Entertainment is an intangible bond—one that transcends words and provides an experience that is felt, not articulated. Music, dance, laughter is the “glue” and often, the “reward” at meetings. Name entertainment is also  a tremendous promotional tool—one that can be used  to entice attendees to come to this very special “private” event, after a long day, filled with content.

Last week, Sheryl Crow performed at SHRM’s annual meeting in New Orleans, in front of 10,000 people. She rewrote the entire first verse of Place In the Sun, customizing it for HR professionals. What more could you ask for?

Beyond the traditional trappings of entertainment, it is also a concept for creating a more enjoyable experience for attendees. Entertainment can be woven into the fabric of any piece of a meeting to reinforce key ideas or messages in non-traditional yet very memorable ways.

How are you using entertainment at your meetings? How is it making a difference in the experience you are creating for your attendees?

• Thank You
• Valued
• Equipped
• Wowed

The key impressions that we agreed upon every attendee should feel were: valued, equipped, and wowed.  These impressions served as the filters through which every decision was made from the curriculum, entertainment, welcome reception and speakers to the staging, the food, the venue selection and the seating design.

There was nothing conventional about this convention. We broke all of the rules and as a result increased attendance, executed at a significantly lower budget, and delivered an event that had a clear impact on customer and brand loyalty.

Did you attend? If so let me hear from you about what moved you.

If you weren’t there, what intrigues you about the elements of this event?

“Do I really need to be away from the office? What did I really miss? Can’t I get most of what I need  from the website, publications, and webinars held each month?”

I hear from meetings and marketing folks that all bets are off this year,“with attendance declines from 5% to 50% what do we have to loose?” Two for one offers, discounts to trade show exhibitors, reduced room rates, and other “deal sweeteners” are common.  But, be careful in the “race to the bottom”.  Discounts are temporary and they erode your value proposition.  While price reductions work, there are other options.  Promoting your meeting by giving potential attendees a chance to sample the content through a Livecasting event can really make a difference —sending video testimonials in an e-mail from the attendees who are coming and providing a “self-scoring quiz” that makes it clear that only at your event can they learn and experience the latest insight and knowledge available in your industry.

What are you doing to drive attendance this year?

One of the questions that emerged from the discussion was, “If we’re going to think differently about our meetings, how should we measure the impact of our investment and the time and money our attendees invest in attending?”

Is it reasonable to think that meetings and events can be evaluated and measured with the precision of other media channels?  Are you ready to take on this responsibility and put your reputation on the line to measure the outcomes, results and performance of an event that you plan?  This is a big question and one that is increasingly being asked by trade association CEO’s, board members and corporate chief marketing officers.

In today’s hyper-competitive environment, all media must be measured. Gone are the days of hoping a message would reach the desired audience with the desired frequency. Conventional mass media is measured by the reach of the message to a target audience, the frequency with which the audience sees/hears the message and the weight of the media-buy against all of the other communications options.  Sound complicated? It is.  That’s why today, Google has become the world’s largest advertising agency. Guess why?  That’s right, every click is measured and the impact of that click is calculated and evaluated against the cost to achieve that click.

What does all of this mean for us in the meetings and events business? – remember, we are really in the media business so we need to begin to think about how our media stacks up to the other options our organizations use to get a message across.

How do you measure your meetings?  What ideas do you have to add new metrics to the discussion with your team so that in 2010 you can begin to measure the outcomes of your events by more than just a satisfaction survey?

Hope to hear your ideas and learn about how you can use the attached presentation to open a discussion in your organization about  how to use meetings more effectively.

It’s reported that 50% of the new jobs that will emerge between now and 2020 don’t exist today.  What does this mean for the role of the planner?

So here’s a question to get us started – is there an appetite and are you interested in adding a new layer to your role – to take on a new challenge and to begin to think of the meetings you plan as live branded media?  What’s the upside – the downside – do you even care?