International DJ Playlists

Very soon we will be running a conference over in Germany.  On day three of the event, after the Gala Dinner, there will be a DJ playing through until the early hours of the morning.  The event will be attended by delegates from 25 different countries and we want to ensure that we play the best songs to appeal to this international audience of business professionals.  We expect them to be a lively bunch and it would be great to see the dance floor filled!

We have asked the delegates directly to supply their top 5 suggestions but we would appreciate your help on this too.  We know from past experience that the Beatles are a sure fire hit but we want to have variety!

What songs would you suggest?  

Name(required)

Suggestions for International Play List(required)

Conference Trends 2013

London New Years Eve Fireworks 2012

We can’t believe the first month of 2013 has gone already! This inspired us to think about the changing landscape of the events industry and changes and developments we foresee for conferences in the next 12 months. It will be interesting to review this post in early 2014 and see if our predictions were right!

Times are still tough in the UK economy and throughout the world and event budgets are tight or in some case virtually non existent! This is however encouraging some fantastic deals and rates throughout the industry from venues and suppliers for those in a position to take advantage. Good event organisers are rising to this challenge to become even more creative in making every penny go even further!  We also expect to see conferences and events held in more unusual venues and spaces in the future and sometimes shying away from the shiny purpose built venues we love so much.

We have already seen many events moving to a single day rather than a multi day programme and non fee paying events slashing maximum available attendee places is understandably a definite sign of the times. There has also been a push towards “no frills” packages e.g. providing a basic sandwich lunch and doing without the biscuits/fruit/pastries at refreshment breaks in order to make the books balance and also simply to not be seen as being frivolous in these times of austerity.  In our opinion content is always more important than the niceties and we are happy to advise our clients how and where they can save money on their conferences and events.

If you book to attend an event and cancel at the last minute do expect to incur a cancellation charge. No shows and late apologies cost the organiser money for the place that is wasted and cause frustration because it is then often too late to fill the place from someone on the waiting list. Attendees often don’t seem to comprehend that by booking a place and not turning up to an event you may be putting the future of the event happening again into serious jeopardy during these challenging times.

Social media will continue to have a massive impact in the event industry in terms of marketing, developing online communities, live tweeting, sharing photos and extending the life of the event well after the lights are turned off and everyone has gone home. No longer does attending a conference mean turning off your phone, instead delegates are often actively encouraged just turn to silent and to engage fully via social media. Virtually all of the events we work on now set a dedicated event hashtag early on in the planning process and we are happy to advise on a bespoke event social media marketing strategy. Tweets are often visible even to those without active accounts via Twitter walls and feeds via event apps.  Speakers at events are also expected to do more, be it by writing a guest blog post or simply telling their followers about the events they are involved in and tweeting live from the event.

Event App from Advanced Event Solutions Ltd

Reliable wifi is essential in any event venue nowadays, where each attendee is often using multiple devices to connect online. Venues with less than satisfactory wifi signal, complicated log in procedures and expensive charges (or indeed any charges full stop for wifi!) will soon find themselves out of favour with organisers.

Tablets are having an impact on events, not just in terms facilitating attendees to connect with social media on site but also in terms of some organisers favouring their tablet instead of their traditional clipboard to quickly access important information on the move!

A hybrid event is a tradeshow, conference, unconference, seminar, workshop or other meeting that combines a “live” face to face event with a “virtual” online component.  We are already seeing a rise in events which cater for both on site visitors and also engage with wider audiences unable to attend in person.  Hybrid Events are set to change the face of the events industry and will become more and more common over the next few years.

Now more than ever it is vital to measure the return on investment (ROI) for each event.  Instead of gaining feedback from attendees about how they rated the catering what we really need to measure is how much business was generated as a direct result of an event or how it has influenced and changed opinions of those attending.

We are seeing a movement by forward thinking organisations who want to be respected as experts in their field and are hosting workshops around the country.  These organisations are putting on a free half day seminar in their area of expertise and inviting a targeted list to take up free places.  The seminar gives an introduction into their services via a number of guest speakers and case studies.  Attendees can gain valuable insight into the subject area, ask questions and get free advice.  The seminars then generate leads and business over the medium term which more than compensates for their initial investment.  We are pleased to be working with a number of clients who see this formula as a vital component in their marketing strategy.

In 2012 we produced a number of events that invested in an event app to improve the attendee experience.  Sponsorship is sometimes elusive in the current economic climate with sponsors rightly demanding more and looking for a unique package in return.  A bespoke branded event app such as those provided by Advanced Event Solutions Ltd offers real tangible benefits to sponsors as well as adding value to delegates, speakers and exhibitors.  In this age of technology having information at your finger tips via a mobile phone or tablet is expected and demanded more and more.

Event Registration Management

The face of event registration is changing.  For bigger and slicker events gone are the pre printed badges laid out in alphabetical order on the registration desks.  Instead we are seeing a much faster and less wasteful way to check in delegates via barcoded registration technology.  The attendees barcoded ticket is scanned at the desk triggering their badge to be printed within a matter of seconds.  We developed this registration management system ourselves in 2010 and it continues to grow from strength to strength.  It can also be integrated with the event app mentioned previously.

Over many years the favourite staple presentation tool has been PowerPoint.  Many speakers are however now favouring Prezi.  Prezi is a slick way to visualise and share ideas and information via zooming technology.  It certainly looks beautiful and is easy to understand why it is attracting over a million new users a month!

We believe that we will continue to see those that have cut budgets and stopped running events start to return to funding face to face opportunities to learn and connect. We have already seen examples of this throughout 2012 as clients realise it is actually often the most effective and cost effective way to achieve their objectives and alternative methods are simple not able to provide comparable results.

Online event registration sites have come a long way over the past few years and hopefully we will continue to see further improvements.  There are some great sites out there but not one provider is perfect yet in our opinion – every platform has some annoying imperfections, oversights or are simply overpriced and there is still work to be done.  We have a good working knowledge of event registration sites and are able to advise our clients which of the providers are most suitable for their event and which are the most competitive in terms of commission fees charged on each booking and card payments.

Following on from the success of the Olympic Games 2012 we hope that the UK will continue to benefit from increased tourism and hospitality spend as one of the premier destinations for conferences and events.

2013 is set to be an exciting year for Events Northern Ltd. We already have a great list of events confirmed, including our first European Conference.  This blog post has looked at just some of the ways we expect to see changes over the course of 2013.  We would love to hear your thoughts on this blog post and to hear your predictions and trends for the 12 months ahead!

Business Speed Networking

Networking is important for business

As an SME I certainly recognise the need and importance of networking, however often I feel frustrated with some of the networking events I attend.  This isn’t always the fault of the organiser; more often than not it just isn’t physically possible to talk to everyone in the room.  Time spent away from the business is particularly precious so in these situations when I have only met perhaps a handful of new contacts or spoken to only 5% of the room I sometimes leave feeling a little deflated that I didn’t achieve more.

I appreciate that it works for some people but my schedule varies wildly from week to week depending on the events we are planning and I would not get value and simply cannot commit the time to network on a weekly basis to a regular group of people.  I frankly do not agree that you need to have breakfast with the same people once a week to remind them to call on you if they need your services.  Personally I also prefer to mix it up a bit!  

These sentiments and other frustrations were shared by Martin Adams of Money Best Deal who approached me about starting a different type of networking event and wanted my help.  Martin is a very active networker but over the course of a year he had recorded the things he liked about networking events and the areas were he thought there was room for improvement.  He had also had many frank conversations with others about their likes and dislikes about networking events.  People often disliked having to address the whole room and found it awkward sometimes to infiltrate groups if everyone seemed already deep in conversation when they entered the room.  Top of the pet hates though included expensive annual fees and contracts and expensive fees to attend events, often with little or no return from over the course of a year.

Martin wanted to do something about it and we agreed to set up a series of business speed-networking events across the North West to try to overcome some of the issues and dislikes identified and to strive to create efficient, good value networking events for business men and women.  It was important to us both to have no upfront fees, contract or tie in to enable people to simply choose to attend the events most suitable for their schedule and to dip in and out as they wished.  Likewise although we need to cover the costs of running the events we wanted to keep the ticket price as low as possible to give good value and accordingly the ticket price is £12.50.  Attendance at the events is limited to two per organisation, to ensure variety and we recommend different specialisms/areas of interest if two people do come along.

Most importantly we wanted to ensure that the events are time efficient and guarantee that everyone has the opportunity to talk to every single other person in attendance on a one to one basis.  We also vowed to bring in different experts to give presentations and opportunities for questions and answers at the start of each event, focusing on topics of interest to small businesses.

So what is Speed-Networking?

Speed-networking is a structured, fast-paced, effective and fun way to meet other businesses in mini one to one meetings.

Speed-networkers want to broaden their connections by increasing their exposure to other like-minded people.

During a set time period you are able to get a brief understanding about what your new contact does, whether there is the possibility of a future business relationship and whether it would be worthwhile speaking or meeting in further detail.

What is the format of Speed-Networking-Works Events?

Attendees are invited to register on site from 3 pm and refreshments and cake are available as well as some open networking time.

After a welcome from the host at 3.30 pm the expert speaker will then present on a specific topic and have time to answer questions from attendees.  The host then explains speed-networking for those not familiar with the format of the event and how it works.

For the speed-networking attendees are seated facing each other across a table and have a timed period to introduce themselves and hear from the other person.  At the bell/buzzer those seated on one side of the table stand up and move along one place.  This process is repeated until everyone has spoken to all the other people in the room with a comfort break half way through.

Further open networking time is then available at the end of the event to pick up on any of the exciting conversations you started during the face to face speed-networking meetings.

When are these events taking place and how can I attend?

Registrations are open for the next event:

Business Speed Networking Works Darwen
Thursday 20 September 2012
The Learning Academy, Crown Paints, Hollins Road, Darwen, BB3 0BG
Further information and bookings at:
http://speednetworkingworks2.eventbrite.co.uk/

We hope to see you there!

For more information please call Becki on 01772 336639 or Martin on 01254 233035.

Please follow us on Twitter @speednetworknw

TechFest 2012

On Monday 18th June Becki Cross from Events Northern Ltd attended TechFest 2012  at the Mermaid Conference Centre, London.  Read more about the event in this blog post….

TechFest (http://tech-fest.co.uk/) is an event aimed purely at event organisers and focused on Event Technology.

I have to admit that it was lovely to be attending an event as a delegate for a change rather than to be ensuring everything runs smoothly behind the scenes for others!  I started the day armed with a brand new notebook – not sure if that is allowed at an event focused on event technology but as a stationary geek it made me happy at least (simple pleasures)!

We were greeted and welcome to the event by Oscar the Robot.  It was good to see Oscar live in action as I am desperate to use him for my own future events but haven’t yet had the opportunity!  Oscar was at his most charming, commenting that he “liked my red bag” as I went past.  As anticipated Oscar proved a great hit throughout the event talking to delegates, smiling for photos and generally attracting attention to himself – an excellent engagement tool which is proven to be particularly valuable in terms of attracting footfall to exhibition stands and other promotional activities.

The event had tried to do things differently, rather than by traditional means; for example attendees were invited from the “Making Good Organisers Great” LinkedIn Group and there were no delegate packs at the event.  We did find however that by our very nature event planners are generally very meticulous and so many of us attending the event had printed out our own event programme and brought it with us to refer to!

At the registration desk we had to choose a badge based on our knowledge of event technology.  Gemma thrust a Pink Badge onto me – signifying that I was knowledgeable about event technology!  Other colours signified those that had some or little expertise in this area and the badges were designed as an ice breaker and conversation starter.

The event was expertly Chaired by Alan Stevens (@mediacoach).  He highlighted that technology can be a great thing if used appropriately but also gave wise words of warning that all speakers should be prepared to manage with or out technology when presenting “just in case.”  He also outlined a true story of an event which had the event Twitter feeds prominent on the stage behind the speaker but in full view of the audience.  The audience used Twitter to complain how bad the speaker was and then collectively decided to do a countdown to leave the room, at which point three quarters of the audience departed.  The remaining audience then had to point out the Twitter messages to the bewildered speaker to explain the reason for the mass departure.

Jamie Vaughan, Sales Director at So Visit gave some interesting facts during his presentation:

80% of leads from an event are never followed up.

As an event organiser this is both baffling and disappointing as this is a massive lost opportunity.  Proving the Return on Investment of attending or exhibiting at an event is vital to ensure the business opportunities and revenue is maximized and ensure future approval.

94.9% of attendees welcome ongoing communications post show.

To highlight once again the lost opportunity represented by the previous fact – leads from an exhibition are generally “warm” and receptive to communication.  This should be seized and definitely not wasted under any circumstances!

Hellen Beveridge, Trainer and Consultant at PureRocketScience gave a commons sense presentation on social media campaigns.  She stressed the importance of knowing your audience, seeing your event from the audience perspective and setting the goals you want to achieve from the campaign.

After hearing from Quick Mobile about the many benefits of using a mobile app for events William was asked why he hadn’t had an event app for the event.  This started comments about how mobile apps can be time consuming in terms of adding the event information.  Many of the audience disagreed with this, telling others they were using the wrong apps if it required hours or days of work!  (By the way – if you are looking for a competitively priced mobile event app we recommend that you should investigate www.advancedeventsolutions.com).

In the afternoon we joined tables for World Cafe Discussion Groups.  The groups highlighted the difference in experience and knowledge between some of the attendees (e.g. some still use paper registration forms) but the groups I joined sparked some interesting conversations and discussions.

The day was frankly over too soon with cars waiting to whisk us over to HAC for champagne and show rounds.

I got a lot out of the day in terms of the networking opportunities and some of the presentations.  I met some fantastic people and it was great to finally meet in person some contacts I only knew previously through email or social media.

All credit to William from Gallus Events for putting on this free conference for event organisers – probably the most critical audience he could have targeted!  Well done and thanks also to Gemma Pears for looking after everyone so well.

I will definitely look forward to TechFest 2013!

Did you attend TechFest 2012?  What did you get out of the day?  What would you like to see from TechFest 2013?  I would love to hear your thoughts below. 

Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day

I am a social media convert; I believe that social media is good for business and also often adds value to the conferences and events we organise.  I also appreciate however that it can take up a lot of time; time which can often be in very short supply when running a business and juggling numerous event projects!

I believe that you can effectively monitor and manage your social media presence in less than 10 minutes a day, IF you are disciplined and get into a daily routine.  In this blog post I share some of my tops tips to manage social media effectively.

Use a Single Platform to Manage All of your Social Media Accounts

I highly recommend that you set up and manage your accounts for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn via a social media dashboard such as HootSuite, which is free for up to 5 social profiles.  I personally use SproutSocial which is a paid dashboard, however I find that it works well for me and so is definitely worth the small outlay each month (around £5, free to cancel at any time). I am often managing a few different accounts at any one time for my different businesses, individual event profiles/accounts and also for a regular client so a dashboard helps to keep everything organised and focused without having to log in and out every time I want to post something.  It will take a little time to set up and get right at the beginning but you will soon notice the time savings it can give you.

It is worth noting however that although social media platforms do allow you to post the exact same message to Facebook and Twitter I generally avoid doing this as hashtags and Twitter handles look lazy and messy posted into Facebook in my opinion.  Instead I will copy and repost the message separately to Facebook, often making use of the extra characters to write a longer post.  It only takes a few seconds longer but I think it is worthwhile.

Check and Respond to Mentions, Direct Messages and Comments Every Day

However busy I am I do endeavour to check my accounts every day specifically to respond to mentions, direct messages and comments, even if I don’t have time to do anything else.  People often expect immediate responses and I definitely like to acknowledge or respond within 24 hours.  Social media is all about the conversations so you don’t want to keep people waiting for too long – strike while the iron is hot!

If you are often office based it may be useful to set up sound alerts or emails to alert you  specifically of mentions, direct messages, comments and RTs.  You may prefer to be notified and quickly respond and then get back to work.  If this isn’t workable perhaps you will get into a routine checking social media at the start or end of the working day as I generally do, whatever works best for you.

Social Media Searches

Twitter in particular is a hub of information on every topic imaginable.  I recommend that you set up and save searches for your particular areas of interest.  I like to run one or more of my saved searches every day if possible to stay up to date with interesting news, content and developments in the events industry.  My essential hashtags include #eventprofs #eventprofsuk #meetings and #smallbusiness.  I can then share the most interesting content and news with my own followers and friends.

Schedule Tweets and Posts in Advance

I think that it is important to post interesting content regularly but I hardly ever have time to tweet or post in the course of a working day.  Instead I will often schedule content to be sent out the next day or sometimes up to 3 months in advance.  Scheduling send outs also makes it easier to repeat valuable content perhaps to go out the following week or month and to send out at different times of day to catch different audiences.  Having popular searches set up and saved, as described in the last post, makes it easy to find interesting content to share and to set for send out at an appropriate time.  We also send out links to our most recent and archived blog posts, recent event presentations and pictures, news, special offers and forthcoming events.

We also schedule tweets on event days to help create a buzz and excitement around the event at times when we know we will be too busy to post but want to engage with our audience.

Go Mobile

I detest having any downtime during the working day so having Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn apps on my phone means that I can stay up to date and post on the go whenever I happen to have a spare minute.  If I arrive for a meeting early, if I am travelling by train or on site at an event I will often turn to these free apps to fill the time available.  It is also often enlightening to read content at different times of the day to your normal social media routine!

To save time ensure that you have different social media apps for business and your personal accounts so you do not have to log in and out when on the move.  I personally use the free SproutSocial app to manage my business social media presence and then the individual apps for my personal social media accounts (which if I am honest are generally neglected anyway)!

Web Alerts

Via SproutSocial I have also set up web alerts for mentions of the company name across the web.  This is useful to keep track of any mentions of your business to give thanks or answer people accordingly on a daily basis.  Google Alerts is a free tool which will allow you to monitor and stay up to date in the same way.

I am sure you will agree that the above basic daily tasks are easily achievable within 10 minutes per day for most small businesses and will enable them to stay in touch and keep on top of their social media presence.  However whenever you do have more time to spend on social media I would recommend that you look at doing other tasks I have omitted from my daily routine such as returning/reviewing/finding new followers, keeping on top of your Twitter lists, looking at your social media stats and reports, searching for relevant business opportunities, getting involved in group discussions on LinkedIn and generally getting more involved in the conversations across all of the relevant platforms your business engages with.  Whether this may be once a week or once a month the extra time and effort whenever you can spare it is highly recommended – after all with social media the more you put in the more you seem to get back out from it.

People have often said to me that they are too busy to use social media for business, however for Events Northern Ltd it is a vital part of our marketing strategy.  For us we can’t afford not to engage and be a part of it, especially as so many of our clients large and small are a part of it.  Other than the regular time investment being active on social media channels doesn’t cost anything, which cannot be said for most other marketing activity.  Naturally it depends on what suits your organisation but for us it seems strange when small businesses are not embracing the opportunity the social media revolution offers!

I do believe however that “little and often” is the best way to engage with social media and spending 10 minutes each day is definitely preferable (and probably more achievable) to spending an hour online once a week.  I hope sharing this blog post of my own top tips and daily routine has been useful to you.  We would love to hear your social media top time-saving tips and hope you will comment and share them with us below.

Pinterest in the UK

Pinterest has quickly gained in popularity and has already amassed over 13 million followers worldwide according to some sources.

The site allows you to create ‘boards’ for different areas of interest and to ‘pin’ pictures onto these virtual pin boards.  Content can be ‘re-pinned’ from images shared by other people, you can upload your own images and can post interesting pictures and ideas from across the world wide web.  You can like and comment on images and can choose to follow specific boards or all content from the individuals and organisations that interest and inspire you.

Events Northern Ltd joined Pinterest in early 2012.  We love the opportunities for creativity and ideas sharing that the site offers.  By grouping together images and content you can create visual mood boards.  It really is a beautiful site!

Interestingly the demographics of UK Pinterest users differ widely from the community of users found in the USA.  We found this visual illustration from Compete really interesting.  It suggests that UK users (as at December 2011) are actually younger and wealthier than their American counterparts.  In the US users are overwhelmingly female (83%), however in the UK there is a much more equal split, with slightly more male members (56%).  We also use the site very differently.  In America the largest interest is in arts, crafts and events, however English users are more focused on business, marketing, SEO, design, blogging and the web.  This could of course simply reflect the early adopters that have learnt about and shown the most interest in the site so far and so it will be very interesting to see how these statistics change and develop over the coming months and years.

So – are you already using Pinterest?  We would love to connect with you if so!  Or if you haven’t yet signed up and would like an invite please email info@eventsnorthern.co.uk with your email address and we will send you an invitation to join.

We can be found via this link: Events Northern on Pinterest.  Becki Cross, MD of Events Northern, can also be found on Pinterest here: Becki Cross on Pinterest.

What do you like most about Pinterest?
Which individuals and organisations do you enjoy following the most?

In a forthcoming blog post we will also discuss how specifically to use Pinterest for events.

International Confex 2012

This week Events Northern Ltd had a whirlwind trip down to London for International Confex 2012.  Confex is an essential day out for anyone who organises events and this year took place between the 6th and 8th March, at ExCel, London.  We visited the show on Wednesday and had a very productive visit.  Although we stayed for the full day the exhibition passed by only too quickly for our liking – too many people to speak to in too little time!

As always it was useful to meet up with current clients, venues and suppliers.  It was great to catch up on recent and future planned developments at the Barbican.  We were also really pleased to see Visit Manchester and Liverpool Convention Bureau out in force with some of our favourite Northern venues represented.

In some cases I matched faces to contacts I had only ever spoken to previously via phone or email so it was great to say “hello” in person!  In particular it was great to finally meet Banks from the Active Network and Adam from Hospitality and Events North.

It is really important to us to be up to date with new developments, products and innovations in the event industry.  We feel that these are exciting times for this fast moving sector and we need to ensure we can advise our clients on the best value and most exciting technologies to suit their requirements.  Confex is always a great way to get up to speed with the latest products and to have live demonstrations and question companies about their newest offerings.  The use of social media, touch screen technology, ipads and mobile phones apps were all very apparent at the show to reflect the way conferences and events have developed even over the last few years.  We particularly enjoyed all of the interactive touch products on show from Smart AV which included single-touch to multi-touch, screens, walls, tables, PC’s and tablets.

Another product we loved was the newly launched Rollerwall.  This product can be used to create a marketing space or backdrop wherever you need it.  Unlike a traditional pop up exhibition stand it is ready to use instantly and will bend and adapt to fit the space available.  It can be used as a room divider or can be retracted and hidden away in one solid pillar.  The graphics zip-in and are easily changeable.  Visuals can be different on each side of the rollerwall giving two stands in one.  Alternatively one side can be kept free of graphics completely so that it can be used as a projection screen.

One of our forthcoming conferences requires translation services so it was great to discuss different options such as whisper translation systems and translation booths with the AV Department Ltd.

Sadly many of the exhibitors commented to me that the show was a lot quieter than in previous years, which could be a relection on the tough economic climate.  It will be very interesting therefore to find out the final total attendance figures over the three days of the exhibition.  For Events Northern Ltd though the trip to Confex was very worthwhile and productive.

Related articles

• Barbican returns to International Confex

• Manchester aims to poach London conferences during the Olympic crush (guardian.co.uk)

• Rollerwalls launch at Confex 2012

Business Etiquette Tips for Event Managers

The Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Event Management at the University of Central Lancashire recently asked for my top ten hints and tips on professional business etiquette for budding Event Managers.  I started thinking about my personal experience and the standards that are important to me and this provided inspiration for this blog post.

As an Event Manager it is vital to act professionally and ethically and to present a positive business image at all times.  We work in a people-orientated industry.  People buy from people and they want to work with those that they respect and have faith in.  You are an ambassador for the company you work for and your conduct adds to your “brand.”  Of course this post isn’t exclusive to the event industry – it will be useful to a broad spectrum of professions.

To be distinguished as a professional event manager and outclass the competition these are my personal top tips.

Timekeeping

Good timekeeping is essential.  Always be on time for meetings.  It is unprofessional to be late and you do not want to keep people waiting.  Should circumstances be beyond your control do of course have the courtesy to phone ahead and apologise.

Always arrive early on live event days – it is completely unacceptable to be even a minute late on the day of the event.  Leave plenty of extra time in case of unexpected eventualities.

Presentation

Good presentation and personal grooming is important.  Your dress must be practical and comfortable as well as smart.

Make sure that you give a proper handshake.

Stay calm and unruffled under pressure – keep your head.

Time Management

Good time management is an essential skill for every Event Manager.

It goes without saying that you must meet all deadlines – events will not wait!  Work backwards from the event date and effectively map the key milestones and deadlines leading up to the date and stick to them.

The nature of running an event does mean that a lot can happen just before the event day – last minutes bookings, substitutions, last minute requests from speakers, etc.  Be prepared for this.  Expect to work late as necessary to get things done thoroughly.

Attitude

Treat others with the respect you expect to be treated with yourself.

Have a positive, professional outlook.

Event Managers should be friendly and approachable and most importantly SMILE!  This is a people business and you should be warm and welcoming.

Correspondence

Develop a professional way of answering the phone.

Know how to write professional letters, faxes and emails.

Respond to emails and voice messages promptly.  However busy I am it is important to me to respond as quickly as possible to emails and any calls I have missed.  I definitely aim to respond within 24 hours but generally reply much more speedily.

Manners

Always ensure introductions are made between speakers, performers, clients and staff.  Be sure to use correct titles where appropriate (Dr, Professor, Sir) and full names.  Try to give job titles, organisations and a hook to enable a conversation to begin naturally.  This might be a shared interest, fact or point of view or some background information which will put them at ease with each other.

Don’t forget your manners.  Common courtesy seems to be a dying art but costs nothing.

Always thank speakers, sponsors, staff and clients – anyone that has contributed to making the project a success or paid for your services.

Business Etiquette

Get everything in writing.  This is particularly important when it comes to contracts, roles and responsibilities, deadlines, health and safety information, venue operations sheets and basically anything important!

Ask for constructive feedback.  Everyone likes positive feedback and affirmation but negative feedback can be extremely valuable if you listen, understand and improve as a result of it.

The customer is always right.  Unfortunately this may not always be true however if you receive a complaint of any description you must deal with it graciously.  Don’t interrupt (even with a solution) before they tell their story.  Then handle the complaint in a calm, rational way.

Act discreetly and confidentially.  Behind the scenes at an event you may find out some top secret information – perhaps that world class “superstar” is actually extremely dislikeable or perhaps you witness someone doing something they shouldn’t.  This is however your secret – it is not your place to sell the story to the media or gossip on social media channels! (or at least not if you want to continue to work in the events industry)

Approach

Find solutions for your clients, even if one isn’t obvious straight away.  Your clients pay you to make things work and “where there is a will there is a way!”

Offer your professional advice to ensure a successful event will be executed.  Clients often presume how things will be done but frankly this isn’t always the best way to do things.  It is your job to explain your vision and why your way is better, quicker, more efficient and will get results.  You have learnt from experience so let your clients benefit from your learning and expertise too – that is what they are paying you for after all.

Professionalism

Don’t complain.  You may have back ache/leg ache/head ache/be worn out from getting up at 4 am to be on site however your client does not need to know that!

Don’t bad mouth competitors.  Although the behaviour and way of working of your competitors can repeatedly baffle you it is not professional or acceptable to point this out publically.  If you cannot say something nice it is best just to say nothing at all in my opinion.

Be careful how you present yourself/your organisation on social media channels – never swear, bad mouth, don’t blatantly self-promote, consider that current or future clients/employers/employees could be reading your updates.  If necessary separate your business and personal profiles.

Separate business and pleasure.  As a perk of the job you will no doubt receive invitations to many glittering social occasions with free alcohol flowing.  Have a good time (naturally) but do draw a respectful line if you wish to receive other invitations in the future!

Business Ethos

Always give your best.  If you are a half-hearted event manager you will never succeed.

Learn from every project, client and event.  Strive to do things better.

Be understanding.  Speakers and clients are busy people and they cannot always meet the deadlines we impose, however much notice we give them.  Be prepared, adapt and be understanding even if it does cause you last minute work and stress.  And then smile, be understanding and don’t complain!

Applying standards of etiquette and protocol should become hallmarks of you and your company and an integral part of your brand.  As a professional Event Manager these are some of my ways of working.  What are your personal hints and tips for business etiquette?

Kindle for Business

The Kindle was a popular Christmas present again this year for anyone not yet already converted to the joys of the Amazon e-reader.  Between the 28 December and 3 January YouGov asked over 2,000 UK residents what they had received for Christmas, with the resulting stats concluding that approximately 1 in 40 people got an e-reader either as a gift or as a present for themselves.  Amazon are reticent at publishing their sales figures themselves however YouGov suggest that of the approximate 1.33 million eReaders bought for Christmas 2011, 92 per cent of them were the Amazon Kindle (see YouGov website here for full article).

I have been a proud Kindle owner myself for the last 3 months and have enjoyed its versatility for use in terms of both business and pleasure.  This post will focus specifically on the business case for investing in a Kindle and why I find the Kindle particularly effective for business usage and reading.

Highlight and Annotate

The Kindle allows you to create highlights, bookmarks and notes on documents, books and text as you are reading.  I have the Kindle 3 which has the in-built keyboard and so it is simple to add comments.  You can then easily revisit key sections and notes.

Send documents, reports and PDFs to Kindle

Amazon Kindle

You can send Microsoft Word documents and PDF files to your Kindle to read and digest away from your desk.  Be sure to send to the free Kindle service using “username”@free.kindle.com, rather than your standard Kindle email address though, otherwise delivery charges will apply.  You will need to add email addresses to your Kindle´s approved email list for the files to be delivered successfully. Do this from the “Manage Your Kindle” section of the Amazon website.  The free service works when you have Wi-Fi access.  Alternately, you could connect your Kindle to your computer using the USB cable and manually transfer the files.

The Kindle displays most PDF documents without losing the formatting of the original file and you can magnify PDFs by viewing them in landscape mode.

Make Folders to Group Collections

You can add folders to enable you to group information together.  I like to keep business information separate from my personal reading and the Kindle allows you to create as many folders as you wish, titled appropriately, just “Create New Collection.”

Read Blogs with Kindle

One of the most exciting and helpful tools for me is being able to read blogs on my Kindle via Instapaper.  If I come across an interesting article or blog I can simply hit the Instapaper “Read Later” button from my internet bookmarks bar and this is delivered to my Kindle.  After setting up your free Instapaper account you must tell Amazon to allow Instapaper’s deliveries by adding the email address.  You can specify daily or weekly deliveries to read at your convenience.

Links with Social Media

You can link your Kindle to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to share passages or details of books you have read on your Kindle.  If you so wish you could link to your business social media accounts to share interesting content directly from your Kindle.

GetAbstract

I have also just found out about getAbstract.com which I am interested in exploring further.  They create five-page summaries of all of the top business titles, explaining the main points of the book.  You pay a subscription and then in return summaries for your areas of interest are emailed to you in a format compatible with Kindle.

Read Anywhere

I find the e-ink format a lot easier on my eyes after a long day in front of my computer screen and being able to read my Kindle anywhere is a big bonus.

I have quickly come to rely on my Kindle for both business and pleasure.  Which Kindle features do you find most useful?

Is your event management company saving you money?

Image via Wikipedia

There are countless benefits to using an event management company and in these difficult economic times it is crucial that every penny counts.  So what should you expect from your event management company when it comes to saving you money?  How can you be sure that you are getting best value?  This blog post will focus specifically on some of the cost saving benefits every event management company worth their weight in gold should be demonstrating to their clients.

Knowledge

Event Managers are an encyclopedia of knowledge.  We often know venues, suppliers and contacts that you may never even have heard of.  These little gems may not have the marketing budget to get them to the first page of Google to compete with the big boys but you can rest assured that they can offer you knock out rates as a result.

Special Offers

We like to be in the know and venues and suppliers ensure they regularly communicate special rates, offers and discounts to us.  Often the savings and offers are only open to past customers and/or event management companies/agencies on their database and we like nothing better than matching up the deals with our clients needs.

Preferential Rates

We have great relationships with many venues and suppliers which encourages them to give us excellent rates.  Venues and suppliers like working with professionals because we understand the process, we are organised, meet all deadlines and save a lot of leg work and time for the venue/supplier as a result.

We really value our suppliers and our suppliers value us.  In recognition of the value of work we place with our trusted suppliers throughout the course of a year we are often lucky enough to get discounts, meaning that our clients benefit from the economies of scale of our total annual spend.  For example our preferred and fantastic audio visual supplier is Active AV.  They automatically offer us 20% discount off all equipment hire.  This saving is then passed on directly to our customers.

We cultivate good relationships with our suppliers which often pays off for our clients in terms of added extras chucked in.

Negotiation

We will always negotiate to ensure our clients get the best possible price.  And then we make comparisions between the offers made.  And then we negotiate some more!

Research

Good research skills are an essential part of every event managers CV.  How can you be sure you are getting the best rates unless you shop around and triple check?

The Bigger Picture

We know the questions to ask.  Unfortunately some organisations and venues prefer to hide the true costs and land customers with unexpected expenditure items after contracts have been signed, rather than being transparent.  We like to ask questions from the start so you are not going to get charged £50 for use of a plug socket (I kid you not!).

We also know where money should be spent and where it can be scrimped without compromising on quality – for instance two pull up banners for £99 – yes please, versus £300 for one (of comparable quality I hasten to add).

Often we can suggest viable alternatives.  Often things can be done differently to make the event slicker and save money.

On event days we are never without our “event managers box” – a box of essential equipment and items close to hand which often prove to be invaluable.

Beg, Borrow or Steal

Recently a client needed an expensive piece of equipment and had no budget to pay for it.  I was the first person they contacted to help.  It is always good to pick up the phone and hear “I didn’t know where to start but I thought that if anyone will know you will know!”  And it paid off for them too!

Don’t Pay for Things You Don’t Need

We help our clients to work out what they need so they don’t have to pay for things they don’t need.  We always have a clients best interests at heart – for example is a DDR (day delegate rate) really best for your needs or would it be cheaper to pay for room hire, catering and audio visual separately on this occasion?

In terms of catering have you taken into account the speakers that cannot stay for lunch, the late arrivals and the likely number of no-shows?  We can advise on these headaches so you don’t have to worry or waste your valuable budget.

Budget

Many of our clients want us to create and control an event budget so they can make pricing decisions early on in the project and have regular updates in terms of income and expenditure and surpassing the break even point.

We care about the event as much as you do and we will be watching every penny to ensure you maximise your budget throughout the life of the project.

Technology

We like to be up to date with the newest technologies.  We can advise what will have the wow factor and maximise the event experience without necessarily costing the earth.  Text to screen systems, barcoded registration systems, event apps, twitter walls are just a few items that can be low cost but really transform the event.

Do you need a registration site but are you baffled by the different rates and commission charges?  We can look at what you need your registration page to do and the payments involved to give a clear idea of which sites can work best for you.

Work in Your Best Interests at All Times

Sometimes the unexpected can happen and you may need to change to a larger or smaller venue, change dates or even cancel your event completely.  The terms and conditions of the contract can be baffling but should this happen we will work with the venue and suppliers to minimise the penalties and negotiate the best deal for you.

This post has focused on some of the direct monetary savings an event management company will make for you.  Of course one of the huge advantages of contracting an event manager is the time savings you make, leaving you to focus on the job you are paid to do and earning money for your organisation, whilst you leave the planning and organisation to the experts.

This blog has given just a few examples of how Events Northern Ltd add value, save money for our clients and maximize their budget.  Are you getting excellent value from your event management company?  Are they saving you money?  If not, or if you are not so sure, then contact us – we would love to hear from you!