It’s no new topic, we know. But lately Chris Anderson re-introduced it, Malcom Gladwell made a big deal out of it and Seth Godin gave the final word. On our end, Jeff Hurt asked us all a question and we are here to do our small bit.

Reality is event professionals are challenged by the current market conditions. The ‘I charge you 800$/€/£ entry ticket’ superb marketing technique apparently does not work anymore. Possibly because attendees are increasingly empowered to blog, tweet and share how crap an event was. That was not the case before social networks and media.

I was asked by Cece Lee about an alternative model for (virtual) events rather than charging a fee. Although I felt an urgency to keep it for myself, I subsequently thought that sharing results of a 3 hours brainstorming session could benefit our industry, even if 2 event planners will change their rotten practice and take action. Hopefully starting tomorrow.

One condition. And it is not about safeguarding my butt. What follows is the result of a small brainstorming session with few friends and event experts as well as weeks of reading. It’s not meant to be a guide. It’s not necessarily applicable to all sorts of events. It may not refer to what you do.

The idea is to think out of the box for once and stimulate your business practice to be innovative and disruptive. If you can think of more please do comment and add your perspective.

Borrowing the term from Trendwatching, have a look at how Bacardi goes to the source, pushes the boundaries of a close one-to-one relationship. In a user generated web 2.0, going personal is mandatory and could result in healthy business.

This is possibly the most used technique to reduce the cost impact on attendees yet not fully taken advantage of. Linkedin, Xing, twitter and tools like Make Your Mark Connect are just few of the available hundreds.

If you really need to sell and cannot make a revenue in any other way, consider layaway. The Coachella Festival implemented it successfully.

Find a relevant and interesting fil rouge. A meaningful and compelling connector. Start an association, a conglomerate, an online group or a social network. Charge for membership and give events for free. Combine with external sponsorships for better results.

You don’t have to abruptely give up your compelling desire to sell tickets. You can have a mix of free and paid events. Usually free events are great tools to promote what you do. You can aim big for free events and go smaller for paid ones. If you combine both and create an online community to manage engagement, you’ll be up and running soon.

Being in the VIP is always a cool thing isn’t it. Trade show Masters understand that quite well. Most trade shows open up access to the large audience and sell ridiculously priced conference schemes. At least you are not denying access and you are selling premium only to those masochistic enough to pay super premium for content.

Collaborative event planning is becoming a reality. On the wave of crowdsourced initiatives the power of the collective is gonna be increasingly relevant and challenge the big guys. Use events to generate compelling, shared knowledge. Use the vast amount of readily available technology to capture that content and then sell it in forms of audio, video or text.

Conceptualize a cool idea. A very smooth, innovative and ‘contaminated’ form of event. Create a website next to it. Start a community around your website. Sell the idea to sponsors and franchisees. Two great examples are Pecha Kucha and StartupWeekend

Event professionals’ attention to details is usually devoted to utterly useless and irrelevant matters. A sound merchandise strategy identifies the relevant item at the right time. Oversimplifying the concept, in a networking event earning a revenue from the bar seems obvious. Digging further, Orange and its Glastonbury Power Pump looks like a damn cool idea.

We learned by now the power of flash mobs. Capitalizing on having no fixed structure can cut costs tremendously on venue and overheads. Southern Comfort Pop up Night Clubs are a great example.



Note 1: This post also takes inspiration from the continuous reading of Springwise and BoxUK, which we invite you to subscribe to.

Note 2: Ranking is not relevant – make your own ranking if you want!

How it used to be

Ten years ago the basics use to be a great mix of performers, a great mix of sponsors and a great location.

It didn’t get further than that.

The job of running events was all about putting the three above together. Most of the times it wasn’t about quality, it was about budget.

Our point

Let us save you some time and get straight to the point, basics have changed.

Why?

- Because current economic environment sucks. Sponsors are not willing to give away generous portions of their budgets as they used to.
- Because networking, which is a great motivator for attending events, is happening for free both online and offline.
- Because technology is changing the way we consume events.
- Because the world we live in is not as it used to be. Or at least, we are now more aware of it.

What are the new basics?

1. A powerful concept
What made you pay the rent yesterday is not gonna work today. Putting names of famous speakers or performers is not enough anymore. You need to engage in new ways. The same old event structure means you failed.
Want two positive examples? Pecha Kucha and Unconference

2. Respect for the environment
If you don’t offer recycling, if you don’t source locally, if you are not sustainable, you failed.
Your environment is also your people.
If you don’t think about the disabled, if you prefer excluding instead of including, you failed.

3. Use of Technology
Technology is part of our lives, whether you like it or not. Although we notice a lot of people talking about it, we are not seeing a lot of implementations. If you only talk about it, you failed.
If you are running a conference for seniors and assume they don’t know what Linkedin is, you failed. I met online people from 20 to 80 years old. If you think events are separate from online communities, you failed.
If you don’t integrate online and offline, you are actually saying no to extra streams of revenue.

Who are you to tell me that?

Last time we talked about these issues we received aggressions, threats and a lot of anger.
We understand change is not easy to digest.
You should listen to us because we were talking about twitter when Lehman Brothers was still up.
We were stimulating user generated events when Linkedin had 20 million users (it is now 35 millions).
No it’s not easy to accept, but you have to deal with it and you have to do it soon.

Pecha Kucha nights were started in 2003 by Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein in Tokyo. The nights are aimed at young designers, the format teaches a lot to all of us engaged with boring presentations.

Pecha Kucha means chit-chat. Back in 2003 two architects started what is now a very popular movement, with nights all over the globe.

Why?

The format answers to a compelling question, how to give space to young designers without throwing the audience in 2 hours long, endless presentations.

How?

Mark and Astrid created the 20 presenters/20 slides/20 seconds format.

20 designer are given the chance to present a total of 20 slides, 20 seconds each, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

As simple as that.

Results

An immediate result is that attention levels are kept very high and everyone involved gets value out of the experience.

Pecha Kucha are now held in more than 157 cities all over the World. They spread with no advertising. Only word of mouth.

Lecturers in universities are now asking their design students to present their assignments in this format.

Autodesk is using Pecha Kucha for its annual sales meetings.

Some videos:

More posts on the subject:

- Presentation Zen

 - Wired

- Pecha Kucha Daily 

- Tips for presenters

Action

I am throwing this to you so it can rock the way you approach events. I am sincerely getting bored of regular things, for regular people.

If you changed the rules in your event, let us know. This blog is here to listen to your story.

I recently produced a checklist to make your event compliant with new technologies and trends. I also made a slideshow to make it more interactive.

I’ve highlighted in the past how conferences, meetings and networking events are boring to death, outdated, do not take care of technology and exploit attendees for crazy ROI. Here’s who you should follow.

I don’t like to be destructive, in fact I got several projects going on. You can check them on the sidebar. I’ve been asked for case studies of best practices in current event management. So if you already got rid of your EM books, have a look and tell me what you think in the comment section.

1. One Media

If you  really want to pay for an unconference, and I know you feel safer when you do,  these guys nailed it. They didn’t priced £3000 which is a start. They got great things going on on the website. They used ning to quickly create a community and I liked it. I liked the discounts for NGO’s.  The conference is targeting SME and I enjoyed the “it’s up to you” approach. If you are a small business owner, you don’t want to listen to boring bullet points. Good deal.

2. JISC

Let me quote Grace:

“We will be amplifying the conference again this year with livestreamed keynotes, blogging of the sessions, micro-blogging via twitter, photo-sharing and videos. [...] Finally, I have introduced a set of environmental standards which relate specifically to the JISC Conference 2009″

This sounds all good to me. This is what you need to do, this is how you do it! Well done Grace!

Thanks @jukesie for pointing that out before my Google Reader delivered the feed.

3. Bettr

It is work in progress, but hey great idea. Again unconference style sessions, putting together education start-ups. This how you make a difference.

Thanks @lauradee for letting me know

The horrible economic trends as well as the impressive movement of user generated events is challenging the traditional scheme of paid events.

If you charge for your events you may soon be in real trouble. If you charge a lot for your events you are probably already facing tough challenges.

The Economy

Pretty straight forward. There are not enough money to be spent on events as before. Companies buying tickets for your conferences are now hesitating on such expenditure. There is simply not the disposable income there used to be. As simple as that.

The Technology

Online meetings are now preferred to conferences. Linkedin/Xing is now preferred to your 3000£/$/€ networking event.

User Generated Events

Meetups, BarCamps, unconferences and the like are now offering free alternatives to your paid events. Getting together a location and asking people to pay for their drinks is now accepted. Nobody wants to mix any more with sponsors, stalls, banners and so forth. Meetups are run by users and most of them are not sponsored. The conventional infrastructure around events is shaking.

Scarcity

You cannot rely any more on scarcity.

I don’t have to wait for big exhibitions to come along in order to network with top professionals. It’s all coming to my city and for free, possibly on a monthly basis.

Now, how do you deal with that? How do you compete with free, zero, nada, niet, niente?

Innovate

You will soon realize that if you manage events conventionally, the demand will drop sensibly.

Few tips.

If you use social media and social networks, if you know what twitter is, if you integrate sponsors gently and wisely, you will definitely find new ways to engage and make a profit.

If you think this is not going to happen and you feel safe where you are, start reading another blog!

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The results of a discussion on how to ensure that people who RSVP‘d yes at your free event do actually turn up.

The intrinsic value of free events

I love free events. What I love even more is free events with free drinks. It seems like I am not the only one. It is getting ridiculously awkward to actually pay to get in.

If you did your homework chances are that you can cover expenses and make a profit just relying on sponsors.

Last week I attended a Trade Show, a Meetup, a Twestival and a Barcamp.

In all of those I got free food and drinks, gadgets and I did the best networking ever.

The next time someone shows up and tells you you need to pay 1000£/$/€ to attend a conference or a networking event, bear in mind you are actually paying for the steering wheel of organizer’s SUV.

One problem

Now, from the organizer perspective, getting sponsors may be relatively easy if you have a good target audience. But making sure the audience actually attends the day of the event, that’s a whole different ballgame.

I noticed at one of the above events that 40+ attendees did not show up. That’s a pity because they excluded at least the same number of people, who eventually got together for a parallel event.

My problem

I’ll be soon organizing a free event. Don’t be curious. It will be on the barcamp concept, which we love so much, but I cannot disclose more than that.

The problem is we got space for 60 people and much bigger forecast demand. We want to make sure that those who RSVP Yes actually turn up.

On a first come basis

It doesn’t work, as simple as that. That’s what was used at the above event and the results were upsetting.

A twitter conversation

I decided to ask my supercool twitter pals about it and here’s the conversation

Conclusions

Although I originally thought that money was not an option, I am sure that everybody will be happy to donate to charity.

At this stage this is by far the most accepted alternative. Returning the money could be a bit of an issue. Collecting the money online requires payment of fees and so forth, so in my opinion a straight donation policy with no returning option may work better in terms of planning.

A must is to have a symbolic contribution ranging from 8£ to 10£ sounds good to me (convert if you are not sure). Charging more than that brings SUV thoughts to my mind.

What’s your opinion?

The issue is not closed at all. Do you have an engaging way to enusre attendance? Do we need to use money?

Harvest Twestival was held on the 25th of September for the joy of 220 Twitter people. Here is a short review of the event.

Planning

You could definitely tell that the event was mostly planned via Twitter. I remember logging in on the official website 10 days before the event and there was only two sponsors there. As the event came closer and the community started to be interested, at least 6 more sponsors jumped on board. Impressive.

People

My question before the event was how do you actually make sure that there is a good mix of people attending the event? Will there be 14yrs old kids mixed with Social Media experts in their 50s?

This was the single aspect that impressed me the most. The mix was perfect, I could run into good business contacts, as well as in friends or funny people. The twitter community did definitely defined itself at the event as very energetic, full of great ideas and very sociable. Remarkable.

Location & Logistics

Location was the Doon, a trendy Trafalgar square club. @amandita managed everything smoothly. Free drinks were poured efficiently (maybe too efficiently in my case) and the premises served the purpose. Although some peeps were complaining about the music being to loud, there were areas in the back dedicated to talking with no noise whatsoever.

I think that the logistics really reflected the twitter environment. The “everyone section” where noise is obviously there, but also the “you and your friends” area where things are calmer and deeper talks take place. I suggest this formula for those willing to organize one. Successful.

Treats

Another plus was definitely the raffle (with money donated to charity) and really relevant prizes. Moo was on board and that is very cool if you like to be social. Yummy.

What I did not like

Nothing much, but obviously integrating twitter on a screen with live twits was a must and possibly we’ll see that at next editions. Details count.

Vote:8

P.S. If you don’t use twitter and do not have a clue of what I am talking about, start using it right now, improve your business and internet relationships and feel free to follow me.

Other reviews of the event (thanks Pudding relation for the list):

Pudding Relations
TechCrunch UK
Current TV
Diffusion PR
Huddle
Londonist
Sizemore
Benjamin Ellis
Social PRobiotic
One Size Fits One
Jazamatazz
Richard
This Is Now
Fake Plastic Noodles
The A to E
Toodlepip
Girl About Web

Photo by: Kyle May

The current crisis hitting the financial markets has impacted events. The trend of user generated events is going to shock our market even more.

I already talked about making your event web 2.0 compliant. This is just a part of what needs to be done. There are definitely other trends you need to look at if you are already missing out or if the scenario ahead does not look good. It’s not a case that a popular BarCamp took the challenge and shared their opinion on how they empower the user.

Please answer the following:

Do you work with events, in the same way a product manager approaches a brand portfolio?

Do you feel lost without your event production team?

Is your ROI ridiculously high compared to the resources you use?

Do you run events with scientific committees?

Do you charge astronomic fees to create scarcity, when possibly most of the content discussed is already out there?

If you answered yes to 1 or more, what’s ahead does not look good.

User component in events

I have been advocating user generated events for a while now. I am a big fan of Barcamps, Unconferences, Open Space Technology, Meetups. My latest work in terms of event planning revolves around these new formulas. If you did not noticed users now like to be in control. They have blogs, they upload content to the web, they can make a brand collapse over the Internet,. This web phenomenon is not limited to virtual reality, my friend. This is happening right now in events as well.

Users are now empowered by technology to run their own events. They can set up a page and sell tickets in a matter of seconds. Promote them socially in few clicks. They now rely on platforms such as Meetup, which targets users by interests and approach sponsors with the most selected audience.

Start asking yourself questions

You should ask yourself why ebay hosts BarCampLondon 5, which was previously hosted by Gcap Media, Google and Microsoft.

You should ask yourself why events promoted via Facebook or Linkedin become major hits immediately.

You should ask yourself why Blogfest, an unconference about Blogs in Italy, is now covered by national media and collects sponsors such as Microsoft or TIM (the largest Italian and European telecommunication provider)

This ain’t no curling

Photo by: edit felix

During Turin 2006 Winter Olympics, everybody loved curling. It just looked great. Curling finals recorded unprecedented share percentages. People rushed to the courts wanting to start playing immediately. After the Olympics, curling was gone. At least from mainstream media or interest.

This is not the case. Unconferences, Barcamps and user generated events won’t go away. I figured out a good reason why.

User co-production in services marketing is one of the reason why events and experiential marketing are remembered. If you are involved in it you like it. Thus the more you are involved, the more you will like it. The common component of all the above is co-creation in a way which was never experienced before.

It is impossible to compete

You can’t compete with your users. You can’t tell them that what you planned is better than what they will achieve in a community effort.

Group discussion is always better than a bullet point presentation. Always. No matter how good the presenter is. A good facilitator is always better than a bullet point presenter.

Top 10 tips on how to keep up

1. You should introduce participation.

2. You should allow your users to upload content (Blogs, Social Networks, Social Messaging)

3. You should get rid of control.

4. You should stop treating attendees as monkeys.

5. You should empower each and every participant.

6. You are in charge of holding time and space, nothign more than that.

7. You should attend a BarCamp.

8. You should unplan and leave room for creativity.

9. You should grant access, instead of constantly creating virtual barriers defined by absurd ticket prices.

10. You must be aware on how these trends evolve.

If you ever attended a marketing class, course, degree you probably heard of Everett Rogers and his book “Diffusion of Innovations”. He synthesized very well the level of adoption of new products and categorized the adopters in groups. You can see the graph resulting below:

Source: Wikipedia

It is pretty straightforward and gives you great insights about who you will probably deal with at your next event.

Applying Rogers’ Bell Curve to Events

Events are by definition a new product. Although you may have a recurring events, the intangible, co-productive component of the service will make every event unique and thus new to the perception of the customer.

This model applies to events that last over time (4 days+), although you can definitely apply the same model to say registration process at a given event.

Tension

The element I want you to focus on is tension. Positive tension is key to successful events. Call it passion, motivation, teamwork, drive.

Think about the events you attended in the past. Could you feel the staff particularly helpful, aware of what to do, experienced and collaborative. This is the customer perception of tension.

What usually happens with tension

The image below shows the level of tension and its behavior during the planning and execution of an event, next to the Rogers’ graph.

If we look at the Planning section of the graph, it will be easy to note how the level of positive tension tends to increase, reaching its peak at the beginning of an event.

After the peak, the level of motivation starts a steep descent. This is due to several factors coming in. The staff is tired of repeating the same processes everyday and the overall motivation organically drops.

There are two issues with that

- The level of satisfaction is profoundly linked with the above. Therefore the less motivation, the less the customer satisfaction.

- Only Innovators and Early Adopters will experience your peak. This means you performed at your best with only 15% (and possibly 2.5%) of your customer base.

With goods and tangible products you can afford to address your efforts only to these people. They will talk positively about your product and serve as hooks for the Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards.

This scenario does not apply to events

Events as intangible services do not stay the same over time.

In cheap words, you need to keep it up all the way to the end.

You cannot afford to miss out on the 75% of your customer base. You need to show them a great level of performance.

A new model

Here is how it should look like:

As an event manager you need to make sure the positive tension of the team stays at the same level for the whole event. It doesn’t matter whether you are managing a 3 months display or a 4 days exhibition. The customer paid for that and expects to get what was promised and possibly more than that.

If you allow the tension to drop, it will be like selling perfectly working Iphones to 15% of your customers and models with cracked screens to the rest.

How to keep the tension steady

- Design shorter shifts.

- Work carefully during planning and make sure everyone (this includes you) knows what to do if things go wrong.

- Do not stress staff too much during the first part of your event. Do not apply pressure and don’t get overwhelmed by the need to succeed.

- Stimulate your staff when they do not expect it. If the staff is responding to a large number of customers do not apply pressure during these moments. Observe and evaluate, only after suggest improvements.

- Treat every customer with the same level of service.