Event Hero Survival Guide: Week 2

This week, we continue our three part series on surviving events and becoming the hero. Click here to read Event Hero Survival Guide: Week 1

The Big Day is here

On event day, make sure you have all your communication devices: cell phone, headset, radio and mobile devices, everything you need to stay in touch. Other items you will need include a printed schedule, speaker contacts, and contact numbers of all the people you may need to stay in touch with.

/1 Comment/by

Event Hero Survival Guide: Week 1

What you need to know to survive an event

What would Superman or Wonder Woman do if they were event planners? I can image a mild-mannered young woman dressed in a shapely suit, standing with a clipboard while she oversees all the attendees and happenings of the event. Suddenly, a call comes in from her sidekick and she rushes off to solve the problem at hand.

How does this SUPER event hero stay calm, cool and collected as she deflects bad sound systems, grumpy speakers, and lost PowerPoints for the breakout rooms?

We’ve come up with a list of ways for you to stay cool and save the day for your clients! Over the next three weeks we’ll progressively share our top fifteen tips for surviving an event and becoming the hero.

Pick a venue that works

When choosing an event venue, make sure you think about traffic flow. Are all the rooms on the same level? Do attendees have to travel a long distance between the general session, trade show exhibits, and breakout rooms?

Keeping all of the event spaces close keeps your attendees close. If they have to travel up and down the elevator or from one venue to the next, you are likely to lose a few.

Dealing with stairs and elevators is also hard on you, as the event planner, to try to manage event spaces that have a lot of distance between them.

Make sure you have an event office close to the meetings that are going on.

Stay close to the venue

Make sure your hotel room is close to the venue and whenever possible, stay on property. There might be times you need to run down to the ballroom or meet with one of your VIPs or speakers on site the evening before the event starts or bright and early in the morning. Staying close will make it easier for you to do so. Make sure you aren’t driving while tired or after dark in a strange neighborhood.

Having your room on property will also allow you to run to your room when you have a chance to freshen up or just escape for a few minutes.

Create your dream team

You will need all the eyes you can find for an event. Make sure you have introduced yourself and “made nice” with the venue staff. This includes the custodial staff, craft services, set up staff, sales and event staff, your tradeshow vendors, volunteers and your event staff. It takes a village to make an event happen. And remember: every person you work with is as important as your VIPs, and should be treated as such.

Dress for Success (and of course, work too)

We know you love those great shoes you just purchased and they look amazing with that pencil skirt, but leave the new shoes at home! Or save them for the dinner function where you get to sit down for a while.

We suggest you take shoes that will be comfortable for long days and many hours on your feet. We also HIGHLY suggest you bring a second pair. Switching out shoes midway through the day will keep your feet happy. And you rely on them for many days in a row – be nice to them!

NEVER take your shoes off and expect to get them back on again. Switching pairs will provide the same relief as taking off your shoes. Being barefooted is not acceptable in public places.

Wear clothing that will allow you to move easily and offer you the ability to bend, stretch, lift and look amazing. It’s a challenge, but you will build your event clothing wardrobe fairly quickly.

Dress in layers and take a sweater. Facilities often wait to turn on the air conditioning or heating until the night before the event starts, and you will want options during the event.

Preparing for event day

Before you turn in at the end of the day, make sure you have everything done for the start of the event. Check the general session room and breakout room/s to make sure they will be ready for your morning sessions. Check in with your event team and the venue team. Knowing everything is set and ready for the event will allow you to rest easy.

We even lay out our capes, super hero outfits, and shoes to make sure we know exactly what we will be wearing in the morning and for the day. In fact, we go as far as hanging our credentials (name tags and tickets) on the hanger with our shirts so we make sure we have everything we need to jump into super hero gear for any early morning emergency that might arise.  If we had a magic phone booth we could jump in and instantly be dressed, we would take that with us!

Be sure to tune in next week to see the next five tips to survive an event!

/2 Comments/by

The Importance and Methods of Making Vision Boards

How and why to make a vision board

How often do you write out your goals? Daily? Monthly? Not at all? It may be time you assessed this practice and take it to the next level! Here’s how.

Write Out Your Goals

Setting goals for yourself is a great form of motivation, inspiration, and an overall reminder to keep you on track. Having your goals written down can help you assess your daily productivity and whether or not your time spent doing different activities will help lead you to that end goal or achievement.

Having different levels of goals can also be a great practice. Where do you see yourself in ten years, five years, a year from now, or even next month? If you are really proactive about setting goals and motivated enough to write out weekly or daily goals, do it!

What better time of the year to create your very own vision boards than during the time you are starting to implement your New Year’s resolutions (and hopefully not failing on any already!). Here’s how to started making your very own vision board today.

Dream Big!

 Photo by David Marcu

Don’t hold yourself back when setting your life goals, whether it is in your relationships, job, or personal life. Negative thoughts and images of ourselves are the biggest obstacle on our road to success. Let the imagination you had in your childhood take over and you’ll be surprised at what barriers that you previously though impossible to cross now fade away.

Visualize the Possibilities

/by

Do-It-Yourself Theme Packages: Why You Need Them

If you’ve ever committed to throwing a themed party or often create themed events as part of your job, you know you can spend hours upon hours of time searching for the right décor elements, entertainment, food, and other intimate details to make the gathering a hit.

What if you could save yourself 30+ hours during the planning process by using just one DIY theme package created by Event Heroes?

What is a DIY Theme Package?

A DIY Theme Package by Event Heroes is a fully detailed instructional packet that allows you to pull off a high-quality event that WOWs your guests, attendees, and clients.

We’ve included guidance on how to engage your attendees from the moment they hear about the party (invites) until the end of the night (entertainment) and everything in between. See full details of what’s included here.

How will a DIY Theme Package improve my meetings, parties, and events?

Themes are an important element of any event. When done right, they help unify your message, create excitement before and during the event, and leave an impression on guests for months or years to come. Check out our five favorite themes.

DIY Theme Packages ensure you don’t overlook any detail and that you stay consistent throughout your planning. The included instructions will walk you through what to set up where, what atmosphere to create including what guests will see, hear, and experience, and exactly what you’ll need to make this happen.

The supply list included in the package aligns perfectly with the instructions page to avoid any confusion. Details found in the instructions pages are listed in the supply list along with where to find each item, how much value it brings to the overall event, and a rough estimate of the cost for each item expressed in dollar signs.

Impact (star rating) and pricing estimates ($-$$$$) for each item will help you determine how to get the most bang for your buck and still pull off an event that WOWs and stays within your client’s or company’s budget!

The proposal included is available for you to present to your client or planning team. A theme proposal helps bring your vision to life and can inspire unexpected creativity as you put yourself in the shoes of those attending the party, event, or meeting.

So what are you waiting for? We’ve done all of the hard work for you!  All you have to do is take advantage of our of our DIY Theme Packages TODAY.

/by

Finding a Business Coach

It’s hard to decide when to hire a business coach because there is no objective way to assess when it is time to hire one.   And more often than not, when it is time to hire one; you are too busy to do your homework to determine if it is a going to be a good fit.

This is a big decision.  Do not take it lightly.

This is because business coaches will help you:  focus, make more money, experience less stress, have better relationships with employees and loved ones, keep your sanity while your business expands, give you peace of mind, and help you learn to trust yourself to make the right decisions at every turn.

Who doesn’t want to experience all of that?

Key #1:  Find a business coach who is the right fit for you personally and professionally.

When you hire a business coach, it’s been proven in case studies that you will get the best results when you like and respect your coach (Manchester, 2001).  In addition, it will help tremendously if they have the expertise in the area of development that you need or want to address.   In other words, you must be both objective and subjective when choosing who you want to hire as your business coach.

Key #2:    Timing is everything.

If you are experiencing any of the following, it is time to consider the bottom-line impact that hiring a coach will have on the following:

  • Overcoming burn-out for you and/or your employees
  • Overcoming the lack of growth (or worse, a decrease in revenue)
  • Learning how to effectively deal with rapid growth
  • Taking the time to effectively prepare and plan to intentionally grow your business
  • Overcoming and ultimately avoiding low performance from staff members
  • Creating hierarchy and/or structure
  • Creating clear job descriptions
  • Creating a culture on purpose vs. by default
  • Creating a more effective sales process: branding, marketing, pitching, onboarding customers, managing customer relationship,  etc.

With that being said, it is equally (if not more) important to assess whether you are coachable and willing to invest the necessary time in your development to get the results you seek. If not, do not throw money at your problem. It will be a waste.

Key #3:   Give it time!

The results you want to experience are going to come if you hired the right professional.  With that being said, they don’t have a magic wand.  If you expect magic, hire a magician. NOT a coach.

Key #4:  Spending more money on coaching doesn’t equate to better or faster results.

This doesn’t mean that you are going to get to hire someone who is cheap, either.   In order to make this make sense financially, you need to assess the financial impact that your developmental gaps will have on the bottom-line.  After you do this, logically decide how much you are willing to spend and then commit to spending it.

This is important because if you hire a coach, you need to commit to the relationship for at least six months.  If you are financially strapped due to hiring a coach, it can create the opposite of what you want to achieve.  This is not what you want!

/by