Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

I was having a discussion with a colleague the other day about using email marketing as a way to get the word out and help get information to a customer.  I am still a child of email myself and I check that usually before I get my coffee in the morning.  A recent study reported by Mashable indicates that the next generation may be checking Facebook before they have their coffee, but I for one stick with the basics and go through email.

I continue to receive email updates from conferences and trade shows I have attended but for the most part, they smaller shows only send out a few updates a year and those are usually centered around events such as a call for speakers, or a sale of early bird tickets or other bigger announcements.  I think that is a poor use of email and newsletters.  Email is a great way to get up to speed year round and keep things fresh in the minds of your attendees, exhibitors and sponsors.  It is a great tool for helping you garner more sponsors in fact if they think you will be promoting them all year.

There are many email services out there and none of them are head and shoulders about their competitors.  I like to see a company that provides good analytics and one that allows you to customize your emails easily.  I know that some of the companies out there even have the ability to integrate with your blog and other social networks which is a nice touch.  Are you using email as a way to market your event?  How many emails is too many versus how many are too little.  I like to think that once a month I should be seeing your event show up on my radar and as we get close to your event you should get out as many as one per week.  What has worked for you in the past?

Canceling an event that never seems to get off the ground can be a difficult decision.  There are many things that go into making that decision, be it sponsorships that are on the fence, and attendees coming on board or speakers that will make or break both of the foregoing.  I was watching around the Internet this weekend and noticed that a recent tech event in Italy was canceled by organizers here in the United States.  It was not a great story to read as I too have been part of a failed conference and it was a difficult time for all.  There are sponsors to answer to and their are attendees to work out issues with and finally making things right for speakers that are making commitments can be a hassle.  All-in-all, I don’t wish a failed event on anyone.

When is it time to call it quits or when is the time for that pass fail grade for your event?  For many it seems to revolve around money.  If an event does not get the number of attendees for their needs to pay hotels and facilities, the answer is simple.  You cancel the event by necessity since the money is no t in the bank to support the event.  Some sponsors want certain criteria to be met before they will provide the check for the vent and if that does not happen, that too is a trigger to call it quits.  In this particular instance it seems that a combination of money and logistics caused the event to fail.  They had to cancel the location of the event as the hotel required a deposit that was not paid and they themselves pulled the rug out for organizers. This is very unfortunate as there are tales now of attendees showing up for an event and not having the event take place.

I am also disturbed by organizers that are putting together events and have no intention of having the event take place.  I have heard of some fraud going on in our industry and that is very disturbing.  Making exhibitors pay for booths and sponsors to pay for sponsorship of events and when the time comes for the convention or conference to take place the organizers are no place to be found.  This is a practice that seems to give us all a black eye.  When is the best time to cancel an event?  My hope is never.

It seems these days that everyone is trying to help the planet and benefits are being planned all over to help the victims in Haiti, to help save the planet from the BP oil spill in the gulf. Last night was no different as I spent the evening at the Fox Theater in Boulder, Colorado, listening to music at a planned benefit to help the people in the Gulf area at an event called The Gulf Coast Benefit.  The event is to help the those hurt by the oil spill in the gulf.  The organizers tell us their goal:

The organizers have created an ambitious goal: Gather music venues around the country to donate ticket sales on July 1st and create an online giving platform that encourages donations to the relief efforts. The fundraising goal is set to $100,000, which will be directed to our nonprofit partner the Gulf Restoration Network, (http://www.healthygulf.org), which provides assistance to the people, wildlife and wetlands affected as well as advocacy work throughout the Gulf Coast.

This is a drop in the bucket for the amounts needed to help that we will hear about for the area.  Many people are traveling to the gulf coast now to see the problems there and to see how they can help.  I suggest you give to the people at the Gulf Coast Benefit to help those victims of the terrible accident.

If you are planning on your own benefit, here are some quick tips to help your event be a success.

1. Community: Get your community of friends involved.  We all, have a larger community these days with our friends on Facebook and our followers on Twitter.  Get them to help you with your event.
2. Businesses: Many businesses are themselves seeking some help in this economy but they do have ways of helping you with services or products they sale and they can provide you with what they can.  Look to local businesses that might want to ass some “cause marketing” to their efforts.
3. Venues: Many venues are looking for ways to get their message out and to get people to notice them.  Many of them will donate their facility to get the exposure and to make a difference.  Find a facility that might want to partner with your benefit.
4. Advertise: If nobody knows of your event you need to get the word out.  Many businesses will help you with this and in addition leverage your community as I mentioned above.  Get the word out and your event will raise money and be a success.
5. Fun: This is an opportunity for you to have some fun doing what you do well, planning events.  Take this opportunity to have some fun and to show everyone how well you can plan.  This might be out of your normal planning process so try some things you wouldn’t normally try on your own or for a client.

There is a non-profit organization out there that wants and needs help.  Many of them have no way that they can plan events on their own and need the help of meeting planners and event planners.  Help an organization today!

I talked before about how we can save water as trade shows and conventions and there are many conventions out there that are really looking for ways to go green.  The other thing I wanted to mention is that the current marketing plans and ways for companies to align themselves with their customer is to join a cause.  We see it in companies like Pepsi and others that are now crusading causes and aligning themselves in an effort to perform some cause marketing.

Does your convention have a cause it can align itself with or does your industry have a specific cause it wants to crusade?  Many of the companies already have joined causes like The Susan Komen Foundation and Livestrong in the area of Cancer.  I know that there is a great push to provide drinking water or relief efforts to disaster victims like they have in Haiti following the earthquake.  There are companies that are trying to feed the hungry.  The food industry is trying to make this their crusade and that would be a good idea for those trade shows and conventions in the food services industry or restaurant industry.  Your industry can have a common thread there.

Whatever the industry is or whatever the cause is that you are looking to align yourself with, cause marketing is the new black it seems.  Many of your sponsors will be a little more generous when it comes time to sign that contract if you are going to offer up some cause you are championing.  It helps them with their own corporate goals and it will help you get a better chance to be a part of something that is proactive.  Try to add some cause marketing to your next event.  It will make a difference to those you are helping and to your own efforts to be a success.

This is a question every conference, trade show, meeting and convention planner needs to ask themselves when getting ready to make that pitch to a prospective sponsor.  Why do they want to give you money to be a part of your show?  If the answer is not obvious, perhaps you need to be prepared to make it more obvious.

Many companies out there are hurting right now in this economy so they are beginning to tighten the belts of the budgets in the marketing and sales area and your convention may be the first place they want to cut.  Are they making a mistake? Probably, if they have the opportunity to make a sale or two by being a sponsor of your event.  You need to provide them with the information about quality leads, about why their brand needs to be aligned with your event and the return on their sponsorship investment.  If you can provide a good reason why they should be sponsoring your event then it should be an easy enough sale.

When going to the sales call, map out why each particular sponsor should be a part of your event.  Make it easy for them to understand and make sure you provide all the information they need to sell it on their end.  If you can make it easy for them to sell, your sale will be much easier.  I have found a number of sponsors for events just because I have made it easy for them to get approval to spend the money.  If you make it an easy job for all, then we all want the easy job to be on our plate.

If you would like to be a sponsor here on our blog or on the Conventions.net site I can provide many reasons for you to want to be a part of our sites.  Contact me.

[photo via fifa4fans.de]

I am considered as a techno-geek or a geeky person that loves technology.  I tend to get my hands on a number or applications or get asked to help many companies test their latest in offerings for social networks or beta test their latest software.  I love to see how things are changing and the trends of the future as it relates to how we use technology.  This is why when I talk about the title of this post I tend to be really passionate.  The world of mobile is a game changer for all of us.  It doesn’t matter what industry you are in and it doesn’t matter what demographic you come from, smart phones are changing the way we do business.

This is why we are Conventions.net are staying ahead of the curve and changing with the technology.  We are now offering a way for all of the trade show and convention industry people to stay on top of the latest mobile trends and the latest in game changing technology.  Is your company staying on top of the latest in mobile apps or are they lacking in that department?  You can find out by pouring through the applications for iPhones on Conventions.net.  I’ll recap the site information about the applications here:

Conventions.net has compiled a comprehensive list of Trade Show Industry iPhone Apps, Meetings Industry iphone Apps, and Event Industry iphone Apps on the web. You no longer need to scour the web or Apple’s iTunes store to find the best Applications for your next Trade Show, Conference, Meeting or Event. For additional information, or to download one of the Apps below just click its icon.

I recognize a number of the applications mentioned on the site by logo alone and I can assure you that the iPhone is not the only place you can find some of these technologies.  I know that applications are also available on the Blackberry and other smart phones so take a look not only on your iPhone if you are one of those users, but also make sure to see if the application is compatible with your brand of phone.  Chances are it is available or will be available shortly on all the other makes and models.

If you are a company that develops iPhone applications and/or a company that has developed an iPhone application and would like to see your application added to the Conventions.net page, please contact us so we can add it to the list of applications.  If you are a power user and do not see an application that we should be including please let us know.  We aim to be the go to guide for all things iPhone and the mobile market in the Trade Show, Conventions and Meetings industry!

I am a huge fan of the Starwood Hotels and their resorts.  The latest Starwood Hotels and Resorts experience I had was out in Hawaii, so you can imagine how much that rated on my enjoyment meter.  If you get a chance to stay at the Moana Surfrider it is a one in a lifetime experience.  I also had an opportunity to look over Starwood’s latest campaign to help meeting and conference planners and at the same time give to charity.

The graphic above provides some for the information about their latest offer.  As you can see from the graphic they have also teamed up with PepsiCo on their campaign.  A deeper look into their offer also provides some details:

Starwood Hotels & Resorts and PepsiCo have teamed up to provide more value for your meeting experience. Plus, Starwood is giving you an opportunity to give back to your community. For every meeting booked your company will be entered to win one of four $50,000 charitable grants to be donated to your favorite local cause.

Book by July 31, 2010, and hold your meeting by December 31, 2010. This offer includes:

• - 4% Credit to master
• - Complimentary PepsiCo food and beverage break
• - Up to 100,000 Starpoints^® signing bonus
• - Sweepstakes for one of four $50,000 charitable grants
  

PepsiCo is becoming a driving force in the world of cause marketing and they are leading the way for other companies to participate.  This is a great initiative they are putting together with Starwood Hotels and Resorts.  If you book your meeting or conference with them, let them know that the folks here at Conventions.net sent you, and give them a thumbs up from us.

I have been at the heart of this debate for quite some time.  I have been on the organizer side, and on the side of being one of the speakers looking to be paid. Scott Stratten recently voiced his opinion about the topic of paid speaking on his blog UnMarketing.  In this instance Scott was given the terms by which you can speak at the event, a speakers conference ironically.  In that instance the speaker had to register for the event and pay the fee to attend if they were chosen to speak.  I know that this is a way to keep the ticket prices for the event low and that if you speak at the event, the pay is actually the prestige and the honor it portrays.  As I have said, I understand both sides of this argument.

From an organizer standpoint, the real issue is whether the speaker can help them sell tickets and whether that value that the speakers are bringing to the event will make the organizer money.  Plain and simple it is a matter of economics in that regard.  Many speakers on the other side of the coin believe in their message and how well they do their job and with that comes the idea that they can sell out Yankee Stadium if they were to speak on their passionate topic.  Many times that is not nearly the case.  Both have merit and there should be a compromise somewhere in the middle.

As organizers we look to speakers to pay their way in and help us make money by adding that value.  Speakers that help sell tickets or promote the event through their networks are the best value for an organizer and many organizers that see that can and will compensate the speaker for that purpose.  If a speaker adds no other value than their message, it some times looks like a bad investment.   Why should I pay you you speak at my event if you don’t bring value.

As a speaker, I am taking my time to make sure that value is there by making sure the message is such that it fits their audience.  I am making sure I provide them an expert in the field which I know they are using to market the event.  If I can help them by promoting the event through my network to help put butts in the seat then I am happy to do that as well.  I could make money in other areas, and speaking is only as small component of my business, but I also realize that if you speak at events, you do get that recognition and exposure.  I factor in a small part of my speaking as a way to market me and my business.

Both sides benefit from this relationship.  It seems that where it gets lost is when one side cannot see the other side’s point of view.  What is your position?  Should speakers be paid?  Should speakers pay to be a part of an event? Is the going rate for speakers too high or too low?  I would bet your argument is slanted somewhat in your own economic position.

[photo via Photos8.com]

I was talking about BYOD and the attachment for the audio visual portion of a slide show, and it made me think of "BYOB" or "Bring Your Own Beer."  In the trade show and convention industry a corkage fee represents the fee paid to the facility where your event is held, for the money that they lose by not being able to sell their own goods. In other words, if you have a sponsor that is providing free beer to your attendees, you must pay a fee for each beer given out "free" to the event facility.  They would normally be able to sell that concession to your attendees and because you are giving away something for nothing that they would make money on, you must compensate them.

This can get pretty ridiculous in my opinion as you get a large number of giveaways.  If you have an event that has a number of exhibitors giving away bottled water or refreshments or samples of their products, you can have a very large corkage bill that is paid to the event facility. 

This is not just limited to drinks given away or bottled water, but free samples of food and snacks as well. If you wanted to give a cookie to each of your visitors at the booth you are working, you would have to pay a percentage of the value of that cookie to the facility.  Yes, the house must get their "cut".  I can certainly see both sides of this issue and it may be a controversial payment to the facility, but when you are stopped from bringing doughnuts to your speakers in the speaker ready room because you have not paid your corkage it can get a little crazy.  Be sure you check to see if a corkage fee is charged before you decide to have a cool giveaway.

Tags: corkage fee, BYOB, conventions, trade shows, giveaways, promotional products, free samples

One of the things that I have tried to do this year is to hydrate more.  I know that all the experts tell us to drink 8 ounces of water at a time and that we should drink like a hundred of those an hour, okay I’m kidding, but it’s tough to always be near a watering hole.  I wanted to make sure I got this post up because this is an issue with some conferences, they don’t provide enough ways to stay hydrated.

One thing I certainly noticed at our most recent event in Vegas was the number of parties that took place. Parties mean drinking alcohol and staying up late and that all equals a recipe for needs to hydrate to get over the party flu.  If you have an event, it is important that you give the attendees ways to get back on their feet.  Places like Las Vegas that sit in the middle of the desert are even more at risk for poor hydration.  Put plenty of tables with bottled water, or in our case, we set up portable drinking fountains.  Attendees were able to walk by and grab a water bottle or a cup of water when they had it handy.  It makes for a healthier attendee and that means they come away with a better experience and the chance to attend the next time.

Tags: Conventions, Trade Shows, Water, Concessions