There’s a budget, date, and clients – what now?
So we have a budget and managed to secure dates in the CEO’s calendar for producing a business event. You even have a name for the event and are about to release a SAVE THE DATE. You feel you need to rush ahead to book a venue. This is exactly the time to go over the following points and make sure you are addressing the critical things in the process fundamentally, with an understanding of the implications and insisting on quality results.
Managing an invitee list and staying sane
So the first question that comes up when we set out to plan a business event: who is our target audience?
Are these B2B or B2C customers?
Usually, marketing managers create events for B2B customers, but even within a B2B customer audience there are different segments. Understanding the difference between the segments will lead you to a more precise event for your business customers.
Two segments for example:
B2B business customers are roles within large organizations that receive your service or product directly. For example: Information security managers in a high-tech company or purchasing managers in traditional industries.
B2B professional customers – roles in the value chain. These can be distributors, suppliers or partners in the sales process of the product or service we market. Usually these are contacts working closely with the end customer, such as an authorized installer of a doors and windows company or an architect who recommends finishing and construction materials. This segment is actually your most important professional ambassador. Professionals working closely with your end customer, familiar with their requirements, able to give them confidence in your brand, and your success is intertwined.
When setting out to formulate an invitee list for the purpose of producing business conferences and events, understanding the segment and audience target characteristics will help you formulate a precise and relevant value proposition and consequently an effective appeal. Is it a sophisticated or popular audience? Traditional or open-minded? Such questions will help us tailor the nature and content of the event. Additional information that can be obtained from the records is the percentage of men/women in the target audience, age breakdowns, geographical area, and more.
Data cleansing – Hard but worthwhile work!
So after you have specified the type of target audience, you have reached an equally important stage of data cleansing. In many cases, event planning begins, a date is set, and then it is remembered that our records are not very accurate. Sometimes, marketing managers receive data that includes contact names and / or partial information from records collected previously in similar activities, hence, they are lacking a CRM system that allows to deal with data on their own. Be sure to go over the excel sheets, verify details, delete duplicates and irrelevant ones – this will distill the audience you actually want to meet at the activity or event. Manage records consistently to include at least full name, position, organization, email, phone number and up to date address.
Important tip: Sometimes when taking on a role, records of tens of thousands of customers are discovered without segmentation. Data from years ago that has not undergone recent filtering. Note that distributing a mailshot to a distribution list of this kind risks blocking by customer servers. External mailing systems do not allow mass distributions and may even “flag” the sender as a spammer, which will damage mail quality, open rates and ultimately foil exposure. This is certainly something to take into account when producing a business event
Concept and Messages
Whether it’s a conference, seminar or client event, it is always derived from the company’s strategy. If the company knows it is moving towards a certain vision, it is fitting that it communicates this to the project manager at all its levels. When you collaborate with a creative agency or event production company you gain translation of the key messages into an experience, branding and the event envelope itself – the concept. If for example you decided to spotlight an innovation initiative, technological announcement or sustainability value – the production company needs to express this in the project envelope and its various components so that it brings your value proposition to life.
If you requested to promote a new product that we know will be the hottest thing on the market, then the event concept will bring the product experience, surprising interaction with the product or building a smart demo to the forefront. If the goal is to increase our brand awareness metric in the market, we will create a initiative that communicates the core values, messages and vision of the brand.
Too many cooks spoil the broth! Choose a concise, simple message and stick with it all the way. From the invitation stage through to a thanks for coming email.
Content capsule and design instead of a stress ball
You know that moment when you hit Send on the invitation? Now the tension towards receiving acceptances is at its peak. In this case it doesn’t matter what type of client it is, we are being tested on the customer value proposition. In a hybrid world with dozens of online content meetings, in a world of traffic jams and constant commuting between home and work, it’s not easy to get people to attend a client event. Therefore, the importance of the value proposition is huge, and it is what will distinguish us from competitors’ activities and drive good attendance.
The value to the client within an event can come in different forms:
Atmosphere – when it comes to producing a business event or conferences and events in general, choosing the venue is very important. Location, positioning, size, parking arrangements, serving style, type of food, musical line – together these create an atmosphere that will help people transition into a listening mode where you can convey content and messages.
Content – There’s no doubt that content is king. On one hand, content creation requires understanding the brand language, target audience and what excites them, and on the other hand, familiarity with lecturers, artists and other experiential content. To create an enriching or enjoyable meeting it’s important to build a precise lineup. A content lineup will include professional presentations with organizational content and messages alongside such enjoyable, enriching experiential content. Little tip – don’t overload the audience, invest in transitions between lectures, breaks in the right places and a little humor, all these will keep your audience with you throughout the event both physically and in quality of attention.
Design and brand presence – A client event is like inviting someone into your corporate home office. You want to have a brand presence, one that conveys your messages and language. To do this properly, there are several tools that must be addressed. Brand book – this is possibly the most important tool, where one can examine playing possibilities with the brand’s color palette, textures that can be worked with and integrated into the space.
The venue dictates the design and branding style >>
Blank canvas – Venues like Hangar 11at the Port of Tel-Aviv, allows you to do almost anything with the design, but we must have a developed brand language, beyond basic logo and palette. We will also need to take into account relatively high design costs since the space is huge and completely untreated.
Hotels – The range is wide but large hotels have halls and hospitality spaces in varying sizes. These spaces are usually treated in a pleasant, basic manner but feel very “businesslike”. We can integrate branding and brand presence quite well into them.
Boutique hotels – Those very characterized by attention to detail provide an amazing event experience but we will need to integrate with the design smartly and integrally. So it doesn’t feel like the brand is “imposing” itself on the venue.
Food for thought!
If we know our budget is very limited and the brand language isn’t sufficiently developed, it’s worth choosing a venue whose style and values it conveys are similar to our brand. If we found an amazing venue but the design clashes with our brand colors or worse, it has the colors of a competitor brand – it’s worth reconsidering.
A small souvenir from a big event
There are sayings that don’t really work anymore, but if we get down to it, you will definitely want customers to remember the event months later too. One way is distributing a giveaway at the end of the event. It is recommended for the souvenir to be branded in a meticulous, smart way and convey a simple, concise message. A gift can be functional or decorative in the space of the home, office or car but what’s important is that each time we encounter it we remember the event experience and brand. In a way that puts a smile on our face.
In summary: Physical events directly strengthen ties with your customers. The human meeting has tremendous power, but in order to maximize its effectiveness it is important to work in an orderly manner, examine a venue that feels suited to your brand DNA, brand it so that it feels like yours, build quality content with a precise lineup and come with good energy and a smile.
You are always welcome to ask, consult or view the Architects Conference annual project of the Design Forum. An inspirational event alongside professional and marketing content that provides value to the target audience and strengthens ties between architects and leading companies in the market.
There’s a budget, date, and clients – what now?
So we have a budget and managed to secure dates in the CEO’s calendar for producing a business event. You even have a name for the event and are about to release a SAVE THE DATE. You feel you need to rush ahead to book a venue. This is exactly the time to go over the following points and make sure you are addressing the critical things in the process fundamentally, with an understanding of the implications and insisting on quality results.
Managing an invitee list and staying sane
So the first question that comes up when we set out to plan a business event: who is our target audience?
Are these B2B or B2C customers?
Usually, marketing managers create events for B2B customers, but even within a B2B customer audience there are different segments. Understanding the difference between the segments will lead you to a more precise event for your business customers.
Two segments for example:
B2B business customers are roles within large organizations that receive your service or product directly. For example: Information security managers in a high-tech company or purchasing managers in traditional industries.
B2B professional customers – roles in the value chain. These can be distributors, suppliers or partners in the sales process of the product or service we market. Usually these are contacts working closely with the end customer, such as an authorized installer of a doors and windows company or an architect who recommends finishing and construction materials. This segment is actually your most important professional ambassador. Professionals working closely with your end customer, familiar with their requirements, able to give them confidence in your brand, and your success is intertwined.
When setting out to formulate an invitee list for the purpose of producing business conferences and events, understanding the segment and audience target characteristics will help you formulate a precise and relevant value proposition and consequently an effective appeal. Is it a sophisticated or popular audience? Traditional or open-minded? Such questions will help us tailor the nature and content of the event. Additional information that can be obtained from the records is the percentage of men/women in the target audience, age breakdowns, geographical area, and more.
Data cleansing – Hard but worthwhile work!
So after you have specified the type of target audience, you have reached an equally important stage of data cleansing. In many cases, event planning begins, a date is set, and then it is remembered that our records are not very accurate. Sometimes marketing managers receive data that includes contact names and partial other records from similar activities and lacking a CRM system they deal with data cleansing themselves. Be sure to go over the excel sheets, verify details, delete duplicates and irrelevant ones – this will distill the audience you actually want to meet at the activity or event. Manage records consistently to include at least full name, position, organization, email, phone number and up to date address.
Important tip: Sometimes when taking on a role, records of tens of thousands of customers are discovered without segmentation. Data from years ago that has not undergone recent cleansing. Note that distributing a mailshot to a distribution list of this kind risks blocking by customer servers. External mailing systems do not allow mass distributions and may even “flag” the sender as a spammer, which will damage mail quality, open rates and ultimately foil exposure. This is certainly something to take into account when producing a business event
Concept and Messages
Whether it’s a conference, seminar or client event, it is always derived from the company’s strategy. If the company knows it is moving towards a certain vision, it is fitting that it communicates this to the project manager at all its levels. When you collaborate with a creative agency or event production company you gain translation of the key messages into an experience, branding and the event envelope itself – the concept. If for example you decided to spotlight an innovation initiative, technological announcement or sustainability value – the production company needs to express this in the project envelope and its various components so that it brings your value proposition to life.
If you requested to promote a new product that we know will be the hottest thing on the market, then the event concept will bring the product experience, surprising interaction with the product or building a smart demo to the forefront. If the goal is to increase our brand awareness metric in the market, we will create a initiative that communicates the core values, messages and vision of the brand.
Too many cooks spoil the broth! Choose a concise, simple message and stick with it all the way. From the invitation stage through to a thanks for coming email.
Content capsule and design instead of a stress ball
You know that moment when you hit Send on the invitation? Now the tension towards receiving acceptances is at its peak. In this case it doesn’t matter what type of client it is, we are being tested on the customer value proposition. In a hybrid world with dozens of online content meetings, in a world of traffic jams and constant commuting between home and work, it’s not easy to get people to attend a client event. Therefore, the importance of the value proposition is huge, and it is what will distinguish us from competitors’ activities and drive good attendance.
The value to the client within an event can come in different forms:
Atmosphere – when it comes to producing a business event or conferences and events in general, choosing the venue is very important. Location, positioning, size, parking arrangements, serving style, type of food, musical line – together these create an atmosphere that will help people transition into a listening mode where you can convey content and messages.
Content – There’s no doubt that content is king. On one hand, content creation requires understanding the brand language, target audience and what excites them, and on the other hand, familiarity with lecturers, artists and other experiential content. To create an enriching or enjoyable meeting it’s important to build a precise lineup. A content lineup will include professional presentations with organizational content and messages alongside such enjoyable, enriching experiential content. Little tip – don’t overload the audience, invest in transitions between lectures, breaks in the right places and a little humor, all these will keep your audience with you throughout the event both physically and in quality of attention.
Design and brand presence – A client event is like inviting someone into your corporate home office. You want to have a brand presence, one that conveys your messages and language. To do this properly, there are several tools that must be addressed. Brand book – this is possibly the most important tool, where one can examine playing possibilities with the brand’s color palette, textures that can be worked with and integrated into the space.
The venue dictates the design and branding style >>
Blank canvas – Venues like Hangar 11 allow you to do almost anything with the design, but we must have a developed brand language, beyond basic logo and palette. We will also need to take into account relatively high design costs since the space is huge and completely untreated.
Hotels – The range is wide but large hotels have halls and hospitality spaces in varying sizes. These spaces are usually treated in a pleasant, basic manner but feel very “businesslike”. We can integrate branding and brand presence quite well into them.
Boutique hotels – Those very characterized by attention to detail provide an amazing event experience but we will need to integrate with the design smartly and integrally. So it doesn’t feel like the brand is “imposing” itself on the venue.
Food for thought!
If we know our budget is very limited and the brand language isn’t sufficiently developed, it’s worth choosing a venue whose style and values it conveys are similar to our brand. If we found an amazing venue but the design clashes with our brand colors or worse, it has the colors of a competitor brand – it’s worth reconsidering.
A small souvenir from a big event
There are sayings that don’t really work anymore, but if we get down to it, you will definitely want customers to remember the event months later too. One way is distributing a giveaway at the end of the event. It is recommended for the souvenir to be branded in a meticulous, smart way and convey a simple, concise message. A gift can be functional or decorative in the space of the home, office or car but what’s important is that each time we encounter it we remember the event experience and brand. In a way that puts a smile on our face.
In summary: Physical events directly strengthen ties with your customers. The human meeting has tremendous power, but in order to maximize its effectiveness it is important to work in an orderly manner, examine a venue that feels suited to your brand DNA, brand it so that it feels like yours, build quality content with a precise lineup and come with good energy and a smile.
You are always welcome to ask, consult or view the Architects Conference annual project of the Design Forum. An inspirational event alongside professional and marketing content that provides value to the target audience and strengthens ties between architects and leading companies in the market.
