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2013 – A Very Good Year

 It looks like, for the moment, our nation has not fallen of the so-called fiscal cliff. However, businesses, whether, small, medium, large or Fortune 100, must also be careful not fall off their own fiscal cliff. That’s a no-brainer, of course.

What helps a company, an association or not for profit, stay in business? Although, I’m not an economist or a CPA, here’s my take:

  • Letting the world ( or at least your market) know that you’re there
  • Letting that market know that:

1.you do a really good job of what you do
2.you give value
3.you and your company are reliable and will come through on your promise
4.“you ‘ve got their back”

That sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it. Therefore, with that logic in mind, a company must continue and perhaps increase their marketing and PR. One needs to continually tell your story and get it out there to that market and beyond. This doesn’t necessarily mean doing more or spending more, but doing your marketing effectively.

**Note** I am about to step on my soapbox

 

 

Meetings, Conferences and Events must be held, but planned and managed effectively.

ROI is always important, but there are different types of ROI. If your event goal is to monetize, that you must measure the direct profit. Many events show their ROI down the line, because the so-called sales cycle is longer and the event objective is not to charge a fee, but to educate or reward a salesforce, educate and thank clients or simply promote the company, a product, an association.The pay off is down the line.

If the event is successful, you will see immediately, on site, smiling faces, guests lingering to chat with one another as they don’t want the event to be over.

What if  your audience is widespread and not everyone can attend due to travel costs and time, their own (or possibly your company budget). What do you do then? Not hold the meeting or event? NO!

Of course, there is nothing like face to face meetings. We all know that, but what if 80-90% (sometimes less) can attend in person. What about the other 10-20%?  The answer is to stream the event live and make it available for later viewing on demand . A webcast is a cost effective way to extend the reach of your event.  When the content is really good, later on even the people who attended the event in person, will want to view certain sessions again on line. Of course, there is a cost to webcasting and the cost to have a quality professionally produced  webcast is worth it. The cost is little in comparison to the ROI. Webcasting your meeting is definitely worth considering. A step further, is to make sure that the webcast becomes a true hybrid event with the virtual attendees being engaged in the actual event via pre-event social media all the way through the event and post event.

Adding Social Media to the mix and you will have a real “wow!”.

This is not just the wave of the future, but the wave of “now”.

**I’m off my soapbox**