Back to Basics: Event Management Tips to Step Up Your Game

Last week we looked into the little details of events such as music and food. This week we are pulling back to basics and looking at a few more ways that you can step up your game as an event manager. We will be covering the following topics: Why You Need To Plan For When Something Goes Wrong Five Days On Which You Should Never Plan An Event Tips for Relating To Clients Why Internal Events are Great for Business Running The Perfect Summer Event Personality Traits of a Successful Event Manager What you Need to Know about Event Disasters…

Live Music for your Next Event: Good or Bad Idea?

When planning a corporate event, you must consider every aspect of the experience. From the check-in process to the tradeshow floor to the food, there is sure to be a lot on your mind. At some point, especially if you are planning a multi-day event, you need to consider the steps you can take to keep attendees occupied and having a good time. In many cases, this means choosing the right type of music. Generally speaking, you have two options: Hire a band to play live. Hire a DJ. There are pros and cons of both, meaning that the decision…

How to Handle Negative Social Media Feedback During and After an Event

Putting on an event is a big deal. From a one day get-together to a multi-day trade show, you are well aware of the challenges. Let’s be honest: it is hard to make it through an event without at least one person getting angry. Many years ago, dealing with such a situation was simple. You would wait for the issue to be presented, and then deal with it one-on-one. The matter was kept rather hush and taken care of in person. In today’s world, where social media is in charge, things are not nearly as clear. Rather than take up…

Top Tips for Hiring a Catering Company

When putting together an event, there are 101 things that you need to plan for. Obviously it is hard to get every little thing perfect, there is one thing that you should give a little more attention to: the food. You have a lot on your plate (no pun intended), including the task of hiring a catering company. Make the right choice and you will have attendees drooling. Make the wrong choice and you could soon have a problem on your hands. How to Hire an Event Catering Company The catering industry checks in with annual revenue of $9 billion. There…

Keeping Your Attendees Entertained

Today, we’re going to be addressing a question which has doubtless plagued many event management professionals in the past: how does one keep their guests entertained without sacrificing the value of an event? How much novelty does one need to keep people interested – and how can one tell they’ve crossed the line and lost sight of their event’s original purpose? It’s not an easy question to answer, but I believe I’d like to start with a simple truth: presentation is everything. Every single factor, ranging from what sort of equipment you use to how the conference hall looks right…

Catering 101: Working Out The Details Of The Perfect Menu

Catering is as much a part of event management as sound design, tech, or marketing. Making the wrong choice where food’s concerned can be just as bad as selecting the wrong keynote speakers; it could completely ruin the look and feel of an event. That said, it’s not terribly likely that you’ll be designing your menu by yourself (you can, but I’d not recommend it). You’re going to be hiring on a caterer to handle the details involved in keeping your attendees fed and watered. Thing is…that caterer can’t do their job if they don’t know what you expect. For…

Selecting The Right Music For Events

When you’re applying for a job (or really, doing anything else in life), how you sound is just as important as how you look. Why should event management be any different? A bit of musical flair can be the difference between a good event and a great one. Today, we’re going to discuss what’s involved in making your event sound awesome (literally). Know Your Attendees The first question you need to ask yourself is “who’s going to be attending?” A group of distinguished business professionals aren’t going to enjoy the same music as a bunch of millennial tech geeks; neither…

The (Not So) Little Details

So you’ve worked for month securing a location, finding the perfect guest speakers, and marketing your event like crazy. You’re exhausted and it may feel like a good idea to skip over some little details. Well, I hate to break it to you but it really isn’t that great of an idea. The food, entertainment, and music can make or break an event. If someone with a gluten allergy is unable to eat any of the food all weekend, I bet that would hold in there memory longer than even the best guest speaker. This week, we are going to…

The Modern Rules of Seeking Your Voice on Social Media

The most important thing about social marketing is your voice – the attitude and language you use to communicate. This is true regardless of industry. If you fail to cultivate a social personality, then it will be impossible for your followers and fans to have genuine discussions with you. And if they cannot have authentic conversations, they’re not going to engage with your brand. What’s an event planner do to? How can you seek out a voice that both fits your firm and makes your brand more appealing to clients? What can you do to ensure that customers see you…

Ten Guaranteed Ways to Make Yourself Unpopular on Social Media

If you’re not really sure what you’re doing, social media can be difficult. Gaining followers is something of a delicate art – retaining them even more so. There are plenty of mistakes you can make; plenty of areas in which you can misstep and send your social efforts down the drain. Thankfully, they’re actually pretty easy to avoid – provided you’re aware of them. That’s where we come in. We’re going to go over some tactics, blunders, and foibles that are pretty much guaranteed to get you on your community’s bad side. Avoid running into any of the pitfalls mentioned…

Seven Steps For Snapchatting At Your Next Event

In the past, I’ve rather frequently drilled home the importance of brevity. People today don’t have time for lengthy marketing pitches or deep, thorough explanations of a brand. They want to know right out the door whether or not something’s worth their time – and if you can’t keep things brief, then they’ll eventually tune out. Case in point, the average human attention span is currently 8.25 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000. On some level, this isn’t surprising. Today, we’re bombarded with information from all sides, and we’ve less time to devote to each individual message that comes…

Inside Look: Social Media

We all know that social media is important for the professional growth of your brand, but in order for it really to work it’s magic it must be used correctly. Plenty of “experts” throw around their idea of what will grow your engagements or rapidly increase followers, but it’s difficult to sift through it all to identify fact or fiction. This week we have a great series that identifies key things you can be doing on different platforms. We will be covering the following topics: Seven Steps For Snapchatting At Your Next Event Ten Guaranteed Ways to Make Yourself Unpopular…

The Ten Best Technological Tools For Guest Speakers

The best guest speakers are those who know how to inspire the people who attend their presentation. They’re compelling individuals and natural storytellers, with magnetic personalities, great voices, and boundless energy. They also know their tech – and how best to use it to make their point. The truth is, in many ways the difference between a good guest speaker and a great one is simply how they use the tools they have at their disposal. With that in mind, today’s piece is going to focus on a few presentation tools and gadgets a speaker can use to enrich their…

The Event Planner’s Guide To Being A Better Guest Speaker

Forget paying for an advertising spot or schmoozing around at a trade show; guest speaking is among the best ways to promote your event management firm. As a guest speaker, you’ve an opportunity to engage with an entire room filled with prospective clients – provided, of course, you fully understand what the job involves. As a result, there are too many guest speakers who are boring or irrelevant, even among event organizers. You want to avoid being one of those. You want to be exciting, interesting, and informative. You want people to leave your presentations passionate, interested, and engaged. How can…

How to Run an Effective Social Media Contest

Are you looking for a creative way to boost event registration numbers? Are you hoping to get your audience excited about an upcoming event? While there are many ways to make this happen, here is one that you may have overlooked: a social media contest. Social media is hot. Just how hot, you wonder? Here is what Social Times has to say: “Did you know that there are more than two billion active social media users worldwide, representing a global penetration rate of 28 percent?” This statistic alone proves that you are missing the boat if you aren’t using social media to…

What The Late Steve Jobs Can Teach Us About Guest Speaking

Whatever else you might say about Steve Jobs, the man knew how to work a crowd. He was probably one of the most brilliant speakers of our time; his charisma was so powerful that one software engineer at Apple even described it as a “reality distortion field,” adding that Jobs could “convince anyone of practically anything.” Taking that into account, it sort of goes without saying that any guest speaker who wants to perfect their craft should study how Jobs conducted himself – there’s a lot of valuable stuff to be learned from him, after all. That’s what we’re here…

Leveraging The Most Common Types Of Speakers At Your Event

As I’m sure most of you have noticed by now, everyone has their own unique ‘style’ when it comes to speaking. Some people are better at weaving an engrossing, entertaining story, while others can get an audience pumped up just by speaking a few words. Some people know exactly what they’re talking about – and how to present it to the audience – while others are simply able to hold the attention of people based on who they are. As an event manager, it’s important that you understand how to recognize the different types of guest speakers – and how…

How To Avoid Hiring A Bad Guest Speaker

Even if every other element of your event is planned out flawlessly, a bad keynote speaker could ruin the whole experience for your attendees. Maybe their delivery is boring as watching paint dry. Maybe they’re shamelessly plugging a business or brand the audience doesn’t care about, or peppering their presentation with awful-poorly designed slides. Maybe they’re late – or don’t show up at all. Regardless of why, a guest speaker who isn’t good at their job can become a dark, foreboding cloud over an otherwise fantastic event. It goes without saying that you want to do everything you can to…

Five Things An Exhibitor Should Never Do

If you’re setting up a booth at a conference or trade show, you’re there to connect with people. You’re interested in one of two things: selling a product, or connecting with people who’d be interested in buying from you (or working with you). Both are pretty important, right? Today, we’re going to be going over a few of the biggest – and most common flubs – exhibitors tend to make on the show floor. If you’re an exhibitor, have a read-through to make sure you aren’t committing any of these mistakes yourself. And if you’re an event planner, well…you can…

Stand Out In A Crowd

Last week we focused our series on handling all of the different events that an event planner may be asked to do. This week, we are switching gears and focusing on how to be a good speaker and exhibitor at an event that you are invited to. We want you to be able to make the most out of your situation. Whether you are paying to be at an event, or you are the star of the show, we want to share with you tips on how to get the most out of it for your brand. Stop wasting time…

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