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.