Magnificent events. Technology and practice of event management

By Alex Shumovich

Any B2B marketing specialist will confirm that events are one of the top three marketing instruments. The same is true for the services market. And experiential marketing specialists from B2C market, who mostly work with mass consumer, cannot do their job well without events.

Companies communicate with a market by different voices like advertisement, PR, BTL. But the last years the voice of events is going to be stronger and stronger. Sales managers and directors need magnificent results. In order to get magnificent results, a marketing specialist needs to learn to organize magnificent events. This book is about it. We want to do each event in a way that would bring us the best results: we want to “light up” the audience, sell, represent, and convey our thoughts...
Enjoy it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alex Shumovich
• Release date: Jan 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465744487

Alex Shumovich

Alexander Shumovich is co-owner of event & PR agency Eventum Premo, have more than 18 years experience in event planning. Alex was born and has grown in Riga, loves coffee and classical music. Reads much, teaches Event Management. The free time prefers to spend in a society of the wife, being engaged in education of the daughter and the son. The author of two business books, dreams to write a detective. The businessman on spirit, loves challenges and graceful decisions.

Book preview

Magnificent events

Technology and practice of event management

Alexander Shumovich

Smashwords Edition

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Copyright 2007-2012 Alexander Shumovich

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Preface

Foreword

Chapter 1: Implementation

Chapter 2: Cause

Chapter 3: Preparation

Chapter 4: Program

Chapter 5: Planning

Chapter 6: Partners and Contractors

Chapter 7: Video

Chapter 8: Premises

Chapter 9: Team

Chapter 10: Risks

Chapter 11: Promotion

Chapter 12: Sales

Chapter 13: Profit

Afterword

About author

Preface

Magic book

We did an audit of marketing tools, trying to determine, which ones are the most effective.

As always events proved to be the absolute champions. Almost any B2B marketing specialist will confirm it: events are one of the top three marketing tools. The same is true for the services market. And event-marketing specialists from B2C market, who mostly work with mass consumer, cannot do their job well without events.

We want to do each event in a way that would bring us the best results: we want to light up the audience, sell, represent, and convey our thoughts… Our sales managers and our directors need magnificent results. In order to get magnificent results, a marketing specialist needs to learn to organize magnificent events.

For that you need practice, practice and more practice. And some wise advices from somebody who already has a wealth of experience – and is ready to generously share it with you. I tried to write the book in such a way as to make it interesting both to the people who organize events for their companies and corporations and for professional event managers.

Dear reader, start studying this magic book!

I am absolutely serious. I hope – if you follow book’s recommendations, your next event will be simply magnificent.

There is no other way about it.

Alex Shumovich

Foreword

Attention! Top grammar rule for specialists and companies working in the sphere of event management:

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The word Client is always and under any circumstances is spelled with a capital C.

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Such spelling of the word Client will be obligatory in this book.

I introduced this rule in 2005 in the company that I own and manage - Eventum Premo. I asked my employees to write the word Client this way in any situation, even if it’s only some internal memo written by hand. I promised that I would not accept letters and documents where this word was spelled any differently. For some time my employees must have thought me strange. Often this rule would hamper our work. It provoked controversy and criticism, which I could not dispute rationally.

But the fact that we started to spell the world Client with a capital C had a magical effect on our work. We have started to deeply respect the Client and understand his importance. With time we even started pronouncing Client with a big C.

I have gotten so used to seeing this word – Client - spelled this way that I am offended if I see it spelled differently. I want to correct it with a marker in books and newspapers – everywhere that I see it. Now there is one book where this word is spelled the way I like it. This book.

Who are you, my reader? What do you do for life and why did you buy this book? Are organizing a presentation for consumers of your product – cars, cheese, computers, software, tulips or something else? Maybe you are doing an event for your company’s investors or for your dealers or partners. Either way, you are doing an event for your Clients.

Maybe you work for an agency that organizes corporate events or town holidays? You organize events for those who pay your firm – they are your Clients to whom you report. You are also doing events for consumers, for the Clients of your Client.

The rules of event management are more if you are doing an event for your colleagues, such as a corporate party or internal training seminar, you still have to treat the participants of such events as your Clients. You are working for them and they will evaluate your work.

This is why I will not dwell on differences between corporate event organizers and independent agencies in this book. This book will be equally useful to all. Everyone has his or her Clients.

Well, why do I talk so much about the Client? Why does he get a whole foreword dedicated to him?

Because he is very important.

I wrote this book, constantly thinking about Clients and ways of making them happy. Not just satisfied, but happy!

And I am almost certain that you too are reading this book because of your Clients.

I hope that after reading it, you will start to manage your events somewhat differently. Better. And I hope that you will never be able to write the word Client with a small C again.

Welcome to the world of events!

Chapter 1: Implementation

Coordination and logistics of your event

And so the Day of the event comes.

This chapter of the book is the only one actually dedicated to events. The rest are concerned with preparation, advice on organizing your staff, etc. You may spend a year preparing an event that will take only two days. This work is something like an iceberg: people only see the tip of it, while the huge part of preparation is hidden from outsiders.

In this chapter we will talk about the tip of the iceberg – about the day when the event starts. About Day X.

If the event starts in the morning, do all that you can to make sure everything is ready on the previous evening: all the necessary materials are brought it, the equipment is installed, the bills are paid, etc., etc., etc. This way you can come as you are in the morning.

Check that you have with you:

Paper-clips

Safety pins

Scotch tape

Scissors

Stack of clean paper

Colored paper

Extra badges

Chargers for mobile phones

Aspirin or some other painkiller

Flash memory

Empty CDs

Anything else you might need for your type of event.

Of course, the list of necessary things depends on what type of event you are having. For example, if the event is taking place outdoors, the list will be somewhat different: it will include matches, umbrellas, etc. Draft you list ahead of time and check everything that you are taking.

Having made sure that everything has been delivered and installed, try to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow may be nerve-wrecking and you need to be in top shape.

Set two alarm clocks. Maybe it would be better to ask one of your colleagues to give you a call in the morning, to make sure you don’t oversleep. Make sure to call or send SMS to those colleagues who must not be late for the event under any circumstances.

Try and come to event premises ahead of time. If you need 1 hour for final installation of equipment, try to be there 1.5 hours in advance or more. Ask your team to come in earlier as well. On such a day you need a good safety margin.

What should be done before the event

Make sure the premises are decorated

Check the equipment (presentation, light, sound, equipment for interpreters, etc.)

Check the sitting arrangements

Prepare navigational signs.

Place the flowers, banners, sidewalk signs and posters, if you haven’t done this already. Place navigation signs and check one more time that all the equipment is working (with luck, an hour or two should be enough time to bring in spare equipment if for some reason you don’t have it with you).

All of your actions and all of the lists what-should-I-take-with-me should be thought through before the event.

If you bring all the necessary things in cardboard boxes, write on the boxes, what’s inside and number them. This way you will avoid confusion and will know right away if something is missing. Moreover, you will know exactly what is missing. It is possible that you’ll have enough time to bring the missing things from the office. Delivering equipment to an event is like moving houses. You work in one place but for several days an absolutely alien hotel or resort becomes your new home. This is why the rule about numbering and signing your boxes works every time you move.

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Advice for conferences and seminars

Registration table

If you have a lot of participants, place signs with letters of the alphabet (A, B, C… Z) or blocks of letters (A-D, E-I…. W-Z). Participants will have an easier time finding their badges and registration materials.

Name plaques in the presidium

Print them ahead of time, but have a pattern with you, since you might have to make additional prints if one of you speakers has to be replaced.

Make the plaques double-sided. This will demonstrate your respect not only for the audience but also for the speakers: they will see that you care about them no less than you do about all the attendees. Finding their names on the other side of the plaque, the speakers will sit themselves correctly in the presidium. If they do not know each other, the plaques will help them to get acquainted.

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Familiarize the receptionists with the rules of conduct at the registration table:

Registration table is a sacred place. It has to have an ideal order at all the times. It is forbidden under any circumstances to drink coffee or smoke cigarettes at the table.

There should be no garbage on the table, any stray paper, etc.

Everything that lies on the table has to be in neat accurate piles.

It is forbidden to sit down during morning registration. Receptionists may sit down only after the conference has started and all the guests have entered the conference hall. If a new Client comes to the registration table, receptionists have to get up right away.

The company’s workers should never stand in front of the registration table, obstructing the Clients’ access. We only stand behind the table.

Special fabric or table cover should be used to fully cover the table and hide people’s feet. This is true for the registration table AND presidium.

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Registration, reception

Do not forget that the event’s organizer and receptionists always have to be at their places and available to the Clients.

What is included in the notion registration of participants?

Issue of personal badge.

Provision of all the necessary printed materials, such as participant’s folder and other give-away materials.

Provision of equipment for simultaneous translation.

Answers to organizational and technical questions.

Check how well your receptionists and other personnel know the premises where the event is taking place. They should be able to tell the participants where the bathroom is, where the smoking places are, will there be equipment for simultaneous translation, etc.

It is necessary to have the list where you will mark all the participants that come to the event (especially if you were sending out name invitations and not just flyers or tickets). You event may be attended by more people than the ones who have registered. In order to avoid confusion later, keep track. If somebody comes as replacement for one of the participants, replace the last name in your list as well. The registration list should keep track of those who came to the event and those who did not. Those who declared their interest in the event but could not come are the obvious potential Clients of your future events.

Thanks to this database, following the event you will be able to send the attendees a following note: "Thank you very much for your participation. To those who did not come, you can send a note saying: I am sorry that you did not participate, but we hope that you would still be interested to know what took place. This is what happened at the event…"

Greeting

Rehearse with your personnel the way they will greet the participants. Simply write down the words that have to be said. Write it down as a procedure.

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Examples of greetings

Turkey. Some street vendors can visually discern an Austrian from a Swiss man or a German. Nonetheless, they always address you with words: Hi, where are you from?

If you respond, no matter what – the conversation has been started and probability of pulling you into the store has grown considerably. The street vendors have worked out a greeting, which is neutral, but which also establishes contact, gives information for the start of conversation and demonstrates their attention to you.

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How exactly will your staffers greet the newly arrived Client? What and when will they say and how will they answer any questions that a Client might have? All of this has to be checked and listened to ahead of time.

This is a technology – no more and no less.

The Client may not notice that you have prepared your greeting personnel. But your workers will be fully prepared and this is really good.

Avoid lines

This is not always possible, but you have to prepare as much as possible to avoid lines (unless putting people in lines is a part of your plan). Make sure that you have enough receptionists (no less than one for every 30 invitees for a registration that lasts an hour). Plan the movement of participant flow, open additional doors, make signs and place a special person in the audience hall who will indicate where participants should sit.

Help-Desk

This is a very interesting and important moment.

Let’s say that your event is attended by 300 people (this means that you should have no less than ten receptionists). All of these people go for the registration table and form unavoidable line.

Why does a crowd form? The receptionist failed to register a participant in 30 seconds, because there has been some problem. For example, participant is not on the list, or he is on the list but his last name is spelled with a mistake and it’s important for him to correct this mistake. Or maybe participant did not pay, although he had to, or maybe he has some important