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.

This post is for all those who ask me how to get involved with events.

MeetUp is the answer. If you have a passion for events and a passion for something else, whatever that is you might want to start a MeetUp.

First of all, let me clarify that I am a fan of MeetUp. I’ve talked in the past about traditional event management as a thing of the past. I am a true supporter of user generated events, I think they help in skimming the market from unskilled, possibly-to-posh-to-be-true, unmotivated, unaware-of-the-content event managers.

I am also a fan of this kind of events because, by making the role of conference/event producers redundant, they cut costs dramatically for end users, being most of the times for free.

Are you gonna tell me we really need to pay 1500£,€,$ to attend a conference?

A lot of people answer that in the end companies do pay for ticket.

Well you know what? I have no company behind me, I am a student, I am a full time mum, I am a young professional in a small agency, I live in a recession period, my company cannot afford to pay!

Sometimes ROI in conferences is embarassingly high and this logic of huge profits at our cost is simply unacceptable. Therefore Viva MeetUps! and death to the conference oligarchy!

There are immediate benefits for those with an entrepreneurial spirit and lack of employer.

- You can exercise. Once you reach the number of 40 members per MeetUp that appears to me as a good entry for your CV. You will be in charge of sourcing a location, sponsors, promote, sell tickets and pretty much everything involved with event management

- You can experience B2B marketing and selling sponsorships. As a matter of fact MeetUps take away the trouble of not getting targeted audience. It is all about targeting. You will never have such specific audience. That translates to me in easy sponsorhip opportunities. If you go out there and perform a search of who is sponsoring what, it will be easy to realize that there are tons of e.g. organic shops willing to fund your Organic Food Lovers MeetUp.

- You will grow your network. You will become a reference in your interest group and that translates in a lot of power eventwise.

These are only few of the benefits, I invite MeetUp organizers to share their story!

P.S. If you are looking for a job there are job offers in our Linkedin Event Planning & Management Group

Photo by: el copilot

Negative Feedback.

Very tough to find, very hard to accept.

Without negative feedback I think I would have been a complete uncompetent.

If I have to think back at my education as well, I still remember those lecturers who had the ability to let you understand what exactly you did wrong.

My idea is that too many times we run away from feedback specially if it’s negative, possibly because we already know we have done something wrong.

The cathartic effect of having a customer telling you: “I did not like that” is our caviar today. Very scarce, hard to find and very expensive.

Please consider that it is a fact that when you are angry or not happy and you let someone know, it is because you care.

My suggestion is to open up our ears and enjoy our caviar next time someone shows up complaining.

If you are a traditional event manager (or studying to become one) and think that recession is the major threat for your career, I think you are not on the right track.

There are several trends in event management that are making the role as we know it obsolete. I am convinced that we are trying to sell CDs during the hype of the MP3 era.

Of course this could be arguable. Events will always take plae and there will always be someone in charge of management. But the skills required are completely new.

Here are few of the trends who represent a threat for the traditional event manager:

- User generated Events

BarCamps, unconferences and Meetups have given the power to the user. Scientific committees or sponsor panels can no longer control content. In the future if you’ll ask to pay 400$ for a one day conference, you’ll be probably laughed at and find yourself in a budget drama.

- Technology

Technological changes are making several professions redundant. Webinars, online conferences, Second Life meetings and events to name a few require new management skills. Just have a look at the video below and draw your conclusions.

- Environment

The environment is claiming back what has been abused. We need to learn fast how to make our events sustainable, source local products, reduce waste and communicate that to our attendees. Consumers are getting extremely educated about what being green means and that will soon be a given, not an extra.

All of the above could be seen as threats.

In these trends I see he future of our profession. We need to start to integrate them in our practice immediately, to grow our set of skills.

What we see in front of us is just a matter of perspective. My view is positive and enthusiastic, what about yours?

Boring endless presentations. This is what modern conferences are all about.

This trend needs to be stopped as soon as possible. As more people put their hands on Powerpoint/Keynote/Impress and so forth, more bullet pointLESS productions arise.

If you attend regular conferences and maybe you paid to participate I think that this is the ultimate masochistic practice you can experience on yourself.

On the other hand, if you attend unconferences you have a chance to set yourself free from boredom and control.

Just raise your hand and try to be as disruptive as possible. If the host tries to keep the concentration on his bullet pointLESS presentation just tell him that it’s now time for discussion and that you already got the point.

It looks like we got to a point where barCamps and unconferences are now the most wanted stages for I-need-to-feed-my-ego type of speakers who have been rejected from regular conferences and now try to pitch their services in our beloved open settings.

Well if you attended a Camp recently or will in the future, I suggest you step up and stop the dictator of the session. You can also say that Julius from the EMBlog told you to.

You really need to get in another mindset when at unconferences or Camps. Speak up. Listen. Participate. Share. If you feel others are not doing that, just let the organizers know or tell the host because you don’t realize that you’ve been thrown ten years back in the past.

Thanks @audio for putting together MediaCampBucks, it was great.

Update: Well it looks like me and Seth Godin agreed this morning about bullet points… have a look at his latest post.

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:

- Peter O’Connell - President / Voice Talent - audio’connell Voice Over Talent says:

Two really good events I participated in took place in Toronto and both involved social media.

One was Podcamp Toronto which was a two day conference on podcasting, blogging and everything social media. The other was a hastily planned Geek dinner in Toronto.

The experiences I took away from these two events had less to do with social media (though I learned a ton and developed wonderful contacts) as it did with how important it is to set expectations and goals for attendees at an event before it starts.

At both events, the networking (more exchange of ideas and best practices than business development though there was some of that too) was at the core of the event. Everybody knew it. Everybody came prepared to share, to talk to listen. There was very little arm crossing (that internationally recognized non verbal cue of stand-offishness)

That openness led to tremendous communication opportunities which built great relationships which in my opinion are at the core of every great event.

- Colleen Norris - Owner Loving Connections LLC says:

Last night I attending an amazing event.

It was the first night of a workshop entitled “Empowerment Dialogue & Gestalt Dreamwork” I learned so much in 4 hours, but what I really enjoyed was feeling welcomed by a bunch of strangers.

What worked so well was even though everyone was on different levels of understanding it was perfect for everyone. The facilitator was friendly and a joy to be around.

- Julia Marrocco - Executive Performance Coach says:

The most outstanding event was during a corporate awards trip to Bangkok for a week or so. There was the most amazing feast, outdoors, in gorgeous tropical weather, we accessed the venue by boat, and authentic Thai folkloric dancing kept us amazed and steeped us in the history and culture of the land. I will never forget it. Everything from start to finish was smooth and it seemed like the event happened by magic. I can only imagine what a tremendous amount of work it must have been but I never witnesses one frown, one hurried person, and everyone facilitating or helping at the event looked as if they had taken a happy smiley pill!

Outside of corporate events, (I have attended zillions…good and bad both)
I would have to say anything with Cirque du Soleil will always be a smashing hit. No one performs like them. If you had a bad event in every other way, and you ended by taking everyone to any Cirque performance (excluding Zumanity) you will have good reviews of the event. That is because when they see Cirque, everything else will leave their mind and they will so amazed that’s all they will think about for weeks to come. So end on a positive note.

- Glenn Curry - Partner, Efficient Technologies LLC says:

SIGGRAPH convention, Orlando ‘94. Disney closed their water park one night to guests only. Free food, wine, beer and bands. The whole park all night lots of happy drunk graphics people sliding down water slides all night!

OK, then there was the national sales meeting for Superscope/ Marantz ‘75. In LA, including a private party with live entertainment at the Playboy Mansion. Hugh was good friends with Joe Tushinski.

Almost forgot the Kenwood Electronics sales meeting ‘77, Stayed at the Royal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans, a grand hotel in the heart of the French Quarter on Bourbon Street.

In review, I have to apologize and wish to state without reservation that I attended a similar event 4 times in my life and each was tied for 1st place event.

I have four children and I was present at the event of each’s birth. No other event comes close.

- Joseph Bachana - President, DPCI says:

2 years ago i heard Jack Trout speak at the Microsoft annual Partner event. Nobody seemed to know this marketing legend, but his talk was so insightful. He pulled some concepts out of his book “Differentiate or Die”.

I remember a few things about the presentation. First, he used Powerpoint, which surprised me since I usually hate Powerpoint presentations but he aced his. Second, he was going over some of the real clunker brand strategies out there and he had the audience dying of laughter. To this day when I’m in a marketing brainstorming meeting and one of us comes up with a nutty position statement, I remember Jack’s presentation.

The third thing i remember, which I’ll never forget ever probably, is that Jack was talking about projects that he himself took on to help worldwide brands with their positioning statements. I was just so in awe that this man has helped great brands with their messaging, all with very clear positioning statements as opposed to all the frilly technology-gyrating marketing tricks we all use today.

- Kenneth von Hopf - Tech Paramedics, a full service IT provider

Call to Action Live with Michael Bernoff and the Human Communications Institute.

- Lisa Stephen - Receptionist/Admin Asst/CSR/Event Planner says:

Back in 1986, I attended the Guterman Bar mitzvah party on the Queen Elizabeth II. It was amazing and left a solid, positive impression on me, even though I was only 14 at the time and only got invited because my mother worked for them, but I considered them family and I felt like I truly belonged. Little did I know that the event would plant the seed in the subconscious of my brain to one day start an event-planning business.

- Chris Catoggio - Independent Event Services Professional says:

The Rotary International Convention at the McCormick Center in Chicago in 2005. It is an incredible experience to participate with Rotarians from all over the world. It enlightens you to the global impact one organization has by providing humanitarian service and helping build goodwill and peace throughout the world.

From an event standpoint, it is remarkable how thousands of people are transported, seemingly effortlessly, throughout the city to attend the many events. The quality and scope of events made this an unforgettable experience.

- Carol White Llewellyn - Tourism Activist & Association Publisher, TravelHost of Rochester & the Finger Lakes says:

I attend events often and also used to do event planning for a trade association. The most remarkable events I’ve attended/planned were those that were a collaborative effort between two or more organizations, focused on a particular topic, and held outside of either organization’s home base. They also had exceptional programming or break-out work sessions, were planned collaboratively among the organizing parties involved so all partners were equal stakeholders, representing their members’ likes, dislikes and interests. They also offered great food and fun entertainment.

These events attracted a calibre of attendee interested in both networking and benefitting from the program. They also came to have a good time. When you attract a large group of attendees with these common goals and put them in an educational, yet fun atmosphere, you have the recipe for an outstanding event.

- June Mattiza - E Imagineer at The Media Collective says:

The best event, how about my top 3 events,

1. I traveled with a client i(as press management) who was playing at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, backstage and got to meet some of the greats in blues and contemporary music with the same client got to attend the Grammy awards when he received one for his latest release.

2. The first Webmaster World Conference that I ever attended in Las Vegas, I learned a lot but the big benefit was the friendships that began at that conference.

3. Luxury Travel Expo - Traveled with a client to industry trade show to attend industry round tables, marketing tracks and networking. Not only did this help with in market intel but that year while I was there, I got to meet a great in the Resort Hotel Development world unbeknown to me, I had coffee in the morning with Steve Winn shared a conversation about family, kids general banter, then we both had a meeting to go to,,, it was the same one and he was the keynote speaker.. Wow.

4. I2 Planet Conventions - Awesome event in which I helped with the media presentation, It was the best mix of education, variety of industries and after long days conference style they really did it right with their networking/party events.

- Walter Giacovelli - Knowledge Strategist says:

Best event i followed, according to me is always the next i have to follow, because i project on it my dreams, my ideas, my wish of making best reality around me, and make me feel like a child waiting for a long time best toy for present.

- Ron Coble - Owner, ImportExportHelp says:

They were about 30 years ago when I was somewhat naive but thankfully impressionable - Amway motivational meetings (no I left them about 28 years ago).

They had some very good motivational speakers and I have said many times that although I do not believe there are many people who ever succeed in that business model, the spark(s) that these motivational weekends provided me was what helped me to move forward into various other business ventures in the ensuing almost 30 years.

I really believe that had I not gone to those weekends I would have never gotten into these various business ventures and probably would still be working in a job for someone else rather than in my own business.

- Richard Tabor Greene - Professor of Knowledge and Creativity Management at Kwansei Gakuin University says:

Siemens’ Invent Events, 15 years ago–a series of 200 person 4 day mass workshop events wherein 200 people from a dozen companies/functions invented 100 things and patented them. Included every 3 hour wandering comedy and minstrel groups that punctuated everyone’s sitting and meeting mindsets, and morning breakfasts of all 200 reporting prior day results and present day needs to everyone else (using comic formats), and mid-day “fill in questionnaires or answer questions from other workshop groups” lunch sessions deliberately helping other workshop groups. 100 patents were reliably written up and submitted by end of each 4 day session.

- Silvia Malesardi - Events management Assistant at Trentino Tourist Board says:

Within the last Years Vienna has become one of the most wanted travel locations in Europe to celebrate the New Year.

New Year Eve in Vienna 2006 (Silvesterpfad)was an amazing experience full of spirit of Vienna between history and innovation. The celebration for the international Mozart Year 2006 were the main theme.

The entire city was an extraordinary open-air party inclusive last minute waltz course all over Vienna’s first district, escape three-four time at various clubs (i.e. WUK, Passage, Flex,…) or celebrate in one of the many pubs at the ‘Gürtel’ (B72, rhiz, Chelsea,…) or at Bermuda triangle (i.e. krah krah, Bermudabräu, Brennerei,…).

Before midnight we can watch the official fireworks, illuminate the city!

There was also start the year’s ball season with a banger, famous ‘Kaiserball’. At the magnificent halls of the ‘Hofburg’ you first enjoy a splendid dinner and then mark the beginning of the new year in three-four time.

At midnight we hear the famous Pummerin (St. Stephen’s Cathedral) strike.
It mustn’t miss famous ‘Neujahrskonzert’ the day after which is performed by the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra.

The management of all the events was building by a perfect network of the City government, the Stadt Wien marketing und prater service (the events agency of the city) and the Vienna Tourist Board.

All of this celebration including the really spirit of Mozart genius!
Wonderful!

- Anuroopa Banerjee Gupta - Marketing Communications expert says:

The best event ever attended by me was this GRAND Wedding in Rajasthan, Jaipur. The venue was a palace decorated with jasmine and orchids. ornate silver furniture. Beautiful drapes and lights all around; glorifying the venue even more.

Then came the Groom with a Royal Procession seated in an elephant- with well decorated horses 15 in nos, 10 camels, 10 vintage carriages and many vinatge cars and of couse men with torches and over 500 guests following the procession. The groom and guests were all given the most Royal welcome possible.

The bride followed in an exotic palanquin amidst folk performers singing and beating drums. The Groom and Bride exchanged garlands on top of a crane and were then brought to the ground and drove around the palace on a vintage carriage.

All guests were served food on silverware and the fireworks and folk performances throughout the evening were enchanting. What an event!! Well, it cost a fortune- more than 7 millions; so I overheard!!! Truly A BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING.

- Dan Pepper - Sales & Marketing Executive for Tech Startups says:

Easily Fall Internet World in 1996 at the Javits. Alan Meckler had just moved the event from Boston to NYC to meet overflow demand. The companies and ideas that sprang forth from that show generated billions of dollars in wealth creation before the bubble burst in 2000. The excitement on the show floor and sessions was palpable.

*Sometimes an idea is all you need for a great event!* This was tech’s answer to the “Thrilla in Manila.”

- Shawn Carter - Senior Financial Analyst at Blackhawk Network says:

As far as business, an all-hands at a company I worked at. They had coreographed with many famous football players how they did that year and what our new brand would be about. It was over the top in cool, fun and on target. The CEO did a very slick presentation with the slides answering his questions. All in all very fun.

- Frank Feather - Webpreneur, Author says:

The most seminal event in my professional life was “The 1st Global Conference on the Future” (Toronto, 1980) under the theme “Thinking Globally, Acting Locally.”

What was remarkable was the sheer size of the event: 6,400 delegates from 60 countries, with 1,000+ speakers over 5 days, in some 26 main topic themes or tracks. The vast smorgasbord of ideas spawned excited conversation well into each night, and resulted in numerous global/local initiatives, as well as thousands of personal network connections and friendships.

In turn, that event launched my career as a futurist, and also took me to China where I met my Chinese wife.

Needless to say, there has never been a second such conference. I also am somewhat biased, because I led the team which planned the event, and I was honored to serve as its Chairman. But it was truly remarkable, as any attendee will attest even today.

On a personal level, the two most remarkable events were when my wife and I went to China to adopt our two daughters. Every moment of those two meetings is forever etched in my mind and my heart

- Mary Lascelles - CONCIERGE RELOCATION SERVICES says:

Three years ago our company put on the “Paddywack” for our agents. It’s up there with the best of events in all of my years working anywhere.

This was an intimate black tie event held at the beautiful Cascade Theatre in Redding, CA…a recently renovated 1930’s theatre that was impressively done. Drinks to start out and then awards were given to the top agents in our office for the previous year. We had a magician who was incredible and John Bearden, President of our franchise, joined in. There was so much to feast the senses that night. The venue was perfect.

The next day we brought in motivational speakers…starting with John Bearden who is always so engaging and interesting.

The concept was to say thanks for a good year and celebrate the success while spurring everyone for another good year.

Our company has always been “out of the box” which makes it a somewhat unique place to work. The event is still remembered!!

- Amy Vercruysse - Owner, Combo Platter: Event Marketing & Management says:

The events I attend are more consumer vs. business-oriented such as trade shows, and then to narrow it further they are more entertainment related.

For sheer sensory overload and an overabundance of things to do, I have to say South by Southwest wins hands down. The Natural Products Trade Show West in Anaheim did a nice job the 2 times I attended for a trade show that also had some consumer element to it (a nice mix of b-to-b and b-to-c).

For pure musical pleasure, the Ponderosa Stomp in NOLA (next week) is my favorite music event simply because there’s nothing else like it anywhere for true music purists and connoisseurs.

- Muhammad Ali - Marketing Consultant says:

I live in Dubai…No Outstanding events take place here…I play music and I have never seen any concert organized properly in Dubai…Even the events I have played at are not managed properly by the events management team.

- Illona Cowen - Information Technology and Services Professional, Technical Writer, Business Analyst says:

Two events come to mind. One hosted by Microsoft. They thought of everything!

The other event was hosted by Verisign. They had live music, live entertainment (Blues Bros.) and had pictures taken immediately with them, fireworks, great location. Excellent food.

- Melissa Deputy - Conference Planner, Public Speaker says:

The most outstanding event I attended was Tupperware’s 50th “Gold” Anniversary with approximately 7,000 in attendance in Orlando in August 1996. The awards and education and free product give aways were unrivaled by any other events prior. Of course, it was special to me because I was recognized as 29 in the nation of those in attendance.

- Allen Stevens - Event Manager at Legacy Marketing Partners says:

1999 Camel Bartenders Ball, NYC. Annual “thank-you” event for all the bar staff in the area whose venues participated in the Camel Club Program. We had 4000 people at the Hammerstein Ballroom, with Grandmaster Flash DJing and Lenny Kravitz as the headliner. Free admission (though our free tickets were getting scalped on eBay for hundreds of dollars) with open bar and hors d’ourves for all.

It was a grueling 22-hour day, but it was an epic party.

- Brenda Christensen - Sr. Account Supervisor at The David James Agency says:

The Nintendo party at CES 1989. It was spectacular in every sense of the word…not a dime was spared. Live Hollywood Squares style game show, luminaries, celebrity impersonators, live Kenny Loggins concert…it was over the top over the top.

- Ravi Kikan - Sales and Marketing professional says:

My Marriage !!!

- Michael Hamblett - Investment Management Professional says:

The 1999 Ryder Cup Event at The Country Club in Massachusetts, when the U.S. took back the cup from the Europeans with a victory late Sunday afternoon, when Justin Leonard sank a long putt.

- James Hayes - Independent Online Media Professional says:

generously help Bob the saint run the world for one day, and I still have the badge to prove it.

- Javier Irastorza - Strategy & Global Industrial Development at EADS-CASA says:

In March 2005 I attended the “International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security” organised by Clud de Madrid in commemoration of the terrorist attacks on the city of Madrid the year before.

The Club of Madrid is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its Members – 70 democratic former heads of state and government.

More than 1.200 people participated in that gathering, amongst them 200 experts, 17 Heads of State and Government, the Secretary General of the United Nations and many other leaders from international organizations and delegations from more than 70 countries.

I could attend this event thanks to a parallel event organised by the students association AEGEE.

The venue, tuition and logistics worked just perfectly. The conference itself was terrific. The power of this organisation (Club de Madrid) to bring top speakers and experts was impressive.

Several conferences and plenaries very interesting. Just a pity to have missed many since some were running in parallel.

Seeing dozens of world decision-makers was a shocking experience (e.g. noticing in the escalator that the lady before me was… Madeleine Albright).

- Suzanne Levison - Owner, SLS Creative and Staffing and Recruiting Consultant says:

One that I was involved with production. A major sports gathering including headline entertainment, high profile sponsors, political personalities such as Jesse Jackson..The fact that 24 hours prior to the event we were notified that, in addition, another political figure would arrive, we would be meeting with the secret service agents prior to redesign the room and general areas for security reasons. What I enjoyed was the challenge. What worked well was our team, who sprung into action with no sleep, and rose to the challenge so that the entire evening flowed perfectly.

- Joseph Templin - Head Geek, Unique Minds Consulting Group, LLC says:

The birth of my children.

- Machelle Lovin - Successful leader, partner and follower says:

I was young….I’m guessing about 8 years old. My parents worked for the first multi-level international cosmetic company. (look up Glenn Turner and read all about it) It was at a convention in Orlando. After a day of various events full of experts in cosmetics and the fashion industry, seminars, and incredible motivational moments, they packed a hotel suite full of select people that were attending the convention. Most of these people were from small towns and had big dreams.

The President of the company spoke and introduced a few other people who also spoke. Each with more vigor and excitement. Then the main guy (salesman) spoke to the attendees. In very powerful and elegant words he told them they had what it took to be successful. That their company was the one for them and the product they offered was all they needed. He pumped them up…spiritually, emotionally, physically, cheering….E.O.G.O…..E.O.G.O……some people were jumping up and down as others clapped and chanted…E.O.G.O….Every One Get One.

Now, I don’t know if it was the product that everyone was getting one of or if it was every one get one person under you (pyramid marketing). But what I do know is that at such a young age, I learned how people need to belong and be accepted. I learned how they need to feel empowered and just need some attention. I learned that one person can have such a presence that the whole world will follow them. (the world as it was as an 8 year old girl in that hotel room) But wow, how that lesson has proven true as I’ve gotten older and experienced life.

- Tamara Dunst - Senior Manager, Events at Nobel Biocare

I’d have to say that with all the events I have managed and attended throughout my career, by far the best are the Disney events I have attended as a consumer. Disney often holds “merchandising” events at their parks where attendees actually pay to come and buy stuff. Only Disney can do this. However, you hardly realize that you are dropping a couple of hundred dollars on artwork and memorabilia when you are surrounded by such amazing “theme-ing.” Most of these events are held in one of their hotel’s large ballrooms and usually center around a park ride or Disney movie.

It seems that they spare no expense in awing their customers with dramatic lighting, realistic props, and interactive activities. You get favors that seem like they cost a fortune and the food is quite excellent. Music, performances and speakers round out these memorable evenings, which, remember, are just there for you to buy merchandise. Disney really knows how to create a complete experience – tantalizing all the senses, tying in to them seamlessly and giving customers the craving for more.

- Dave Weinberg - Manager, Marketing & Client Relations says:

A few years ago, while working at Sony Pictures, I attended a Movie Premiere for “Big Fish”. After the red carpet and movie the whole lot moved to the after party at Hammerstein in Manhattan. The crew was able to recreate the town form the movie and the circus inside the theater. Food was served by old time dinner staff on red picknick tables while acrobats performed high above. It was incredible.

I’ve worked for more than 5 years with entertainment and being more specific with discos and clubs. I became what was and still is called a “PR”, a person that gives away “invites” to cool friends to populate the night. I earned a small percentage on every invite turned in with my name on it. In one year time I started to invest my money in club nights and quicker got more control over the event management.

Soon I was in charge of making the list (of people not paying to get in) and selecting people that got admitted into the event. That gave me a tremendous amount of power. I was soon able to ask the doormen to avoid certain people getting in.

For a pretty long period of time excluding others meant being at the top.

As Jedi Master of Marketing Seth Godin states:

“Credit card companies have made billions by selling a card that others can’t get.

Politicians stand up and talk about their (exclusive) religion, or pit one special interest group against another.

And of course, the best nightclubs have the biggest velvet ropes and the pickiest doormen.”

I had to think again

The Social Psychology of Inclusion and Exclusion, By Abrams, Hogg and Marques talks about the anger generated by exclusion. Violent reactions and discontent.

Soon few question popped up into my mind. How many people do we usually exclude from our events? How much discontent do we generate? Are there good reasons to exclude people?

At a club it’s up to the selector personal taste. Sometimes it is about the price. Few other times it is the content that excludes people.

Does inclusion mean populism?

What if the basis of events would be inclusion? BarCamp and unconferences are based on including people, but are not populist.

We tend to think that limited resources automatically mean exclusion.

The smart event planner thinks of ways to include those people e.g. who cannot make it that day, who cannot afford the price of the ticket, who are not familiar with the content.

Just think that:

- Online conferencing is a solution for those who cannot make it.

- Scholarships are a good method to make students attend an important conference and sponsors are willing to fund them.

- Opening an online forum and a blog about your event could help a lot of potential attendees to understand more about your content.

I am sure you can come up with more ideas and I invite you to do it.

Ricardo Semler has sparked a revolution for the theory of business management. He has actually put in practice what tons of authors have just theorized. He walked the walk and showed the world that horizontal management is indeed more effective than any other approach.

Events are about people. Pressure, limited time and resources push us to perform at 100% with no chance to fail. While reading Semler’s inspiring book ‘Maverick‘, I noted down few concepts which I am sure will question the way you tackle team management.

“In the lobby of our headquarters there is a reception desk, but no receptionist [...]. Everyone at Semco, even top managers, fetches guests, stand over photocopiers, send faxes, types letters, and dials the phone. We don’t believe in cluttering the payroll with ungratifying, dead end jobs.”

Most of the requests I receive through this blog are of people asking for how to get involved into events. The nature of the business requires hiring lots of temporary staff and that might be a good way to start getting involved.

Now, talking to managers, I ask you, do you hire to exploit and ‘clutter the payroll’ or do you hire to transfer knowledge?

Too many times I’ve seen and been treated as a “disposable” and “photocopier” employee. I think that hiring temps for events should have both a monetary and knowledge reward. The event manager along the way should share tips, inspire, suggest and help young and willing workers, full stop.

“I always smile when executives boast about how participative they are. ‘I want everyone to feel involved’ the say. ‘So I call everybody in, hear what’s on their minds, and only then decide’. What people call participative management is usually just consultative management”

I believe that the most manipulative, mind controlling technique to motivate people is to tell them how you care for their opinion. I’ve heard that statement multiple times but when I came up with my opinion it was completely ignored, not taken account of, plus I quickly figured out it was a way to keep me under control.

True empowerment and responsibility, on the other hand, made me feel like a thinking individual and actually deliver the best financial and non-financial results.

Therefore, if you do care about my opinion, I’d love to put that in practice.

“We don’t want to be a happy family. We want to be a successful business. We’re only concerned with our employees performance on their job, not their personal lives.”

The second most manipulative approach to managing people is to tell them that ‘we are members of the same family’. No thanks. I do have a family and I’d like to keep it out of the business environment.

I find invasive just the thought of a boss telling me that.

Not only should the manager be attentive in not embarking in such approach, but he/she should also guarantee that such behaviour does not occur horizontally among employees. Performance is indeed the most important factor, human touch and understanding is plausible but not a motivator or a business approach.

“At Semco we have stripped away the unnecessary perks and privileges, such as executive dining rooms and fancy office furniture, that feed the ego but hurt the balance sheet and distract everyone form the crucial corporate task of making, selling, billing and collecting.”

We all need to work a bit more on our egos, I’ll leave the rest of it for you to comment.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is almost ten years old. I was actually surprised to see it was written in 1999 for two reasons:

- It is amazing to see how it is still relevant to both Internet and businesses. The words of the manifesto sound like a Web 3.0 startup’s mission. They got it right. The people who signed it saw 10 years in advance what was about to happen. Few things are yet to come but I’d bet we’ll shortly experience them.

- Crazy, crazy, crazy. Companies had in front of their eyes the chance to get the most out of the Internet and treat the customer in new, engaging ways. It was there, clearly written and explained. It is SAD to see how only few organizations have embraced these life changing concepts.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is free to read. How the most popular Italian and world’s top 10 blogger, Beppe Grillo, would say, download it, print it and start sharing it around. Give it to your boss, to your colleagues, if possible pass it to the person sitting next to you on the underground.

The Manifesto has a lot of things to say to those involved in events. I went through the 95 Theses and got few that I thought might be of interest.

- Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
I said before than men are not monkeys. Treating your guests as demographics is a giant step toward looking at them as these animals. The human kind is indeed of the animal genre but of the social one. Social media are a great examples of that. Great conversations, great ideas, great feelings and strong emotions that we wouldn’t otherwise experienced. BarCamp and Unconferences should be the role models of every event manager. Empower and connect, do not try to divide and lead because you won’t be happy with results.

- The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

What are you doing to allow conversations among the people attending your event. Are you integrating technologies? Are you aware that recruitment now happens on Linkedin? Do you know that there are widgets you can embed in your website to encourage carpooling to your event? Most of the people attending events such as conferences are only interested in networking. Carpooling as well as online forums or wikis enable networking even before the event.

- The inflated self-important jargon you sling around

Be clear, be precise and be real. Rhetoric and Pavlovian stimulus-response tactics belong to the past. It’s good to have demanding attendees because it means they actually care. Talk to them and tell the truth and do not try to persuade. Allow interaction and hold time and space do not try to be the star of the show.

- We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.

How are you talking to your audience. How do you communicate your event. I don’t believe in brochures anymore. Apart from being an environmental disaster (and your customers do care about the environment), I think there are tons of other creative and more engaging ways to get to your audience. Do you have a blog? Have you ever heard of Twitter? Engage, do not try to tell how beautiful your event will be.

- We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

There is not much time left. The economy as a whole is changing. As Seth Godin said this week, during recession times the biggest changes happen such as Google did. Change now because it’s not sure you’ll be able to do business tomorrow.

The email I got yesterday was spam. The content of the spamming manager who sent the email was about registering for an event. He/she did not know it got to the wrong person’s Inbox…mine.

Therefore I decided to blog about it.

Now there are few things that are wrong with this kind of emails and spamming managers sending them. I’ve identified a few and please comment if you feel there are more it would be of great use for most of us.

- Permission

I know I am a bit repetitive with this but this email confirms that in this case there will never be enough repetition. Seth Godin wrote about Permission in 1999 and it has been cited in Marketing books ever since. Now the spamming manager simply did not read a Marketing book in the last 10 years, or worst she/he read it and thought that it would have been great to do the opposite. I tend to read more than 100 blog posts per day plus two online newspapers. I love to be active in things that I like. Obviously this event wasn’t among the happenings I was interested in. I heard about it and ignored it. Why do you feel that sneaking into my email would have changed my idea?

- Email

The fact that you can send instantly 2 million emails to 2 million people made the spamming manager paranoid. By cutting costs of sending brochures she/he thought that now she/he was able to convince the whole world to come to the event. I think that you should be very careful when you engage in such a megalomaniac activity. A lot of people (like me) will perceive the email as an interruption to their daily routine. An unwanted piece of information about an event the I might have liked made me perceive the whole thing as crappy, badly organized, invasive, arrogant and so forth. Spend your money on social media next time to promote and maybe you’ll engage in some useful conversation and beware of using email just to cut costs.

- Sponsors

The bulleted list that I’ve erased is a long lists of participants, sponsors included. I would be so angry with the spamming manager if I were a sponsor. As an interrupted professional who has just seen his Inbox violated I will now perceive negatively any person, organization, company associated with the spamming manager who sent this email. I think I would withdraw from the event immediately.

- Price #1

I don’t want to go too much in depth analyzing the content of the email as I think that in this case the way it was proposed was inappropriate. Nonetheless, I should emphasize that the spamming manager proposed me a discount of 150$. Early birds are great tools but proposing such a large discount does not help in the perception of the overall quality of the event.

- Price #2

Has it occurred to you that there is a new concept of conferences called BarCamps where people set up the whole conference, invite important speakers, collect the participation of huge sponsors and keep everything free and accessible? I think the invasion of my Inbox is telling me that this event is a thing of the past.

- Location

The event is in New York City. I am in Italy and unless you pay me the trip it is highly unlikely that I will travel to NYC just to attend.

- Content

I hid the content of the conference on the snapshot, but trust me it was completely unrelated to my interests.

This whole accident tell us a great story.

- Watch out who you send communication about your next event
- Ask for permission
- Inform, do not try to persuade with old style tricks
- Integrate the open approach as much as possible
- Be an event manager not a spamming manager