See you tomorrow.
February 16, 2009
It’s been a busy month in the lab of the Evil Genius.
Tomorrow is Seth’s presentation in London and my thoughts turn to all of you who are attending.
Evil Genius Media + Events is genuinely focused on creating the most memorable experience for every guest and client that we produce events for. We know that many of you are travelling significant distances to attend this event.
I know that Seth has done a great deal of work toward tomorrows presentation, and we at EGM hope that when you attend tomorrow you will feel we have done the same.
I’m off today to meet with Seth and lock down those final few little details and although I know I just won’t have the time tomorrow. I sincerely hope I get to meet as many of you as possible.
Best Wishes
Mark Muggeridge – Director Media and Events Services.
#SethLDN – Official Supplier Appointed
February 14, 2009
As Evil Genius Media gears up for the presentation of Seth Godin – The London Session on Tuesday 17 Feb we are pleased to announce the official Tweet supplier of this event.
Leading UK Social Media agency Ryan McMillan will be on board to tweet the event live as Seth takes the stage.
To follow the event on Twitter follow RMM at RMM_LND .
Ryan McMillan have over the last year supplied research, and stratergy for clients such as Sony Europe, Discovery Channel and Buckingham Palace. The excellent blog covering development in social media can be reached via the link in our Blogroll.
We all present. Everyday.
February 13, 2009
How good are your presentation skills ?
I don’t give many presentations I hear you say.
Well, yes you do.
You make presentations in meetings to clients when you first meet them and they are sizing you up.
When you are briefing staff on a new project, and are assigning roles.
You make a presentation in weekly staff meetings, or board meetings, or any meetings.
They may be short in length, without speaker support such as slides or props, or audio support. They are all little presentations.
Time is valuable and face to face communications occur less and less. When you’re giving a presentation, any presentation, don’t you want to be the best you can, get your message across ?
Inspire the client with confidence, excite your staff about the new project and enthuse them with the challenge of the role you’ve set them, make people feel that it was actually worth attending that meeting.
We all present, everyday. Making impressions we’re not even aware of.
Be aware, be brilliant. Present well.
Stop Your Event – before it’s begun.
February 11, 2009
I want you to stop. Before it’s too late, before you’ve booked a venue, an event manager ( hopefully me ) before you’ve told anyone in your organisation about your event.
Even now at the point where you’ve only just decided to hold that event, I’m willing to bet that you can tell me the outline of what’s going to happen.
Conference – Delegates collect name badges, enter auditorium, sit though numerous presentations, go to networking event, go home.
Awards Presentation – Guests arrive, have cocktails and canapes, CEO makes presentation, a few people run up on stage, collect award, guests go home.
Brand Presentation – Customers arrive, sales and marketing team tell them about new product, give them gift and sample bags, sales team hope for the best, customers go home.
You get where I’m going here….fill in the rest.
Now, stop !
Consider that in the last few years the world has become a very different place. Businesses all over the world are having to change the way they are run. People, both staff and clients have very different expectations of how you communicate, how you interact with them and how they are treated and they treat their customers.
Again I could go on but you can fill in the blanks here too for your own industry and company. However I’m not just talking about the credit crunch. The business’s that are surviving, even growing are the ones that are re inventing themselves and becoming remarkable. The ones that make you say, Wow that’s a fresh idea.
Companies are using tools like Twitter, and Blogs to communicate and abandoning traditional advertising.
So back to your event.
What about….
Conference – Delegates arrive and immediately go into organised networking events so they can make the most of face to face contacts. Presentations are limited to One Key Note and two breakout presentations per day cutting the boring presentations that are only included to stroke the ego of the presenter – leaving time for workshop sessions where valuable interaction can take place and delegates can exchange ideas.
With all the presentations and outcomes distributed via blogs and networking sites where the delegates can re assemble on line and further develop and interact.
Awards Presentation – A ceremony that allows staff and key clients to step back and really reflect what the company achieves; what their place is in it and the company’s place in the community. Instead of Awards – Ambassadorships for outstanding individuals who contribute to the growth of the company, identifying them to other staff. Making them approachable throughout the year to assist growth. Include your key clients thanking them for the feedback that has helped you better develop the products and services you need to survive. An event that allows every staff member to walk away with a sense of pride in the company.
Brand Presentation – Customers arrive, and get listened to rather than presented to. Where you openly talk about not only the benefits of your product but you hear how you can improve it. Where they get to meet the top executives as well as the people they usually interact with so they feel their ideas are being heard by those who make decisions.
Find out what they need to become brand advocates rather than customers, because their word will sell your product or service better than any advertising ever will.
Again, you get the idea here. Make your next event a surprising and remarkable experience. Break the mold and have your constituents walk away saying, Wow, I never expected that !
Walk through your event in your clients, customers, suppliers and staffs shoes and see what they really want from the event.
You never begin down the path of creating an event with the aim of it being average or the same as every other event you’ve been too, so why end up that way.
You are what you Tweet.
February 10, 2009
If you attend my skills presentation workshops, one thing you will hear is…
‘ What do you want people to think when they first see you.’ I’m referring to how presenters dress when they present. When you first step on that stage how you look will affect what people think of you.
Similarly, the first impression you give someone might be via your Tweets.
From the Community Managers point of view, you need to consider the picture it draws of you. Frankarr is a great tweeter. His profile pic is a Microsoft QR code, something he is passionate about. His tweets give you an idea of the person and his focus. He gives us a generous view of what he finds on the web.
Have you asked yourself what kind of experience you want to give those who follow you. I don’t want to over analyze what for many folk is a simple tool. However with the increasing influence of Twitter perhaps it’s prescient to get your thinking straight on this now.
Readers will think of you via what you say to them. You are what you Tweet.
Time Management
February 8, 2009
For those of you who feel you need time management classes my advice is don’t bother. Time is time. A minute will always be a minute. What you need to manage is yourself , and your work flow.
In that vain, for those of you working in Community Managment, you’ll find a great article here about tools to deal with your in box. Written by Robert Scoble it’s worth your time !
Product or Service Quality
February 5, 2009
If you purchase a product or service from a brand that you know and respect, you expect that the item will be to a standard. Right ?
I had an interesting experience yesterday where a product I usually purchase was no where near the usual standard expected. ( I purchae this product often. ) My purchase, prompted by the suppliers offer of a ‘tight times’ special at a remarkably low price.
When I asked the supplier what the story was, they were a little surprised at my enquiry.
You don’t think we could supply our usual quality at that price do you ? We wouldn’t make any profit !
So was the offer about helping me, as they had indicated or about shifting stock and getting through put ?
Do you think I sat there and thought, ‘ It’s OK that this is sub standard, I bought it cheap.’ Do you think I now view their brand, company and our relationship any differently ?
If a client is going through a tough time or if you want to offer a discount to the market to keep yourself busy a discount or limited special is one strategy. However anything you put your brand on be it product or service is your greatest brand ambassador. Don’t compromise. Don’t be anything other than the best you can.
Event Success.
February 4, 2009
There are a thousand and one things to do when you are running an event. It doesn’t matter if that event is for your company, your church group or your child’s sporting club.
And at the end of it all, you can review what you’ve done and be satisfied that you have checked every box, covered every contingency and thought of and allowed for every possibility.
However with all that done you still can’t judge if your event was a success.
The only people who can do that are the folk who attended.
If it was a fundraiser, and raised lots of funds, but alienated your benefactors who won’t now give again, was it a success ?
If you had 100% attendance at the annual sales conference, but the sales team left with questions unanswered, was it a success ?
And if the event went off without a hitch, and you met all the aims and targets set by the organising group, but the attendees didn’t get what they needed or didn’t hear the message clearly, was that a success ?
Walk through your event as if you were an attendee and see if your’e satisfied. When you discover a shortfall work swifty to attend to it. Manage expectations before hand and articulate what folk should expect.
You’ll never please all of the people all of the time, but you can have fun trying.
See my brilliant presentation.
February 3, 2009
When people attend a presentation, they often say they are going to see ( not hear ) a presentation.
I’ll deal with what people hear at a presentation another time !
If the content of your presentation is really just the words, then perhaps you should consider an audio recording and providing it as a download or a streaming audio file. It would save the cost of the venue, and would save every one a lot of time travelling to and from the event.
But of course people are there because they want to see you give that presentation. They might also value the networking opportunity that it offers. Both with you and the other attendees.
So a few thoughts for your consideration.
How are you going to dress for the presentation ? What do you want them to think when they first see you !
Should you be speaking from a lecturn in a statesman like manner or pacing around the auditorium, making contact with the audience ?
If you’re working with the company CEO or chairperson, is this a rare and valuable opportunity for the audience to see the head of the company in person and if so how should that effect setting, venue and programme. Your staff or investors might not want to see this key note the morning after the big awards or celebration event.
If it’s a really big audience, have you arranged with your event manager to project the presentation onto screens into the venue ?
Presenting in person is a powerful way to get a message across if it’s done right and it can present a range of further benefits if it’s staged, presented and delivered well.
See and visualise the presentation ahead of time to take advantage of all the opportunities this can present.
