Event Coordination Survival Tips!

I have been the event coordinator for many events the past year. Many of those events include, dealership events where we take music, dancers and entertainers to host a show during the sales. Other events I have coordinated are beach events where the purpose is to get people interested in going to college.  Most of these events have been very successful. For example, in one dealership event the company sold over 200 cars (used and new) in just a weekend. These types of sales are not very frequently during this economy. The key to having a successful event is always being PREPARED.

I am going to give you some tips on how to be prepared for an event. I promise that by following this advice your event will run smoothly, and you won’t be stressed out at the time of the rush.

Prepare a detailed breakdown of estimated costs.

In these times of need Excel or Numbers are your best friends. I recommend using the breakdown not only for estimating the costs but using it as a checklist. Make a table where you can put as much detail (item, cost, distributor, quantity, production time, etc.) as possible for the things you need. After the numbers $$ have been approved hide the cost column and use the table as a check list the day before of the event to make sure every thing that is needed to run the event is set.

I use this a lot, and it helps me every time to keep track of everything I need.

Insurance is key.

Make sure your insurance policy covers everything. If something happens during the show, you won’t want to deal with legal issues after the event.

Tools!

Your top 5 essentials tools are:

• Duck tape
• Tide to Go
• Cellphone with internet
• Scissors
• Plastic Straps

Trust me, you will thank me later.

Help is not your enemy. Use it in your advantage.

Trust me when I say, “You can’t run an event by your self.” It can be difficult to delegate, but you need as much help as possible, so you don’t be stressful during the process. Give an important task and responsibility to each of your team members. That way all the work will be evenly distributed, and not all the weight of the event will be in your shoulders.

Network

Have a good communication with all your distributors and colleges. You will never know when you will need their help.


These are tips that I think can be useful to anyone and are based on the small events I have done. As I get more experience with bigger events I will be posting more tips and tricks for success. I hope this has been helpful.

Enjoy!

Review: AMC's The Pitch

What is the most important part of getting a big account or any account in the advertising world? What can make or break an advertising agency? Of course the team, but if you don’t have the clients, what do you do with the team?

A few months ago while looking trough some articles at Agency Spy, I came across with an article about a TV reality show called The Pitch. I didn’t have the AMC channel in my cable subscription, so I bought it on iTunes. The show is about advertising agencies competing each other for clients and big accounts and about how crucial is the PITCH in the advertising world.

I loved the show because I saw how the most competitive agencies in the industry work. I only have one year of experience in the industry of advertising, so when I saw the show I was fascinated about how ambitious and competitive is the process of the pitch (even between coworkers).

What I like about this show is that there is so much to learn about the industry and by watching it you can learn how to improve your skills in an important part of getting clients. The other thing that you can learn in this reality show is the importance of the team presence. Any good advertising agency can fall any time if it is not well organized and doesn’t have the presence of a well-structured team.

I highly recommend this TV show. It is defiantly worth the time. I have heard that this show is very similar to Mad Men (which I anxious to see), so if you like the series you will love the show. Be sure to catch season 2 of the show next week August 15, 2013.

¿Do you want to negotiate?

Negotiation is essential in the entertainment industry. Not everyone has that skill, for example, me. I am more of a soft negotiator than anything else, and I am trying to improve that skill. Recently I have been reading the book Getting To Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury. The book clearly state, “Being nice is no answer”, that was the part that caught most of my attention. Positional bargaining (or “haggling”) is a difficult type of negotiation. Having 2 or more parties discussing about each of their interest can be very difficult to deal with. What to do in these situations? The solutions that the book propose are:

• Separate the people from the problem.
• Focus on interest not positions.
• Invent options for mutual gain.
• Insist on using objective criteria.

To discuss more abut this topic I sat down with a local lawyer. Juan Hernandez specializes in entertainment and financial cases and much more. He has a doctorate in finance and may of years of experience in law.

I asked him a few question about negotiation and discussed the topics.

Q: How do you separate the people from the problem when negotiating?

A: After every aspect has been put down to the table, I ask people what worries you.  I don’t get involve with the people’s emotions and try to not show mine.

Q: How do you handle positional bargaining?

A: I present many options to the person; I don’t get stuck in one position. I try not to get in any position and be the person detecting and stopping the haggling.

Q: How do you work to get a mutual benefit?

A: I expose the worst case scenario, and start negotiating thru it.

Q: How difficult is to be a mediator and get mutual benefit for both parties?

A: Sometimes can be difficult, when you have two parties with different perspectives and points of view. All I do is to get the best deal for both parts and make sure they walk away knowing they made a good deal. 

How can I get money?

Recently I had to make a project for my financial class about Crowd Funding. It was very interesting to see how this method of collecting, investing or donating money has a boom in today’s social media.  This topic caught my attention because all the websites dedicated to helping or invest in new ideas, projects and causes.

Crowd funding is not something that came up just yesterday, but a method that has been used since the 1800’s. Thanks to the Internet and media, it has become more accessible to young artists, investors and charitable entities to ask for money and get responded.

The story that most caught my eye was Amanda Palmer’s “The art of asking.”  Her story is really inspiring. She talks about all the vicissitudes that she struggled with as a young artist. She never gave up, she just started asking. In the Kickstarter.com website she pledge for $100,000 to promote her new album, art book and tour. She got $1,192,793.

There are many website to help launch a project or a business. Indegogo.com, Crowdfunder.com, Quirky.com and many other websites are dedicated to helping in different types of projects, invest in new ideas and projects.

If you have a new idea, project, inspiration, or talent that you would like to generate profit of, look for investors to start developing it. It is amazing to see how this is becoming the future of business. There are no more limits to invest in the future and/or develop a great idea. Use social media and this kind of websites in your advantage. You will never know how beneficial these sources can be to your future.

Importance of brand identity

In order for a small company to be a big company it needs to be recognize by consumers. Creating a name is extremely important to any brand.  Whether is a big company or a small company, brand identity is crucial. This will help a brand to get recognize by the consumers.

A good brand name knows how to impact and connect to the target audience. Also, brand identity can change the way people see the product. Having a visual connection with the consumers can make outstanding any product among others.

Every company should have a brand identity guide. This is a way the set design and values standards. Look at Wal-Mart’s brand guide; you are going to see that every single detail of the company’s identity is detailed.  The guide will help not any big companies and advertising to follow the standards of the company, but the employees will know and detect when something is wrong.

Consumers are emotionally attached to most of the products they consume. So it is important to brand to create a connection. People remember the products most of the time by the quality of it, but having and identity helps consumers identify the product and create the very important emotional connection.

Based on Norwich Business School, in 2010 the Coca Cola Company was valued at $70,452,000,000. How was that possible? In that year,  the company sold 1,600,000,000 of the Coca Cola bottles. Thanks to the branding, the company generated a good amount of profit, positioning it at the valued price. You know people have an immediate reaction to the logo of Coca Cola because it might bring them memories. That is the emotional connection that the product has with the consumers.

The job of a brand identity is to own brand and creating a connection with a target audience. This will defiantly help a small company go BIG.

Get connected. Be up to date.

Being connected to an industry association on your field of interest is can be really important for any career. These associations keep all members up to date with new trends what is going on in the industry. Also being part of these associations have many benefits.

As you may know, I am a graphic designer, and I am doing a Master’s degree on Business Entertainment. So my fields of interests are design, event planning and production and advertising. I like to be up to date with everything that is going on in the industry, so try to follow many associations. Of course, I don’t limit my self on which association to follow, I follow public relation groups and association, even web development groups and forums and many more. But the point is that these associations can help in the development of any career.

If your field of interest is design, I recommend following the American Institute of Graphic Arts. AIGA is the professional association for design. Being a member of this association has many benefits. Also, you can keep up to date with their blog and forums, get inspiration with the designs of other colleagues, be part of events and conferences and have access to many tools and resources.

Another related association is American Advertising Federation. Being part of this federation keeps you connected to many clubs that have the same interest in advertising.  It is not only for professionals, but also for students. The offer internship programs, career advice and guidance, advertising competitions, merit scholarships and much more.

I encourage you be part of any association in your field of interest. Or if you can’t join for any reason, at least keep up with it. Like I said before, these associations help in the development of any career. You will learn and be up to date with everything that is going on.

Get connected. Be up to date.

“Please, stop doing what you hate!”

What is it that you will love to do every single day for the rest of your life? Are you doing it or do you think it might be silly? If you think it is silly, I encourage you to watch Gary Vaynerchuk‘s video “Do what you love (no excuses!)“. In this TedTalk video,  you will get inspired to monetize what you love to do and to stop doing what you hate. I know that thinking about monetizing something you love can be scary, but it can be possible. There are few things you need to do to accomplish this and I am going to give you a few tips based on Gary Vaynerchuk‘s video.

No more excuses! There is no excuse for doing what you love. If you want something really bad, do it. The good things do not come easy, you have to fight for what you want.

Connect with people. That is the best way to get support from different people it to connect with them. They are the clients and even if they aren’t it is really important to connect with them. At the end of the day, they are who keep giving word to mouth feedback, so it helps grow your business or idea.

For me,  it is scary thinking about opening my own business. I love what I do every day at work, but I have greater expectations in life. Of course,  this expectation includes doing what I love. And it is difficult to complete these expectations because of work, family, school and everyday  stuff, but like I said before “The good things does not come easy, you have to fight for what you want.“

I hope that Gary Vaynerchuk‘s video has inspired you just like I did. Keep fighting for what you want, because if you are interested in the Advertising  field like I am, giving up is NOT possible.