A theme is a big deal when planning an event. Actually everything that is tied to your event (guest speaker, lecture topics, music, etc) revolves around your theme. Brainstorming is a great way to help toss around ideas for your theme. Below are some tips on how to come up with a theme for your event. ...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

The basic questions needed to promote anything are: Who, What, When, Where, and How Much...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

You can design the coolest promotional material that ever has been designed and still end up with a dismal turn out at your event. Cool looking promotional material might turn heads but its like a shocking facebook post. For example, someone posts on facebook: "I quit!" All that does is raise questions, sure it will get quite a few comments, but quit what? When people post this stuff they think they're cute but the core message "I quit drinking pop to get healthier" is lost in the shock value...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

In all reality up to this point a large majority of your time has been spent planning, now comes the transition period where you have to start to show production. Your event promotion and registration timeline was constructed allowing you to easily track your attendee numbers and to increase attendee anticipation for the event. Sticking to your timeline, will let you meet your goals which will allow for an easy transition from planning to implementation...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

There is nothing more frustrating than seeing an advertisement for something that looks really awesome but when you rush out to buy it, it is nothing like what you saw in the ad. This happens all the time. I remember a few months ago, I was reading an advertisement insert for one of the stores in my area. I saw an ad for a tool that will help you paint around the edges of your wall. Well I had just recently moved and was getting ready to paint. Now I love to paint. But when it comes to edging, I am not the greatest. So after reading how this tool would help you get the job done in minutes with no mess, I was excited. I went out and bought the tool, which was $15. I thought spending a little extra would be worth it if I can get the job done with no mess and in minutes! Long story short, when I started using the tool I think I had more paint on me and on the floor than on the wall...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

Event budgets are completely dependent on volume. Your event will cost roughly the same amount of money whether the plane takes off full or empty, so to speak...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

In our white paper “Create A Buzz: Event Marketing Strategies”, we mentioned that it is always good to test your ideas from the beginning.  But how do you do that?  Focus testing (Focus Group) is a great way for you to bounce your ideas off your target audience...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

Okay, so your Fall Event has just ended and it is now time to start planning your Summer Conference. Where should you start? An easy step, that will improve the transition into your next convention, would be to evaluate the event that you just completed. You can gather results in a variety of ways; reviewing the retreat during casual conversations with attendes, host a meeting with both planners and attendees to discuss the outcomes, reaching out for information using tweets and posts, or you can do my favorite of all, Surveys! I love designing the questions and crunching the numbers, I know it sounds dorky. ...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

So the realization of your event is becoming more and more apparent and the drops are becoming larger and heavier. You have touched base with both your planning and focus teams to establish an event date and theme. Realistically, you've accomplished the easy part and now will be the start to a long planning season. Determining when to actually start planning for an event can be a tricky concept. Starting too early could overload and push your attendees away, while planning to late will show disorganization and a possible sloppy presentation. The timing for planning depends on roughly two topics 1) The size of your event 2) The interest level of potential attendees...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

As an event planner, try not to shy away from registration. Just because it can seem overwhleming does not mean it has to be complicated. Once you have implemented registration into your planning timeline it should remain a high priority. In addition to maintaining importance, you also need to keep registration simple. Reduce complexity by breaking it down into indivdual stages. This "break down" will help you and your planning team know exactly where you stand throughout your process. Knowing where you stand, in turn, will aid in evaluating any additional planning or promoting...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

As an event planner, all you hear about today is social media.  With the growth of social media, event planners have had to change the way they think about promoting their events.  Social media is a great way to market and promote your event.  But is also helpful with event evaluation and an opportunity to create new revenue...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment

Have you ever filled out a survey knowing that the person on the other end would probably never read what you're writing? I know I have, in fact when I get the impression that the survey is only being done as a formality and the person receiving my feedback isn't really interested in any criticism I generally don't bother putting the effort forth to fill out the evaluation...     Continue Reading | Leave Comment