Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Using LinkedIn To Promote Your Next TradeShow

In recent times, LinkedIn has emerged as a one stop solution to a lot of corporate malaises. Anybody and everybody, who is somebody in the corporate world, has resorted to LinkedIn for some interest or the other at some time or the other. Everyone seems to have realized the power and value of LinkedIn. It is not your run-of-the-mill social networking channel where you find people talking about what cuisine they are about to enjoy, etc. but is a website dedicated to professionals who want to move ahead in their careers. Although you could use it to find a job too, it is not limited to just being a forum for first time job-seekers. In fact, the visibility that LinkedIn provides will allow you to do your event marketing and satisfy your need for publicity, all in one place. In fact, the facility of event marketing has made LinkedIn a boon to professionals.

Using any social networking site to market or promote your upcoming tradeshow may not work as well as using LinkedIn because not all sites have users providing their professional details. Other sites may not help you in leveraging your event like LinkedIn can since it is one of the largest professional networks on the internet. So whether you are targeting professionals anywhere in the world by announcing your event on LinkedIn, whatever event you are thinking of, LinkedIn will direct a lot of attention to it. Once you are done with your corporate event planning, it will allow you to plan a virtual event and to select the industry to which your tradeshow or event belongs. It will allow you to preview your event before you publish it, enabling you to review your event. You can select the audience for your tradeshow.

Once you have added an event, LinkedIn will automatically promote it to all the people you are connected with, based on the industry to which the event belongs. Each time someone accepts the invite, their network is updated with the news. So, in effect, LinkedIn alerts your entire network and each confirmation spreads word about the event further displaying a kind of viral effect. You have free access to over 160 million professionals, who are also there to further their own corporate careers and are on the lookout for better prospects in any form. This will make those in your field eager to participate in any event, whether virtual or real, that gives them publicity, which in turn will make your tradeshow a sure success.

If you want to get in touch with a topnotch event management company, log onto Planaheadevents.com.

Monday, 29 October 2012

Tips For Holding Your Next Team Meeting



You have just had the honor of being assigned the task of managing an important event. You get your team together and, after a few brainstorming sessions, you try to map out your plans for the prestigious event,. But even after a week or so, your plans arestill not finalized and most of your team members do not have any idea of what to expect or what is expected of them. This is  not an uncommon scenario and in no way reflects on the competence level of the manager or the team. After all, it’s not like you work for an event planning company. It is just a matter of knowing a few tips to make your meetings more productive:

Always have an agenda in place before you call for a meeting.  The agenda should have a list of all the points or topics that need to be discussed during the meeting.

The manager needs to act as facilitator who makes sure that all the points on the agenda should be addressed without wastage of time on any one point and neither should any point be missed. Points that are not on the agenda and do not pertain to the tasks at hand, should be made note of and discussed in a later session.

One person from the team should be designated to make note of the minutes of the meeting. A copy of this should be sent to each person from the team so that he / she is reminded of their responsibilities.
 
For successful corporate event planning,the manager should make sure that every task is assigned to at least one person and each person should have a clear understanding of what he/she must do to.

Each task should be clearly defined, either in the same meeting or later in one-on-one meetings between the manager and that team member and deadlines should be defined and set. It is a good idea to get the team’s feedback on the status of the project on a regular basis.

Frequent meetings may be a drain on the time of the team members. A good manager needs to ensure that the team spends more time working on projects rather than in meetings. Email updates should be enough to update the manager and the rest of the team about the status of each task.

Or to make it easier on you, you could hire a professional corporate event plannerthat will help you with everything from the budgeting and planning to the execution and evaluation of your event. This will free you and your team from the hassles of organizing the event so that you can focus on the work that you are best at. You will just need to be available to give your input and act in a supervisory capacity to make sure the event management consultants stay on track with your event. A good event manager will leave no stone unturned in making sure your event is a resounding success.

If you are looking for a reputed corporate event planner, log onto to planaheadevents.com.

Plan Ahead Events Named A Top 500 Franchise



Plan Ahead Events, under the prestigious banner of the United Franchise Group, has maintained a top position in the event marketingindustry. Being pioneers in the event management domain, they possess extensive exposure and experience that make them the best option for any kind of corporate or social events.

Plan Ahead Events maintains national strategic relationships and has an extensive knowledge base that allows them the resources to execute meetings and events at any level. So, when you invest in Plan Ahead Events, you gain access to one of the largest support staffs in franchising, in addition to their resources and knowledge base. The latest feather in their cap is acquiring the 271st position in Entrepreneur’s Magazine’s Top 500 2012 list. It also ranked #11 on the Top New list and #81 on the Top Home-Based list.

Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 is the world’s first and most comprehensive franchise ranking based on objective and quantifiable measures of franchise success. The full report appears in the magazine’s January issue. This recognition goes a long way in strengthening their position among the numerous event management companies.  “We are thrilled to have our business recognized in Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 listing,” said Tipton Shonkwiler, Global Director and President of Plan Ahead Events. “Since our start in 2007, we’ve been dedicated to providing our customers an unrivaled level of service, and this recognition is a testament of our hard work.” In addition to growth, financial strength, size, and stability, Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 list also takes into consideration the number of years a company has been in business, the length of time it has been franchising, startup costs, litigation, percentage of terminations, and whether the company provides financing to entrepreneurs.

So, whether it is a corporate or social event that you have in mind, Plan Ahead Events is the one to turn to. For more information on the options available to you, log in to: planaheadevents.com.

Friday, 31 August 2012

Plan Ahead Events Offers the Best Business & Marketing Solutions

Since 1992, Plan Ahead Events has used their event industry expertise to produce extraordinary events. As pioneers in the event management domain, they possess cutting-edge knowledge that makes them the best option for corporate or social events. Plan Ahead Events maintains national strategic relationships and an extensive knowledge base that allows them the resources to execute meetings and events at any level. What sets them apart from the crowd is that they are very flexible with the services that they offer. Whether it is a corporate event planning or event marketing that you have in mind, Plan Ahead Events is the one to turn to.

Plan Ahead Events is one of the leading event marketing companies, whether you are planning an internal meeting to motivate your staff or hosting a trade show to promote your business and generate clientele, Plan Ahead Events will assist you in creating a marketing plan that will meet all your business and marketing needs. They will not only create a productive and beneficial experience for you and your attendees, but also show you how to generate that experience into a lasting impression that will set you apart from your competitors.

From the conception of your plan, Plan Ahead Events will be your guide to help you in setting an affordable budget for you event, selecting the right venue, etc. and your executive in implementing and coordinating everything that is planned and give you regular status updates. Plan Ahead Events will arrange corporate event planners in order to customize the event to generate the best results and make sure the event is memorable for you and your attendees. The team at Plan Ahead Events understands that events are a vital tool in building relationships, converting prospects, retaining customers and shortening the overall sales process and will be committed to helping you create an event to do just that. So when you think of corporate event planning think Plan Ahead Events. For any and every kind of business event planning log in to - http://planaheadevents.com/

What do Event Management Companies do?



Whether it is a birthday party for a 5 year old or a tradeshow, it is an event and it requires planning by the organizers. As anybody who has organized a birthday party will tell you, it is not easy. There is a lot of thinking, preparing and coordinating that needs to go in to make the event a success. For a small birthday party, a mother or the parents might be able to do justice, but when it comes to making a large-scale birthday party or a corporate event a success, you might realize you have bitten off more than you can chew! Even if everything is arranged, coordinating it and making sure everything is in place on D-day is crucial and that is taken care of by the right business event planning.

A good event management company will take the burden of planning and implementing an event totally off your hands. A really good event management company will even stay on till you are done evaluating the event. At the outset, they will help you in estimating a budget for the event and assist you in choosing packages that suit your requirements and fit in your budget. They will take care of the food and beverage needs, travels, bookings, photography, and all the other itty bitty stuff that has to be in place for any event to be a success. In the case of a tradeshow or convention planning, it will make sure that the event marketing is taken care of so that your event has the maximum attendees possible. They will guide you in selecting the proper site for your event. The website creation, sending mails and mailers, press releases and other marketing material will be taken care of by the event management company. They will also take care of the décor of the venue, the seating arrangements as well as the corporate gifts. This leaves you free to focus on the really important stuff which only you can do.

It is not that because you have hired a corporate event planner you are pushed totally out of the picture and are just a spectator at an event that you had conceived. A good event management company will keep your wishes in mind and only guide you in making your choices. You might have to step in to advise them on the seating in a meeting or convention too, since no one knows your set of participants better than you.  You will have to give them a ball park idea of what you have in mind and then just keep an eye on things once in a while. To cut a long story short, tying up with a good event management company to help you in organizing whatever event you are planning to host surely has more advantages than doing it by yourself. To make sure every event that is organized for your business is a success, reach out to the corporate event planners at http://planaheadevents.com/

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Why Hire an Event Management Company?



Hiring an event management company to help organize an event is the easiest and best thing you can do to make sure your event is not just successful but memorable as well. And memorable for all the right reasons, at that! A good event management company will provide valuable guidance from the time you conceive the event, right from the planning, through the implementation stages to the successful execution of the event. The exposure and experience they have in the field, the networks that they would have built up during their past work, their level of commitment to their clients, everything adds up to make your work easier. Most event management companies are not too rigid as to what kind of events they will plan or organize, although there are some who are better at some kinds of event than others. So there are some event managers who excel in organizing birthday parties or wedding receptions while there are some who restrict themselves to the corporate and business sectors’ needs.

There are a lot of event planners who are all set to help your with any corporate events planning that you might be interested in. They will help you right from estimating a budget for the event and offer their expertise in choosing packages that suit your requirements and fit in your budget. They will ensure that everything is done in a timely manner without any hassles. They will guide you in selecting an appropriate venue for your event. The invitations and other required marketing will be taken care of by the event management company. The décor, the seating arrangements as well as the corporate gifts will be done impeccably, keeping your wishes and directives in mind. So during the event you can focus on your guests or participants instead of running around organizing stuff and coordinating things. They will also suggest unique and creative methods for the promotion of your event, which in turn will promote your company or your business. They will use their experience and expertise to help you get the maximum return on your investment.

When it comes to large scale events like trade shows or conventions, an event planning company becomes a must! They are ones who have been there and done that before and their experience and expertise will help in making your event a seamless affair that will help your business increase its clientele. All the event marketing tactics required making any event a success, right from creating a website and sending mails & mailers to publishing press releases, everything will be taken care of by your event managing partners.  Travel arrangements, food and beverage planning, transportation are details that keep organizers of events on their toes. An event management company will take care of all these and more for you. In short, event management companies help in making any event a memorable experience for the hosts and the guests or participants.

To make sure every event that is organized for your business is a success, reach out to: http://planaheadevents.com/