MPI released their annual Future Watch report this week and it had good news for event planners.  Overall survey respondents expect to see about a 3% increase in the number of events being planned for 2010.  I recently polled event planners on LinkedIn to see what their forecast is for event marketing in 2010.  Though an admittedly small sample size, the results were similarly positive  with 83% forecasting that event marketing will play a greater part in their overall marketing plans for 2010.

·          Call for Papers/Presentations:  50 10-page papers submitted, 5 review copies each: 2500 sheets
·          Save the Date Post Cards: 2000 cards, 4 to a sheet: 500 sheets
·          Conference Invitations: 3 pages, 2000 copies: 6000 sheets
·          Conference Materials: 10 presenters, 12 pages per presenter, 200 copies: 24,000 sheets
·          Total: 33,000 sheets of paper.

Paper is a significant line item in your budget.  If it cost $0.25 per sheet to copy/print those 33,000 pages, that’s over $8,000.  And that doesn’t account for the cost of mailing or shipping.   Reducing the amount of paper used is not just good for the environment; it is also good for your bottom line.  And that’s why we see more and more meeting planners looking for ways to “Go Green”.

If you are interested in adopting a “Go Green” strategy for your conferences and meetings, what can you do to move towards a paperless event?

·          Invite potential speakers to submit their proposals electronically and distribute them to reviewers electronically.  Saves 7%
·          Use electronic marketing to get the word out about your event. Saves 20%
·          Require that your speakers upload their bios, presentations, hand-outs etc. to a central repository.  Saves 70%

What are some of the technology options to explore?

·          Marketing: Create a compelling event website and use electronic invitations.  Even for closed or invite-only events, you can market effectively online.
·          Registration: Online registration for speakers, as well as attendees, using a system that allows them to upload documents for you, and/or your attendees, to download.
·          Memory Sticks: Here’s where you can get a huge paper savings.  Provide document kiosks in the registration area where attendees can download, onto a memory stick, all of the conference materials, organized by speaker or session.  For more information on MeetMax Conference Software and how we can help you implement a green meetings strategy, go to www.meetmax.com

What are the elements of an effective event marketing website?  Drawing from my experience planning events, and from our MeetMax clients, with some additional insights from LinkedIn users, I’ve compiled the following list of elements of a successful event website: 

REGISTER ONLINE: Clear means to register online (and make it easy)

POST-EVENT MARKETING: Let registered attendees download materials after the event - for example, copies of presentations, exhibitor brochures. 

USABILITY. I want what I want, and it always can’t take too much time to find it.  Make the Navigation simple and straight-forward.

NETWORKING - The most valuable discussions at an event often take place outside the presentation rooms.  If you want a truly successful event, find ways to facilitate your attendees in connecting with one another. A great way to do this is to offer the ability to set appointments with exhibitors, speakers or sponsors in advance.

ENGAGING - People want similar information to what’s in brochures, but more engaging.  Take advantage of technology, for example by regularly adding extras such as speaker video-clips.  Update the content regularly and use email to encourage registered attendees to remain engaged with the event as it draws near.

COMPLETE – Content has to be complete and up to date.  You need specific content for different audiences — attendees, exhibitors, sponsors.

• For Attendees (Must-Have’s):

1.  Topic and Theme of the Event
2. Audience Description so I know what’s in it for me
3. Agenda (that is up to date)
4. Speaker information including their bios (again, up to date)
5. Session descriptions that actually match the content of the session.
6. On-line Registration Form with ability to accept credit card payments, along with other forms like P.O.’s or checks.
7. Logistics – Hotel, Travel, Directions, PARKING, Meals

• For Attendees (Nice to Have’s):

1. Dress Code
2. Spouse/Guest Information – either your guest program or some ideas of sights to see and things to do while the attendee is at the conference
3. Video snippets from last year’s event, for example the mainstage speaker

• For Exhibitors and Sponsors:

1. Description of Sponsor and Exhibitor packages
2. Ability to sign-up/register online
3. Attendee profiling including demographics, behavior, content interests
4. Ability to reach prospective attendees with a virtual presence, micro=site content 
   Chat/click-to-talk/schedule appointments

HELP IS AVAILABLE – one-click button to contact someone for more information or assistance and have a person focused on ACTUALLY answering the emails/phone

Most of our clients do some form of email marketing to promote their upcoming events.  Some create very sophisticated invitations in terms of graphics, fonts, colors and links, and some use very simple communications that look more like personalized letters.  Some email to the same list multiple times and others send just a single email.
So, which approach leads to higher registrations?

If you are like me, you get inundated with offers for free white papers that promise to tell you how to execute a successful email marketing campaign.  After reading a half dozen of these free white papers, here’s how I boil down the keys to email success:

• The quality of your list is the key determinant of success.  Your list should be email addresses for people who have requested that you send them invitations.  
• Content is the second most important element.  Write a strong subject line.  Make the content relevant to the reader.  Have a clear call to action.  Optimize the top 250×250 pixels with compelling information, so that the reader will scroll down “below the fold”. 
• For some people, you have to contact them multiple times to get a response.  Successful fundraisers know that for some donors, they need to send up to 4 reminder letters to secure the next year’s gift.  The same thing is true for event marketers.
• Measure the business result — how many people who received the invite then went on to register for the event.  Tracking just open and click-through rates doesn’t tell you how effective your email marketing is — it only tells you that someone read it.

What’s been your experience?  Have you got a winning formula for email marketing for your events? 

For many incentive events – a race occurs, on the part of the Invitees, to register as quickly as possible to get the pick of the litter of activities on offer. 

Wise to the fact that activities such as golf will be limited in quantity, the experienced bird arrives early to get one of the 16 worms.

Essentially, many incentive events choose to ration activities through quantity.   There will be a limit on the number of golf slots, and perhaps a limit – expressed in some way – on the number of activities an Invitee can sign up for.  This is a legitimate way to do it – if not always the most fair.  But policing activity limits can sometimes be politically challenging.

A different approach involves room credits.  Each Invitee is allocated an amount as a credit. $300 perhaps, plus $150 for a guest. This credit can be “spent” by the Invitee on activities – with any spending beyond the credit being added to the “extras” account on the room and paid for by the Invitee. Activities are priced explicitly – a round of golf costing $100, club rental $20, spa treatment $125 and a tennis lesson $75, as examples.   The cost is then deducted from the room credit. 

The pricing of activities, and the risk of going over the room credit allowance, act as natural limiters on overindulging on activities.  And hence can be fairer than pure first-come, first-served - and less patronizing than policing arbitrary limits..  

Hotels and Resorts are able to manage the administration of this room credit, and of course return unspent amounts to the meeting host.  So there is no extra cost to the meeting host, merely a more orderly distribution of Activity sign-ups.

MeetMax is used by one of our clients in this manner, and MeetMax’s real-time calculation and display of the room credit balance helps the Invitees find the right mix of activities for their taste.