client and that can be especially frustrating when you are the one that has to read every application and determine those that make the cut for speaking engagements and those that you have to tell, “Maybe next year.”  It is tough to make those calls and it is even tougher to tell the folks their submission didn’t make it.  I think there are a number of things that can be done by speakers when applying to speak at events that can help your chances.

Be Unique – That may sound very basic but like I said many of the speakers out there all want to talk about the latest and hottest item in their industry and if you don’t stand out you can be assured you will be added to the “No Thanks” pile.

Know Your Organizers – This is not so typical of what I think is on the windshields of those that apply to speak but if you know more about those that are involved in the decision making process the better.  Do a little research on who those people are and what they do.  This can provide invaluable if you get a chance to pitch the idea later.

Keep It Simple – Organizers of events have a very limited amount of time to go through 100′s of submissions.  Keep your title catchy but simple and your pitch should be very much an elevator pitch.  If the organizer reading your submission has to spend too much time getting to the money portion of the pitch, you may end up on that pile quickly.

It’s Not About You – The worst thing I see in the pitch is that the applicant want to make the talk about them and how cool they are.  What you need to do is make it about the event and their attendees.  You pitch from the stage and you may never be asked back to an event. They want to make the best conference for their people. Make it about them.

Speaking at events is for some the best marketing you can have.  You get to be seen as an expert, you get exposure and you get to be the rock star.  Remember that organizers also are looking for the person that understands that from their point of view.  Your applications should be selling to the organizer and it should be your best stuff, but they see it as an honor for them to invite you to their show not that you have graced them with your presence.  Keep your egos and your chest thumping to a minimum.  Make it your mission to make their conference the best it can be and they will respond favorably when it comes times to make a decision on who gets to speak.

One of the things that is becoming common in the new world of new media is many companies are now publishing blog posts about their experiences at your convention of trade show.  Many companies are now blogging and they have Facebook pages that they are using to publish articles about your convention, your trade show and event the meeting they attended.  These articles, photos, and conversations can be re-purposed in recap posts.

Recap posts are feedback and review of attendee experience, exhibitor experience and sponsor experience.  These can be some of the best advertising for your event as it is generally not a biased opinion of how well you did in your planning, or your organization of that event.  You can also thank those that are writing about you by recognizing their blog post by putting it in a gathering of those posts in a single post on your own company blog.

Finally, by finding and listening to the content that is being generated, you can also get that valuable feedback that I discussed yesterday.  Feedback and reviews written are great opportunities for find out what people that how you did.  Publish they good bad and the indifferent and then follow that up with your own review and feedback of what you think went well and the things you intend improve on in the next event or show.

With the ever increasing media distribution channels and now the many citizen journalists your show floor needs to adapt to meet the needs of today’s new media.  The new media I am speaking of is the attendees themselves. Many of them are now producing their own media, through blogs, podcasts, video and photos.  They are now the new media replacing perhaps the more traditional media that we as convention organizers have been keeping in our planning for our events.  We have sent news release after news release to the more traditional folks trying to get them to run a story on their news sites or to do a quick story about how their viewers, readers or listeners can find out how to attend.

Now we need to figure ways to make it easy for the attendees themselves to have a way to make media on the show floor. We are now seeing many step and repeat back drops for people to do impromptu interviews of experts or speakers and other attendees.  Are you making these types of interviews happen by providing a place for this new media to distribute their product?  If you are not making it simple for the attendee citizen journalist to have a place to make their new media you are missing a most important distribution channel for your event right on your show floor.

Photo via ShashiBellamkonda

Is your convention or event accessible? I am not speaking about the ADA and whether persons with disabilities are able to attend, I am talking about whether the event itself is easily accessible.  I recently agreed to speak at an event that is in a very nice place that is out of the way in a quiet setting. We have a very nice location and the hotel is going to be a very beautiful setting.  The problem is not the location as it relates to the experience while there, the problem  as I see it is how to get into and out of the location from all over the country.

I will be flying a few hours to get to the nearest large city, will then have to rent a car to get the the smaller town that is not as accessible by commercial airlines.  This creates a hardship on the speakers, and those attendees that will be coming from places that are not necessarily easily traveled by car.  This needs to be taken into account when making plans or when planning the date and location of your event.

I love speaking at smaller events that provide a good setting for learning and for a closer dialogue between the experts speaking and the attendees. I really like a out of the way place that also allows attendees and those involved to have a near vacation like experience.  The problem is it has to be accessible and it has to be able to allow people to get there and out of the location as quickly as possible and with the least amount of cost. This will allow you to have better attendance and a better overall experience. These issues will allow you to have better attendance for years to come.

I have been talking about the convention season like it is a time to get a license and hunt for prospects (enter Bugs Bunny skit or scene here using the “Wabbit Season/Duck Season”).  The fall is generally that time of year for me.  “Back To School” campaigns are also all the rage on advertisements for all the retailers.  All of this means that we will be inundated with the time that many of us will spend in an expo hall shaking hands, meeting people and getting to be exposed to a large number of people.  I believe that the the latter is what we need to learn to survive.  This is where we all start to get that cold and flu bug that seems to hit us and attack us as we get over exposed.  Here are my tips to being healthy during the convention season:

Wash Your Hands

This is one of the things that we all get to hear on a regular basis.  Our mothers stand over us and tell us we need to wash those hands and this is probably the best advice.  If you are at a location where there are a lack of facilities to wash, pick up some hand sanitizer and use it often and regular.

Drink Plenty of Water

This is not something that many of us do on a regular basis.  If you drink more water you are generally more healthy.  Staying hydrated is critical to fighting off bad health.  In fact, this can also help you with washing your hands as we all know what drinking lots of water does and the result, which of course we all wash our hands after doing.

Get  Exercise

If you are healthy you will have a better chance of fighting off any bugs.  We all tend to stay up late and get up early in the convention season.  It is the nature of the beast.  What we need to do is get up early and go for a run, or use the gym at the hotel where we are staying.  Get the heart pumping, get some air in those lungs and again drink lots of water while doing it and you will see the difference in how you can face not only the challenges of that busy convention schedule.

Three easy steps to take to give you that added little extra during convention season.  If you have your own tips feel free to share them.  We all need to be healthy for convention season.  I need to get out and run and pick up some bottled water so I can head into my convention season.  See you at your booth!

What is co-location of conferences?  We know that co-location is defined as:  “to locate together; especially : to place (two or more units) close together so as to share common facilities.”  This is provided by Merriam-Webster, but what does it actually mean to us in the conference world?  To me it has a few messages.

Spreading out costs: I think one of the main points in today’s economy is that it allows a conference to partner with another conference to share in the costs of the facility or other costs.  If you have two companies that might have somewhat differing agendas but might share the same attendees, they can both share in the cost of the rental of the facility or the other costs that might be associated with putting on the event.  This also means of course that you would have to also share in the revenue of the attendees tickets and perhaps some of the sponsors but that is to be expected when dealing with partners.

Markets Join Forces: Many companies join together for a common purpose.  This is not much different from conferences joining together for a common purpose.  It may be that a single conference does not have the amount of content to support a full conference but if they joined with another conference that might also be too small to support a full conference, together they could make a full conference agenda of speakers and exhibitors for a better conference experience.

Management is Distributed: In some cases the companies that are putting on the events are too small but if they joined forces they could spread out the amount of work necessary.  perhaps Company A wil be in charge of the front facing marketing promotion and sales, while company B is responsible to the back end management of registrations, exhibit booth set up, housing and speakers.  With two companies each taking on all of the responsibilities necessary it spreads out the work load making it easier to accomplish all that needs done.

These are just a few of the simple ideas behind why conferences are co-located.  I know that we are beginning to see more and more of this as economic factors make it necessary to join forces and allow for more people to participate in attending conferences as well as managing them.  Are you a co-located conference manager?  Why are you co-locating?  What are some of the downfalls of co-locating conferences?  Would love to hear your thoughts.

I have been thinking for a while about convention and trade show leaders.  The people that lead us up the hill in this time of economic troubles.  The ones that make us feel good about where we are in the industry.  Those that are our though leaders and those that have companies that they are keeping on the path to success.

I have been thinking about what makes a good leader and what do the conferences, conventions or trade shows that are successful have in common?  I think the answer is simple and obvious, they have good leadership.  Last night on Twitter this conversation came about about companies that work well and what they have in common.  It also talked about the traits of the leaders of those companies that were successful.  Some of the traits of the leaders were:

• Passion
• Vision
• Fearlessness
• Determination

Those may sound like things we all have but in some leaders that exude these traits.  The funny thing is that if you ask each of us about what we think of when we think of a good leader and what traits we find important, each of us would have a different answer.  It does seem that we all wont to follow those that inspire us to be followers.  Some leaders have a confidence that we want to follow. It makes me think of what are the traits I want to see in a leader.  I have talked about events that fail and have been talking about events that are struggling but those that are winning the struggle and the battles are those with good leadership.  What are the things you look for in your event leadership?

Photo via Hamed Saber