Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

I am going to be attending a virtual convention and conference.  I know before you take me out back and beat the stuffing out of me, let me explain why I am attending this virtual conference.  The conference I am attending is called Engage CSR 2010.  The conference is a social responsibility conference and I am covering the event for another client.  I am excited for the experience as I am not sure what to expect.  I have actually attended a virtual conference in another event that took place in the Linden Labs world called Second Life.  This is something different however and I will go into this one with an open mind and open eyes.

The conference itself is being put on by InXpo, Inc., and you can actually go and register for the event yourself at their registration page.  PR Newswire is putting on the event in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility.  The event is offering the following online:

We’ll explore these topics and more at PR Newswire’s first Virtual Conference and Expo. Attend webinars, network with conference attendees, and visit various sponsor booths right from your desktop. And best of all it’s FREE!

I am very interested to see how we can network with other attendees, visit the sponsor booths and all right from the comfort of your office from the desktop or laptop.  This as we all know is what we champion as something that cannot be replaced in the real world.  I have been send a training video and a pdf of what we can expect.  I will report my experience this week, and let everyone know how the event turned out and my review of he system.

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]

So many times we go through the motions without ever taking a moment to thank those around us for doing something out of the ordinary business and day-to-day activities.  Many trade associations have their once a year convention and trade show and then they are not looked at again until the next year’s event.  This is what happens in many shows in our industry.  The great thing is, we can now do a little something for good and be recognized for our efforts.  Corporate Social Responsibility is now a part of many company business plans and they figure a way to help their communities along the way.  Is your trade association doing anything that should be recognized as furthering the public good?  Now you can help them be recognized for their efforts.

The U.S. Chamber Business Civic Leadership Center’s (BCLC) Corporate Citizenship Awards showcase businesses, trade associations, and chambers of commerce for demonstrating ethical leadership and corporate stewardship and for making a positive difference in society.

Nominations for all awards will be accepted until Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.  The awards will be presented at the 11th Annual Corporate Citizenship Awards Dinner on November 30, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

You can go to the US Chamber Business site and download the nomination form.  Companies may nominate themselves or be nominated by an outside party for the company’s good work in society.  Nominations include the following:

• U.S. Community Service Award – Honors a business, accredited local or state chamber of commerce, or trade association that has exemplified the highest ideals of corporate citizenship through a specific U.S. community service program that promotes better business-community relations and contributes to the positive development of the community.  This category recognizes programs that are created and managed from within the organization, rather than a partnership with an external nonprofit. The latter should be submitted under the Partnership Award category.
• International Community Service Award – Honors a business or American Chamber of Commerce overseas that has exemplified the ideals of corporate citizenship through a specific community service program outside of the U.S., promoting better business-community relations and contributing to positive economic and social development within the country.  This category recognizes programs that are created and managed from within the organization, rather than a partnership with an external nonprofit. The latter should be submitted under the Partnership Award category.
• The Partnership Award – Honors a company and a charitable organization that have exemplified success working together to address an important social issue. This is an online people’s choice award and will be determined by public vote on the U.S. Chamber BCLC voting portal. The category requires nominees to be prepared to “get out the vote” and engage their constituencies in the judging process. Companies and nonprofit partners are encouraged to submit the nomination together.
• The Corporate Stewardship Award – This award honors companies that exemplify the highest ideals of corporate stewardship through their overall values, strategies, and operational practices. A corporate steward is a company that understands the linkages between its operations and society and that conducts business in a way that creates shared value: both economic and social progress over the long term.

Take this opportunity to perhaps recognize your own association or if you belong to an association that should be recognized for the good it does, download the form and get a nomination out for them.

Conventions and Trade Shows by their very nature is one of the most wasteful industries on record.  They tend to throw away quite a bit of paper and of course, food.  There has been a way to combat the waste, and we are seeing technologies that are making that more simple from a paper standpoint, but we have always had a problem with that leftover food.  You know the food I am speaking of, those trays of cheese and fruit and the many dinners not eaten, or the buffet that was not well attended.  All of that is wasted unless of course you are more proactive in what should be done with that food.

I was reading yesterday about The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act which limits the liability of those wanting to donate food items to their local food bank or perhaps a shelter.  In many cases events are required to purchase minimum food and beverage amounts and if their event is not quite large enough to meet the burden, they tend to lost that money.  The article refers to that issue and makes a good tip of going forward with the minimum amount of the food and beverage purchase, using that food for the event and then donating the excess food to charity and taking a write off for tax purposes of the amount donated.  This is definitely a win-win for the organization having the event and the one getting the donation.

In fact I would go a step further and publicize the fact that you will be donating the food excess so that you can also get some cause marketing out of the donation.  Many people like to hear these kinds of stories when they go to an event that is being mindful of its community.  With a write off and some good will, as well as benefiting someone in need of a meal, you are getting some great karma for your event!  Meeting planners pay attention to this tip and when planning your event, add a column for doing some good with your event.

[Photo via Rogarrido]

Press releases, you are either a big fan of them or you hate them.  I have somewhat of a love hate relationship with the press release.  I am actually a fan now of the new social media release that makes it easy to distribute your news, but those have not yet hit the mainstream.  I get hundreds of press releases a week and some are related to my industry in social media, some are related to businesses I have helped in the past or some are just general interest to me.  I know that press releases are necessary and a great asset to companies.

I also know that press releases are a difficult thing to distribute to those that are interested specifically in your business or in our specific industry.  You send out a blanket release that may or may not be seen by the people that care.  How do we help you with this?  At Conventions.net we have a free press release distribution system that you can use to reach your specific audience.  We know this because we talk to these industry leaders and those in the convention, trade show and meetings industry every day!

If you want to go to our press release distribution system and give it a try you can see just how simple it is to reach those you want to reach with the news that matters to them.  Your message is limited to 1500 words, and that should be ample for most press releases.  Some of the other benefits are stated:

• Reach 125,000 unique visitors each month
• Increase traffic to your website
• Optimize your ranking in search engines like Google
• Release remains visible once posted

There are many press release companies out there you can use and many of them have great audiences of hundreds of thousands of people.  What they don’t have is a specific audience to your industry.  It’s like free advertising and public relations all put into a nice package.  Give it a try.

For those of us wondering how the environment impacts us in the convention and meeting industry or how catastrophes or other problems change how we do business, we only have to look at the recent oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.  We have written about the terrible situation with the flood in Nashville and how it impacted the folks at Gaylord Hotels.

Meetingsnet.com talks about how the spill is leading to cancellations in the Meeting Industry.

A May 18 survey of 50 hotels across the Gulf Coast that host meetings and events found that 42 percent are experiencing group booking cancellations, the report says.

I don’t think that we are going to see a big problem in the Gulf States as it relates to meetings, or conventions or other things that are impacted in that area by things like golf coast hurricanes or other weather issues.  I like how the report states that in some cases bookings for hotels and other facilities are on the rise because they are housing the peripheral industries like emergency people, media and others.  So far the spill is not making much of an impact, but if you have a meeting, a convention or trade show in the gulf coast states, it might be a good idea to reach out to your facility to see if there is any impact.  If you are marketing your event as a beach front or other outdoor ocean view or gulf coast outing, you should make sure you have your own disaster preparedness.

[photo via Yahoo News and AP]

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]

As you can see from our last couple of months we have been showcasing many of the convention centers around the country and letting you know their offerings and how they might fit into your convention plan. No matter if you are planning a large event or a smaller conference, we want to be seen as the place to come for information. You can find all of the information on any city or center just by looking at the categories we have here, or perhaps making sure to visit Conventions.net for the latest information on any of our locations we have featured there.

I wanted to get back to some of the nuts and bolts of actually going through the planning of a convention, trade show or conference. I have been busy with a few of my own shows, one in Las Vegas in 2009 at BlogWorld & New Media Expo, followed very quickly by the Social Media Business Summit in Hawaii at the [re]Think Hawaii event, and most recently I have been working on the Modern Media Man Summit in Atlanta which will take place in September, 2010.  It seems I have a few plates in the air and have been doing many jobs over the last couple of years.  I am sure this will continue as I think it is a great way to gain experience doing a number of different jobs in different locations.

This week I am going to start talking about some of the things that go on behind the doors or events.  These are the things that might not be the glamorous things that occur and it might not be the things that we like to showcase as owners of events or conference directors or exhibit booth salespersons.  I have met a number of interesting people along the way and want to talk about a few of those as well so stay tuned while I start my brain dump of all the things that go into what I see as convention planning!

[photo via Retronaut]

The Greater Richmond Convention Center, located at 403 N. 3rd St, Richmond, VA 23219, is only minutes away from the airport, and right in the heart of downtown.

Event planners, click here for information.

And, from the convention center’s website, here is what it has to say about what you might find at the Greater Richmond Convention Center:

The Greater Richmond Convention Center is Virginia’s largest exposition and meeting facility. The Center brings hundreds of thousands of visitors into the metropolitan area each year.

Whether it’s large or small – simple or multi-faceted, our customer service and attention to detail will ensure that your event will surpass your every expectation.

Today (Friday) through Sunday, in fact, if you go to the Greater Richmond Convention Center, you will find a wine-tasting convention with wine tasting from 65 state wineries, food and cheese sampling, free crystal wine glass, chef demonstrations, and more!