Why Some Events Sell Out and Others Don’t (2011 session notes)

Why Some Events Sell Out and Others Don’t

Facilitator: Traci Browne
Scribe notes: Sarah Vining

• Make invitation only, first come first serve
• Build the reputation and the people will come
• Ego building, make them feel VIP by invitation only
• Charge a lot or just charge; in general more likely to show up
• Monday morning events, low attendance
• Couple of people to decide that the event is brilliant, they’ll tell everyone (i.e. attendees who blog, video-blog, tweet from the event; hire 10 people to do it for your event)
• “Celebrity” hit a blog on your event – you become lucky!
• Events on Tuesday/Wednesday (due to travel) or Wednesday/Thursday (in-city event) creates bigger attendance

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What do Event Professionals Need to Know about Mobile Applications? (2011 session notes)

Facilitators:  Ashish Jain, a2z Inc. & Danalynne Wheeler, Sybase
Scribe: Danalynne Wheeler

Questions to Ask Yourself When Deciding to Build an App (and what the requirements should be):
– What is the need for this app – what do I want to get out of it?
– What does my audience need / what will they use?
– What devices does my audience use / how many & what types of apps will I have to build?
– Approximately how many people do I think will use the app (usually a small percentage of attendees)
– Do I want/need to track usage or any specific information from the end users?
– Do I want this app to tie into other systems, such as registration, session information
– How much do I want to spend (how much budget do I have)?
– Will I be able to reuse this app, or use it as a base to tweak/build upon for future?

2011 event evaluations

Don’t take our word for the quality of this event. Here are our event evaluations for 2011 completely uncut and uncensored

by Adrian Segar

As is customary for Conferences That Work, we are publishing all the (anonymized) evaluations for EventCamp East Coast 2011. So often, this information is restricted to conference organizers. I think this kind of transparency is important for any event, as it provides participants with feedback on how their experience compared with their peers, publicizes the positive and negative responses to the event, and sets the stage for the whole conference community to discuss ways to make future events better.

Let’s start with the ratings for the various sessions. I have amalgamated the ratings for the peer sessions.

Evaluation ratings	Roundtable	Peer sessions	Personal Introspective	Group spective	Informal discussions
High	79%	73%	62%	70%	80%
Medium	21%	24%	23%	20%	20%
Low	0%	3%	15%	10%	0%

And here are participants’ comments on various aspects of the conference.

Pre-conference communications

Really loved the SMS text updates. This was very useful.

I felt there was a lot of communication regarding travel needs and what I should expect from the conference. There was also some reading material but not too much!

Loved getting the text updates!

Good

Timely and had the info I needed when I needed it.

Loved the text messaging.

I appreciate the communication prior to the event. It was helpful to receive emails about airport information, check-in, attire, etc. before arriving on site. At some conferences, there is absolutely no communication until you arrive on-site. Thank you!

Pecha Kucha: Build connections, gain business and personally grow by using the EIR social media strategy

Here’s Jenise Fryatt‘s Pecha Kucha presentation Build connections, gain business and personally grow by using the EIR social media strategy that she gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.

Pecha Kucha: Risking your hybrid event

Here’s Paul Cook‘s Pecha Kucha presentation Risking your hybrid event that he gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.

Pecha Kucha: Designing meetings for the virtual brain

Here’s Andrea Sullivan’s Pecha Kucha presentation Designing meetings for the virtual brain that she gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.

Pecha Kucha: A journey inside the mind of a conference producer

Here’s Traci Browne’s Pecha Kucha presentation A journey inside the mind of a conference producer that she gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.

Try out the EventCamp East Coast Mobile App

Enhance your ECDC11 experience with our iPhoneÆ and Mobile Web Apps! View detailed information for each session Add favorite sessions to your planner Tune into the #ECDC11 tweets Get real-time updates from event organizers Share with your friends on FacebookÆ and LinkedInÆ iPhoneÆ App ChirpE Mobile Web App Open this email on your iPhoneÆ or iPadÆ.   Click here to download from App Store. Open this email on your smartphone.   Click here to load in your mobile browser.  Three Platforms. One Solution.

Here’s what last year’s attendees had to say…

Thank you to Jenise Fryatt for putting this together!

Earn a FourSquare Badge at EventCamp East Coast!

By Greg Ruby

I had my first introduction to FourSquare last year during the 2010 PCMA Annual Meeting in Dallas when I was hanging out with my fellow Godfathers. Jeff Hurt was reminding us to check in everywhere we went that night and I was feeling left out as I did not have a smart phone at that time. By the time EventCamp rolled around the next month, I had me a smart phone and was addicted to FourSquare. Fellow EventCamp attendee Paul Salinger and I were slugging it out over the three days to hold the mayorships of the Roger Smith Hotel, site of the inaugural EventCamp.

Want to play FourSquare along with some of your fellow campers at EventCamp East Coast? First off, you will need a smart phone (iPhone, Droid or Blackberry) and have downloaded the FourSquare app. Secondly, where do we check in at? First, check in at the National Conference Center, site of this year’s conference.  Someone will create an EventCamp East Coast venue, so check in there as well. Knowing this bunch of attendees, I can imagine there will be some impromptu gatherings at local restaurants and watering holes, and you will be able to check in these locales as well.

Whoever checks in the most at a venue (only one check-in per day counts) is rewarded by becoming the “Mayor” of that venue. It will be unlikely that any of the campers will check-in enough at any place while we are in town to become mayor, except for the EventCamp East Coast venue that is yet to be created. The mayor is only awarded after someone has checked in at a venue for a second time, so we should not have a mayor until Saturday morning at the earliest.

At the time of the original EventCamp, I was still very much a newbie and not that familiar with the various badges that FourSquare could reward users. Not anymore! There are a couple of badges that can be earned while you are at the conference and two other badges that can be earned in the metro Washington, DC area. So what badges can I earn while at EventCamp?

There is the PLAYER PLEASE badge that is earned when you check into a place where three of your friends from the other sex have already checked in.  So ladies, become friends with at least 3 guys who are attending.  Likewise, guys become FourSquare friends with three ladies who are attending.  Your friends must be checked in before you do in order to earn the badge.  Several of us who attended EventCamp Twin Cities were able to earn this badge during dinner after the conference.

The next badge is going to take an effort from a majority of the folks attending EventCamp to earn. The SWARM badge is earned when you check into a place where 50+ folks have checked into a venue, so we need participation from almost everyone attending to help folks earn this badge. There has never been enough check-ins at any of the previous six EventCamps to create a Swarm, so let this be your challenge at the National Conference Center!

If your schedule allows you the opportunity to do some sightseeing in the metro Washington area, there are a few additional FourSquare badges that can be earned.

Follow the History Channel on FourSquare and check into three venues they recommend on their page.  It could be tough to earn the HISTORIAN badge – if only there were some museums or monuments in the Washington area to visit….

Follow C-SPAN on FourSquare and check into five venues they list on their page.  Many of the sites for the Historian badge will also count towards the C-SPAN badge.

Enjoy your time at EventCamp East Coast and explore some of the metropolitan Washington area if you have the chance.