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The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 9:24pm On Sep 28, 2014 |
What Type of Planner Are You? If you're reading this, you're probably considering a career as an event manager. You've probably given it a lot of thought, and know that you have what it takes to be able to plan meetings and events, weddings, trade shows, corporate outings, fundraisers, or non-profit events. The event industry is a large field to break into, so before you jump right in, be sure to give some thought to the type of planner you'd like to become. Here are some basic questions you've probably already answered when deciding on becoming a planner: - Am I organized? - Do I have good time management skills? - Am I a good listener? - Am I detail-oriented? - Do I interact well with others? If you answered yes, good news, you're on the right track. Event planners are able to manage their time and their events in a very organized fashion. They have to be good listeners, in order to respect their clients wishes, and carry out the dreams that they have in mind for their events. Without good listening skills along with an eye for detail, ideas for an event can be miscommunicated and lost. Last but not least, you must interact well with others. You will be dealing with clients, negotiating with event sites, and communicating with high ranking executives. To be continued... 1 Like |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 9:31pm On Sep 28, 2014 |
What Type of Planner Are You? II Now that you know this is the field for you, what type of events do you want to plan? What types of events excite you? What would give you a sense of accomplishment? What do you have a passion for? There are two basic types of event managers, Corporate and Social. Corporate Events: Planning Corporate events may mean that you are part of a marketing or event team at a small or large company. It may include events such as conferences, meetings, trade shows, fundraisers, conventions, educational trainings, employee meetings, networking meetings, seminars, and more. Most corporate events have goals in mind whether it is to promote a new product, gain sales, or obtain new clients. Social Events: If you are responsible for planning social events, you may be planning weddings, various types of parties, celebrations, fundraisers, and more. Most social events do not have goals in mind like that of a Corporate event, but are usually organized to get family and friends together for celebrating milestones and special occasions. Whichever path in the event planning field you choose, be sure that the job you choose is the best fit for your skills, experience, and career goals. 2 Likes |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 10:55am On Oct 02, 2014 |
Event management selling point Part I Just like when examining a tomato at a market place when shopping its also takes a recruiter about 20 seconds or less to get a first impression. That means you have to possess a clear, concise, and well-written resume that will also stand out among many others. knowing nigerians there are a ton of event management companies out there Being prepared and organized is probably one of your best features as an event planner, so when it comes time to prepare for an interview, you're ready. If your resume needs a tune-up, or you're thinking about leaving a portfolio with the interviewer or like the popular phrase go, "what's your selling point", here's some things to consider. Think about how you want to approach freshening up your resume. Does it need a complete facelift, where you would start from scratch? Or are you confident in the format you have now, and would you want to simply tweek and update a few things? However big of an overhaul you decide on. If you're making minor adjustments, consider peeking at some samples of other event coordinator's resumes online. Perhaps you have a co-worker or colleague that wouldn't mind if you looked at theirs. To be continued... 2 Likes |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 10:59am On Oct 02, 2014 |
Event management selling point Part - List your past positions, but don't go too far back. If you were a baba ijebu ticketier in high school, you may want to leave that off the resume. Only keep the relevant jobs on there. - Don't let the title speak for itself, briefly sum up each position. - Illustrate your use of time management, efficiency and productivity. - Define your achievements. List the largest event you've planned, including budgets. - Do you have special skills, such as email marketing? Social Media? List all of your technical skills in one spot, too. - Think about your qualities that may stand out from other candidates, and be sure to include those on your resume and cover letter. Now that you've got the resume polished, have you thought about creating a portfolio to leave with potential interviewers? Here are some things you can use to create a portfolio that really shows off your work: - Copies of recent invitations, brochures, flyers - Resume - Cover letter - Letters of recommendation (or print them out from LinkedIn/nairaland) - Letters of recognition - Copies of certificates, professional memberships, - Wedding planners - include photographs 1 Like |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 11:26am On Oct 07, 2014 |
Staying on Track with Your Event Budget Last minute expenses, wanting to impress your customers and guests; your event budget can get out of hand much quicker than you thought. First things first: If you’ve held this same event before, look at your budget sheet from last year and compare. Where could you make changes? Here are six ways that can help you to stay on track with your event budget. 1. Know your event. Is it a large gala, or a small gathering? This will determine your budget, and what you should and shouldn’t have. For example, you don’t want a 5-piece band playing at an event meant for a wedding or ball, if you’re only gathering 10 – 15 people together for a business meeting. Going overboard on these types of expenses can ruin your budget very quickly. 2. Know your event. It bears repeating, but for a different reason. You must choose your location wisely, and this depends on what type of event your holding. Keep your location costs low by doing your research on event sites. 3. Keep track of every expense. It cannot be stressed enough just how much the little things add up. Whether you made a last minute purchase of pens for all 400 guests, or you added in another screen rental, everything will play into your budget. Use an excel spreadsheet or other budgeting tool to help you see where you are with every kobo. Don’t forget about your miscellaneous expenses, those that seem to just appear on your final bill out of nowhere. For example: services fees, rental fees, omoniles(just kidding) etc. 4 Keep track of your income, if you have any. Perhaps you charge for certain vendor representatives to attend your event. Give them a deadline to get their money in to you, and keep track of who has and hasn’t paid. This will give you an idea of where you stand with your budget, in terms of when you need to pay your event bills. Again, use a budgeting tool for this. 55. Be the only one in charge. Expenses can add up when there is too many “people untop one matter”. If you’re not the only one in charge of spending, someone else is bound to make a purchase or decision that can throw your budget off track very easily. 6. Be flexible. Even though you’ve created a budget and are determined to stick to it, being flexible is also important. Don’t say no to something to add to the event last minute if you know it’s important, just because it doesn’t fit into the budget. When creating your budget, make room for flexibility. |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 1:37am On Dec 31, 2014 |
The Power Of Feedback To Event planners the importance of obtaining feedback from customers was discussed. It is a crucial tool for event planners especially, because it helps plan for future events. It helps you know what to do next time, what you did right this time, and what the attendees really think of your events. After reading "Ask For Feedback at Every Event", and now that you know the right questions to ask, what exactly do you do with all of that data? It's certainly no use if you collected valuable information, and don't bother to analyze it, so here's a few ideas. 1. Sort the data by who gave it to you. While feedback should be mostly anonymous, try gathering data that allows you to sort by certain types of customers. Perhaps you can do this based on how long they've been a customer, if it was their first time attending the event. Sorting this way may help you gain more insight to the feedback they provided. 2. Don't get offended. Nigerians can be comics sometimes and deliberately make degrading comments on your form which can easily turn you off , but don't get discouraged don't write off any negative comments as "trolls" or "bad belle". Remember that this information is very useful to you in the long run. 3. Don't just pay attention to what went wrong. Be sure to include a section that gathers positive feedback too, so you know what you're doing right. You may be thinking of changing some aspect of the event, but you may not realize that it's something your attendees appreciate. Ask a question "what was the best part of the event?", or "what makes you want to attend each year?" 4. Look for trends. Use social media nairaland and co then pay close attention to what everyone is saying and "obey", if everyone says the event shouldn't be held on a Monday, listen to them. 5. Use the data right away. Nigerians react to trends too so don't just take what you've learned about this one event and save the changes for next year. Apply it immediately to your next event, or event your own job. You may find out something in the way you plan, and may want to change something. Remember that feedback is a great tool, so be sure to use it wisely, and as often as you can (knowing that not everyone will fill out the feedback survey) It can immensely help your customer service experience at your company, and make for a more positive impact at your events. Last but not least, be sure to thank your attendees for taking the time to give you feedback. 2 Likes |
Re: The Event Planners by Emmaxmusic(m): 2:40am On Jan 04, 2015 |
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Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 9:01am On Feb 27, 2015 |
QUESTION:In nigeria, dealing with customer complaints effectively is an important skill, many nigerians ignore this skills or don't have it especially particularly if the feedback comes in the middle of a live event which causes them to lose valued attendees as well as clients forever. People seem to be too emotional when accepting feedback It seems to be distressing when they receive complaints – they expect the guests to realise how hard they worked to avoid For things to go on great or sometimes they feel like everything is going great and "Bad-belle" attendee may still voice a complaint just to cause unnecessary problems. All these are relatable but you need to understand one thing “the customer is always right.” Whatever the circumstance of the complaint you should struggle to respond to complaints and feedbacks, so how can you turn a negative situation into a positive? Think Positively Perhaps this sounds strange but try to think of the complaint as a gift. The attendee has taken time to feed back to you so that you have the opportunity to rectify it for the complainant but also potentially for others before the situation escalates. In essence you have been given a valuable second chance to put this right. Moreover if they didn’t bring this to your attention they could have just disappeared without saying a word, which would have left you no opportunity to put the situation right and probably having lost a customer forever, without ever being any the wiser about their dissatisfaction. Stop Everything This is a tricky one but the person complaining wants to have their say right away, they need you to stop everything and take note. Anger will rise if you try to dismiss or delay someone who is primed to have their say. Try to ensure that all workers know how to handle complaints and that any junior workers know how important it is to pass it over to a Manager promptly and with care. At a live event you do of course need to consider your location and potentially minimise the impact on the rest of the event and other attendees. If you can suggest a suitable and convenient location close by to discuss the scenario in private this may be a wise move. Listen Make sure that you gather the full facts of the situation before jumping in. Give the attendee the opportunity to vent their anger and frustration as this may help them to calm down, as well as filling in the gaps for you as to what has gone wrong and the crux of why the person in front of you is so upset. The information you gather here will help to ensure you can suggest the best possible solution and outcome. Keep Calm Like I said, it is natural to feel defensive when listening to a complaint, particularly if their facts are wrong or unfounded, but try to remember this isn’t a personal attack on yourself and never argue back. If tensions are high you are potentially not going to deal with the situation with a clear head so it may be best to suggest some time out for both parties to simmer down before reconvening? Or perhaps you need to escalate the situation on your workers instead? that's why they are there(just kidding) Put Yourself in Their Shoes Nobody really enjoys complaining and so going back to the first point, appreciate that the individual has taken the time to give their opinion to you and that this probably isn’t easy for them. Look at the whole situation from their point of view and see it through their eyes. Ask Questions Not to discredit the attendees claim but rather to prove that the attendee has your full, undivided attention. Ask questions to be sure that you understand the full facts of the situation and to get them to clarify anything that is unclear. Say Sorry If the complaint is justified ensure you give heartfelt apologies to the attendee and let them know that is not how you like to do business/your events to run. If the complaint isn’t justified in your opinion you should still empathise with them, for example “I am sorry that you feel that way” or “I understand how upset you must feel” or simply “I can see that this must be inconvenient for you.” Inspiration The person complaining truly believes that you have done something wrong so resist the temptation to pass the blame. The person complaining doesn’t want to hear you passing the buck, they want to hear what you are going to do for them and it is unprofessional to accuse others. It is your event and therefore it is your full responsibility if some element has been unsatisfactory. To be continued 1 Like |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 9:03am On Feb 27, 2015 |
Agree Next Steps Hopefully after gathering all of the information you will have a few ideas for how you can put the situation right and you can now share these with the attendee to collect their thoughts. Sometimes it may be appropriate to ask the person directly how you can put the situation right for them; “What would be a fair solution?” “What course of action do you want to see?” It is important that you jointly agree what is a fair and suitable next step to be taken. Resolve the Situation Once a course of action is agreed make sure you move swiftly to put things into place. Ideally the person that has heard the complaint will personally take the necessary action and remain the main point of contact. If for any reason the actions taken are not immediate and will take some time, ensure that you keep the unhappy attendee informed or the negative feelings could escalate again. Let the person who voiced the complaint know what changes and measures have been put in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again and to show how seriously you took their concerns. For some it may be enough to be heard and to receive an apology and assurances. Only you can judge the gravity of the situation though and whether compensation should be offered. Apply it in future Make sure that all of the team are aware of the complaint and steps are taken to put things right and avoid the same mistake happening again in the future. Be grateful for the early warning sign and the chance you have been given to rethink and redesign for the future. The most important lesson is to learn from the error. In Conclusion If you deal with a complaint at your event successfully you may secure yourself a customer for life and turn a negative experience into a positive one. Nearly all customers would recommend a company to their friends if a complaint had been resolved efficiently. 1 Like |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 1:47am On Mar 18, 2015 |
QUESTION: The answer is simple "fall in love with them" let me elaborate What’s Love Got to Do With It? Events are hard work. They take a lot of planning, organization, time, money and focus. Sometimes we get so lost in the details that we forget about the people. They become numbers on a spreadsheet or name badges at a registration table. Yet, ultimately what is most rewarding about planning events is seeing the effect they have on the people who attend. Everyone has had an experience of being at an event where they felt like an outsider. If you treat your attendees as ‘just another name badge’ they will leave your event feeling deeply unsatisfied and unlikely to return next year. Whether you are planning a conference, a wedding, a tournament, a seminar or a music festival it really helps if you allow yourself to care about and, yes, even fall in love with the people are coming. Love Me Do If you want your attendees to love your events then you need to love them first. Professor Arthur Aron, an expert in the psychology of love, says that we fall in love with people who demonstrate that they are attracted to us. Mutual attraction creates connection and when we feel this connection we feel better about ourselves. At the best events, we have the experience of being amongst friends. Each person is welcomed as an individual and appreciated for the unique attributes that they bring to the table. These types of events are personal, friendly, intimate and engaging. These are the kinds of events that we want to go back to time and time again. You’re The One That I Want When looking for a relationship many people start with a wish-list of desirable attributes. My friend Lara is looking for a man who is funny, intelligent, likes dogs and has his own teeth! Lara has a better chance of finding the man of her dreams because she is specific about what she wants. Your starting point is to create a profile of your ideal attendee. This profile will include aspects like their age range, gender, what they are interested in, what websites they visit and where they like to hang out. The more detailed your attendee profile the better as this will allow you to design an event that is the perfect fit for them and will help you target your marketing and social media outreach. I Just Called to Say I Love You One of the biggest influencing factors for falling in love is repeated interactions. Repeated exposure creates desire. Which means that the more times someone comes across your event or brand the more likely they are to be attracted to it. Find as many ways as possible to connect with and send love notes to your attendees. How you express your love to your attendees is to give them content and information that is valuable to them. Thoughtfulness in your communications will go a long way to creating a strong relationship. You Can’t Hurry Love Building a relationship with your attendees takes time. Most people will not be hurrying to register for your event on your first announcement. You need to court your attendees to earn their love and attention. To woo your attendees give them consistent attention over time. Social media posts are the pheromones of your event and you can use social media to create desire. Your posts should be regular and consistent. Keep in mind that being over-attentive can come across as needy, so don’t post too often. Also, don’t spend all of your time on social media talking about yourself, as that is the fastest way to turn someone off. Love the One You’re With It’s the day of your event. You’ve been up since the crack of dawn getting everything ready to welcome your guests. Then, the worst thing happens: only a handful of people show up. Sometimes the turn-out for your event is not what you hoped or planned for. Perhaps it is so bad that you are going to lose money or you might be worried that you will lose face. These kinds of concerns can get in the way of providing a great experience for your attendees. When your attendance is low, make sure your attention is on the people who are there – not the ones who didn’t show up. Put all your focus on making sure they get value and that they all leave raving about how great your event was. Only You Love, intimacy and connection does not happen just by accident, it can be encouraged and cultivated. Arthur Aron used a series of 36 questions to build intimacy between strangers. His study suggests that simply asking personal questions can lead to deep connection between people. Many of his questions could easily be adapted to create intimacy and connection between your attendees. Some of them could even be used as research to create your event. Here are examples of the kinds of questions that create connection: Given the choice of anyone in the world, who would you like to meet? Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common. For what in your life do you feel most grateful? Tell your life story in as much detail as possible in 4 minutes. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained a quality or ability, what would it be? Wild Thing The best conditions for falling in love are when we are already in a state of arousal, such as being at an exciting performance or event. When our body and minds are stimulated we are more easily attracted to others. This is good news for event professionals, as we are experts at creating exciting events. Use music and lighting to create atmosphere, quicken the heartbeat and put your attendees in the mood for love. You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling As busy meeting professionals it is easy to get caught up in the doing of events. We are so busy chasing deadlines, putting out fires and multi-tasking that we can lose our love and passion for what we are doing. We may become burnt out, tired, stressed or can end up just going-through-the-motions. If you find that you have lost that lovin’ feeling, it may be time to pause and make sure that you are giving some love and attention to yourself. Or, you may need someone to remind you of why you are planning this event in the first place. In Conclusion: The Power of Love Love creates being attentive, generous, kind and thoughtful. Love makes it natural to pay attention to the details and to spend a little extra time taking care of someone. Most event professionals bring great passion and love to their jobs and yet there is always room for more love in the world. Where can you bring more love to your events and what can you do to show your attendees you care? |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 11:36am On Aug 27, 2015 |
QUESTION: Pre-event checklists, day-of agendas and post-event wrap sheets are essential to the success of events. So how can you ensure your event checklists are productive and beneficial to you and your staff? Often times this continuous series of to-do lists can be overwhelming and mundane, but as an event managers, you should rely on checklists to assist you in your planning process. As you should know, events evolve during the planning stages and every event is different, so although you are attempting to stay on task with your checklists, sometimes these lists become more trouble than they’re worth. Here are a few tips to set you on the right track to start making the most of your event checklists: Create Official Checklists Event planners all have their own process in place for planning events and while they may not feel the need to have formal checklists in place, they can provide many different benefits. Increased organization, improved productivity and better staff communication can all be attributed to a great checklist system. Before you start working on your next event, sit down and organize out everything you need to do. Once you have a full to-do list, categorize the tasks and start a fresh formalized event checklist. Although this might sound like a tall task now, it will pay great dividends in the long run! Ensure that your staff are aware of the checklist and integrate it into your planning routine. Having well-presented and organized documents makes everyone’s job easier and keeps your team on the same page with what has been accomplished and what still needs attention. Compare Your Checklists There are hundreds of event checklists on the web and, although they may not be tailored specifically for your event, they can provide you with a great starting point. Begin by finding one that aligns well with your type of event, such as a wedding, corporate outing, or charity fundraiser and expand on it to further fit your needs. You could also speak with your event planning colleagues or coworkers and compare notes. You may already be a member of an event planning association where many other planners are available and willing to help you. You could make it a collective effort and review each other’s event documents. Collaborating like this is a great way to build your relationships in the industry and expand your knowledge as a planner. It is always nice to have a fresh set of eyes on any aspect of your event. Taking a look at other planners’ checklist can provide you both with new ideas and help you to remember something you may have initially left off of your list. Proper Checklist Layout When creating your checklist make sure that you use a layout that works well for you. Some planners organize their lists by category such as attendees, BUDGET, venue, and transportation, while others may prefer to have the checklist in a timeline format. You can also integrate the two by having your checklist sorted by timeline, while also utilizing tags or color codes to signify specific categories. This will allow you to see your list in multiple views at a quick glance. You will know where you stand on your timeline and also what categories may need additional support or attention. Assign Tasks To Your Checklist You can easily use your checklists to delegate tasks to your staff. Beside each task, include an assignment section and write in the name of the lead person. This provides accountability for your staff and gives them an added sense of responsibility and ownership. In addition, this provides you with a big-picture look at how many staff members you may need and how much everyone has on his or her plate. You can also make this a fun and interactive process for your staff by rewarding them as tasks are accomplished. Small bonuses such as special recognition etc can go a long way in keeping your staff motivated and dedicated to your event! Assigning tasks will also give you the opportunity to decide WHICH TASKS CAN BE DELEGATED and which tasks must be completed by you as the lead planner. Letting go of certain tasks can be a challenge, but when you see everything on your checklist you will have a clear picture of how much needs to be accomplished. Assign yourself to the priority tasks and delegate the supplementary items. Planning As each event progresses, you should add to your checklist and continue building upon your system. You will gather more items as each event is completed and your checklist will grow into an essential part of your planning process. Following your events you may hold a recap meeting to review your successes and possible areas of improvement. During this event review, be sure to not only look at what occurred during your event, but also take time to evaluate your planning process and checklist system. Be sure to look at what went well and what can be improved in the future. With each event, your checklists will become more helpful and integral to you and your team. In Conclusion Checklists can become overwhelming if you don’t take the time to organize and prepare them. Starting out on the right foot with your event checklist will set the tone for your planning process and drive your productivity. In the end, you will become more efficient as an event planner and your events will improve, because you have an organized and focused process. This extra bit of organization provides for less wasted time and more energy to focus on making your events EXCITING AND ENJOYABLE FOR YOUR ATTENDEES! |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 11:03am On Sep 23, 2015 |
QUESTION: How To Stand Out As An Event Planner Well it's good to stand out from the crowd although i would suggest at your level you make a little compromise and handle some of the generic events you mentioned this could help you understand the industry and train you for the bigger jobs. However,the big ticket items in event management are exhibitions. How does it work - You familiarize yourself with tradeshows and grand exposition events - You meet firms and interest them in displaying their products and services in these events -Then convince them to make you the contractor to manage their exhibition - You make quotations,hire the staff, Pick the designs and add other creative ideas to the list to make your exhibition a success While being an exhibitor can be quite fulfilling, it can also be quite tricky even the most professional of event planners fail when it comes to holding exhibitions Time and time again I witness exhibitors making these same common mistakes at exhibitions, perhaps you may learn a thing or two from here 1.Not Reading the Exhibitor Manual Ensure you read and digest every piece of information the exhibition organiser sends to you. Don’t just presume that everything will be provided – check the specifics. Likewise ensure that you return all the paperwork by the deadline to help ensure a positive streamlined exhibiting process and avoid last minute panic and unnecessary stress. 2. Not Thinking About Your Objectives How can you know if exhibiting has been successful for you and the return on your investment unless you know what you want to achieve and plan accordingly for this beforehand? What are your reasons for exhibiting at the show? How many leads are you looking to achieve? How can you quantify the resulting business? 3.Being Shy Choose confident friendly staff that are happy talking to strangers and comfortable ‘interrupting’ people passing by in a cheerful, friendly manner. These staff are representing your brand so warm people skills are essential to ensure a lasting impression for all the right reasons. 4. Your Exhibition Booth Doesn’t Communicate Clearly What You Do Think carefully about your stand design and graphics to ensure it effectively communicates what you do. Always presume that people have no prior knowledge of your company. Pictures really do tell ‘a thousand words and so ensure your graphics clearly illustrate your offering. Get into the mind-set of the consumer. How does your product or service make their life easier/simpler/more pleasurable? What problems can you solve for them? What are the key features and USPs? Is this information communicated through your exhibition booth? 5. Not Making an Effort or Giving Enough Thought to your Presence On the busy exhibition floor it is vital that you make a good first impression (many say within 7 seconds) and encourage people to pause, engage with you and cross that threshold. Why should people visit your stand? If you have a lot of money to invest in your stand this can definitely be money well spent but even if you are working on a shoestring budget there are lots of simple inviting touches which can make a difference such as offering refreshments or small-chops on your stand, running a fun competition and theming your stand. To be continued... |
Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 5:47am On Dec 28, 2015 |
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Re: The Event Planners by Alaroro(m): 1:55pm On Mar 12, 2016 |
QUESTION: 6. Acting Disinterested No matter how long the day has been exhibition staff should smile and make eye contact at all times. I expect to see staff on their feet, engaging with visitors to the show. If you are on your mobile phone, sitting down, yawning, eating, looking grumpy, have your back to the walkway, etc, etc I may simply walk right on by! 7. Having Too Few Staff It can be difficult to judge how many staff you need at a show, however people will only wait a limited amount of time to speak to someone before they move on and potentially won’t ever call back to your stand so it is important to have plenty of staff available to ensure every lead is captured and likewise that your staff can take regular breaks to eat, drink, check their phones and rest their weary feet and voices! 8. Having Too Many Staff On the other hand it can also be off putting and overwhelming to have too many staff at stand clamouring for your attention, Monitor the balance. 9. Staff Who Know Nothing about Your Product or Company I have visited stands before and asked the simplest of questions to be told “I have no idea I am just helping out” with no other staff on hand to assist. Following on from this I was also once told to “look at the website and contact the company directly if I want more information.” Charming! Ensure all staff representing your company are fully briefed and armed with all the key information. Even if they are experienced current employees you should ensure they are prepared with a coherent message and approach. Hiring promotional staff may be inevitable but realise how damaging it can be to have the wrong or no information available to give to a visitor and ensure it doesn’t happen EVER! Allow plenty of time for briefing and questions of casual staff and enable less knowledgeable staff to shadow senior staff until they learn the ropes. Make sure staff are confident how to deal or pass on detailed enquiries/any questions they can’t answer efficiently on a busy exhibition stand. 10. Not Perfecting your Elevator Pitch You will need to explain your company and products/services countless times during the show so make sure you can explain succinctly and effectively. Practice and perfect this before the show rather than learning how to pitch on real live customers as you go along! 11. Not Listening Ask some key questions and really listen to your customer to best understand how you can help them. Talk to them, not at them! 12. Not Having Information to Take Away Many people will not want information overload however some will request simple or detailed literature to take away with them from the show. Ensure you can provide for both requirements. Think about if your stand becomes so busy that the team can’t physically talk to everyone. At least if you can hand out some brief information you have a chance that the individual will keep hold of the information and engage with you at a later date or perhaps even venture back to your booth later in the show if they think it is worth their while. 13. Being Cagey about Pricing Be prepared to answer questions about price and be upfront. Even if you offer a bespoke service find some way to quantify this and give an idea of minimum and maximum costings on the spot, with the offer of a more detailed proposal to follow. Without being willing to talk frankly about figures you could both be wasting each other’s time and missing out on more suitable leads passing you by. 14. Taking Forever to Record Leads Exhibitions are exciting and I want to ensure I make the most of it. If I agree to share my data with you please ensure that you do this quickly and efficiently, ideally through scanning my badge and quickly taking brief details about what I need more information on. Asking me to complete a form myself or laboriously watch you complete a handwritten form is not acceptable in this day and age, particularly if there are a million and one questions! It is in your best interest to capture and qualify the lead painlessly so that you can move onto the next visitor too. In my opinion if you commit to exhibiting an effective way of capturing leads is an essential part of the investment you make. 15. Spamming I will let you into a secret; I purposefully have two sets of business cards with two different email addresses listed purely because of the amount of spam emails received before and after exhibitions. When registering for an exhibition and on the show floor I use cards with a general email address. A very privileged few receive business cards with my direct primary email account. Perhaps it is sad that I do this but believe me my inbox is bursting at the seams already without the hundreds of spam emails often sent through from larger shows. This drives me up the wall! It is also a real lost opportunity as you will lose my attention or be confined to the spam folder forever if you persist with uninspiring email content and/or add me to your email list without expressly gaining my permission! 16. Exhibitors Commandeering the Time of Other Exhibitors It can be exciting to meet up with industry colleagues and suppliers at an exhibition but please talk to them at the bar at the end of the day, don’t steal their time and attention while the show doors are open to visitors. Even at quieter times respect that this is strictly time for business. Don’t deny yourself or others a potential lead walking away whilst you are gossiping to your peers. 17. Uninspiring Tweets Just because you continually tell people to come and visit your stand using the exhibition hashtag that doesn’t mean it will happen! Give your social media messages some thought, tantalise people with a reason to make a visit and have online conversations, don’t just broadcast to them! Use pictures and video to full effect and to maximise engagement. 18. Badmouthing Competitors Focus on your own selling points and be professional at all times. I don’t want to hear your assassination of a competitor or rival product. I will make up my own mind thank you very much! 19. Packing Up Early As an exhibitor you are generally expressly forbidden from packing up your stand early and surely should commit to milking every last minute of your presence at the show you have invested in. Packing up isn’t just a potential health and safety issue but it reflects terribly on your organisation and also the show organisers. Leaving a few brochures spread out for people to take does not make up for human interaction and if you have left the exhibition early the opportunity to secure my business is potentially gone forever. 20. Not Following Up Leads Post Event You may have heard the shocking statistics that 75% of leads are not followed up AFTER THE EXHIBITION. Live events change minds as outlined in these stats from FACETIME so this is really frustrating to hear and such a wasted opportunity! However please also take heed of point 15 and do not under any circumstances In Conclusion Exhibitions are a great way to meet face to face with organisations you are interested in doing business with. For me it isn’t necessarily the most impressive stand build and design that captures my attention and business, it is those exhibitors that avoid these mistakes and perfect the basics of exhibiting and engagement that stand out. Do you have a plan for your Event planning career? No? Then perhaps you get the kobo questionnaire, The kobo questionnaire asks you all the questions you need to create a career or business plan and best part, its free just download it below or order a PDF version by sending a mail to koboheights@gmail.com
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Re: The Event Planners by joeyarticles: 12:07pm On Sep 14, 2020 |
Saturdays are for Owambe, this is a popular saying the people who love attending different kinds of events, from weddings, to Anniversaries , to birthdays and even burial ceremonies, one thing is certain, and that is all these event requires a great event planner, to even begin with, you need a good event management business plan, this will cover for event decorating as well as other things associated with event planning. |
Re: The Event Planners by slimdude(m): 8:55am On Mar 20, 2021 |
This is a great article for anyone who wants to start out as an event planner. If you are searching for an event planner, here is one great event planning company in Lagos I would recommend>> https://buflusevents.com/event-planning |
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