The Conference Guy’s Blog

We all know by now that we should use blogs and LinkedIn to market events. Now add Twitter to that list.  Just as virtual conferences have not replaced physical events, social media will not replace traditional event marketing but enhance it.

To execute properly, you need to split your event social networking activities into three separate phases: pre-, live and post-event.

During the pre-event phase get your speakers, editors or industry thought leaders to start tweeting about subjects that are hot or that they’re speaking on. Link with tiny URLs to your event site or to white papers you have on the subject.

Add your event via event.linkedin.com and create a linkedin group of those same key subject-matter leaders to start conversations about the content and invite their connections to join the group. If the group is truly of like-minded souls, the conversation will take off.

If you have the staffing bandwidth, start a blog with your team and speakers. This is not always practical so at minimum set up an RSS feed on your event site of all the relevant blogs out there. This keeps your site current and encourages visits.

At the MTO Summit I attended, one of  speakers was really spot on when he said that all event websites are generally static and have little focus on the attendee. They spend too little time on what the experience will be like for the attendee. Take-aways and benefits are still important, but creating the sense of experience is an important new twist to the message.

During the live event you want people to continue to tweet or blog. For some markets you’re in this is not a problem, but many of you may need to offer a few FREE (yes, FREE) passes to people who will agree to come to the event and tweet. At the MTO event 10 percent of the audience were “live” tweeting and generating buzz from people who were not able to attend. You can either use a #hastag search in Twitter or TweetDeck to monitor tweets in certain subjects.

You need to continue the conversation post-event. Monitor blogs through your blogwatch, keep speakers and staff tweeting and continue to watch your LinkedIn group grow.

Why do this? Viral marketing has always been good, now I believe social networking has reached it’s tipping point and has become viral marketing’s Utopian dream (nearly).

A few words of caution. Do not use social media to directly sell events – you will be drummed out quicker than you can type Tweet. Do not think you can control the conversation because you can’t.  Don’t just tell your marketing team to add social media into the mix, live it and understand it yourself first. Do not think there is no cost to this. There is and it’s staff time.

Times like these force us to do what we should be doing every single day we go to work:

1:    try to be as efficient as possible
2:    cut all “fat” out of your organization (processes, systems and people)
3:    negotiate the fairest contracts with vendors (for both sides)
4:    have committed staff who want to come to work (and therefore are motivated)
5:    develop realistic business objectives that are sustainable
6:    maybe try and have a giggle occasionally!

All the tips in this blog on negotiating contracts with hotels are not designed to harm the hotel. If we unfairly tighten the ratchet on our vendors we will create an unworkable environment for the future.

So here’s another little tweak to the cancellation and attrition clause that can make a difference, but remains fair to the hotel. As always, if you exceed your numbers then none of this is relevant, but right now this is important.

When calculating your liability I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you should only use about 50% of the projected F&B costs…well, you should also only use 75% of the room night cost as well.

If the rooms remain unsold (which hopefully for both the hotel and you won’t happen) you need to pay the hotel damages for lost profit. However, by the room being unoccupied the hotel has not had to use staff to clean it, wash towels, replace sheets and refresh amenities and therefore an industry standard for their lost profit is about 75% of the room rate. Drop this into your liability equation and your potential exposure is reduced. A good thing for you and causes no harm to the hotel.

A second idea. If you have to cancel an event and pay the hotel a cancelation fee, remember that if they can resell some or all of your rooms, function space and F&B they cannot receive payment from two organizations for the same space at the same time. It is known as unjust enrichment.

Never pay your cancellation fee until after the date of your cancelled event. The hotel may press you to pay, but if you ran the event, the normal close out of an account is not until 30 days after the event anyway, so wait.

This gives you the chance to see if the hotel can resell the rooms. If it doesn’t, it still gets its money when it was budgeted. Best-case scenario, the hotel resells all the space and you will owe nothing, even if you’ve cancelled.

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As we all know, the venue part of any event represents the biggest liability.  Limiting that exposure is something we should be doing in the best of economies, but is especially relevant today.

Depending on the size of your event, don’t always think hotel – think conference center. Conference centers are popping up all over the world and offer a great alternative to hotel meeting space. Why? Because you don’t have a sleeping room block to manage. Check out the International Association of Conference Centers (www.iacconline.org).

This is not necesarily a solution for a tradeshow or all events but works really well for workshops (30-50 attendees) or seminars/conferences up to 200+ attendees.

What are the benefits?

•    No hotel room block
•    Affordable Daily Meeting Packages (DMPs)

Getting the worry of the room block off your plate right now can be a huge relief. When looking at a conference center make sure there are hotels nearby (depending on how local your attendees are, some people may need sleeping rooms) and make sure there is a range of price options.

When promoting your event let your attendees know which hotels are near and let them choose. Quite often they can get a good rate either through their corporate account or online (a real headache when you have a room block – so don’t forget that audit clause in your hotel contract! See below).

Some hotels are offering DMPs, but not many. DMPs are great because they are all inclusive packages, which generally include breakfast, a.m. and p.m. breaks, lunch, room rental and all basic A/V.

Depending where you go they range in price from $80-$125 per attendee. This really limits many of the risks you have when running an event.

Here’s a look at a possible sample clause:

AUDIT CLAUSE
Hotel agrees to cross-reference lists of all registered Group attendees to identify all individuals holding reservations who are attending the event.  Hotel agrees to credit all Group attendees who can be identified as such for pick-up purposes regardless of rate or reservations method.  If any event attendees registered prior to the room block cut-off date are found to be paying a higher rate, the rate will revert to the Group’s rate for this conference.

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This trick of the trade is something you should be doing at all times, but in the current economic climate, it is simply a must.

When things are going well the small print in any contract virtually becomes irrelevant. Begging hotels for more sleeping rooms or bigger function space can be a headache, but that’s the sort of headache a couple of Advil can sort out!

But when times are tough, a project starts going south or a partnership starts souring, the small print increases point size dramatically. Limiting your liability when signing your contract can really help.  This is super important if everything goes pear-shaped and you need to cancel your event.

As we all know – the liability (or gross revenue from which all cancellation and attrition clauses are calculated) in a hotel contract is generally calculated very simply:

(Number of hotel rooms x room rate) + room rental + F&B = liability

Note: It is understood that each hotel contract is different containing variable attrition clauses and cancellation clauses with differing percentages.

Trick of the trade: when calculating the above, negotiate with the hotel to include only 50% of the projected F&B.  The F&B is one thing that you don’t normally have to confirm until 72 hours prior to the event (before the chef goes shopping!) and so the hotel’s exposure is limited. This is something they seem willing to concede/negotiate.

If you’re negotiating a contract now it is hopefully for events in Q3 or Q4 of 09 or 2010 and because we are all trying to guess when the much needed recovery will kick in and people will start spending their travel budgets again – estimating attendance, without a crystal ball, is hard.

So in case our estimates are off and you need to cancel an event or you’re going to miss your numbers, this one little trick will help.

Keep fit and well,

Matt

PS: Always spell out in the contract what the actual dollar or pound or euro value is for the gross revenue used to calculate attrition or cancellation, don’t rely on a simple percentage. It’s amazing how both parties can come up with a different number after the contract is signed!!

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As I sit here in one of the Northern Virginia ‘burbs just 7 miles from the White House waiting for the “big day” tomorrow, one of the recurring themes in the news is that they’re going to take away the new president’s Blackberry!!

To many of us this would be a catastrophic and heart-wrenching operation. This technology has become so much a part of doing business, even running a country, you can sort of see and feel the man’s pain (although he may have staff that can help out!). Point is, in the on-demand world we live in, this type of technology has become absolutely necessary (also means you can play golf and still be “working”!).

A comprehensive multi-media marketing plan is necessary to promote any event. One simple, cost-effective aspect of this can be an audio recording. Posting a .wav file on your events home page and in all your electronic marketing can increase click throughs.

But what’s in the recording? Depending on the type of event and the type of organization you represent, it could be a brief interview with your keynote speaker outlining what they’re going to cover in their presentation, an intro to the event from the president of your company, executive director of your association or publisher/editor of the supporting publication.

Remember, keep them short – I recommend a maximum of 5 minutes. This is the right time to use technology – it’s quick, inexpensive and caters to those who like to listen. Some people read, some listen and some watch – offering your target attendees the format they prefer is harnessing the power of the web perfectly.

How do you do it and how much will it cost?

The simplest way is to use one of the software packages below (or even something like RecordPad on a Mac). Record your piece and then upload the .wav file. Quick and zero cost.

If you’re doing an interview and are in different locations, then using an audioconference company, who offer non-operator assisted calls, is an easy option. They will send you the .wav file when you’re done. The costs should look something like this:
•    No more than 10 cents per minute (often much less)
•    About a $25 recording fee
•    $10-15 per .wav file

Once you have the .wav file you can either simply upload as is or if it needs editing then you can download these for free:
•    For Macs use Audacity*
•    For PCs use either Audacity or Goldwave*

* I’m sure there are many other options, these are the ones I have used.

Look out next time for a really useful trick when negotiating your hotel contract!

Keep fit and well,

Matt

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The holidays are behind us and if you believe in him, Santa is sitting on a beach somewhere getting a well-earned rest. For the rest of us, it’s back to the grindstone with recharged batteries and a renewed optimism that the economy will bounce back and 2009 will be a great year — especially for conference attendance!

There are many aspects to planning an event, from venue selection to marketing to programming to on-site logistics. Whether you’re an association organizing your annual meeting, or a publisher introducing a new event or a software company launching a new product, one of the most important things you need to do is choose the right venue.

Securing the right location takes a great deal of planning and analysis. You have to consider:

• What would be a logical city based on where the majority of my attendees are located?
• Can they get to that city easily? Drive, or one flight?
• Can they afford the city?
• Is there suitable hotel or convention space?

The tip this time is about the site visit. Other aspects will be discussed in future posts, but this one deals with scouting out the space and meeting your sales rep.

Do the majority of your work before you even arrive.

• Download floor plans from their website or ask them to send them to you.
• Work out how you intend to use the space, where things will go, such as the registration desk, coffee breaks, exhibit space, etc.

Now you’ve arrived at the venue:

• Plan on spending at least an hour on site prior to meeting your sales rep.
• Go and find your prospective rooms (you may not be able to get in because they are either locked or being used) but you will get a sense of the space and how your mental picture for the event will unfold.
• Use all your senses, look around and picture how your attendees will move through the space, work out the signage you’ll need, ride the elevator, stop and smell – can you smell the kitchen from outside your room?
• If you have time, eat or drink in the restaurant.
• Check on the boards to see what event is going on that day and then ask one of the front desk staff how to get to that meeting – hopefully they’ll know, but if they don’t, what else are they missing?

Doing all this on your own before meeting the sales rep is invaluable. You need to lead the discussion once you’ve done all the above and get them to answer any questions you may still have. If you like the space get down to negotiating the contract. The more of this you can do prior to leaving the venue the better.

Happy venue hunting.

All the best,

Matt

Bonus tip: Don’t  ask for a comp room when on a site visit – just book the room yourself and see how they treat you when you check in. It can be a real eye opener when you’re not flagged as a VIP. If you then decide to run the event at that venue, they’ll comp you the room once the contract is signed!

As I sit here getting ready for the onslaught of 09 and taking time to plan my next diet (this one is number 547, but I will stick to this one, honest gov!) I keep going over the mental check list for all the events coming up.

One of the things I will be exploring next year in this blog is how much technology we should deploy for each event. We’re all pretty comfortable with all the cool AV stuff we can do at the event itself, but what about all the online technologies available? From blogs to wikis to Facebook to YouTube to virtual events and all the other social networking tools at our disposal. I believe you need to use what your market wants to see, not what you want to use because it looks good. But more about that in future posts.

One of the funny emails I got over the Holiday period was from a publisher in London. This sort of thing could be fun to use on your event site for a keynote, where you post their real bio or “click here” for a more humorous look at their achievements — but make sure this is fitting for your market and the speaker is OK with it — could work well at an association event where everybody knows the speaker well.

One of the key themes that will be running through my thoughts on putting on great events will be to really get into the heads of the attendees and understand what you can do that will make the event perfect for them.  If having a silly link to a joke bio isn’t appropriate, then don’t do it. If running your event in Las Vegas where all attendees are coming from the east coast and don’t like to gamble, then don’t book it there. If having the coolest, funkiest, most socially networked event site for a bunch of over 50 year old accountants who still use fountain pens to text, then don’t waste your time and money and dumb down the site.

So, enjoy your new year celebration and here’s to a year full of great and memorable events.

Keep fit and well,

Matt.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will be posting useful tips and tricks of the trade that will make running your events less stressful, more efficient and hopefully even a little fun.

I will be covering every aspects of an event, from choosing the right venue, to getting the best speakers, to incorporating new social networking in a unique multi-media marketing plan.

Some of this stuff may not sound riveting, or not even mildly humorous, but it can really help make a difference to the bottom line of your event, put smiles on your attendees faces and leave you with that warm and fuzzy feeling that you’ve done a good job and exceeded everybody’s expectation.

So look out in your inbox, you’ll get a brief email every time I post something.

I hope you’ve all been good this year and if you believe in Santa (which I still do - ‘cos I am him for 3 kids!)  let’s hope he brings you at least a smile in next few days (more smiles, less gifts).

All the best,

Matt