The Art of Event Planning - Chapter ELEVEN Part 2 Sneak Peak!
/Tis the Season for Giving! As a small gift, I’ll publish the final free chapter of my book this final month of 2020 in hopes it will keep those in the event and hospitality industry inspired. I hope Chapter ELEVEN, Part 2, “WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE FUTURE” from my book, The Art of Event Planning will resonate with everyone, as we look ahead towards 2021 with hope. For those who purchase my book as a gift this month, please contact me via my website (giannagaudini.com/contact) if you’d like me to mail you a signed sticker to include in your book.
Chapter Eleven - Part 2 - What to Expect In the Future
The Art of Event Planning, Pro Tips from an Industry Insider
The next level is total audience engagement. This requires planners to pose more questions to attendees ahead of time on social media or via live polling. On a personal level, you can get involved by reaching out to audience members on industry-centric LinkedIn groups and asking challenging questions that make viewers think deeply about what they want from your event. You can preface these questions with a few lines regarding what your brand would like to communicate, and if commenters express different viewpoints, I encourage you to explore these further. These dialogues will serve as great intel when curating event content.
A number of new companies have cropped up for this very reason—Mentimeter, Glisser, and Buzzmaster, to name a few. Buzzmaster is a particular industry favorite as of late, since it fosters interactions with talented thought provokers and audience members in real-time. The “BuzzMasters” are all journalists or experienced event managers, who pose unexpected questions to the audience as the event unfolds, helping to facilitate sessions and create a buzz. They also sort through data and curate the most interesting comments during and after the event and find the best stories to share. Tools like this typically have a feature that sends tactful push notifications to communicate with audiences. According to a study by Localytics, 52% of smartphone users have push notifications enabled on their devices, which means half an audience can be reached during an event, and driven towards purchasing decisions or other actions.
Of course, as with all things, moderation should be practiced when interjecting into the attendee experience, even with goodwill tech. The reality is, we live in a world where marketing infiltrates every part of our lives, and there’s a fine line between spamming and informing our guests. Sending push notifications to inform an attendee of a newly opened session that matches his or her profile can certainly prove helpful, but studies have shown that sending an attendee more than ten push notifications in one day has negative effects. You certainly don’t want to drive anyone to disable their notifications since it’s a quick way to communicate need-to-know updates, so be ultra-selective when planning push-communication and be sure to put in some “per user limits.” If it’s obvious that you’re delivering value to your audience members through the form of promo codes for discounted meals and swag, than push away. But remember, when someone installs your event app, they are trusting you. It’s up to you to keep that promise.
In the darkly comical indie film, Ingrid Goes West, a young woman becomes infatuated with an Instagram-famous blogger named Taylor. Ingrid becomes so entranced by Taylor’s seemingly flawless life, she starts mimicking Taylor’s every move. When Taylor posts a picture of her breakfast at a bagel place, Ingrid stops by the same joint later in the day. Taylor quotes a passage from her favorite book, and Ingrid orders it right away. The events depicted in the film might be hyperbolic for cinematic purposes, but they aren’t too far off from reality. Influencers have played a role in promotion for a while now, and their eminence isn’t fading. Artisanal avocado toast will eventually not be the most popular food posted on social media, but influencers have changed the way brands think about marketing and promotion and look to be around for at least a little while longer.
Since consumers have unlimited freedom and choice over the content they view, brands struggle to target their audience members over a growing number of platforms. For this reason, influencers who have considerable reach now have a monetary value that can be worked into planning budgets. As of 2019, an Instagram influencer’s monetary value is calculated at $1,000 per 100,000 followers. YouTube sensations are said to be worth $100 for every 1,000 views they receive on videos. I recommend taking a look at companies like Traackr, Klear, and HYPR to help you evaluate which influencers will represent and serve your brand best. When an influencer embodies your brand and has great reach to your target demographic, you’ll be able to inspire attendees to look further into your product or services by working with the influencer to produce captivating content on a new medium. When done right, this attributes credibility to your brand and gives your upcoming event organic exposure through the influencer’s top channels.
On another note, companies should be increasingly aware of accounts that are propped up with purchased fake followers. The goal of influencer marketing is to find digital celebrities who have all obtained an organic following and appreciate a steady growth rate. Brands should partner with people they believe embody a similar ethos and style. Since Instagram deleted bot accounts in September, 2016, the influencers who purchased fake followers saw a sharp drop in “popularity.” A number of companies were established to detect whether influencers have had any unnatural drops or large, sudden bumps in followers. InstaCheck, for example, is designed to detect fake accounts by analyzing a user’s engagement, spam, and overall activity growth. If it seems like the influencer continued to purchase fake followers in the aftermath of the Instapurge, InstaCheck will highlight this. When evaluating an influencer, it’s helpful to understand growth rates yourself. At or below 2% is considered poor, while above 7.5% is very good. You can see why a growth rate of 61.6% seems completely unrealistic and suspicious. Of course, if an account becomes popular after the owner does something to produce a viral response, it’s a different story. For this reason alone, doing a preliminary online search on top candidates should be the first step you take in this process.
Another growing trend in the event planning landscape is the use of projection mapping. Imagine entering a convention center and being totally immersed in a rejuvenating experience: you hear the sweet sounds of birds and crickets, and even feel the warmth of sunshine on your skin. Instead of registration tables and flat walls, you see a colorful forest growing before your eyes—greenery of all shades, swaying flowers and shrubs, flitting wings from lovely birds. Is it a mirage? No! It’s an augmented reality experience, created by an intricate array of projectors and a state of the art sound system.
Devices can now light up practically any surface and turn everyday structures and building sides into 3D interactive displays. Projection mapping helps us event planners incorporate truly transformational design elements into any space we see fit. It cuts the cost of creating scenic wall displays, and can create entertaining distractions for guests if they’re waiting in line. Some venues have started projecting scenes of dancers and acrobats as attendees wait to be seated. The whole process of creating the mapping is sort of like painting with light: designers can add textures, colors, and imagery to the entirety of an environment. Practically anything can be projected—from sponsor carousel branding, to cinematic narratives that include subtle advertisements for products. Because there are no real limits to what you can do with projection mapping, event planners are free to stretch their imaginations and come up with truly inventive displays. Whether it be a 3-D map of sponsor booths, a social media wall, or an interactive art display, the technology is flexible enough to meet a variety of objectives.
Furthermore, venues themselves can also benefit from projection mapping. While many event venues offer audio and visual equipment, most do not offer creative solutions to the most common challenge faced by event planners: space customization. Adding projection mapping enables venue managers to create unique experiences without physically altering the venue itself. This is already happening at the Sydney Opera House, courtesy of the artist Jorn Utzon, who has created an overwhelmingly popular initiative to give the building human expression. Right now, the venue is decked out with projection mapping and features new, jaw-dropping transformations daily. Any non-white and non-flat surface shows advertisements, art videos, and decorations. In other parts of the world, regular run-of-the-mill conference spaces now boast projected windows that show views of world-famous buildings and natural wonders. Venues can charge a lot more for their space with views of the terraced gardens of Capri, or even a close-up glimpse of the pockmarked moon, than those who still sport plain, uninspired walls.
Finally, we thankfully hear the words diversity and inclusion far more than we did ten years ago, but we still have a long way to go with this important initiative. There's a lot that event organizers can start doing right now to exceed societal expectations and facilitate truly inclusive experiences. Bringing in more attendees from different backgrounds means bringing a diverse array of insights into the event space, too. After all, diversity is much more than race and ethnicity. We need to think about it this way: It includes people of different ages, physical abilities, genders, education levels, and more.
Fortunately, at every step of the event organization process, there are more opportunities than ever for event organizers to promote diversity. At the event registration screen, for example, give attendees the option of choosing a gender neutral prefix (Mx.), in addition to the standard options of Mr., Mrs., or Ms. The addition of a checkbox is by no means a final point since it simply serves to identify some members of the community. In terms of taxonomies related to gender, sexuality, and so on, including this step is just what some expect to see. One of the best ways to make diversity front and center at your event is to dedicate a session or panel to it. In fact, diversity panels and sessions have become increasingly popular in recent years. When holding them, there are several things to keep in mind:
Make sure that your panel speakers are involved with other programming as well and not simply invited, as this can be perceived as “tokenism.”
Be deliberate with your diversity programming—asking why diversity is important should simply start the talk off.
Probe deeper with content beyond diversity, career, and work-life-balance.
Above all, think of how you can extend the conversation outside of your event and into future discussions. The conversations shouldn’t just stop once the session ends. Try making room for additional dialogue in vibrant online and offline event communities. Being truly inclusive means going above and beyond simply sourcing diverse speakers and targeting a broader attendee demographic.
Make it a goal to bring on more diverse vendors to support your event, from small local caterers to women-owned businesses. These vendors will likely add more authenticity to your efforts and offer a unique perspective to enhance your DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programming. At a Women’s Leadership conference, I made sure to hire all women-owned vendors, from caterers and the production agency, all the way to the photographer and miscellaneous contractors. During the conference, when one of our senior female leaders interviewed a famous young YouTube performer, she actually commented on how cool it was that the sound engineer was female. She said she’d never worked with a female sound engineer, but was inspired by the level of thought we put into our inclusive staff. When you’re focusing on serving an underrepresented demographic, make sure you have people on your team who identify with them, so you can gut check all your event decisions and make sure they will be positively received by attendees.
Technology and consumer expectations will continue to evolve, but certain fundamentals will always remain. As people engage with companies across industries, their expectations for what constitutes a good customer experience stays grounded in the obvious: People want to feel like they’ve been heard, inspired, and educated, and that the company involved genuinely cares about them.
In the coming years, experts will figure out how to incorporate personalization into all facets of an event or experience: how to bring together disparate data sources, how to deliver one-to-one experiences that connect across channels, and how to leverage machine learning to power truly personalized concierge service. Now that the one-to-one dream is attainable, we will see this filter throughout our own organizations, too.
With 80% of event planners saying their jobs encompass more experience creation than just two to five years ago, we shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by all the new technology available, but rather embrace it, and lean into its presence. Think about it this way: As complex as machine learning, facial recognition, and data algorithms are, the purpose of any one of these trends is not to intimidate us, but to enhance our capabilities and the experience for our guests. Whether we achieve richer experiences via technology that enhances the attendee experience or maximizes the way we spend our time as planners, or by standing behind socially responsible initiatives that matter to our audience, these movements are elevating standards and empowering the industry to push the boundaries of face-to-face experiences.
Conclusion
By now, you have an idea of what it takes to craft successful events and hone these skills into a thriving career. There are so many paths this unique field may lead to, and I hope you are prepared for an exciting and fulfilling journey. When creating experiences that will touch people and make lasting memories, I challenge you to try something new and push the boundaries of experiential engagement. It is within your capability to create the most memorable experiences possible, leaving impact long after guests have said their final goodbyes.
While much of this book outlines my professional career, I believe event planning affects everyone. Reflecting back on my own life, many of my memories are anchored by events; birthdays, holidays, weddings, baby showers, celebrations, dinners, and graduations... memories are a universal part of being human. I sometimes think I’m a “memory weaver” with each event I plan, be it a dinner at my home, or a conference for 30,000 people, creating a fabric that is rich and textured. Virtually everyone will attend an event or host an event at some point in their life, and my overarching principles are the common thread that ties them all together.
If I’ve inspired you or taught you something you find useful, please share my book with the people you care about in your life. Friends, families, college friends, colleagues. Anyone who can benefit from being able to better design their life and the events that help cement key moments forever. Remember, you are the event planner of your life!
I love hearing from readers. If you’d like to get in touch, you can find me at Giannagaudini.com. Send me a note! Who knows, perhaps we’ll plan an event together someday. And, if you liked this book, please help support me by leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Bookbub.
