SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR |  RSS | | REPRINT
|
Event Wow Factor 101
October 08, 2009
By Russ Riendeau, Ph.D.
We are all "adventure capitalists." Even as you read this article, your mind wanders off once in a while to think about what you'd rather be doing—sailing, running, flying, golf, mountain climbing, skiing, fishing, hunting, motorcycling in the mountains, etc. For as much as you may love your job, you probably love doing something else for fun a lot more. And that's OK—that's the way it should be.
Knowing our attention span is always challenged and easily distracted, why not give in to the notion of adventure and treat your next audience to the real thing? The next time you're going to have a customer-focused event such as a new product demonstration, training on your product, orientation to your service, or customer appreciation outings, have the event at the most unique place you can find to rivet the experience into their minds and allow creativity and adventure to flow.
Business clichés built around sports themes, for example, are a constant source. Sailing, baseball, football, golf, race cars, planes, and the like suggest strategies and easy, common reference points. Using metaphors to educate and stimulate creativity is one of the most powerful and engaging ways to teach, motivate, and improve recall/retention in adult learners. Metaphors give a story a sense of reality, allowing listeners to place themselves anywhere in the story to make sense to them, to learn from the other side, to justify their actions, or simply to see another point of view.
Speed and Efficiency Sells Every Time
In an effort to jump-start my search practice activity this past summer while we sit in our economic funk, I needed to develop a program that would deliver both value and a memorable pictorial experience to the CEOs, key executives, and business owners invited to the event. Knowing the value of providing education in untraditional learning venues, I made "an offer you can't refuse" to a corporate aviation charter just outside of Chicago: "If I could guarantee more than 50 executives from the Chicago area to come and visit your facility for a morning, would you let me host a program in a hangar with a jet inside?" They said yes, of course. And there was no cost to me other than chair rental, food, and some printing costs for handouts and a few marketing pieces.
Within 40 days of setting the date to do the program titled "Business Growth Strategies in a Tough Economy: From the 40,000-foot-level to sea level," we did an e-mail campaign to market the free program. With additional marketing help from my friends at Vistage International (the largest CEO membership organization in the world, of which I am a member), we received 85 reservations in less than three weeks.
On the morning of the program, more than 70 attendees walked through an unassuming brown door to come face-to-face with a glistening, downright scary-fast Cessna Citation jet. As people were allowed to enter the plane, walk around it, and eventually be seated within three feet of the fuselage, the imagery grew stronger in the attendees and the willingness to embrace the metaphors showed on their faces. The education portion of the program included delivering best practices in growing sales in tough times by using a checklist handout in keeping with the aviation theme and ease of use and recall. Note: The name tags were printed to look like commercial boarding passes, and each chair was fitted with a printed "seatbelt" brochure that asked the person to "unbuckle their minds"; on the back was a takeaway piece with top 10 tips for growing sales in tough times.
Post-event interviews and feedback showed the audience enjoyed the unique venue and the metaphorical learning (in part, due to the fact that being that close to a corporate aircraft in a secured area has a certain "I got past security!" feel to it).
In recessionary times, businesses of all kinds must find unique ways to create memorable events, experiences, products, and services to insure customer top-of-mind awareness, as well as providing sales and service teams value-added, fun ideas that inspire them to reach out to customers who are reluctant to talk with them, let alone buy something. Creating distinctly different venues to host events, and deliver training that helps your customers in their business, not merely promoting yours, is a more powerful approach to building trust and awareness with your customers. Lastly, unique learning venues allow your customers to invite their customers, thus adding more people to the mix, as well as anchoring the event to a common memory that helps reinforce relationships for a longer time period.
Here are the secrets to creating a fun and memorable event:
1.Pick a date fast and work to the date.
2. Provide the best, most current, and dynamic presentation of learning possible. Give and you shall receive.
3. Decide on a unique event and don't debate a great idea until it becomes a bad idea. Risk and courage are crucial.
4. Invite everybody on the planet who remotely would apply. Referrals, guests, etc., all add to the word spreading about your creative event.
5. Do it right. Good food; good chairs; and crisp, clear handouts are a must.
6. Promote it with a video sample sent to a YouTube link. Use action, color, fun, imagination; provide key takeaways for attendees; make it easy to get to; and promise something free as more enticement.
7. Consider relating the learning to a hobby of yours, a sponsorship your company is involved with, etc.
8. Find a host that will benefit from the PR, as well, and they, in turn, will help promote the event for you because it promotes them.
9. Have the audience fill out a postcard at the event with their address, collect the cards, and mail to them in 30 days to remind them of the learning and insure better recall and show you care.
10. Survey as many people as possible and ask what they learned, what to do differently, and what they want to see next.
11. Use the video footage you shoot, pictures, testimonials, articles, etc., to build a future marketing piece for your Website and brochures; make DVDs as gifts and leave-behinds on sales calls. Put a picture of the event on the back of your business cards or create a summary of the event on one side, picture on the other.
Russ Riendeau, Ph.D., is senior partner of the East Wing Group, Inc., an executive search firm specializing in sales management search. He is coauthor of a recent new book, "The CEO's Guide to Talent Acquisition" (Eyecatcher Press 2008). For more information, visit www.eastwingsearchgroup.com.
|
SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR | RSS |
|
|
| Back to Training Index |
|
|
