Event Planning Tips Courtesy of the Times Square Ball

December 26, 2011

Image courtesy of “Between a Rock” on flickr.

Introduction

As we count down to midnight on New Year’s Eve each year, our attention is focused on Times Square in New York City. There, a ball made of Waterford Crystal descends 77 feet in 1 minute. When the ball touches the ground, millions of people, both on-site and watching remotely, cheer, “Happy New Year!”

For every New Year’s Eve growing up, I made sure to stay awake to watch the count-down on television. In college one year, some classmates and I decided to brave the cold and experience the celebration in person. We never did get close enough to see the ball drop, but “just being there” was worth it.

Let’s consider aspects of the Times Square Ball that you can apply to your events.

Create a Focal Point

What is “New Year’s in Times Square” known for? The Times Square Ball, of course. What is your event known for? If there’s no clear answer to that question, then you should create one. Figure out something unique and special to focus attention around. Perhaps it’s the game show that you host or the great evening entertainment you bring in each year. Create a compelling focal point and you make your event memorable.

Build Up to a Compelling Close

The Times Square Ball is 60 seconds of “action,” but people gather in the square 8 or more hours earlier. Having a “compelling close” to your event helps to build up anticipation, which makes the “close” all the more compelling. Make sure your events have that “can’t miss moment.”

Create a Tradition

According to Wikipedia, “The first New Year’s Eve celebration in the area was held in 1904.” If you combine a great event with a compelling focal point, you create a tradition. A tradition helps to build brand recognition around your event. And, it gives people a reason to return to your event next year.

Create a Digital Extension to Your Event

According to Wikipedia, one million gather in Times Square (at the face-to-face event), while one billion watch on television. Television creates a digital extension that allows the entire world to catch a glimpse of the Times Square celebration. And just like B2B events, the live broadcast of the Times Square “event” doesn’t cannibalize your audience, it encourages attendance at the face-to-face event the following year.

Create a Programming Channel for Your Event

New Year’s in Times Square has “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” (now Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest) and many other programs. Your event needs a programming channel that on-site and remote attendees can tune in to. In the same way that Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest convey what’s happening in Times Square, your event needs a virtual emcee to connect with your digital audience.

Conclusion

Isn’t New Year’s in Times Square a great “event?” It’s got a focal point, a tradition, a compelling close and a great set of hosts. I’ve been “attending” for years and look forward to this year’s event. Now that I live on the West Coast, however, I’ll have to tune in at 9pm local time. Happy New Year!

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

My Grown-Up Christmas List for Digital Events

December 19, 2011

Introduction

Driving in the car during the holiday season, I love it when Amy Grant’s “Grown-Up Christmas List” comes on the radio. Here’s what Ms. Grant wishes for in her song:

“No more lives torn apart,
That wars would never start,
And time would heal all hearts.
And everyone would have a friend,
And right would always win,
And love would never end.”

Sounds about right to me. Now, I’d like to provide a list of my own. It’s certainly not as noble as Ms. Grant’s list. Mine is a grown-up Christmas list for digital events.

A User Experience That’s More Whole

Ms. Grant sings, “no more lives torn apart.” My corresponding lyric would be “no more user experiences torn apart (by new browser windows).” Think of it this way: the more browser instances you see “popping up” in a digital event, the less cohesive the user experience. We need to deliver better and more integrated experiences. How often does Facebook launch a new browser window? Never.

A Consistent User Experience Across Platforms

Ms. Grant hopes “that wars would never start.” Well, we’ll always have “platform wars” (e.g. iOS vs. Android). And as digital event platforms “widen” to meet a growing array of platforms, my wish is that the user experience remains consistent across all of them. My iPhone and Android experiences ought to be the same. And to the extent possible, my iPhone experience should resemble what I see on the desktop. Is that HTML5 I see under the tree?

Driving Adoption by Meeting Expectations

Ms. Grant hopes that “time would heal all hearts.” Digital events have their share of naysayers, who are not convinced on the “return on investment” (ROI). For these naysayers, my wish is that “baby steps” are taken in 2012. Throw ROI out the window for now. Make a small bet and see if digital events (at a small scale) generate a Return On Expectations (ROE). The healing process here is about finding ROE first, then delivering on the ROI as you progressively scale up your bets.

More Discovery and Connecting of People

Ms. Grant hopes that “everyone would have a friend.” Most of us login to a digital event with no pre-existing friends (at that same event). My wish is that digital event platforms prove more effective in helping us discover and find new “connections” (people) as a “side effect” of attending the event. We need to reproduce the serendipity of meeting others at face-to-face events, online.

More Focus on the Attendee Experience

While Ms. Grant sings, “and right would always win,” I shout, “the attendee must always win.” My wish is that digital event planners always put the attendee first – they come before the speakers and the sponsors. Deliver them what they want and need – and you will always in. And they will, too.

Keeping the Lights On (Event Communities)

Ms. Grant sings, “and love would never end,” while I sing, “events don’t need to end.” With digital events, there are no walls to tear down and no stands to ship back to your vendor. Why, then, do so many digital event planners “abandon” the digital event once the schedule of sessions has concluded? Digital events can and should sustain “365 communities.” Attendees stay engaged with one another until the next scheduled activity (when they continue to engage, of course).

Conclusion

Thanks, Amy Grant, for the wonderful song. My hope is that your wish list comes true for all of us. Secondarily, let’s see if my digital event wish list comes true in 2012.

To all of you out there, thanks for reading. And, Happy Holidays.

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

5 Ways to Get Started with Google Plus (#googleplus)

December 12, 2011

Introduction

According to statistics provided by comScore, Google+ had 20 Million unique visitors in its first 21 days of service. comScore’s statistics were measured between June and July of this year (2011). While it took me a few months to jump aboard, I’ve been actively using Google+ for the past month. I thought I’d share some things I did to help me get started with the service.

1) Add People to Circles.

Like Twitter’s tweet stream and Facebook’s Newsfeed, your experience on Google+ is largely defined by the people you follow. In Google+ parlance, this is called “people in your circles.” Visit your “Circles” page, then click on “Find people”. As you add people to your Circles, Google+ gets smarter about its recommendations, since it can find people that both you and a recently added user have in their Circles.

As you find people you’d like to add, determine which of your circles to place them in. I currently have 221 people in my Circles. This is quite manageable for me and quite different from the 1,300+ people I follow on Twitter. As a result, I place nearly everyone in a single Circle and my default mode is to read the Stream from all Circles.

2) “Go Out” to Find and Discover.

Unless you’re a celebrity or a social media A-lister, you’ll find that a modest number of people have added you to their Circles. So think of Google+ as a cocktail party that you just arrived at. No one’s coming to chat you up, so grab a drink and go mingle. As you meet and interact with new people, you’ll start to gain attention.

How can you do this? It’s easy:

  1. +1 other people’s posts.
  2. Comment on other people’s posts.
  3. +1 other people’s comments.
  4. Comment on other people’s comments.
  5. Re-share other people’s posts.

If you’re new to Google+, posting to your page (alone) won’t cut it. “Go out” to find and discover interesting content (and people) and you’ll feel that much more a part of the community.

3) Check Out “What’s Hot.”

Click the “What’s hot” link on the left side of your Google+ page. Your Stream then gets filled with popular posts on Google+ – those that received a higher number of +1’s and comments. I use this as an effective way for finding interesting content – and, discovering interesting people (or Google+ Pages) to add to my Circles.

4) Start a Blog!

When I gave a presentation on personal branding earlier this year, several audience members asked my opinion on whether they should start a blog. With Google+, there’s apparently no character limitation on posts. I’m seeing some users opt to publish long-form content on their pages. These longer posts look a lot like blog posts.

So if you’ve been wondering whether (or when) to start a blog, experiment on Google+ and drop a long-form post here and there. There’s no set-up required and you can connect it right into your Google+ social graph. Perhaps you’ll find my next blog posting there (and not here).

5) Be Different.

I use Twitter for “all business” and Facebook for “all pleasure.” So it didn’t make sense to me that I’d use Google+ in an identical (or even similar) fashion to an existing social network. Instead, it’s served as a nice middle ground between the two. I mix business-related content with personal interests and I can use a “voice” different than what’s possible within 140 characters. For instance, here’s a recent post I made about Amy Grant.

3 Things You Didn’t Know About Google+

You can grow an instant moustache.

You can tell the world that you talk to yourself.

You can provide feedback and send a screen grab of the Google+ page.

Bonus Tip: Follow Me and I’ll Follow You Back… Um, Maybe Not

The following tip is provided by Heidi Thorne (Heidi on Google+.)

Remember the early days of Twitter (like 2008 and 2009) when people were putting statements such as “follow me and I’ll follow you back” in their bios? Tweeters were anxious to build their Twitter street cred by having kaboodles of followers. And you also saw people who followed anyone whose Twitter handle they could find, hoping for a reciprocal follow. Didn’t care if they were relevant or not. Only the numbers mattered.

Now it’s a social media lifetime later. We’re more cynical and overwhelmed with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and a host of social network wannabes flooding our streams and attention. Active social media types were rejoicing at the prospect of starting over with a network from a technology powerhouse like Google. They could get rid of the junk followings and followers, put their contacts in appropriate categories or “circles,” with the goal to only see what’s relevant. And Google+ delivers on that. Kind of like what Twitter lists and Facebook and LinkedIn groups hoped to be, only in an easier to manage and manipulate format.

But you still see people trying to use Google+ as if it’s the early days of Twitter. In a day, I might have a dozen or so people circling me that I have no idea how they’ve connected with me. Do I automatically add them to my circles as a reciprocal courtesy? No way! If it’s not someone from one of my established networks or someone I regularly follow, or doesn’t have a bio filled out, I don’t circle them. But I will follow people I’ve met in discussions on other people’s posts who have fun, interesting or intelligent conversation. In fact, I’ve found some incredible new people on G+ that way.

So use Google+ as a clean social media slate, only filling that stream with what matters to you.

Bonus Tip: Try Google Hangouts

The following tip is provided by Jenise Fryatt (Jenise on Google+).

Most of the time I use Google+ for the Hangouts function.  I’ve found hangouts to be easier and more consistent than Skype for video chats.  You can chat with up to 10 people and starting a Hangout and inviting people to it is very easy.  I’m going to try using it for regular company meetings when some of us are out of town.

Conclusion

I’m enjoying my time on Google+ so far. It’s a neat mix of Twitter, Facebook and a few other services. Use the comments section below to let us know how you’re using the service. In the meantime, you can find me on Google+ here: http://gplus.to/dshiao.

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

Why Every Virtual Event Needs a Community Manager (by @LaurenEHarper) #cmgr

December 5, 2011

The following is a guest post by Lauren Harper.

Introduction

One of the main goals for every community manager is to help build and facilitate engagement. Virtual events are no different. There are many reasons for companies to host a virtual event. Whether trying to promote a product or service, generate leads, or simply showcasing thought leadership, virtual events prove to be an important strategy for businesses of all kinds.

It is important to have goals outlined ahead of time for each virtual event, and having a community manager on your virtual event can only help to attain those goals. Virtual events need community managers to generate excitement, facilitate engagement, grow the community, employ any and all social business initiatives and strengthen overall brand recognition.

The following are some important areas to focus on:

Engagement

Regardless of the reasons for hosting a virtual event, one of the main goals should always be to connect with all attendees. Community managers can help pave that path of collaboration by reaching out to attendees one-on-one.

They can also take charge of all social activity surrounding an event in order to help achieve goals of engagement and knowledge sharing before, during, and after the event. Depending upon what kind of platform is being used, community managers can also help inspire conversation among attendees by asking questions and replying to comments. Similarly, community managers can help direct people back to the actual company website to ask questions, or download relevant research.

Even if the goal isn’t to have the attendees interact with each other, it is still important that they engage with the topic, speaker, and the company as a whole, and community managers can help facilitate that. Also, having a community manager present offers a great chance to have a “face” for the company and help humanize the brand.

Platform Assistance

Virtual events have grown exponentially in popularity over the last few years. Due to the overwhelming demand for them, many event platform vendors have emerged. It’s important to have a community manager present to help visitors not only figure out how to log on, dial in, or sign in to the event, but to also help with any other difficulties that attendees may have.

By having the community manager troubleshoot simple issues, the event producers are able to focus on ensuring that the speakers have everything they need, and to sort out any technical issues they may have.

Collect Feedback

Allowing the community manager to engage with attendees creates an easy way to collect feedback that can be disseminated to the speakers and host company, post-event. Customer feedback is an essential element to a company’s success.

Having an actual human listen in to your community’s feedback and take note of any new or inventive ideas helps to make virtual events a more enjoyable experience for the participant. This will ultimately lead to better attendance rates for future events. It also helps the audience feel as though it is are being listened to and valued, again, leading to a better overall experience for the broader community.

Promotion

Community managers are also a great source of free promotion for your events. Virtual events present a great opportunity for them to promote any other upcoming live or virtual event that the company is hosting. They presumably know the community better than anyone and would know how best to promote an event to reach the target audience. Better yet, they could reach out to people individually and invite them to attend the event.

Community managers can help combine virtual events with their company’s social business initiatives by leveraging all the social media sites the company has a presence on. Posting to social media networks during events in real time can help to reach a broader audience, and boost brand recognition.

Distributing content from the event, e.g.: tweets with quotes, slide URLs, etc., will attract a lot of attention from the social sphere. Companies may find that people will join in mid-event to hear what the speakers have to say.

Conclusion

No matter what type of virtual event you host, there is a real need for a community manager. Community managers are invaluable for event promotion, feedback collection, user experience and audience engagement initiatives.

They also help to retain a consistent audience as companies continue to host events. Virtual events are a great tool to showcase a company’s vibrant community, which inevitably is the thing that will keep people coming back.

About The Author

Lauren Harper is the Sales and Marketing Community Manager at Focus.com. Follow Lauren on Twitter at @LaurenEHarper.

3 Comments | Virtual Events | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

Provide Answers to Virtual Events Questions (#engage365 Twitter Chat)

December 3, 2011

Introduction

Recently, I joined an #engage365 Twitter chat and answered virtual events questions posed by host Jenise Fryatt (@JeniseFryatt). I’m posting the chat questions here and inviting you to provide answers.

Question List

  1. What do you see as the biggest obstacles to virtual events right now?
  2. Would you please define a “virtual event?”
  3. What are some of the ways that planners are funding their virtual events?
  4. With hybrid events on the rise, are you seeing more organizations offering free remote attendance, or charging?
  5. With more free remote attendance, it would seem more organizations are understanding the marketing value, agree?
  6. When people do charge for remote access, what types of events still get good remote attendance?
  7. How can organizations best prepare for the growth of virtual events in the future?
  8. Do you think a new position that combines IT knowledge with event knowledge will evolve to meet virtual event needs?
  9. Do you see websites of events transform into virtual events year round? Examples maybe?
  10. What part of a virtual events team should have a dedicated person? I see content and experience as labor intensive. You?

How to Participate

Use the Comments area to provide your answers. In addition, feel free to provide comments to the existing answers. Thanks!

 

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

Ask Me a Question on Virtual Events (#engage365 Twitter Chat)

December 1, 2011

Join the chat now via tweetchat: http://tweetchat.com/room/engage365

Introduction

Are you ready for a Twitter chat? I’ll be answering questions on virtual events during an #engage365 “Water Cooler Chat” hosted by Jenise Fryatt (@JeniseFryatt) of Icon Presentations (@IconPresentsAV).

Date: Friday, December 2, 2011

Time: 1PM EST

Location: On Twitter.

How to Participate

If you’re using a Twitter client, simply add a column that pulls in tweets with the tweetchat’s hash tag: #engage365. Here’s a look at how I’ve done it in TweetDeck:

There’s also a neat (and free) service called tweetchat (@tweetchat). I plan to use this service for the Twitter Chat. You can use this URL to take you directly in to the chat:

http://tweetchat.com/room/engage365

Finally, you can find more information on the Engage365 “Water Cooler Chats” here:

http://engage365.org/2010/02/water-cooler-chat-226/

Hope to “tweet you” there!

 

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

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