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How to be a PERFECT Event Planner!

Posted on 17 Luglio 201717 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

Stay Flexible

As any good event planner knows, there’s never an event where everything goes 100% smoothly. And, if it seems like it does, that’s a great feeling for the planner, but secretly they may know a few areas that are in need of improvement. To ensure success in this area, try being more adaptable to ideas and new situations that come up. If in the past you were more in control of what happened in every single detail of an event, try to loosen up a bit and actually listen to feedback and suggestions. There may be a few golden nuggets in that feedback that could improve your events, and even your planning skills! It’s important to stay open-minded as an event planner – you never know when a disaster can strike, and you may need a plan B or C lined up that you couldn’t think of yourself!

Shine

Another area to be successful is to step up your creativity. Most event planners are creative by nature, but deep down we tend to hit a wall from time to time, and need boosts of inspiration to get us back on track! Remember to stay on top of trends, review other events in the industry, listen to attendees and vendors, and then see what worked for you in the past. If you were successful with networking outings, maybe tweak those to become an online meet-up, or smaller in-person meet-ups. Take the feedback given to you after each event, and see in what areas people may want more. This could be anything from different giveaways, session names, event themes, or even taking the food up a notch!

Be Nice

There’s one quality in a successful event planner that everyone notices right away – that’s customer service. Nice event planners are the most successful, and the most popular. Taking that extra step, and going that extra mile for not only event attendees, but also your extended staff, vendors you work with, and speakers is a nice touch. If you think you have slacked in this area, come up with ways to collaborate and check-in more with these folks.

Remember, everyone talks to each other, so the last thing you want as an event planner are clients who were not happy with the way things were handled for them. Always listen, communicate, and have answers in your back pocket to provide.

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How To Start A Conversation During Events

Posted on 3 Febbraio 201718 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

It’s a fairly easy thing to understand the benefits of forming a network and even easier to want to network with others for your own benefit. But come the actual day of the event, many people may realize that connecting with another person is harder than expected.

For one thing, most events have an underlying reason for why they happen, and most of the time, it’s not for you to network. The networking time given at most events is precious and too short for comfort. What’s more is that the reality is, most attendees stumble into these networking times nervous and anxious with no idea where to start.

Fortunately, there is a way around this. Most experienced networkers know how to best network by doing their homework before any event can help you narrow down your best networking targets and save you some scouting time during the actual event. After that, the only thing that matters is the conversation technique.

To help you get into the groove of things, here are a few ways to break the awkward ice and start the conversation flow:

The “What Did He Say?” Trick

This may not be the most innovative trick in the book, but most of the time, it works. The idea behind this comes from the fact that psychologically speaking, people are very willing to help others. Thus, by opening up a conversation with a request for assistance, you are more likely to get a receptive response.

The actual technique is that if at any point, you find yourself attending the same panel, workshop, or Q&A session with your networking target, be sure to make note of it and catch him or her sometime afterwards. Tap them on the shoulder and apologize for being a bother, then ask him if he had attended the event you both were in.

Inevitably, he will say yes.

That is when you follow up with the lead-in and ask him a question about the content of the session. Something to open up a conversation like, “do you remember what the speaker said about so and so”, or “I was confused about what the speaker said about so and so, did you understand what he meant?”

After stepping into the conversation with this, you can move on to the next step.

The Next Step, Option #1: The Ego Booster

This option is better suited for researchers, professors, and people with certain notable accomplishments previously established. To successfully execute this step, you would need to do your own research ahead of time. The concept behind the ego booster is to first introduce yourself, acquire his or her name, then act as though you’ve heard of him or her.

Having prior knowledge of their work, you can say something along the lines of, “are you, by any chance, the author of {####}?” When they reply yes, you can then follow up with how you’ve read their work and found it fascinating and lead the conversation this way.

People are rarely reluctant to talk about their work and you can harbor a positive conversation by being interested in it. After the conversation has reached the right point, you can begin talking about yourself and how you are related to the field.

The Next Step, Option #2: The Vanity Fair

If your target doesn’t have publications, that’s fine too. Your job to get him to open up is to just ask him questions about himself. The logic is virtually the same: most of the time, people aren’t reluctant to talk about themselves. After you get his name, the next step is to ask him what he does.

The trick here is to not immediately talk about yourself. If he is in a company that makes computers, don’t immediately jump to talking about your own software company. Ask him about his and show your interest. Interjecting a few, “oh, I heard about those, I read that ‘###’ is ‘###’”, would be helpful to keep the conversation flowing. Then, again, after the conversation has reached a good point, you can talk about how you two can help each other.

Conclusion

Conversations, especially with strangers, are never really easy. The key is to relax and keep your ears open for key points in the conversation to ask questions and show interest. What’s really important is that you do your research on their professional profiles and research a little their line of work. That way, it’ll make it easier to keep the conversation flowing.

How to Get It Right and Avoid #WiFiFail

Posted on 30 Gennaio 201718 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

Event venues know secure, fast event WiFi is critical to the success of your events, which is why WiFi for events is the second most profitable service that venues sell (guest rooms are still easily the most profitable).

And many event venues are really stepping up to the plate when it comes to upgrading their event WiFi infrastructure so it can handle the bandwidth required for large crowds with multiple devices.

With that said, here are the important points every event professional needs to know when assessing the WiFi needs for their events.

Never, ever rely on cell phone towers or standard WiFi in hotel common areas to carry the load for your whole event

This is a rookie mistake that even most rookies avoid, and if you go this route, you are only asking for anger and bile from your attendees. Don’t try to save money and skimp on WiFi coverage if you know your attendees are going to be relying on it to stay connected and participate at the event.

Instead, include dedicated event WiFi coverage as a line item in your initial budget and explain to your clients of the importance of dedicated WiFi for events such as theirs.

Devices and users

These days, even wedding guests are on their smartphones and thus require a solid wireless connection, and their usage pales in comparison to larger events or events in the tech industry, which could grow into the hundreds or thousands of megabits per second (Mbps – a standard measure of data transfer).

The first order of business is to determine how many actual users you will have – this includes attendees, vendors, contractors, exhibitors and event staff. A good rule of thumb for determining how much bandwidth you need is to allow for 8-12 Mbps per 100 users for high-usage groups and 2-3 Mbps per 100 users for lower usage groups.

So how do you determine whether your crowd is high- or low-usage?

You first need to look at who will be your users of technology and how much will they use.

Are your attendees just going to need WiFi for general usage (like Web browsing, social media, apps)? Are they going to be loading low-resolution or high-resolution video (which sucks up tons of bandwidth)?

Are they going to be super users who have lots of devices and open applications that are bandwidth hogs? The type of event and types of attendees are definitely things that you will need to asses upfront.

Finally, you also need to consider how many devices your users will be using at the event.

Many people at conferences and trade shows have a smartphone, tablet and computer in tow and may be accessing the WiFi on all three devices simultaneously (for those of us with three hands).

For example, if you have a conference-type event of 800 attendees, you may need to plan on 2,400 simultaneous connections. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and event WiFi providers have the ability to limit the bandwidth of individual attendees or the number of devices they can simultaneously use, so that is something worth considering to keep costs down.

Map out your event WiFi footprint

Do you want your WiFi to cover the entire span of your event, both inside and outside? This could get expensive, especially if you have a lot of square footage, some of which may see less demand for a wireless signal.

A good rule of thumb here is to deploy WiFi where you know you will definitely need it – like conference/breakout/session rooms, hallways, lounges, trade show floors and expo halls. Also, what some event managers do is to create a specific WiFi hotspot that has lots of bandwidth, and they direct heavy users to these areas.

Part of determining the event WiFi footprint is where you or your WiFi provider will place access points. An access point is a device (usually a router or relay) that enables Internet access for an area of approximately 3000 sq ft. Each access point usually can serve from 50-100 people, so make sure that your venue’s access points can each handle at least 50 people.

Make it easy

At the event itself, your attendees’ first instinct will be to access a wireless signal from their cellular carrier, and they may be in for a bit of shock when they realize that thousands of others are trying to do the same and their device is operating at a crawl.

So to avoid this, make sure to publicize in all materials the WiFi Network Name (also called an SSID) and, if necessary, password. Make sure to make the WiFi Network Name intuitive (like an abbreviated version of the event name) so that it is easily recognized in a list of networks, and, if you must require a password, also make it simple, short and intuitive (not lots of caps and symbols).

You should also post the WiFi Network name on posters in very conspicuous and high-traffic areas and provide clear, non-techie instructions on how to access the network.

Finally, you should keep tabs on how your dedicated WiFi is functioning at the event and if there are any outages or issues among users. A good tactic here is just to monitor your social media feeds and look for your event hashtag with the #WiFiFail hashtag in posts.

Have more ideas? Include them in the comments below.