A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is - full of surprises.
- Isaac Bashevis Singer
Random, but memorable: http://blog.jackmorton.com/post/815242908/i-realize-that-ive-mentioned-my-admiration-for
Imagine if this were actually about a brand.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Event Promotion in the Social World
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
- Acts 20:35
Facebook launches new design for event pages http://ow.ly/2eslo
- Acts 20:35
Facebook launches new design for event pages http://ow.ly/2eslo
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Post Share: The Zen of PowerPoint, Facebook, and Twitter
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- Buddha
From Guy Kawasaki's blog and Open Forum:
I found a treasure chest in the back of a great book called Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations by Garr Reynolds. It is a list of ten Japanese aesthetic principles. More...
- Buddha
From Guy Kawasaki's blog and Open Forum:
I found a treasure chest in the back of a great book called Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations by Garr Reynolds. It is a list of ten Japanese aesthetic principles. More...
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Truth About Event Marketing
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
- Galileo
“Because I love people.” “Because I love to travel.” “I’ve always been really good at planning parties.” These are common responses I hear when I ask people why they are interested in events. While these are fabulous attributes to have in an event planner, the responses have prompted me to spend a little time on The Truth About Event Marketing. In a truly well-planned and integrated marketing program, events can play a pivotal role in the sales funnel.
An industry tradeshow like VMWorld or Oracle Open World can drive basic brand awareness, can generate targeted leads, and/or can be used to capture dedicated time with a particular target account. Not only can they provide a hands-on demonstration of technology, they can also drive thought leadership through keynote session opportunities. The objectives for participation should be determined based on the timing of the event and the message that needs to hit the marketing at that time.
A customer advisory council can not only allow customers to feel engaged in the product or marketing strategies of one of their key strategic business partners, but it can provide valuable insight into real concerns and opportunities in our customers’ environments. It can foster trust and even turn around a strained customer relationship.
A user group or user conference can unite IT operators who manage datacenters with Dell and partner solutions. It can create an ongoing community of advisors, content generators, and advocates for Dell in the IT and business world.
Executive hospitality events (golf, wine tastings, sporting events) provide dedicated time with targeted accounts, their account teams and partners, but also allow for the free-flow of information among colleagues and general relationship building for future business meetings. Trite but true, sometimes more work gets done on the golf course than in a week’s worth of meetings.
As business units create their marketing plans and campaign timelines, industry events with set dates can be used as launch pads for products or solution sets or marketing message initiatives.
As assets become ready for market and you move to a demand generation phase, webinars, roadshows and lunch and learns become part of the marketing mix.
When we need to shift perception and convey thought leadership, we strategically target keynote speaking opportunities and executive-level forum and networking events.
I want to stress that event strategies should not be stand-alone creations. They should be part of the annual planning process when mapping out a truly integrated marketing plan.
I also want to stress that everyone loves events. Everyone thinks they can plan events (and maybe they can!). But not everyone can create a truly great brand immersion experience. That's the key.
- Galileo
“Because I love people.” “Because I love to travel.” “I’ve always been really good at planning parties.” These are common responses I hear when I ask people why they are interested in events. While these are fabulous attributes to have in an event planner, the responses have prompted me to spend a little time on The Truth About Event Marketing. In a truly well-planned and integrated marketing program, events can play a pivotal role in the sales funnel.
An industry tradeshow like VMWorld or Oracle Open World can drive basic brand awareness, can generate targeted leads, and/or can be used to capture dedicated time with a particular target account. Not only can they provide a hands-on demonstration of technology, they can also drive thought leadership through keynote session opportunities. The objectives for participation should be determined based on the timing of the event and the message that needs to hit the marketing at that time.
A customer advisory council can not only allow customers to feel engaged in the product or marketing strategies of one of their key strategic business partners, but it can provide valuable insight into real concerns and opportunities in our customers’ environments. It can foster trust and even turn around a strained customer relationship.
A user group or user conference can unite IT operators who manage datacenters with Dell and partner solutions. It can create an ongoing community of advisors, content generators, and advocates for Dell in the IT and business world.
Executive hospitality events (golf, wine tastings, sporting events) provide dedicated time with targeted accounts, their account teams and partners, but also allow for the free-flow of information among colleagues and general relationship building for future business meetings. Trite but true, sometimes more work gets done on the golf course than in a week’s worth of meetings.
As business units create their marketing plans and campaign timelines, industry events with set dates can be used as launch pads for products or solution sets or marketing message initiatives.
As assets become ready for market and you move to a demand generation phase, webinars, roadshows and lunch and learns become part of the marketing mix.
When we need to shift perception and convey thought leadership, we strategically target keynote speaking opportunities and executive-level forum and networking events.
I want to stress that event strategies should not be stand-alone creations. They should be part of the annual planning process when mapping out a truly integrated marketing plan.
I also want to stress that everyone loves events. Everyone thinks they can plan events (and maybe they can!). But not everyone can create a truly great brand immersion experience. That's the key.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Revisiting Green
Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find.
- Quoted in Time
We're revisiting the whole "Green Meetings" initiative at work right now. The conversation tends to center around the "what can we do," rather than the "why are we doing it." I want to revisit the Why part before jumping into the What.
So... Why? Because it's good for the enviroment. Because I work for one of the Greenest companies in the world and we're just bringing that brand philosophy to life in our events. Because I care about the planet. Yeah, yeah, yeah - great story to tell to the press, but being Green is not a determinate need when buying computer products (except in some government sectors).
How about this? Because it saves us money - both on printing costs, and on shipping all that paper to our events. Because our customers want it - they don't actually like to carry back paper with them after an event. They would much rather have a link or a file they can refer to later. Because it's easier to capture real leads - when someone actively wants your brochure, you have them email it to themselves from your system, thus capturing their email address. Harder to do when handing out paper!
NOW! On to the What: When you do print, use recycled and recyclable materials. If printing postcard-sized teasers, use that cool wildflower seed paper so your trash grows flowers in the landfill. Work with hotels to ensure leftover food goes to the appropriate charity of choice. The What is really easy!
- Quoted in Time
We're revisiting the whole "Green Meetings" initiative at work right now. The conversation tends to center around the "what can we do," rather than the "why are we doing it." I want to revisit the Why part before jumping into the What.
So... Why? Because it's good for the enviroment. Because I work for one of the Greenest companies in the world and we're just bringing that brand philosophy to life in our events. Because I care about the planet. Yeah, yeah, yeah - great story to tell to the press, but being Green is not a determinate need when buying computer products (except in some government sectors).
How about this? Because it saves us money - both on printing costs, and on shipping all that paper to our events. Because our customers want it - they don't actually like to carry back paper with them after an event. They would much rather have a link or a file they can refer to later. Because it's easier to capture real leads - when someone actively wants your brochure, you have them email it to themselves from your system, thus capturing their email address. Harder to do when handing out paper!
NOW! On to the What: When you do print, use recycled and recyclable materials. If printing postcard-sized teasers, use that cool wildflower seed paper so your trash grows flowers in the landfill. Work with hotels to ensure leftover food goes to the appropriate charity of choice. The What is really easy!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The 2-Hour Mom
Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.
- Pearl S. Buck
I work a lot. I also have a 2.5 year old and a husband and 2 dogs (well, they're poodles, so they're KINDA like dogs). A lot of my friends at work have similar stories. The kid part is REALLY important, but we've also chosen to work full time. Many of us work full days, get the kid and have that 6-8pm time with them before they go to bed, then we get back online and work some more. So how do you manage it all? You hear that other moms are going through similar experiences, but wouldn't if be great if they would share their stories, too?
Well now they are! At least my friends are! Join us over at The 2-Hour Mom Blog!
- Pearl S. Buck
I work a lot. I also have a 2.5 year old and a husband and 2 dogs (well, they're poodles, so they're KINDA like dogs). A lot of my friends at work have similar stories. The kid part is REALLY important, but we've also chosen to work full time. Many of us work full days, get the kid and have that 6-8pm time with them before they go to bed, then we get back online and work some more. So how do you manage it all? You hear that other moms are going through similar experiences, but wouldn't if be great if they would share their stories, too?
Well now they are! At least my friends are! Join us over at The 2-Hour Mom Blog!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Time management
Did you know that when you work all the time, you have no time to blog? Time for fun to come back. Time to get back to blogging!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Social Media: just another kind of experiential marketing
Wisdom begins in wonder.
- Socrates
Nice post (though 6 months old) on the Jack Morton blog about social media as experiential marketing. Sad that I just found it. :-)
- Socrates
Nice post (though 6 months old) on the Jack Morton blog about social media as experiential marketing. Sad that I just found it. :-)
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
SeatGuru for Hotels
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.
- Oscar Wilde
Find the best hotel room in the building using TripKick, a SeatGuru-style site for hotels (and if you haven't used SeatGuru to pick you airplane seats, you should start!). According to Springwise, "coverage of each hotel includes detailed information on which rooms to request: which rooms are oversized (rooms ending in 03 and 04, for example), which have great bathrooms or are quieter than others. TripKick, which spent a year gathering all of this information, also points out which floors are better, and which to avoid. Guests are encouraged to add their own reviews and upload photos of rooms they've stayed in."
- Oscar Wilde
Find the best hotel room in the building using TripKick, a SeatGuru-style site for hotels (and if you haven't used SeatGuru to pick you airplane seats, you should start!). According to Springwise, "coverage of each hotel includes detailed information on which rooms to request: which rooms are oversized (rooms ending in 03 and 04, for example), which have great bathrooms or are quieter than others. TripKick, which spent a year gathering all of this information, also points out which floors are better, and which to avoid. Guests are encouraged to add their own reviews and upload photos of rooms they've stayed in."
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Blog Roll, please
"The road to success is always under construction"
- Anonymous
Let's get this community-building underway. I've got my social media all set up...
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lizlathan
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lizlathan
FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/lizlathan
Ping.fm: lizlathan
Flickr & YouTube channels to share pics & vids of the family
Now let's start finding some friends!
I posted to the CMP forum on LinkedIn requesting that people send me links to their meeting industry blogs and will list them here for all to share, as well as adding them to my blog roll. Enjoy!
http://associationmeetings.org/
http://www.meetingspodcast.com/
http://blog.meetingsnet.com/face2face/
http://krysslovacek.wordpress.com/
http://event-planning.alltop.com/
http://www.justforplanners.com
- Anonymous
Let's get this community-building underway. I've got my social media all set up...
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lizlathan
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lizlathan
FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/lizlathan
Ping.fm: lizlathan
Flickr & YouTube channels to share pics & vids of the family
Now let's start finding some friends!
I posted to the CMP forum on LinkedIn requesting that people send me links to their meeting industry blogs and will list them here for all to share, as well as adding them to my blog roll. Enjoy!
http://associationmeetings.org/
http://www.meetingspodcast.com/
http://blog.meetingsnet.com/face2face/
http://krysslovacek.wordpress.com/
http://event-planning.alltop.com/
http://www.justforplanners.com
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Events and Social Media
Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.
- Gen. George Patton
I just read an article in Corporate Event magazine about an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that was played at the CEMA conference in 2006 (unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an online version of this article). Funny thing is that I was at that conference and I participated in the ARG, but I only made it a little way down the path. The parts that I made it through were way cool, though, and showcase how my buddy jmacofearth keeps referring to events as "the ultimate social media."
Basically, CEMA used nTag electronic name tags and planted a mole among the attendees who, when "zapped" as a connection, tagged the attendee as having moved to the next level of the game. The next morning, those tagged attendees received a token under their hotel room door for a free coffee in the hotel coffee shop. When redeemed, those attendees were given coffee wraps around the cups that congratulated them and gave them a URL to move to the next level. Attendees could use the AOL cybercafe to go to the URL and answer a few short questions like their favorite vacation spot (beach, snow), favorite flavor (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry), and a couple of others. Certain partipants were chosen to go even further and were given new clues, and eventually one was deemed the winner and given a set of luxury luggage on the last day of the conference.
It was a social media and live interaction scavenger hunt that got the whole conference buzzing. I love this idea and I hope more conferences come up with really cool new ways for sponsors to participate in fresh marketing opportunities like this!
- Gen. George Patton
I just read an article in Corporate Event magazine about an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that was played at the CEMA conference in 2006 (unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an online version of this article). Funny thing is that I was at that conference and I participated in the ARG, but I only made it a little way down the path. The parts that I made it through were way cool, though, and showcase how my buddy jmacofearth keeps referring to events as "the ultimate social media."
Basically, CEMA used nTag electronic name tags and planted a mole among the attendees who, when "zapped" as a connection, tagged the attendee as having moved to the next level of the game. The next morning, those tagged attendees received a token under their hotel room door for a free coffee in the hotel coffee shop. When redeemed, those attendees were given coffee wraps around the cups that congratulated them and gave them a URL to move to the next level. Attendees could use the AOL cybercafe to go to the URL and answer a few short questions like their favorite vacation spot (beach, snow), favorite flavor (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry), and a couple of others. Certain partipants were chosen to go even further and were given new clues, and eventually one was deemed the winner and given a set of luxury luggage on the last day of the conference.
It was a social media and live interaction scavenger hunt that got the whole conference buzzing. I love this idea and I hope more conferences come up with really cool new ways for sponsors to participate in fresh marketing opportunities like this!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
New Year's Resolution: Dive into Social Media
Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty.
- John Selden
Yeah, but that's the point this time.
- John Selden
Yeah, but that's the point this time.
- I resolve to keep up this blog, if only to ensure that I continue to locate cool and innovative event ideas from other industry professionals.
- I resolve to keep up my other new blog to share my fun gift-locating skills with friends.
- I resolve to create a social media strategy (and attempt to maintain it) for the Humane Society of Williamson County in order to learn more about social media and aid my favorite cause.
- I resolve to create an interactive online event engagement portal for my company's customers to find out what events we are participating in and where they can find us.
- And, finally, I resolve to decorate for the fun holidays this year (Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, 4th of July, My birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). Any other holiday's I left off?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Delayed Update
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
- Ferris Bueller
The sad truth is that when you work at a large corporation, you find yourself doing email and working during all that time that used to be "spare." So between September and now, I have spent evenings with the baby, put him to bed and then gone back online to work.
But to update the last couple of months, meeting with the European event team was FANTASTIC. They have some great experience and ideas that we can learn from, and we have some great tools and resources that will help them. I'm so excited to be working on a project to bring our colleagues from around the world together.
And yes, the husband and the baby survived just fine without me!
So now back to posting interesting event information, and less droning about myself.
- Ferris Bueller
The sad truth is that when you work at a large corporation, you find yourself doing email and working during all that time that used to be "spare." So between September and now, I have spent evenings with the baby, put him to bed and then gone back online to work.
But to update the last couple of months, meeting with the European event team was FANTASTIC. They have some great experience and ideas that we can learn from, and we have some great tools and resources that will help them. I'm so excited to be working on a project to bring our colleagues from around the world together.
And yes, the husband and the baby survived just fine without me!
So now back to posting interesting event information, and less droning about myself.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Taking the Plan on the Road
If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.
- Napoleon Hill
I begin my journey on Friday to visit with colleagues in Europe and cooperate on creating a single global technology infrastructure for the event team. We currently use more than 13 tools to manage our events across the globe (not to mention the thousands of Excel spreadsheets), and none of them communicate with any other system. So I've laid out a plan and will take it on the road to get input next week.
On a personal note, it will be the first time my husband will have to spend 6 days alone with our almost-9-month-old baby, so... we'll see how that goes! :-)
- Napoleon Hill
I begin my journey on Friday to visit with colleagues in Europe and cooperate on creating a single global technology infrastructure for the event team. We currently use more than 13 tools to manage our events across the globe (not to mention the thousands of Excel spreadsheets), and none of them communicate with any other system. So I've laid out a plan and will take it on the road to get input next week.
On a personal note, it will be the first time my husband will have to spend 6 days alone with our almost-9-month-old baby, so... we'll see how that goes! :-)
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