Interview @ expacklyMondo

Have a look at an interview I recently gave at expacklyMondo, which is a great blog.

Enjoy it!

The best event you attended

This is a collective effort of the Linkedin community to figure out what makes an event outstanding. We have a 1000+ Event Planning & Management Group there which I invite you to join.

If you’d like to answer to the next question and be featured on a post like this check out this link.

Here is the question:

What was the most outstanding event you attended? What did you enjoyed? What worked particularly well? What did the management do that you perceived as remarkable?

What’s in it for you, reader? The chance to get insights for your next event. I suggest you go through all the answers as they entail great feedback and inspiration.

The best answer (the first you’ll see below) was selected, as always, according to my own preference. You can use comments to vote yours.

A few considerations:

- Incredible to notice how plenty of people indicated events of more than 10 years ago. What is going on with current events? I guess it is becoming harder and harder to impress and exceed expectations. Looks like we all need to deal with this.

- A lot of people talked about their marriage of children birth. I didn’t leave that out as I think there is a lesson there. Those are the events where you are the protagonist. It would be difficult to get more involved than this. The lesson is: the more you involve and release control, the better the satisfaction.

And now the answers:

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Zen Event Managers

When I think about productivity, GTD, being organized and blogging, I think about Zen Habits. It is the best written blog about all of the above (and more) topics. No surprises it won the award as Best Overall Blog in 2007.

I am one of the thousands fan of Leo Babauta, its editor, who has accomplished a lot in life and shares daily tips on how to tackle stress and life.

I decided to interview Leo and ask him how we could become ‘Zen Event Managers’. He demonstrated to be a great individual and with amazing kindness replied to my questions.

- Multitasking is said to be one of the most critical quality of an event manager. Do you agree?

While it is useful to be able to multitask when necessary, I don’t think it should be your main mode of working. For me, at least, learning to single-task — to focus on one task at a time and block out all distractions — has been the key to being more productive, to getting important things done (as opposed to a lot of unimportant things), to reducing stress, to simplifying my work life. It’s a more important skill in the long run.

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Fancy an event in Atlanta?

As part of the Global Event Management section, a featured interview with Todd Thurston, president and CEO of CretiveWharehouse.

Convention Capture is a service offered by Creative Warehouse, Inc. creators of the MarketLearn(TM) design and development model, will create an ongoing return from your event by keeping your message in front of your target audience year-round, while simultaneously promoting next year’s event with their Convention Capture services.

They have serviced numerous Fortune-500 clients. Aspects of their services range from video and audio highlights of events to complete recorded workshops and keynotes. One of their most popular ad-on services is the Convention Highlight video, generally played to attendees during the gala event.

I invite you to check the above links for more information.

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Fundraising for success. Interview with Sandra Sims

I am aware that a lot of you reading out there are involved with no-profit and fundraising. I am amazed by the dynamics of such events and I am even more amazed when I see huge participation and donations. I have found myself involved with managing volunteers and that is a big chunk of running successful fundraising events.

Now as I can just speculate on the subject and I am sure you seek real experience and down to earth suggestions I decided to interview Sandra Sims.

Sandra first started fundraising when she was in college at the University of North Texas. She was active in a school spirit club and served as chair of the fundraising committee, planning a variety of fundraisers for her club.

After graduating in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts she went to work in a variety of industries primarily working in marketing and database management.

The turning point was a volunteer experience with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

At that point she realized that not only did she enjoy fundraising, but had a knack for it too. She continued to volunteer for a variety of charitable organizations. In the fall of 2003 StepbyStepFundraising.com began as a way to share her experience with others.

She is author of a blog and several ebooks (some available for free if you subscribe) on the subject

Here are the tips that Sandra shared

- Three attributes of the successful fundraising organizer

Organization, Enthusiasm, Empowering (the ability to recruit volunteers and empower them to fulfill their duties)

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