This infographic is packed full of cool tips and tricks for better conference videos and video editing.

The graphic itself was produced by the fine folks at TechSmith where they not only have the really cool image, they have backed it up with a nice long post about video editing. I hope that all of a sudden, their old post is getting some clicks from Plannerwire peeps because isn’t that what makes the interwebs so special!

This is an oldie that seems to be making its way back around the internet, kinda like Haley’s Comet, platform shoes, Capri pants, and disco…but the information is useful not only for meeting and event planners but for our attendees as well. We all know that there is nothing worse than going to restaurant, a party, or another part of the world and being “that guy”. You know, the one that makes an entire room giggle or gasp.

This mobile phone etiquette infographic was found on Mighty Call

I love Gmail. If you did not know, Gmail is a little email client from a small California company called Google. You may have heard of them….. they do some techie type stuff with that internet thing that is going around….perhaps the interwebs will catch on with meeting planners…but until then, let me tell you a little more about this Gmail thingy.

Gmail is the best way for meeting planners to receive, keep, and organize email.

Gmail is best. No kidding. No screwing around.

They are the best for a number of reasons, but for me, it is because they have made it easy to set up using your own domain (you@yourdomain.com), they have a nice web based interface rather than a desktop client like Outlook, and they have impressive apps for both iOS and Android.

The app is so good that I have no use for the built in email app on my iPhone… I took it and buried it in that folder where I store all of the “stupid apps” that Apple won’t let me delete… you know…”Reminders”, “Stocks”, and “Notes”… ugg…. Anyway… let’s get on to some shortcuts.

Simple shortcuts will save you a ton of time. Time is something that meeting people need more of…..

by AleksTsatskin.

From Visually.

As discussed in my last post, the event planning industry is going through some real tough times. To keep you and your business visible, you should be considering content curation as a high priority activity. If you read part one then I’m sure you understand the why by now, so lets look at the how.

There are quite a few ways to collect blog posts and social media shares. How you do it depends on where you are looking. All the tools we will be looking are free, however one or two require work around’s. Most social networks offer ways of ‘favouriting’ or ‘saving’ a post or share. Some methods are obvious, some are not…

Saving Content On Twitter

The Twitter website has a different method to bookmarking than the app. One the website, click the icon as shown in the following image. One the app, click the share button and select ‘bookmark’

Tweetdeck and Hootsuit do not offer the same kind of feature. The work around is to create a column or stream of favourites/likes.

Curating on Instagram

You can bookmark posts that you like by tapping/clicking the bookmark icon. On the website, you can visit your profile and select to view all the posts you’ve saved. On the app, visit your profile and tap the menu top right and select ‘saved’

Bookmarking on Facebook

Look to the top right of each post, there are three dots. Click and there’s an option to save the post for later. To see your collection, look to the right under ‘explore’. If ‘Saved’ isn’t there, click ‘see more’.

Finding content on blogs & websites

The best way to find posts that will interest you, and your readers, is to collect together as many industry relevant websites as you can in an ‘Aggregator’ – a program or service that collects information in to one place (see this Wikipedia definition ).

These aggregators use a feature that most blogs have – an RSS feed. Sadly, it is becoming overlooked and many blog owners are unaware of how import it can be. It is basically a specially formatted index of your most recent posts in a machine readable format.

An RSS aggregator uses these RSS feeds to find new posts from each site. They are then displayed in one one place. There are plenty of aggregators to choose from, however there are certain features you need to look for. These important features include, organising your feed categories, saving articles, and adding tags to them.

• Feedly
• Content Studio
• FeedReader
• FlowReader
• InoReader

For more about aggregators, including reviews and various ‘paid-for’ options, check out this post – The 15 Best RSS Feed Reader And News Aggregation Apps

If you would like an easier way to find posts by event planning professionals, then check out my own site – Event Planner News. A great way to find posts to mix in to your content curation efforts.

When do I have the time to curate content?

The advantage of social media apps is that when ever you have some spare time, your can use your smartphone to locate and save interesting and related content. Later, when it comes to writing your own post, you can use the apps and their websites to start collating and reviewing. Of course this becomes easier when you use an aggregator as the posts from the blogs you are interested in are presented in one place. This makes it as simple as scrolling down the list and seeing what catches your eye.

This solves my content problem now, but what about later?

Business bloggers have been using curated content for a long time, it’s a proven strategy to demonstrate authority and leadership. In fact, content curation has become a business model in it’s own right. When the current crisis is over, there is no reason why you should stop. In fact, it may take the stress off you when it comes to creating new posts for your business blog.

Going forward

There are plenty of tools for you to use to aid you with discovery and for keeping well organised. Check out my suggestions and see which ones help you the most. Develop a routine that works for you. If you find an app or service that fits with the way you work, then let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your stories of how curated content has worked for you.

About the author

This guest post was written by Bob Toovey (Twitter – @bobtoovey), founder of Event Planner News (Twitter – @eventplannernws).

The event planning industry is going through some real tough times right now. Your greatest source of content for you blog, the inside stories that your readers love, is now drying up. This means that you are not posting as often as you used to do. You need a new source of content that’s relevant and interesting for your loyal readers. With the current crisis, that’s not easy to do. This is where content curation comes in.

The art of content curation

Content curation is more than collecting industry news together and posting. Just like a museum curator, it’s all about putting relevant information in to context. Explaining view points and expanding on what’s being discussed.

There are many sources of content and don’t be shy in visiting other event planner websites. Take a look at their posts and find one that catches your eye. Form an opinion, positive or negative, and write about it. You could even post about what other event planners are discussing on social media, curating the conversations with your own slant on things.

I’ve noticed that many professional event organizers are sharing posts about how the industry is weathering the storm. They are sharing posts from industry news sites with little or no comment . If other blogs in the event organizer space are doing the same, there’s nothing to make them stand out.  Remember, despite the current crisis, you still want to maintain a high level of return visitors. You don’t want them forgetting about you, do you?

Content curation, more than just filling your blog

This post from WP RSS Aggregator sums up nicely the various benefits…

• An Instant Source of Quality Content – instead of needing to build up your own original content, curating content instantly provides you with a wealth of quality content to attract an audience.
• Become an Authority in Your Niche – by curating content that’s relevant to your audience, you position yourself as an authority and thought leader in your niche.
• Share Content That’s Unrelated to Your Brand – instead of only sharing sales-focused content, curating content helps you provide value beyond your own  products/services/offerings.
• Generate More Backlinks to Your Site – by becoming an authority, you’ll start generating more backlinks from both readers sharing your content with others and your curation sources publicizing the fact that you thought them valuable enough to curate.
• Build a Relationship With Other Sites in Your Niche (Your Content Sources) – by creating a mutually beneficial relationship with other sites in your niche, you can expand into other collaborations, like guest posts or business opportunities.
• Grow Your Social Media Following – by becoming an authority, you’ll boost your social media following which helps you promote your own original content or other offers. In turn, this drives more eyeballs and backlinks to that content.
• Generate Ideas for Your Own Original Content – by analyzing how different pieces of curated content perform, you can better understand what types of original content you should focus on.

How often should you share curated posts?

This post by HootSuite on social media sharing mainly discusses social media, but in my view also applies to sharing curated content. The article says you should aim for a ‘rule of thirds’…

• A third on personal brand promotion
• A third of curated content
• A third about the conversations happening on social media

Of course, you need to adjust to find out what works for you. However, in the current situation where you are finding it difficult to write about your own activities, mixing in more curated content is going to be just fine. Experiment and see what works for you.

To briefly summarize the importance of content curation…

• Keeps your blog alive while the current crisis continues
• Allows you to demonstrate your understanding and leadership
• Great for SEO, especially if other event planner blogs are going quiet
• Create and cement new relationships with others in the industry
• Show your current and future clients that you are still out there working hard

In my next post on content curation, I will discuss how to actually go about collecting content and take a look at the many FREE tools you can use.

About the author

This guest post was written by Bob Toovey (Twitter – @bobtoovey), founder of Event Planner News (Twitter – @eventplannernws).

I love the positive messages I see on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. They lift me up on days when this whole quarantine thing is getting to be a drag and it feels like I am stuck on the spin cycle of Groundhog Day over and over and over.

I am also lucky to be working with my peeps at i3 Events, with “Remote, Reliable, Responsible” a meeting planning consortium, with Tess on The EventTech Pull Up, and also with the team at Dahlia+…. The days are super-busy and they are full of actual work. BUT… It is coming. There is going to be a reckoning that I am not sure we will be ready to deal with in the coming months.

You see and hear it in dribs and drabs. I call a hotel to talk about an event in 2021 and the convention services person has been furloughed so I talk to the sales person. The next week the sales person is gone and then I am on to the director. The following week the director is gone and I am talking to a VP and we all know that VPs really don’t do boots on the ground crap so everything has come to a halt. I am on my third person up the chain at our General Services contractor and we all have heard that EventBrite laid off half their staff and Attendify got rid of most. Meeting departments at companies are getting crushed and it goes on and on and on and on. But it is going to get worse. It is going to be a bloodbath unlike anything we have ever seen and soon the uplifting messages and Zoom Happy Hours are not going to be enough.

Uplifting messages don’t put food on the table. Zoom happy hours don’t help you pay for your health insurance. Positive vibes don’t put shoes on your kid when they finally have to go back to school.

What are we going to do when the world reopens because it won’t be the world we left. What are WE going to do when our friends and colleagues leave the industry because there is nothing left but a smoking crater where we all used to work, live, and laugh. Some of us are going to be OK. Some of us are masters of reinvention, some of us can roll with the punches, and some of us just “keep on keeping on” because it is what we do.

Others aren’t so lucky. Others can’t do what many of us can. They are going to hurt. They are going to be crushed under this thing because it is heavy. Heavier than anything that has every come before. This is not 2008. This thing is only in its infancy and I see our industry associations and Facebook groups celebrating our togetherness, our resolve, and our spirit. I see polls that talk about how we are worried, we are happy, we are united, but damn it, it will all be OK.

Yeah, about that. I don’t think so. Good luck with that. This is going to be bad. In fact, it is going to pass right by bad and exit somewhere down around freaking awful at a hundred miles an hour with no brakes and no power-steering and we, as an industry, are doing nothing to get ready for it, so when we crash, some of us are going to go through the windshield.

What I don’t see and what we need are the realists. The people speaking truth to the masses. You know, the ones letting us know that corporations are going to use this tragedy to close every hotel, every office, and every outpost that is under-performing, not just the ones in the red, and that companies are going to gut their employee rosters to the bare minimum making everyone do more with less and work longer hours so they can squeak out every last inch of shareholder value and crappy profits from a year of failures.

Someone needs to tell everyone that the small businesses, you know, those plucky little third party planning companies that produce some of the coolest events on the planet are going to be decimated. Someone needs to yell from the rooftop that the small tech companies that make sure that the big publicly traded behemoths like Cvent stay on their toes, are going to get bought up by the big dogs or they might just fade away. And that is just what I can come up with in a minute… Give me an hour and you can add the caterers, the linen companies, the A/V production houses…

Someone needs to be honest and tell us that much of the industry is going to die in the ICU of recessions and depressions and that the full total may never be counted. Innovation is going to die. People are going to wither. An industry is going to fade. I just hope we can find the leaders that will help us all face that fact sooner, rather than later, so we can try and land the plane before the last engine gives out.

When the going gets tough, the tough start a freakin podcast, at least that’s how it works in this brave new world of lock-downs and social distancing. Tess Vismale and I have been talking about starting something like this for years, it just took this global crisis for us to get up off of our overworked butts and make it happen.

The Event Tech Pull Up

The Event Tech Pull Up is a ton of fun, at least it is for us. We got news, tips, tricks, and some of the most amazing guests you have ever done seen! Just this week we talk all about Zoom’s security failures, what Hio is doing with their event networking platform, we speak to Amani Roberts about how to use old conference sessions as content for a podcast, and Keatron Evans, an Actual Cybersecurity expert, chats about keeping your member’s and attendee’s data secure.

PHEW, I am tired, but we are plowing ahead full steam as there is no rest for the wicked as they say! This week we have plans to chat with Mike McAllen about starting your very own conference podcast and Kelley Bowers Wyant and Anati Zubia will swing by to chat about Content Marketing for your organization.

Check out the Latest

To get the latest episodes, head over to the homepage and you can select from like a billion different platforms including Spotify and Google Podcasts!

Planning conventions can be a whirlwind of choosing keynote speakers, venues, session topics, and vendors. But if you neglect to also spend a few minutes examining your special events insurance needs, you may be setting you and your organization up for legal trouble. 

Whether you need special events insurance or not depends on a number of things — not the least of which include how you are planning the event, where it is going to be held, how many people are going to be there, and what types of things you will be doing.

At a typical technology conference held at a convention hotel, a lot can go wrong — from guests falling and injuring themselves, to vendors damaging the venue. And if you are planning to include interactive events and/or alcohol, you had better be thinking insurance.

Think of your insurance as layers of protection. Start by looking at your existing insurance policies to see what is (and is not covered.) Your general business liability insurance may offer sufficient coverage for some small in-house events, but depending on the details of your event, your coverage needs start to add up fast.

The simplest way to understand special events insurance is that it is liability coverage that protects you while you are hosting a short-term event.

Policies differ, but some common coverages include bodily injury, property damage to the venue, medical expenses that might arise during the event, and a whole host of other coverages that can be tailored to fit your particular event.

Some policies have specific limitations and requirements, such as attendance caps, requirements that the event be held on concurrent days, or that the event be held at a location that you do not own.

Your agent can help sort out where your existing policies are sufficient and when it is time to start looking for supplemental coverage.

Basic special events insurance could cost as little as a $100, while events with more risk may cost thousands more.

Most venues will require proof of proper coverage when it comes time to sign the contract, and many require that they be added to your policy as a named insured.

In many cases, companies and organizations turn to professional convention planners. In those cases, the planners often already have special events insurance policies that will cover you, and being included on their policy can be written into your contract, said Kerri McDonald with R.V. Nuccio & Associates Insurance Brokers. So, if you are hiring a planning company, make sure to ask about the coverage they are already offering.

In addition to your coverage, it is typical to require that each of your vendors also carry their own liability coverage. In some cases, even the presenters need coverage – such as if their session includes an interactive component, such as yoga, where the participants risk injuring themselves.

There is always a risk of a lawsuit for anyone who has a legal responsibility in an event. As the event host, you can be sued by anyone as a result of their being there, said Mark Beck, senior vice president of K&K Insurance Group, Inc. in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Understanding from the beginning that putting on a convention involves significant risk can help you make an insurance plan that will have you, and your event, properly covered.

Guest Post by Michael Giusti, a senior writer at InsuranceQuotes.com. He has worked as a journalist for more than 20 years, including as a reporter at a daily newspaper in Florida, as an editor at a regional business journal, and as a writer for national and international publications. He specializes in business, technology, finance, insurance, automotive and industry-focused writing.

There are a lot of platforms in the event and conference management space. Most are massive in both scale and price putting them out of reach for most small and medium sized associations which is why we have always had a soft spot for PlanningPod, an event management platform with loads of tools, an honest price point, and a sleek design that works every bit as well as their highfalutin cousins .

At i3 Events, we have been using PlanningPod since 2015 for many of our clients. From budgeting, reports, and task management to attendee registration, check-in, floor plans, and everything in between, they have you covered… what what you need without the soul crushing cost and long term contracts that the other platforms suck you into.

Welcome to the EventTech 12 PlanningPod Edition

These are 12 questions that we asked Jeff Kear, Co-Founder at Planning Pod, the ultimate online hub for managing events… We hope that this gives you a little insight into their platform and how it can make planning and producing amazing events just a little bit easier!

Tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today.

Even though I am co-founder of an event tech company, my journey started with two degrees in English (BA and MA) and over a decade in marketing and advertising, so my path to being a tech entrepreneur is not exactly a traditional one. In 2001, I started an ad agency with my current business partner Steve, and after about a decade building lots of websites, web applications and online marketing campaigns for our clients, we wanted to try our hand at building an online application ourselves. So we talked with quite a few of our marketing peers and many of them told us that the events industry could use some better technology to streamline processes and create timesaving workflows. That’s where we got the initial idea for Planning Pod, but it has taken dozens of surveys, hundreds of interviews, way too many workhours to count, dozens of iterations and three true “piviots” to get to where we are today. Despite what you might hear, there’s no such thing as an overnight success when it comes to tech startups. The journey is full of hard work, trial-and-error and headslap moments, but it’s also been the biggest learning experience of my life … wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Not all planners are familiar with Event Management Software and it often gets lumped together with Event Registration solutions. What is Event Management Software and why is it important to #eventprofs.

The term “event management software” has been applied rather loosely (and often incorrectly) to all kinds of software applications that enable event managers and producers to better track event details and streamline processes.

For example, in recent years, the term “event management software” has been applied to event registration software, but really tools that collect registrations, sell tickets, manage exhibitors and check in attendees at the door tackle only a portion of what goes into planning an event.

With that said, event management software is really any software application that takes project management practices and processes and applies them to planning and producing events of any kind. Generally, event management systems offer tools for managing tasks, calendars, timelines/schedules, checklists, files, internal communications, event design/layout, attendees and other back-end details as well as for facilitating collaboration among team members, vendors, contractors, volunteers and anyone else involved in producing the event.

What is the number one thing that you would tell any event organizer about using Event Management Software.

I would say that you should start your search for event management tools by first writing down the 5-10 tasks that you want the software to help you accomplish. There’s a whole product development framework called “Jobs To Be Done” that basically states that the best products and organizations take into account the jobs that their target audience members want to accomplish with said product/service (we have built our platform based on this approach).

By coming up with your own list of the “jobs” and tasks you want the software to help you accomplish, you can begin your search based on real-world challenges or problems you are trying to solve and not start with sorting through all the features sets and bells-and-whistles offered by software companies. Simply put, you need to find a tool that aligns with your own specific set of needs, and so you should start your search with your needs first.

What is the number one mistake that organizations make when first using PlanningPod.

Failure to prepare the entire organization to adopt our software is the biggest mistake we see new customers make. To be honest, there is no perfect time to switch software and/or to get acclimated to a new technology. It takes time, and most event professionals don’t have a lot of time to spare, which we totally understand.

However, the best way to sabotage your best intentions of streamlining your event management processes is to not devote time to get your internal users up to speed on how your organization will be using our software. We offer online training and lots of video tutorials and help articles so users can gain a detailed understanding of every tool in our application, but we also encourage our new users to have internal training and Q&A sessions with their staff regarding our software. We have found that even a couple hours of internal training will go a long ways to ensuring that your team will make the most of the new technology you have introduced to them.

What is one thing you wish every new client knew before they sign up?

Getting the most out of any piece of software requires a level of flexibility for both the software and the user. Our software has lots of customization and configuration options so you can set up certain things that align with how you manage events. However, most software (including ours) is built with a fairly fixed layout/navigation and workflow/dataflow structure that dictates that users adapt to some extent to the structure of the application.

One thing we have discovered about the events industry is that there are as many ways and processes for managing events as there are professionals working in the industry. Because of this, it helps if you approach any event management software with an open mind and a flexible demeanor so you can adapt to the technology when necessary in order to get the most out of it.

Take us through your process of working with a new client.

Our process starts with the first sales phone call where we identify the underlying needs of the client and what they want to accomplish with a platform like ours. This way we can know early on whether our system would be the right fit for their needs and point them in the right direction (even if it happens not to be our platform).

This needs set flows through their free trial where we provide the prospect with a live demo and lots of help resources to educate them on the tools and workflows in our app that address their needs. For larger prospects, this may include a few live demos to different teams and many discussions with decision makers on topics like integrations with other applications, pricing and potential customizations.

Once they are signed up, based on the package they purchase, they start the onboarding process (which usually takes a few weeks to a month) where we provide online training to their users and assist them with things like importing key data into their account, integrating their calendars and email, etc.

After that, we provide them with ongoing email and live chat support and will also conduct additional training sessions, if necessary.

In your mind, what is your greatest PlanningPod success story?

When we launched Planning Pod in 2013, we first envisioned it as mainly an event project management tool for solo event planners. But as we received more and more feedback and inquiries, we realized that event professionals from corporations, non-profits and venues were finding our tools useful for their operations, too. And the application has evolved as we have addressed the needs of these additional users.

Three years ago, we had an owner of an event venue in Florida sign up. At the time he was just getting started with his business and wasn’t very familiar with using any software on a daily basis. As such, his learning curve was higher than for most of our new customers, and it just took him more time to implement our tools, which I knew he found frustrating.

Fast forward to last month, when he called me to let me know his first venue has been such a success that he is opening another nearby and that he wanted to thank us for helping his business flourish and for helping him learn how to apply technology to his business processes so he could grow faster. I could hear the happiness in his voice, and he is an example of why I love what I do, because if we can do that for him and hundreds of other businesses like his, I can go to sleep every night with a smile on my face.

What’s the biggest challenge that PlanningPod is still trying to solve?

We continue to get requests for new tools that are tangentially related to event or venue management, and a big challenge for us is to precisely know when a tool will really benefit our core audience or when it will just create bloat in our software. The best software apps find a perfect balance between stated purpose, feature set and easy-of-use, and we will continue to hone in on this balance as we build out new features or improve existing ones. But it’s just really hard to tell someone “no” when they ask for something that will help them, even if I know that it won’t benefit most of our other users. Warren Buffet once said that the secret to his success is his ability to say “no” to almost everything because it allows you to focus all your time and effort on the few things that matter to you and to the success of your business. I need to remind myself of that frequently, despite the fact I still hate saying no.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

A long time ago when I was running into challenges in my first business (an ad agency), a colleague asked me, “So, do you know the secret to being in business 10 years?” I had no idea and hungrily hung on his reply, which was, “Being in business 9 years.”

At first this seemed like a smartass answer, but the more I thought about it, what he was telling me is that there is no one magic bullet to running a successful business and that each week, month and year is different. You need to adapt to the ever-changing needs of your marketplace and your customers, and that flexibility and diligence is what will carry you forward.

What is your favorite productivity app?

I read tons of online articles about marketing, sales, software development, startups and other business topics, and Pocket (https://getpocket.com/) lets me save articles and videos on any device and browser and keep them organized. Huge time-saver.

What is your favorite “waiting for a train” app?

When I have “downtime”, I listen to all kinds of music (Tidal is my go-to app for this, especially since it has high-res file streaming), watch soccer (fuboTV app is perfect for this) and catch up on world news (New York Times app).

Want to Learn More about PlanningPod?

Check them out at PlanningPod.com or use the link in the tweet below to sign up!

Did you know Planning Pod saves our users an average of 62 hours per month? Try it free today!#worksmarter #eventmanagement #venuemanagementhttps://t.co/RRVxMBYCtB pic.twitter.com/Z4qSJcDDRH

— Planning Pod (@planpod) July 30, 2019

I have known the online version of Rachel Stephan for a long time. We have interacted on the Twitters and the Facewalls since like forever, but, we had never had a chance to meet in actual “real world” but that all changed at the MPI World Education Congress in Toronto this past June… In fact, it went down just like this…

Fun morning with these guys! @StephanRachel meets @PlannerWire FOR THE FIRST TIME?? and @tessvis in da house! #eventprofshoutout #womenineventtech #MPI #WEC pic.twitter.com/4P5e6CS4NE

— DAHLIA+ Agency (@DahliaElGazzar) June 15, 2019

Boom. Blown away… Rachel is a real deal, ass-kickin, event marketer, of the first order… and she and her company have super-powers when it comes to a specific type of marketing know as “Influencer Marketing” which once you get past the fancy name is just a niche of marketing that focuses on targeting your industry leaders, a.k.a. influencers, to drive your event’s message and provide awareness to other folks in your industry. Message and awareness puts butts in seats.

Sounds simple enough but it is harder than it seems which is why you are going to want to read on through the latest EventTech 12 and then visit snöball so you can learn how to get your speakers, sponsors, and yes, your attendees helping to spread the word about your amazing conference or event.

Welcome to the EventTech 12 snöball Edition

These are 12 questions that we asked Rachael Stephan, snöballer-in-chief at snöball, event influencer marketing. We hope that this gives you a little insight into influencer marketing and the company that can help your conference or event leverage this amazing marketing channel.

Tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today.

I’m one part creative, one part entrepreneur, a 4-time mom (sensov/ event marketing, Charlie, snöball event influencer marketing, and Grayson) and an event industry speaker. I help meeting planners grow their event attendance with results-driven event marketing strategies.

My story started in Lebanon where I was born and where I got my Master’s in Advertising before immigrating to Canada in pursuit of higher education to complement my degree. Born into an entrepreneurial family, I knew that one day I’d start a business of my own, which I finally did in 2001. I launched my event marketing agency, sensov/ event marketing, after working for five years at a publishing house that focused on events as a core business. That was my introduction to the fascinating world of events.

My 18-year background in the events industry has given me a sensov/ worldliness. I am an ideas person, a creative gal, a challenger of the status quo! Naturally, I felt the need to keep pushing the envelope and to create a legacy in our event industry, so I got a snöball rolling. Snöball is a cloud software that mobilizes event stakeholders to amplify an event’s reach and bottom line. In less than a year, snöball was named a top-5 finalist at the 2017 IMEX Pitch as well as an IBTM World 2017 Tech Watch Award finalist and won the IBTM Best use of PR Award. Additionally, snöball was shortlisted at the 2018 Event Tech Live Awards.

We have always found that clients have a good understanding on content, social, and traditional marketing but have no idea how influencer marketing works. What is influencer marketing and why is it important to #eventprofs.

Influencer marketing is a form of digital marketing that focuses on targeting key people and organizations to drive brand messaging and awareness among a specific market of consumers.

A few of the biggest pain points for event planners include low ticket sales or registrations, a lack of participant engagement, and a need to increase the bottom line.

Recognizing that word-of-mouth is 3X more effective than traditional advertising, snöball helps event planners put their event’s influencers at the heart of their event marketing campaigns by arming their speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees with their own personalized digital marketing toolkit that drives registration, conversions, and conversations.

What is the number one thing that you would tell any event organizer about using influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a tangible solution to work smarter, not harder. Most event organizers are short on time and sometimes resources too. What planners may not realize is that they have people right in their network that they can easily mobilize to boost event ticket sales, exhibitors and sponsors, and engagement.

What is the number one mistake that organizations make when starting an influencer marketing journey?

The number one mistake in planning out an influencer marketing campaign is focusing on a very limited number of high-profile people, like their top speakers or advisory board, and hoping to generate huge results from that influencer strategy alone. The key is to realize that if you democratize influence and consider everyone in your organization an influencer, you can expand your message’s reach exponentially. Spread your net wider at first and plan to dive deeper with a phased approach to implementing the event influencer marketing campaign.

What is one thing you wish every new client knew before they contact you?

I wish they knew how effective influencer marketing is and that word-of-mouth is the most efficient marketing strategy they’ll ever use. I wish they knew that they don’t need to have the know-how or internal resources to start an event influencer marketing campaign, and how easy it is to find influencers.

Take us through your process of working with a new client.

First things first, we get on a call and get to know the client: we listen, ask many questions, and brainstorm together on strategies that they might consider trying for their specific audience. We then get the ball rolling for them, which is as simple as handing over their brand assets and data – from there on out, it’s hands-off. We operate as a DI(F)Y software, where we strategize, create, design, implement, manage, monitor, and recommend next steps for our clients.

That is the first step. The event marketing campaign subsequently evolves in a way that allows us to connect with the most engaging and engaged influencers who can help take the campaign a step further. We would then co-create content with our star influencers, which can be in the form of videos, blogs, or interviews that invite them to elaborate on what potential attendees can expect from attending their session, or visiting their booth. Influencers’ content and video can then be repurposed to diversify the event marketing campaign and offer an incentive to drive registration.

In your mind, what is your greatest client success story?

My greatest success story is when I hear a sigh of relief from the event planner on how smooth and quick the process was. I am on cloud nine when the client says they ended up hitting and exceeding their registration goals and that they’d like to renew again for next year’s events. If I have to pick one success story, I’d pick CompTIA’s creative approach to mobilizing their exhibitors in an incentivized influencer marketing campaign that saw big ROI.

What’s the biggest challenge that snöball is still trying to solve?

Butts in seats. It will never get old. As long as there are meeting planners organizing events, attendee acquisition will be a top priority. The challenge is how to stay current and adapt your event marketing strategy to stay in front of the right audience. The biggest challenge for event planners is the lack of resources and time to execute and adopt new strategies, we help them save time and money.

What’s the best advice you ever received? (can be life advice or business advice)?

“SHIP IT” (borrowed from Seth Godin’s AltMBA). That was the advice that my mentor/friend Dahlia El Gazzar gave me about starting snöball. It moved snöball from an idea to a product that is in full avalanche-mode, and the best part: event planners LOVE it and truly need it to optimize their event marketing initiatives. And I love helping them – for me, it’s all about connecting and creating relationships with people.

What is your favorite productivity app?

Slack, it keeps me connected to my team and clients while I’m on-the-go and I can practically run everything from there.

What is your favorite “waiting for a train” app?

Audible, it gives me the chance to catch up on all the books I want to read.

Want to Learn More about snöball event marketing?

To learn more, visit snöball’s website or check out the link in this tweet to see how others are using influencer marketing to drive attendance at their events!

Many professional #associations and societies struggle to connect with their members in fresh ways. See how these 6 associations were able to generate incredible visibility: https://t.co/DVuhyZA3sr#EventInfluencerMarketing #attendeeacquisition #eventprofs #eventmarketing pic.twitter.com/OHZagO5vFC

— snöball (@snoballevent) October 8, 2019