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

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.

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!

Liverpool – the UKs friendliest city

Congratulations to Liverpool, winners at two important award ceremonies recently!

Image by akabilk via Flickr

Readers of Conde Nast Traveller voted Liverpool “the UKs most friendliest city” for the second year running and also recognised it as a place that offers best value for money.  The 2011 awards also maintained Liverpool’s position as the 4th Favourite UK City for the second successive year, ranking only behind London, Edinburgh and Bath.

A few weeks later readers of Group Leisure magazine named Liverpool the “best UK city.” Travel industry professionals’ voted Liverpool their favourite place ahead of Cardiff, London and York.

Liverpool has benefited from major investment in recent years, resulting in new attractions, hotels and events which, together with a rich culture and heritage, play a vital part in attracting first time visitors and encouraging others to return.

Image via Wikipedia

Chief Executive of The Mersey Partnership, Lorraine Rogers commented: “This is a fantastic acknowledgement for Liverpool. Anecdotally Liverpool is often known for its friendly welcome and the warmth of its people – but for this to be officially recognised by readers of one of the leading and most discerning travel magazines for the second year running is a major accolade for the destination. This is a tribute to the taxi drivers, tour guides, hoteliers and everyone who works in the Visitor Economy.”

“We have a great range of world class venues, attractions and hotels which appeal to leisure and business visitors and this asset combined with the warmth of the people and the welcome we give visitors which encourages them to spread the word about what a great time they’ve had. The people of Liverpool are one of our important assets and this award is a very special endorsement.”

“The city has a strong appeal to all types of groups; international visitors on their first trip

Image by nataliej via Flickr

to Britain attracted by our Beatles links; UK groups wanting to see our cultural attractions and spectacular Waterfront – part of the Unesco World Heritage Site- and those looking for fantastic shopping at Liverpool One followed by the legendary nightlife.”

Liverpool City Region’s Visitor Economy currently generates visitor spend of £2.8billion and is estimated to support approximately 41,000 jobs a year.

Rob Yandell, editor of Group Leisure, added: “The group travel market is still incredibly strong. Our readership of active group travel organisers has a tough job ensuring everything they plan runs smoothly so it is particularly interesting to see who, what and where they think is the best.”

Events Northern Ltd love holding events in Liverpool and can confirm that it certainly offers a warm welcome and is a fantastic destination for those attending events in the city.

Would you agree that the Liverpool welcome is friendlier than other UK cities?  What sets the “Liverpudlian” welcome above all others in your opinion?

Our search for a generic and recognisable blog logo

Recently we launched our new Events Northern Ltd website.  It was important to us that the new site linked through to our blog, both via the website and also via social media buttons on our email footers.

New Events Northern website

Our web design company automatically suggested using the Blogger logo alongside our other social media buttons to click through to our blog.  As we have a WordPress blog though we were resistant to this.  Although we realise that the Blogger logo is widely recognisable to many people as a blog link, we have a WordPress blog and so it seemed wrong to us to use in essence a competitor logo to click through to our blog.  However we discovered that the WordPress logo seemed to be less identifiable to people.  After a quick straw poll we found that some did not recognise and relate the WordPress logo to a blog at all and others viewed it more as a content management system or website builder platform and so it seemed to confuse those that we questioned about it.  This came as a surprise to me as I was familiar with WordPress as a blog publishing platform long before we started our own company blog and anticipated that others would also recognise it most strongly with blog content.

This led to a debate in the office about the best solution and we turned to the READY2SPARK LinkedIn Group (marketing communications for event planning) for some guidance as we didn’t want to hold up the launch of our website.

Lara McCulloch-Carter (@ready2spark) and Jim Spellos (@jspellos) were particularly helpful responding to my post.  If we decided against using the WordPress icon Lara suggested having a blog header or creating our own custom blog icon that signified a blog.

Jim advised that the B Blogger logo, technically, is the Blogger logo from Google. He advised that although many people appear to be using it as a generic blogging icon this is not accurate.  It is a trademarked icon so people should tread carefully and definitely avoid using it incorrectly as this is infringement.  He explained that

“It would be like using the Facebook logo to redirect your users to MySpace or another social networking service.”

He also flagged up Google’s terms of use which prohibit the use of the logo outside of their terms.

Universal blog icon

We were in agreement with this advice and luckily we then stumbled across a solution in the form of a blog post by Brendan Mitchell from March 2009.  Brendan had come up against the same problem years earlier and couldn’t believe that with the prevalence of blogging there was no standard icon for blogs.  He therefore tasked himself with creating a universally recognised, standard blog icon in the hope that in years to come everyone would be using it.  He based the icon design on the standard RSS feed icon and through his website (www.theblogicon.com) he provides various formats and colour variations of the logo for free and without any restrictions, including various sizes of the logos in PNG, GIF formats, plus Photoshop & Illustrator vector files.

We were delighted to find a universal and recognisable Blog logo which we are comfortable and happy to use.  Brendan’s orange version of the universal blog icon now has pride of place both on our website and on our email footers.

I hope others can benefit from using the logos too.  To show our gratitude to Brendan and to save other businesses the time searching and deliberating over this issue we hope that our blog post will further spread the word!

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments!

To share your support for the universal blog icon please follow the links below:

www.theblogicon.com

http://www.twitter.com/brendanmitchell

http://www.facebook.com/brendanmitchell

http://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanmitchell

Getting the Most Out of Networking

Recently there seems to have been an explosion of business networking events.  Organisations seem to have a renewed hunger for getting “out there” and meeting as many people as they can, desperate to shake off the recession and to “do business.”  However many people say that they do not enjoy networking events and try to shy away or avoid it completely.  As an event management company it often surprises us how some people prefer to arrive at an event late and leave early, perhaps to avoid any valuable networking time and then also seemingly aim to avoid all interaction with other attendees during break times by focusing solely on their phone, never even looking up and blanking everyone else around them.  Others embrace it, making useful new contacts and sparking ideas and collaborations for the future.

Love it or loathe it though networking effectively is an important part of business.  We hope this blog on networking will help minimise any uncomfortable situations and enable you to get the most out of any forthcoming networking opportunity.

Be Prepared

Never go to any business function, conference or networking event without business cards – and lots of them!  For a small investment you can ensure anyone you connect with has a way to contact you in the future.  Even if there is no immediate business opportunity you never know what may change or who that person will talk to down the line.  You want to ensure they have a card from you so they can hopefully dig out your business card when needed.  Think carefully about your business cards – do they stand out for the right reasons and represent your company, do they explain succinctly what you do, do they have all of the communication channels listed for you and the business?  Nowadays many people are adding their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn details on their business cards or even QR codes.

When you exchange business cards take a moment to look at the card and the person and try to memorize the two.  Whilst the contact is still fresh in your mind it may also be worth noting on the business card where you connected (we often note date, event and venue to jog my memory) and any particular business opportunities between you, for instance have they requested a brochure is sent out to them or would it be worthwhile to set up a meeting?

Explaining your Business

Can you succinctly introduce and explain what your business does?  The ultimate crime of networking is not explaining properly what your organisation actually does, presuming that it will be obvious from the business name or that the other person will know your industry like you do.  People will quickly lose interest if they do not understand properly from your brief introduction.  And under no circumstances should you use technical jargon as this will often switch people off.  Why are you different from your competitors?  What is your niche?

You should practise a brief clear introduction for the company and your role within it.  If you are looking to network and specifically find a business contact or requirement don’t be afraid to state this too – the person you have connected with may be able to introduce you to someone they would recommend or offer some advice even if they do not have an immediate direct need for your product or service.

Getting Started

Don’t forget that if you are feeling nervous others will be too.  When you first arrive look for other people that are not deep in conversation or ask to join onto a friendly looking group.  I always just simply say “Do you mind if I join you?” and so far I haven’t come across a group that hasn’t been accommodating.  Conversations can often be struck up easily at the refreshment table too.  Being confident to strike up a conversation does become easier with practice if it isn’t something that comes naturally to you at first.  Smile!

Don’t judge a book by its cover – you cannot tell by looking at someone what industry they work in or their seniority within the company.  I set up Events Northern Ltd at the age of 23.  I would hate to think that people may have passed over speaking to me thinking I was perhaps too young or not senior enough to make purchasing decisions.  Instead they would have connected with the top decision maker!  Talk to anyone and everyone.

Ensure the flow of conversation is fair – ask questions as well as giving information back.

Be positive!  People do not want to know about your personal problems, they are there to talk business.

Always give your full attention to the person you are talking to but don’t be afraid to move on when both parties have introduced themselves and cards have been exchanged.

Likewise do not be tempted just to talk to those you know and not to approach anyone new.

Seize every opportunity – after all if you don’t talk to people during this networking opportunity your paths may never cross again.  You want to be sure that you have made the most of it.

Follow up

After the event follow up on any warm leads and actions as soon as you can so it isn’t forgotten about.  Did you promise to send over a brochure or price list?  Would it be worthwhile to connect on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Google+?  Should you set up a meeting?  Under no circumstances should you be contacting or meeting with everyone you talked to – only those where there is a strong potential for future business.

Don’t forget to facilitate worthwhile connections between parties when you can.  In the world of business we strongly believe that “what goes around comes around” and you never know in the future when someone might return the favour.

With any event we organise we are always keen to allow time for networking as part of the schedule.  We ourselves are also embracing the influx and variety of networking events currently being scheduled and we are enjoying attending as many networking events as our diaries allow.

We hope our paths may cross at a future networking opportunity and if so make sure you say “hello!”

Forthcoming Networking Events

We have listened to lots of comments recently from people who are frustrated with the networking events they attend and the opportunities they get back and so we have decided to do something about it!  Join us for our forthcoming networking events with a difference!

We have two events planned that will maximise your networking opportunities in a structured and friendly way.  Please follow the links for more information or to book your place!

Business Speed Networking Works Accrington
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
http://speednetworkingworks.eventbrite.co.uk/

Business Speed Networking Works Preston
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
http://speednetworkingworks1.eventbrite.co.uk/

We are busy planning events for other areas of the North West.

To stay in touch please follow us on Twitter @speednetworknw