Whether you’re going to organize the business convention or other event, or hire an outside vendor to plan it for you, there are many details which need to be considered.  The following contains useful information on how to make the most of your event.  Read the full article here.

Before you decide to conduct a corporate event, you need to decide upon a few things.

• List out your goals. You should have a clear idea of what you want
to achieve by conducting the event. You have to decide whether you want
to enhance skills like team building, problem solving, leadership
qualities or if you just want your team to have some fun and unwind
from the daily crunch.

If you do decide to manage the event internally, it is important to have clearly defined goals.  It can be very easy to lose sight of them in the planning process.  It would also be a good idea to have a facilitator to ensure that your corporate events run smoothly.

corporate events, event planning, event management

Why?

Even though new technologies come out all the time, and Social Media and Social Marketing are all the rage, the fact remains that these are NEW technologies compared to the relatively ancient form of communication known as email.  And it is still effective, if you do it right.

So, how do you do it right?  You need to use an ESP (Email Service Provider) to get your email delivered, because these companies have special ‘white list’ approval by the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) like AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc.

Without this ‘white listing’, a lot of email doesn’t get delivered or gets flagged as SPAM, so sending email from your own domain instead of using an ESP is going to reduce the percentage of email that gets into your recipients’ inbox.

Which ESP should you use? There are different tiers of providers, from very cheap to very expensive, and which one you choose depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

If you have an in-house email list of customers or people that have already ‘opted-in’ to receive email from you, then you can choose a low-priced provider.  In my experience, Aweber is the best of the best on the low end.  Even though you are emailing to your ‘in-house’ list, you still need to use an ESP because of the white listing issue.  SPAM filters still work no matter where you got the email address from.

On the other hand, if you are renting a list to prospect from, you need to use an ESP that specializes in that.  Alternatively, a lot of companies that rent out lists will email for you, but they are list providers, not ESPs, so you will still have a lot of undeliverable email unless they are experienced at getting email delivered like and ESP is.

I am not going to even mention sending email to unsolicited email accounts.  This is SPAM, pure and simple, and should NEVER be done.  Those offers you get for 100 million email addresses should be ignored.  Either you use an in-house list, or you pay to rent a list (or pay to advertise to someone else’s list).

You now need to craft a message, whether plain text or HTML, and get it sent.  You should have a process in place that sends a click on the link in your email message to a specific page to register for the event or to a sales page to convince the prospect they SHOULD register for the event.

If you are renting a list, you probably won’t be able to send your email message more than once unless you pay again, so you want to drive these people to a page on your site where they can opt-in to your own inhouse list for you to be able to contact them again without paying more than once.

Which method you choose depends on which type of list you are emailing to - existing ‘customers’ on your in-house list should be an easier ’sale’ than cold prospects from a rented list.

And it doesn’t stop with only one message.  ESPs can deliver an automated sequence of emails, 1 per day, or any schedule you choose.  This autoresponder sequence should be loaded up in advance so a series of emails goes out to promote your event.

Now, what your email contents should be, or what your marketing message should be is a whole other subject.  But the central points are:

1) Use an ESP to get your email delivered

2) Don’t just send one email - load up an autoresponder sequence of messages (if possible).  If you are renting a list, this may mean you only get one shot at sending an email, but you can have these people go to a page where they opt-in to your own internal ‘in-house’ list so you can reach them again on your own without needing to rent the name again.

3) Have a hyperlink in the email that goes to a page to sell the event or for people to register for the event.

For a low-cost, full-featured ESP that allows for unlimited email lists, unlimited email blasts, unlimited autoresponders, as well as great reports and advanced feature like Split-Testing, etc., you can’t go wrong with Aweber.

On the high end are companies like Silverpop.  Most people won’t need to take things to this level unless you are trying to sell out an arena or other huge venue.

Of course there is much more to email marketing for event promotion than the above, but the above should get you started.

Top 10 Small Business Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Next Tradeshow

Near the bottom of the list you will find 2 important strategies that probably should be at the top of the list:  Trade Show Giveaways (promotional products) and lead Follow Up.  It is crucial that any leads generated at your next Trade Show get followed-up promptly and get put on a list for future correspondence, etc. such as email newsletters and other promotions.

www.localcatering.com/onlinedirectory.aspx

www.cateringfoodservice.com

www.eventective.com/USA/Caterers.html

catering-services-directory.com

www.findqualitycaterers.com/catering-directory.asp

You can estimate you will need about 1-1.5 pounds of food per person, but this depends on a lot of factors, like the type of event you are holding, what time of day the event takes place, etc.

We all love Hors d’oeuvres, but these are the hardest items to estimate so find an event caterer that seems to have this calculation down pat.

So, I thought it would be a good idea to point out why Iran should NOT get a bad rap, especially when it comes to choosing a venue for your next event.

The following are the Top 10 reasons you should consider the country (or if you aren’t into the whole brevity thing: “Terrorist Sponsor Nation”) of Iran as your next event venue par excellence:

1 - No need for fireworks or pyrotechnic specialists - pyrotechnics in the form of missile tests are ongoing

2 - Comic entertainment provided by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad free of charge

3 - Plenty of parking

4 - Plenty of cheap fuel, including Nuclear

5 - Your Promotional Items can be inscribed with “I survived an Event in the Axis of Evil”

6 - No Jews to ruin your day

7 - No Dissidents to ruin your day

8 - Catering includes all-you-can-eat Hummous

9 - No chance of war according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

10 - Security is top-notch

http://www.applerock.com

http://www.tradeshowdirect.com

http://www.godfreygroup.com

http://www.moddisplays.com

http://www.nomadicdisplay.com

http://www.exhibe.com

http://www.displays2go.com

http://www.abex.com

http://www.exhibitdeal.com

http://www.everythingdisplays.com

Sure, there are more trade show display vendor websites than just those listed above - go ahead and search online yourself if you can’t find what you need from any of the above companies.

More Trade Show Resources:

Obviously a work in progress (the links on the pages to the ‘About Us’, ‘Contact Us’, etc. pages don’t work), this simple web-app. claims to allow for your followers to RSVP if they will be attending your event.

Since you have to enter your Twitter username and password in order to use this service, proceed with caution, especially since the site seems to be half-finished.

• Keep Current Customers Happy and Loyal
• Get more customers
• Get employees to do more with less

He spells out exactly why promotional products work so well and why they provide the most bang for the buck, especially when the economy is tough.  Read the full article at the above link for the full scoop.

If you didn’t understand how to use social media to promote your events, hopefully the above video will bring things into focus.