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Event Intelligence Archive

09.15.09 1:21 PM

Event Security: The Twitter Effect

The Black Eyed Peas at a tweeted party
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Texting, blogging, and online social networking have already made it a breeze for guests to send out tips to their friends and readers on scoring access to private parties. Now, with the increasing popularity of Twitter, the volume of recipients is growing exponentially and the details are leaking in real time. Crashers, gawkers, and paparazzi have instant access to more information than they’ve ever had before—on an easy-to-search platform—and security professionals and planners agree that 140 characters are more than enough to cause some trouble.

Barry Meyerson, president of Manhattan-based security firm Meyerson Associates Inc., first noticed Twitter’s impact during New York Fashion Week in September 2008. As celebrities and partygoers shared details online, queues outside venues got longer, and throngs of paparazzi seemed thicker. MORE >>

Twitter, Security, Secuity Leaks, Black Eyed Peas, Fashion Week

08.03.09 8:00 AM

Marketers Share Insights on Successful Event Partnerships

HBO and Virgin Atlantic's Entourage Air
Photo: AP Photo/Virgin America, Bob Riha Jr

Playing well with others hasn’t been strictly enforced since kindergarten, but companies looking to maintain or increase the impact of their events could do well to pay heed to that notion. Brand partnerships for events, campaigns, or long-term initiatives can produce more desirable results than tackling a project solo in any economy, but these days—when people are asked to do more for less—pooling resources can help marketers get more for their buck.

But before you jump into bed with another brand, make sure to confirm you and your partner are looking for the same thing. Six months of trying phone conferences and constant concessions may not be worth a few dollars saved or a mention in Us Weekly. To get an idea how successful pairings come together, we talked to marketers who recently teamed up to share production responsibilities and generate more media impressions, higher attendance, or stronger buzz than each probably would have on their own. The bottom line: They’re all open to doing it again. MORE >>

HBO, Virgin Atlantic, Entourage, The Fader, Levi's, Belvedere Vodka, Bustle Clothing, Consumer Electronics Show, iLounge

07.13.09 11:34 AM

6 Warning Signs a Vendor Might Be in Trouble

1. A show-me-the-money attitude: If a vendor is unusually insistent on receiving the deposit, your money might be the only thing keeping the company afloat.

2. No welcome mat: Most vendors are happy to accommodate a mutually convenient visit. An unwillingness to show you around their place of business might mean they have something to hide, such as a half-empty workplace, threadbare supplies, or a general state of chaos.

3. A nearly empty calendar: “I want to see how busy they are,” says Debbie Baker, director of sales for Extras, an event and destination management firm in Las Vegas. “If they’re only doing one or two events a month, they’re not making it.” MORE >>

07.08.09 11:22 AM

Recession Prompts Many Planners to Investigate Vendors' Financial Health

Vendor bankruptcies and closures will likely increase during the recession.
Illustration: BizBash

Last year Matt Robbins, president of the Event Team in San Diego, booked a harbor cruise for a financial services client and put down a $2,000 deposit. A month before the event, Robbins found out the company, hobbled by the death of its owner and a failed vessel inspection, had shut its doors, taking the deposit with it.

“They just stopped answering their phones,” Robbins says. He initially learned why through the grapevine. “I think after six million phone calls somebody confirmed that the company had closed.” Robbins only had a couple of weeks to go before the event.

He raced to find a backup boat. The only available vessel was smaller and pricier, and he paid the $1,000 difference. “It was a mad scramble to keep our clients happy, and we just had to absorb the extra cost,” he says. MORE >>

07.01.09 9:30 AM

Proving Your Worth: How to Avoid Getting the Boot—and Fight It If You Do

Stephen Viscusi

After years as a corporate headhunter and résumé doctor, Stephen Viscusi has taken on the role of job retention expert. His most recent book, Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work, offers tips for people sweating out the uncertain job market.

How can people best prove their worth in the workplace today?
The most important thing is to establish a personal relationship with your boss, and your boss’s boss, so that they know you as an individual. The hiring process today sterilizes who we are, and it means that bosses don’t often know their staff. Nobody likes firing people, but it’s easier to fire someone you don’t really know. MORE >>

Proving Your Worth

07.01.09 9:15 AM

Proving Your Worth: The Example

Liz Glover Wilson
Photo: Leslie Hassler

This story originally appeared in the most recent issue of our magazine; subsequently the subject, Liz Glover Wilson, left her job at iStar Financial to start her own event and fund-raising company for nonprofits, Elizabeth Rose Consulting. Before she left, Glover Wilson expanded her two staffers' job descriptions, and they were promoted and remain at the company. One of her first clients is the iStar Charity Foundation, and she'll be hosting its annual charity shootout in July. Here's our original story.

Liz Glover Wilson has spent nearly 13 years at iStar Financial, steadily increasing her presence at the company by centralizing its approach to meetings and events and rising to vice president of corporate events. Now that funds are being taken from her department, she approaches every project with an argument for its necessity, and so far, she’s making her point.

How She’s Already Proven Her Worth
When Glover Wilson joined the real estate investment firm in 1996, planning its events was a one-woman job. She spent her first few years running 35 big events a year on a shoestring budget and eventually implemented a standard by which all iStar events are produced. Glover Wilson now has oversight of all meetings and event initiatives nationwide, so whether someone in her department or an administrative assistant plans them, they should deliver a consistent brand message and use her proven cost-saving methods. MORE >>

Proving Your Worth, iStar Financial

07.01.09 9:00 AM

Proving Your Worth: 5 Discussion Points to Make the Case for In-House Event Jobs

Cost Savings
Nothing speaks to employers like the bottom line, so you should already be keeping track of how much money you’ve managed to save through negotiations, partnerships, and minor budget-saving adjustments.

“Even more than the economy today, people are worried about future money,” says Gen Art New York event director Kaki Stergiou. “Something I would have hired a freelancer for, I’m now hiring volunteers [to do], on the promise of partnering with them on something else. And for venues that are hesitant to give a low rate, I’ve gotten discounts for signing on to do two [events] in a year instead of just one.” MORE >>

Proving Your Worth

06.02.09 9:00 AM

Guerrilla Marketing Guide: Where to Stage Stunts in Six Cities

Tennis pros Venus Williams and Andy Murray stopping traffic in Miami
Photo: Getty Images

Chicago
Where to Go: One of the Windy City’s most iconic locales, the Daley Center, allows marketers to reach consumers—including the lunching masses—under the watchful eye of a 50-foot untitled Picasso sculpture. A few blocks northeast, and just outside the Loop, is Pioneer Court. The petite, extremely busy plaza sits where the Chicago River meets Michigan Avenue and sees most of the 40 million tourists who visit Chicago annually.
What It Takes: The Daley Center’s plaza is owned by MB Real Estate (312.603.7981), which prices permits individually. Pioneer Court is controlled by the Equitable Life Insurance Company and the Chicago Tribune Company, but any event using the streets around it would require permits from the City of Chicago (Office of Special Events, 312.744.0626). Months of red tape and a 28-page application packet might persuade you to go guerrilla instead.
Recent Stunt: When More put future first lady Michelle Obama on its October 2008 cover, the magazine deployed 100 readers to the streets around Pioneer Court to pose with issues—and it didn’t spend a penny on permits.
Who Can Help: Based in Chicago, Legacy Marketing Partners has earned a lot of attention from experiential campaigns like the Stoli Hotel and the mobile Burger King/NFL Challenge. MORE >>

Guerrilla Marketing, More Magazine, Sony, DirecTV, Budweiser, Ikea, Ikea, Sony Ericsson

05.27.09 7:00 AM

What's Worth It? Where to Spend and Where to Save in Today's Budgets

Lighting at the opening-night party for The Little Mermaid on Broadway
Photo: Courtesy of McNabb Roick

“I don’t think it’s a matter of what you must cut from your budget, but what you do with the money you have,” says Ting Wang, events and promotions manager for Condé Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group in New York. “At the end of the day, the most important thing is to produce a memorable event.” That pretty much sums up the point of this package—to explore which event expenses are worthwhile in an economic climate that can make many aspects of entertaining seem extraneous.

Hosts with limited budgets face some difficult decisions, so we asked a diverse array of event planners about the line items they continue to approve (and fight for), and the costs they eliminate. Some opinions are specific to the respondents’ companies and brands; others are particular to their personal preferences and pet peeves. Some are contradictory—the print vs. email invitation debate is a hot topic—but in choosing which comments to include, we tried to focus on the concepts that many people agree on.

When it comes time to set the final budget, though, the ultimate decisions often depend on the situation. “Every event is so different,” says Katie Youngkin, senior events manager at the Fader Inc. in New York. “You have to judge each event based on the audience it would attract and what would be most valuable to reaching that audience. Is it more important to get a DJ with allure, or just one who will play fun music? Is food necessary, or would drinks only be fine?” You’ll have to make those calls on your own, but here are some suggestions to guide your choices. MORE >>

12.30.08 10:00 AM

Fair Minded

The "Wall of Fire" stunt at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire's Ultimate Joust
Photo: Mt. Hope Staff

With lords and ladies, jousts, and giant turkey legs, the professionals who manage Renaissance fairs across the country practice their trade in a 16th-century setting, but the logistics will sound familiar to anyone producing events in the modern age, as well.

Pick themes with universal appeal. “We do a lot of theatrical acting, and our audience identifies very strongly with our dramas,” says Carolyn Spedden, artistic director for the Maryland Renaissance Festival. “This year we’re doing King Henry VII ’s midlife crisis, when he marries the teenage Anne Boleyn and then she gets beheaded. What makes it resonate so strongly is the idea of a love triangle, with Henry’s older wife Catherine on the outs. Even people who don’t know anything about history know about the idea of an ‘other woman.’ When [Anne] is escorted out for her beheading, women in the audience will scream and yell things at her. They really get drawn into the story.”

Add diversionary tactics to contingency plans. “I work with a professional stunt troupe for the jousting show we do three times a day,” says Jeffrey Siegel, producer of the Arizona Renaissance Festival. “Sometimes they get hurt. They might get cut with a sword, twist an ankle while sparring, or fall off their horse. When this happens, our actors are trained to form a gauntlet between the injured stuntman and the audience. They perform and distract the audience so they don’t notice the EMTs are there with a stretcher behind the actors.”

Let guests express themselves. “One-third to half of our guests do come in costumes,” says Andrew Elkin, general manager of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in California. “Most dress in Renaissance garb, but we also have people come as barbarians, in full-on fur with makeup blood, or Vikings. I’ve seen some really funny stuff. Recently, I was watching these two people in cloaks. It was warm out, but they were all covered up. When they moved a little, I got a glimpse and could see they were wearing Star Trek uniforms underneath. I figure, hey, whatever makes them happy. As long as it’s in good taste, it’s fine with us.” MORE >>

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