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Where do you turn when you’re researching event technology? Let’s say you’re looking at event apps or mobile lead retrieval systems? Other than going to vendor websites and asking your peers what they’ve used…where else can you find the type of in-depth, astute evaluations you’re are looking for on all the options available?

And what about finding new technology you didn’t even know existed yet? Or innovative ways face-to-face events are using technology that is already available?

Event industry thought leader, Michelle Bruno, has just launched her new venture, Event Tech Brief. Event Tech Brief is an online magazine/newsletter featuring in-depth coverage of technology and its role in events. The about page on the website says, “It was developed with three goals in mind: to assist event producers tasked with purchasing technology, create a neutral, no spin zone where the technology can be dissected and compared side-by-side and deliver the content that the event community wants to move their events into the future.”

Think Wired for the event world.

There are a lot of people out there writing about event technology so I asked Michelle what makes Event Tech Brief different from what’s already out there and where she sees Event Tech Brief going in the future.

Traci: How is Event Tech Brief different from what’s already being written on technology in the events industry?

Michelle: Event Tech Brief is different in several ways. Most of the event-industry content out there (and there is some excellent stuff) is an overview of what an app or technology does and what event planners can do with it. I love those types of articles and have certainly contributed my fair share to the cause. What I haven’t seen much of are the in-depth examinations of specific products and platform providers that help technology buyers make purchases. So, I’ve designed the core information in Event Tech Brief to roughly mirror the buying cycle for technology with three content streams:

1. Discovery—Descriptive articles to familiarize readers with products.
2. Comparison—side-by-side comparisons of products and providers.
3. Implementation—case studies and how-to information.

Traci:  I see you are covering all types of events, trade shows, festivals, conferences, corporate events…these are all so different…what’s your thinking behind this?

Michelle: At first, I decided to include all types of events because I thought it would help me avoid running out of great content. As I got into it, I realized the potential for cross-pollination. In other words, corporate events tend to be a little edgier compared to third-party trade shows. Some of the festivals (let’s take South By Southwest as an example) are more progressive in some respects than even the corporate meetings. I wanted to present the possibility that the technology for one event category might also be an interesting twist for another. I hope I’m right.

Traci: The articles you’ve posted have been pretty in-depth  …who is your audience?

Michelle: I hope that the content is a deeper dive than non-technology focused publications. That aspect of Event Tech Brief is by design. There are plenty of other places to get the overviews. The audience could be anyone interested in purchasing technology for events. In this early phase, however, I’m focusing specifically on event organizers with an eye toward expanding that group to include exhibitors or venues and any other buyer category as the publication evolves.

Traci: Where do you get your story ideas? How do you keep up with the trends…how do you stay ahead of the trends?

Michelle: Ideas come to me by asking a simple question: “How do they do that?” I read A LOT of event-industry trade publications and blogs. I also refer to non-industry technology newsletters and magazines like GigaOm, TechCrunch and WIRED magazine. I’m a Twitter addict so lots of ideas for articles and people to interview come from there. For reasons that are good and bad, technology trends don’t usually emerge inside the b-to-b event space. They usually appear in the consumer arena first, so I watch what’s happening there. My clients, primarily event-industry technology companies, have also helped me understand the technology as well as the buyers’ pains.

Traci: Besides the bi-weekly newsletter…what is your vision for Event Tech Brief?

Michelle: Event Tech Brief is really a concept. Now, it’s an e-newsletter and a website. But in the future it will be more of a multi-media platform and a go-to “place” for people who really want to know what technology is available, how to decide among competing solutions and what the issues are around implementing it into the event. There are a few nerds that know everything there is to know about event-industry technology, but I hope everyone else considers subscribing to Event Tech Brief.

Interested? Sign up to receive Event Tech Brief updates so you don’t miss a thing.

Right now Event Tech Brief is running a launch contest where you can win a cool Event Tech Brief hoodie.  The website states, “To kick off the new publication, we are issuing a challenge to subscribers to answer a single question in an email:  How would you use Google Glass in an event setting?”

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I stumbled across the Maersk Line social media home page a few weeks ago via, you guessed it, social media. I’ve been a bit busy of late and have not had time to update the blog here with original information so I thought I’d do you one even better. Show you a great example of a B2B company using social media effectively. I invite you to explore their home page as well as all their social platforms to see how they use using them.

Some special things to note:

1. On the home page they explain what type of content each platform will feature and who the audience is. This not only helps the visitor find the right spot…but also makes it easy for Maersk to focus on delivering the right content.

2. They don’t just post the positive. They are open and honest about when things don’t go so well…like when one of their ships hit and killed a whale. Notice how they handled this tragic situation.

3. Stunning visuals everywhere. Who knew shipping containers could be so beautiful?! (Also, they have a great mix of video and pics)

They have not been doing this for very long but I’m excited to see where they are heading. They have a solid structure and plan laid out but they also allow themselves a lot of room to have some creative fun with it.

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The March issues of EXHIBITOR Magazine features highlights from my book, The Social Trade Show. Lena Valenty interviewed me for the article and we discussed topics such as:

• What accounts for the industry’s slow adoption of social media?
• What are the key elements of a “good” goal?
• What should you look for in establishing a target audience?
• Why are bloggers important?
• What are the benefits of different tools?
• What types of metrics are important to track and report?
• How can social media be used to extend an exhibit or event program?
• What are some dos and don’ts when it comes to a company’s social-media presence?

You can read the entire article here.

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The March issue of EXHIBITOR Magazine features some juicy tips and info from my book, The Social Trade Show.

I’ll be sharing some some of that info at EXHIBITOR 2013 on Tuesday, March 20th at 10:00 AM. This is an interactive workshop where attendees will be strategically inserting social media tools into a trade show program. They’ll also be learning how to measure that activity in a way their CFO will love.

If you’re going to be at EXHIBITOR (it’s really the only event of its kind for exhibit marketing folks) I hope I’ll see you at my session. If you can’t make the session stop by my book signing at 12:30. If you can’t do either stay tuned and I’ll be sharing some of the workshop case studies.

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I often get asked this question…

We want to start exhibiting this year and have found five different shows we think would be a good fit for our company.  Some are national and some are smaller regional shows but we only have the budget to do one or two.  How do I know what is the right show for my company to exhibit?

Depending on what your goals are you may want to exhibit at a national show or start with a regional or local show.  Regional and local shows tend to be much less expensive than national shows.  A local show may cost only $500 to exhibit while a national show can run starting at $2500 for just the 10 square feet of space.  If you are looking to expand your sales efforts beyond your regional area then, of course, the national show is for you.  But if you don’t have the resources to follow-up on leads across the country then as tempting as it is to go with the national show, you may be wasting your money.

You also want to make sure the attendees of the show match your demographic.  If you know your sales team needs to call on senior level executives and middle management attends the show you are looking at, you may want to think twice.  You need to decide if exposure to the decision influencers, not the decision makers, is worth the expenditure.  Every show should provide you with audience demographics.  It’s important to find out if they use an outside auditing company for their data.  You don’t want to take the show management’s marketing department’s word for who is attending the show.  What you may get is inflated numbers as well as inflated demographics.  I usually recommend a company attend a show before exhibiting to get a lay of the land.  This gives you a chance to see who is there first hand, what topics are hot, is there good show floor traffic, and find out from other exhibitors how productive the show is for them.

If you are trying to decide between two or more similar shows, you will want to create a spreadsheet so you can compare apples to apples.  Some shows offer a lot more bang for your buck when it comes to PR and marketing help.  Don’t base your decision solely on price.  A less expensive show may not provide the important extras a more expensive show does.  Check for availability of pre-show promotion opportunities (direct mail or electronic), a media list to help with your PR efforts, new product showcase options, and lots of formal networking events.

Also check to see how extensive are their exhibitor listings. Some shows offer only the basics, your name, address, phone number and website. Other shows offer the ability to post video, product information sheets, pictures, extensive summaries, white papers, brochures, catalogues, etc. If these extensive listings are available you can level the playing field a bit more. Often bigger companies are so tied up with procedures they rarely take advantage of these offerings. Possibly a case of too many cooks in the kitchen.

Photo Credit: TheBusyBrain via Compfight cc

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Ghost Town

If you believe our industry statisticians you would believe trade show attendance and exhibiting is on the rise. It seems the story line is, everything is getting back to normal and face-to-face is as important as ever to marketers. But is it that simple?

Sure marketers will tell you that face-to-face is very important. CEOs and Sales Execs will tell you the same thing. But does that translate to trade shows are very important? Trade shows are a face-to-face medium but not all face-to-face mediums are trade shows. If trade shows were in fact such an important medium in the eyes of B2B marketers and the C-suite why…

• is it one of the first departments to get cut when scaling back?
• is it not given more than a couple hours attention in marketing degree programs?
• is there often no significant attempt to measure ROI?

I love trade shows and I believe they have much value…just not the way we are still doing them.

There are a few exceptions but what I’m seeing at association shows are fewer and fewer people going on the show floor. Attendees are more interested in education and CEU credits than in walking the show floor. Many of the attendees sent to the show don’t have buying power…they are the influencers and the users…but don’t have final say in purchase decisions. They are there to learn, not necessarily to shop.

In the case of many shows I’ve been to this past year, everything taking place on the show floor can, for the most part, be found online. If I need to invest in a new piece of equipment I can search for vendors online, compare what they have to offer and reach out to my community for advice. What I do not need to do is spend thousands of dollars to travel across the country for three days to get the same information.

When attendees say they value the face-to-face interaction does that mean they value the show floor? Or do they value the interaction they have with their peers during conference sessions and in the hallways. Hell, they may even value the interaction they have with their vendors but do we need a show floor filled with booths to facilitate that interaction?

Better yet, exhibitor, do you really need a 40 x 60 foot island booth to facilitate that interaction? Couldn’t you do just as well with a 10 x 10 or 10 x 20?

We have this belief that attendees want to touch and see our product lines? But is this a myth or a truth? With less and less attendees packing the exhibit halls does this theory have merit? Enough for companies to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an exhibit program? Even tens of thousands?

Again, I’m not saying do away with trade shows, I’m saying, if your show floor traffic is clearly absent, you need to re-invent your show floor. What do you think?

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I’ve participated on several twitter chats where the topic was something along the lines of how to keep from burning out at a trade show. The usual advice is given, go to bed early, drink plenty of water, eat healthy, stick with your exercise routine, take plenty of breaks, blah blah blah.

While I do agree with much of this advice and more tricks to stay alert I reach a point where I just want to say, “For #expletive sake, suck it up people…it’s just four or five days of your life. Stop the whining, put on your big boy pants and get to work!”

And then last week I came across the show Nor’ Easter Men on the History Channel. Or I should say the show came across me…the clicker was across the room and I was too lazy to get up to change the channel. (Unfortunately due to copyright rules I cannot include a video…just surf around the Internet and I’m sure you’ll find something) This is a reality show about fishing in the Northeast Atlantic that the show says is “one of the harshest fishing climates in the country.”

On the episode I watched several crews were out at sea for about a week smack in the middle of a nor’easter storm. Temperatures dropped below zero, waves were crashing over the deck of the boat and it was pouring down rain…and it was the middle of the night. The crew had not slept many hours and would not be sleeping for many more. They had a job to do and if the fish were plentiful they had to keep at it.  Some of the crew actually seemed to be enjoying themselves.

It immediately made me think of those discussions about how to avoid burnout at a show. When is the last time your booth shift lasted 12-16 hours in below freezing temps with rain pounding down on you? When you start pulling those shifts then we have something to talk about.

But then it made me think. Maybe your booth staffers are not just pampered prima donnas. Maybe they just don’t see anything in it for them? Those fishermen are not going to get paid if they don’t catch fish…and they need to catch a whole lot of fish…tens of thousands of pounds. If they decide to sleep instead of stay up all night in a storm reeling in the nets, it could be the difference of putting food on the table for a week instead of three months.

It makes me wonder. Is the problem not so much with the booth staff as it is in the motivation? If they slack off while at the show they still get the same paycheck at the end of the week anyway right? Sure with some small companies it is make or break. If they don’t have success at the show that staffer might be out of a job in a few months. But what about most of the other exhibitors? How can you make a meaningful connection between the shows success and what the staffer gets out of it. How do you show them what’s in it for them? What is the motivation that will get them to work from morning to night day after day for the length of the show?

Would love to hear your thoughts. Please share them below if you dare.

And…it’s not a clip of the Nor’ Easter Men but I’ll take advantage of any chance to listen to the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald

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(This info applies to both the organizer and the exhibitors)

Trade shows and conferences are gold mines for content marketers…you just have to know where to look and be creative about how you present it to get the most out of those 3-4 days on the road. If you’re smart you can walk away with at least six months worth of content from one event.

Wikipedia defines content (in reference to media) as…

Content is information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in specific contexts. Content may be delivered via any medium such as the Internet, television, and audio CDs, as well as live events such as conferences and stage performances. The word is used to identify and quantify various formats and genres of information as manageable value-adding components of media.

From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales

Personally I prefer the simplicity of the Oxford English Dictionary that defines content as “what is contained.” Anything and everything that is information can be content. Social media provides us with more and more ways to deliver that information than we’ve ever had before. Social media also makes it easy for others to share your content.

Don’t think of content simply as a blog post or white paper. Don’t think sharing is limited to one or two social media platforms. Content is delivered via pictures, tweets, video, and the spoken word. It can be shared via a link in an email, which gets posted on Facebook as well as tweeted. The more forms you create your content in, the better because everyone has a preferred format. I love to read and prefer text to audio and video, while others find they retain information better when it’s delivered via video. So where is all that content and what do you do with it?

You are what you tweet

We’ll start with the smallest source…well smallest in terms of length…but not in terms of value and potential. Twitter is not just a way to share valuable content; your own company blog posts, videos, white papers, news, etc. Each 140 character tweet can be content in its own right. You can provide attendees of the conference or show with valuable information which I covered in an earlier post.

Trade show floor reporting

Your staffers are going to be walking the show floor, so why not have them tweet or live blog information on what they are seeing? Exhibitors…this works for you too! There are plenty of vendors who are not competitors that your customers might find valuable. If you see something new and different, why not share it? Even those not able to attend the show can find this type of information interesting, especially if they consider you or are beginning to consider you a trusted resource.

Session and Speaker Highlights

Session summaries are valuable to people both  attending the show in person and virtually. People often have to miss sessions they want to attend because there’s another session at the same time. Assign someone or a couple of employees to sit in on sessions you think would be most interesting to your customer base. Have them take notes of the sessions’ highlights and key ideas and then post them on your company’s blog, Facebook page, and Google+ account. These don’t have to be lengthy commentaries; simple key thoughts and takeaways are good enough. They can also tweet pertinent pieces of information that are being shared. (I specifically mentioned using Twitter because more and more shows are promoting their Twitter hashtags. But this same information could be posted on a show’s Facebook page and LinkedIn group.)

Pay particular attention to the Q&A at the end of each session. Write down every single question that comes up during the session because if one customer has a question it’s likely a lot more have the same one. Content that answers customers’ questions is the most valuable of all.

Share Through Podcasts

One of my favorite podcasters is Mike McAllen from Grass Shack Events & Media . He interviews people in the events industry, and his podcasts run anywhere from about 10 to 30 minutes long. The vibe that comes out of his podcast interviews is of two people chatting over a cup of coffee or, in some cases over a beer. They are not performing so much as you, the listener, is eavesdropping on a conversation. How does he do it? He asks great questions that hit on the interviewee’s passion and then lets her talk. He often interviews conference organizers about upcoming events or does an event wrap-up once it’s over.

Tell a Story Through Video

I love the potential of video content because it can be entertaining or informative, and it can be both at the same time. People love videos, and they are very sharable via social media. The key to creating a good social media video is an infectious and engaging personality that comes across on camera. Videos are conversational and should feature someone your audience can relate to. If you have a product you want to demonstrate, you should show, not tell.

A great demonstration of show not tell is the Gibbon Slacklines video created at the Outdoor Retailer show in 2010 (shown below). You will notice three distinct things in the video. One is that no one is speaking. It is simply a series of product demonstrations that are more descriptive than any words can be. Second, it features real people performing on the slacklines; some are really good at it and some are not so good. Some people fall off the slackline and that’s okay. That’s going to happen in real life and it’s pretty funny, so they don’t just feature the perfect runs. Third, it’s short, clocking in at less than three minutes long. This is exactly the kind of video that people love to share because it’s fun, entertaining and a bit unusual.

Create a Photo Log of the Event

Photos might not help position your company’s executive team as thought leaders, but they will add a bit of fun for everyone. People who are attending the show can check to see whether they are in any of your photos, and those not at the event can live vicariously through them. Creating a photo log of an event is as simple as posting pictures on a photo sharing site like Snapfish, Flickr, or Photobucket or Facebook. This can be a good tactic if you are doing a booth activity that involves photos because you’ll already have attendees actively sharing them and spreading the word.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas to get started collecting great content at your next trade show or conference. In future posts I’ll delve into these in greater detail outlining some best practices for each format.

Do you have other suggestions on where you can find great content during events? Please share them with us.

If you want to implement some or all of these ideas but don’t have the staff to handle it, contact me…it’s what I do…and it’s probably more affordable than you think it might be.

For more information on how to use social media at your next trade show why not pick up the book “The Social Trade Show” and get lots more great tips.

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If you plan to use social media as part of your trade show strategy whether a show organizer or an exhibitor you’re going to need to include in your plan how that activity will be monitored. I know of a company who put together what sounded like a great social media activity. Attendees would be posting pictured of the company’s mascot all over Vegas and then posting them on Facebook. The most creative picture would win a prize. But it didn’t work.

They failed to include in their plan what exactly was going to happen when the contest was actually in full swing. Attendees were doing some posting on the company Facebook page but no one in the company was playing along. The contest went cold very fast.

When you create your social media plan, you should:

Include a timeline for exactly when each piece will be implemented.

That timeline should include check-in dates. Check-in dates are intervals where you will evaluate how your plan is progressing. Making minor changes and fixes early on can save the entire plan from failing in the end.

Plan for the before, during and after the show.

How will you promote what you are doing in your booth to both the trade show audience and the wider virtual audience? How will you get them interested and involved in what you are doing? How will you instruct people how to participate? If visitors are unfamiliar with the tool or platform you are using, you will need to have personnel available to assist them. But the last thing you want is for your salespeople to spend all their time teaching visitors how to set up their own Twitter accounts and explaining what retweeting is.

Plan who specifically will keep your audience engaged and how he will do that.

It is clear in the mascot photo plan that no one was assigned to keep the online audience engaged or to build excitement. You could assign this task to someone in the office and/or to someone at the show dedicated to this task. At least one booth staffer should have been assigned the role of helping booth visitors with the contest. That way, the sales and support staff could focus on their assignment of promoting the company’s products. .

Have a clear policy in place as to what is ok and what isn’t.

What if someone posts an inappropriate picture on your Facebook wall? Appropriate is not subjective. Not in this case. If you clearly define what kind of photos will be deleted (and post these policies on your Facebook page), those responsible for monitoring the photos will have an easy job. Include in your plan who exactly is responsible for this task and how often the photos will be checked. This not only will help you sell your strategy to management, but will also eliminate the “I thought you were going to do that” discussion.

Define how the program you are running at the trade show will be used in future marketing or messaging.

If it is a one-time promotion, how will you close it out in a way that will make sense to people who stumble across it months later? Remember, social media doesn’t go away. The last thing you want is for people to stumble on a wacky content when doing a Google search on your company and wonder what it’s all about.  On the flip side, you don’t want to let good marketing gems fall through the cracks. Be sure you have a way to collect any customer tweets raving about your product demos to include in future campaigns.

For more information on how to use social media at your next trade show why not pick up the book “The Social Trade Show” and get lots more great tips.

Photo Credit: Ed via Compfight

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This will come as somewhat of a surprise to most of you who are familiar with me as I tend to complain a tiny bit, but last week I attended an event that was flawless. Yes, that’s right, I could find not one teeny tiny little fault with any part of the event starting with purchasing the tickets and ending with, well, it’s not really ended as I’m enjoying reliving the moments through the pics I took and those on the event site.

The event I’m talking about is the Phillies Baseball 101 for Women.  This event is a fundraiser for Phillies Charities and that day we raised over $17,000. The event is held twice a year and tickets sell out in five minutes. My friend Helena Bouchez and I have been trying to get tickets for two years and we finally got them. But in the week leading up to the big moment I was getting a bit nervous. My expectations were so high I thought there would be no way the organizers could meet them.  They did not meet my high expectations, they EXCEEDED them!

Here is what the Phillies did so you can learn from them for your own events.

Communication: Once we registered for the event we were emailed an information packet that explained everything. It included how we would receive our tickets in the mail and when. A basic agenda (not too much detail but enough to get you excited) and information on how to order extra tickets to the game that night for family and friends who might want to join us. It also included several ways to contact the organizers should we have any questions.

A few weeks before the event we received our tickets in the mail with more information.  The letter thanked us for our support. It did not assume anything but even included the date of the event…just in case we forgot. It also told us what documents were included in the packet so we could be sure we had everything.  That was all in just the first paragraph. The packet included basic agenda info (again, to get us excited), a waiver form to sign (yes we would be batting and fielding balls), detailed instructions on where to park, how to access the parking (map included) and where to enter the stadium (complete with landmarks). It included registration starting and ending times and a “9:30 sharp” start time (sets expectations that things will run on time). Also included were recommendations for what to wear to the event and what to bring.

            “Cameras and bags are permitted, but we ask that all items brought into the ballpark are easy to carry with you, as there will be no lockers in which to store valuables. You will have time to drop items off at your car before enjoying the game at 7:05pm.”

What I learned and loved

Think about the most commonly asked questions you get from your attendees and then answer those in your communications before they are even asked.

Don’t make attendees hunt for information on your website…send it to them.

Send it again, closer to the start date, as a reminder and to keep them excited.

Don’t overwhelm them with information that is not relevant…keep it to one page and just enough to get them there without incident.

Schedule:  When we arrived we were given a detailed agenda covering what would take place when and where. Everything was timed down to the minute and our “session descriptions” included each presenter(s)’s name(s).

And stick to the schedule they did…down to the minute. There were 16 different items on the agenda and we were interacting with over 18 different Phillies staffers, coaches and one player, media personalities and an umpire. Now keep in mind this was during baseball season and they had a home game that night. They managed all this on a game day, not an off day.

Again, leading up to the event I had my doubts. This day was pretty full starting at 9am and including the actual game would end after 10:30 pm. I was starting to think to myself, “this is going to be a LONG day.” But it wasn’t! It flew by and before I knew it, it was over.

What I learned and loved

Create a schedule and then stick to it. Make sure you have buy-in from everyone involved and that they understand, there are no excuses for showing up late…even five minutes late.

Include your speaker’s names on the agenda for those who like to share info via social media…this way they have the correct spelling at their finger tips.

Telling Stories:  During the day we got a behind-the-scenes tour and got to meet and talk to the club house (locker room) manager, the head grounds keeper, the broadcasting manager and the Phillies announcer. We got to work out with the Phillies bullpen coach, the pitching coach, the batting coach, the bench coach, the third base coach and the first base coach.

All of these guys were great storytellers and really seemed to love sharing their stories with us. They encouraged us to ask questions but never once did they rush us along because they had better things to do. They all seemed to really enjoy showing us around and answering all our wacky questions as well as the intelligent ones. The coaches were fantastic. I could have spent the entire day listening to Juan Samuel talk about fielding the ball and running the bases. I had not thrown a ball or picked up a bat since little league (let’s just say it was more than 25 years ago…a lot more) but they made me feel somehow not like a dork when it was my turn to pitch, catch and bat the ball.

In the afternoon when we had Q&A sessions with Ken Rosenthal, lead reporter for MLB on FOX; Michael Harris, Director of Marketing & Special Projects, Phillies; Ruben Amaro, Jr., General Manager, Phillies (surprisingly handsome and funny); Dan Iassogna, Major League Umpire; Scott Franzke and Larry Anderson, broadcasters; they took all our questions, answered them honestly and had a lot of fun doing it.

What I learned and loved

Only bring in speakers who are willing to invest in the event.   It’s going to show right away if they are disingenuous and that will leave a bad taste in an attendee’s mouth. Whereas, if they are authentic your attendees will walk away feeling very special.

Above and Beyond:  All day we kept hearing there would be a surprise…we would get to meet a player after lunch. What player they would not say and we kept trying to guess or trick everyone we met along the way into giving it up. Rob Brooks, the broadcasting manager, assured us we would not be disappointed. And disappointed we were not. At 2:30pm Chase Utley walked into the room. You would have thought it was 1964 and the Beatles just walked on the stage. They gave us plenty of time to take some close up shots of Chase and then he sat down for a 20 minute Q&A. This was a rare treat as he’s a more private player. (If you are not a Phillies fan and don’t know who he is, just imagine getting to meet one of the best players on your favorite team of your favorite sport.) It was a very big deal.

But in addition to that the entire day went above and beyond. By 10:00 am I found myself saying to Helena, I could go home now and it would have been worth every penny.  That was before they shuffled us over to the actual bullpen where the actual pitching coach was going to teach us how to pitch and the actual bullpen coach was going to catch for us…we were sitting in the bullpen! I was sitting on the same bench that Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Jonathan Papelbon’s actual butts sit night after night. Yes, it just kept getting better and better and better!

They took us into the clubhouse and we found ourselves staring in the players’ lockers at all their stuff. Pictures of their kids, knick-knacks, 75 extra pairs of shoes…everything…(ok, that was a bit creepy stalker like). Then they took us beyond the doors where no one ever goes except the players into the workout room and trainers’ room. Because yes, we the attendees of this event, were that important.  At least that’s how they just kept making us feel.

What I learned and loved

Don’t treat your attendees like a customer who paid to register for your event. Treat them all like VIPs. Make them feel they are a guest, not just an income source. Give them a couple little extras that really make them feel appreciated or that they just one the lottery.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the little details. Those things that as an event producer we are always trying to get right but it seems there is always something that we miss. These guys didn’t miss any of them. They did not rely on signage but had several staffers wearing the same pink Phillies 101 t-shirt so they’d be easy to spot on hand all day guiding us from one spot to the next. We never once had to ask, where do we go from here?

They let us know right from the start where the restrooms were where we would be spending most our time, but also let us know they would point others out as we moved throughout the stadium…and they remembered to do just that. This was important because they were paying attention to another detail and had lots of water available wherever we went (it was a sunny 80 degree day).

We also got an awesome gift bag. That night at the stadium they were giving out Hunter Pence bobble head dolls. Now the unfortunate thing here is that by then Hunter Pence had been traded and was no longer with the Phillies but what are you going to do…throw away some odd forty thousand bobble head dolls? Now I have no idea if the event producers intended to put Hunter Pence bobble head dolls in our bags and realized that would be a kinda crappy gift and changed ours to a Cliff Lee bobble head or if they intended to give us Lee all along. Because they did everything so perfect throughout the whole thing it would not surprise me to discover they switched out the dolls in our gift bag to make it just that much more perfect. Maybe they knew they pulled off a perfect event and thought a pitcher who threw a perfect game would be more appropriate.

That night as I watched the game I had an even better appreciation for the sport. I’m already a huge base ball fan but I always preferred the defense over the offense. That night I was glued to my seat when the Phillies were at bat concentrating on the intricacies of base running because of what I learned that day.

I just cannot say enough good things about this event.  Great job Phillies and thank you for one of the best experiences of my life!