Reduce should be your first strategy.  Obviously if you don’t have to have something you don’t have to pay for it.  Most people wouldn’t even think about mailing a preliminary program to prospective conference attendees anymore.  Consider other ways you can reduce or eliminate your printed materials.  Look for other options, such as picking a venue that is close to your audience or has all the elements located very close together, to reduce transportation costs.  Sometimes replacing the way you do something with another way will help you reduce; a simple example is replacing bottled water with either pitchers of iced water or water coolers.

Thinking local is another example of reduction.  Source whatever you can locally (from locally grown food and beverage to printing to floral products).  This will save on shipping costs.  Most caterers will also work with you to use local, seasonal products but this is sometimes easier said than done when you live in a northern climate like Canada!

If you can’t reduce the use of something, at least find ways to reuse it.  Signage is an easy element of this greening principle.  Don’t make a new sign for each session, design it so it can be reused (with a replaceable customized portion) over and over again.  Don’t put dates on the signs so they can be used at the next event as well.  Reuse your badge holders and lanyards from one event to the next by collecting them at the end of each event.  Both of these ideas will help you save money because you will have less to purchase (but make sure the cost of shipping and storage doesn’t outweigh the cost savings of reuse).

When it comes to thinking about recycling, the cost savings come from less trash generation (and your cost to have  garbage destined for land fill removed).  Many convention centres charge for waste removal (especially after a tradeshow) so anything you can do to divert materials to recycling will help save money.

There is another “R” that can add to your bottom line and that is “rethink”.  As with goals and objectives (and BEOs for that matter) you should always be asking “why?”.  From a sustainability perspective, look at your processes and procedures and see if there is another way of doing something that is more environmentally sustainable and you might also find a way to save money.  Just by restricting registration to an online process will help the environment (less paper generation) and save you money (less data entry time).

Reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink.  You’ll be helping the environment and your bottom line at the same time.

There are a multitude of resources and sources for good ideas on-line.  Following is just a small sample:

http://www.gmicglobal.org/?page=Resources

http://www.greenkeyglobal.com/greenkeymeetings.asp

http://goldenplanners.ca/GreenSample.html

http://www.cooperators.ca/en/About-Us/about-sustainability/helping-our-client/~/media/Cooperators%20Media/Section%20Media/AboutUs/Sustainability/guide-to-sustainable-meetings.ashx

http://greenmeetings.travelportland.com/greenToolkit/sellingGreen/saveGreen.html

http://www.meetings-conventions.com/article_ektid29114.aspx?page=1

Written by Phil Ecclestone, CMP

When we build a budget we operate by the mantra “estimate expenses liberally and revenues conservatively”, and not just because we are headquartered in the nation’s capital where politics sometimes seems a blood sport.

To build a budget you first need to identify the financial objective of the event:

• Revenue generating (makes money)
• Revenue neutral (the money you collect offsets your expenses)
• A budgeted expense for your organization (limited or no revenue is collected as the organization is paying the bills)

Now set your mind to determining what your expenses are going to be. 

If you have a budget from a past similar event, then this is a good place to start.  If not, the following categories of expenses will help:

• Facility Costs (rental, accommodations, electrical power, internet, security, dock master, package delivery, etc.)
• Food and Beverage (meals for participants and staff, breaks, receptions, etc. based on a percentage of total attendance using historical data)
• Audio-Visual (including projection, sound, lighting, rigging, computers, set-up and dismantle, labour)
• Show Services (for exhibit-related costs and decor)
• Marketing and Promotion (e.g., graphic design, website, e-blasts, mobile app, paper mailings if you must, Final Program and Show Guide, signage)
• Program Development (e.g., speaker fees and travel, abstract management system, committee meetings, entertainment, facilitators)
• Professional Fees (e.g., event management, photographer, interpreters)
• Registration (on-line processing fees, credit card fees, kit bags and gifts for participants, badges, lanyards, temporary staff)
• Miscellaneous (shipping, parking, meeting expenses, etc.)

The final expense category you should always include is a contingency fund.  There are always things you did not budget for (e.g., a social media campaign) or cost more than you expect (e.g.,the service charge based on a union contract increases unexpectedly).  A contingency fund will cover you for these little (and sometimes not-so little) surprises.  Depending on the history of the event, as little as 5% should cover it, but if the event is a first time occurrence, I would suggest 10% unless you are really in uncharted waters (such as an event in another country).

Now you know how much the event is expected to cost.  Assuming that your event’s objective is to make money or break even,

You will next want to calculate your expected revenues. 

• First to consider is your sponsorship revenue.  Based on a viable sponsorship plan determine what the minimum amount of money you will be able to raise from your partners in exchange for marketing exposure.
• Second is whether you will have any exhibit revenue which, again, you should estimate on the low side.
• Excluding registration or participation fee revenue, determine if you have any other sources of revenue (such as a silent auction, sales of merchandise, etc.).
• Add together sponsorship, exhibit and other revenue along with any desired profit.  Subtract this amount from the total expenses and you will now have your registration revenue target.  Determine what the minimum number of attendees is likely to be (and maybe reduce it by 10% to be safe) as well as the split between paying and complimentary attendees.  Divide the required registration revenue by the number of paying attendees to determine your average registration fee.  Based on your required categories and their relative weight (e.g., professional member, non-member, student, etc.) and other inducements (e.g., early-bird discount), you can use a spread sheet to determine what each fee should be.

Depending on the organization’s taxable status, you may want to include taxes as a line item, but make sure they are included (at the appropriate rates) for both revenue and expenditures.  Don’t forget that in Canada the provincial tax regime that applies to revenue is the one in which the event is delivered.

You don’t want any nasty financial surprises at the end of the event, so it is not only politically correct to estimate expenses liberally and revenues conservatively, but it also makes sound financial sense.

Written by Phil Ecclestone, CMP

When I started out in event management someone once told me to think about the front page of tomorrow’s paper and make sure you get the picture (and story) you want – or at least not the one you don’t want. All event organizers should do everything in their power to plan how an event is going to unfold. There is an expression, the devil is in the details and we will be discussing logistical planning in another Golden Nugget. But events happen in real time, so the on-site manager needs to consider what to do when something doesn’t go according to plan or happens by chance.

There are some things for which you can have back-up plans ready and you can determine what falls into this category. For example, if you have a table reserved for dignitaries at a meal and they don’t all show up, you can have a few “reserve” attendees in your back pocket to fill the table(s) so the absences aren’t noticed. Plant some questions in the audience to ensure your question and answer session doesn’t fall flat.

Know where and how local resources can be called up on a moment’s notice (such as a 24/7 printer or how to contact your AV supplier after hours) and have contact information (both on-site and off-site) for all your key personnel and suppliers. The local facility can be one of your best resources for the un-expected as it may have happened to them before. Make sure you know how to access emergency services in your chosen facility (it usually isn’t 911 but rather the specific facility’s security department, because the emergency services will waste time contacting them before dispatching).

You can’t possibly plan for every contingency. The secret is to be ready for ones that have a higher chance of probability (lack of attendance vs a tornado as long as you are not in the US Midwest during tornado season). Risk mitigation is also about knowing what to do when something doesn’t go according to plan. Maybe your keynote speaker’s plane is delayed or more people show up for dinner than registered or event staff don’t arrive when expected. The first and most important thing to do is to stay calm. Then you have to find the most effective and efficient solution to the problem in the shortest time possible with the least impact on your participants.

Sometimes no matter how much time you have spent planning for the worst, the unforeseen happens. It may well be that how you handle the circumstance will save the event. At a conference a couple of years ago, I was heading to the conference office to start the day before all the participants came down for breakfast and the hotel lost power. It was on a special grid with redundant back-ups and no one knew how long it was going to be before the power came on again. Thankfully breakfast had already been cooked, so it was just a matter of keeping the buffet warm. Minutes became half-hours as we considered what to do about the program. After breakfast we were scheduled to have a keynote address and the speaker had arrived. We had about 50% of our attendees eating the buffet breakfast amongst the exhibits (which had some emergency and some natural light. Our plenary room, however, had no power and very little emergency light. We checked with the keynote speaker and he had just a speech and was comfortable addressing the audience without a sound system (he knew how to project his voice), so we moved the podium off the stage and into a corner under an emergency light and attached a flashlight to a pole so he could see his notes. The AV techs escorted the audience to their seats with flashlights just like ushers in a theatre. The keynote delivered his address to an audience completely in the dark and everyone loved it because the conference adapted to the adversity without panic and moved forward. Thankfully the lights came back on after the keynote and we were able to get all the systems up and running within minutes and the program carried forward.

“Chance” can make a vacation better by adding to the adventure, but you really don’t want him to be planning the entire itinerary or you won’t have anywhere to stay and won’t get the opportunity to do the things you want to. Don’t let her take charge of your event either, because, if you leave it to “Chance”, “Chance” will fail you.

Written by Phil Ecclestone, CMP

If you have an interesting risk mitigation story, please share it in the comments section.

If the trade show is part of a conference, you should build some program events to take place on the trade show floor. Consider all activities that don’t include a speaker as exhibit attendance opportunities from breakfast to breaks to lunch to receptions. Some trade shows also included dedicated times during the program for exhibit visiting, but you will need to weigh this against other program requirements as well as your overall goals and objectives.

Depending on the size of the trade show, you may want to consider an exhibit passport. This is a printed document provided to participants at registration which includes space for attendees to collect proof that the attendee has visited the exhibitor’s booth (usually by way of initials, an answer to a trivia question or a stamp of some sort). Once complete, the attendee will return the passport to Show Management to be included in a draw for something that is valuable to the attendee (a necessary incentive to encourage visiting as many booths as possible). For larger or more diverse shows, it might be possible to operate this passport on a subset of exhibitors (say 50% or a designated market segment). This might result in more targeted traffic to the booths and result in happier exhibitors as exhibitors are most interested in qualified leads or visitors who are actual potential customers rather than having resources consumed by visitors unlikely to influence purchasing decisions.

If suitable given the nature of your event, another option is to provide a list of registered show attendees to your exhibitors in advance of the opening so that the exhibitor can invite known attendees to drop by their booth during the show (make sure your privacy policy allows for this). The exhibitor will often provide an incentive to the visitor, such as a giveaway or a discount on their next purchase, helping to build visits to their booth. For shows which are open to a broader audience and where registrant revenue is less important than traffic, exhibitors might be given a number of show passes to be distributed to their clients in advance with an invitation to visit their booth. Both of these attendance building strategies will also provide trickle-down traffic for other exhibitors.

One of the challenges of a trade show is maintaining the interest of conference registrants. Another way of attracting attendance is to have prize draws on the show floor for which attendees have to be present in order to win. However, make sure that attendees will be present as it is very embarrassing for all involved if a long string of names are drawn and none are present.

It is also important to make sure that your trade show is a place participants want to be – not just for the food and beverage or the draws – but because it is a welcoming place. Consider the flow of your show when designing the floor plan and include gathering spots, soft furniture seating, tall standing tables and internet kiosks to make the exhibition a welcoming environment.

Lastly, listen to the suggestions of your exhibitors. In many cases they have worked lots of shows, often nationally or internationally. They may have seen something that works particularly well for your audience.

Remember, building it is not enough for them to come. You need concrete strategies to get attendees to spend time on the show floor and to interact with exhibit staff. Your exhibitors will thank you by returning for future shows.

Written by Phil Ecclestone, CMPTake Our Poll

Six sure-fire tips for creating an excellent and efficient name badge for your event participants:

1. Don’t overcrowd the badge!  Keep it simple and maximize the print area by using larger size fonts for the information that’s most important to see readily: the name of the person.  Design the badge to include your branding at the top or bottom, one line for their first name (in larger font), another line their family name in slightly smaller font, and a third line for their organization.  You may want to add a fourth line to include the city/province or, for international events, the country, which can help break the ice between attendees who don’t know each other.
   
   
2. Make sure you use your event branding on the badge.  This is a simple and easy opportunity to reinforce your brand and keeps everything nicely tied together.  If the branding on the name badge needs to be bilingual, plan for a concise design so that the text will be legible on the badge.
   
   
3. Ever noticed how badges attached to a lanyard or string flip over and all you see is the back of a blank name badge?  If you are not using the back of the badge for personalized agendas, print the same information on both sides of the name badge, and voilà! The name badge functions properly at all times.  If you need to use both sides for different information, consider lanyards with two clips (one for each top corner).
   
   
4. If your delegates are asked to pre-select their conference sessions, use the back of the badge to print their personalized individual agenda, including room assignments.
   
   
5. Not everyone likes lanyards, so make sure you offer the option of a lapel clip.  Most badges are designed to accommodate both.  And, let’s face it, it’s easier to read a badge from someone’s lapel.  On the other hand, be careful not to suggest to someone that they attach a ‘clip/pin’ type badge to their expensive suit jacket or fancy dress!
   
   
6. Choose the right badge holder – it’s as important as the design of the badge itself!  Is the badge holder meant to hold banquet tickets or a ‘pocket’ program?  If so, make sure you choose the right sized badge holder.  Should the badge holder be totally clear or should it have a colour bar at the bottom which could be used for colour coding of categories of registration (e.g., exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, etc.)?

Registration is the first on-site experience of your event your attendees will have.  By making sure the name badge is professional, efficient and effective, you are creating a positive first impression.

Above all else, never, under any circumstances, ask your participants to write their name on a sticky peel-off label that says “Hello… My name is”.

Written by:

Jessica Ward, CMP
Event Manager
Golden Planners Inc.

Event management is a stressful activity – telling your participants to come back tomorrow or next week because you are not ready is not an option!  There are a myriad of tools that can be used to build a work plan from a “to do” list scribbled on a sheet of paper all the way through to an automated process using project management software.  To some degree, the process you use will be driven by the complexity of the endeavour and your comfort with the mechanism.  The basics remain the same however.  You need a plan to get you to the successful completion of the event.

With that in mind, work back from the start date of the event and plan all the components backwards.  For example, if something needs to arrive at the event facility the day before the first day of the conference, research shipping times based on the method of shipping you plan to use (air or ground) to determine the deadline for shipping.  If you are going to print a Final Program, generally allow two weeks for printing from the time of final artwork.  This means that you need to allow time before that for the graphic design of the final program which means that all the details in the program have to be confirmed before that.

When you are developing the work plan, it is best to focus on one component of the planning at a time.  For example, develop the list of tasks and timeframes related to logistics (and you can further break it down into subcategories such as audio-visual, room design, food and beverage, etc) and then do marketing and communications.

As you include all tasks that need to be accomplished in your work plan, consider who should “own” responsibility for it and assign this responsibility right in the work plan.  This way when you review the work plan (which you should do with all the members of your planning team on a regular basis), if someone is having a challenge meeting a deadline, you will know and be able to reassign resources or provide additional help.

Once you have completed the work plan, sort it in various ways (chronologically, by resource, by task area, etc.) to determine if you have accidentally created roadblocks.  If you find something that is scheduled to be completed after a task that depends on its completion is scheduled to start, adjust the timing of one or the other (for example speaker recruitment and program promotion).

Sometimes, your plan will have too many things happening at the same time which will likely result in a key task not being accomplished.  Periodically review the plan to see if there are different tasks scheduled to be started or completed at the same time and evaluate if the assigned resource(s) will be able to achieve the expected outcome.  If there is any doubt, add some time to the critical path for this task.  This will be an important component of your risk mitigation.

Events happen in real time so your work plan should be a living document.  Update it when circumstances change and tasks are completed so you are prepared if (and when) something doesn’t go as expected.

So remember the famous words, Plan to work and work to plan!  The quote may be anonymous, but a good plan will be remembered as yours.

Additional resources:

Sample Workplan template:  http://www.london.ca/About_London/PDFs/workplan.pdf

Written by Phil Ecclestone, CMP

In order to have a successful outcome, you need to know what you want that outcome to be.  In other words “what are your goals and objectives for the event?”.  Goals and objectives come in many shapes and forms such as learning, financial, communications, organizational, to name a few.  Sit back and ask yourself what is the prime purpose of the meeting?  What is your target audience and what are their needs?  Does the event need to make money?  These simple questions will help you advance to more detailed objectives.

Most business events have some form of learning objective as their root raison d’être.  Whether it is an academic/medical/scientific conference convened to share current research or best practices, or an annual association conference to advance membership knowledge or a sales meeting to release a new product or service, one would be well served to understand the concepts of continuing education and the statement of learning objectives.  The Convention Industry Council’s Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) defines learning objectives as a “formalized statement of outcomes to be anticipated as a result of the educational process”.  Learning objectives need to be measureable, so make sure you can follow through on evaluating the success of your participants in adapting their behaviour based on the knowledge transferred.  Well crafted goals and objectives will enable you to determine your return on investment (ROI).

Corporate events most likely will have a motivational component as well, such as increasing performance by doing more with less or increasing sales.  That being said, the new normal for incentives also includes a significant component of learning and information sharing.  None of us can afford to spend valuable company time solely on a giant party (not that a special social event can’t be part of the recognition aspect of a motivational event).

Does your event have to reach an external audience or are the stakeholders all internal?  This would form the basis of determining your communications objectives which can be turned into tactics further into the planning process.

Does your event have a revenue target for the host organization or has the host organization set aside a certain budget allocation.  These goal questions will be critical when it is time to develop the event budget and will guide many decisions throughout the planning process.

While every event is different and the goals and objectives will vary, UCLA has a good check list which can help you develop your what’s, who’s, where’s and why’s.

Bud Abbot was making statements, while Lou Costello was asking questions because they weren’t clear with each other.  Make sure to learn from their confusion and clearly state and understand your event’s goals and objectives. Your stakeholders and your superiors will better understand your success if you do!

Before you write your goals and objectives, take a moment and check out the classic routine.

Phil Ecclestone, CMP

Golden Planners Inc. is an Ottawa based full service bilingual event management firm which focusses on national conferences.  After more than two decades of helping clients with their event management requirements, we want to share some of the best practices and ideas we have learned along the way.

Feel free to let us know what you think about these subjects and share your knowledge through this blog.

Phil Ecclestone, CMP
Vice-President
Golden Planners Inc.