Tuesday 10 February 2015

The Life & Times of an Event Promoter .......................


The Show!


This is the last in my series of blogs about the inner workings of BSSK - the 'behind the scenes' work that no one ever sees, but that goes into making a smooth running show ...........  hopefully!

We have covered finding a suitable venue, things that can go wrong in two parts, designing a floor plan, banners and boards and advertising.  

There is much, much more to it of course - the daily duties of phone calls, accounts and invoicing, answering hundreds of e-mails in a week, sending out promotional e-mails and social media advertising, processing booking forms, sending out booking packs to new enquiries, working on dates for future years, designing and ordering flyers, show guides and posters, and so much more.............  

In order to keep it all on track, we operate to a carefully designed show by show timetable, which details the tasks that need to be completed each week.  At the time of writing, we are juggling Newark, Scunthorpe, Elsecar, Horncastle and Chester - all 'live' and all at varying stages.  Sleaford goes 'live' next week as we start the early tasks on that one.  It is an April show - this gives some idea of how far ahead we work.  For shows like Chester and Elsecar, it is even further ahead than that.  I was working on Chester 11th & 12th April, before Christmas!

So, eventually, after weeks of all of the above we come to the show weekend.

Our run up starts the previous weekend when our valued volunteers Annmarie and Martin Webster come over on the Saturday to help us 'prep kit'.  This involves unpacking the van and topping up the Treasure Hunt prizes, the feedback cards, the prize draw cards, packing the prize draw crystal, splitting the sheets of wristbands (they come in sheets of 10) into singles and banding them in 100's, date stamping a quantity of two-day passes, adding any signage for that particular show over and above the usual generic ones, checking supplies of hazard tape, pens for the information table and all the other bits that may need replacing.

On the Monday of show week, we give the website a final check, asking the webmaster to add any late bookings, remove any cancellations and change any talks that may have cancelled and been replaced.  We then produce and print the posters for the talks during the weekend.  We cannot do this sooner as many a time we have had to reprint them due to a late cancellation due to illness.  Posters are needed too for the prize draw, for the next event in our calendar and the next event in that venue and for any talks that have changed since printing the guide.

Tuesday we produce the taxi list for local taxi companies for visitors, check to make sure everyone that is standing at the show has paid us and produce a list for the PAT test man of those wanting his services. We also print the table name cards and prepare the packs of reader and therapist feedback cards from the previous show to return to the reader or therapist concerned .  This is more of a job than it might seem.  We separate the cards into stacks per person, record the results of the cards in a register and then print name labels and envelope up.  We make badge packs up for the new exhibitors who have not been with us before - name label on envelope, two badges and an explanatory letter per new exhibitor.

Wednesday I contact the bank to order the float.  I also print 6 copies of the floorplan.  This is always done with fingers crossed, as you would not believe the number of times I have just got it printed off and stapled together and then within a couple of hours received a cancellation!  This means frantic phoning to our waiting list to fill the space, then they perhaps won't work in the cancelled space - either similar or conflicting with neighbouring stands, so at this final hour we may need to alter it  again and then print it all off yet again.  We print the actual map, a list of exhibitors sorted by their name so when they arrive we have an alphabetical list to look at quickly to locate their stand.  This can be two or three pages, then finally we have a list sorted by stand number, another two or three pages.  The reason for that is if we have an empty table towards the end of setting up on Saturday morning - we need to quickly find it by number to find out who has not arrived!  So in all, we can have five to seven pages for six copies to reprint and staple if we do it too soon.

During this time, we have still been answering phones and e-mails, processing post and bookings, and doing jobs that need doing for other 'live' shows.

On Thursday, all work on other shows stops as we start the final run up to D-day!  We record the telephone message with venue, postcode, show times and other information.  From then onwards, we don't have time to answer the phone, but may manage to check messages and get back to people once more before we leave.  We collect the float, buy refreshments for the troops for the setting up day, pack the posters, envelopes, cards, floorplans and everything we have prepared all week into the box that is the last thing into the van and the first thing out the other end.  It is then an early office finish, pack our clothes and bags for the weekend if we are staying away and then down to the personal bits like nails, hair and hopefully a reasonably early night!!!!  

The early night has often been sacrificed in the past, when some last minute disaster has hit and we are running around like headless chickens trying to sort it.  The one that is indelibly etched in my memory was recounted in 'The case of the Missing Monk' in an earlier blog.

Friday morning starts around 5 a.m. so that we can be on the road bright and early to arrive at a venue by 10 a.m.  We allow exhibitors access from 2 p.m., although the reality is that some with lots to do will try and sneak in a bit earlier.  We therefore have 4 hours to lick it into shape and we go for it big time!  The venue will have laid out the room to our spec, but without exception, we have to 'tweak' it.  This might be due to changes since we sent through the plan to them, but may also be our knowledge of what people require - a bit more space here for a couch, this stand needs space for a card rack, pull it 6" this way and 6" that - widen the gangway, narrow the gangway - not enough space between the tables and wall, too much space between the tables and wall......................  Lots of little things that go to make it all work.  Then we need to put out the table names, badge packs, feedback packs, the notices we put on new exhibitor tables about cash back services, t-lights and incense and the who's who flyer introducing our staff.  While we are doing all this, Martin is busy laying out the electrics, running extension cables into all the nooks and crannies and taping down trip hazards.

We are then ready for exhibitors to arrive.  During the afternoon while they set up, we have the Tranquility Zone to set up, the Treasure Hunt to set out, the Information Table and Prize Draw/Feedback boxes etc to set out and the talks room to check and lay up.  A new addition is setting up the BSSK book stand too.  Friday ends at 7 p.m. - a full packed 12 hour day!

Saturday morning starts at 5 a.m or 6 a.m. depending on whether we are staying away or travelling home.  Home is good, but it makes for earlier mornings!  The early start is so  I can be at the venue by 6.45 a.m., ready for the early arrival exhibitors from 7 a.m.  The troops arrive around 8 a.m., which is when the bulk of the exhibitors start to arrive - those that only take a little while to set up.  There are direction signs to put out, Treasure Hunt 'trees' to give out with the dabbers, Tranquility Zone to strike up and any last minute issues for exhibitors to sort out - electrics, extra chairs, wobbly tables and so on.  By 10 a.m. we are opening the doors and then each one has their post.

Annmarie, Martin and Lorah work reception, taking money and issuing wristbands, doing cash back, doling out treasure hunt forms and prizes, Trish works the room, minding stands, fetching change and coffee, tea or lunch, and these days, I get to have huge fun running the bookstand.  This is great as I am in the show so can enjoy the atmosphere, I get to talk to people for more than the few seconds it takes to serve them on reception, everyone knows where to find me if they need me and best of all, I get to sit down for most of the day.

The Saturday show closes at 5 p.m., but invariably it is 6 p.m. or even 6.30 p.m. before everyone leaves, then back to the hotel for dinner and bed!  

We open for exhibitors on Sunday at 8 a.m., so I don't have to get up till 6.30 a.m. - a positive lie in!!!  Pack the bag, check out and off to the show for about 7.45 a.m.  The troops arrive around 9 a.m. and we usually manage a bacon buttie on a Sunday, as there is not so much to do.  Signs back out, top up the treasure hunt table, refill the Aromair burners in the Tranquility Zone and switch everything on, tidy up any rubbish in the talk room and put chairs back in line, change over the posters from Saturday talks to Sunday, tidy up the information table and remove any unauthorised advertising material that made its way there during Saturday, fill up and tidy the bookstand and away we go with a 10 a.m. opening.

Sunday show finishes at 5 p.m., then we have 3 hours of mad break down as everyone packs and loads to get underway home, and we do the same.

Part of my ethics as promoter is that I or my team are always first to arrive and last to leave, so it is usually 8 p.m. by we start the trek home, sometimes later than that.


Monday after a show we leave the office closed to calls and new e-mails.  We have a more relaxed start to the day and then start working through the cashing up and banking, the heaps of messages we collect during a weekend from public and exhibitors, the messages on the answer machine, the weekend e-mails, notifying the prize draw winner if we couldn't get them on Sunday night, sending the winner to the webmaster for addition to the website, taking all the old plans and other obsolete bits out of the kit and lots of other 'tidy down' jobs.

Tuesday?  Business as usual as we get ready to do it all again for the next one!

I often think of that lady who stood in the foyer in Lincoln years ago and announced, 'I am going to do one of these' .  She then went on to utter the now immortalized words - "well, how hard can it be!  You get a room, stick some tables in it - charge people to have a table and others to come through the door."  Hmmm, methinks if she ever did try it, she was in for one heck of a shock!

Hope you have enjoyed this series of blogs and a peek into the life and times of an event promoter.

Best wishes

Angie

Friday 9 January 2015

The Life & Times of an Event Promoter

Advertising Part Two……………..  Flyer by post.


When discussing marketing with others, they often roll their eyes at the fact that I still use ‘snail mail’ and religiously send out between 2,500 and 8,000 envelopes depending on show, to individual addresses.  ‘Why would you pay all that out in printing and postage in these days of internet and e-mail?’  they ask.

There is a VERY good reason for it – it works and e-mail does not!

As mentioned in the last article, I am a statistics junkie having worked in marketing and sales for most of my working life.  In order to judge how effective our advertising is and what works, we operate the Prize Draw at every show, with a questionnaire attached.  This gives us our marketing information and over many years, we have identified very effectively, what works. 

This is updated as new fashions arrive and gives us very effective feedback on what works and what does not.

This paragraph is repeating myself from last time, but is worth repeating for those that did not see the last article.  We count the number of cards per show to find out what percentage of the visitors filled one in.  It is always over 60%, but most often in the 70 – 80% bracket!  Surprisingly high!  Of those filled in, some will ignore the question and some will tick multiple choices.  This and the missing 20 – 30% means it is not an exact science, but overall, we get a good indication from these cards by applying the same split to the remaining numbers – after all, it is highly unlikely that the whole of the missing cards came because of one means of advertising.

Going back years and without exception, between 80 -95% of the cards completed fall into two categories.  These are ‘flyer by post’ and ‘word of mouth’.  The other 5-20% is made up of everything else!  The two categories are pretty near equal too – if flyer by post gets 720 hits, you can be sure word of mouth will be getting somewhere between 670 and 750!  It runs that close every time, on smaller or larger door figures! 

This means that no matter what the cost, we simply must keep posting out our showguide to the visitor database for every show!

In the last three years, we have tried targeted experiments at replacing this by e-mail and can report it simply does not work!  My e-mail stats show that of 12,000+ e-mails sent out for Manchester, less than 5% opened them, less than 1% actually clicked a link to the website, the talks or the exhibitor list.  What we don’t know is how many of that 1% then came to the show. 

By contrast, we sent out well over 8,000 envelopes for the same show with our 32 page showguide and of the cards filled in, 47% came because of that.  Another 42% came because of word of mouth and the next highest figure was 5% from brochure picked up in shop etc.  E-mail didn’t even reach 1%, nor did magazine or newspaper advertising or anything else we did.  They just made up the remaining 6% between them.
Our website gets lots of hits, but these are on the back of the postal guide being received.  We see the pattern – our mail forwarder collects the delivery on a 3 day service – 4 days later the website graph peaks and continues to spike for the next couple of weeks up to the show.

This is proof positive for me that people look at the flyer they receive and do not necessarily even bother to open an e-mail.

The postage bill with the mail forwarder is always over £1,500, but in some cases is over £3,000.  Manchester always came to over that, with Elsecar running close to the £3k figure.  On top of that there is the printing cost too.

I can see why people think I am mad, but when you consider a full page in ‘Soul and Spirit’ costs £2,000 + VAT and last time I did it, we got 10 ticks on the cards, I know which I think is the best value for money!

We still do the e-mails, but view them rather like a reminder for the flyer than the primary source of informing visitors.  We also put listings on every spiritual website we can find, such as ‘Spirit Guides’ and ‘Merlin’s Diary’ and all the other similar ones.  We rarely get any of these mentioned, probably less than 5 times in a whole year!  What does get response is our listings on ‘Stallfinder’, but these are exhibitors contacting us, not visitors.

One thing that breaks the mould is our listings on ‘The Healer Foundation’ website.  It is often second to Google in the rankings of ‘referring sites’, which are sites that people click through to our site from!

Hopefully this and the last article have shown some of the work and research that goes into getting the best return on money spent on advertising.  When someone says, ‘Why don’t you do X, Y or Z?’ there is probably a very good reason for it! 


Next issue…….  ‘Advertising – newspaper & magazine’