Driving Your Business, Relationships and Life Through Experiential Marketing

CMP Bootcamp in Second Life - A Great Experience

Last weekend I had the privilege of participating in the first ever CMP Bootcamp hosted in Second Life (SL) and sponsored by MeCo. This was a great experience and certainly helped me prepare for my exam. This was second SL program I have attended and feel like this is an excellent complement to face-to-face learning.

I am amazed at how real the experience of Second Life is and how the learning experience is brought into my living room. It was much different "sitting" in the MeCo Mansion theater with my fellow "classmates" than just listening in on a webinar.

I was happy to see some press from the session. http://www.travelindustrywire.com/article30905.html

This is a great learning tool and I am looking forward to seeing it move into mainstream events. The volunteers that put this together are really doing a great service to the meetings industry. They deserve a lot of credit for their hardwork and for making such a positive impact on learning.

The Meeting Planner Diet

There has been a lot of conversation lately about how planners manage their diets when onsite. As someone who is always struggling with food, I often face this challenge. I'm pretty good at picking menus - my attendees usually comment on how nice the selection is. My problem is that not only do I select foods that I think people will enjoy , I always pick a few of my favorites. Lately, I have been on a goat cheese kick.

So now I'm on the NutriSystem plan. While they allow some room for out-of-the-box dining options, my guess is that that phyllo dough isn't a good option.  So for the next few months I will enjoy watching my attendees enjoy the wonderful passarounds while I munch on the crudite.

Long Time

I met someone on Friday night that mentioned she has a blog. I started to tell her that I also am a blogger. Then I remembered that I have neglected my blog for so long that it wouldn't be an accurate statement.

As I am about to become knee-deep in conference season, I will probably come across a few items or two worth commenting on.

So for now, I am back. I'm going to try for at least one post a week. The commute has been slow these days, I need something to entertain me.

No Common Sense for the Common Cold

Having returned from a week of conferences with a terrible case of bronchitis, I found this article posted on Sue Pelletier's blog very relevant and interesting.

http://blog.meetingsnet.com/face2face/2006/12/19/dont-sniffle-be-happy/

Success and Failure

I heard this on NPR's series This i Believe yesterday and thought it described a lot of what I believe has made me successful.

“Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do… Failure is how we learn.” - Jon Carroll

Click Here to Read Jon Carroll's Entire Essay Failure is a Good Thing

Dilbert Understands

Hint: Click on Image to enlarge

Did you know that they charge for sauce?

I did something yesterday that I haven't done in a long time. I ate at McDonald's. Something about the Monopoly promotion going on that lured me in. So, I'm a little weird, and after ordering my cheeseburgers minus the meat, I asked for sweet and sour sauce for my fries. "That will be 24 cents."

What??? Since when does McDonald's charge for sauce? Do they also charge for ketchup? The guy standing next to me look at me and said "you should just cancel your order." If I wasn't in such a state of shock, I probably would have. However, like an idiot, I paid the 24 cents and enjoyed my sauce. I guess that is how they get away with charging for it, afterall I did pay for it.

My friend Capuchin told me that even though she never eats there she knew that they charge extra for sauce. Apparently, if you order chicken mcnuggets or selects, there is no charge. This was a first for me.

So, here is some food for thought (pun intended): If a customer is willing to pay extra for something should you make them? I won't be visiting McDonald's again any time in the near future. I was willing to pay extra at the time, but the experience made me think twice about returning.

A Real Event Planning Timeline

Thanks to Sara Burns for sharing this one.

The True Event Planning Timeline...Proceed With Caution

Weeks 52 to 8 before conference = Do nothing, because no one mentioned it to the events planning team.

Weeks 8 to 6 before= attempt frantically to get some guideline from your client as to number of attendees, acceptable locations, budget, flow, agenda, gifts, speakers, print collateral, invitations, registration....
* source 10 locations in the northeast, then 10 on the west coast, then 5 in Chicago as your client changes their mind.
* bug the chain of command to sign off on the meeting so that you can actually book one of the 92 locations who now have your specs.
* Develop your ability to say key phrases like "Of course I can check New York for this December - you're ok with a $550 room rate, right?" without flinching.

Weeks 6 to 4 before = repeat above
* give up on your client making decisions about the speakers because they're focused on the design of the invitation and the $3 giveaway.
* automatically hit "delete" on the 324 emails that come to you from potential attendees asking when they can register, because you have nowhere near enough information to setup your online registration.

Weeks 4 to 2 before = change your diet and sleep habits radically (you are now the sole reason that the Starbucks employees across the street got a bonus this month) because you are working 18 - 20 hour days.
* to avoid those pesky phone calls, work early in the morning and late at night as much as possible, since you have no answers for the hotel on when you'll have the contract signed or the deposit paid, much less rooming lists and beos; your creative group wants your head for asking for (500) 300 page spiral bound books of presentations produced in 3 days, since that's approximately how much lead time the presenters will give you; your tchotchke vendor calling to say that there's no way that they can produce and ship in time the 700 logo-d replicas of the Brooklyn Bridge and yak-wool slippers that your client's committee finally decided on.

Week 2 to 1 before = your coworkers will find you alternating between a weeping, huddled mass under your desk and bounding around the office with the optimism and energy of Superman, because you have finally gotten to the point where it's going to happen or it's not.

Less than 1 week before = a strange calm decends; you're either feeling back in control and relaxed that you've got everything handled and a contingency plan in place, or you've mixed up your sleeping pill with your No-Doz.

Hot off the MeCo..Favorite Websites

In today's game of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," the meeting gurus on MeCo have been sharing their favorite meeting planning hot spots. Here are a few to check out:

Tiny URL:  http://tinyurl.com
Makes long web addresses short.

Gliffy: www.gliffy.com
Diagram rooms on the fly

You Send It: www.yousendit.com
Send large files without clogging up anyone's inbox.  Great for sending graphics intensive Powerpoint presentations.

APEX Glossary: www.conventionindustry.org/glossary

EMBOK: www.juliasilvers.com/embok.htm
Event Management Body of Knowledge

Food: www.epicurious.com/cooking/how_to/food_dictionary
Use this to check spelling and accent placement on menu words.

Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com
Not only looks for blogs, but finds postings from keywords.

Search Engine: www.google.com
No explanation needed

Flying: www.seatguru.com
You can look up any aircraft flown by any airline and it will show you the configuration of the cabin, best & worst seats, recline angles, legroom, and where galleys, restrooms, drop-down screens and seat power ports are located.

Travel: www.tripadvisor.com

Marketing and Corporate Retreats

I ran into an a marketing director yesterday that I haven't seen in a long time. She told me about just "coming off a high" from just finishing her firm retreat. She said it was a great event, lots of team-building, etc. Before I had a chance to ask her, she said, "you know, it's always a debate whether or not marketing should get involved in firm retreats." She went on to explain that this retreat was in celebration of a new office and new branding initiative. It made sense for marketing to take a lead role to gain exposure and credibility in her law firm.

This is a debate I hear everyday. The question always revolves around the role of marketing in recruiting and recruiting events, employee incentive and morale programs, and a whole bank of other "not-really-marketing-exactly" activities.

I am a believer that yes, marketing should be involved. I also think human resources, finance, IT, and other departments should work together to help build better companies. Otherwise, why have companies and not just outsource job functions. Marketing gurus have expertise is areas that are different from human resources or management. They can bring this expertise to an initiative such as a corporate retreat and enhance the program.

Of course, like everyone, there is only so much one can have on their plate and still be productive. It's a matter of prioritizing. Would working on a retreat help employees better understand the corporate goals, feel better about the the company and their co-workers and therefore, project a better image to clients and prospects? If they answer is yes, this sounds like a priority to me.

I was glad to hear my friend was involved in planning her firm's retreat.