₦airaland Forum

nice flat design

Rocktation: Not exactly. At least, not right now. Let's not talk about what could happen, though.

Enjoy your day.

thank you, enjoy your day

Rocktation: You. Again.
Interesting gumption, you've got going there though.

hope I have not broken any rules please?

hello Nairaland/EventProfs,

Just want to introduce eventiso.com to you, its a very fast and easy way to promote and manage attendees for all types of events. Easily setup a website/webpage for your event, sell entry ticket directly online to your attendees, contact them via automated sms, or voice broadcast (just record and upload your own voice, it will get to their phones as a phone call), and also automate promotion to your social media profiles.

it's really that easy, only takes 10mins to set up at [url]eventiso.com[/url]

Eventiso seeks to simplify event marketing across digital channels, our goal is to build an event marketing dashboard, that is socially aware, equipped with realtime analytics (views, shares, ticket sales, registrants), and very simple to use (simple ui, mobile friendly)

There are some people who learn and teach better by demonstration and interaction, rather than by the traditional classroom method. Organizing a workshop is one of the best and easiest method of enlightening and educating a group people about an idea, product, a particular field, technique or skill. A workshop usually consist of a small number of individuals with an opportunity to interact and share ideas, as well as demonstrate and practicalize whatever is learnt.

Organizing a workshop is quite easy if you have a phase by phase plan set up and you pay attention to the important details.

These details have been divided into phases:

Define your goals.
Why do you want to have this workshop? Do you want to share ideas and techniques of painting? Do want to discuss the way forward in the Nigerian digital industry?
Having a goal in mind helps you determine the suitability of every other item you need to address.
Who do you want to invite?A workshop works best when the number of participants are plenty enough to allow diversity but small enough to encourage active participation. Anywhere between 10-50 people with a stake or an interest in the field you intend to focus on will do.

Pick The Right Venue.
This depends mainly on your intended goal, number of participants and your budget. If there is a venue that resonates with your goal or theme or topic, you could try to book it down early. For example, you could hold a workshop with a focus on historical artifacts in a museum.
You also want to consider those coming to participate. What do they appreciate?
The duration of your event should also be considered as well as what facilities the venue would provide. How hygenic are their restrooms?
Is it within your budget? It is always advisable to book a venue in advance to avoid a rush.
Pick a Date and Publicize Early Enough.Even if the group of people are within your immediate enviroment, it is advisable and respectful to announce the date early enough. This will give participants enough time to plan and prepare for the workshop. It is advisable to engage them before the main event. You can do this on social media. You can also open a website for the workshop event. Your attendees can register on this site and leave their data. It can also help you understand what areas to focus on during the workshop.

see more at *http://lnq.me/NybQXH

you cover quite a lot, kudos

hello @sellyrite have you seen eventiso.com event hosts use it to setup online registration, ticketing and promotions for both small and large scale events. manage your next training publicity easily, people can read more details from your website, book their seats and make payments directly to you online.

cheers

The social media is a common room.

If you attended a boarding school, you know what that is like. Infact, every university has one.

The common room is open for anybody to come in to sit and relax, watch a movie or football match, read a book or just engage friends in conversation. The rich and the poor, the smart and the simple, everyone is free to enter.

There are however, some people that never go unnoticed when they step into the common room. This could be because of how much time they spend there or who and what the person is about {content}.

The social media is much like the common room in school.

It is open to everybody. And today, more and more promoters make use of the social media to market events.

To give your event an edge, you need to keep in mind some of these fundamental points.

~Define your target audience~
A lot will depend on this.

Content
What are you promoting and what pictures and testimonials do you have to promote them?

There is no way you can sell what is invisible or incomprehensible. You have to build content that speaks clearly of what your event is about. Your content should focus on two major things-

Promoting your event~ http://eventiso.com/blog/tipsevent-marketing-online/This could be with the use of twitter hashtags, facebook ads, craiglist directory and posting posters and video adverts.
Adding value and developing relationships - You know the cliché, ‘People don’t care what you know until they know how much you care’? Well, it is not outdated. Concentrate on providing valuable information for your audience and they will want to find out what your event is about. Social media gives options, so your content type can range from videos to pictures, written stories and even questions with relevance to the event. Even if you are already a known brand, there are always new ways to keep your audience intrigued and win new ones.

Be Time Conscious
Creating a time-bound schedule not only gives you time to reach a large audience online. It also shows that you respect your audience rights to their own schedules.
Start your marketing campaign early so your audience has enough time to make plans to attend your event.

Know and Follow the Trend of Your Target Audience
Twitter makes this very easy with hashtags and trending stories. It is quite easy for you to know what people are talking about in areas related to your event theme.
You can get a content ideas from trending topics as well as connect with influencial social media personalities.

Link Up With the Right People
There are certain people that always cause a stir online, and people are generally drawn to them. They could be celebrities in one field or the other, top bloggers or social media marketers. It will do you plenty of good to get them on your side.

This is usually free. There are many personalities that will make your event tweets go viral just because they like the idea.

Don’t Limit Your Coverage
Facebook and twitter may be the most popular social networking tools, but the internet space has many more. Don’t limit your reach. Post videos on YouTube, create events on Linked-in. Use as many as possible.
But don’t spread yourself too thin and not serve your target audience.

Retweet, Share, Link and talk about other peoples work
Everybody wants to get noticed. You do too. But sometimes, you should also notice others. It may seem too simple, but it creates an urge for reciprocity in others.

Be Available
Always be on the keyboard or keypad to reply questions and respond to replies. In one way or another, always acknowledge those that retweet your tweets or share your updates. You could do this individually or in groups.


Patience is key
Just like when you start a business, you need to exercise patience before you start to see the rewards. You might be lucky to have the network buzzing with talks of your event from the first day you post it online. But that is rare.

And even in such rare situations, you still need to keep talking about it daily. The social media is filled with promoters competing with for the attention of the same audience. You cannot afford to relax at any point.

The social media is a general weapon. You just have to know how to use it to your advantage.

see full article here :http://eventiso.com/blog/event-marketing-in-the-social-media-common-room/

The phrase ''selling yourself'' is sometimes misconstrued as obnoxiously highlighting your positive attributes and throwing yourself in the face of people you intend to make an impression on.

But as much as selling yourself requires buttering up your portfolio and looking like the next best thing to a tall drink of water on a hot day, you should not push yourself or your great ideas on clients.

Selling yourself is more about pulling the clients to your business.

It involves a calculated process of understanding the needs of the client, showing the client that you have what he requires to fill that need and ultimately, creating a relationship with the client so that he decides to trust you with the job of filling that need.

In the event management industry, new and creative approaches are constantly being introduced. Several outfits with innovative concepts spring up every other day.
It would take more that just the quality of your event production to keep clients happy with you and also make new ones.
There never is an exhaustive or detailed list of how you can draw your customers to what you are offering. These are just basic keys that drives the process of creating a rewarding client relationship. There are no limits to what your creativity and imagination can do with them.

1} Be the passionate master of your art. It is difficult to sell what you don't believe in and even more difficult if you don't know what it is you are selling. As an event planner, you should know virtually everything about your outfit and your industry. You should know what obtains locally, in Nigeria and what the standards are internationally.
This will give you the confidence you need when talking with a client and fielding whatever questions they might have for you.
It also helps to have short catchy speeches or sound bytes to define your event management services in a minute or two. Get the client hooked with the opening line.

2} Know Your Client:
*Research a potential client. If this seems like a lot of work that would take a lot of your time, have a staff do it. You can hire someone with an investigative nose to be in charge of that. Find out what kind of person or organization it is and approach accordingly. While some people would hold you in high esteem when you appear in a complete business suit, others would appreciate you in a more casual outfit.

*From your research about your client, you can prepare your event ideas and plans to show to the client. But remember that the event is theirs, not yours. So you have to pay attention and LISTEN to what they have to say. Don't be in a hurry to sift out their own ideas because they don't meet your standard.
The focus is to make your customer happy. They will be happy to have the event of their dreams, not yours. So listen to their dreams and make it come true.

*Create a rapport with them. This does not mean punching them, albeit playfully, in the stomach.
It means watching their reaction to the things you say, understanding the language they speak and becoming a reflection of what they desire.
This is not to say you should agree with all they say, but whatever idea you pitch to them should be based on things and values they seem to advocate.
For some clients, the important thing to them is to set a standard and have an event of the decade. Others just want every family member to be happy. If you don't pay attention, you'll never know.

*Become their friend. You cannot force someone to trust you. But if you show genuine interest in them, you have a better chance. If you can, arrange meetings in relaxed environments. It is easier for a friend to refer you to another client. However, remember your research, don't put off your client.

If you do get a client by referrals, don't forget to thank the referrer.

3} Your main focus should be on producing a quality event, offering your client value rather than increasing your profit. Always bear that in mind as you draw up plans for the event.

4} Even after listening to and understanding your clients, do not begin implementing your ideas without getting them to sign off on a final plan.

5} Follow up promptly after every meeting. Send a thank you note or a mail to further expantiate on what unique services you may be offering.

Special occassions also provide an opportunity to relate with a client outside of work. Remember to send new year glad tidings and hampers. And be careful, don't send 'happy eid-il-kabir' to a christian client.
This is the ultimate key in relating with clients, prepare each offering to the client's taste.

You also have to understand that you cannot get everybody to be your client. Define who your target audience and have a set limit on the number of clients to have per time. This will help you focus enough attention on each client and provide the best for them.

In the long run, it is more important to have loyal and happy clients than just merely satisfied clients.

Share your experience here, what challenges did you have to deal with trying to get new clients?

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Rocktation: This is good stuff! Thank you.

Glad you found it useful

Getting corporate sponsorship for your event is more than just getting the money to cut down the cost of production for your event.
It is also about convincing your potential sponsors that being a part of your event is a fertile investment that would yield plump profit for them.

All it takes to do this is paying attention to certain details that would make the possible sponsors see you as a serious minded business partner and not just someone begging for funds.

Know Your Event.

It is essential that you define what your event is about. What is the purpose of the event? Is there a particular message you intend to pass? Is it an awards ceremony or an evening of relaxation?
Determine who your target audience is. The information will set the pace on how well you do on the sponsorship radar.

Target The Right Company

It does not matter how creative a spin you put on it, if the target audience, mission and value of your event is not in line with that of the company that you approach, you would not get what you are asking for.
If you are organizing a children’s party, approaching a liquor company would not be a wise idea. It would however, be easy to get a beverage production company like Cadbury or Nestle interested in offering to sponsor the party.

Draw Up A Sponsorship Proposal

A well packaged proposal presents you to the company as efficient, detailed and serious. It should contain every information that the company will need to deliberate on to make their decision. A good proposal should generally have the answers to these questions:-

{a} Who is the organizer?
Let the company know who you are and what your mission and objectives are. If you have an organization, explain what your primary goal is and why you feel that this event is the way to achieve it.

{b} Give details about the event you are organizing.
Bearing in mind that you have done your research well on the company, tell them who your TARGET AUDIENCE is. This demographic should fall in line with the target consumers of the company. A liquor company will be easy to convince to sponsor a concert with young adults as the attendees.
If this is not your first event, you should put in statistics and pictures of your past works to show your capabilities.

{c} What will the company benefit?
This is the most important question to answer in your proposal. Companies sponsor events for three basic reasons;
1) To enhance the company’s reputation and image {Especially if the event falls within their Corporate Social Responsibility}
2) To generate publicity, high visibility and media coverage.
3) To provide the company with a focal point for marketing among target audience.

With these three reasons in mind, you should be able to show clearly, what need of the company your event will meet.

{d} By what methods will the sponsors target the audience?
Are you going to have advert spaces in your programs for them? If there are souvenirs, will the company logo be placed on them? Will they have a chance to speak at your event or present an award?
Be very clear on what you are offering. For a media house, you could offer to give free seats or tickets to a paid event.

{e} What are you asking for?
You have to be clear on what you want from a particular company. Some would not offer money but will be available to help with the event organization. It will be wise to research on the sponsorship history of the company. That way, you know what their company policies approve of.

{f} What is the assurance of profit?
Justify the level of assistance or cost that you are asking for.
Can you guaranty the audience that you are targeting? What publicity methods are you employing to make sure your target audience do attend the event? You should be able to balance out the cost and benefit for the sponsoring company.

Extras

Other important tips would be to know your competition. Event planners are constantly on the prowl for sponsors, what makes your event more attractive than theirs?

Also remember that each proposal must be customized to the taste of each company that you approach.
One key point to note is that companies need time to go through your proposal and hear your presentation before they make a decision. Some companies would take as much as six(6) months or even more before making a decision. Try to find out the policies of the company and submit your proposal early enough.

After the event, whether a company responded favourably or not, always send a thank you note. Also attach to that, pictures and reports on how well the event turned out. That could turn the table in your favour if and when you do send them another sponsorship proposal.