mmi-presentation

Jim Remsik
@jremsikjr

[email protected]



Jenifer Remsik
@jenremsik

[email protected]


## Timeline ##
* We gave ourselves a long time to plan the first event. Try to give ourselves a year to plan.
* Break that year into smaller milestones or deadlines.
* Tools: Trello and Google Calendar


## Marketing ##
# Wufoo Feasibility Survey 
* Will people actually support this idea?
* What time of year should we hold it?
* One day or two days?


# Pro-Madison Propaganda
* Videos are expensive, but they pay off time and again by giving people a chance to see what they will be getting into.





## Risks ###

# What else has your audience's attention during the time of your event?
* Wisconsin Home Football Games in Fall
* Ironman Marathon?
* Holidays
* School (UW, MMSD) activities
* City activities
* Other similar events in the region
* Low point: Windy City Rails, an event with a proven track record and located just 2.5 hours away, scheduled on our same weekend



# Weather
* Rooftop after-party, what happens if it rains?



# Speakers not showing up
* We invite a few back-up speakers


# Not getting financial support from Sponsors


# Not living up to promises / Breaking trust


# Getting People Together
* People are unpredictable
* What if someone gets hurt
* First Aid
* Event Insurance
* Our rule: Don't bring together so many people that it degrades the experience for everyone. Quality of food, wifi, venue.
* We want to give people a good experience not treat them like cattle.


# Alcohol
* We don't serve alcohol.
* Alcohol is absolutely available at our events
* We hold events at licensed third-party locations. (Bars, Restaurants, Catering Services, Rental Bartenders)







## Unexpected Hurdles

# Refund Policies not posted
* In the event that someone can't make it if you've already explained your policy than there's no fight.


# Expected accepted speakers to supply their own bios and promote the event
* Speakers, like musicians, are flaky.
* Set expectations
* Now require it upfront
* Lower the barrier to entry (Click to tweet, provide them content to share)


# Customized swag
* Deadline to get custom t-shirts is ~1 month before the event. If people are registering up until the day of the event how do you know what shirt size they need?
* Putting the year/date on items means not being able to re-use them
* Buying a bunch of extra costs $$


# Elevator stopped working
* We slipped down to one-track and everyone was happier.
* Changed things we could control. What is within your control to improve the situation.
* When the Carnival Triumph lost power the first thing they did was start giving out free booze. (Did this improve the situation?)


# Low ticket sales
* Low Point: A month before our first event we had sold 20 tickets and were looking for 150. We cut the ticket price in half to get people so that we didn't also make our sponsors unhappy.


# Being nickeled and dimed by venue
* Oh, you'd like another microphone? $$
* You need a small table? $$


# Catering rules
* Food is expensive.
* We had a cheese lady come in and provide samples. The first two times this was just done. Then the venue found out and we had to buy the cheese through them.
* We optimized our money by:
** Getting people out to local restaurants where our money went further.
** Hotels offered breakfast so we avoided serving it at the venue
** Started late enough that locals wouldn't expect breakfast


## Strategy
* We put on events that we would want to attend
* Showcase Madison and get people introduced to the community and wanting to come back.
* Get feedback from attendees and potential attendees, but stay true to your mission
* Communicate with other people in our same position, putting on the same type of event and/or the same audience


## Venue
* We tried to stay away from boring boxes offered by Hotels.
* The Playhouse theater had not been used for technical conferences like ours. They were happy to have us during what is usually a down time in their schedule.
* Our venues come fully equipped.
* Closed the balcony so that it felt better attended.


## Response
* Explicitly ask for feedback
* Don't take the feedback personally
* Look for consistency, if 30% of your respondents complain about the food then you should probably fix it, if it's one or two people let it slide


## Budgets
* They are always hard
* Figure out your expenses, these will change. What the event looks like at 11 months is different from what it is at 2 or 3 months
* Know you audience and what they are willing to pay.  You can't charge the same amount for the same event that happens in New York or San Francisco that would in Madison. 


## Volunteers
* We get student volunteers, small efforts, overstaff
* Realize, if you are treating them as attendees as well, then they are costing you money for meals/swag. For us, it's well worth it.


## Sponsors
* Utilize personal relationships
* Personalize your contact
* Don't poach sponsors but look at other similar events and see who is sponsoring them
* Look at the prospectus from other events
* Be creative with potential sponsors "This is just a starting point for conversation."
* We try to enhance the experience for our attendees with each sponsorship
** Sometimes that means that everyone gets a water bottle or cool little swag item. Other times it means we'll have a better after-party, more comfortable lanyards, or better snacks.
** Sponsors love to be able to say I paid for the 100% cotton lanyards. Or "own" the after-party.
** One of our sponsors enjoys sponsoring our lunch program and because they improved people's experience, IE they didn't get a crappy box lunch, people showed their appreciation by tweeting what it was they went out and got for lunch.
** In-kind sponsorships can add value to your attendees. One sponsor gave away a free subscription to their product which was worth the same as the price of admission for our conference.
** Are sponsors important to have at the event. **90%** of people form our latest conference said "Yes" they are. So, attendees understand the value.
** We asked who was the main sponsor and attendees identified our top three sponsors.


# The Aftermath
* Exhaustion
* Behind on email and work
* You're not done!!!
** Sponsor Evaluations
- What value did they actually get?
** Thank you notifications
- To attendees and speakers
** Final invoices (bookkeeping)


# When do we plan the next one?
* Before this year is done
* Lockdown the venue as this determines your dates
* At our event last year we asked for a few people to commit to coming back this year.
* We're working on locking down our venue 2 years in advance. Our 2015 venue is currently being rebuilt.






## Secrets ##

# We have an awesome partnership
* Jim provides content and big picture thinking
* Jen handles the logistics.


# Crazy idea board
* If you get a crazy idea get it out of your head.
* We don't say no to anything. If it's a good idea, it will still be a good idea in a weeks time.
* Improv strategy - Yes, And …
* What would it actually take to implement?
* Will it help us meet our goals?







Jim Remsik
@jremsikjr

[email protected]



Jenifer Remsik
@jenremsik

[email protected]