Arup Breakfast events - Six rules of Event Management

Working smarter, not harder

They told me they'd tried it before, and it'd been a flop. However, I was confident my first event for Arup's new email management software tool would be a success.

You don't have to have much money, but you must always aim to work smart. Many companies make the fatal error of starting marketing too late, and then it's a mad rush to get everything done in time.

Running an event without the correct 'runway' of time for marketing is stressful, arduous work. People often don't think very well in that situation.

Unless you are one of the 2% of the population who can genuinely multi-task, typically, you will lose 15 IQ points when you try to accomplish this; it is not a 'smart' way to run an event!

I held our first event in Arup's headquarters in London on March 14th. 28 Hands has its second breakfast event on Wednesday, 8th May. 

I aimed for 16 at the first event and made 22. I already have 50 attendees registered for the second event, which is still one month away. 

Thursday, March 14, was a big day for Mail Manager. Not only did we have our first breakfast event, but we were also running the Viewpoint Mail Manager webinar: Viewpoint for Projects and Mail Manager integration.

That month, my other marketing manager, Joanne Waddell, and I increased our email campaign numbers from an average of 2000 to 123,000! Joanne is one of the best marketers I've worked with, so we had fun building that success together!

I also managed to generate some low-cost PPC and social media leads.

Senior Client Manager, Mario Christophides, started the morning with hard, but fair, statements:

Other industries are quicker to adapt than construction.

UK productivity issue, which we address by working longer hours

We can achieve better productivity by collaborating more closely.

Lucy Prior then provided an overview of how Mail Manager helps Arup capture 80% of their project correspondence. 

She explained that Arup developed Mail Manager in response to email becoming a significant problem for their business, particularly commercially sensitive information being locked in inboxes.

Project Managers and Engineers were not sharing data across their teams, and in frustration, Arup developed Mail Manager for their own employees.

Lucy Prior,  Mail Manager's Top Salesperson, presenting a live software demo.

   

         
Paul Hill is an information manager at Arup's program project management office.

Paul leads Information Management on large projects using a variety of software, including Common Data Environments such as ProjectWise, which Mail Manager integrates.

              Paul Hill, Information Manager at Arup, with Lucy Prior, Mail Manager's Senior Salesperson.

                     

Paul said that at Arup, thanks to Mail Manager, email is no longer a problem; we have solved it.

He demonstrated by showing us the 'Social network' of projects he was working on, and how one project, in particular, he’d been working on since 2011.

Paul showed us that hundreds of people had sent over 35,000 emails during this project. Using the Mail Manager search, he can access anything across the project in a matter of seconds. 

Six rules for setting up, running and following up on your first event:

Planning, Planning, Planning

1. PRE-EVENT EMAIL MARKETING

 I set up an email automation campaign for one month or more before the event. My automation will include a series of 'if/not' decision trees; If my prospect opens and clicks on the first ever email I send them one which is more personalised and has more detail in it.

If not, I send them an email that will try to capture their interest with a catchy subject line and a variety of topics.  If my prospect hits on the event landing page but does not sign up, I will send them a reminder email a few days later, again, perhaps with some video of a previous keynote and so on.

I create a top Landing page to maximise the number of attendees. 

2. SOCIAL MEDIA

Create 'buzz' around the event. Fortunately, I have a lot of friends in Branding who know a lot about this. One used to work for HSBC, another ran EMEA Brand Management for Hyatt Hotels,  and yet another friend of mine was Chief Creative Officer at Coca Cola. It helps to talk with 'ideas' people to develop events and marketing that will 'hit them between the eyes'.                                                                                                                                                                                      

3. LISTEN TO YOUR PROSPECTS

You can use social media to understand your audience better.  Posting titbits on Linked In or Twitter will get you many reactions. Monitor these religiously to get a feel for what your prospects want to see and hear, not only at the event but before and after it. I also use surveys at the event and online tools like Survey Monkey. However, keep these short and sweet. No one wants to spend twenty minutes filling out hundreds of questions. Limit it to five, with the option for them to leave comments. 

4. KEEP NOTES ON WHAT IS WORKING AND NOT WORKING

At our last event, one of our prospects asked if we had sent him an Outlook calendar invite for the date. I had not, but I checked into our new CRM system and saw that I could send invites en masse. I will certainly be doing this for the next event. Your prospects and customers know what they want better than you. Remember that.

5. HAVE SOME BIG NAMES

I'm a startup to mid-size kind of guy. I tend to do well in those nimble, fast-growing companies. But we all like to hear about the big names, whether it's celebrities, billionaires, supermodels or large organisations. Some names I've had at events I've run, have been anyone from Verizon Wireless to Black rock, from Mckinsey to TJ Maxx.

6. SHOW THEM THE LOVE

I always want to show my prospects that I care. I want great food, inspiring talks, fantastic giveaways and attractive hosts.

My attendees have taken valuable time out of their busy schedules to see us. I want to do the absolute best to make that an outstanding and hopefully memorable and useful, experience for them.

To continue your Marketing journey and understand how to generate leads and bring them through the marketing flywheel to close, read more of my blog, and my website.

Breakfast event link