Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Mining your networks for a cause


The way of the world is meeting people through other people.
  - Robert Kerrigan


Social media buzz – loads of fun, keeping up with friends, updating your resume, posting pics of the kids. But where’s the value? I have a real-life case study of the value of my LinkedIn network. I hosted a Corporate Event Marketing Association event in Austin and, not knowing a whole lot of event marketers in the area, I began leveraging the network.
First, I posted about the event to my network, and asked them to share with their network.
Next I started using the search bar to locate networked friends of mine in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
After that, I searched on the terms of interest like Events, Tradeshows, A/V, and other key terms.
LinkedIn doesn’t let you spam people you don’t know, nor does it let you put a URL in a message to people not in your network. But it does let you send an invitation to connect. Through LinkedIn, I was able to connect with more than 50 people who were not originally in my network to invite them to the event. And in the process, got 50 new connections in my world to share information with in the future!
I absolutely do not advocate spamming random people. But if your goal is to build real connections or a tight community of like-minded folks, using the network of your network you already have is priceless!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Thank you, American Airlines

The average American is nothing if not patriotic.
  - Herbert Croly

While sitting on an American Airlines flight on my way to a site visit to Vegas, I witnessed something that warmed my heart. Say what you will about the airlines, but I just saw a flight attendant gift a U.S. Army serviceman an upgrade to first class when there was a seat left. I absolutely love seeing things like that! Congratulations to American Airlines for considering our servicemen and women, and thank you to those who serve our country!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Why I love hotels.


I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wake-up letter.
  - Steven Wright   
 
I love hotels. I have always loved hotels. I have wonderful memories of checking into a hotel with my parents, my dad handing me the ice bucket, and sending me on my mission: locate the ice machine and bring back a full bucket. I really don’t remember my parents ever using the ice, but it was a very important mission for me.
As an event marketer, I have the pleasure of really nice hotel rooms during site visits, and really bad lower-than-run-of-the-house rooms during the actual event or during regular travels. No matter the hotel, no matter the property level, there are a few things that I just love about hotels. Some may sound like pet peeves, but it’s these qualities and features that I find endearing about hotels!
Behold my photo essay. 

The Kleenex flower.
Why do I have a flower made of tissue on top of my tissue box? When I need a tissue, it’s usually because I sneezed or actually just need a tissue. With the tissue flower, I have to pull out the massive lump of tissue that is now unusable because someone else touched it and crumpled it together so I can’t easily get a single tissue from it. My favorite was the time when I removed the tissue flower only to discover a completely different color of tissue in the rest of the box. I was given a “previously owned” tissue flower! Ew!





The little shampoo and conditioner and lotion. 


Of course the lotion is only in the nicer of the hotels. More recently, hotels have begun renaming things from the mundane “Shampoo” and “Conditioner” to the more glamorous – and frankly confusing – “Hair Revitalizer” and “Hair Protectant”  or "Hair Mask." If you have to think for more than two seconds to determine if they are actually shampoo and conditioner, then it’s too complicated for the guests.



Free coffee. 


Why is the coffee free, but the water is $7?








The magnifying mirror. 


I love this thing. I do not actually own one at home, but when I go to a hotel, I look forward to checking out my giant pores and random eyebrow growths at ridiculously intensely magnified levels.









The wake-up call. 


Since I can never trust that the alarm clock is set, I really like this service. I especially love it when it’s a real person who tells you good morning and offers the weather for the day. I do not love it when it is 15 minutes late, which leads me now to always use my phone alarm clock as a 5-minute back-up to my wake-up call.



The phone in the toilet room. 


Has anyone ever used this phone? I don’t know, and that is exactly why I will never touch it. What kind of phone calls have they had on the toilet? Were really amazing business deals lost or won from this phone?






The TV in the bathroom. 


I don’t watch TV in the mornings when I’m getting dressed. Nor do I have a TV in my bathroom. This is exactly why I always use the TV in the bathroom in hotels that offer this feature.






The remote to the bedroom television.


The things this device has seen… oh lordy. Why don’t they put a protective cover on it? Much like the toilet phone, I cringe when I touch this remote. I believe I will add a plastic bag to my travel carrier to protect myself from this going forward. Brilliant.








Non-HDTV. 


And along the lines of this remote are the HD televisions in all the hotels without a single HD channel. So I get to watch my favorite Seinfeld episodes all squished and out of proportion. And why does it take so long for the channels to change? What’s up with that?






The stationary.


When was the last time you wrote an actual letter. When was the last time you wrote an actual letter on hotel stationary? I actually remember the last time I did this: I was 13 years old and in a city in Japan. I wrote a letter to myself about my trip using the hotel stationary. Now I check to make sure it’s in the drawer when I get to the hotel. It provides comfort.








The Gideon Bible. 


More important than the hotel stationary, this item must be in my nightstand drawer. If I am in a hotel that the Gideons have not visited, I go online and report it to the Gideons immediately. I’m not kidding.









What are you favorite things about hotels?

Monday, December 12, 2011

Conference justification letters


The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity. 
  - Zig Ziglar
I’m seeing a lot of conference justification letters around the internet these days. I like the concept: provide a ready-made letter for managers to understand the benefits of sending their employee to a conference. But the execution of a lot of these letters is cheesy and pure marketing language.
I have also seen some really awesome ones, though they border on something a little too formal for an employee to hand to their boss.
When preparing a form letter for your attendees to use, consider the audience. This isn’t a brochure. This is a real, active letter of persuasion and value proposition for a manager or finance team to evaluate whether the money should be invested in sending a person to this engagement. It feels incredibly silly to type this, but consider what you would need to convince your management to go to an event. I found one industry conference justification letter that pointed out the evening events, the bands that were playing, and the opening pool party and reception. Really? Not helpful.
Be brief, but impactful. Don’t talk about the parties and don’t over-talk about the networking. Networking is a key reason anyone goes to an industry conference, but education, uncovering opportunities for sales or new vendors, and bringing back knowledge and perspectives to coworkers.
If you’re going to build a conference justification letter, be sure you also send out conference notes and key take-aways to your attendees so they can show the true value of the content they just experienced.