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Ask an Expert Archive 07.18.07 8:34 AM Ask an Expert: Helping Blind Guests John Marenzana, Lighthouse International Photo: Dorothea Anne Lombardo How can hosts make sure a space is accessible for visually impaired guests? Planners should ask themselves, “If I were wearing a blindfold, what would be helpful to me?” Consider how the layout of the room will affect guests who have guide dogs or canes. If you’re in a large space with hard floors, put runners on the ground to create walkways. Guests will be able to feel the textural difference under their feet or with a cane, which will help guide them around the room. They should also check for Braille signage on bathroom doors and elevator buttons and make sure the venue’s entryway is easily accessible. We are developing an audit sheet for event planners with all of these details so they can use it as a checklist to make the process easier. Have you noticed that this is a growing concern? Definitely. Being visually impaired doesn’t necessarily mean someone is blind. With the expansion of baby boomers, there’s an even greater number of people with visual impairments like macular degeneration. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Making Events Accessible 10.02.06 11:00 PM Ask an Expert: Which Sponsors Are Spending Now FROM NEW YORK William Chipps is senior editor of IEG Sponsorship Report, a biweekly monitor of the sponsorship industry published by IEG Inc., in Chicago. What is the state of the sponsorship industry today? The sponsorship industry is incredibly healthy. The growing popularity of TiVo, iPods, satellite radio, and other forms of the technology that let people tune out advertising messages has promoted more interest in nontraditional marketing vehicles for corporate marketers. Companies and advertising agencies have also started to realize that sponsorship can be leveraged in many different ways, including on-site sampling, PR exposure, retail promotions, and customer hospitality. So sponsorship as a marketing medium is becoming increasingly popular. IEG expects North American-based companies to spend $13.39 billion in 2006, a 10.6 percent increase over the $12.1 billion spent in 2005. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Selling Sponsorships 02.07.06 11:00 PM Ask an Expert: Building Buzz at an Industry Event FROM NEW YORK Brandusa Niro is editor of The Daily, the gossipy glossy newspaper started by IMG in February 2003 to chronicle—and promote—Olympus Fashion Week, which is produced by IMG division 7th on Sixth. With its brightly colored graphics and gushing style, The Daily has become the default read for fashion folks passing time between shows. This spring, Niro will help launch a similar publication for the Nasdaq Open, a tennis tournament also owned by IMG. Why do you think The Daily has been so successful? The business strategy of it is that it addresses an audience that is so brilliantly targeted. We deliver the eyeballs and the mind share of this fantastic group of influencers and opinion leaders. That's something that advertisers truly understand and appreciate. As a result of that, we have a 97 percent return rate from our advertisers, which indicates how healthy this publication really is. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Fashion Week, IMG 10.09.05 11:00 PM Ask an Expert: Auditing Event ROI FROM NEW YORK Glenn Hansen is the president of BPA Worldwide, which audits the circulation of a variety of media, including many magazines and newspapers. BPA’s event auditing division provides marketers with hard data on the outcomes of their events. What made BPA want to get into event auditing? More publishers are now content management companies, in that their content is going out through various platforms. We see the opportunity for a content management company to look at its brand and say, “Our brand has many touch points, we need to measure each of those touch points so that we’ll have an audit of our integrated media solution.” MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Measuring ROI 06.26.05 11:00 PM Ask an Expert: Creating a Successful Launch FROM NEW YORK Karine Bakhoum is the founder of KB Network News, a public relations and event firm that specializes in the restaurant, food, and hospitality industries. She helped launch Wynn Las Vegas casino and resort this past April, and her New York restaurant clients include Koi, Ono, and English Is Italian. You may have also seen her as a judge on the Food Network's Iron Chef America. How do you get the press and the public to pay attention to your launch? First we find out the who, what, when, and where [of the new restaurant], and let all our long-lead media contacts [such as monthly magazines] know this is coming so they'll know to make space. We keep a constant dialogue with the press. We're very careful about who to give exclusives to and we make sure everybody's getting a piece of information. And we also don't want everything to come out at the same time, so we strategize beforehand what's going to be most beneficial for the client. It's about getting widespread, but consistent, coverage. MORE >> 06.12.05 11:00 PM Ask an Expert: Matching Sponsors With Events FROM NEW YORK Del Wilber is the president of MVP Group, a sports, entertainment, and event marketing firm. MVP brokered Olympus' sponsorship of the U.S. Open tennis tournament and Fashion Week, and the partnership between Office Depot and the Trump Organization's golf championship at the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles. How do you match sponsors with events? The bottom line is fit. A sponsorship is a delivery vehicle, and the real strategic issue is, what is the sponsor's objective? Given the objective, how do they want to measure the results compared to the objective? And into that goes a lot of issues: It could be a seasonality issue, a demographic issue, a prestige issue, a publicity issue. It could be a business-driving issue where you could actually track sales against a sponsorship opportunity. MORE >> 03.01.05 11:00 PM Ask an Expert: Choosing Wine FROM NEW YORK Anthony Giglio is a wine expert and author of Cocktails in New York (Rizzoli New York, November 2004). Besides guest speaking on wines at events such as the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, he also helps event planners choose wines for events. Do guests notice the quality of the wine they’re drinking at events? A lot of people aren?t paying attention because of the sad reality that at most functions, the wine is the least thoughtfully chosen thing at the event. They've come to expect mediocrity. 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