Getting the Most Out of Participating in Vendor Shows Part 1 Choosing the Show.

Welcome to Planner's Pointer's

Things to consider when planning to do a trade or vendor show

It's the beginning of a new year and bridal shows and charity vendor shows will soon be in full swing.  If you offer a service or sell a product you are no doubt being mailed and emailed information about upcoming shows.  Trade shows are tempting marketing opportunities because they offer everyone a chance to reach hundreds and potentially thousands of people over a rather short period of time. Before you send your check and sign the contract here are a few tips to consider when choosing the correct show for you. 

1. Is doing a vendor show the best way to reach your target market?  The best way to find out the answer to that question is to ask the show promoter what the demographics are for their show and use this information to determine if it applies to your business.

 

2. How much does the show cost?  And the follow up question is -- How much will you have to sell to recoup your costs of this show.  If you believe that you can't recoup those costs in the first couple of hours of the show, then you might want to reconsider if this is the best use of your marketing funds. 

3. What do you get with the show package?  Do you get an ad or just a listing in the show program.  If you pay a little more, will you get a better spot on the show floor?  Can you share a booth?  Some show promoters allow you to share a booth if you are selling the same product, several Mary Kay reps sharing a booth at a wedding show for example.

 

4. What other vendors will be there? Ask the show promoter what other vendors are attending. Are these other vendors compatible with what you sell or are they your direct competitors? Is the show promoter limiting in any way the number of vendors selling similar items?  Do you have a good relationship with any of the other vendors attending the show?  At a wedding show for example it would be helpful for a florist to have a good relationship with a limousine company. 

5. Does the show location also serve your target market? If most of your target is south of the city, then a show north of the city not give you the best results.

These are but a few considerations in choosing a vendor show.

Next week:  Pre show Marketing

Planners Pointers is a blog and talk cast to help beginning event planners with their event planning share ideas on planning better events, books to read and websites to discover.

Planner's Pointers is written by  Mary Pam Kilgore, CMP,  of Kilgore Business Services.  You may reach me through my website www.kilgorebusiness.com  You can find podcasts of Planner's Pointers at http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/73353

What Goes Into a Meeting -- Vision and Goals

Welcome to Planners Pointers!

Meetings, conventions, weddings, fund raisers and birthday parties all have one thing in common.  They all share the same planning process.  This planning process has several pieces and over the next several weeks I am going to write about the many aspects of the planning process. 

This week aspect is Goal.   Goal as defined by Merrian Webster is "the end toward which effort is directed."  I believe that determining what your goal will be for any event must be the first thing you accomplish in any planning.  Without a goal or goals, the everything will flounder.  Goals determine budget, dates, location, marketing and all of the rest of the processes. 

Let's try a word similar to goal -- vision. Defined as a thought, concept, or object formed by the imagination.   Vision is often a word people when describing what they want their event to be.  What people see in their mind's eye.  What their dream is.  Most of the time vision is what happens before goals are set. 

What does this all mean for the event and meeting planner?  I believe that it is the planner's job to take the vision and turn it into a goal.  How you do that will be discussed next time on Planners Pointers.

Website -- Eventsburgh

Attention all Pittsburgh event planners!  Looking for new website to post your events for free?  Eventsburgh  is the new on-line place to be. 

Want to post an event on Eventsburgh?  First you have to become a member.  That's free and all you have to do is complete the form.  Yeah!  I like easy.  You can add a picture of yourself if you would like, otherwise you get an avatar.

Once you have registered you can click on the big button that says "Post an Event"  and complete the form and post.  The 100,000 character description  block will cover even the most detailed event.  Don't forget to use the preview button to make sure you have all your information.

You can also push it out to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with a mouse click.  For those of us used to doing separate postings, it's a time saver.

It has a few bells and whistles that you can choose to add for a small fee. For example, an additional link to your on-line registration site, or additional social media listings but they are inexpensive and I think worth the cost.

All events are posted to the calendar and emailed to those who register.  You only receive emails for events in categories that interested you when you signed up. 

Also take a few minutes to wonder around the site to find listings or read forum postings.  The site has lots of potential.

Eventsburgh was started by University of Pittsburgh alum, Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shea") as a way to show his friends that there are lots of things to do in the 'Burgh.  Yeah Tony!

Remember an on-line event site is only as good as those who post their listings.  Add Eventsburgh to your list of on-line calendar listings.  

That's the Planners Pointer for today!

Invitation Tips for better mailing and response

Welcome to Planners Pointers!  You are planning a wonderful special event.  You have a great speaker or are honoring community volunteers or this could be a special fund raiser.  Now it's

time to send the invitations.  When you are sending invitations for an event you have been doing for several years it's easy to recycle the same invitation.  Just slip in the new dates, new honorees and it's good to go.  But before you hit send to your printer's ftp site here are five idea you consider.

1. Review last year's invitation.  Does it still reflect the goal of the event?  Has your logo changed?  Location?  Board members? Website?  Mission statement?  Have at least 3 pairs of eyes.  Add something new like a QR code.  Design it so it will fit into a standard size envelope.

2. Mailing list  When was the last time it was updated?  Have you made the corrections that resulted the last mailing you sent?  Are the invitations going to those you support your events or you interact with on a regular basis?  Or are you doing a really broad mailing?  Do you even know who has supported you in the past?  The cost of printing and mailing has increased greatly over the last couple of years and it would be prudent if you could see who has not been attending and perhaps remove them from printed mailings.  Not talking about removing them from emails that you send, just printed materials.

3. Response cards  Do you know how your attendees RSVP?  Do they call?  Do they email?  Do they do it through on line registration?  If the response cards are being thrown out in the trash, it might be the time to save a few trees and do away with them.  Make sure though that phone numbers, emails and websites are clear on the invitation.  Or what about adding a QR code to the piece?  Invitees can scan the code with their smart phone and register.

4. Mailing date  Yes eight weeks is the traditional time so don't change that.  What you can do to make sure you hear from people is to make sure you also add emails to the mix.  These days you are competing with several organizations and 200 cable channels.  People are responding later and later.  More not less interaction is necessary to get the responses necessary to reach your attendance goals.

5. Save the date mailings.  They still have a very important place in your overall marketing plan.  Mailing are a good way to keep in touch with everyone on you lists of contacts. 

In this world of 200 email messages a day, mailed invitations still are an important part in getting the word out about events.  The trick is keeping your list manageable to keep the costs manageable.

That's the Planners Pointer for today

How to Plan a 7 Course Meal

Did you ever wonder what a seven course dinner was?  Ever wonder how it was served?  Today we are going to take a look at How to Plan a Seven Course Meal

Before we explain each course -- let's look at the courses has a whole

First Course: appetizer

Second Course: soup

Third Course: salad

Fourth Course: sorbet to cleanse the palate

Fifth course: fish or poultry

Sixth Course: red meat, fish or poultry with vegetables

Seventh Course: dessert

I know what you are thinking.  How can people each all that food!! Or have all that time! Or take all that time. 

Biggest tip I learned is to give the dinner a theme.  That helps you choose what types of food you would like to serve. Also remember these are smaller portions.  For example the meat course portion should be 4 oz of meat. 

Break it down by course --

1. Appetizer course -- Small and light  If you were doing something with an Italian theme you might do an antipasto. Or if you could do a shrimp cocktail.

2. Soup course:  You may use a cream based or clear soup such as a chicken stock based soup or a vegetable soup. Avoid heavy soups.

3. Salad course:  For example use different varieties of lettuce with a nice vinaigrette and a few crotons  Also keep the amount of salad dressing to a minimum.

4. Cleanse the palate course with sorbet like a lemon or a lime.

5. Fifth Course fish or poultry.  In one of the things I read some called it the first main course.  You could serve a baked fish such as Orange Ruffy or baked chicken such as chicken picatta.  Make sure that the fish or poultry used in this course don't overpower the Meat Course

6. Meat Course This could include fish, poultry, red meat including beef or pork with vegetables and potatoes.  If you bake the fish or chicken in the fifth course then you choose a different method here like broiled or grilled.  Again keep meat portions small.  4 ounces will do nicely.  Adding the vegetable helps cleanse the palate and aid digestion.

7. Dessert.  Something lavish and memorable.  Anything chocolate would work such as Chocolate cake or chocolate silk pie.  You could also do make your own sundaes

Some hints:  Serve foods that compliment each other.  This is a meal that is served and not done family style so people won't over load on one thing. 

Each course is to have its own wine.  A good way to way to do this without sending everyone home tipsy is to visit a wine store and go over the menu with the sommelier to discuss what wines and how much to serve each person.

Also please allow enough time to enjoy the meal

As Julia Child used to say "Bon Appetite!"

That's the Planners Pointer for today.

Planner's Pointers is written by, Mary Pam Kilgore, CMP  owner of Kilgore Business Services, LLC  You may reach me through my website www.kilgorebusiness.com  You can find my blog at http://plannerspointers.blogspot.com/  You can reach me by phone at 412-260-4178.  Follow me on Twitter @marypam.  

On Line Calendar Setting -- Doodle.com When is Good.net

Welcome to Planner's Pointer's Planners Pointers is a blog and talk cast to help beginning event planners with their event planning. Give them ideas on planning better events, books to read and websites to discover.

You get into your office and look at your to do list.  There are two items: 1. emailing your executive committee to schedule a date for a committee conference call.  2. Herding cats.  You decide on the second choice first because it's easier and less time consuming.

Take heart!  Help is on the way!  There are two, and probably more, ways of scheduling meetings, conference calls and other one to one meetings on the Internet.  One is Doodle.com and the other is WhenIsGood.net.

Here are the easy things to remember.  Both are free, but you can purchase subscriptions from the companies.  Both are easy to use, although WhenIsGood.net seem a little easier than Doodle.

Where they differ is that Doodle has you create an account, WhenIsGood doesn't, although you can.  By creating an account you can keep track of the scheduling that you have done.

Another way they differ slightly is WhenIsGood gives you a range of dates and times in which you simply select the times, while Doodle.com gives you a range of dates to select, but you have to do an additional step of adding the times.  Both gives you the option of creating the email response yourself with the information, or selecting to have them send the email.  If you choose to have the program send the email, both methods call up your email account with the information and you add the email addresses.  I like this choice myself since the url information will be correct and I don't have to cut and paste or worry about typos.  Doodle goes one step further and allows you to both Tweet and add the info to Facebook.

Doodle sends email updates when someone responds to the poll automatically, WhenIsGood has that as an option.  I like the updates since it keeps me informed about who has responded without logging in the website.

Give these tools a try! I like both of these website tools.  They save me time and frustration. 

Planner's Pointers is produced by me, Mary Pam Kilgore, of Kilgore Business Services, LLC  You may reach me through my website www.kilgorebusiness.com  You can find my blog at http://plannerspointers.blogspot.com/  You can reach me by phone at 412-260-4178.  Follow me on Twitter @marypam