Story
Make Everything Into An Event |
Every little instance or occasion in our lives is an event. A teleconference meeting with your staff, is an event. A new purchase, is an event. Hearing sad news, is an event. Going out to watch a movie, is an event. All of these different events make up our life experiences.
You’ll notice how when we try to think back to our earliest memories, we just remember glimpses of different situations or feelings. These glimpses were once events (whether recurring or one-time) that stayed on with us as memories.
This observation has two important sub-thoughts that we can learn from…
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Event launches - whats your attention magnet? |
I am sure most of you would agree that we can’t just expect people to get excited about our events just like that - they need to have an incentive to. These incentives are based on basic human feelings - joy, thrill, excitement, suspense, comfort. Understanding what causes these emotions and what effects they have on the moods and actions is important for creating the right kinds of incentives for your audiences.
When you have built the brand of your events, you will know exactly what emotional bracket you want to trigger to build hype. Different events play on different human emotions - new years eve at Times Square plays on thrill, happy family picnics play on joy, the Macworld plays on suspense and curiosity, concerts play on fun, soccer matches play on excitement, talk-shows play on comfort.
Once you figure out how you want your audiences to feel before your event, you’re already half way to creating hype. Lets call it the ‘event emotion’ for convenience. All of your marketing messages, communication, interactions, advertisements, letters - everything has to trigger the event emotion. If you manage to touch their feelings, they will form an invisible relationship with your event - whether they know it or not, you just managed to touch their heart. This will put them in a position where they will be more likely to attend the event or tell others about it. That’s your attention magnet!
This may sound like you are toying with people’s emotions - but that’s not the purpose of this exercise. Always remember, the new year’s party at time square will thrill everyone present and give them a natural high. But what would happen if nobody knows what new year’s at time square is? What would happen if nobody knows what it ‘could’ potentially mean to them? Well, they’d rather stay home and watch TV. Unless you tell them what to expect from the event, you can not expect them to come. That’s it - you’re just setting their expectations straight using event emotions.
Next time you’re planning an event, make sure you find your attention magnet first. Good luck.
Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)
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What we can learn from unconferences |
What are unconferences?
First a little brief background. Unconferences are facilitated discussions that are participant-driven and are centered around a specific theme. It is the opposite of typical conferences where speakers and audiences are separate. In unconferences, everyone is expected to speak and pitch in to move the discussions forward.
You can read more about unconferences here.
Whats the big deal?
Unconferences gained a lot of interest and momentum in the crowds because of the following reasons;
1- Its a leveled playing field for everyone who is present;
2- Everyone is a participant and not just there to sit and listen;
3- It ends up being highly intellectual discussions where everyone learns something;
4- It demonstrates the power of collective wisdom;
5- When moderated properly, it delivers good results.
What can we learn from it?
As event marketers there are a number of lessons in these gatherings. First of all, it shows the importance and power of community driven discussions. Just like people are more responsive and energetic in these unconferences, they have the exact same behavior in communities online.
Secondly, it proves the power of collective wisdom. So, if you’re planning your events what better way to do it than engaging your community online? You can allow them to have a direct input in the event’s flow or proceedings.
Thirdly, because of its up close nature, the relationship with the participants grows deeper. The participants will be more likely to remember you, to remember the event and to have a good after-taste about it. In the same way, in online communities you can build that level of relationships through different ways of interacting with your community to build relationships of trust.
You can read up a good post on unconferences here (although it is a relatively old article)
Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)
Today’s tip! Online events through webinars and e-learning centers are a growth industry in a shrinking economy. You need to be a part of it.
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