Malaysia Airports “delighted to host FTE Asia 2012”

uture Travel Experience Asia 2012, which will be hosted by Malaysia Airports in Kuala Lumpur, 8-10 February, is now just seven weeks away.
Through an outstanding conference, exhibition and social programme FTE Asia 2012 will provide inspiration on potential future practices, plus detailed case studies on the range of approaches available, and how to successfully implement these technologies and practices.
Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad, Managing Director, Malaysia Airports and ACI Regional President, Asia-Pacific, said: “Malaysia Airports is delighted to play host to yet another important event in the aviation industry.
“Malaysia Airports is full of confidence that Future Travel Experience Asia 2012 will be a successful aviation event, and it is my aspiration for this event to surpass the success of previous world-class aviation events that we have hosted before.”

GESS Al Nadi gathers education professionals to discuss mobile learning

GESS Al Nadi, a private networking club for the Gulf's leading educationalists, hosted its first ever seminar, Mobile Learning- Knowledge in the Hand, for over 100 education professionals at a recent event held at the Address Dubai Mall.

The seminar gave attendees the opportunity to expand their knowledge on a topic that is considered the future of education and discuss how to integrate mobile learning in classrooms and curriculum's across the region.

Launched this year, GESS Al Nadi is designed to bring together the Gulf's leading education professionals to network with exhibitors of the Gulf Educational Supplies and Solutions (GESS) exhibition, which is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and is in association with the Ministry of Education.

The panellists for the seminar, Patrick Beyrouti, Business Development Manager Education at Arab Business Machine- authorised Apple distributor, Shadi Al Hasan, Managing Director of Flagship Projects, Phil Redhead, Director of ICT & Innovation at GEMS Royal Dubai School and Independent Consultant Richard Stone, explained their thoughts and provided case histories to encourage the use of mobile technology, especially hand-held devices, for educational purposes. The event also served as a platform to discuss how to prepare schools and teachers for mobile learning and how to make a school environment suitable for it.

Discussing the current use of technology amongst students and schools worldwide, panellists Patrick Beyrouti and Richard Stone agreed that it is a key bridge between students and schools. Both speakers urged education professionals to embrace technology to engage young people born in the digital age and understand how it can be used for educational purposes.

Shadi Al Hasan also added on the importance of technology in the life of a student, "Smartphone and tablets are becoming the key transformer from the eWorld to the mWorld (mobile) in technology; this means that a normal user of technological device can be empowered with all tools and apps that keep him connected and make him interact with the world around him while he's on the go. Learning is better known to be a journey, mobile is becoming the perfect and preferred companion you can imagine for the content consumption experience of students."

To demonstrate how mobile devices can be successfully incorporated into classroom and its positive outcomes, case studies were presented to the audience. For one study, Melania Mihalcea, a student from GEMS Royal Dubai School, demonstrated how she uses an iPad application created by its school where mobile learning has already become a reality.

"Our 10 year old student demonstrated the creative power of mobile technology in the hands of our young learners. In publishing her writing and video to the school's iPhone app, and using an iPad to model the process to GESS Al Nadi members and other attendees, she showed just why educators must not wait to embrace these game-changing tools," explained Phil Redhead.

GESS Al Nadi conducted a post-event survey in which almost 90% of attendees agreed that mobile applications can effectively enhance a curriculum, 95% said iPads or other handheld devices would improve learning and student engagement in the classroom and nearly 80% of education professionals said they would deploy handheld devices, such as iPads, in the near future.

Safia Habib, Consultant for the Umm Al Quwain Educational Zone and a member of GESS Al Nadi, said, "The seminar was very engaging and valid points were made on the growth and significance of mobile learning. It is important to have networking events and discussions such as this to help us re-evaluate and improve on what we offer as education professionals. GESS Al Nadi gives us the opportunity to consistently be updated and gain more knowledge on the sector and all the industry-changing innovations."

More insights and case histories on Mobile Learning will continue at GESS and the Global Education Forum, which will take place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 28 February to 1 March 201

Kolkata Fashion Fair – DHADKAN & PEHCHAN coming soon

Kolkata Fashion Fair growing India's best fashion and lifestyle exhibition in Kolkata. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months, says Oscar Wilde. However, the fashion in Kolkata changes itself everyday, in every moment. The "City of Joy" does not wait for those six months. Here, you are welcome to enjoy the latest trends, from every corner. She witnesses numerous events such as trade fairs, industrial fairs, exhibitions and other rural fairs. And, when its about Kolkata Fashion Fair; it essentially do not need any fashion street to mark her cultural. Kolkata Fashion Fair - DHADKAN is scheduled from 21 June 2011 to 23 June 2011 from 11am-8pm at Kolkata Ice Skating Rink and Kolkata Fashion Fair - PEHCHAN is scheduled from 30 August 2011 to 1 September 2011 from 11am-8pm at Kolkata Ice Skating Rink. With the right concept and within the right atmosphere, Kolkata Fashion Fair has recently grown bigger and broader on all counts: visitors, space and collections. The participants from all over India bring up apparel & garments; arts & crafts; electronics & electrical; flowers & gift; gems & jewelry; skin beauty; shoe & leather products; and many more. For the convenience the jewelers install carat weighing-machine and carry designer catalogues for making prompt decision making. The wider selection of jewelry specially, handcrafted for Kolkata Fashion Fair encourages the customers to buy more. India's second largest city, the gateway to the East, and one of the four largest metros in India, Kolkata has people from across the seven seas traveling round the world to come here for her traditional and cosmopolitan culture; offerings amazing and numerous Fairs and Events. Kolkata Fashion Fair exclusively grows demands of the fashion and entertainment industry - the aspiring models, the fashion photographers, the fashion designers; remarked herself as a fashion portal. They are the frequent visitors who enjoy the visual, buy anything, and of course eat what their heart can’t stop.

Wedding and Lifestyle Expo begins

The wedding and lifestyle fashion in India is like nowhere else. There is distinctness in each and every aspect which one cannot afford to miss. Celebrating matrimony and culture in all its colourful diversity, Fashion Unlimited Promotions limited is organising Wedding and Lifestyle Expo from 1st to 3rd October in Hotel Lalit. On this occassion, Mr.Vikramjeet Sharma, partner, Moksh Promotions limited stated "Weddings have become an elaborate affair and are celebrated with great enthusiasm all over India. This expo will bring together all the aspects of wedding under one roof, making it a unique platform for families and individuals to make their most important moment, the most special one". The exhibitors' lineup is impressive with brands like DTC Diamond & Heera Diamonds amongst many others are participating in the expo. The exhibition will also showcase leading fashion designers, clothing lines and lifestyle accessories. One can also know their fortunes by tarot cart gurus who are also going to grace the expo. "We at Fashion Unlimited are looking forward to reach out to the maximum presenting the new generation of modern India with great new choices, and the opportunity to discover a new world of beauty choice" quotes Mr.Vikramjeet Sharma. Professionalism, creativity and integrity are at the heart of Fashion Unlimited. By employing only the "creme de la crème" in each of its divisions, Fashion Unlimited Promotions limited is able to ensure that its clients get an exceptional experience from initial consultation to final performance. In a span of 10 years of existence, Fashion Unlimited has conceptualized, designed and organized several events and exclusive promotional campaigns involving OOH, TTL and BTL tools to make Product Launches of major Corporate Houses, MNC's and Public Sectors at pan India level.

H’bad Fashion Week ends with Indian traditional lines

Fashion collections of renowned designers like Riyaz Gangji, Neeta Lulla, Nishika Lulla and Prabhat Samarasooriya were showcased on the concluding day of the Hyderabad International Fashion Week.

‘Ethnic Explosion’ the collection from Riyaz Gangji had a Bollywood flavour around it and included saris and lehengas for women and sherwanis for men.

Nishka Lulla’s line named ‘Indian at Heart’ saw models sashaying the ramp in silks, chiffons and nets in myriad colours. The clothing had floral designs and bird motifs in Kalamkari art

GESS Al Nadi gathers education professionals to discuss mobile learning

GESS Al Nadi, a private networking club for the Gulf's leading educationalists, hosted its first ever seminar, Mobile Learning- Knowledge in the Hand, for over 100 education professionals at a recent event held at the Address Dubai Mall.

Launched this year, GESS Al Nadi is designed to bring together the Gulf's leading education professionals to network with exhibitors of the Gulf Educational Supplies and Solutions (GESS) exhibition, which is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and is in association with the Ministry of Education.

The panellists for the seminar, Patrick Beyrouti, Business Development Manager Education at Arab Business Machine- authorised Apple distributor, Shadi Al Hasan, Managing Director of Flagship Projects, Phil Redhead, Director of ICT & Innovation at GEMS Royal Dubai School and Independent Consultant Richard Stone, explained their thoughts and provided case histories to encourage the use of mobile technology, especially hand-held devices, for educational purposes. The event also served as a platform to discuss how to prepare schools and teachers for mobile learning and how to make a school environment suitable for it.

Discussing the current use of technology amongst students and schools worldwide, panellists Patrick Beyrouti and Richard Stone agreed that it is a key bridge between students and schools. Both speakers urged education professionals to embrace technology to engage young people born in the digital age and understand how it can be used for educational purposes.

Shadi Al Hasan also added on the importance of technology in the life of a student, "Smartphone and tablets are becoming the key transformer from the eWorld to the mWorld (mobile) in technology; this means that a normal user of technological device can be empowered with all tools and apps that keep him connected and make him interact with the world around him while he's on the go. Learning is better known to be a journey, mobile is becoming the perfect and preferred companion you can imagine for the content consumption experience of students."

To demonstrate how mobile devices can be successfully incorporated into classroom and its positive outcomes, case studies were presented to the audience. For one study, Melania Mihalcea, a student from GEMS Royal Dubai School, demonstrated how she uses an iPad application created by its school where mobile learning has already become a reality.

"Our 10 year old student demonstrated the creative power of mobile technology in the hands of our young learners. In publishing her writing and video to the school's iPhone app, and using an iPad to model the process to GESS Al Nadi members and other attendees, she showed just why educators must not wait to embrace these game-changing tools," explained Phil Redhead.

GESS Al Nadi conducted a post-event survey in which almost 90% of attendees agreed that mobile applications can effectively enhance a curriculum, 95% said iPads or other handheld devices would improve learning and student engagement in the classroom and nearly 80% of education professionals said they would deploy handheld devices, such as iPads, in the near future.

Safia Habib, Consultant for the Umm Al Quwain Educational Zone and a member of GESS Al Nadi, said, "The seminar was very engaging and valid points were made on the growth and significance of mobile learning. It is important to have networking events and discussions such as this to help us re-evaluate and improve on what we offer as education professionals. GESS Al Nadi gives us the opportunity to consistently be updated and gain more knowledge on the sector and all the industry-changing innovations."

More insights and case histories on Mobile Learning will continue at GESS and the Global Education Forum, which will take place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 28 February to 1 March 2012.

The seminar gave attendees the opportunity to expand their knowledge on a topic that is considered the future of education and discuss how to integrate mobile learning in classrooms and curriculum's across the region.

Global market for homeland security to be worth $194.3bn

Criminals are getting increasingly ingenious, with many turning to the latest technology to commit crimes of growing sophistication. As this trend proliferates worldwide, there is increasing pressure on security forces and police personnel worldwide to harness the latest scientific methods to combat increasingly clever criminals.

Security agencies around the world and especially in the Middle East region are turning their attention to the latest developments in crime-fighting science and technology to keep a step ahead. This has led to growing interest in the latest advances in forensic criminology and detection methods from police and security forces from around the Middle East region.

Epoc Messe Frankfurt, organiser of the region's premier security and policing trade event, Intersec, expects these trends to be reflected in the upcoming edition of the trade exhibition and conference with strong interest already registered in this field. The three day event will take place from January 15th to 17th 2012 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

"The use of scientific methods to combat crime and anticipate the criminals' next moves is certainly not new," said Ahmed Pauwels, Chief Executive Officer of Epoc Messe Frankfurt. "But the effectiveness of using the latest technology to aid in solving otherwise puzzling crimes has been demonstrated tellingly both in the region and on the international stage. This has led to growing emphasis on forensics and criminology by law enforcing agencies around the region," he added.

"With Dubai Police in the process of setting up a $137m ultra-modern, cutting-edge forensic criminology complex in the emirate, representatives from the force will be examining the latest wares of international forensic suppliers and laboratories with close interest," Pauwels stated.

Forensic criminology is expected to be a key area of interest at Intersec 2012. The safety, security and policing trade show and conference is the premier networking, trade and discussion forum for the regional security community and reflects the concerns and issues being felt around the Middle East.

Recent estimates by industry experts state that the global market for Homeland Security products and services is expected to be worth $194.3bn this year. The Homeland Security & Policing section at Intersec 2012 will feature the latest range of specialised electronics, forensic solutions, training and consultancy services, equipments for special forces, aviation security, physical security, tactical security, detection and disposal, as well as armoured vehicles and equipment.

Confirmed exhibitors at this year's Intersec within the Homeland Security & Policing section include Bruker Daltonics, Cross Match Technologies, Smiths Detection, Streit Group, Proytecsa, Solan, Scanna, Mirion, Reflex Responses and many others. Intersec will also feature exhibitors in the fields of Commercial Security & Information Security, Aviation, Fire & Rescue and Safety & Health.

Intersec is part of Messe Frankfurt's global network of security trade fairs which also include Secutech in Taiwan, Secutech India, Secutech Thailand, Secutech Vietnam, Seguriexpo Buenos Aires and Intersec Buenos Aires.

Ahmed Pauwels, Chief Executive Officer of Epoc Messe Frankfurt.

Enlarge »

Benelux Event Awards 2012: de deelnemende cases zijn gekend!

De deelnemers zijn gekend en hieronder na te lezen. Op 13 december 2011 zullen de deelnemende agentschappen hun cases verdedigen voor een 4-koppige BEA selectie-jury. Dit jaar is er een grote variatie aan cases van verschillende agentschappen, met zelfs enkele absolute nieuwkomers. Het belooft een spannende strijd te worden !
We wensen alle deelnemers alvast heel veel succes !
Wenst u een 'stand' of een 'supplier-card' te reserveren ?

Voor reservering BEANS
Voor reservering SUPPLIER CARDS
DE CASES:
24Seven

• Range Rover Evoque - lancerings event - trip to the city experience dagen & pop-up store & activaties
• niko home control - internationale tour
• red bull roofs : triggerfinger op het dak van het MAS

Basesix events

• Tuc Rail

Chips Experience

• Opel Belgium - Ampera Launch event

COCOMO

• KaThee stapt met je mee

CRE-ACTION SA

• Siemens

DM&S Action

• Prison Break Veldhoven - AstraZeneca Campaign Meeting (aug'11)

d-side

• Go for Zero, voor de klant BIVV

Engage BBDO

• ACEA - 20 jaar
• Lego Ninjago
• VW Ecomatic

Event Masters

• Ingram Micro & Cisco: Fly Higher Launch Event

Fast Forward events

• Maes Unscene
• Familie Picknick (ism VMMa events)
• Expedition Carglass

GUAVA

• Enterprise Europe Network Vlaanderen - Annual Conference
• Mobistar - Distri Events Redbull Mobile
• Deme - Doop Congo River & Flintstone
• Energizer - lancering Wilkinson Sword
• Mini - Cartoonale Knokke

JADA events bvba

• Torfs Happy Days 2011
• Ministerie van Ontwikkelingssamenwerking – stand op nationale feestdag

KonseptS

• A touch of Antwerp-tainment

MeetMarcel

• Biscuiterie Jules Destrooper - 125 jaar

NewWorld

• FREE ABSYNTHE MINDED!! for BASE

Respect For your Audience nv - Twins|Events & PR

• Nintendo 3DS: Playing is Believing!

Sportizon nv

• Mission Olympic - Coca-Cola

Sultan Sushi Events

• Bokrijk in de ban van de 5e Boog

Sylvester Productions

• Antwerpen Europese Jongerenhoofdstad (AEYC) - KickOff (4 en 5 maart 2011)
• 975 jaar Keerbergen - Volksfeest & parade (4 september 2011)

To The Point Events

• Bringing Chemistry to Life: Opendeurdagen Tessenderlo Chemie

TWICE

• VTM-Kerstparade / La Parade de Noel RTL

VAAV Communication

• Optima Open

White Rabbit

• Zomerpicnic op 't strand

Wow Communication

• De Wereld van de Nederlandse Taal
• C'est mon droit

Holiday Roundup: 10 Last Minute DIY Gift Ideas

Hello lovelies! Did you all have a great weekend? Mine started out with a mean seasonal cold, but thankfully by Sunday morning I was feeling well again, thanks to this awesome natural cold syrup that Satsuki recommended to me over on twitter (thank you again Satsuki).
This week I wanted to start off the roundups I promised, with 10 great Last Minute DIY Gift Ideas. There are loads of handmade presents to make online, but once I started searching I realized that not many of them can actually be completed in a short period of time or without too many expensive supplies. So after a rather exhaustive hunt (and remember I was still ill at this point, so I might have missed a lot of great ones) I found these projects to share with you all. Tomorrow I'll be sharing a roundup of delicious and not-too-complicated recipes that are great for making and gifting. See you then! xo Ez

Inspiration Daily: 12. 20. 11

The Hunt - Lace Art Print by Heather Landis. You can find more from Heather on her website, blog and flickr.

Holiday Roundup: 16 Great Food / Recipe Gifts

Hi guys! So yesterday I started off this week's holiday roundups with 10 simple DIY gift ideas, and today I thought I'd share some great food/recipe gift links with you all. Again, I tried to find projects that were specifically on the quick and easy side of things, since I know we are all hurry-scurrying to get everything ready in time for the big day. I've also linked to a few makable goodies for those with special dietary needs (I added a note next to those links). And finally, a few of these projects don't even involve any cooking at all! I hope they will come in handy for you. xo Ez
1. Baileys Mint Truffles from Bakers Royal | 2. Fabulous Five-Minute Fudge from Better Homes and Gardens | 3. Spiced Nuts and Pretzel Mix from Wives with Knives (via Erin) | 4. Hot Chocolate Spoons by A Beautiful Mess / Can be made gluten-free (via Iris) | 5. Chocolate Almond Popcorn from Martha Stewart, photo by Lisa Hubbard / gluten-free | 6. Easy Rollo Pretzel Bites from The Queso (via Fairytale Cottage) | 7. Candy Sticks from Martha Stewart /  8. Flourless Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies from Chocolate & Carrots / Can be made gluten-free | 9. Peppermint Meringue Cookies from Skip to My Lou / gluten-free (via Cratzine) | 10. Mulling Sachets from Martha Stewart / vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

11. Candy Cane Truffles from Hungry Girl Por Vida | 12. Cookie Mixes in Jars from The Kitchen Finesse | 13. Peppermint Reindeer Patties with Free Printable Tags / can be made gluten-free | 14. Peppermint Bark from Martha Stewart | 15. Homemade Seasoned Salts from Eat at Home / vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free | 16. Toffee Blondie Mix from Better Homes and Gardens

Know your audience: an elusive key to fundraising

Just as Black Sabbath isn’t going to get up on
stage and perform the latest Wiggles set �
front to back for fear of the repercussions, your organization should also know who their audience is when planning a fundraising event. Without properly constructed plans to a specific audience, your event can fall apart before it gets off the ground. When your goal is to persuade (soliciting them for donations) and not just simply to inform, understanding your audience is crucial to shaping and delivering your message. In turn, your message will be more convincing and easily accepted.
I was at an event earlier in the year that was stifled from the beginning. The organizers told me that the crowd was very old fashioned, “they weren’t into technology.” And, that using electronic bidding devices was completely new and it could take a while for them to get used to the system. Not so…The crowd was generally all under forty and adept at using technology. They took to the system right away. No one needed assistance, and attendees were placing bids right from the start. Had the organizers considered their audience from the beginning, they could have raised more money by tailoring the event.

What to learn
By gathering a few key insights into your audience, you can speak to them more effectively, raise more money and not appear desperate for their hard-earned money. First, find out some demographics. Where do they live? How old are they? What is their income level? Next, learn whether or not they have donated to your cause before. Repeat donations should be easier to entice than first timers. Lastly, how are they going to be receiving your message? Are they familiar with technology, or do they prefer their news in paper form? Maybe your audience is segregated. You might need two messages to be the most effective in reaching your listeners.
How to get the information
Start with the basics…ask them. Use tools such as login forms on your website. If you don’t have a database set up already, now is a good time to start. Databases can also tell you a great deal about their interests and where they work. Social media can be useful in tracking as well. Who is following your feed? What types of friends are you getting? Do you see trends that tell you who/where they are? If you’re noticing a lot of .edu tags on your email list – you might have a number of people from the education field that are interested in your organization. Another successful means of acquiring this information is web analytics. Check into how people are finding your site. Where are they navigating from, and where are they going when they leave?
Advertisers have been quite keen to this notion for decades. If their message isn’t tailored to their specific audience(s), that message will get lost in all the clutter. They would make no money and eventually lose clients. It is critical in their business as in planning events to speak to a predetermined audience while using the proper outlets. So, take some time, do some research, ask some questions. In the end, you will have a more successful event and a better chance of seeing those donations repeated in the future.

Tips for Hosting Outdoor Events

The figure of speech ‘tis the season typically goes hand-in-hand with snow-covered sidewalks and houses adorned with festive lights.  In the summer, this phrase takes on a new, yet equally festive, meaning.
Summer – ’tis the season for planning and hosting outdoor events.  With warm weather upon us, who wants to be cooped up inside, sitting in dark auditoriums and wandering through hotel meeting rooms?  Outdoor events are a great way to create buzz and increased traffic to your fundraising and silent auction events!

The tricky part is, outdoor events don’t have the controlled environments that event planners enjoy with indoor events, and with that comes obstacles and logistical issues.   To avoid major mishaps, equip yourself with a few helpful hints on the best ways to host outdoor event.  Here are some things to consider for helping make your outdoor fundraiser or silent auction a smashing success:

• Comfort Is Key
  If your event is going to be mostly or entirely outdoors, remember that your guest’s comfort is crucial.  Take into consideration the temperature during the event – providing air conditioning, fans or heat lamps can be the key to ensuring your guests stick around for the main event. People also need comfortable places to sit, mingle and converse – be prepared with areas designated for any activity your guests may need to engage in.
   
• Lighting Sets the Mood
  If your event is held during the day, natural light may be plenty.  However for evening events, artificial lights are essential and how you use them has a huge impact on the overall mood of the event.    Pay attention to the wires, extension cords and other lighting logistics, always using the philosophy that less is more.  Think about using LED lights – they require far less energy and often have cordless battery or solar powered options.�
   
• Weather Or Not
  While we all hope for sunshine on the day of a large event, thunderclouds may rear their ugly heads whether we’re prepared for them or not.   Having a backup plan is your best bet for minimizing the headache and time wasted in adapting an event at the last minute.  A simple option is to set up tents in advance if the venue allows, or keep them on hand so when the weather turns, you’re ready to act.
   
• Hear and Be Heard – Audio is one of the most difficult aspects to control at an outdoor event.  One of the easiest ways to ensure you’re connecting with your audience is to use an audience response system like the IML Connector.  It enables your guests to have their own microphone and portable PA system, so you can rest assured everyone has a voice and is being heard loud and clear. 

With summer in full swing, take advantage of the long days and warm nights and host your next fundraiser or event outdoors.  Hosting a silent auction or fundraiser outdoors brings new dimension to any event.
Subscribe to the Corporate Event Planning Blog by RSS feed or email, or follow IML on Twitter or ‘like’ us on Facebook to receive the latest fundraising and silent auction system news.

5 Simple Steps to a Greener Fundraiser

Going green is a hot ticket these days. This is true for every business including non-profits. Considering Labor Day has past, the fall fundraising season in unofficially underway. Below, I’ve created a list of five easy ways to go green and make some green at the same time.
1.  Use technology instead of paper
In general, a vast majority of fundraising events, outside of the classroom, are silent auctions. In the typical model, attendees write their name on pieces of paper – wait until someone has outbid them and write their name in the little space again, and again, and so on… With fundraising technology from IML, no paper is needed. Bidding is done with electronic devices and current bids are displayed on large screens throughout the venue. It’s great fun, more people are involved in the bidding, and it’s portable. No need to leave the bar, your table, or the colleague that you’re catching up with, the bidding can be done generally anywhere in the room. Data is tracked and stored digitally, so there really is no need for paper.

2. Host the event at a LEED location
If your event is being held off site from your organization’s office, discuss location ideas with your planner and local community. If there are LEED certified locations available, consider hosting the event at one of these. The gala event at Columbia College’s media production center is a good example. The waste elimination, water efficiency and energy usage at these locations will be very beneficial to your greening effort, and enticing to eco conscious attendees. Find out about LEED certification and green building here.
3. Provide unique recycling options
Although not extremely glamorous; recycling printer cartridges, old cell phones, or shoes (like Souls4Souls), can be an ideal way to reduce waste and clean out the closet. Consider offering services such as this during your event. If your attendees are anything like me, they more than likely have these objects lying around their house, office, back seat, etc… Having a time and place for these to be recycled is a unique way to bring guests to your event, while at the same time cleaning up the “big backyard”.
4. Offer green products and auction items
Giving people the tools and teaching them the value of going green is one of the best ways to greenify your event. First, encourage people to reduce, reuse, and recycle. It may seem a little clichéd now, but this notion is still the foundation of the green initiative. Offer cotton tote bags in lieu of plastic ones. They can be branded with your event and sponsor logos and will be the first step to getting attendees headed in the right direction. Another idea is to sell tree saplings, and solicit donations for the price and planting of these trees. This is tremendous for the environment and an interesting item for the auction.
5. Consider entertainment that supports green
Many recording acts and entertainers donate to and support green initiatives. Research will help determine who those may be and how to get in contact with them. If you must pay for the entertainment, and if this entertainment option still fits your target audience, you should consider hiring these artists for the event. That way your donations are actually helping multiple charities at once. For information on the importance of knowing your target audience, follow the link.
By now, you should be on your way to a more eco friendly event. Using these simple steps along with the many other resources available and some good old fashioned creative thinking, your event can be as green as you want it to be. In my mind and I hope many other’s too – The greener the better.

Event Planner’s Dojo: Top Twitter Chats

Back before getting my black belt in event technology, I remember calling out to the digital abyss, “Where is everyone?”
And the calm, authoritative voice of the Internet echoed back: “Tweet chatting.”
So I braved the great distance from Google all the way to Twitter, but I still did not find my people. Where were the relevantly themed conversations? Where were the stand-out ideas to get my events attended? Where were the event-planning insiders?
“Must use chat tools,” the voice said. “Hashtag, must know.”
The Internet remained similarly cryptic until a series of training montages where I finally put it all together. But lucky for you, you won’t have to wax cars or catch a moderator with chopsticks.
Instead, I’ll just tell you the top 7 Twitter chats for event planners that will help you sweep the leg on your competition. Much easier.
1. #eventprofs | Schedule - The first and largest Twitter community for event planners. Meets twice weekly. Some recent topics have included virtual and green events.
2. #engage365 | Fridays, 1:00 PM ET – Focused on event technology and using social media to increase event engagement. Recent sessions have featured takeaways from Event Camp Europe and trends in event production.

3. #speakchat | Mondays, 9:00 PM ET – A catch-all community for the speaking industry ranging from speakers and speaker bureaus, to publishers, vendors, event planners, and more.
4. #AVchat | Thursdays, 4:00 PM ET – A place for audiovisual experts and enthusiasts to examine all things AV.
5. #Razoo | An ongoing hub bringing together the current trends in individual giving and nonprofit fundraising online.
6.  #PCMA | The Professional Convention Management Association aims to help association, corporate planners and suppliers increase their effectiveness.
7. #mtworld | Live vicariously through Aoife Delaney and Grace Harper-Brighouse as their “Meeting the World” web channel provides a window into venues, hotels, properties and service providers across twenty countries and six continents.
If you’re not finding the right dojo to hone your skills, maybe it’s time to start your own Twitter chat! And please do share other good chats and hashtags you’ve discovered, and let us in on your favorites.
Receive all of the latest fundraising and silent auction system news by subscribing to the Purple Carpet Event Blog RSS feed or by email. Or follow us on Twitter and ‘like’ us on Facebook.

5 Ways to Avoid the Pep Rally Effect and Stay Results-Driven

Would you rather people leave your fundraising event having had a good time or having raised a lot of money? It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Ideally, you want both, but you must always put donation before ovation. Which is why the event itself, along with the meetings leading up to it, need to focus on getting the right kind of audience participation.
A pep rally gets an audience to rush out inspired, except then all they do is sit on the sidelines. The objective is not just to pump people up. To avoid that effect with your fundraiser, let’s focus on how to get the most out of your meetings.
Designating a few roles should establish accountability and a sense of common purpose that will ultimately lead to event success. Here are a few key ways to proceed:

1. Set clear meeting objectives
Designate a meeting leader to define the scope of your conversations and keep attendees from straying off task. A respected leader who sets and resets the agenda makes all the difference.
2. Create action-item list
Appoint someone to take a list of action items during the meeting. Things that get written down get done. When appropriate, assign action items for attendees to work on individually or pair up and report back. The more people pulling on the same side of the rope, the less chance you’ll end up in the mud.
3. Go Modern!
Event technology can be employed during meetings to show clear team opinions and drive collaborative results. These tools allow you to make decisions more quickly and democratically, while creating an engaging environment that is interactive and inclusive.
4. Keep tasks visible
After getting verbal buy-in from attendees, action items should always remain visible. Post names for those who took ownership next to action items. Remember: out of sight, out of mind. In sight, in mind.
5. Follow up after meetings
Are the timelines and expectations clear? Is there anything or anyone else who could help? Resetting the agenda is not only reserved for meetings.
Keep these steps in mind to make sure your next event is a success. Can you think of some other ideas we missed? Do you think any of these shouldn’t be included? We’d love to hear your thoughts and insight in a comment.
Receive all of the latest fundraising and silent auction system news by subscribing to the Purple Carpet Event Blog RSS feed or by email.  Follow IML on Twitter and ‘like’ us on Facebook.

Beyond The Box – New Ideas to Improve Your Fundraiser

Since I have started posting to this site I have discussed ways to improve your event from how to better understand your audience to organizing a green(er) fundraiser. This article addresses recurring subjects that people seem to always have questions about. The content changes, but the need for new ideas does not. Below are some fresh takes that have sparked my interest from around the biz. They may be creations of mine, or borrowed from some pals in the industry (thanks for sharing with me, y’all).  This point of view will come from the notion that you have already or are considering using technology for your silent auction. If this is not the case – start there.
The first thing that comes to mind is a pledge or fund-a-need competition. This starts as the traditional sequestering of donations for a specific fund, be it sponsoring a child or getting new dishes down at the soup kitchen etc, etc. But, when adding the element of a competition, the audience becomes more lively and engaged. Although the ever so common tear-jerking video is a great place to start – follow that up with a competition to get the big money in the room really flowing. With pledge technology from IML Worldwide, it is a super easy and fun way to get your donors to outspend each other.

Then, there are some (new) trends:  NASCAR themed racing, or other gaming systems, where two or more attendees are pitted against each other in a gaming environment onsite. The attendees pay to play and get the chance to hold bragging rights over their friends and colleagues.  The folks over at GamePlan Entertainment have some nice offerings.
Online poker tournaments have also started popping up as a creative way to elicit funds for your organization. Contestants pay (donate) a fee to the cause and have the opportunity to battle it out online against other players. Again, bragging rights for winners – big money for the charity. This is an offsite game, but a nice way to get the donations coming in prior to the event. Then, winners can gloat in person the night of. Are we seeing a trend here with competitive donating? I think so…
Recently, I encountered a unique 5k run that was zombie themed. You could participate as a zombie, a slayer, or a survivor. The roles of each being what they sound like. There was an entry fee to participate and the attendees had a great day of fun and festivities. While the zombie theme might not be for everyone, I appreciated the creativity and playfulness of this event.
Lastly, I would like to highlight some new trends in social media and RFIDs that allow for a real time, real world uploads of your ‘likes’ to the digital realm. Or, better yet, I’ll let Sam Smith tell you about it over on his blog. Thanks for the cool story, Sam.
This list is small in a big world of events and meetings, but anything you do to set yourself apart is going to make a big impact on your audience. So keep the ideas coming and try to never settle for the same old thing.

The Importance of Event Space Planning

Professional event planners understand the importance of space flow. There’s nothing worse than attending an event that feels overcrowded. Good use of the space provided makes attendees happier and satisfied attendees are more likely to help you meet your fundraising goals.
Whether you are hosting a silent auction or a fundraising gala, considering the best use of your event space will set the stage for a successful event. Here are a few things to consider when planning your next event.
5 Tips for Event Space Planning and Secrets to Increase Flow

1. Registration or check in. The decision of where to place registration is crucial because it’s what creates the first impression with attendees. Do you place the registration table outside the room or inside? Space flow outside the event room is just as important as space flow inside the event room. Regardless of where you decide to place registration, remember – people don’t like to feel crowded.
2. Refreshments. In general, the purpose of providing refreshments is to encourage interaction among attendees. Depending on your budget, you may want to place refreshments both inside and outside of the room. This allows for more freedom of movement among attendees and also accommodates the speakers who are waiting their turn to speak. Consider carefully the traffic flow of people. If possible, observe where people tend to naturally stop to talk and plan a space for an inlet or outlet so people don’t create a logjam.
3. Speaker and monitor placement. Consider where monitors are placed. You want to be sure that every seat in the room has a clear view of any monitors set up around the room. With speakers, check the volume setting before you start the event. You don’t want to blast people out of their chairs or irritate anyone with loud electronic feedback. As a safety precaution, make sure all cables are taped down and placed in areas that don’t restrict movement.
4. VIPs. Make sure you provide VIP seating for speakers who wish to attend the entire event or other people whom you’ve deemed important. If speakers are arriving from out of town, it’s a nice touch to have a separate room reserved just for them. This allows for privacy and a little cat nap, if needed.
5. Feedback. This is one of the most overlooked parts of an event. The planners forget to ask for feedback. Ideally, you want to alert attendees to the importance of hearing what they have to say. By placing feedback forms at every table and for every speaker, you’ll increase your response rate. While Twitter is nice for instant feedback, the anonymity of a feedback form often provides more actionable advice.

The Benefits of Multi-Year Use

If you or your planning committee is on the fence about switching from paper bid sheets to an electronic silent auction or pledge, you should consider an important trend among our clients: almost all say they will never go back to paper bidding.
Why do we at IML think this is? The benefits of using electronic bidding and pledging only increase with each time they are used. There is always a bit of a learning curve when using technology that is new to your attendees. Luckily, IML’s bidding keypads are very user-friendly and people quickly learn how to bid and keep tabs on their favorite items. And even though our clients get better results than paper bidding in their first year, their success often continues to improve in the following years.

Often, clients will only use us for one aspect of their event for the first year, usually their silent auction, and then incorporate the keypads into other aspects of the event in the years following, allowing their attendees time to become familiar with using them. Then, during the second, or third, or fourth (well you get the idea) year of using us, your attendees will be knowledgeable about the process and come ready to bid! When attendees know what to expect and how to use the keypads, it will be like second nature to them, bidding, competing and pledging with ease.
Using electronic bidding/pledging keypads as a multi-year strategy not only familiarizes your repeat attendees with how to use the keypads, but it also streamlines and simplifies the whole event for you, the planner. You too will become familiar with the preparation process, allowing you to work easily with our project managers who will help you expand the system’s use into other areas of your event (if you so choose), using it to its fullest potential.
So if you’re considering taking your fundraising event to the next level, check out IML’s electronic fundraising options and see for yourself why our clients swear they’ll never do paper bidding again.

5 Tips for Successful Twitter Fundraising

We have posted before on how to use social media tools like Twitter to promote an event and increase attendance.  Increasing fundraiser attendance is one great way to raise more money, but Twitter can help you do more than just promote your event. It is a great tool to start raising money before your event.  Twitter has the capability of helping spread the message and raise funds faster than ever before.  It can reach a wider circle of people and appeal to those who maybe wouldn’t want to, or are unable to attend an event, but are willing to donate money to a great cause.
Asking for money can be tricky, especially since the rules of an online community may be different than those you are used to.  That’s why we’ve put together a few tips to help you use Twitter to its full money raising potential and ensure you don’t make any social media etiquette missteps along the way.

• Cultivate A Strong Community – It’s going to be extremely difficult to raise money if you’re only asking 5 people, and those 5 people really have no clue who you are.  In order to successfully use Twitter as a fundraising method, you need to first build a community of similarly minded people.  Long before you ever ask for money, use Twitter to advance news, messages, events and updates about what you’re doing.  Let them know what you stand for and if they agree, the money will come when you ask for it.

• Build Excitement – Would you want to give money to someone for a boring reason that you don’t really have any emotional attachment to?  Probably not and neither will your followers.  Make fundraising exciting and fun, offer incentives, offer an event, just make it something other than people giving out their cash and never hearing from you again.  Make fundraising FUN and you’ll find a lot more FUNDS in your account.

• Interact With Your Community & Build Relationships When you are working hard to build your community initially, you need to make sure you stick with those same principles.  Once the community is established, you have to show them that you’re always going to be interacting and available to them.  If you build them up and then ditch them you will lose the community you worked so hard to gain.  Be transparent, be open and be available…show those that trust and follow you that you’re worth both.

• Be Clear With Your Intentions – People don’t want to give money without knowing exactly what that money is going to be used for.  Be clear, be up-front and be honest with your intentions and explain to people exactly how the money raised will be put to use.  When you DO use it, show your followers how with photos, videos or presentations.

• Harness Event Technology With Your Events – There will come a time, or at least there should, when you give individuals who have contributed the chance to attend an event in the honor of whatever it is you’re raising money for.  When that event comes, don’t make it the same humdrum fundraising event that everyone has been to; use event technology to transform it into a modern, fun, and interactive event everyone will talk about.

If used properly, Twitter can truly be a powerful tool that can help raise money and awareness like never before.  Use some of these tips to help get the most out of a tool that is waiting to be tapped.
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Foursquare for Event Promotion & Check-In

We’ve mentioned on this blog a great number of ways to successfully throw the biggest and best event you’ve ever seen.  We’ve gone over how Facebook, Twitter and blogs can be used to create a buzz and then spread it like wildfire before your event happens.  Now we have another tool that is rapidly gaining in popularity and yes, effectiveness.  Have you ever thought of promoting your event and your event-check in with Foursquare?
The bottom line is, over the last year and a half, geo-tagging and geo-location has become one of the biggest and fastest moving trends.  They are well on their way to the billion mark for check-ins and I don’t see many signs of it stopping.  With this much momentum, it’s time to get on board and start using Foursquare to promote your event and event-check-in.  Here are a few ways to do it:

1. Add Your Venue – Before your event is even close to beginning, start off by adding your venue and event to Foursquare.  Name the venue whatever your event will be called, add the address, your Twitter information and even a website for the event.  Pick a category and you’re ready to start marketing your event.
2. Create Check-In Incentives – Foursquare uses an entertaining “specials” system that businesses can use to draw in customers.  Events can do the same exact thing.  If you create rewards for event check-ins you could create a buzz that will spread a lot faster than any other method.  Have a first check-in reward, or create a drawing out of all the names of those that checked-in.  Announce your incentive early and often to keep the buzz, well, buzzing.
3. Leave Tips and Ideas – When your event is up and the buzz has started buzzing, leave fun ideas, information about your event, tips for what people can do in the surrounding area and any kind of additional information your guests might need.  The more information they have at their disposal, the more they’ll see that their best interest is your first priority.

Between Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and so many other social networking sites there are more methods of social media at your disposal than ever before.  By harnessing the power of these sites and services, you can take your event promotion to the next level.  Once the guests are in, do not forget to also tap into the power of event technology to make the event (that you spent all that time marketing) truly unforgettable.
Receive all of the latest fundraising and silent auction system news by subscribing to the Purple Carpet Event Blog RSS feed or by email. Or follow us on Twitter and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.

The Ultimate Guide to Selling More Event Tickets

This post is for those event planners who haven’t realized they are the no.1 salesperson of their event. In time of crisis, ticket sales go down. Here is how to sell out and go to bed with a big smile on your face.
I see a lot of talk online on how to engage your attendees, how social media will save you from the oblivion, how new event designs will solve all of your troubles.
What about selling more tickets?
Don’t get me wrong; being innovative, using social, engaging in different ways is amazing. If you sell 10 tickets out of 100 though, you are in deep… troubles.
Event planners need to wear a lot of hats. They need to be people managers, accountants, project managers, customer service representatives. They also need to be salespeople.
Having met thousands of planners online and offline, this is where a lot of us get stuck.
We don’t realize how crucial it is for us to become the prime advocate of what we do. We need to transfer the excitement of what we are planning to prospects and influence them to buy tickets.
I hear you. It’s not an easy task.
Here is a small guide to get you started and become a sales ninja.

The Core: What You Sell

I asked the same question in a post three days ago. I am picking this up again because I’ve been astonished by how many people mentioned this paragraph when sharing the post on social networks.
You are selling a unique experience that will wow your guest.
If you nail the above, you’ll feel confident enough to sell it to the world.

Learn How To Sell

Do you know how to sell?
Selling is an art. It’s definitely about charisma, but you can learn a few tricks.
I am a big fan of the AIDA method. I believe this is one of the most effective approaches to selling that can be applied to online, offline and verbal communication.
Alec Baldwin explained it in a testosteronic way in Glengarry Glen Ross (watch out for a lot of cursing).
If you are willing to get your audience to take Action, Attention->Interest->Desire are the most recurrent motivational states that you need to drive them through.
I’ve been applying that in the past 10 years to all copy and marketing communications and I can say it works really well when properly implemented.

Learn Persuasion Principles

Now that you know the basic commandments of selling and the process that drives people to take action, you need to work on your persuasion techniques.
When I say persuasion, I think Robert Cialdini. He is the first non-bogus author who tackled the science of persuasion with an academic approach and without wishy washy theories.
The books by dr. Cialdini are all time best sellers and laid the foundation to modern sales and marketing communications.
This is the best sum up of his theories. In the years these have become the archetypes of every piece of advertising that has been developed.
Learn these principles by heart.

Learn Who Your Customer Is

Do you know who buys your ticket? How much do you know about them? Where do they live, how old are they, what’s their job title, what social networks do they use.
You need to have a clear image and segmentation of your audience. The best method to build a profile of your customer is by creating personas.
One of the best posts I’ve read in the past months about shaping personas is at Copyblogger. They also provide a PDF of what a profile may look like.
Clearly defining your audience helps in shaping your selling techniques and calls to action. You’ll be amazed how good you can become at anticipating questions and hurdles.
Oh, almost forgot. Concentrate on the top 3. Ignore the others, they are a waste of time and resources.

Learn to Measure

Do you know how many ticket sales each marketing communication channel generates? Without this information you won’t be able to understand what works for your audience.
One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in the past two years is desperate event marketers jumping on social media and spending crazy budgets without really knowing the effectiveness of their initiatives. This is wrong and not healthy.
It may well be that your audience prefers to be called via phone or faxed.
In order to make sense of how your funnel looks like, learn how to use goal setting.
Some tools to track the effectiveness of the most common communication channels are:
- Website: Google Analytics
- Blog: Postrank, Google Analytics
- Brochures, Print Materials, Faxes, Direct Mail, Print Ads, Display Ads: QR Codes, ShortURls
- Email: Short URls, Platform Analytics (MailChimp)
- Phone: Unique Phone Numbers (FreshEgg)
- SMS: Unique Codes
- PPC: Google Adwords Analytics

Review and Re-deploy

Once you are confident with the motivational cues that drive people to action, the principles of persuasion, the profiles of your ideal customer and the measurement of your efforts, it’s time to sit down and review what worked.
I use a multivariate testing approach. That means that I try different messages and motivational inputs to see what works best.
Isolate the channels and the messages that worked best and double up the effort to maximise on the opportunity. You’ll soon realize that you’ll have a selling machine in place that sells more tickets with an exponential decrease in the effort required.

In Conclusion

This guide is a starting point for your sales efforts.
Please do read all of the links I attached as I cannot give you all of the answers.
If you find it of value share it on Google+, Twitter, Facebook or wherever you wish. It’s a great feedback loop for me to know the content is going in the right direction.

20 Tools to Measure Event Marketing

This post is a follow up to a previous article on organizing your sales effort. Without measurement you are wasting your time. Here is how to track and measure the impact of your event marketing efforts.
In times of crisis you are accountable for every penny spent on your marketing. Scarcity impacts budgets and accountability becomes omnipresent.
Knowing what your event marketing channels deliver should be a fitness check nobody should avoid. Nonetheless we witness frantic rushes to spend precious budget on channels we really don’t measure.
The positive side of downturns is that we are forced to become wiser. Measuring your marketing activities is always a winner.
When you measure, you enter the virtuous cycle of investing in what delivers more. In turn, you earn more spending power for next year. Sounds good, right?
Achieving all of the above is actually easier than you think. It takes a good old spreadsheet and some set up, but once in place, you have a marketing machine that will generate happiness for you and your business.

Start With a Question

What does success look like? Is it leads? Is it sales? Is it mentions on Twitter?
I believe that Marketing serves 3 purposes: Revenue, Traffic and Awareness. This is my humble opinion but think about narrowing down the set of objectives you work with.
I read too many articles talking about SMART objectives and business books lingo. Marketing objectives need to fall within the above three areas. If you are outside those areas, chances are you are wasting budget.

Enough With the Talk, Show Me the Tools

No rush dear reader, it’s coming.
Just a note before we start, I’ve organized the tools by communication channel. This will make it easier for you to pick the best tool for your event marketing communications.

Event Website

I put the website first. Your event website is your home base. It should be the center of all your online marketing activities. Here are the best tools to measure what role your website plays in your event marketing mix.
- Google Analytcs (1). Google offers the most performing free web analytics platform on the market. As simple as that. Without Google Analytics installed on your website, you are literally throwing money out of the window. Google Analytics by itself won’t help you go anywhere, unless you have the followings clearly set up.
- Goals and Funnels (2). Without setting up goals and funnels you won’t know the impact of your communications on your business objective. Please read through this guide and make sure to get them in place.
- Campaigns Tracking (3). It could be that you run a campaign on Twitter to drive ticket sales. I recommend you tell Google Analytics exactly where your visitors are coming from as creating goals and funnels with referral traffic could miss on some data (unidentified referral, multiple clients, etc). Follow this link to attach Google Analytics tags to the links you share on the Interwebs.
- Crazy Egg (4). Believe it or not but I am not a numbers person. I prefer visual information. Crazy Egg has made a name for itself in Eye tracking and Heatmapping. Crazy Egg will tell you the areas of your website that capture the attention of your visitors. You can include this precious information in your goal setting and depict more realistic visitors journeys. You can give it a go and try it for free. The pricing is very reasonable.
- SEO Tools (5). Search Engine represent usually 75% to 85% of the traffic you’ll ever get. How you optimize your event website for SEO it’s crucial. How you measure the performance of your website against specific keywords will help you to identify marketing opportunities on Google Search. SEOMoz offers a complete suite of tracking and measurement tools that I find extremely valuable.

Social Media

A basic premise: Social Media is a very broad term. I could list 200 tools for this category only. I summed up the best tools for the media I find to be the most effective for event marketing purposes. The thing is that social media is playing an increasingly important role on the SEO of your event website, therefore it is advisable to give it an educated go.
- Twitter. Hootsuite (6). I can’t do without Hootsuite for business. I’ve been managing more than 40 accounts under one Hootsuite account and I am an absolute fan of their reporting dashboard. Hootsuite integrates with Google Analytics for easier campaign setting. It will give you key statistics such as followers growth, mentions and clicks demographics. You need to activate Hootsuite Pro to have such capabilities.
- Facebook. Facebook Insights (7) is the most commonly used tools for measuring the impact of your Facebook event marketing. An interesting alternative is Pagelever (8). As benchmarking tools I would look into Wildfire (9) for benchmarking and EdgeRankChecker (10) to understand your EdgeRank.
- Blog. I sincerely hope you run your Event Blog on WordPress. If you do, you’ll need to use Google Analytics, Jetpack (11) and Postrank (12). Jetpack and Google Analytics will give you a cross-referenced traditional web analytics performance, while Postrank will help you to understand the impact of your blog on social media. This is extremely important if your objetive is awareness or pure engagement without commercial indicators.
- Youtube. Insights is the tool offered by Youtube to understand the impact of video in your marketing mix. Here is a handy guide(13) to master the tool. If you are a Youtube Partner you can enjoy in-depth reporting as well as Youtube Live, the latest live streaming service from Google.

Apps

If you use mobile applications as a marketing tool, you may want to be able to measure their performance. Here are some of the most useful apps:
- iPhone/iPad/iPod. Appfigures (14) is my choice. The service collates the most significant analytics and reporting features you’d expect to see in mobile marketing.
- Android/BlackBerry/Windows and iPhone. Localytics (15) really pulls it all together. If you run multi-platform campaigns with apps, this is your choice!

Print

Print still plays an important role for event marketing. This includes everything from brochures, to flyers, banners, direct mail, faxes and print ads. Sticking your website address on print material is a wasted opportunity. Here are some suggestions to track your print event marketing.
- QR Codes. They have been around for a while but they have recently gathered a lot of attention, mostly thanks to the adoption of smartphones booming across the world. Services like bit.ly introduce QR codes generation and reporting, but I invite you to have a look at QreateBuzz (16) for a comprehensive approach to measurement.
- Short URLs. They are everywhere. The aforementioned bit.ly is a prime example. I strongly suggest you create your own Short URL domain and use Yourls (17) to manage it. It’s free and relatively simple to set up. Make sure to add your Google Analytics tags to the short URLs you generate.

Email

Email still owns a big chunk of event marketing. I am gonna cut it short here, just use MailChimp (18) if you don’t have any email marketing service already up and running. A good alternative is Aweber (19), a slightly more advanced solution.

Affiliate Marketing

In a previous post a reader asked ‘how do you set up affiliate marketing with bloggers and partners?’ Well it pretty much depends on what platform you use for managing your content. If you chose WordPress to run your event website, I strongly suggest to use the Magic Affiliate Plugin (20). An extra reason to try it out is the integration with both the above mentioned email marketing platforms.

In Conclusion

What can I say, if it’s not measured it’s not worth it and if it’s not reported upon it doesn’t exist. This is what I learned about event marketing. Enjoy your measurement!

The Best Posts in November

Hey dear reader, how are you? Looking forward to the holidays?
November has been the most prolific month in the past couple of years. It’s good to know thousands of you appreciated it.
Keep an eye on the blog as December is usually full of surprises.
In case you missed some of the action, here is a handy recap:

Top Posts, November 2011

1. 20 Tools to Measure Event Marketing.
If you don’t measure, you don’t know. In time of crisis measuring your marketing efforts is a must. Here is a very comprehensive guide.
2. The Wow Factor in Events.
Surprising your guests, easy to say right? Here is a bit of inspiration to get you started.
3. The Ultimate Guide to Selling More Event Tickets.
Nobody likes an empty room. Here is how to fill it up.
4. LinkedIn Updates Events: What You Need to Know.
LinkedIn introduced a few changes to their events application. This posts tells you all you need to know.
5. Use Eventbrite like a Pro: Social Media Integration.
A series of posts looking at how to master the use of Eventbrite.

The Impact of New Twitter on Events

Yesterday Twitter announced a major overhaul of their platform. Here is what you need to know and the impact of the new changes on events.
I believe Twitter is event driven. I started saying this back in 2007, when not a lot of us event lovers were paying attention to this revolutionary social network.
Events shape the way Twitter works and users go to Twitter when they want to follow the unfolding of events, whether organic events such as the Arab revolution or planned events such as conferences.
News is that the California based company is going to change its platform dramatically in 2012. Apart from a major redesign, there are significant changes impacting businesses and events.
Let’s have a look.

The Hashtag Button

This is the biggest introduction that is going to have an impact on your event.
Twitter is introducing a whole new set of smart buttons. You can see them here.
I want to focus your attention on the “Tweet #Hashtag” Button.
Hashtags have become the standard way to categorize a tweet. If you are a social media savvy event professional, you will have set up a short and snappy hashtag to categorize all the tweets coming from attendees.
The new hashtag button allows you to tweet any item on a website with a preset hashtag on it.
AWESOME!
That means that you can attach the button to a video or schedule you have posted on your event website. Users will be able to click on the hashtag button and tweet from a pop-up with your event hashtag already in the text.
This is the most relevant change Twitter made that impacts events.

Brand Pages

Brands have the ability to customize their pages on Facebook and Google+ but they had no option to have their own space on Twitter. They now do.
On Facebook the biggest opportunity for event planers is to have a Facebook Page dedicated to their event. The same applies in this case.
There are already some examples circulating for major US brands.
The major benefit is the rich content integration. That means that you’ll be able to display videos and pictures for everyone that visits.
You will also have the ability to select a sticky-tweet that sits on top of all your tweets for new vistors of your profile. Read more here.

Self Serve Ads

This is the one that should capture the attention of event marketers. Clickz reported that the minimum spent to advertise on Twitter is US$15K.
Self serve platform hopefully will mean that the budget will be flexible as it is on Facebook and LinkedIn.

In Conclusion

There are a lot of other changes and you can learn more about them here. I believe that these changes make Twitter the social network to watch in 2012.
What do you think?

Use Eventbrite Like A Pro: Facebook Integration

Last month we looked at integrating Eventbrite for better event marketing and reporting.
This month I’ll show you how you can integrate Eventbrite and Facebook to sell event tickets directly from your Facebook page.

Do You Have a Page?

A common misconception is that the biggest opportunities for event planners are Facebook Events. While the Events App was recently given a marketing makeover, the biggest event promotion opportunity on Facebook remains a Page.
There are a few reasons for this.
Think in terms of custom welcome tab and rich media integration, these reasons alone offer attendees a superior experience and raise the quality of your social media offering.

Selling Tickets through Facebook Pages, good idea?

Of course it is.
I cannot imagine any reason why you wouldn’t have a shop front selling tickets on your page. This is especially relevant if you decided to promote your page via Facebook Ads.
You’ll then be able to measure effectively how much you spent on promotion and how many tickets you sold through the page.
That sounds like a neat ROI measurement machine to me.

Eventbrite for Pages

I covered cool Facebook Page Applications for events and mentioned Eventbrite as a top solution for selling tickets on your Facebook Event Page. Now let’s have a more in-depth look at how to set it up and make the most out of it.
Firstly, set up an Eventbrite account. You can easily do that here. Eventbrite is free for free events that need registration and charges a small fee for paid for events.
Secondly, head to the AppBistro Eventbrite for Pages App page. Allow the app to connect to your page, enter your Eventbrite ID and Password and…….voila! You’re up and running.
It’s as easy as that…

Why Eventbrite for Pages?

Pretty much because they recently introduced some changes that make it my app of preference. Above all:
- Foreign language support
- Ability to manage multiple events by adding additional tabs
The latter is the most important feature you could want in a Facebook Event Page. In fact you may want to use your page as a permanent space for your attendees while adding more ticket selling each time you have the actual event running.

In Conclusion

The ease of use of Eventbrite for pages makes it a no brainer for those event planners who are looking to make Facebook their prime social media acquisition channel. Let me know how you get on…

Obama’s job-approval rating is highest since summer, Post-ABC poll finds

After a difficult summer and a contentious fall, President Obama’s job-approval ratings are showing signs of improvement — a crucial indicator of his reelection chances as he seeks to overcome voters’ doubts about his economic stewardship.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that Americans are still broadly disapproving of Obama’s handling of the economy and jobs, the top issues, but that views of his overall performance have recovered among key groups, including independents, young adults and seniors.

At the same time, the public’s opinion of Republicans in Congress has continued to deteriorate, potentially putting the president in a position to benefit politically from his standoff with the GOP-led House over extending the payroll tax cut.
Obama’s job-approval rating is now at its highest since March, excluding a temporary bump after the killing of Osama bin Laden: Forty-nine percent approve, and 47 percent disapprove.
Perhaps more important to the battle over the payroll tax cut, Obama has regained an advantage over Republicans in Congress when it comes to “protecting the middle class.” In the new poll, 50 percent say they trust Obama on this issue, compared with 35 percent who choose the GOP — a major change from last month, when the two sides were more evenly matched on the question.
On taxes, Obama has improved since early October, while public trust of the GOP has slipped. Forty-six percent now side with Obama on the issue, and 41 percent with Republicans in Congress. Independents now side with the president on that front by a 17-point margin, 49 to 32 percent.
Obama continues to face major hurdles on the overarching issues of the economy and job creation, with independents divided about evenly between the president and Republicans in Congress.
Still, his rise suggests that the White House’s new tactics in recent months — to adopt a more populist tone and to challenge Republicans aggressively over taxes and income disparities — may be shifting the national political landscape back to Obama’s favor.
And it comes with an outburst of optimism among Democrats, 72 percent of whom now say Obama will win reelection, up from 58 percent who thought so in October. Americans overall believed by a wide margin in October that a Republican would beat Obama next year, but they are evenly split in the new poll.
The president is locked in a dead heat in a potential general-election contest against former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the new poll finds, with each winning support from 47 percent of registered voters. The two have been closely matched all year and are now about even among crucial independent voters.
The president leads a potential race against former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) by 51 to 43 percent among registered voters — in part because of an eight-point edge among independents.
Although the hypothetical general-election matchups are little changed from previous polls, overall, the results suggest that Obama may have found a way to navigate the politics of a sour economy — a development that seemed unlikely after the bitter debt-ceiling debate last summer. Then, he and his aides played an intimate role in negotiations, only to share public blame with Congress when things turned ugly.

Six Other Political 'Let Them Eat Cake' Moments

Romney's not the first pol to remind folks that he leads a very different life from them.

Indian economy has capacity to overcome crisis: Pranab

Concerned over slowdown, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the government will make efforts to build broad consensus on reforms as the economy has resilience to overcome the problem.

He said questions have been raised whether the economy is going to be derailed in

the wake of IIP figures turning negative and overall growth slowing.
"We have the capacity and resilience to overcome the crisis," he said, winding up a debate on Appropriation Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
The industrial production declined by 5.1 per cent in October, while the rupee crossed all time low of Rs 53 to a dollar.
The House later returned the Bill, granting Parliamentary approval for extra expenditure of Rs 63,180 crore for the current fiscal.
The finance minister said that for the economy to recover, it has to be demonstrated that Parliament and other institutions can function without disturbance.
He expressed disappointment over frequent disruptions in Parliament. "Let us not institutionalise instability in Parliament", he said, adding coalition governments have become stable since 2000.
Against the backdrop of difficult economic situation, he said political parties have to demonstrate that Parliament and other institutions function and it will have its impact on the government and confidence will return in the economy.
On its part, he said, "The government will not be found lacking in building consensus on broad economic policies."
Denying a perception that there is paralysis in decision making process, the finance minister said, "It is not so."
The government, he said, has taken a number of decisions which include national manufacturing policy, incentives to small industries and package to debt-ridden handloom weavers.

SC asks Kerala, TN to cool down on Mullaperiyar row

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Tamil Nadu and Kerala to cautiously deal with the Mullaperiyar dam dispute and not add "fuel to fire".

The court sternly warned the two states "sense and sensibility must prevail".

The Tamil Nadu government has accused the Kerala government of

whipping up a "fear psychosis" on Mullaperiyar row. A public campaign has been building up in Kerala demanding that a new dam built to replace the "dangerous one. The Supreme Court also asked the Centre to respond to petitions that central forces be deployed at the dam site.

According to Kerala, the dam in its Idukki district - which meets the irrigation needs of southern Tamil Nadu - is fragile and poses grave danger. "Seven million people can get washed away if the dam collapses. Twenty-six tremors have been recorded at the site of the dam in the last 11 months," said State water resources minister PJ Joseph in November. Kerala wants to construct a new dam at the site to replace the old structure. It also wants the existing dam's storage height to be reduced from the current 136 feet to 120 feet.
Tamil Nadu, which opposes a new dam, wants the storage height to be raised to 142 feet. According to the state, the lowering of the storage capacity of the dam earlier, at the behest of Kerala, had resulted in great losses.

Factory output slumps, slowdown fears increase

Factory output dipped 5.1 per cent in October, its first fall in more than two years, as manufacturers cut production, businesses held back investments and consumers trimmed spending. The Index of Industrial Production, released by the government on Monday, had shown a robust 11.3 per cent growth in October last.
A worse than expected deceleration in factory output increased fears of an economic slowdown with the 30-share Sensex plunging 2.12 per cent to close below 16,000. Manufacturing, which accounts for almost three-fourths of the total industrial output, dropped 6 per cent compared to a 12.3 per cent growth last October.
Output fell 25.5 per cent for capital goods, indicating a slowdown in investments. What heightened worries was a fall in output of 0.8 per cent for consumer goods and 0.3 per cent for durables. Though industry chambers clamoured for an interest rate cut, the RBI that meets on December 16 for a mid-quarter review may at best build in a dovish forward guidance.

3 families, one demand: Please hang Afzal Guru

A decade after the attack on Parliament, the families of martyrs are yet to come to terms with their loss. One of the martyrs, Matbar Singh Negi — a security man of the watch and ward department of Parliament — who was stationed at Parliament's Gate number 11, succumbed to his injuries at

the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital three days after the incident. Today, his family is left with a half-hearted compensation given by the government.
"The government responded quickly to the incident, and announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased. Of this, Rs 6 lakh had to be awarded by the Centre and R4 lakh by the state. But, a senior officer refused to sanction Rs 4 lakh as ex-gratia. It was only after a long wait that the chief minister's office disbursed the amount," said a relative of Matbar Singh Negi, requesting anonymity.
Negi was among the nine victims of the 2001 attack.
"The manner in which the compensation was given, shows that the government wasn't really bothered about us," he added.
The families of martyrs were also allotment a petrol pump each. This, ironically, added to their misery.
"The government was supposed to allot land to martyrs' families for setting up a petrol pump. The DDA, however, told us they did not have any land. It was only after running from pillar to post for seven years that the DDA finally decided to grant us the land," he said.
Negi was awarded the Ashok Chakra in 2002.
His family, however, returned the award in 2007, protesting the impasse on Afzal Guru's death sentence.
"It was shocking to see that the mastermind behind the attack could not be taken to task. We decided to return the award as a mark of protest. But to date, the President's office has not even written to us regarding the move. It is impossible for us to fight a system that does not respect the people who have laid down their lives for the country," added Negi's relative.
The only real compensation that the family received was in the form of an assured job for Negi's son, who today serves as a security official at the Parliament House.

Bad times turning worse for Bhajji

Star cricketer Harbhajan Singh on Monday lost his passport, credit cards and driving license as a group of thieves broke open his car which was also badly damaged at a place near Karnal.
Harbhajan and his friend were coming to Delhi by car in the evening when the incident happened at

a place called Madhuban, near Karnal. "Me and my friend got down to get some coffee at a Cafe Coffee Day outlet near Madhuban Police Academy. I had locked my car and had gone to get some coffee. I came back within five minutes and saw that window pane of my car was smashed and a bag containing all the valuable items was not there," Harbhajan said.
"More importantly, I have lost my passport, driving license along with 10 credit cards," he added.
He said he has lodged a police complaint and freezed the credit card.
"I have frozen my credit cards but losing my passport has been a big headache. Although I have filed a complaint with the police. My appeal to whoever has done this is to at least return my passport and driving license," the senior cricketer who is now nursing an injury said.

Start-up biz: IIT-B graduates get 'cover' if venture fails

BANGALORE: Fly or fail - those were the only consequences for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay students who took the entrepreneurial plunge after graduating. There was no safety net to fall back on if their start-up ideas failed.

Such failures are not uncommon and, in these cases, IIT graduates were left to fend for themselves. That was a huge deterrent to entrepreneurs being birthed in the campus. But now, select graduates are being given the option of taking a shot at a start-up idea, with the assurance they can come back for campus placements two years later if the idea fails.

This is a first-of-its kind initiative in any IIT. The Mumbai-based engineering institute is also creating a panel of faculty members and industry experts who will select the students, go through their ideas and help them get seed funding as well.