How to Guarantee Gate-Shut-Panic

It is a hopeless endeavor to attract people to a theatre unless they can be first brought to believe that they will never get in.

—Charles Dickens

"Of all the thousands of events that exist, only 5% represent those that I’d consider as ‘must-attend,’" says event designer Warwick Davies.

"These are the events where your absence will be noted, whether you are an attendee, speaker, sponsor or exhibitor. They are the kinds of events that prompt a ‘fear of missing out'—FOMO—the fear that it will somehow cost you in some way if you aren’t there."

Germans have a word for FOMO, Torschlusspanik, "gate-shut-panic."

The word dates to the Middle Ages, when peasants had to scamper from the fields at dusk, to guarantee they got home before the city gates were shut. The ones who dawdled could be eaten by wolves, beaten by robbers, or killed by the cold.

You can't loose wolves or release the Kraken on resistant attendees. But you can instill FOMO by offering a must-attend event.

Davies says these six actions guarantee it:

Make sure influencers show up. Buzz about your event only occurs when "influentials, connectors and mavens" attend, Davies says. Be sure to find ways for them to see value in attending.

Make sure you connect with influencers. Connect with 10 influencers, and you can't help but spark FOMO. "It will help not only your event, but also your own personal industry profile, and potentially your career."

Make sure you know the next big thing. You can't be clueless and run an irresistible event. Become a trend-spotter and build the next big thing into your event.

Make sure to connect with your Top 10 sponsors.  To create FOMO, you need tight connections with all the decision-makers at your leading funders.

Make sure to offer 10 networking activities. "Have 10 really dynamic and interactive things on the schedule that allow the movers and shakers, as well as their followers, to get together." Activities can include receptions, community projects, roundtable sessions and morning runs.

Make sure to market your event as a "must-attend." But don't just claim it. Prove it. Publish an agenda that shows you're leading your industry.

HAT TIP: James McCabe inspired this post.

Influencer Marketing: Cooking with Gas

“Influencer marketing presents a glaring opportunity for brands to leverage the power of word-of-mouth at scale through personalities that consumers already follow and admire,” says Misha Talavera in Adweek.

Influencer marketing may in fact be “the next big thing,” as Talavera says; but it isn’t new.

In 1939, build-up boy Deke Houlgate worked for American Gas Association when he cooked up the tagline, "Now you're cooking with gas!"

Electric and natural gas stoves were in hot competition at the time. 

The association hoped to persuade homeowners cooking with gas was the best way to get hot meals on the table.

Without funds for ads, Houlgate called Bob Hope's scriptwriters and convinced them to insert his line into Hope's radio show.

It became one of Hope's signature lines, and soon spread in use by other comics, jazz musicians and cartoon characters.

American Gas Association was hardly Houlgate's last hurrah.

During World War II, from inside the Pentagon, he used his magic to popularize the unpopular B-26, a bomber so crash-prone it was nicknamed by fliers "The Widowmaker." 

Houlgate also helped glamorize WACs, to encourage enlistments.

What, No Online Community?

Event planner: What, no online community?

If true, you're falling behind, says BrightBull's Ricardo Molina.

Worse, you are:

• Wasting money on attendance promotion. Like lists and media partnerships, online communities provide a direct road to your target audience. But unlike those roads, communities don't need as much maintenance. "Once built, a community will thrive with just a little care and attention."

• Letting competitors poach your attendees. First-movers usually win. "When your competitors start a community first, all they have to do is say that it’s there and people will join because it’s something new."

• Forgetting about brand loyalty. Communities provide value added. So members "automatically feel good about your brand."

• Failing to lead. "Why would they think of your event as being 'the one' when you don’t run THE online destination for your niche?"

• Skipping customer insight. Insights from a community let you read the industry's pulse, and drive product development, marketing and sales.

• Leaving money on the table. Exhibitors are eager to brand themselves year-round on communities. Why not offer them yours? One large international bank spends half its marketing budget on content partnerships.

Don't Let the Weeds Win Out

"It’s easy to get lost in the weeds when planning a trade show," says Holly Barker in Event MB. 

Their focus on killing and controlling costs blinds most planners to the hidden profit streams their shows represent.

Barker suggests these simple ways to grow more green:

• Pub crawl. Offer a limited number of exhibitors the chance to sponsor a pub crawl through the trade show floor. Make the event a blast by including themed games, besides beer and wine.

• Parties. Offer exhibitors exclusive rights to make a big splash at your evening parties.

• Logo rights. Offer one exhibitor exclusive rights to project its logo onto your venue's walls at night.

• Online campaigns. Offer exhibitors the chance to co-brand content on your website. Also encourage sponsored content.

• Matchmaking. Offer exhibitors an online matchmaking service that lets attendees sign up for meetings with them at your show. Link the service with sponsored content. And don't bury it in your website. Make sure people who can't attend can also view the content and get in touch with exhibitors.

Capturing Millennials

The American Society for Association Executives this week shuttered its decades-old "Springtime in the Park" and announced a new un-expo, "The Xperience Design Project."

The move typifies every event producer's urge to capture Millennials, who'll comprise half of all prospective attendees by 2020.

Like event producers, travel companies are "scrambling to capture the business and loyalty of this new breed," Jordan Forrest says in Forbes.

Forrest notes five ways Millennials differ from their predecessors:

They travel. Millennials average five business trips a year, compared to only two for older professionals. They're also more likely to extend a business trip into a vacation.

They tinker. Millennials "expect mobility and crave convenience," Forrest says. They're more likely to use apps to book business travel and streamline travel plans.

They splurge. Millennials have expensive tastes, "as long as they’re not the ones paying." They're more likely to spend company money on fine dining and room service than seasoned colleagues.

They freewheel. Millennials are far more likely than older colleagues to book trips and change travel plans at the last minute. In response, "many airlines and hotels have begun offering last-minute online travel deals targeted at digitally savvy Millennial travelers."

They grouse. Millennials trust online reviews and aren't shy about posting negative ones. "It’s no wonder that businesses are eager to meet Millennial demands," Forrest says.

Conference Planners: There's No Sin in Syndication

Last year, Hulu bought the streaming rights for all 180 episodes of Seinfeld.

The price tag: $1 million per episode.

The $180 million Hulu paid came on top of $3 billion in syndication fees that Seinfeld had already generated from other outlets.

While conference planners take pride in staging profitable "first-run" events, unlike the creators of Seinfeld, most turn their backs on the profits to be made from "re-runs."

That's a pity, says Mark Gross in MarketingProfs.

"Your organization is building a valuable repository of content waiting to be deployed in new ways for new audiences," Gross says. 

"Commercial event producers, corporate conference organizers and professional associations can all benefit from reusing conference content."

With all the affordable technology out there, repurposing conference content should be a no-brainer.

But conference planners in the main still see repurposing as virtual "double-dipping."

Something odious and "not for us."

Gross urges planners no longer to think of conference content as perishable, but instead think of it as a marketing asset.

"Approach this content like you would any other marketing asset and use it at every stage of your marketing strategy," he says.

Re-purposing your conference content can open "a world of possibilities," Gross says.

A few include:

• Marketing packaged proceedings to non-attendees.

• Reusing visuals from technical presentations in online tutorials for newcomers to the field.

• Delivering "gamified" online training modules to team members of attendees' organizations who do not attend the conference.

• Offering an e-book compiled from transcripts of the keynotes to promote a future conference.

• Offering an e-book that collects the best presentations from the same field to create inroads into niche markets.

• Publishing a series of blog posts based on the abstracts from a set of related technical papers, to spotlight an industry issue or trend.

Repurposing conference content not only extends the shelf-life of your event, but opens new doors to increased revenue, brand loyalty and market share.

Event Producers: Still Scared of Social

Six social media perils still frighten many event producers, says the inimitable KiKi L'Italien in Event Manager Blog.

"Not everyone is thrilled about all things social media," L'Italien says.

Producers' six most prevalent fears?

I'll look bad. Fear of boo-boos, trolls and spammers persuade many producers social media's too risky. The answer? Develop a social media crisis plan.

I have too many choices. Periscope, Instagram, Snapchat, Peach. Platform fatigue is no hobgoblin. To zero in, ask your audience where it wants to engage. Don't guess.

I'll invite criticism. Fear of handing critics an arena daunts many a producer. But criticisms are natural and may deserve response. And advance criticisms open the door to mid-course corrections.

It's not for us. A presumption your audience doesn't engage is outdated thinking. Adoption statistics prove otherwise.

It's invasive. Yes, some aspects of your event should be protected, such as your exhibitors' intellectual property and your attendees' personal privacy. What to do? Ask a lawyer for advice.

It cheapens my live event. A misplaced worry. Streaming video actually boosts future-event attendance. It's like a sample of crack.

L'Italien's last word to fraidy cats? 

Get a grip.

"Social media is a regular part of today’s expected communication repertoire," she says.

"Making decisions based on fear is never a good idea."

View-Master Revisited

This week, I was treated to a rough-cut of a DMO's forthcoming virtual reality promotion.

The glories of the city's convention center and hotels were revealed in full and fabulous 3D.

Writing for Associations Now, Samatha Whitehorn claims VR is destined to become "a mainstream feature of association meetings and destination marketing."

Little wonder, Whitehorn says. "The power of VR is that it gives the viewer a unique sense of empathic connection to people and events."

DMOs will tap VR to give their cities an edge in event planners' eyes, and even offer it as an alternative to live streaming, so folks unable to attend an event can join in from afar.

But wait a cotton-pickin' minute!

"VR's going to kill my event," every planner's shouting.

Not in my book.

I may be a curmudgeon, but VR is only higher octane View-Master.

Don't get me wrong: I loved View-Master as a kid. But it didn't keep me from exploring the world beyond my bedroom.

I predict VR will indeed find its niche—alongside the Pet Rock and the Cabbage Patch Kid.

What do you think?

Adaptability is Our Secret

Kimberley Hardcastle-Geddes contributed today's post. She is president of San Diego-based mdg, a marketing agency that currently serves 10 of the Trade Show Executive Gold 100.

Given the pace at which the media landscape continues to evolve, it’s impossible to say (with any degree of certainty) what mdg will look like in five years. 

That’s precisely why, when evaluating new candidates for employment, we look less at their current skill set and more at their proven ability to learn new skills. My business partner, Vinnie Polito, and I make it our mission to hire the right people, have in place the right processes, and create the right culture to allow us to adapt to meet the ever-changing demands of the clients we serve.

Most recently, we’ve met these changing demands by enhancing our offerings in specialty areas and hiring more professionals skilled in digital marketing, coding, video production, international marketing, database marketing and public relations. Our clients’ needs in these areas are becoming more significant, yet they don’t have the corresponding internal resources (nor the desire and budgets to develop them internally), which enables us to efficiently and effectively fill gaps. Over the next five years, we’ll continue operating under the same general philosophy, developing new business units that align with evolving demand.

We’ll also stay focused on delivering results. While we believe in the power of a strong brand, we know that our clients hire mdg based on the agency’s proven ability to increase attendance, grow membership, enhance the bottom line or achieve whatever objective happens to be at the forefront of their marketing plans. 

mdg has built a reputation over the past 39 years for an ability to effect real change, and will continue reinforcing that reputation over the next five.

Tomorrow's Agencies Will be More Consultative

Rick Whelan contributed today's post. He is president of Marketing General, a full-service membership marketing agency based in Alexandria, VA.

What will my agency look like five years from now?

We’ll look exactly the same, but different. 

I say the same, because the need for great strategy, consulting, creativity, program implementation and back-end results reporting and analysis will be the same; but different because the speed at which all the components will be needed, and the constant evolution of tools, technique and technology, will force us out of our comfort zone. We'll have to test new media and new methods to get ever better, faster results for our clients, all for less cost.

Other changes I think we’ll see are fewer full-time on-site staff, and the increased use of freelance specialists worldwide who are employed for their expertise in a certain areas and for a particular project or program, and then let go until they are needed again. This will maximize my agency’s talent pool, but also allow me the convenience of “just in time” experts to match clients' needs, budgets and expectations.

One thing that will not change is the need for some sort of agency orchestration of all the moving parts of a marketing campaign. If anything, agencies will be more much more consultative in nature and challenged to prove and then reprove their worth to a client over and over. 

Finally the biggest change (and one that's been building all along) will be the use of better, bigger and more encompassing data on prospects and customers alike to drive all facets of the marketing spend.

Series continues.

When is Advertising a Waste?

Marketing maestro Edward Segal contributed today's post. Edward helps REALTOR® associations generate publicity about their activities and shows their leaders, staff and members how to deliver effective presentations.

John Wanamaker, a merchandising pioneer in the 19th and early 20th centuries, said, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Many people still regard advertising as the best way to help position, promote, and sell their products, services, or expertise. After all, if you have enough money, you can say whatever you want, wherever you want, and for as long as you want, to anybody you want. And in today’s competitive marketplace, there are advertising opportunities that simply did not exist a few years ago, such as Facebook.

The trouble with advertising, however, is that unless you are careful, some or all the money you spend on it can be wasted. 

But how can you guarantee every penny of your advertising budget is well spent?

Check your ego

Think you can do it yourself? 

Do not let your ego get in the way of your advertising success. 

The reality is that there is a lot involved in successful advertising, ranging from strategy and creativity to messaging and placement, and you need to know what you are doing every step of the way. Put another way, would you ask a lawyer to perform brain survey on you? Of course not. So why would you believe that you can do your own advertising if you’ve never done it before, or well?

No one cares about your product

You think everyone in the world will want to buy whatever you are selling. Face it: just because you may be in love with what you are promoting does not mean that anyone else will be, or will even care about it. A marketing professional can help ensure that you are reaching the right audience for the right reasons and in right way.

Money pits abound

Here are other major potential budget-wasting mistakes to avoid. You:

• Do not have a clear marketing message or effective marketing strategy.
• Do not know your niche in the marketplace, or who your target market is. 
• Have not weighed the pros and cons of the different advertising outlets. 
• Don’t know whether a particular advertising medium is the best one to use in order to communicate your message, or if that medium will even reach your target audience.
• Do not know how often you will have to advertise in order to have an impact.
• Do not know much money will you have to spend in order to be effective.
• Do not experiment or test market your messages or strategy before launching your campaign.
• Pull your advertising before you have given it enough time to work.

Until you have taken steps to avoid these fundamental mistakes, it might make sense to place your advertising plans on hold, and consult a competent marketing professional.

Perhaps if John Wannamker had followed the advice above, half of what he spent on advertising would not have been wasted.

3 Tips for Better Event Photography and Video

Michael J. Hatch contributed today's post. He is Director of Sales for Oscar & Associates, an event photography and video production company specialized in conferences, exhibitions and corporate events nationwide.

Pictures Will be Worth 10 Thousand Words… Tomorrow

Don’t just go through the motions of contracting a photographer and telling them you want "three days' of candids and posed photos." There’s more to it than that.

Provide the photographer answers to these questions: What is the theme of your event? What are its goals? And—most importantly—what are the goals of next year’s event? Promoting tomorrow's event may be the primary reason you're capturing images today.

Ask for Bold, Unique and Creative

Most photographers are creative people. It’s one reason they chose the profession. Your photographer will love you for asking for bold, unique and creative shots.

If you tell a photographer you simply want candids and posed shots, that’s all you’ll get. Your photos will look just like all the photos you'd ever find on any event organizer's website.

Ask in addition to candids and posed shots for close-ups, shots on angles, backlit shots, overhead shots, and foot-level shots.

Georgia O’Keefe said it best about her famous giant florals: “If I painted them like all the Old Masters' still-lifes, no one would have ever paid much attention.”

Videos Will be Worth a 100 Thousand Words

Look at YouTube, websites, blogs and emails: event organizers are using videos, because videos are infinitely more engaging, believable and shared.

Capture video testimonials with attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and speakers. Ask for videos of the live action on your show floor, keynote sessions, educational sessions, receptions and evening events. 

And if you want “bold, unique and creative” results, ask for aerial videos, both indoor and out. Drones make aerial videos more affordable than ever.

Effecting Change on a National Level: 3 Lessons I've Learned

Youth leader and activist Susan Rosenstock contributed today's post. She is a cofounder of umttr, a nonprofit that champions the caring support and mental well-being of teens.

My 16-year old son Evan, a high school sophomore, took his life on May 20, 2013, leaving a community shocked and saddened. 

Evan had never suffered from any mental illness prior to a basketball injury. That injury led to a back surgery, which then led him to feeling as though he'd lost his identity as a varsity athlete.

Four of Evan's friends came to me and said, “We have to do something to raise awareness about depression and teen suicide because, if this could happen to a kid like Evan, it could happen to anyone.” Their concern became the foundation of our non-profit umttr (you matter).

umttr has grown more than I would have believed possible only two years ago. With that growth, I have learned what it takes to create positive change in a community and on a national scale.

How do you do it? Here are the three most important lessons I can pass on to anyone hoping to effect change:

1. One size does not fit all.

To reach a large audience effectively, you need to understand what motivates that audience. What may work for adults may not work for teenage students. Be sure to tailor your promotional activities to the audience you want to reach by asking that audience what would work. Don’t guess! 

We work with teens and often find ourselves in situations where the adults and teens disagree about how to market to the “teen” audience. We always go with the teens.

2. Ask, ask ask.

Ask a sample of your audience about your promotional plans. Ask sponsors about the best way you can work with them for mutual benefit. Ask other activists if you can help to advance their goals. When in doubt, ask. 

Here's an example. When the Campaign to Change Direction, a White House Initiative launched by Michelle Obama in March 2015, asked umttr to become a founding member, we made a pledge to educate 70,000 students about the five signs of emotional distress over five years. In just six months we have already reached 50,000. All the campaign had to do was ask.

3. You're only as good as your words.

Language matters. Check with other activists, educators, nonprofits and companies in your field, to make sure the language you’re using promotes effective change.

We try, for example, never to say an individual “committed suicide.” That language still carries the stigma of suicide as a crime. Saying someone “died by suicide” or “ended his life” is preferred. This may seem like a small difference, but changing word-choice alone represents a big step toward recognizing that every suicide can be prevented.

Your Speech Insurance Policy

Media and presentation skills coach Edward Segal contributed today's post. Edward has helped hundreds of executives deliver memorable presentations. His advice is based on his experience as a journalist, public speaker, PR consultant, press secretary, and association CEO.

Opportunities to speak in public can be golden opportunities to discuss or demonstrate your expertise, accomplishments, activities or opinions. 

Here’s my checklist of items to keep in mind before you accept any speaking invitation, and suggestions on how to prepare for and get the most out of your presentation. 

Consider it, if you will, your speech insurance policy.

Invitations

• Don’t accept speaking invitations for which you are unqualified or unprepared (don’t let your ego get in the way).

• Ask the organization if there is anything special you should know about the audience or the group (forewarned is forearmed).

• Know the basics of the speaking situation (format, length, time, location, etc.). 

Appearance

• Dress appropriately (usually one level above the audience). 

• Remove any distracting jewelry, name tags or badges before you start (it’s all about you). 

• Stand out from your backdrop (dress in contrasting colors so you don’t disappear).

• Check yourself in a mirror before you go on (lipstick, food in teeth, straighten tie, check zippers and buttons, etc.). 

Equipment

• Test out the mike beforehand to know how far to hold it from your mouth. 

• Adjust the mike so it does not hide your face.

• Do not assume that just because you may a have a loud voice people will be able to hear you without a mike. 

• Assume nothing will work the way it should and plan accordingly (Murphy’s Law). 

Content

• Prioritize and limit your messages (limit them to 3 or 4).

• Customize your presentation to meet the needs of the audience or organization. 

• Answer the two key questions every audience has for every speaker and topic: Who cares? and Why should I care? 

• Make sure they understand you (refrain from using jargon, buzzwords, and technical terms and phrases your audience may not understand).

Rehearse

• Practice your presentation, but not to the point where it sounds memorized.

Don’t Talk to Strangers

• Greet people as they arrive (this will guarantee that you will not be speaking to strangers, but to people you’ve just met). 

Waiting to Go on

• Take one last bathroom break (better safe than sorry).

• While waiting to be introduced or, if on a panel, do not look bored or distracted while others are speaking (pay attention!). 

Delivery

• Know your stuff (your material, arguments, facts and figures).

• Know what you will say to open and conclude your remarks, and eliminate any unnecessary information in between. 

• Be sure to thank them for inviting you. 

• Tell them why you are there (don’t assume they know).

• Show your story, don’t just tell it (find and use charts, slides, props, etc.).

• Keep the audience awake (don’t bore them).

• Don’t get rattled if you forget some of your points; the audience will not know what you forgot to say. 

• Arrange for someone to give you a two-minute warning (don’t speak longer than scheduled). 

• Do not thank them for listening (it’s demeaning to you and to them).

• Give the audience the gift of time (end early).

A Content Marketing First

According to ADWEEK, Bank of America ran a banner ad this week on NYTimes.com that, when clicked, activated a live Webcast of The New York Times' "Schools for Tomorrow" conference.

Visitors who clicked the ad tuned into a live stream of the one-day event, Webcast inside the banner.

Bank of America was a sponsor of the conference.

An advertiser has never before hosted a live Webcast of a Times conference within an ad, says ADWEEK.

The ad "represents the demand by marketers today to align with, create and use content to get the attention of ad-weary consumers in fresh ways," ADWEEK says.

Expect to see a lot of copycats in the next 12 months.

The Lobbyist's Secret Weapon

Today's guest post was contributed by Edward Segal, CAE. He is CEO of the Marin Association of Realtors.

Of course, my association has used lobbying techniques to sway lawmakers (meeting with them, testifying at hearings, sending them position papers, and asking members to call their offices).

But when these tactics failed, we brought out our secret weapon: PR. 

Working like a powerful spotlight, PR helps you stand out from the crowd and focuses attention on your position. To use PR as a lobbying tool for your organization:

Turn advocacy into news. Position your lobbying activities as interesting and newsworthy.

Flex your muscle. In your news releases and other press materials, include boilerplate language about the size and scope of your organization, details about the economic impact of members, or other information that shows the influence of the association.  

Study the media. Pay attention to the stories covered by news organizations. The types of news they cover today provide powerful clues about the stories they may be interested in doing tomorrow.

Think like an editor. Identify as many news hooks and story angles about your lobbying campaigns as possible. Give the media as many reasons as you can to do stories about your advocacy activities.

Write like a journalist. Prepare news releases as the news stories you want them to be.

Keep your audience in mind. Provide your target audience with the information it needs to understand the reasons for your lobbying efforts, what you are trying to accomplish, and what the public can or should do to help ensure victory.

Create visuals. Excellent visuals and compelling stories are important to all news mediums. For example, a photo, chart or graph will literally make your story larger on a Website or newspaper page; good pictures can help attract the attention of online news outlets and television stations.

Be prepared. Make sure those who will talk to the press are properly trained, with special emphasis on answering pointed or negative questions from reporters.