I had a series of meetings with some old colleagues and clients last week to talk through a business proposition I”m building.  It was fascinating meeting back up with people and exploring ideas and challenging expectations.  My proposal involves exhibitions and helping clients make the most of their attendance.  Interestingly, three of the meetings I’d set up were with people who no longer exhibited.  Was I crazy?  Why was I talking through a proposal around exhibitions with people who didn’t value them?  Essentially, I trust them all as business people with valuable opinions and I needed to question and explore this idea from all angles. It was time well spent although to hear the strong ‘anti-exhibition’ beliefs of one client was a little disconcerting.  However, my equally strong belief that there is a place for exhibitions held sway but led to some more interesting angles.

My colleague's position was essentially that exhibitions are dead - they no longer have a place in today’s social media connected society.  I do agree that people are connecting in ways we’d never have thought possible only 5-10 years ago and that this ability to see/hear people and products across continents has changed the need for one space where everyone gathers.  However, is there any other forum where you can really touch, see, hear, smell and taste?  You can’t do all of that over the internet.

I did hear a story of a company who gave private and personalised viewings of their stand at NAB for those that couldn’t make the actual show.  That’s a great way to add to your audience but I don’t see how it could replace the benefits you get from visiting.  Yes, travel is getting much more expensive (and more complex with all the security issues) but how much more valuable is it to look someone/something in the ‘eye’ and build a relationship?  How much more valuable is it to touch and play with a product the same day that you touch and play with it’s competitor?

I’ll keep revisiting this topic as it’s one that fascinates me and one that I think needs exploration - exhibitions can’t stay as they are, they do need to evolve but I still maintain that there is a need and a value in having and attending them.  

My favourite way of getting around is by train.  I’m on my way to London as I write this and I’m enjoying the peace and quiet (almost) away from the constant buzz of technology.  It’s a great way to take time to think about what I’m working on and how the business is progressing without feeling the need to respond to phones/emails and other distractions.

I have to confess that I do have all my technology with me - I’m still not quite ready to let it all go through my iPad so I do have my laptop with me.  As I can touch type I just can’t get to grips with a non-sensory keyboard.  I can do the odd email or message but I just can’t get as fluent and it ends up frustrating me too much.  My laptop is quite a weight to carry around town but as it contains nearly all the business information I could ever need in a meeting I’m loathe to leave it behind.  That’s one of the problems of technology - once you have it, it’s a real mind shift to live without it.  As I’m also an information hoarder I like the comfort blanket of my laptop - even if I end up with back ache from carrying it around in an inappropriate bag.

I used to use a backpack all the time and would try really hard to put on both straps.  Unfortunately I feel a bit like a schoolgirl wearing it so now only tend to use it onsite and not for other meetings. So, I have my laptop, my phone and my iPad with me.  Why the iPad?  Well, today it’s doubling up as baby security blanket and entertainment console with books and some great brain challenging games on there (as well as the inane games that I just can’t put down).  Tomorrow though I’m going to leave my laptop at home and venture out with the iPad and phone.  Do I really need the iPad?  Probably not - my meetings are onsite and not based on information I already have but if I do get a spare moment it’ll come in handy.

For today, I’m on the train with great space to write some blogs whilst looking at the world whizzing by.  The trolley is coming by so maybe I’ll splash out and have a cuppa.  So much more relaxing and stimulating than driving!

Personally if I was to outsource a service I’d be looking for someone with a passion for what I do or a build up knowledge of my industry.  In particular with PR agencies I’d be looking for someone who could make fast connections into journals and magazines that I didn’t know about or didn’t have a relationship with.  Am I old fashioned in that?  Maybe, maybe not.  Maybe it’s just that I know I can write a story so I’m looking for the other side to PR (in a very simplistic way of course)

The Linkedin discussion was based around online PR  distribution and which one was better.  It seems that you buy services per release or get locked into a contract which allows you to post up articles/releases for this online company to distribute far and wide.  I think far and wide is the key thing here - there seems to be some targeting but the aim is to reach the parts (online and offline) that you cannot.

Some services such as PRWeb allow you to pay per release with a cost from £40 - £200 per release, depending on the level of service and distribution you’re after.  

Vocus who partner with PRWeb give you the tools to manage your own distribution.  They also allow you to build up your media information in the cloud, maintaining your contacts there and of course, allowing for some analytics of your PR work.  This sounds great but the costs can be quite an investment.

Other ones mentioned are Cision, Meltwater Press, Businesswire and Marketwire.  Cision focuses on being able to multi-task within their software allowing you to research articles, relevant journals, build your PR CRM and distribute your content.  Businesswire again boasts the full range of PR services from news distribution to search engine optimisation. Some promote it well but the website was trying to do too many things to give me the quick answers I was after.  I have to say that I lost all interest when I looked at Marketwire’s website and was hit by the phrase “Audience Engagement Cycle”  Definitely not my kind of website, it was trying far too hard to be clever but ended up not actually telling me simply what it did and how it could help. However, as per the Linkedin discussion whatever the service is, it does work for some with some contributors praising it highly.

If you’re going into a contract, do check the small print as this may only allow you one press release per month and not allow you to carry them over to other months.

It’s obviously a complex world that I knew very little about - there are a myriad of tools out there to help you reach the audience you know and the audience you don’t yet know. However I still say that the best way to get to reach a quality audience is to know who you’re targeting and build a relationship with the teams that run relevant editorial.

I’m very lucky to have a good friend who’s a designer - someone who knows me and my company well.  This saved me the tiresome task of finding and briefing a new designer.  Having been through that process in the past I would say it’s crucial to find a company that really understands your brand and what it means to you.  You don’t want to choose someone who will try to impose their ideas on you or just go for the latest fashion.  Brands should be enduring and not changed without considerable reason - something that is in fashion now may look dated very quickly.  

Before I met up with my designer I wrote down a list of reasons for changing the brand along side a list of feelings that I wanted the brand to convey.  I also sat down and itemised all the marketing areas that would need changing. It’s amazing how far reaching your logo is - it’s not just your website, letterhead and business card.  Updating your brand is a bit like redecorating - once you start, it snowballs and soon you find that you’ve painted the whole house.  Hence, changing the brand means I need to redesign business cards, website, social media sites, banner stands, promotional material etc etc. Hence you can take the chance to update all your branding and remove any annoying, inflexible or ineffective areas.  

It is important to uncover who your brand is aimed at, what feelings you want them to have about your brand, how you want to use your logo (ie colour or black and white, embroidery, print, pdf) and how you want to engage with your audience.  There is much that you won’t be able to get across in an initial brief so work closely with your designer and make sure you’ve budgeted for time to make amendments.  Don’t be embarrassed to update your brief or to say that what you’ve been given doesn’t fit your needs.  This is something you have to live with - the designer can walk away and just pat themselves on the back for creating a stunning image but you’ll be working with it for many years to come.

Over the past few months I’ve been working on a new brand for my company.  I’ll post up the results as soon as all the parts are in place.  It’s been an interesting journey and one which threw up many questions and issues that needed resolving before I could move forward. 

I’ve always liked the branding that Nutmeg currently has.  One issue was always how to combine the name with what we do without making everyone think we were event caterers.  In fact when we were designing a website many years ago we specifically briefed the agency not to include food on the site.  Hence it was a little surprising when we saw their first design with a slice of black forest gateau on the home page.  Isn’t it amazing how some people can completely ignore key elements of a brief?  Needless to say, we didn’t go forward with that company!

The grated nutmeg that makes up the word Nutmeg was a lovely idea, although it eventually had to be created with BBQ spice and not Nutmeg to get a good look.  I like it’s uniqueness but it’s always been a bit of  a pain when it came to printing the logo.  We ended up having a simple text format for clothing and other more complex printing jobs which did dilute the brand a little.  I really like the Nutmeg cut in half - the red stands out really well and it’s a lovely image to use for more subtle branding.  However, I wasn’t every completely happy that it was another unique element and not part of the logo.

As the company and our offering has changed significantly in the past 8 years I felt that it was time to refresh the look.  This was not just to reflect the current age but also to give us some new momentum for the brand. I will say this isn’t something to be taken on lightly.  Not only is there financial investment needed in change but also it takes time to work out what your brand means now and how that is reflected.  Having said that - taking time out to consider and really think about your brand is never wasted time.

My clients value the service I provide and in general sign back up year after year.  It’s a great endorsement that I’ve been working for some of them for 14 years and there are only 3% of clients who only use us for one event.  I love building relationships with clients as I really feel that you get better value the more we know about the company, it’s brand and it’s internal style.  By learning about these things we can tweak the services, save even more time preparing designs and documentation and advise on new areas that might expand their offering.

At Nutmeg, we’re specialists in business to business events and exhibitions.  This knowledge enables us to support and advise clients to the best of our ability.  Hence we bring on board other partners as and when we need them so that we can stay focused on the jobs we do really well.  Hence, I’m always a little disappointed when I see Event Agencies that profess to do everything - to my mind they’re the jack of all trades.  They may do a good job and cover off all the areas you require but are they really fine tuned to your event needs?  

Over the years, I’ve seen PR agencies, stand designers, venue finders and marketing agencies all take on event and exhibition management.  Some events have been fantastic but I know that others could really be enhanced by working with some event specialists.  After all, I’m not a PR specialist and my business is not driven in the same way so why should I start to do that?  I was trained in marketing and worked in the field for years, so in theory I could turn my hand to most elements and do a fair job but it’s not my niche, it’s not the job that I do standing on my head.

For example, venue finders are great for, guess what, finding venues.  They have knowledge of hotels and conference centres that surpasses my own - I’m not spending day in day out talking to hotels and researching new spaces.  Hence, I use them myself for that extra expertise.  What I do though is go through their results and make sure that they fit the requirements of my clients.  I can brief them all I like but I’ll know when going through the results, if they’ve found a gem or if they’ve struggled to find any venues that fit the last minute, tight deadlines of the client and then I’ll be able to evaluate if the compromise is worth it.

It’s by combining your specialists that you get the best services.  You don’t compromise on your product so don’t compromise on your suppliers.

I’ve been reviewing my marketing plan recently and realise that nearly all my marketing tactics involve social media.  It really did surprise me as I hadn’t realise that I’d become so involved in it.  I also took stock of the fact that there is so much I have to learn.  I’m a big fan of continued learning - I love listening to podcasts and audio books.  Even the most insignificant podcast on marketing can give you one nugget to work on and develop your business.

However, I now have a backlog of social media to learn.  I’m looking forward to it but am not sure how to balance my time.  After all, this is for the long haul - for the future and has to be done but equally it’s not bringing me immediate reward so how do I justify the time it takes?  One colleague suggested allocating one day a week to immerse myself in each topic and get on top of it.  Another suggests breaking down each working day and spending an hour a day on the topic.  I’ll try both over the next few weeks and see which works best for me.

In the meantime, my list of topics is growing and I’m looking online for webinars, You Tube clips, support documents and general discussions.  By giving myself a variety of information formats I’m sure I’ll pick up enough tips to get going and develop a good Social Media strategy.  So, if you’ve got any good sites/info on the following do let me know.  My primary subjects, for now are:

Google+: everyone is saying you have to be there and the segmentation is really useful but I’ve not seen any evidence of it’s growth and impact.

Pinterest: I’ve got my account and can see how this can be useful to event discussions but I need to spend some time working in and around it to really get going.

Hootsuite: As above, I’ve got my account and done the basic set up but I really need to set up a Twitter feed schedule and learn how to make the most of this great looking tool.

Mailchimp:  the time for Newsletters has come, I have the database I have some interesting content but I need to get them merged with Mailchimp. 

Wordpress:  I’m fascinated by this.  I use it for my personal and business blogs but would like to become more of a power user so I can make the sites more personalised.

Lots to learn about - I’m looking forward to it. Now where is that Time-turner...

I’m just preparing a presentation for a local group of businesses.  The nub of the presentation is about exhibiting - so far, so good, it’s my specialist subject afterall.  The showman in me has no problem standing in front of the audience and talking about things I’m passionate about.  The question is - how to I present a topic on exhibiting to companies who probably aren’t considering exhibiting?

I could regale them with tales of ghastly, ridiculously expensive designs that just didn’t work or I could take them through the proven benefits of exhibiting (if done correctly!).  Great topics but how I can get to the heart of this and engage my, largely non-exhibiting, audience.  Furthermore I’d really like them to go out and have a go at exhibiting - a table top display is all you need to present your company at a local event.  The same principles apply whether you’re designing a presence at a local exhibition or if you’re going to an international tradeshow.

Those of you who read my blog on Mindmaps may be amused that despite my dislike of them I actually found it useful in this case!  I shan’t regale you with the process but suffice to say that I did feel that it gave me the freedom to explore ideas and then bring them into some order.

Three areas came out at the end of this, subjects that I think appeal to anyone in business.  So in May come on down to Bournemouth and watch me present on the importance of exhibitions to all businesses, how to set objectives to monitor your ROI on your events and how to use your exhibition presence to promote your brand and your products effectively.

Two things that I do regularly get bad press - networking and exhibiting.  People complain about them both, saying that they’re a waste of time, they can be expensive and not worth the effort.  I agree - they can be.  If you go into them with a negative attitude it’s self-fulfilling.

Let’s take networking.  You’re basically walking into a room full of people, many of whom you don’t know, some of whom you really wouldn’t want to know and some who frankly look a little scary. What’s the point?  No, really, what’s the point?  What did you plan to do at the meeting?  If you say that you just like a chat over coffee I’m really disappointed.  If you say you want immediate sales I’m still disappointed.  I know, I’m hard to please but networking is expensive as it takes key people out of the business for hours at a time so you need to have a plan.  Spending time looking in on your job or your business is useful but networking may not be the best place to do that.  So what do you want?  Make a list of what you expect to achieve and set out to realise those objectives.  Don’t forget that a really important aspect of networking is to build relationships for future objectives - you never know who might know someone who can help you in the future.

What happens if you now remove references to networking and replace them with exhibiting.  I think they’re similar - exhibitions can be big, scary and expensive.  If you go to an exhibition without a plan it’s just a waste of time and money.  I often think that people spend less time looking at exhibiting in it’s entirety than they do with other marketing mediums. Would you send out a press release on plain paper or with typos?  Would you place an ad and not think about what your message is and how best to get it over?  So many people seem to exhibit without those basic considerations.  They  use paper posters stuck on a wall at the last minute with old Blutak. They have a meeting area which is covered with equipment and trailing cables.  Why do it?  What does it say about your brand and the way you care about your company?

Two really important questions to ask yourself before you network or exhibit:

What do I want to get out of this activity?

How do I make this activity fit into my marketing plan?

Any experienced event professional will have a magic box of goodies to pull out for any situation. Maybe I was a magpie in a previous life but I never like to be short of a piece of stationery or a tool.  This can get a bit ridiculous as my stationery boxes got larger and larger as I virtually included the kitchen sink.  Actually that was a dream I had.  I always wanted a virtual kitchen with me -something which had a kettle, tea/coffee, small fridge and all the stationery/tools I could ever need.  However, with the airlines charging so much for luggage I have to be careful what I take. So the mobile printer is out, as is the bundle of USB, Firewire, Ethernet and other cables and PSUs.

Each venue is different on what you can do, what you can attach to the walls but this list should get you started.

Pre-Event

• • Basic toolkit or at the least a Multi-tool with knife, screwdrivers etc.
• • Knife/scissors
• • Blutak and/or removable tape
• • Cycling gloves (handy for keeping your hands protected whilst moving boxes)
• • Sticky stuff remover
• • Clear Nail Polish (great for emergency mends on tights or worktops!)
• • Glass cleaner & cloth
• • Furrniture cleaner & cloth

• At the Event
• • Pens
• • Pencils
• • Sticky notes
• • Letterhead & Logos (soft copy is fine)
• • Sellotape
• • Stapler
• • Spare staples
• • Notebook (for clipping business cards to)
• • Sharpies (for marking up bottles of water/cups and of course for packing up)
• • Ruler
• • Handwipes (good for hands but also good on leather furniture)
• • Headache tablets (do not hand these out to staff as you could break the law)
• • Tissues
• • Mints (let’s keep that breathe fresh)
• 
  
• Post-event
• • Tape and tape gun for packing up
• • Pre-printed labels with your return address and space for box numbers (1 of x)