Conference Planning - Why Businesses Arrange Conferences

Conferences play a major role in the success of any business. Businesses arrange conferences for different reasons. Conference planning is necessary for business conferences. Conference planning is a very technical job and a professional is necessary for it. To become a conference planner you should acquire training; training provides you with the knowledge of managing conferences. Business conferences are arranged for the company's promotion, promotion of the company's product, employee appreciation, achievements of the organization and to get new projects.

The face of conference planning has changed and now businesses are looking to hire experts for the arrangement of their conferences. Businesses want to make sure that their visitors are comfortable and the right venue is selected for the conference. To select the right venue, comfortable seating arrangements and appropriate technology you have to be a professional.

Company's goodwill is dependent on the conferences; as stated earlier the companies arrange meetings for the promotion of their company. For this purpose appropriate venues such as big conference rooms are selected and these conference rooms have up to date technology. With the help of technology; businesses informs the public about themselves. This way these businesses gain promotion and the target market comes to know about the company.

Conferences are even held for a product launch. When a company makes a new product; it arranges conferences to inform the target market about the new product. It uses technology to provide knowledge about the product's advantages and offerings.

Meetings are held for employee appreciating. In these meetings the businesses use technology to appreciate their employees for reaching certain production or sales targets and workers are rewarded with monetary and non-monetary benefits. This helps in motivating the workforce and the workforce repays by working hard to achieve the company's goals and objectives.

Conferences are even held to appreciate the achievements of the organization. When businesses achieve their production and sales targets these conferences are arranged to appreciate the people involved in it. In these conferences; future targets of the organization are explained to the work force. A copy of the future targets is provided to the workforce so the workforce can work to attain those targets.

Many business meetings are arranged to get business from another business. In these conferences the businesses use technology in which they employ technology to provide information to other business and they try to get contracts with them. These are the reason why businesses arrange conferences and for these conferences proper conference planning needs to be done.

Avoid Black Swan Events - Manage Your Bogus Beds

Events that create unexpected, undesired results can sometimes be called Black Swans.

The Black Swan Event concept was created by Nassim Taleb, an NYU professor. Based on Taleb's criteria the Black Swan event is a surprise to the observer, has a major impact and was considered foreseeable when reviewing data that was not considered relevant at the time, but later found to be obvious. (Taleb notes that this is usually a bias by the observers in hindsight to instill control into chaos.) He uses the analogy that butchering a turkey is a surprise to the turkey, not the butcher.

Launching a high risk strategy based on events with a low likelihood of occurring is a way to create a Black Swan. Risk in the minds of the strategists may be low; however, for many stakeholders the strategy injects chaos. Belief in the robustness of a strategy that is not robust will have consequences far beyond the expectations of the strategist.

An often underappreciated element of strategy is the process of gathering insight up from the field. By presenting the strategy as a straw man, even before a pilot program, the stakeholders most impacted by these changes can offer insights. Naturally change is resisted, but it is risky to not invite insight from stakeholders.

A common example of a potential Black Swan initiative is the change in customer/sales systems. The general concept is often to smooth out internal processes around sales operations and to possibly improve efficiencies. Problems arise when sales processes are not understood that sales and that many tasks in completing a sale cannot be standardized. Selling books is fine for a standardized process, selling a construction project isn't.

A rigid resource planning system not flexible enough to manage customer needs, special projects or risk sharing projects could potentially destroy the relationship. The same issues could be damaging to vendors and suppliers. How a strategy impacts sustainable business must be understood and costs and benefits evaluated.

Insight from Sales, Operations, Customer Service, AP/AR, warehousing, inventory management and other areas along the value chain could avoid a Black Swan Event. Single points of failure can be identified and the process made more robust as assumptions are eliminated. A review of margins by salesperson and then a look at their processes may offer better insight to where efficiencies can be discovered.

A large hospital chain took advantage of ground up insight to re-tool their strategy process. When working on a disaster plan at a hospital chain a disconnection between corporate management and nursing operations was discovered. As the insights from each level of management were gathered a startling vulnerability appeared. All the nurses and support staff were well aware of the "bogus bed" challenge, but corporate, non-nursing management was oblivious to the daily challenges of managing bogus beds. Bogus beds referred to the warehousing system for patients. A central computer program was used to track patient location from the entry into the hospital to dismissal.

Patients could be moved several times in a day and sometimes several times in an hour. Nurses were assigned patients but often there were handoffs. Updating the patient's location was a paramount task.

In the event of a disruption to the database or the communications systems, the nurses unanimously stated there would be a potential for disaster. They were clear that in this event an inventory of patients, some not conscious, some unable to respond reliably, many residing in a hallway or other staging area, would not be feasible. There had to be a system that was uninterruptable.

When this situation was presented to a corporate manager, they objected to the term "bogus" as "surfer" language and dismissed the issue initially. The tide turned and the case for bogus bed planning was embraced.

A high level project was initiated to provide new best practices and emergency training. Robustness was built into the system and managers became more aware of this critical element of patient management.

New questions were built in to the planning process. The starting point now includes simple questions such as how patient care will be impacted by this initiative. A system wide initiative was implemented in the dozens of hospitals managed by this firm.

The lesson learned was to map future strategies against critical tasks.

In some firms this approach has become a significant element in the pursuit of competitive advantage.

By focusing attention customer centric issues, senior management learns which key productivity indicators will have the greatest impact on their business. Larry Bossidy, ex-CEO of Honeywell International in his fine book Execution offers several key questions to ask when building a strategic plan:

"What is the assessment of the external environment?

How well do you understand the existing customers and markets?

What is the best way to grow the business profitably and what are the obstacles to growth?

Who is the competition?

Can the business execute the strategy?

Are the long-term and short-term balanced?

What are the important milestones for executing the plan?

What are the critical issues facing the business?

How will the business make money on a sustainable basis?"

From these strategic questions, tactical questions can be asked to support the higher level answers. For example, to understand whether the business can execute the strategy, it may be necessary to look at the customer service functions. Are there system cross flows that could be interrupted by this strategy, say a web-based system that can't access the internal inventory system, or denies credit when the limit has not been reached or won't print labels on the existing printers. In isolation a project may have a lot of perceived benefits, but a Black Swan is hatching as numerous subsystems not integrated with this project cripple the customer service levels.

So the long-term needs must wait as the systems are upgraded in the short run to accommodate the initiative. Milestones have to reflect this reality. Capital must be planned with an eye on competitor's moves. Will the initiative be embraced by key customers and your Sales Department? Will they be patient while the bugs are worked out or will another strategy such as outsourcing some functions be needed in the short run to keep pace with the environment while in the background the core business is re-tooling?

Managers can work through the issues provided they are aware of the swan eggs. Asking the right questions is a critical success factor. As Taleb says "Don't be the turkey."

When a management team understands its bogus beds it can avoid Black Swans.

10 Pointers to Good Event Management

Life is a culmination of events which are either planned or unplanned. My main focus is on events that you know about and where you have control over what happens. Having attended several events in my life, ranging from parties, weddings, corporate launches, dance competitions etc, I have made several observations of things to look at to make your event excellent. I have also noted things that people focus on which end in an overall rating of below average. People generally get tired of events that are mediocre in their flow, when movement from one stage to the next seems to be a pain or something that was never planned at all. We are not all event management specialists but after this you will be able to critique an event objectively

In summary

1. Detailed Planning - Pay close attention to detail - Events do not just happen when you set a date. Things will not just begin to take place because you simply desire them to. It calls for hours to be spent planning, critiquing, revising, modifying etc. The failure of any event is usually tied closely to the lack of detail in the planning. A simple pin for a wedding gown has potential to delay the wedding by 2 hours. Nothing must be left to chance. It must make sense on paper first before you can actually have it happening. If the planning team cannot visualize in their minds how the event will happen then there is a high likelihood of important issues being relegated or forgotten. Follow a checklist and tick as you go.

2. Budgeting - If it is not budgeted for, why spend on it? - This is best do you have the funds to meet the overall goal? Channel you funds to critical areas first. It is unwise to spend money on the first thing you think is necessary for the event. A budget must be carefully crafted with a holistic picture in mind. Start with the crucial matters first. A function needs the following critical pillars: A venue, Food, Entertainment, Excellent Master of Ceremony. The issue of budgeting ties well with paying attention to detail. Budget even for things that seem to be silly items. Where possible, ask for sponsors to cover some of the items. When a sponsor brings in their products, discuss and agree up front in terms of what the sponsor's expectations are.

3. Human Resources - Get the correct people on the bus - Do you have the skilled people to execute the key issues e.g. food, entertainment, master of ceremony (free, jovial, hilarious) etc. You need people with event management experience on your planning team. You also need to compliment the team's efforts by way of excellent service providers who have the right portfolio and experience. You cannot expect miracles if you are not willing to hire the competent service providers. Enter a service provision agreement where it is clear what each organization or individual is expected to do and what you are also expected to do as the owner or vision carrier of the event. Both sides of the bargain have to be met for excellence to really come out. If you can't organize an event, hire a competent event planner and organizer. Sometimes you can plan your event and then call in an event organizer to execute your plan on the day.

4. Create a Guest List - Send out the Invitation - Sometimes invitation of guests is left until a week before the event which is a total disrespect for people's time. You need to realize very quickly that you are dealing with people who also plan their lives, some a year in advance. Target your audience and invite them. Events which are just open for all to come usually have surprises, either you find too many people coming and scrambling for few resources or you spend thousands of dollars and a fraction of the people come. What a waste? Your invitation card or advertisement must spell out the critical detail concerning the event; date, time, venue, cost (if any), dress code, directions (map where possible) and possible RSVP details which could be by email or calling whichever the invited guest decides to use. Sometimes you may need to call the guests as some are not as organized enough to confirm their participation without further probing. Be the organized one.

5. Communication is important - especially with service providers - Call them every now and again to check on their progress. See if you cannot help them in any way possible. Some of them may be struggling to fuel their car in order to get their job done excellently. They may be too shy to mention hence you take the initiative and ask "What are those things that can hinder or stop you from performing your duties excellently at this event?". If you are the event coordinator and planner then you need to keep communication lines open with all stakeholders (guests, event owner, service providers). Over communication is usually better than assumption.

6. The programme - Determines the flow of events- Check to see if everyone has the same version of it. A programme will determine how much is spent on what. It seeks to remove boring gaps in the event which could lead to people leaving before the event has even achieved its objective. Without a programme you will drive invited guests into boredom. You programme must have a clear indication of the progression of events up to climax of event and wind down. General observation is that guests should not have the detail but a general flow. The detail should be in the hands of the committee, service providers, master of ceremony and events manager. Work towards eliminating gaps on the actual day. The master of ceremony is important in creating an atmosphere of continual enjoyment even though certain things may go off the rail. He is the cover-up person for any mishaps that may occur on equipment etc.

7. Choice of venue - Make sure it is suitable - Is the venue suitable for the kind of event you are doing? Have you booked and paid a deposit? Do you have the contract of hire of this venue in writing spelling out what aspects of venue you have access to and what you cannot? Are you bringing your own tent or there are components covered in the venue cost. Your venue has a way of telling the audience or invited guests about the quality and seriousness of the meeting. Venue is one of the most critical elements of an event otherwise you will not have an event at all. Once this is secured, you almost have a guarantee that everything else will fit in and around that variable. Get the authorization in writing (Contract), Get to understand the venue restrictions e.g. you cannot hold a music festival in a residential neighborhood that has decibel restrictions.

8. Food and Refreshments - Do u have enough food for the invited guests? If you know the food will not be enough you just have to be upfront about it in your invitation e.g. "please bring card in order to be allowed in. Strictly no children" etc. Always ensure that the food is prepared on the day of the event, a few hours before the event starts. I have personally had enough experiences of food poisoning at big events such that I no have developed enough skepticism about food.

9. Overall Purpose must be clear - Is purpose to entertain, to teach, to motivate, to bring awareness? What exactly do you want to gather people? Until this point is clear, you will not know what to prioritize. Everything will seem to be crucial hence you may major on minors. The overall goal is what every team or service provider will work towards. It is this goal that we measure how successful an event was. There is need to ensure every critical element of the event is fully aware of the vision and purpose lest the teams pull in different directions.

10. How much publicity has been done to promote? - This is dependent on the number of guests needed or expected. You cannot use the media like radio and TV for a private function for invited guest. It would be unnecessary wastage of resources. However you can mobilize people faster and quicker and across geographical locations spanning thousands of kilometers using new ways of publicity such as e-marketing. It is the publicity stance and steps you take that will raise the much needed awareness. It is definitely a waste to have a world-class event that people never get to know about.

Wedding Photography Business Plan - Marketing Planning

When you plan a wedding photography business, you are joining not just the photography industry, but the huge American wedding industry. There are multiple potential channels for marketing your services in this industry, and your marketing plan should detail how you will take advantage of them to spend you precious marketing dollars.

Print Advertising

Unlike consumers looking for certain products, brides do still look to magazines as a significant source of information about weddings and wedding services. Purchasing advertising in bridal magazines can be a good marketing spend. However, running a public relations campaign which targets these magazines with article ideas featuring your business may be an even better way to pursue this channel, assuming there are specific remarkable stories you can push.

Internet Advertising

Wedding websites, such as theknot.com, weddingchannel.com, and brides.com, are another source of information and services for brides and wedding planners. Pay-per-click advertising with Google AdWords or other search engines is another valuable way to advertise. The upside of internet advertising is the ability to track the number of hits your website receives directly from these sources and the rate of converting these hits to those who request more information or even call. The AdWords campaign manager or free tools such as Google Analytics can supply this information.

Industry Associations

To seek the higher end of the wedding market, you will need to work with event planners who tend to manage the planning process for bridal clients. Join industry associations where wedding and event planners take part, both to gain mailing lists and to learn about events and conferences to attend. Use these events to network and build your reputation with wedding planners one at a time. Many will be interested in a commission relationship, whereby they earn 10% or more of your fees to wedding clients they refer to you. Be prepared for whether you will be happy with this kind of relationship or if it will effectively obliterate your profit.

Catering Ideas - 5 Tips on Planning a Menu For Your Catering Event

Whether you're planning your own wedding reception, a fundraising event for your organization, or anniversary celebration for your parents, you have an incredible number of decisions to make including venue, theme, music, decor, and food. Planning the menu for your event might get overwhelming with all the choices you have available to you and all the considerations you need to take into account. Here are a few tips that will help you to have a good start in your planning process.

1. Set a budget.

Any professional catering company has a variety of menu options suitable for different budgets. Your caterer should be able to give a few menu suggestions that will maximize the use of your budget. Some items on the menu are more expensive due to ingredients used and the time it takes to prepare. You will save you and your caterer a lot of time if you have a clear understanding of how much money you're willing to spend on food.

2. Know your audience.

It's pretty obvious that the menu and the amount of food you serve at your teenage son's birthday party would be quite different from the meal you offer to your book club. If you don't know your audience well enough, variety is the key. Make sure you have a few options to choose from, don't forget to offer at least one vegetarian item. If you know that children will be present, arrange some kids-friendly items on the menu. Inquire about special dietary requirements and allergies. Keep in mind that some foods, such as nuts and shellfish, can send your guests straight to ER.

3. Make sure that menu fits the theme of the event.

People sometimes ask if a buffet dinner is tacky for a wedding reception. It's not a question of tacky or not. It all depends on overall style and theme of your event. If you are planning a formal, high-end wedding reception, then a buffet style meal might look out of place. On the other hand, if you have a hip and stylish party at the local art gallery, a "living room" style reception might be the best option. For a traditional Greek or Russian wedding, a family style dinner usually works the best. If your event has a particular theme to it, take it into a consideration while planning a menu. Also, make sure that your items go well together. You probably don't want to mix fresh oysters with cheeseburgers.

4. Order the right amount of food.

You don't want your guests to go hungry, nor do you want to go overboard with the amount of food and have excessive leftovers. Whenever possible, make your guests RSVP to your invitation. It will help you to stay within your budget, plan your menu accordingly, and order the right amount of food. Take into consideration the time of your event, the length, and the purpose. If you host your wedding reception between 7 and 9 pm, your guests will expect dinner. And if you don't offer one, manage your guests' expectations accordingly. Specify in your invitation what type of meal will be served (e.g. wine and cheese reception, cocktail reception, etc.)

5. Don't go by your personal preferences.

We all make this mistake. We assume that whatever we like, other people would enjoy as well. Don't let your personal taste get in the way while planning the menu for your event. You wouldn't want to serve a 100% seafood menu unless you know that everyone attending your function is as crazy about seafood as you are. And if you happen to be vegan and find pork chops appalling, there is a good chance that your guests will disagree with you and might prefer good old-fashioned steak over Tofu Cacciatore.

And a bonus tip - hire an experienced catering company! Do your research before you sign the contract. Read reviews, ask around, and schedule an appointment. The time you invest in looking for the right caterer will pay off. Take the stress from your event planning, hire a professional.

What Is the Key to Keep Your Event Audience Engaged?

Engaging the audience throughout the event is the primary objective of the event organizers. In order to achieve this end, event organizers invest their best efforts in creating power point presentations, and so on. However, attracting your attendees' attention at all times is a difficult task. If order to achieve this goal, you have to do a little more than trying out the old methods repeatedly. In fact, you can spark a good deal of enthusiasm in your audience by resorting to online event registration- a complete solution for events of all size and complexity.

According to experts, effective marketing strategy is the key to keeping the audience engaged. Simultaneously, it best accelerates and deepens relationships with prospective clients and customers. As a result, event organizers are essentially deploying best practices, which are technology driven, to make the most of organizing these events.

Moreover, the growing dependence on technology has encouraged prospective attendees to expect more from you. Therefore, it is imperative to use this technology by the organizers. These days, the audience is reasonably familiar with social media engagement and they hardly find mere power point presentations interesting that leaves no room for peer-to-peer interaction. Additionally, today's audience demand information to be delivered in real time and prefer taking part in ongoing conversations. Thus, using the right kind of event registration software allows you to make your event more interactive thus fulfilling attendee expectations.

Given below is a brief overview of how to maintain audience engagement in your upcoming events.

Promotion is the Key to Success

Keep in mind that a successful event begins long before the actual event takes place. An effective promotional strategy helps in building up enthusiasm amongst the target audience about the event. As a result, they arrive on the scheduled date with full of expectation, prepared to engage and participate in the event. Therefore, you must focus on the fact that your event is providing enough resources to the attendees from which they can learn. In this way, you can win over a potential base of satisfied clients and customers, which may turn out to be profitable in the long run.

One of the best ways to achieve audience engagement is to create teaser campaigns about what the attendees are going to experience at the event. The best platform to do the same is your event website, social media sites and through email campaigns.

Emphasis on Audience Interaction

Audience interaction is one of the main aspects of keeping them engaged throughout the event. In fact, you have to offer both live and virtual attendees the platform to directly interact with the presenter(s). It not only helps in the smooth flowing of the process, but at the same time strengthens co-ordination and communication, which in turn makes your event very effective.

As an organizer, you have to identify, which sessions are going to be the best for audience interactivity. However, some of the best ways to strengthen audience interaction are text chats, question and answer sessions, video sharing and so on.

Therefore, using resources that can help in developing audience interaction and engagement is the key to organizing and hosting a successful event.

Healthy Business: When Making Time For Employee Wellness Is No Longer Optional

In America, we have some serious time struggles. Everyone we know is busy. Everyone we know is running just to keep up with the day to day routine. No matter who you are or what you are doing in life, you are very busy.

Business is no different. Being busy is the key to a successful business. You've heard the phrase; "busy is good." You've heard the boss say to "get busy". It's all part of our culture and we have perfected the art of being busy. We are busy at home and we are busy at work.

That makes health difficult for most employees. With time being a stress in itself, it is a challenge to get exercise in or take time to make good food choices. That is what most employees struggle with at the core. That is also why the health of our workforce in our country is on the decline.

The workforce is just a mirror of our overall population. When you hear a statistic about obesity, it also applies to the workforce. When you hear a statistic about disease, it also applies to the workforce. Anything health-related that can be said about the American public, can also be said about the workforce in businesses around the country.

As a business, you are hiring people from the general population, so naturally, you can expect the issues to be similar. More accurately, you can expect attitudes to be the same in your workforce as they are in the general population. That is one of the biggest issues when it comes to time. Time is something that we have decided is optional.

When it comes to health, time is not optional. If you don't have time for health, you don't have health. When your company decides to change the culture and make health a part of it, time is part of the equation. If your company has time for health, you can help employees realize that they have time for it too. If your company doesn't have time for health, your company won't have health. Instead, you will simply have a workforce that don't have time for health and a company that actually supports that attitude.

That is the first step in creating a healthy company culture. When you are thinking about resources to devote to wellness, time is the first one that you have to make part of the equation. In order to create a plan, you have to take the time to discuss your company goals. If you want to create a particular result of any kind, you have to take the time to determine your actions that will lead to those results.

Your company is no stranger to this. Every company realizes that time is important to any area of business. That is why you make time for training. It is also why businesses make time for sales. Time is at the core of all areas of a successful business. The parts of the business that need to be supported are given the time. Likewise, the parts of the business that are given time are supported.

This support leads to success. When something is given time in your business, it becomes a growing area that is eventually a strength. When something is pushed aside and not given time, there is no way that this growth can take place. That is why so many companies struggle with wellness. When you devote time to wellness, there is growth. When your company doesn't have time for wellness, there is only the same results that you are already getting.

When you make wellness optional, your company will only invest as much time as you can spare. When you make wellness optional for employees, they will do the same. That is why health is going in the direction that it is going today. Health is something that none of us have time for. When your company supports that, you are promoting it and encouraging employees to continue down the same path, leading to the same results.

This raises a few questions:
How much time is your company devoting to wellness now?
That is a question that I would like to pose to all businesses across the country. The question that would follow directly would be: What results is your company getting now? What does your employee health look like now? What is the trend that you are seeing over the past 5 years, 10 years or 15 years? These questions are not difficult to answer. Every company knows exactly how much time they have spent on their wellness programs. Every company knows how much time they have invested in their employees in all areas. Health is no different. Every company knows how much time has been invested in employee health.

The questions posed are not pointed. They are not meant to insult any business or shame them for time they have spent or not spent on any particular area. When it comes to health, the fact remains, employees are not investing enough time in themselves. When it comes to employee health, many companies are still not investing time in their employees.

If your business wants to get control of healthcare costs and improve health, wellness is not optional. Time is finite, so there is only so much time in everyone's schedule. That is not a mystery. What is a mystery is how people can spend no time on something until there is an emergency and they are forced to spend the time. Medical emergencies are a clear example for both employees and companies. When someone hits the ultimate wall, there is no choice but to take the time to fix the problem.

Avoiding the problem is actually going to take less time and by far less painful. For employees and companies, health and wellness is nothing more than avoiding the problem by taking a little time now and saving a lot of time later. More importantly, we are able to save a lot of money by investing a little money. In business, saving money and saving time are not optional. If you don't strive to do these things, you will not be successful. If you are able to focus investment, you will get results.

Health is simple. Employee health is the same thing as health for the general population. If your company can devote time to wellness, you can avoid what is happening in the general population. How can you do this? You can create your own culture and with it, your own trends. One of those trends has to be health and more importantly that time for health is not optional.

Making time for health is not easy, but if it isn't done, we know what will happen. The fact is, we need to invest our time in ourselves and in our employees in order to improve health and in order to improve business. The state of affairs now has us dealing with rising costs. These costs are due to the choice to ignore health and to make improving it optional. The key to improving health and getting cost in line is time. When health is the goal, time is a necessity. When health is the goal time for health is not optional.

Organize a Rocking Nightlife Event - Have a Robust Online Registration and Ticketing System

Online solutions feature robust registration and ticketing options for organizing a grooving nightlife event. While arranging a live music, dance, or a comedy show, we generally have to take up a lot of responsibilities that include renting staff, putting things together before the party night, and so on.

We must make sure all the arrangements are in place. You must rent a nightclub well in advance, for it's a holiday time, with Christmas and New Year approaching fast. You must also look into simplifying the registration process, for no one likes a lengthy procedure to enter your nightlife event. Then, why waste time on the manual registration process and bore your visitors when you can easily switch over to a far simple and easily managed online registration system?

Offer Your Guests an Easy-to-use Sign-up Process

Your guests will be very happy to find an easy-to-use registering process. No one likes to stand in a long line, waiting to get tickets to your nightlife party. Streamline your registration system by creating a page online. Your friends will simply log in to the page and start signing up for the party. You can choose your own format of the sign-up page, and likewise add barcodes to attract more visitors to your rocking night.

Hassle-free Collection of Tickets

You can easily collect your party tickets once you complete event registration. The online ticketing interface allows your registrants to pay online and book their tickets in minutes. The flexible party ticketing option lets you manage your multiple events in a hassle-free manner. Through this web-based ticketing portal, you can manage your ticket pricing and offer special discounts for the entire set or for individual seats.

Instant Connection with Your Customers

The online event management solution provides you a communication tool that includes emailing option, reminders, and invitation facilities. You can use all or any one of them to instantly communicate with your customers, residing nearby or far across the globe. Send lovely emails to your friends stating the date, time, and venue of the nightlife function. Send your friends a reminder mail to ensure they turn up on the day of the program!

Promote Your Events to a Larger Audience

In case you have planned for a paid event, you should find out appropriate ways to promote it to increase your attendee rate. Maximize revenues by publishing your occasion details on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Create a page on Facebook posting images of your past events, uploading your event videos, and those of live conversations and reaction with the audience after attending the occasion.

Ideas for Unique Corporate Gifts

Organizations who desire to think of unique ideas for unique corporate gifts may find it very tough because coming up with something interesting to present their employees can be a bit difficult.

In an age where pens, pen holders, tumblers, and personalized coffee mugs are very common giveaways during corporate events, people expect something more. They look forward to receiving unique corporate gifts, not stuff they will just toss in their cabinets because they have too many of them already.

There are various ideas for unique corporate gifts out there. With a little inspiration and creativity, finding the right giveaway won't be that hard.

Here are some really cool ideas for unique corporate gifts you'd like to consider:

1.Personalized shirts. It's time to do away with personalized mugs and pins; they're so 2008. If you want something less expensive but has more appeal, go for personalized shirts. Today, there are tons of artists and shops that create unique designs for shirts. You can even have your company name inserted there somewhere.

2. USB dock connectors. You can get one of those USB connectors that look like a flower vase. These have several connectors that look like stems of flowers placed inside a vase. Not only are these unique corporate gifts, they will also be very useful.

3.Stylish planners.

4. Travel bags. Those who always see themselves on trains, planes, and other means of transport will love these unique corporate gifts.

5. iPad accessories. Almost everyone owns one, so why not think of something that can users can use. They'd definitely be excited about receiving these types of gifts.

It's really not hard to come up with cool ideas for unique corporate gifts. One good tip you can use is to think about the basic things employees need, and find something that can satisfy that need, and then find innovative.

Event Planning With The Right Programs

When gathering all of the information needed to produce an event the tasks are endless. Getting all the names of the volunteers as well as vendors can be endless. Anyone who has planned an event knows if there is a lack of communication, there is trouble. But could have run so smoothly can become chaos quickly.

When having a non-profit event there are often people who are donating things. These things can be monetary donations or goods. Keeping track of who donates and keeping them up-to-date can be an endless job.

Is there are way to contact all of the people at once on a certain team? You could text them all individually and give them the message. Or, you could call them all and let them know. Email can be used if the team is not to be doing their certain task for a few days off.

Being efficient is one of the talents that great event planners have. They are able to multi-task in all of the areas and make it look like it is the easiest things to do. Unfortunately, not all of us are that talented. Observation on our part while the event planner is doing the tasks can help. But the most efficient are moving so fast that it can be confusing.

Ever wonder how these people accomplish so many things at once? Is it just in their personalities that make them able to make things look so easy? The answer in no, they use planning tools that work for them.

Lists on the computer using programs such as Excel are generated. Programs designed to work as personal assistants are used to make things move more efficiently. If a coordinator has more than a couple of people to call they will find a program that allows them to make multiple calls all at the same time. The best ones available will give them the results in real-time. This not only saves time, it keeps things up-to-date. This way the event planner knows what is going on at all times.

Event planners also know that they have to be one step ahead of everything and everyone else. They will be ready with "Plan B" just in case something goes wrong. There are plenty of times that an event will have to be rescheduled. Waiting until the last-minute never works well. If the planner has everyone's name in a system all that needs to be done is a message sent with one push of a button. Once everyone is notified the planner will then get everyone's responses back in real-time. This is just one of the many things that a successful event planner is able to do.

Planning events can be fun and extremely rewarding. Using programs designed just for information gathering and sending will put you ahead of the pack.

Event Planning Software - How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake Event Planners Make

Event planning software is gaining in popularity across the world and yet there are still event planners out there that don't use event planning software. I know it took me a while to get around to the idea myself. I always thought that my team could handle everything and save money at the same time. Oh how wrong I was. The biggest mistake an event planner can make is to think they can do everything themselves and save money. This is a Big Mistake. Why can I so confidently say that? Because I made that mistake, many times before I learnt my lesson!

Planning a large event, whether it is for an internal or external client, can be a huge undertaking and for the main event planner often results in the odd sleepless night!

In spite of this, it is easy to carry on thinking, "I can do it all" or "we can do it". After all, you are experienced at these things. Let's pause though and take a step back for a moment.

First things first. When you are leading such a project, we both know the starting point is being absolutely clear in your own mind about things such as:

- What the event outcomes are
- What your audience's needs are
- How you can creatively deliver these needs on time and on budget

However, have you experienced or known of situations where delegates are calling up days before an event because they either haven't received, or can't find, confirmation of a place, or their joining instructions?

How about your main client, or your boss calling you late one evening asking if a certain speaker or delegate has confirmed their availability?

How often have you been short of admin staff, to ensure the smooth running of an event?

Worse still, I wonder how many event planners have unfortunately invested thousands in cash in admin and support staff over the years, only to have some of them make unfortunate or costly mistakes.

If you and your clients, or your employers want to feel confident that everything is under control, then event planning software is a great way forward. You can be safe in the knowledge that at any time they can go "online" and check for themselves every possible details they might need e.g. when speakers have been invited and when they have confirmed, check the money coming in, numbers of delegates etc.

If you are serious about evidencing that organiser error is reduced to an absolute minimum then it's simple. Make your life easy, inspire your clients with confidence, ensure your delegates experience is convenient and pleasurable and save your business 000's in the process.

You can achieve all this, simply by using event planning software.

Imagine for a moment if your delegates could register online on a unique event web page, pay securely, receive email confirmation and prints VAT and Tax receipts.

While your delegates do this, you can check out the online reports. Clients keep themselves up to date if they want. Plus remember, you will save yourself thousands in admin costs over the year. What business wouldn't want that?

So, avoid making the same mistake I and other event planners have made in the past. Use the latest event planning software to enhance your client's experience of your service, achieve your meeting outcomes and make a positive impact on your own cash flow in the process.

How Can an Event Management Company Help?

Organising a party or other type of function takes much work, time and dedication to the task. With guest lists, catering arrangements and types of menu, or designing the d矇cor and styling of the venue, there are a million and one details that need to be coordinated and scheduled.

Who Hires Event Management Companies
Companies or organisations may need help in putting together conferences or learning events for employees or business partners, or to oversee the arrangements for product launches or trade congresses. Event managers will often also undertake tasks such as brand building or marketing.

Private individuals often employ management companies to take care of organising complex events such as weddings or simple events like a local birthday party. Depending on the company, events as small as ten people or as large as thousands, or even millions in a prestigious event held in the media's eye, can be contracted out to experienced management companies.

Tasks Undertaken
Menu planning, venue or marquee booking and erecting, and the hiring of live entertainment is all part of the service. The management company will meet with the client to discuss exact requirements and will tailor hospitality packages within a given budget range.

For large or corporate events the management company will also oversee such things as cash flow control and the procurement of specific or specialised items or equipment. In the case of community events, festivals or concerts where crowd control may be an issue, the company can also undertake the management and efficiency of the movement of people.

Not every client needs total event management. Companies are willing to take over the organisation of just a part of the event, for instance the catering or the booking of entertainment. Initial discussions will cover what areas of the event are best professionally organised and which the event holders can manage themselves. Many times the division of labour is governed by expense and the relative expertise of the client.

Type of Events Managed
Events generally fall into one of four categories: organisational, personal, leisure or cultural, with each having particular needs with regards to organisation and objective.

Any time a group of people gather in celebration, for a conference or community occasion the event needs to be managed effectively if it's to be successful. From festivals and fetes to birthday discos or elaborate weddings, event managing companies exist to take the strain out of organising and leave you free to enjoy the party.

Ways Of Having Successful Event Planning

Event planning is defined as the process of planning any event. It may include marriage, birthday, competition, reception, annual school ceremony and any party events, while keeping the budgeting in mind. Event planning is emerging as the latest business and people start preferring to hire event planners for their parties instead of self-working. So we can say that the demand of event planners are increasing day by day and so the demand of its educational degree too. This business is more profitable for those who have desired degree, experience and training in this specific field. If you are an event planner but can't be able to get the desired number of events to plan, then it means that you are lacking in your desired education, training or experience in this field. And if the answer is yes then you need not to worry because you can get all these required things by simply clicking on website link. You can even get the online diploma and training too, regarding event management, in this way. So your success is not far now.

Although event planning is a profitable business but it requires information of each and every thing regarding that specific event, which you are going to manage. This includes budgeting, location and venue of the event, number of guests coming, lighting, transportation, motives, decorations, permission of getting that event done at that specific place, food, arrangements of electricity, chairs, tables, carpets and proper stage decorations etc. Event management is not as easy as it looks like. It needs the availability of event manager, at the site, all the time. The basic thing for event manager is that he/she should be innovative so that he can originate the new and better ideas all the time. The most important task in event planning is to plan everything in a way that the customers become fully satisfied and the profit margins should also be left for the event managing crew. The event planner can be successful if everything becomes available to the customers on time and flawless.

Although event planning is a good business but it's also taken as a toughest business in the world. This work is taken as most stressful work because there is no fixed worked time in it. Event planner has to work from early morning till late night to get his work done in a specific time limit. At the same time he has to meet the strict deadlines that might, sometimes, become difficult to fulfill. Too much communication is required in this business because event planner has to communicate with the whole line of employees, who are directly or indirectly, found involved in arranging the whole event. Apart from all these things some physical activities are also involved in it like holding certain things and moving boxes from one place to another. Although it is taken as a difficult business but the person who has aim, talent and training in this field can be a good planner.

Buy-Sell Agreement Trigger Events

Buy-sell agreements are designed to accomplish one or more of the following objectives from one or more of several viewpoints: the corporation, the employee-shareholder, the non-employee shareholder, and any remaining shareholders. The buy-sell agreement provides for what happens to the shares of owners who leave, for whatever reason, whether favorable or unfavorable.

From the corporation's viewpoint, the agreement may prevent the departing shareholder from retaining his shares. By requiring a departing shareholder to sell his or her shares to the corporation, the corporation and remaining shareholders eliminate any potential for conflict over future corporate policies with the departed shareholder. They also eliminate the potential for the departed shareholder to benefit from future success of the business created by the remaining shareholders. Finally, the agreements prevent a shareholder (or his or her estate) from selling shares to "undesirable" parties, enabling the remaining shareholders to decide who the next shareholder will be, if any. These reasons for buy-sell provisions apply to virtually all trigger events.

We use "QFRDD" to denote common trigger events for buy-sell agreements.

If you think about the events suggested by QFRDD, none of them are very pleasant to talk about, particularly to a group of shareholders who may have just come together for a common business purpose. In fact, circumstances could be such that the shareholder most affected by a trigger event has a proverbial gun to his or her head. In the alternative, the company may perceive that it has a gun to its head in order to fulfill the repurchase requirements of an agreement.

Think of QFRDD to remember.

Q - Quits. A buy-sell agreement may provide a mechanism for shareholders who leave a business to sell their shares to the corporation or other shareholders. Shareholders may quit under a variety of scenarios, some of which are more favorable to the corporation and other shareholders than others. The circumstances of quitting may determine how the departing shareholder is treated under the terms of the agreement.

• Favorable circumstances. A shareholder may decide to leave a company to pursue other interests that are not competitive with the activities of the company. Assuming the ability to fund the purchase, the company and remaining shareholders are likely to view such a departure on favorable terms.


• Unfavorable circumstances. Alternatively, a shareholder may decide to leave a company and to pursue competitive activities. Under such circumstances, the company and remaining shareholders may be reluctant to pay full price (whatever that means - to be determined as we proceed) and desire to stretch out payment as long as possible. After all, no one wants to finance a competitor!

F - Is Fired. When an employee-shareholder is terminated, most corporations desire to retain control over the shares.

• Terminations generally result in diverse, or more likely, adverse interests between the fired shareholder, the corporation, and remaining shareholders.


• From the employee's viewpoint, the agreement assures that his or her shares can be sold at the buy-sell price and creates a market for the shares.


• From the corporation's viewpoint, buy-sell agreements create the right, or the obligation, to purchase the departing employee-shareholder's shares.


• They also eliminate the potential for the terminated shareholder to benefit from any future success of the business created by the remaining employees and shareholders. Some agreements call for a penalty to the valuation in cases of termination, particularly for cause.

R - Retires. The retirement of an employee-shareholder creates a potential divergence of interests between the shareholder and the corporation.

• The shareholder may desire current liquidity over the uncertain future performance of the corporation.


• The corporation may desire not to have potential interference or disagreement with corporate policy, or to have the retired shareholder benefit from future appreciation in value.


• Further, the corporation and the remaining shareholders likely do not want a retired employee to continue to benefit from their ongoing efforts.

D - Disabled. After a defined period of time, the corporation may have the right (from its viewpoint) or the obligation (perhaps, from the employee's viewpoint) to purchase the disabled employee's shares. If disability is a trigger event, it is essential to have a clear definition of what "disability" means.

D - Dies. The death of a shareholder creates issues that are often resolved by buy-sell agreements.

If a shareholder dies owning a minority interest in a corporation for which there is no market for its shares, the illiquidity of the stock can create estate tax issues.

• The shares must be valued for estate tax purposes, and the appraisal amount will add to the estate's value.


• To the extent that the estate is taxable, there may be no liquidity to pay the estate taxes.


• Buy-sell agreements provide a mechanism for determining the value of shares for estate tax purposes and for monetizing that value for the estate, generally in cash or in a term note.


• Therefore, the shareholder's estate realizes liquidity and can pay taxes due and does not face the combination of uncertainty of independent valuation and the certainty of payment of taxes in the absence of liquidity.


• From the corporation's viewpoint, the agreement eliminates the need to address uncertain ownership dictated by the deceased shareholder's will and can create the requirement for funding.

If the parties agree, buy-sell agreements also operate in the event of the divorce, declaration of insolvency, or bankruptcy of one or more shareholders (or even the corporation). In the event of the divorce of an employee-shareholder, the buy-sell agreement will most likely be designed to prevent the non-employee spouse from realizing any ownership in the stock of the corporation. If an employee declares bankruptcy or becomes insolvent, the corporation may exercise its right to purchase the shares to prevent their dispersion to creditors.

It should be clear from the above that buy-sell agreements can be favorable from the viewpoints of employee-shareholders, non-employee shareholders, the corporation, and any remaining shareholders in many diverse situations. The emphasis is on "can be" because the operation of an agreement can go awry despite the best intentions of its creators.

In conclusion, buy-sell agreements are designed to provide objective means of transferring ownership in controlled and pre-determined ways under specified circumstances that may be difficult.

• In the absence of a workable agreement, the remaining shareholders and the corporation may be placed in the unenviable position of negotiating under adverse circumstances with former friends, their families, or their estates.
  


• Such negotiations, which would occur after the interests of the parties have diverged, are difficult, fraught with uncertainty, and often lead to litigation.

Workable buy-sell agreements are the cure for the potential problems enumerated above.

Soccer Theme Party Ideas for Your Little Player's Birthday Party

Soccer is one of the most popular sports played across the globe. Both adults as well as kids are crazy about this game. If you have a young child who is suffering from soccer fever and aspires to become Freddy Adu or Jerzy Altidore, a soccer theme party will be the best way to celebrate his special day. Here are some useful ideas to plan a sports theme party.

Invitations

• This is a very popular party theme; therefore, you can easily get themed invitation cards at any party supplies store or buy them online.


• Buy some inflatable soccer balls, inflate them, and write your party details using a permanent marker pen. Once you have written all the details including the RSVP, deflate it and pack it in a transparent pouch. Include a note inside it, asking the invitees to blow-up the ball. The football fans will be glad to get an invitation for their favorite theme party along with a soccer ball to play.


• Request the guests to come dressed up in their uniforms.

Party decoration:

• Sports parties demand an outside venue. Plan your party at a soccer field or an open park. If you don't want to rent those places, organize the party in your backyard.


• Make every effort to convert your venue into a soccer field. Set up soccer goals at either end of the party area.


• At the entrance, place a large soccer player cutout to greet the guests as well as increase their excitement level.


• Arrange a face painting activity for them so that they can get more involved in the theme.


• Soccer birthday party supplies such as tableware, table cover, balloons, party hats, blowouts, etc. will help you set the party mood.


• Find out if your nearby bakery can bake a theme cake for your party; or else, get a green colored cake and decorate it with soccer theme candles.

Party food:

• You can have hot dogs, nachos, pizzas, chips, popcorn, chicken nuggets, and anything that is usually available at a stadium.


• Give each dish a creative name or an appealing introduction such as 'the breakaway cupcakes' or 'get energy from these cupcakes for heading the ball'.


• Decorate round sugar cookies with black and white frosting to resemble soccer balls.

Party games:

• Make goals in your backyard or the venue you have rented by using cones. Line up the kids in front of it and let them score their best.


• Ask the kids to keep the ball in the air as long as they can, using their heads, feet, knees, etc.


• If your guests are too young to have such difficult games, have some simple activities such as a soccer theme pull string pi簽ata, coloring a ball, etc.

Party favors:

For small kids, you can use candies, mini soccer balls, stickers, theme pencils, etc. to fill the loot bags. Whistles, soccer themed key chains, sports headbands, soccer logo printed t-shirts, etc. are good options for kids above 5 years.

Set the kids loose so that they can have a great time at your child's soccer party.

Event Management Service: Appoint Judiciously

Your boss has assigned you the task of selecting the best event management company for organizing the annual conference of the company, which will be followed by a grand dinner? You are a young entrepreneur, who wants to congratulate your stuff on their success and so you want to throw a lavish party? As it is not possible for you to organize the party, you have decided to take the assistance of the professional services. Nowadays many people do not want to take the responsibilities of planning and organizing the parties all by themselves and seek the assistance of the professionals. There is nothing wrong in it.

If you want to appoint an agency for organizing the conference or a dinner party or any other corporate event, you need to take care of a few important factors. One of the most important factors that you need to take care is the reputation of the service in this field. When you want to get the best assistance and want to impress your guests, you should take the assistance of a group that has positive reputation in this field. If a group does not have positive reputation in this field, they will not be able to provide you with the best assistance.

When you are considering assistance of a management group or agency, you should also collect necessary information about their staff members. All the groups do not appoint trained and experienced professionals for their work. Therefore, you should ensure that the service you have selected have appointed experienced members for serving their clients.

To serve your guests in the best manner and to make the episode successful, you should always take the assistance of the event management U.K companies that assures professionalism. As you are planning for a conference, a corporate dinner or any other corporate programs, it will be better for you to take their assistance, from one that works professionally. Your entire effort for organizing the event will be lost if the staffs of the event management companies do not maintain complete professionalism during the occasion. So, you should always give importance to the professionalism of the staffs.

It is obvious that the professional service which will take the responsibility of organizing the entire affair will charge money for their work. The rates of these services depend on their reputation as well as their expertise in this field. To avail the best services, you should never make compromises on the quality of their work for the money that they will charge. However, to save your money and to get the best value of your money, you can take quotations from some of the services. Compare the quotes of a few different services and appoint the one which offers best service at an affordable price.

How to Use Craigslist to Plan Your Wedding

Are you planning a wedding on a budget? If so, you want to have your dream wedding, but you may be limited on costs. Luckily, there is a way for you to plan your wedding while on a budget. That way involves using Craigslist.org.

How can the popular classified website help you plan your upcoming wedding? In more ways than you could have ever imagined. To get started, lets cover the basics.

Your wedding dress. Do you already have a wedding dress? If not, you may want to save money by opting for a used dress. Not all brides save their dresses and most are in pristine condition. In addition to finding wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses are also commonly listed for sale on Craigslist. If you want, you can use the services of a local tailor to ensure the dress properly fits or to customize it more. In fact, you can also find a local tailor on Craigslist.org too!

The tents, tables, and chairs. When many brides and grooms are on a budget, they opt for an outdoor wedding, usually in the backyard of a close friend or family member. If you opt for this approach, you will need a tent, tables and chairs, as well as other rental equipment. The good news, you can usually find these items listed for rent on Craigslist!

The DJ. What wedding is complete without great music? You will need a DJ for the wedding reception. Although you can turn to your local phonebook, you can also find a DJ on Craigslist. Many of these individuals operate on a part-time basis. Since they may not be full fledged DJs, you are likely to find better rates. Just ensure you are able to work with the person to choose the music for your reception.

The wedding planner. If you are on a budget, you might assume that an event planner is out of the question. Due to the poor economy, many Americans are now looking for additional ways to make money. You can find these individuals on Craigslist. You don't need to hire a professional event planner. In fact, a bride who just finished planning her own wedding will do. She has the experience and is likely to charge a very fair rate.

Event Planning Course - Learn How to Plan the Order of Events at A Wedding Reception

Event planning and management has emerged as a major professional field since past recent years. Ranging from a casual everyday small conference up to a big formal occasion like a wedding, everything is planned. Surely a bright future is waiting for you if you take up some authorized and certified Event Planning Courses. These courses are of short duration and will enable you to manage every kind event like weddings, concerts, birthdays, conferences and much more. Though every different event has different fundamental requirements, you will successfully fulfill all criteria of every variety of occasions once you take these courses.

When you're assigned the task of arranging everything for a wedding ceremony, you are headed by a large variety of tasks from the bridal dress selection and inviting all guests up to the best video and photography arrangements of the event. Thus Event Planning Course is necessary to accurately visualize and strategically plan all phases of the ceremony.

When a family appoints you for their wedding ceremony, they expect you to manage everything and that's what Event Planning courses teach you. By availing Event Planning Course, when you're taught about wedding planning it includes the following criteria:

1. Usually you're appointed a week before the wedding. Try to know the family and their traditional values in as much short duration as you can. Then you can plan and select everything according to their taste. Take the bride and groom to the best bridal dress shop in town keeping in mind that the dresses aren't much costly and the price can be adjusted well in budget. Don't make the family feel degraded by taking them to a very high brand shop which they can't afford.

2. Appoint a reliable tailor for stitching the bridal dress on time and exactly according to the couple's wish, in case the bride has selected an unstitched material for her wedding.

3. Take a thorough look on the guest list and make sure twice or thrice that you don't miss out inviting someone. Guide the family to select an attractive invitation card. Always keep the budget in mind as told by the family.

4. Selection of the location must be among your priorities. You must make reservation of the locality at least four days before the event. If it is a high budget wedding, make the booking at some exotic five stars. Even if the budget of the family is low, try your best to find a genuine and stunning location which the family will love. If you have some sources, book a ship for the wedding at cheaper prices and you will definitely win many appreciations. When booking a location always keep in mind the convenience of all the guests for reaching that place.

Company Anniversary Marketing Events - There Is No Substitute

Creating company anniversary marketing events may be the most important thing you do to celebrate your organization's history.

Electronic media and all the forms of social media can nurture a connection, suggest a connection, facilitate a real connection but are still like talking to your loved ones through plastic screens at the county lockup. Meeting in person with no barriers is the surest way to actually make a connection.

Anniversary events can create bonds between people. There is simply no substitute for being in the same room with people who are buying your products, using your service, donating to your cause, selling materials to you, working for your organization, investing in your venture, supporting your presence in their community, and making regulations that affect your business.

Many organizations have their 'inside sales' people meet clients at events, such as conventions, trade shows, etc., because they understand the value of face to face contact to establish, build and reinvigorate a relationship. Social media is beneficial, e-mail is effective, phone conversations are indispensable but looking into someone's eyes when you are in the same room, enjoying a shared experience is worth, as my dad used to say, all the tea in China. It's worth a lot.

Despite what you see on 'reality television,' people generally are polite when they meet in person, which opens the door to build a relationship that includes shared experiences, common interests, and personal responses. Events also can lead to rebuilding a tattered or neglected relationship. So get into the room together.

Events come in all sizes, shapes and colors

Just one of the things that Harley Davidson did in celebration of its 100th anniversary was its Open Road Tour - a nine-city traveling festival billed as "The World's Largest Rolling Birthday party," giving people a chance to interact with the Harley-Davidson brand.

The culminating event of Honda's 25th anniversary of making motorcycles in Marysville, Ohio, was a three-day dinner, attended by a record 16,742 visitors, who helped kick off Honda's 25th year of building motor vehicles in Ohio.

The Kellogg Foundation sponsored a series of six program-related seminars designed to advance the impact of philanthropy.

Peet's Coffee and Tea, celebrating it's 40th company anniversary, invited customers to visit their neighborhood stores for in-store tastings, home brewing workshops, lectures, and complimentary beans and beverages.

Who to invite, what to say

Most important, when you are planning your corporate anniversary event, know what messages you want and need to deliver and to whom. And consider incorporating a major listening component into the event.

Red Hat, which bills itself as "The world's most trusted provider of Linux and open source technology," following its 10thanniversary, undertook a world-wide tour to meet people interested in Red Hat and to spread the message of open source, as well as to hear from customers all over the globe.

Invite to your company anniversary events those persons who mean the most to the future success of your endeavors. Listen to what they have to say. Tell them about your plans, and tell them how you figure in each other's lives going forward.

Don't go it alone

How do you determine the specific marketing objectives for your anniversary events? How do you develop marketing objectives embraced by all? How do you convince your employees that these events are important to their future? How do you irresistibly convince your sales force to follow up on the leads that are generated by your events? Find a marketing partner.

What strategies are you going to use to guarantee significant ROI on your events? How do you determine the best ways to promote your events? How do you shape your events from start to finish for maximum impact? Find a marketing partner.

Don't go it alone. This is just too important to fold into the assignments of an already overworked staff. Get assistance in determining the best events to use for your audiences and help in both developing and executing those events. This will pay you enormous dividends.

Top 9 Event Management Tools for Overall Success of Your Events

Organizing an event is a stressful job and as an organizer, you need to work hand-in hand with your support staff to ensure that everything is on the right place. Arranging an event or multiple events across various locations requires organizational skill and involves lot of exhaustion. However, to do away with these stressful jobs event managers, now can access various online tools that can lead to the event's success.

Here, we are talking about nine most important tools that are highly effective to ensure the overall success of your events.

SlideDog- In recent years, SlideDog is known to be one of the most happening tools for event's success, although a few have made the effective use of it. With this feature, you can make a compilation of Powerpoints, PDFs, and Prezis, and various other file types to create a unique playlist. It is extremely handy for the conference planners, who avoid the desktop view and open different files manually. This is a wonderful tool to keep your audience engaged.

49st- 49st is an effective and highly acclaimed tool for event's promotion. It gives your event a wide exposure and offers your attendees more personalized and social experience. Organizers can create a profile here to post their events. It will help organizers to provide personalized content, thereby offering an increased social functionality.

VenueWize- VenueWize is an exciting check-in app to make event reception easier. It synchronizes iPads and iPhones and thus increases team collaboration. With this feature, you can automatically import the large database of Facebook and Twitter attendees.

Gantto- For an event planner, Gantto is an interesting event management tool. It helps you collect the information about what is happening inside the organization and thus create a buzz of your event across the world. Gantto helps organizers to build the project model and communicate to your teams.

SocialPix- Using SocialPix is a very cool idea when it comes to the promotion of event. It helps in offline integration with Facebook and helps you spread the message across the world in minutes. No matter you are logged in or out of your Facebook account, SocialPix will directly trigger your event's story to the fans' Wall and News Feed.

Timekiwi- Timekiwi is an exciting app that helps you create a timeline for your event in seconds. It helps you to display different stages of the event or create a more interactive schedule, so that audience can stay engaged to it.

Plannr- It's a perfect and wonderful tool for the event organizers. It helps organizers to make shared decisions about the event they are planning. This feature allows organizers to enjoy the benefits of mobile compatibility, threaded conversations and private gallery.

EContact.me- eContact helps you set up a micro social network for your event. With this feature, you can allow attendees to assemble according to the topics they are interested. Thus, it helps you attract more attendees within a shortest span of time.

DoubleDutch- It is a wonderful event guide app provider. This event app comes with an exciting and powerful analytics and social integration, which helps organizers to increase audience engagement, capture real-time data, and offer valuable insight into your team.

If you are on the planning process of your event, it's time to explore these tools now for your event's success.

Planning Your Own Pay Per View Event

Live video streaming services have become one of the biggest net sensations over the last couple of years. You can remember growing up as a child with your father watching George Foreman winning championships in boxing on pay per view. The days of mega millionaire companies and pay per views will likely never go away as subscriptions grow by the millions every year.

However, earning revenue from putting on a pay per view event is no longer relegated to just the largest media companies in the world. Now, a small start up sports league, fight league or extreme sports league can afford to host a pay per view online with live video streaming services.

Not only can live video streaming be a success for sporting leagues, it can be a success for musicians who wish to put on a concert for their adoring fans and it can also be a great way to broadcast special events like a wedding. We all know that there can be times when it's not feasible to have every loved one at an event so offering the ability to stream an event over the internet is a great way to ensure everyone can be included in your special event.

With live video streaming services, it's now become possible to literally film and stream recorded and live events of any nature online for anyone you want to see it or anyone you want to pay to see it. This technology truly takes the capabilities of tomorrow and puts them in your lap today!

It's important to find a service company that will partner with you by tailoring to your needs. It's important to find a service company that will allow you to host your Pay per view on their server. They should be willing to handle the monetary transactions while hosting your web space so you can focus on your event. They should offer technical services to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch. They should also be able to direct you to camera operators that have the capability to interface with the technology needed for live streaming of your event.

Few companies offer this level of service but it is important when making a decision that the company you partner with to broadcast your event is trust worthy and that they are there to ensure your event's success. If a company offers all of these things to you it will be easy to have confidence that your pay per view event will go off without a hitch and your event will be a financial success.

Planning an Event - Piece of Cake

There has been a steady increase in the demand for professional Event Planning in San Francisco. Planning any sort of event is a laborious task because there are far too many aspects that make an event a success. And a successful event is a memorable event. The food, the service, the music, the lighting, the seating everything must be organized well so that it can all work together in tandem to contribute to a spectacular event. And who better to do this than a professional.

An event management company caters to many different kinds of events - birthday parties for all ages, engagement, wedding and baby showers, reunions, anniversaries and retirement parties not to mention Halloween, Christmas, and New Year parties and well as corporate dinner parties and gala events. These companies co-ordinate every minute details of the event. They give suggestions and tips in relation to themes and d矇cor as well. They are experienced enough to avoid obvious hiccoughs and apt with dealing with major disaster situations if required.

These companies are tied up with the best caterers, bands, and party supply stores. They have working for them an army of people who are creative and artistic who can take your ideas and make them into a fantastic event. Using an event management company can help take most of the pressure off, leaving the hosts to enjoy their own events. Many a times, if you decides to organize the event on your own, you practically spread thin trying to manage everything and totally unable to make any real time for your guests. Also, there are times when you get so caught up in the food or music you tend to disregard certain subtleties like decoration and lighting which tends to be a major faux pas, becoming sometimes the only thing people remember of an otherwise spectacular event.

Choosing an event management company has become fairly simple in San Francisco as most of them can be found online. A few things to remember while choosing an event management company are - looking through their previous events, references and success rate. In an industry such as this word of mouth can be extremely helpful. Also if they have done enough of events you can be assured that you can rely on them because of their experience. Be very careful to tell the company exactly what you are looking for in the event and what your budget is so that they can keep that in mind during the planning period.

Things To Consider When Planning A Corporate Event

Selecting the perfect menu and ordering the right amount of food is crucial. Your objective for the event should determine what type of food you provide and how it is served. When you goal is fun cocktail receptions are the most popular choice. Food stations or mini meals circulated by servers work best. However, there is nothing worse than being at a party and finding yourself with a plate of food in one hand, a glass of wine in the other and no way of actually getting the food to your mouth. Add a handbag to the situation and a woman could starve. High cocktail tables scattered throughout the venue can help alleviate this situation. Finger foods are another option eliminating the need for a plate and fork.

For more formal corporate events, or when there is to be a presentation, it is advisable to have your guests seated at a table. Plated meals, where meals are delivered to the table, avoids the distraction of traffic going to and from the buffet, and ensures that your guests are all served at the same time. Buffets, however, are usually less expensive and offer your guests a wider variety of menu items.

Most corporate events will require renting at least some equipment, table wares, glasses, linen, tenting and more. It may be tempting to lower your costs by coordinating the rentals yourself and thereby saving the make-up charged by caterers and event planners. However, although it seems a simple task, getting it right is vital to the success of your event and if you don't know what you are doing you could end up in the kitchen washing glasses or driving to the gas station for more ice in the middle of your event. Coordinating rentals is not a simple task and is best left to the experts.

Similarly, cutting staff can seem like a way to reduce costs especially if the venue is smaller. Keep in mind the number of staff required is dependent on the number of guests and the menu not on the size of the space. A good rule of thumb for cocktail receptions is one server for every 20 - 30 guests and one (beer & wine only) or two (full bar) bartenders for every 80 - 100 guests. For buffet dinners one staff for every 20-25 guests, and for plated formal dinners one staff for every 10-20 guests.

Recruiting volunteers can be a great way to keep your budget in line as long as their responsibilities are made very clear well in advance. Too often well-meaning volunteers pitch in enthusiastically at the beginning of the event and then wander off to chat with other guests leaving the skeleton staff with more work than they can handle. If you want to use volunteers have a formal meeting in advance of the event and hand out a detail list of the tasks they will be expected to perform and clear start and finish times.

Clearly hosting an office party is a massive undertaking and, if not planned properly, they can be just as painful to attend. Choose an experienced corporate caterer to help you plan an appropriate menu and work through the details of service, rental and entertainment.

Champagne Ardenne Festivals - 10 Great Festivals In Champagne Ardenne France

Around the world this region is best known for its produce champagne, than its other numerous charms such as its excellent game, out of which many delicious meals have been thoroughly enjoyed. However as well as its appeal to the discerning palate, this region in France has a number of interesting and fun festivals throughout the year.

1. Elektricity Festival, Rue du Docteur Lemoine, Reims Cathedral, 20th to 24th March 2013
You could be forgiven for assuming that this festival had something to do with electricity; it is however the name of a music festival which combines urban and contemporary music. Taking place in front of the Reims Cathedral, you can expect to experience new types of electronic music however, as well as a promising line up, put together by the festival organisers.

A firm favourite in the Reim festival and cultural world, it has a good track record (excuse the pun) and visitors can expect to attend some good performances.

2. Europuces Fair in Reims, Reims Exhibition Centre, 2nd to 3rd March 2013
A massive amount of antique lovers attend the Europuces Fair in Reims. Whether you are a seasoned antique dealer, an enthusiast or a bargain hunter, this is the place to be!

European antique sellers have a range of treasures on sale, from furniture to fine art objects, to apparently ordinary every day items. Come to the treasure trove that is the Europuces Fair.

3. M矇li'm繫me Festival, Place de l'Hotel de Ville, Reims, 22nd March to 8th April 2013
Move over Mummy and Daddy, this festival is all about the children! This festival has grown in popularity since its inception back in 1989, and it offers a colourful combination of fun and expressive genres which will be sure to engage your child or children.

From story telling to dance, from song and dance to puppet shows, the entertainment offers a range of magical and delightful shows for the younger family members.

4. Festival Bernard Dimey, May awaiting dates 2013 (10th to 13th May 2012)
A festival dedicated to the memory of Bernard Dimey, the Nogent poet. There are prizes awarded each year from a spring-board event, for the younger talented people.

Born on 16th July 1931 in what was then Nogent-en-Bassigny, and now Nogent, Bernard Dimey was a French poet and songwriter. The festival focuses on poetry and songs with the younger folk in mind. He died in Paris, on 1st July 1981.

5. Sedan Medieval Festival, 3rd week May, (19th to 20th May 2012)
The Sedan Castle Fort was built almost 6 centuries ago and is the largest in Europe, with a size of 35,000m2. Making it a splendid place to enjoy a medieval festival, it is located right in the heart of Sedan city.

The festival takes place both in the castle fortress as well as in the town, and each year the event planners come with a new themed surprise. In 2011 a full size dragon who spat fire was produced and in 2010 came the giants of the north.

Cast yourself back into medieval times and watch the medieval sports and activities take place, such as jousting, flag throwing and cavalry tournaments. Enjoy street theatre, soak up the medieval atmosphere, feast, drink and be merry!

You can also find plenty of beautiful medieval arts and crafts, plus watch medieval artisans at work.

6. Joan of Arc Festival, early June (2nd to 3rd June 2012)
Joan of Arc festival is one of the most historical events which takes place in France. The city of Reims celebrates its heroine.

It is a marvellous sight, as around 2000 people dress up in historical costumes to accompany Charles VII and Joan of Arc, in a parade.

The patron saint of the city, who freed it from the English in the 15th century, is celebrated by a range of shows. If you are British and visiting this festival, you can enjoy some fun French-English rivalry, given the occasion. So take local banter in the good spirits of the occasion!

Wander around the medieval market, enjoying the historical epics that are part and parcel of this festival, as well as the atmosphere and the surroundings.

7. Les Sacres du Folklore - The Rites of Folklore Festival - Reims, 21st to 25th June 2013
This folk festival takes place in the interests of friendship and peace in Reims. You can expect to hear some of world's best folk groups, and enjoy a folk-filled programme of events. More than three hundred musicans, singers, dancers and actors take part in this large folk festival.

8. Ay Champagne Festival (every 2nd year, 1st weekend July, next year 2014)
Also known as Henry IV Festival

Considered to be the best champagne village in the whole region, Ay is the home of the likes of Bollinger, Gosset and Ayala, as well as Deutz & Gelderman.

This festival combines lots of bubbly champagne and plenty of bubbly entertainment. Consider putting a few days apart in July 2014 for this marvellous event.

9. Clin d'œil Festival, Reims, 5th to 7th July 2013
Running since the European Year of People with Disabilities, 2003, this festival is a huge European deaf cultural event. In fact it actually started off as a one off event, but like a stone gathering moss, it has developed into a superb event that now continues to run.

Here is where you can enjoy experiencing the showcasing of the numerous exceptionally talented deaf people. It is a festival that bridges the gap between the deaf and hearing communities through the medium of artistic expression. A variety of forms of art and creative expression include painting, sculpture, design.

10. Fête des Sorcières - Witch Festival, Chalindrey, October
Whilst today there are many practices witches who live happily in various countries, a few centuries ago they would have been burnt at the stake. During the 16th century the Fort of Cognelot was the area of a witch hunt, and since then it was given the name Devil's Point. This, as well as the area's Celtic roots have combined to make it a location rich in supernatural heritage.

The Witch Festival has been running for around a century. Celebrations evoke this heritage and visitors can enjoy dances which are haunting, til the wee and more eerie hours. The festival includes exhibitions, movies of a fitting genre and face painting.

Listen to the local ghost stories, marvel at the beautiful scenery, learn about true roots of witches and of course have lots of fun!

Event Management Companies for Professional Conferences

Hiring an event management company for a multinational technology conference or an evening party is the best option to make it memorable and mesmerizing. Event management companies not only give guidance and advice during the initial conception and planning of any event, but help to make it a perfectly successful event also. Event managers and staff members have exceptional skills and relevant experience in event planning and organizing.

From conference planning to any other event or party management, corporate events planners can handle everything in a professional manner. They can easily manage, plan and organize necessary stuff before time and design an impeccable itinerary/plan of action to make it as fluent and hassle-free as possible. Their planning and organizing service are designed to delivers an inspiring, passionate, creative and innovative experience. They lavish close attention to details. They tend to create a picture-perfect platform for enterprises to communicate effectively with their audience.

They organize and deliver an organized and streamlined event on time and within budget. They deliver professional services for conference arrangement. Some of the most vital services offered by event management companies for conferences are:

1. Venue finding
2. Incentives and reward programs
3. Corporate hospitality and tickets
4. Corporate team building
5. Trade shows
6. Audio and visual Services
7. Product launches
8. Conferences and award Shows
9. Event theme building and branding

Venue Finding - Most of the event management companies provide free venue finding services for the grand conference or events. In fact, it is the most necessary thing to consider before taking any further actions. They first consult with the organizers and marketing executives in order to understand the needs and overall objectives of the conference.

Conferences and award Shows - Event planners work with the company marketing experts to take time to understand what they're exactly searching for. They create your bespoke response document that will give you all the answers for your next event.

Trade shows - There is no better and striking way to showcase product or service to the market place than by getting the live feedback from the audiences. Event management companies can effectively organize a trade show, or any product launch ceremony.

Audio & Visual Services - Event planners provide with the complete AV system. They provide the inclusive technical assistance for the event and make appropriate arrangements.

In essence, event management companies help in refining the conference and event experience for the organizations, employees, corporate partners and its other associates.

Is It Realistic to Pursue Your Dream Job Today?

Are you contemplating changing careers? Mary's story warns us that we need to be thoughtful and cautious when making a dramatic change like this. Here is Mary's story in her words.

"I identified the job I wanted, my dream job. I went back to school full time, and racked up a lot of debt. By the time I graduated several years later, the economy tanked, and my dream job was no longer hiring. And the jobs that are similar pay so much less than what I was making before. I'm broken hearted and deeply discouraged. How can anyone suggest people go after their dream job when it only leads to disappointment?"

Mary's story makes me sad, and she is not alone. It happens more than we'd like to know. (It is also the reason I do what I do, to help people find their way without becoming another Mary.)

Mary's story is one most people fear will happen to them, isn't it? So how can you avoid Mary's experience? Do you have to throw away your dreams, and just take what comes your way? Or do you put everything on hold until the economy turns around, whenever that may be? No. If you do your research and careful planning, you can have a job you love and a thriving career, and you can have it now.

Rhonda worked hard to unearth the strengths and skills she loved to use, along with where and how she loved to use them. She also identified her ideal working environment, and the roles she preferred when working. It is from that list that we began to brainstorm different job titles she could go after. Rhonda's list included Project Manager, Executive Director (for a Non-Profit), and Event Planner/Party Planner. Before Rhonda chose one of these to pursue, she did her research.

First Rhonda met with at least 3 different people who held each title, so 3 Project Managers, 3 Event Planners, 3 Executive Directors. She conducted an informational interview with each one, to find out what their day to day responsibilities were, what the major challenges of the jobs were, and what the job market was like for each of them. She learned that in her area, Event Planners were losing jobs, and struggling to find work. She learned that Executive Directors needed a bit more experience than she currently had, but that she could easily get that experience volunteering.

Next Rhonda did some research online to learn about the salaries associated with each position. She learned that Event Planners didn't make as much as she needed. She began to rule out the Event Planner idea, and narrowed her research to focus on Project Manager and Executive Director jobs. Both still appealed to her, and after doing more research, she discovered there were more Project Manager jobs available, especially if she pursued certification.

Since Rhonda wanted a change sooner rather than later, she decided to pursue a Project Manager position now, and keep her eyes open for any Executive Director opportunities that might be available later.

Rhonda is now on a new path, one that works for her financially, and provides her with the security and future she desires. She ruled out the options that wouldn't work for her.

Once you know what types of jobs appeal to you, I encourage you to do your research. Find out as much as you can about the reality of those jobs and careers. Are they growing? Do they pay what you need? Are there certifications or training required? What are the real day to day responsibilities of the job? How hard is it to break into that industry or area? If you research all your options, you will find one that will work for you, now. You can end up like Rhonda, not Mary. And that story has a happy ending.

The Personality of an Event Venue

If you build it, they will come. Unfortunately, this axiom does not necessarily work in the event venue world. Not all conference spaces are created equal, nor are they branded equally - or effectively, in many cases.

A successful event venue has a defined "personality" and ably addresses a need or void within its space. A branding process is vital, especially when establishing new conference space. This article addresses five steps to creating an identity and securing an audience for an event venue.

o Create a visually appealing brand

What a conference center communicates through its outbound materials helps define the experience attendees' will have. For instance, is the space better for interactive meetings or educational symposia? Does the facility have more appeal to corporate executives or to customer service staff? Will attendees be treated to a plush experience?

Don't forget the power of the Web to communicate a venue's "vibe" as well. A custom-built website allows event planners to learn about the facility and its configuration options. A great website is a key marketing tool, with the ability to provide updated facility news, including floor plans and photographs, and interactive tours of the facility.

o Identify the audience

The best meeting space matches its attendees' needs perfectly. To get to that point, a venue must identify primary users of the space. If the key audience is IT professionals, the venue should have the latest technology: wireless hot spots, great A/V and more. If the audience leans toward scientific groups, ensure the conference center has breakout rooms, poster presentation areas and lecture-style auditorium.

o Illustrate value to prospective audiences

Technology, design, flexibility - a great conference center offers many things to many people. As with any investment, showing a positive return is important. Does the technology inside a venue meet the needs of the most demanding presenter. With so much competition for events business, building great technology and design into a conference space and delivering a positive work environment to attendees is vital for "state-of-the-art" venues.

o Communicate an identity

Having a great facility and attracting qualified meetings to it are not necessarily linked. Event planners have an array of tools to identify meeting space that fits their specific criteria. With the Web, industry publications, trade shows, advertising and direct marketing, there are many ways to find a facility and many ways to market one.

Using a multi-pronged approach of direct marketing, public relations and advertising, an event venue can saturate key audiences with news before and after a facility has opened.

Marketing initiatives to communicate a brand include:

o Conducting "hardhat" facility tours during its construction phase to build pre-opening interest.

o Building a direct marketing database.

o Creating partnerships to add to the richness of the venue's offering and to create a referral source community for the facility, by targeting collaborating with continuing education programs, hotels, travel agencies, destination management companies and exhibition companies.

o Participating in meeting industry trade shows.

o Hosting charity events and industry association events, especially those that attract potential users of the space.

Public relations initiatives target meetings publications by securing venue listings and placing news in industry association publications, such as Meeting Planner International's Meetings.

o Ensure structure exists to support the offering

It's vital to deliver on what you promise. Managing an event facility is time consuming. Having the proper support systems in place, and automating as much as possible, eases the operational side of venue management. Administrative details to firm up before attracting an audience include:

o Determining pricing for all audiences and types of functions (day vs. night, poster session vs. lecture series, corporate vs. non-profit, full facility use vs. partial, etc.)

o Creating catering packages

o Identifying additional elements, such as security, staffing and parking

o Building a comprehensive sales kit and contract

o Selecting venue management scheduling technology

o Deciding whether to keep A/V technical staffing in-house, or to outsource it

Great branding isn't the only strategy that makes an event venue work, but it certainly helps create an individual personality to drive success.