Magnificent events
Technology and practice of event management
Alexander Shumovich
Smashwords Edition
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Copyright 2007-2012 Alexander Shumovich
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Chapter 6: Partners and Contractors
Magic book
We did an audit of marketing tools, trying to determine, which ones are the most effective.
As always events proved to be the absolute champions. Almost any B2B marketing specialist will confirm it: events are one of the top three marketing tools. The same is true for the services market. And event-marketing specialists from B2C market, who mostly work with mass consumer, cannot do their job well without events.
We want to do each event in a way that would bring us the best results: we want to “light up” the audience, sell, represent, and convey our thoughts… Our sales managers and our directors need magnificent results. In order to get magnificent results, a marketing specialist needs to learn to organize magnificent events.
For that you need practice, practice and more practice. And some wise advices from somebody who already has a wealth of experience – and is ready to generously share it with you. I tried to write the book in such a way as to make it interesting both to the people who organize events for their companies and corporations and for professional event managers.
Dear reader, start studying this magic book!
I am absolutely serious. I hope – if you follow book’s recommendations, your next event will be simply magnificent.
There is no other way about it.
Alex Shumovich
Attention! Top grammar rule for specialists and companies working in the sphere of event management:
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The word “Client” is always and under any circumstances is spelled with a capital C.
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Such spelling of the word “Client” will be obligatory in this book.
I introduced this rule in 2005 in the company that I own and manage - Eventum Premo. I asked my employees to write the word “Client” this way in any situation, even if it’s only some internal memo written by hand. I promised that I would not accept letters and documents where this word was spelled any differently. For some time my employees must have thought me strange. Often this rule would hamper our work. It provoked controversy and criticism, which I could not dispute rationally.
But the fact that we started to spell the world “Client” with a capital C had a magical effect on our work. We have started to deeply respect the Client and understand his importance. With time we even started pronouncing Client with a big C.
I have gotten so used to seeing this word – Client - spelled this way that I am offended if I see it spelled differently. I want to correct it with a marker in books and newspapers – everywhere that I see it. Now there is one book where this word is spelled the way I like it. This book.
Who are you, my reader? What do you do for life and why did you buy this book? Are organizing a presentation for consumers of your product – cars, cheese, computers, software, tulips or something else? Maybe you are doing an event for your company’s investors or for your dealers or partners. Either way, you are doing an event for your Clients.
Maybe you work for an agency that organizes corporate events or town holidays? You organize events for those who pay your firm – they are your Clients to whom you report. You are also doing events for consumers, for the Clients of your Client.
The rules of event management are more if you are doing an event for your colleagues, such as a corporate party or internal training seminar, you still have to treat the participants of such events as your Clients. You are working for them and they will evaluate your work.
This is why I will not dwell on differences between corporate event organizers and independent agencies in this book. This book will be equally useful to all. Everyone has his or her Clients.
Well, why do I talk so much about the Client? Why does he get a whole foreword dedicated to him?
Because he is very important.
I wrote this book, constantly thinking about Clients and ways of making them happy. Not just satisfied, but happy!
And I am almost certain that you too are reading this book because of your Clients.
I hope that after reading it, you will start to manage your events somewhat differently. Better. And I hope that you will never be able to write the word “Client” with a small C again.
Welcome to the world of events!
Coordination and logistics of your event
And so the Day of the event comes.
This chapter of the book is the only one actually dedicated to events. The rest are concerned with preparation, advice on organizing your staff, etc. You may spend a year preparing an event that will take only two days. This work is something like an iceberg: people only see the tip of it, while the huge part of preparation is hidden from outsiders.
In this chapter we will talk about the tip of the iceberg – about the day when the event starts. About Day X.
If the event starts in the morning, do all that you can to make sure everything is ready on the previous evening: all the necessary materials are brought it, the equipment is installed, the bills are paid, etc., etc., etc. This way you can come as you are in the morning.
Check that you have with you:
Paper-clips
Safety pins
Scotch tape
Scissors
Stack of clean paper
Colored paper
Extra badges
Chargers for mobile phones
Aspirin or some other painkiller
Flash memory
Empty CDs
Anything else you might need for your type of event.
Of course, the list of necessary things depends on what type of event you are having. For example, if the event is taking place outdoors, the list will be somewhat different: it will include matches, umbrellas, etc. Draft you list ahead of time and check everything that you are taking.
Having made sure that everything has been delivered and installed, try to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow may be nerve-wrecking and you need to be in top shape.
Set two alarm clocks. Maybe it would be better to ask one of your colleagues to give you a call in the morning, to make sure you don’t oversleep. Make sure to call or send SMS to those colleagues who must not be late for the event under any circumstances.
Try and come to event premises ahead of time. If you need 1 hour for final installation of equipment, try to be there 1.5 hours in advance or more. Ask your team to come in earlier as well. On such a day you need a good safety margin.
What should be done before the event
Make sure the premises are decorated
Check the equipment (presentation, light, sound, equipment for interpreters, etc.)
Check the sitting arrangements
Prepare navigational signs.
Place the flowers, banners, sidewalk signs and posters, if you haven’t done this already. Place navigation signs and check one more time that all the equipment is working (with luck, an hour or two should be enough time to bring in spare equipment if for some reason you don’t have it with you).
All of your actions and all of the lists “what-should-I-take-with-me” should be thought through before the event.
If you bring all the necessary things in cardboard boxes, write on the boxes, what’s inside and number them. This way you will avoid confusion and will know right away if something is missing. Moreover, you will know exactly what is missing. It is possible that you’ll have enough time to bring the missing things from the office. Delivering equipment to an event is like moving houses. You work in one place but for several days an absolutely alien hotel or resort becomes your new home. This is why the rule about numbering and signing your boxes works every time you move.
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Advice for conferences and seminars
Registration table
If you have a lot of participants, place signs with letters of the alphabet (A, B, C… Z) or blocks of letters (A-D, E-I…. W-Z). Participants will have an easier time finding their badges and registration materials.
Name plaques in the presidium
Print them ahead of time, but have a pattern with you, since you might have to make additional prints if one of you speakers has to be replaced.
Make the plaques double-sided. This will demonstrate your respect not only for the audience but also for the speakers: they will see that you care about them no less than you do about all the attendees. Finding their names on the other side of the plaque, the speakers will sit themselves correctly in the presidium. If they do not know each other, the plaques will help them to get acquainted.
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Familiarize the receptionists with the rules of conduct at the registration table:
Registration table is a sacred place. It has to have an ideal order at all the times. It is forbidden under any circumstances to drink coffee or smoke cigarettes at the table.
There should be no garbage on the table, any stray paper, etc.
Everything that lies on the table has to be in neat accurate piles.
It is forbidden to sit down during morning registration. Receptionists may sit down only after the conference has started and all the guests have entered the conference hall. If a new Client comes to the registration table, receptionists have to get up right away.
The company’s workers should never stand in front of the registration table, obstructing the Clients’ access. We only stand behind the table.
Special fabric or table cover should be used to fully cover the table and hide people’s feet. This is true for the registration table AND presidium.
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Registration, reception
Do not forget that the event’s organizer and receptionists always have to be at their places and available to the Clients.
What is included in the notion “registration of participants”?
Issue of personal badge.
Provision of all the necessary printed materials, such as participant’s folder and other give-away materials.
Provision of equipment for simultaneous translation.
Answers to organizational and technical questions.
Check how well your receptionists and other personnel know the premises where the event is taking place. They should be able to tell the participants where the bathroom is, where the smoking places are, will there be equipment for simultaneous translation, etc.
It is necessary to have the list where you will mark all the participants that come to the event (especially if you were sending out name invitations and not just flyers or tickets). You event may be attended by more people than the ones who have registered. In order to avoid confusion later, keep track. If somebody comes as replacement for one of the participants, replace the last name in your list as well. The registration list should keep track of those who came to the event and those who did not. Those who declared their interest in the event but could not come are the obvious potential Clients of your future events.
Thanks to this database, following the event you will be able to send the attendees a following note: “Thank you very much for your participation”. To those who did not come, you can send a note saying: “I am sorry that you did not participate, but we hope that you would still be interested to know what took place. This is what happened at the event…”
Greeting
Rehearse with your personnel the way they will greet the participants. Simply write down the words that have to be said. Write it down as a procedure.
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Examples of greetings
Turkey. Some street vendors can visually discern an Austrian from a Swiss man or a German. Nonetheless, they always address you with words: “Hi, where are you from?”
If you respond, no matter what – the conversation has been started and probability of pulling you into the store has grown considerably. The street vendors have worked out a greeting, which is neutral, but which also establishes contact, gives information for the start of conversation and demonstrates their attention to you.
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How exactly will your staffers greet the newly arrived Client? What and when will they say and how will they answer any questions that a Client might have? All of this has to be checked and listened to ahead of time.
This is a technology – no more and no less.
The Client may not notice that you have prepared your “greeting” personnel. But your workers will be fully prepared and this is really good.
Avoid lines
This is not always possible, but you have to prepare as much as possible to avoid lines (unless putting people in lines is a part of your plan). Make sure that you have enough receptionists (no less than one for every 30 invitees for a registration that lasts an hour). Plan the movement of participant flow, open additional doors, make signs and place a special person in the audience hall who will indicate where participants should sit.
Help-Desk
This is a very interesting and important moment.
Let’s say that your event is attended by 300 people (this means that you should have no less than ten receptionists). All of these people go for the registration table and form unavoidable line.
Why does a crowd form? The receptionist failed to register a participant in 30 seconds, because there has been some problem. For example, participant is not on the list, or he is on the list but his last name is spelled with a mistake and it’s important for him to correct this mistake. Or maybe participant did not pay, although he had to, or maybe he has some important and difficult questions, an answer to which he tries to get from the receptionists.
While the person tries to resolve his problem, a whole traffic jam may form behind him and the rest of participants will be forced to wait until things clear up.
This is why there is such thing as a local help desk. If registration table may be staffed with temp workers, the help-desk table should be worked by people from your company, people who have rights and authority. People who understand what to do if something unexpected happened. As soon as the regular scenario with receptionists does not work, he sends people over to the problem-solving table. Since this table only solves difficult questions, no line forms here (or it will be very small, made up of two or three people).
Try it and see how effective this is.
Fig. 1. Plan of registration premises
Help Desk (problem-solving table) should stand separately from the registration table, preferably not in a row, so that it does not look like a regular registration table. Problem-solving table resembles a military field hospital.
Problem-solving table does not necessarily have to be a table. It may be a competent staff member from your company who stands aside and does trouble shooting.
Categories of participants
During registration divide participants into categories and prepare to meet each category separately:
VIP, sponsors, speakers
press
all other participants
Special attention to meeting the press is connected with the fact that it is given certain video materials and high-resolution photos so that journalists can have easier time writing an article about your event. It is possible that other participants have no need for special conditions and materials, while they are absolutely necessary for the press.
VIP participants are people who have to be taken to a special place, which is why each VIP has to have a special person responsible for meeting him, showing him his place and being at his disposal. Careful preparation will help you avoid trouble during the event. But if problems still arise, you have to be ready to treat them quickly and professionally.
What work should be done during the event?
Overall coordination of the event. Always keep an eye on things to make sure that everything is in order. Place one of your people in the audience hall where the event is taking place in order to look after the level of lighting (he should turn up or lower the lights), temperature (it should always be somewhat cool) and about level of noise (repairs in the neighboring room should not hamper your meeting). If a speaker or participants have some technical problems (such as non-working mike), this person will be able to solve them quickly (fix the mike but turning it on).
Control and management of services in the place where event is taking place, of technical personnel, catering, etc. The work should be done according to the same principle as the one described above. You simply make sure that everything corresponds to your scenario and make corrections in case of need.
Technical assisting. For example, you may have to serve as a clicker during demonstration of slides – some speakers like to be assisted in this job, while they say “Next slide, please”. But, just in case, by a radio mouse or a special pointer so that the speaker can switch slides on his own, if he wants to.
Coordination of participants’ movements (to lunch, for a coffee break), management of pauses.
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For this we have a special instrument. It is a bell with a handle, which is approximately 16 inches long. We ring this bell at the end of the break. School stereotype works every time: people understand that the break is over and return to the conference hall. Make note that just one person with no mikes or amplifiers is capable of moving hundreds of participants to the conference hall in a matter of minutes
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Keeping order. Registration table has to be an example of order from the very beginning and until the very end of the event. There should be no garbage, no cigarette butts, no coffee cups or any other signs of disorder until the last second of the event. Registration table is the sacred place of the event.
Questioning the participants. If you want to know what the participants think about your event, hand them out a questionnaire. The questionnaires should not be long, preferably no more than a page. It is important to remember about timing your questioning. You can hand out the questionnaires right after the event or send them out several months later, depending on your goals.
Taking photos. If there are important memorable moments during your event and if a photo report is important – hire a professional photographer – it will only cost you several hundreds of dollars, but effect will be worth it. If the event is more “democratic”, pictures can be taken by one of your colleagues with help of a regular digital camera. In this case your goal is to simply have photos to remember this event.
What should be done after the event?
Write a financial report. The concluding stage of your event is the production of a final financial report. After the event is finished, it often turns out that you overpaid someone and saved on something else. In any case final numbers differ from your preliminary figures and the final financial report can only be prepared after the event. Try to do it as soon as possible. Once the event is over and there are no more external stimuli to hurry up, there will be a temptation to leave everything as is and return to writing the report some time later. This is very risky, since it is unlikely that you will ever have this much free time. You should not delay completion of unfinished financial business even for a day. Try and pay your vendors quickly and try and collect money from your debtors even faster.
Analyze questionnaires filled out by participants. If the questionnaire ranks the event as anything less than “good”, it is always a signal that you have to take some action. For example, you should somehow compensate the Client for his dissatisfaction.
Prepare conclusions about results of the event, achievements and tasks completed. You should evaluate how successful was the event and whether its goals and tasks were accomplished.
Prepare statistical analysis of participants and publish the photo report about the event. In order to do that you will have to make a website for your event.
Prepare the final and amended database with contacts of all of the event’s participants. You will need this in order to send out the final thank-you letter.
Analyze the project itself from the point of view of organization and recommendations for future events. This is going to be an internal document. Nonetheless, you should approve all the necessary report forms ahead of time. If you hold an event with a large number of participants, you should use specialized software.
Make sure that reports – online versions of materials, presentations, photo report, memorandums, final decisions, etc. – are available to the relevant categories of participants.
After the program is over, try to sum up all the results as early as possible. This will help you keep participants’ interest in the event and will help to interest them in participating in your new programs.
After the event, the project manager (head of the organizing team) should prepare a report. The whole team should get together to discuss the project. It would be a good idea to give the first work to the youngest team member or the most recent employee and work your way up the ladder. This is done in order to make sure that older and better respected workers do not impose their opinion on the novices. Their evaluation is very interesting since they have a fresh view of the event.
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Do not forget about working “hangover” factor
Sometimes it is difficult to quickly sum the results of a very big project, because you find yourself in a state of work “hangover”. Many people are liable to this effect and you should be aware of it and fight it.
Once we were organizing an event and EVERYTHING in my professional and personal life depended on its results. The team gave the project its all, the event went wonderfully. Afterwards we could not write a report or do anything useful for two weeks. I dreamt of cost sheets, dreamt of TERRIBLE MISTAKES that we could have made and of other such stuff. I came to work and could do nothing.
The only thing that saved me from this situation was the weekend spent playing some computer game. Only after this was done, things came in order: for several nights I dreamt of computer monsters instead of cost sheets and TERRIBLE MISTAKES, but all of the work has been done and all of the reports written.
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A very important part of your event is the final thank-you letter, which is often forgotten. People like it that they are remembered even after they have paid their money (or done their job). You should write “Thank you for your presentation” to the speakers, “Thank you for your participation” to the participants and “Thank you for your support” to the partners. In order to do that, you will need some standard letters. But try to put some warmth into writing them and people will feel that right away.
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Take it easy.
Principle of simplicity
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To make sure that you do not forget about anyone, when writing your letters, draft a preliminary plan:
Document Sent ( yes/no )
Final thank-you letter to all the speakers
Final thank-you letter to all the participants and guests of the event
Final thank-you letter to all of the partners and supporting organizations
Final thank-you letter to servicing organizations and contractors
Press release or a resume letter to the journalists
A special place among those who should receive your letters is occupied by contractors. You pay them money and for them you are the Client, so basically they should thank you for placing your orders with them. But nonetheless you should remember that these companies are also staffed by real people and they would be glad to hear several warm words about their work. Treat your contractors the same way you treat your Clients and you will always receive the best service. In addition to this, a thank you letter is a good way to softly point out certain mistakes, noting how they can be corrected in the future.
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An example of a thank-you letter to contractor
Dear John!
BestAuto Company would like to express our gratitude to you and your colleagues for your help in preparing and holding “BestAuto Super Drive Show” which took place on September 18, 2011 in Denver.
Best Auto Super Drive Show is a project, which is meant to attract consumers’ attention tot eh new models of BestAuto cars and to increase the loyalty of present and potential Clients. Since the models of BestAuto cars were positioned as prestigious, reliable and modern cars with a long history, we had to make this show in the best way possible.
Organization of this event has demonstrated the high professionalism of Event Company’s team. I would especially like to note excellent team play of the company’s specialists and their ability to solve all the tasks quickly.
Communication with your company was very interesting and useful to us. Thanks to your experience and openness we have been able to significantly expand our knowledge about specifics of doing events in Denver.
We wish you good luck in implementation of your new project, lots of energy, happiness and creative solutions!
With lots of respect and best wishes,
Henry Driverman,
Marketing director, BestAuto Company
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So, this is it. The event is over…
Now we will look at all the underwater parts of the iceberg, taking them apart. We will talk about all stages of preparation for the event, about ways to attract the participants, about mistakes that can be made in the course of your event and ways of organizing your team. Some terms or technical tricks that were mentioned in this chapter will be discussed in detail later, when their time comes.
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Determining goals and tasks of your event
Historical background
Let is think for a moment where the events came from and what types there are.
The first events in the history of mankind were ancient public and religions rituals, such as initiation into manhood, elections of a tribe leader, celebration of successful hunt and sacrifices… This means that the first organizers of events were the shamans – those, who knew and created the rituals.
With time the events became more refined and complex. There were town-wide and state celebrations, coronations, large-scale religious functions, which encompassed whole continents, etc. The lives of regular people are also full of events: we celebrate birthdays and weddings, anniversaries and jubilees.
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Once, after coming to a temple in the new city he visited, Confucius started asking about the rituals. People started laughing at him: “They say that he’s a sage, but he does not know the rituals!” To this Confucius replied: “To ask about the rituals is a ritual itself.”
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As the market society developed, organization of events was put on commercial track. There appeared business events, meant to facilitate exchange of ideas and information, and events organized with a goal of making profit.
It happens that the events become a key element in promoting the company’s products.
As we already said, in the international business community all activities connected with organization of events are called event management. Despite the fact that event management exists from the times already forgotten, it’s been only few years since it became an independent sector of the economy. Until then it was always a component of other industries: hospitality industry, tourism, show business. A part of functions in event management was given to the sales departments and professional associations… This seriously hampered development of event management as a separate form of business activities.
Now event management has its own professional associations, specialized literature and programs of certification. One can even get a higher-education diploma with specialty in event management. Gradually event management is becoming an acknowledged industry with its own technology, market players, legends and traditions.
I would like to note that Dr. Joe Goldblatt, author of “Special Events” has dedicated a lot of his efforts to establishing event management as an industry and profession. “Special Events” is perhaps the best book in the sphere of event management, which already had four reprints. Dr. Goldblatt is also one of the co-founders of the International Special Events Society (ISES).
Event management has a strong influence on the society as a whole. In some countries it is a serious industry, which brings the state many billions in form of taxes. It can be used to attract great scores of tourists (for example, carnivals in Rio de Janeiro or Venice are visited by hundreds of thousands of people), becoming a significant income article for local budgets. Organization of conferences and exhibitions helps to establish business contacts and thus promotes economic development.
Why do people take part in the events?
Event participation may be caused by different motives, such as desire for entertainment or a need to satisfy business ambitions and resolve certain problems.
Gathering people in one place at a certain time, i.e. holding events, organizers end up in a unique situation – they receive an opportunity for direct and personal interaction with their target audience, the audience of the event. And they should make the most of this situation.
However, one should remember that people can satisfy their needs by some alternative method, which may be cheaper, more interesting, more efficient, demanding less time, etc. Think about alternatives to your event that may be found by potential participants. Strive to make your event more attractive than these alternatives wherever possible.
Here are examples of needs that may be satisfied by certain events and methods of their alternative satisfaction.
Need – > Alternative to your event
Entertainment, recreation – > Cinema, theater
Exchange of news and ideas – > Internet, newspapers, rumors
Desire to learn something – > Books, study guides
Acquaintance, communication – > Internet, personal meetings
Satisfaction of personal ambitions – > Appearance in mass media publications
Gambling – > Specialized establishments
Now let us see what events are there and what they give to their participants and organizers.
Classification of events
We will offer several types of classifications in this book. These classifications are meant to help you choose the optimal method of organizing your event. Let us start with the first classification: by type.
Type of event (ToE) 1: Business - Dealers forums Conferences, forums, congresses, Business breakfasts Investor relations events
Results for participants (RfP): Exchange of ideas, Learning of new skills, Establishment of new contacts
Results for organizers (RfO): Increasing loyalty of existing Clients and partners, Attracting new Clients and partners Search for new ideas, Attracting investments, Profit from the event
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ToE 2: Educational - Trainings, education seminars, Training sessions
RfP: Leaning new skills, Learning to behave in new situations, Career enhancement
RfO: Increase in sales volumes, Improvement in work efficiency, Profit from the event
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ToE 3: Press – Press launches, Press conferences, Press tours, etc.
RfP: Acquiring the most relevant and authentic information first-hand
RfO: Attracting media attention, Publications in press, PR support , Positioning company as a leader , Anti-crisis activities
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ToE 4: Marketing - Road shows, Presentations , Events to stimulate sales
RfP: Acquiring information about new products. Special conditions on deals
RfO: Increase in sales volumes, Increasing loyalty of existing Clients and partners, Attracting new Clients and partners
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ToE 5: Entertainment - Corporate celebrations, Internal corporate events, team-building exercises
RfP: Entertainment , Communication, Strengthening ties within the company
RfO: Increasing staff loyalty, Attracting attention of the press
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ToE 6: Formal – Banquets, drink receptions, Anniversaries, VIP receptions
RfP: Forming traditions, Communication Status maintenance
RfO: Increasing the company’s own status
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ToE 7: Charity - Charity dinners, concerts, Fundraising activities
RfP: Opportunity to help the needy, Entertainment, Communication
RfO: Demonstration of social responsibility, Opportunity to help the needy, Attracting media attention
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ToE 6: Public events - Municipal celebrations, Fairs, Festivals Exhibitions, Concerts
RfP: Entertainment, Communication
RfO: Attracting tourists and sponsors, Support of the culture , Demonstration of social responsibility
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ToE 6: Sport, Athletic
RfP: Competition and recognition of achievements, Health Entertainment
RfO: Large-scale indirect advertising, Attracting tourists, Demonstration of social responsibility
This table specifies only some types of events. This list could be continued, supplementing it with political, social, religious and other events. I have also specified only the basic motives that can govern the actions of participants and organizers of projects.
The audience
Deciding, which event you plan to organize, determine your potential audience. It may be:
internal
external
combined
Internal audience means colleagues, those who work with you in the same company. This is an audience where people know each other, with a lot of informal ties and a common history. We organize corporate celebrations, anniversaries and receptions for them. Corporate events are an excellent opportunity to motivate your own staff. They help to directly broadcast the company’s mission, its goals and achievements. Corporate events are a traditional instrument for bringing the working collective together.
External audience means those who mostly work in different companies. It may include dealers, partners, company’s Clients, potential Clients and people you know nothing about and whom you have to meet. We make our conferences, seminars, presentations and press conferences for them.
Often there is a temptation to kill two birds with one stone and combine your audiences, organizing event both for the internal and external audiences. This is a risky step, since these two audiences may have different interests. In this case it is very probably than neither will be satisfied.
Fig. 2. Types of audiences and events
Often there is a question whether the Clients should be invited to corporate events. If the event was prepared for company workers, it would be best not to invite the Clients. Of course, there might be exceptions, but these must be the exceptions, which only prove the rule. Consequently, if the event is organized for Clients, your staff should not be having a good time there. The only people who may be invited to such events are people from the sales department (if this is a presentation) or people from the technical support department (if there is a need to answer technical questions), i.e. those who will come to the event feeling their responsibility to work.
If you combine your staff and Clients, both audiences will be unsatisfied, because each will think and feel that this event is not done for them.
But the audience is not the only thing that influences the type of event you are organizing – approach to organization may vary significantly depending on your GOALS.
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The Client should not be satisfied… He should be happy!
Principle of Client satisfaction
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Goals and objectives of your event
Making decision on event organization, any organizer should stop and think, why he is doing this and what are the goals and objectives.
These are two different notions and the first thing to do is to understand the difference.
Goals are what the organizer wants to achieve as result of this event.
By goals we mean global achievements and strategic direction of work.
Your goals may include:
forming a pool of loyal partners;
improving presentation skills of your sales team;
announcing the company’s product as an innovative breakthrough.
Objectives are specific and easy-to-measure achievements of your event. They are local and indicate the tactical direction of your work.
Your objectives may include:
attracting no less than 200 guests daily to the dealerships;
acquiring ten new potential Clients;
gathering no less than ten publications after the press conference.
Formulating the goals and objectives of your event is a key moment in starting work. This is an absolutely essential stage. It goes as a red line through all the literature, dedicated to event management. By skipping this stage, you can lose the sense and direction of the rest of your work.
This is not just some empty words.
Event management is overall a very creative and exciting process. There are many details, many opportunities to implement your ideas and fantasies and you always find yourself wanting to discuss and do something specific. Therefore the risk of losing connection between event ideas and event goal and objectives is very great.
One more time.
Pay close attention! This is the most common mistake! The whole process of event preparation should be constantly checked for correspondence with your goals and objectives. It is much simpler and less painful to correct small mistakes than to lose sight of the main thing – the goal that you strive to achieve with this event.
In this book (just like in our real work, when we prepare a project) we will constantly return to discussing connection between the event’s goals and preparation activities.
Now let us talk about the practical side of event preparation. And now is the time to introduce a new notion – marketing multiplier. What does it mean?
The results of your work should always significantly outweigh the resources that you invested. The event is simply obligated to become a multiplier of your marketing efforts. Otherwise it would better not to hold any event at all and to spend your money and efforts some other way.
Fig. 3. Marketing multiplier
By investing efforts and money in some project, you expect a payback. The process of event preparation foresees that you will make certain investments that should – according to your plan – lead to some result – the goal of your event.
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Research and other preliminary work
Technically speaking, organization of any event starts with preparation. In order to efficiently plan your event you have to understand overall legitimacy of its life cycle.
Organization of event starts with research, followed by a period when you search for ideas for your event. Then comes planning and implementation – and after the event is over you evaluate its results. In turn, evaluation or results becomes a starting point for research for your next event. The life cycle repeats itself.
We will keep to this model to a certain degree.
Reviewing these stages, let us take into account that polls, questionnaires and other types of research are done both after the event and before.
Research
1. Understand why you are doing an event.
2. Understand why people go to events.
Events are a business process just like everything else and the same methods can be used here. To organize more complex events you will have to spend more time in preparation and use different instruments, while preparation of smaller events is easier and demands less time.
Let us divide research into external and internal.
Internal research includes the use of classic SWOT analysis and interpretation of the company’s own data.
By external research we mean questioning and participant polls, interviews (individual, focus groups, expert opinion), analysis of competitive environment, etc. In the course of research you have to compare results with your goals and intermediary data.
Own data
You can use your own data, collected earlier in the course of organizing other events. You should primarily take into account the following figures:
total number of participants;
number of participants in different segments;
the rate of active participation;
effectiveness of advertising channels;
satisfaction rate among participants;
financial figures.
Having analyzed this data, you will be able to compare events and their success.
Use this information as a starting point in planning your next event. It is highly probable that the next event or at least a part of it will somehow resemble the previous one.
Sometimes your own data is quite enough to plan the next event. Remember, that the information you analyze has to be as authentic as possible. In other words, your own data is a precise instrument of research. In analyzing results of all other types of research you will have into account their subjectivity and possible impreciseness.
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It is especially important to pay attention to preciseness and reliability of information. Because according to the Murphy laws, what is one person’s mistake is another person’s primary data. You can look at statistics that show 60% of respondents being convinced that a certain part of the event had to be organized in one way and no other. But this may be a result of a poll when 20 people with similar views, 20 friends who have the same opinion were interviewed. In the meantime, you may be organizing an event for a thousand people from different regions. And statistics can be completely different for them.
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Together with your own data you can also take into account and compare the same figures for events organized by your competitors. Of course, it is more difficult to secure this information, but it is possible nonetheless.
Polls, questionnaires
There is no doubt that you should question participants of your events. Receiving feedback from Clients is important for your company’s work, plus, by addressing the Clients you show that their opinion is important to you, that you seek to satisfy them and plan to improve your work further.
Do not forget that a questionnaire is a one-way channel of communication. In either case it will be a superficial research. You cannot interact with the Client, answering his questions while he fills out your questionnaire. He will be forced to follow your algorithm. This means that he will only answer those questions that you ask him. In other words, the Client won’t tell you what you are really interested in, he will simply answer your questions.
What should you ask in the questionnaire?
There aren’t that many good questionnaires around. Here is some advice on avoiding typical mistakes when compiling the survey forms.
Determine what specifically you want to find out. The answer to this question is not obvious. Experiment and ask about important things.
There should be few questions because otherwise people will get tired answering them. In the best case scenario they will answer the questions formally, while in the worst – they won’t fill it out at all, afraid of the volume of work that has to be done.
Do not ask the same question differently. Do not linger on insignificant details after you had asked them about the overall impression. You may force a person to start thinking about details and change their overall opinion. This is not always in your best interest.
Leave space for feedback or recommendations only after some of the questions. In other cases prepare a standardized system of evaluation. It would be easier both for the Client to fill out and for you to evaluate. If you don’t do that you’ll have to spend a long time bringing such answers as “good”, “a solid B” and “I liked it” into a single evaluation scale.
Use your website (or the event’s site) to question the participants. Online questioning has several advantages over printed questionnaires, because:
it is inexpensive;
the Client answers questions when he has free time and in a comfortable atmosphere;
information will be presented in electronic form and easy to evaluate.
Interview
This is also a form of questioning, except that it takes place in person and orally. Nonetheless, prepare your questions ahead of time in form of a questionnaire used by the interviewer.
The interview foresees a much greater element of personal participation on the part of organizers. In the course of the interview conversation may turn out to be something completely unexpected. The participant may tell you something that you could not have foreseen. The interview will allow you to learn the opinions of participants in much more depth.
It is not necessary to make your interview official. Or you can simply speak to some of your Clients, asking about their impressions in the informal atmosphere. You can also ask them other questions that are important to you.
Focus groups
In certain cases, especially at the preliminary stage of preparation, you can organize interview in form of a focus group. In order to do that you will have to model your audience – compile an approximate portrait of those who could be a part of the focus group and invite several potential participants for the interview. The difference between focus group and a regular interview is that people will answer your questions in a group and other people’s opinion will influence their own (like it often happens in real life). As a result you will have a group’s opinion, although at the event everyone will act on his own and form his own opinion.
Nonetheless, a focus group will allow you to save time, receiving individual feedback from the maximum number of people.
I would recommend building your work with a focus group in a following way.
First you have to describe the idea of your event and ask them to present their impressions. You will have an approximate idea of what the potential audience will think of your suggestion. After that you should ask questions about the event, regarding which you are still undecided. If you are in doubt whether to do something and how to do it, ask your focus group and it is possible that the focus group will help you to make your decision. Prepare your questions ahead of time.
Expert opinion
It is possible that you don’t have to have a group discussion – it would be enough to take into account opinions of just a few people. But they have to be experts in the area that interests you. There is a saying that an expert is a person from out of town. It is true that such approach makes sense, since a new person may be free of stereotypes and formed opinions and will be able to offer a clear-headed evaluation of the issues that interest you.
The advantage of inviting an expert is that his answers are not only based on his personal opinions, but he can also see situation as a whole (thus replacing a whole group). An expert will help to separate important things from the particulars, to make conclusions based on your data, etc.
A shortcoming of such approach is that sometimes experts have their heads in the clouds or look to far ahead, forgetting about market realities. Something that an expert might already deem important, may not be recognized by your Clients and will not be taken into consideration when they make their decisions. It is possible that your expert is right, while the whole market is wrong. But the goal of your research is not to find the truth, but to forecast a market reaction. Do not forget about that.
A “monitor” person
Inviting a special person who will be present at your event and write everything that is happening in a specially-designed questionnaire is a very interesting and quite objective instrument of research. Such person can estimate the number of participants at different stages of the event and evaluate their level of activity. He can also be an objective judge of the quality of your work, because he is capable of discovering problems that organizers usually fail to notice.
In computing the questionnaires and other results of your research use a statistical rule to cut off a certain part of polar opinions. For example, do not take into account 10% of the most positive and the most negative replies. People in the state of euphoria or irritation tend to be the most active. By removing polar opinions you will remove blatantly subjective (and thus useless) information. Despite the 20% cut in the number of your questionnaires, you will receive much more precise results. But remember that polar opinions can be cut off only for statistical computing. It does not mean that you should throw them away altogether! This feedback is very important for your analysis, especially the negative one.
I would also like to share my experience. You should not use the results of research mechanically, using absolutely all recommendations, opinions and numbers. Take them with a grain of salt.
Just like it is difficult for you to see the world through the eyes of your Clients, so they too cannot always see what you are seeing. Listen to your own opinion, it is also very important. You are an expert in your own right.
Marketing research
To make your event successful it is very important to know the real market situation. In order to do that you can use existing marketing research, prepared by professional agencies, as a foundation for your own work. If no research exists, you can order it from the agencies. In some cases it is a justified decision, since you may not have enough resources and knowledge to do large-scale research on your own.
Pay attention!
Conducting research (such as questionnaires) at the event you are researching opinion of people who have a positive attitude towards you and your event ahead of time. After all, they chose to participate in it. It is much more interesting and useful to find out the reasons why people did not come to the event. It will be more difficult to find those.
It is important to know the difference between hard and soft data.
Hard data foresees expression of research results in form of numbers.
Soft data foresees evaluation of judgments and opinions.
These are two different instruments to research different characteristics of your events.
Helping you get the answers
In reality things do not go as smoothly as described above. Most likely, you will find that participants have no desire to participate in focus groups, do not like to fill out the questionnaires and try to get by with some neutral phrases when you interview them. In order to get their real opinion, you should take into account two factors: timeliness and stimulation.
Stimulating the answers
Answering your questions, a person is spending a certain amount of time, whether he is filling out the questionnaire or taking part in an interview. In other words, you are asking him to spend a part of his life on things that you need. Prove to him that he has a reason to do that. You have two ways of doing that: material and immaterial stimulation.
For example, you can present him with some corporate souvenir, which should either be somehow important for the person or simply emotionally pleasant. The size and value of such stimulus should be directly proportionate to the complexity of Client’s actions. If we are talking about an interview that may take several hours, think about something big and expensive. For example, the interview may be taking place during lunch at the restaurant and you are obviously paying for it.
You can even pay the expert, whose opinion you are using.
Another way is to clearly explain to people why it would be useful if they answer the questions: the service will be improved in accordance with their recommendations, changes to the event program will be made, etc.
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One of our Clients asks its employees to guess, which of the several scenarios will be used for organization of this year’s corporate celebration. This is interesting and exciting. The majority usually guesses correctly…
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Pay special attention to the guarantee of confidentiality. Often people have no desire that the others learn of their opinion. By guaranteeing confidentiality of the information that you gather, you will significantly increase its authenticity. Remember this. Also remember that in phone conversations people are usually more frank than in personal conversation. With phone communications there is an illusion of anonymity.
Timeliness of polls
If you organize your questioning right after the event, you are guaranteed to receive answers based on fresh impressions. But several days after the event your Clients will get back to their everyday business and their impressions may change. You have to decide for yourself, which of your Clients’ impressions you want to measure.
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Let’s say, a person came to the conference and during the banquet he spilled coffee on himself. If you ask him in the evening of the same day, he will say that the conference was awful and badly organized and he personally did not like it at all. A week has gone by, your guest took his suit to the dry cleaners, received it back and the coffee stain is gone, so the accident may be forgotten. Over this time he got a call from a person, with whom he exchanged business cards during the conference. They met, discussed cooperation and signed an agreement. And not your guest’s opinion about the conference has changed completely: everything went well, the conference was very helpful. A difference of a week may give polar opinions.
But it can happen the other way as well.
A guest comes to the conference, everything goes well. Presenters made jokes and told interesting stories from their companies’ experience. Everyone had a good laugh and your guest was in a good mood, he felt enthusiastic. Answering questions during your interview, he says: “Everything was excellent”. But after this – nothing. No new ideas, no new contacts.
A week later he discusses the conference with a colleague over a cup of coffee and says: “There is no use from these conferences, it’s just a waste of time.”
Consequently, when you ask the people you learn their opinion at a given moment. If you ask right after the event, you will get one opinion, several days later – another. In a year the guests may not remember your event at all. But it may also happen that some mistakes will be erased from his memory, while the overall event will be remembered as something good.
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Large things are seen from afar. You will receive a more objective judgment if you ask your Clients several days after the event. You may be told about mistakes, which seemed insignificant at the moment. Or, maybe, the critical remarks and small mistakes will fall into the background, because the Client will understand the value of the information, contacts and knowledge he received at the conference.
And so, which exactly impressions of your Clients you want to measure?
Preparation of conclusions
After collecting the necessary data and analyzing given opinions, you will have to interpret this information and prepare conclusions that can be used in the process of preparing your next event. Your plans and creative ideas will be based on these conclusions. It would be the best if you already had some questions about how event should be done before the start of your research. Research has to look for answers to these questions. Conclusions are the answers.