Feed the people!!

Food is our common ground, a universal experience.

 - James Beard

According to research from Successful Meetings magazine, when faced with budget cutbacks 49% of meeting planners cut the F&B budget first. 

And yet anecdotally, next to conference rooms being too cold, food is the top complaint from attendees on post-event surveys. 

As a conference organizer, I understand that budgets are not always based on the realities of an optimal customer experience. Most event managers (and their leadership) view food as something you have to provide, but fail to consider it as an integral part of the experience.

Since the intent of this blog is to wax philosophical about ideas (rather than prescribe how things "should" be done), here's my idea: Why not revolutionize the way conference food is brought to attendees?

Cruise ships excite their guests with massive buffet options. Food courts satiate mall-goers and air travelers with variety, speed, and price. And stadiums have even begun to wow their sports fans with amazing offerings. So what can we learn from these large-group-serving colleagues? It's about expectations and the experience. 

When you go on a cruise, you know you're getting crazy buffets with mounds of food and a variety of restaurant offerings to choose from, usually included in the price of your ticket. 

When you go to the mall or the airport, you know you'll get fast food, quickly, and you can pretty much bet that you'll have a choice of greasy fried food, salads, Asian options, and probably that ever-pervasive smell of warm pretzels.

And when you go to the stadium you may get that Club level food court, the hot dog & nachos stand, or the sit-down sports bar. 

Right now, as you think about conference food, you are probably conjuring up lines of chafing dishes with food that started out great, but has deteriorated as throngs of attendees attempt to dig into the now-crusty casseroles. Or maybe you're thinking of the box lunch with the rock-hard sandwich, itty bitty whole apple, package of chips, and individually-wrapped pickle. Or if you're a vegetarian, you're remembering that every time you make it to the only vegetarian option on the buffet line, it's already gone because (shocker!) meat-eaters eat vegetables, too!

What if you looked forward to meeting a colleague for breakfast because it was like a coffeehouse with some proteins, some sweets, some hot tea, and some coffee, and the environment elicited a cozy atmosphere, rather than that of an aircraft carrier?

What if you were excited to get to lunch because you could sit with colleagues (not yell across a 72" round with strangers), or join an informal education session, or even hang out in a TV room to catch up on CNN headline news (a la The Varsity in Atlanta, GA)? 

There's bound to be a creative way to bring the enjoyment back to conference meals; even for those 20,000+ person events. I encourage you to work with your conference facility team, your logistics teams, and your chef, and make food a universally AWESOME experience again!

Optimizing Your Event Portfolio

This is a guest post that was posted on Goombal's blog. Take a look at the other great content posted there!

In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement. 
  - Ben Bernanke

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As your organization grows, you are beginning to manage a lot of events. You are being asked to report on results, return on investment, pipeline generated, revenue closed as a result of your events, and your team is spending more and more time evaluating opportunities for your next event engagement. So how do you make sure you are making the right decisions?

Like most companies, you probably go to some events because your sales team needs to support a customer, or an executive is interested in launching a product during a keynote, or someone just really likes to play golf with their customers, or you have a group of competitors going so you must be present (even though you don’t have a track record of ROI at the show).

You probably also have all the events where lead gen is job #1 and you have a solid track record of highly qualified leads (or a least a lot of leads). And then there’s that set of C-level events that your execs want you to run… So how do you know if you’re choosing the right events for long-term success?

I like to describe event portfolios as bouquets of flowers. The roses are your C-level events. The carnations are your lead gen events. The baby’s breath are those corporate sponsorship activations that keep the brand top of mind. Together, the flowers make a great bouquet, but individually, each flower has its own attributes; a.k.a. success metrics.

The secret formula is to start by identifying your corporate (or business unit) objectives.

If you are in awareness mode with your brand or product, you might focus more on brand awareness sponsorships and lead generating activities, and maybe some thought leadership events with the C-suite.

If you are in acquisition mode, you’re pretty much targeting lead generating activities for your sales team.

If you are in development and retention mode, you may focus on sponsorships and C-level activities, and opportunities to bring your customers together for upsell or loyalty.

But all of your events must tie to key metrics in order to know what to focus on.

Ideally, your C-level events are going to come with long-term pipeline and revenue numbers by associating those campaign members with active opportunities in your CRM system. If you are not currently using a CRM system to track the success of leads and relationships generated from your face-to-face events, then you’ll want solid sales anecdotal reports on the effectiveness of the engagement.

If you are unable to tie real opportunities or revenue to a C-level event, you need to get data to prove deal acceleration as a result of your event. in other words, was a deal pushed further down the sales funnel due to the content or relationships built at your event?

For your lead gen events, if you are using any kind of CRM system throughout your sales teams, this should be relatively easy to tie to pipeline. Once an attendee (or campaign member) is associated with an opportunity or revenue, you begin to see the value of the event.

If you are not using a CRM, or have dissimilar processes across your organization, this is an organizational challenge you’ll want to tackle first. Without the ability to measure the value of the leads you are producing, you won’t be able to evaluate your event’s effectiveness.

Sponsorships are a little more tricky. If it is a sponsorship in name and logo only, then your best hope is to measure using standard media metrics of impressions. However, if you are able to activate that sponsorship with an experiential element, you can get more detailed with leads, social media conversation density, or other engagement metrics.

It’s highly likely that you’ll end up with a balanced portfolio of lead gen, executive, and brand awareness events, but you may weigh more heavily toward one event type as it aligns to your corporate objectives.

No matter what your bouquet looks like, the most important piece is that you have some sort of consistent measurement in place by event type so you can reconcile your spend against investment or objectives.

You’re sure to have a few misses amongst your portfolio, but just weed out those dead or dying flowers and keep your bouquet looking fresh and beautiful!

For some tips regarding how you can go about doing this with a data-driven approach, read Vinay Iyer’s blog titled, “A Data-Driven Approach to Event Portfolio Management”. Vinay is the founder of Goombal, an Event Lifecycle and ROI Management solution, and he has an innovative solution that makes me excited about the future of event marketing!

Finally! An app that makes sense!

Update: We have launched a community in Skoop for Event Marketing Professionals - join us and try out this great new tool to keep up-to-date and in touch with other professionals like you! Download Skoop for Events and look for the "Event Socialshpere" community. To get the passcode, hit me up on Twitter @lizlathan

Eureka! - I have found it!
 - Archimedes

As you've seen me say many times (like here, and here, and here), I believe that events and social media are intertwined like lattice. I like to say that events were the original social media, since it's where people can join their tribe, meet up with like-minded individuals, and share experiences and stories together.

I've also talked about mobile apps (like this adorable post from 2010 where I saw my first event app! and this one where I talked about vendor selection), but apps have evolved and it's time to leverage that evolution for the benefit of your attendees.

Check the apps on your phone. Is there an event app on there? Probably not. I'm guessing you deleted it about 24 hours after you left that last event.

But do you have Facebook? Instagram? Maybe you have something like WhatsApp or Slack? Why? Because it keeps you in touch with the people you WANT to be in touch with and the goings-on of their lives and your community.

So how do we make event apps more relevant for us, and solve that problem of year-round communication, riding the wave of an enthusiastic community long after the event?

Enter Skoop for Events. They've recently been spotted at shows like Expo! Expo! And Event Tech, and they are excited to be the new kid on the block, with what they think is the solution to this challenge!

I'm not here to give a product pitch, but I do want to share some of the features that I think will revolutionize how we look at event apps. It does all those event-appy things like bring in the schedule, the sponsors, the expo details, etc. But then it goes further... no longer are those contact you meet at the event stuck in an app, forcing you to only communicate through it. Now, anyone you meet can exchange contact info with a shake of the phone (literally!) and you can put them in your contacts or even connect with them on LinkedIn!

I know that seems like the perfect reason to uninstall the app after the event, but here's where it gets useful: You can create subfeeds within Skoop, so if you meet a great group of folks in a breakout session and you want to continue the conversation, you can add them to a group and keep it up long after the event is over. Boom. Your own community right there. And now you have your tribe.

Just imagine all of your event attendees creating conversations on your event app and getting to know each other throughout the year. They get EACH OTHER excited about registering for next year's conference! You can leverage this community for polls about content, music, etc. You can ask this community to contribute photos, videos, quotes - right in the app - and crowdsource your conference highlights throughout the year!

Just thinking out loud here... If your event is one in a sea of shows that attendees go to, they may even use the communities they've formed in YOUR event app to meet up at other events. And you can keep an eye on the conversation and perhaps run a meetup or other gathering there.

I look forward to seeing what changes Skoop brings to the event world! http://grabskoop.com

Death to the Albatross! (Let's get back to the basics on name tags!)

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
 - George Bernard Shaw

Name badges have gotten ridiculous. Event organizers have tried to capture so much information on the name badge, provide agendas at a glance, drink tickets, identification ribbons, sponsor level, event branding, and the kitchen sink all on one little name badge... it's gotten so bad that I feel like everyone is walking around with a giant albatross around their necks!

What is the purpose of a name badge? To help people connect. How can you connect when you have to fight to locate their name, look at their stomach (or a female's chest), or ask them to flip their badge around so you can find their name. How much of a jerk do you feel like when you can't remember someone's name, but there is zero chance of actually catching their name badge without them noticing?

We need to get back to basics on name tags. Keep them simple. Help people connect. Give them a large first name, a smaller last name, and their company. If you need security features (like colors to know if they are a sponsor or an attendee to keep them in or out of certain session), incorporate that seamlessly into the design. Let's get back to having name badges that can be worn higher up on the chest so no one has to look down the center of the body to locate a name.

And let's talk about ribbons: Ribbons no longer make people feel special. You know what makes people feel special? Having people call them by name and shake their hand. Maybe even hug. Imagine a world where you can hug without getting your name badge tangled up with your huggee!

And finally, once we've agreed to go back to name badges that clip or magnetically attach to the chest area, make sure your attendees wear their name badges properly. Wearing the badge on the upper right side of the chest, in line of sight with a handshake, is the most appropriate location for networking. Check out this great post by Carey Suevega on proper name tag placement
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Who's with me for a name tag revolution?

10 ways to save money on your tradeshow program

If saving money is wrong, I don't want to be right!

 - William Shatner

Let me guess, you were handed an extra $100k to execute your booth this time, right? No? Oh... your budget got CUT by $30k. Been there. Here are 10 tips to save money on your tradeshow program:

1. Use less signage. Every sign cost money. Sign reprints cost even more. Can you reuse elements from another show to save on printing costs?
2. Reuse the booth. If you're renting a new booth for every show, chew on this: Most of the attendees at this event were not at your last event. They won't know that you've used the same booth for both of them. Better yet: use the same booth for a bunch of your events! It sounds elementary, but it's amazing how many companies reinvent the wheel for every show they attend. Just by using the same rental kiosks from event to event, you can save thousands of dollars. 
3. Cut the giveaways. You don't need to feed the trick-or-treaters. Be strategic in your gifting and only give premiums to attendees who engage with you in your booth. 
4. Standardize the staff attire. Do you buy new shirts for every trade show you attend? Consider implementing an event uniform program, tracking who has been given staff shirts, and only refreshing their uniform when theirs is lost or damaged.
5. Lighten up your booth. If you send full, heavy enterprise IT racks to your events, consider a virtual version. If you have a metal booth, consider going with more of a stretch fabric design. The lighter your shipping load, the less drayage you have to pay. Money in the bank. 
6. Demo offline. You can save thousands by not using a wired internet drop. Try canned demos, or using a personal hotspot if you need to get online. 
7. Skip the rented badge scanner. Try a mobile app that snaps pictures of business cards. Have a backup plan, though, if someone doesn't have a business card on them. 
8. Plan ahead. You can save upwards of 20% if you just meet all the deadlines the show organizer has put in place. Miss it and you start getting penalties and rush fees added on. 
9. Reconsider your rental furniture. If you need a meeting table and chairs, it might be cheaper to find a local IKEA and bring in your own, then donate to a local charity after the event. 
10. Go to fewer shows! This may sound really insane, but consider your event portfolio. Are you going to every show at a lower level to spread your brand around? Consider hitting fewer, more impactful shows to get the results you need and stop wasting money on the non-performing shows.

You'll never look at your Outlook calendar the same way again

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.

 - Peter Drucker

I came across this article on Facebook and it reminded me of the famous “rocks” story from a college professor. My calendar is usually how I run my day. This article has convinced me to completely reverse that. Enjoy!

The Chokehold of Calendars

Meetings may be toxic, but calendars are the superfund sites that allow that toxicity to thrive. All calendars suck. And they all suck in the same way. Calendars are a record of interruptions. And quite often they’re a battlefield over who owns whose time. Read the rest…

5 Tips to thinking strategicially about your 10x10

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

 - Alan Lakein

So your sales guy comes to you and says, "My customer gave me a free 10x10 at their show!" "Fantastic!" you say. "What are you going to showcase?" silence....

Trade shows are a great way to showcase your brand to attendees. Or they're not. It's really up to you. The most frustrating experience for a conference goer is to walk around a trade show floor and see a bunch of exhibitors sitting behind a 6' table typing on their phone. I.Would.Never.Stop.At.That.Booth.

The second most frustrating experience is to BE an exhibitor standing behind a 6' table, smiling at people who just walk by, hiding their badge from your scanner. "Aren't these people here to learn about new things?", you think to yourself.

So how do you make the most of your 10x10 booth on a crowded show floor?

1. Know what success looks like. So your booth cost you $5k, and you spent another $4k on travel, branding, and giveaways. If one customer brings in $3k, then you need three new customers to break even on the event. If your close rate is 20%, then you need 15 hot leads from the show to make it break even. Aim for 30 and show real ROI!
2. Plan ahead. Most conferences will give you at least a list of companies and titles of attendees who are coming to the show. Use it to bounce against your target prospect list from your sales team and reach out before the show. Make sure your top targets know you are going to be there, know where your booth is, and are planning to come by for a demo or conversation.
3. Plan for drive-bys. The majority of conference goers know who they are going to look for before they step foot on the show floor. If you've done step 1, you are already on their list. But some conference goers may not know you're going to be there and are looking for products or services like yours. So plan for them. A branded backdrop and a smile may not be the most effective way to get someone to stop and talk to you. Take it a step further with an open-ended question. If you're selling widgets, try, "What's the best (or worst) think about widget today?" Even better - have something engaging in your space to draw this out of them: maybe a giant whiteboard where attendees can write in their favorite (or least favorite) thing about widgets. This will open the conversation and get people engaged. 
4. You don't have to give to the trick-or-treaters. Everyone loves a good pen. But handing out pens is less likely to help your sales pipeline. Get attendees to USE a pen to write an idea on a post-it note or write about their favorite thing about widgets, THEN they can keep the pen. That makes it more memorable for them when they see the pen again later while cleaning out their conference bag, and allows you to only give out pens to people who have actively engaged with your brand. 
5. Have a follow-up plan. How will you capture those great conversations? Will you take business cards? Will you scan badges? Whatever you intend to do, ensure that they are getting scored as leads for follow-up or leads for nurture and being put in a database/CRM back in the office... then make sure they are followed up on! Maybe your "nurture-only" leads don't need to waste sales resources, but they should definitely receive some sort of email follow-up thanking them for stopping by, and asking if they'd like to opt in to a newsletter or future communications. But most importantly, ensure those leads were scored at the event so you can follow up on the hot ones and book some sales. After all, that's why you went to the show in the first place!