A Perspective on the Events Industry: Respect I Creative I Internet

August 31st, 2010

As a ‘veteran’ in the industry my focus has been around ethics and values in contemplating issues of Respect, the Creative and Cyberspace.

RESPECT: what I mean here is ethics in procuring business, perceived value in the delivery of services, and the client relationship, the subject of earlier blogs.

CREATIVE: keeping abreast of the latest, most spectacular, technologically impressionable concept verses doing a fantastic event on a limited budget OR using creative learning to design something … well something just special, while ensuring that there is an external recognition of your value: i.e. a personal ownership of the intellectual property.

CYBERSPACE: which is an eclectic mix of thoughts and ideas from the Cyber Economy, proposed internet censorship, the future of the internet, primary reference source vs colleagial supplier network , value of Web 2.0, search engine optimisation, e-information overload, virtual conferencing and escaping to the real world i.e. fishing in the Tiwi Islands.

In a blog it is inappropriate to write an essay on the above, so I pose the challenge to readers to develop a communication on any of the issues. Some food for thought follows:

One perspective to consider is “respect exists and it has been earned”. However, once earned there are pressures on client decisions by external forces. For instance, price is prominent as a fallout from the global financial crisis, which affects Corporate Australia perspectives as it is not yet over in North America and Europe. How then do we ensure that our value, ethics, service delivery, reason to be, all over-rides these pressures?

As a member of a recent ISES panel dealing with creative inspiration I must share the value in the concept of getting out in your city and learn from theatre, design, performance and the avant-garde. It doesn’t have to be expensive technology just creative inspiration. The other thought is innovation is not creating something new and revolutionary BUT better utilisation of what already exists.  Or take the contemporary approach and upload another creative application on the i-phone : www.appshouter.com/idea-stimulator-iphone-app-review

I read an interesting cyber survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts which addressed “The Future of the Internet”. It was the third such survey. www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/The-Future-of-the-Internet-III.aspx

Conclusions included:

i)  the mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020

ii) voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020

iii) artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves by 2020

iv) divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations in 2020.

My bubble of exuberance was popped when the youth noted it was old school thinking because the article was published in Dec 2008 and in their mind the concepts were all current.

Another philosophical approach was an article in The Observer, Sunday 20 June 2010 which takes an historical focus on the internet and the idea that our short-term memory can only hold between five and nine “chunks” of information at any given moment. The author offers 9 big ideas on the internet:  www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jun/20/internet-everything-need-to-know

How does this make a difference to our industry? Just read it.

Cyber censorship is the subject of a long flight back from Darwin next to a bureaucrat from Canberra. Another day!

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Don’t Panic

July 28th, 2010

I worry that my event won’t be as good as last year because my budget has been reduced … consider these 10 tips

1: Reconfirm the objective of the event with the decision makers and key stakeholders, so event essentials can be prioritised.  What you think is important may not be to them and you can save money on the non-essential items in the budget and focus your financial spend.

2: We don’t proscribe to reducing the quality of food & beverage but there are ways to save without impacting on the culinary experience e.g. shorter cocktail receptions, beverage on consumption, ‘breakfast on consumption rate’, cater for 80%, off-site dinners in walking distance, dessert canapés and don’t have a gala dinner but an informal BBQ at the boss’s house.  To manage all f&b aspects of your event to save you time and money, add value, inspire chefs and excite guests we recommend using an expert www.fnb.com.au

3: Choose the most cost effective time of the year to hold your event, when better hotel rates are offered e.g. July and August in Melbourne and Sydney.  Consider a non-CBD location, a venue that has its own character and requires less themeing, a lower star rated property i.e. a less expensive venue that still meets the event objectives and have guests make their own way there.

4: Take a knife to the program format, and we know there is a lot of resistance because ‘it has always been done this way’.  However, you can have big savings if you reduce the event duration by one afternoon or morning, start the meeting at 10am eliminating a need for pre-event accommodation, have a  welcome breakfast instead of an evening reception, suggest a dine around one night and add a free night in the program.

5: In exhibition feature design, use less walling to reduce build costs and create open and inviting features.  Construct multi-purpose features i.e. a seminar theatre that can double as a cafe between sessions, providing much needed relaxation areas for visitors and ensuring there isn’t a dead area next to an exhibitor’s stand for long periods of time during the day.

6: Negotiate audio-visual requirements to the bare essentials and add value through lighting of ornate room features, wherever possible.  Fabric hung from a rig can create a dramatic backdrop for a seminar and be more cost effective if used instead of a screen when projecting image or video.  The use of projection or lighting effects on blank walls can add to a feature without too much expense.

7: Go Green and Web Savvy by cutting back on print material i.e. brochure, satchels, newsletters and use electronic files, reduce the size of the event guide/catalogue to a pocket-sized guidebook, communicate with delegates and guests through an event specific Facebook account and encourage them to become fans, then use social networking to update them on program changes, highlights, newsletters and surveys.

8: Engage student volunteers for work experience on the registration desk, as ushers, guest services, meet & greet – but don’t forget to give them some training as well.

9: Look at the need for entertainment from the previous event and compare to current brief. It may have been added previously to enhance the theme and may not be necessary for the current event.

10: Don’t try to go it alone.  Ask contractors, suppliers, venues and staff because they can offer a great deal of advice when it comes to cost cutting and brainstorming.  Organisers’ should be open to seek advice from suppliers on how they have assisted other organisers with reduced budgets.  Request to see examples of work they produced for a range of budgets.

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Avanti Events Vision

July 28th, 2010

Vision to me means painting a picture, so here goes.

Avanti Events is a Marina of Excellence built on creativity, personal service, excellence in vision, delivery of client objectives, personalised service to engage, inspire and excite.

Avanti Events promote a safe haven, a harbour designed to attract corporate clients, a marina offering excellence in service for corporate groups, personalised service to engage the individual as well as group, an events agency that treats all clients and their customers with the same respect and quality of service, whatever vessel you represent in the flotilla …

We encourage you to enter our harbour. Interested?

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Relationships : 5 key profitability considerations

June 4th, 2010

Achieving your event objectives takes considerable planning and the strictest attention to detail. There is no one thing you can do right to guarantee success — you must do everything right. Relationship marketing recognises the value of long lasting relationships with stakeholders. Events and rewards programs are an essential highly profitable part of the marketing mix.

ONE: Events allow you the ability to build a community pre, during and post event through face to face interaction; social networking ie fans of the event through linkedin, facebook, twitter and other social media; and pre & post surveys.

TWO: Events are broad in definition and don’t need to be expensive gala affairs, but can be targeted marketing initiatives to bring key clients and potential customers together in the same space to speak the virtues of your business.

THREE: Events are only limited by the imagination and budget. You need a clear strategy, objectives and outcome for an event. When executed effectively there isn’t a more profitable return on investment.

FOUR: Rewards and Recognition programs add value to your marketing effort, directly to your internal customers, and if implemented with personalised attention to the individual needs of your external customers, can be an essential growth strategy through loyalty.

FIVE: Profitability is simply the ability to earn a profit. Therefore simply engage the most efficient tools available to you to build strong, long lasting relationships with your clients, and remember an event can simply be a lunch or dinner, BUT make sure that all the elements are controlled, otherwise you could have egg on your face and be back one step in the relationship matrix.

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Relationships – the tribe of profitability

June 4th, 2010

The Shirlaws’ Client Conference (Sydney 25 – 26th May 2010) couldn’t stress more the importance of building relationships.

Relationships at a partnership level being the strongest because they infer trust is established, without reservation, to refer business attributes to others. Networking and card sharing is the start, but profitable relationships begin through genuine referrals.

Relationship marketing recognises the value of forming good and lasting relationships with customers, in order to add value to a service, create loyalty, increase referrals and help offer more personalised and targeted sales.

Marketing strategies in 2010 incorporate the traditional mix utilising a sales force, as well as, viral initatives, email, websites and online social networks.

The marketing mix takes into account Product, Price, Place and Promotion. With the first three covered where should you put your marketing spend to promote your product and services, given the importance of relationship marketing in the current decade?

The value of face-to-face meetings for creating relationships is powerful, if organised with clear objectives and outcomes defined. Events for example, provide the opportunity to ‘sell’ and build long-lasting relationships which add [“exponentially” Avanti Events] to the profitability of the marketing spend.

Second most important, in our view, is reward & recognition programs targeted not only to external customers and the sales force but to all involved in the business i.e. management, marketing, customer service, accounting ….. one team – one vision – one direction.

What tribe do you want to be in? The choice is yours!

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