A Great Technology Holiday Event And What You Can Learn From It

Integrated Alliances (IA) is a 3 year old networking association located in Denver Colorado. IA caters predominantly to Business-to-Business and technology professionals and holds monthly networking events that attract 150-200 attendees to an after-hours networking event each month. In many ways it typifies networking group events that have sprouted up across the nation. In a number of ways, it is not typical.

On Thursday, December 7th, Integrated Alliances held its 4th annual Holiday networking event. Like the prior events, it was of particular interest for those interested in technology. It attracted almost 500 making it one of the biggest events of the year in the Colorado networking world. It had many aspects that were particularly noteworthy and they could serve as “best practices” for those organizations that may wish to hold a special event. While this was a holiday event, these principles are mostly valid for events held anytime.

Here are some things you may want to consider in putting on a large networking event, especially one for technology professionals:

Purpose. Any event should have a defined purpose as it provides a means to evaluate if it was a success. The purpose was to bring B2B and technology professionals together to network with one another and to see technology interesting technology exhibits. Attendees walked away with a number, many with a large number, of contacts that can help them in their business. It might be business partnerships, employment, sales leads, sales, friends or even someone they may be interested in dating.

Partners. Doing a special event with partner organizations makes the networking that much more interesting and effective for everyone. Of course it helps to have just the right partners and to have sizeable, reputable organizations involved. The association partners can market the event to their own crowd, driving up attendance. IA partnered with the Rockies Venture Club (business finance association), the Business Marketing Association (marketing) and the daVinci Institute (technology and inventor association). The combined invitation list of all the organizations exceeded 20,000.

On-line Pre-registration. An on-line registration system makes the event more professional and reduces work efforts significantly. This is especially important if there is a charge for the event. You will find that taking the fewest number of payments at the door will greatly reduce congestion and increase overall satisfaction. IA uses a very sophisticated on-line event registration system from Regonline. These systems do a lot of things to facilitate a quality event like on-line payments, sending a receipt/confirmation, sending a reminder and some advanced things like adding the event to an Outlook Calendar, inviting friends, seeing a map to the facility, scheduling extra reminders and providing feedback to the organizer. Pre-event and post-event reporting are also powerful tools. Technology professionals really look closely at this and are impressed by it.

Location. The location can significantly impact your ability to attract attendees. People will only travel so far, especially when they must deal with rush hour traffic. Beyond that, having a well-known landmark nearby also helps, e.g. “it is just a few blocks from XXX”. This location was central to everyone in the Denver metro area where there are significant technology communities to the North and South in addition to the large population located in the downtown area. The location was also right by the arena that houses the Colorado Avalanche hockey team and the Denver Nuggets basketball team and right off the commuter light rail lines.

Venue. The venue itself can be a great contributor to your success in getting a high level of interest and in attracting attendees. People like a place they have not been to before and one that is interesting to view as they walk around. IA selected Braun’s Bar & Grill, a combination sports bar and event center, as it 1) can accommodate a large crowd 2) has very interesting décor and 3) has a layout that works well for networking. Braun’s used to be a train station in the early 1900’s and it now looks like a very large loft.

Exhibits. As people stroll around an event, it is interesting for them to have things to see. Exhibits are more than vendor tables. Looking at a brochure isn’t very fun at an event. Seeing a demo of some new technologies or business services can be. The IA event had exhibitors showing all types of technology products in action, including Web tools, document scanning, Voice over IP and even on-line networking communities like LinkedIn and MoBoogie.net (a social community for music lovers). The venue has WiFi wireless Internet service to support the technology exhibits.

Parking. Parking is always a big issue for people attending a networking event. If they can’t park, they won’t come in. With a downtown event, close-in free parking is a big draw and the IA holiday event had it. Parking lot attendants can relieve a lot of headaches are they are greatly appreciated by the audience.

Attire. Dress is always a big variable at networking events. People show up in whatever they have on and they don’t tend to pre-plan what they wear based on an event that night. A Holiday event is usually different. Being aware of this, IA dropped lots of hints in marketing it that they should dress a little nicer than they would for a networking event and it worked. Black was definitely the “in” color.

Welcome Mat. People should see happy smiling faces as they arrive. It really sets the tone for the even. This event had greeters at the door helping people get oriented with what they should do first. It eased confusion, reduced congestion and made for a very happy audience.

Nametags. Badges are extremely useful at a networking event, especially one where the audience will find predominantly people that they DO NOT already know. Seeing a company name on a badge can open a lot of doors for networking. It sure beats a badge that says “Hello, my name is Bob”. A good on-line registration system has technology that can feed a badge system in most cases. This event featured large, pre-printed badges that had a large First Name, a Full Name and the Company Name clearly spelled out. It was driven by the Regonline registration system. People event had the option of a hanging or a clipped on badge and that was a particularly nice touch.

Pictures. Photographers that roam an event help stir up networking and they document the event for others to see. It is best to have multiple photographers covering the event. Attendees like to see themselves and see what they missed in other parts of the event. Posting a large number of pictures on the Internet is an effective means to get them in front of the eyeballs that want to see them. IA had 3 photographers and even a videographer covering the event. All were highly talented, but were amateurs. A large number of pictures were up on the web site within a few days of the event. A video will be on the web site in a matter of weeks. This timely use of technology impresses people, especially technology people.

Local Leaders. Getting local business leaders to attend will give the event more credibility and will increase awareness that can lead to increased attendance. If these leaders have a good experience, they will definitely be telling others about it and that boost attendance down the line. Key association leaders were invited to this event and they came in quantity. Of particular note were the Chamber of Commerce leaders and the networking association leaders.

Media. Media and press are particularly good people to have in attendance at the event. They may cover the event and they often find it to be a good source of story ideas. This event had representatives from the Denver Post (2) and a number of other important media outlets. These particular media people cover technology and they found lots of story ideas.

Instill Networking. In most cases, if you put a bunch of networkers in a room they will do just that – network. Holiday events bring out the less experienced networkers as well. The event team can do a little bit (maybe a lot) to help the networking process. The IA Holiday event had a large team of Ambassadors that were assigned the task of introducing people to one another and it worked very well.

Entertainment. A special event is different from a regular event in many ways and entertainment is one of them. For typical events throughout the year, entertainment is not a requirement and is not expected. A holiday event is different. The IA Holiday event had live entertainment - a classic rock band that played a low keyed set early and a rocking and dancing set later on. This makes the event seem special; like a holiday event should, and it also enticed much of the crowd to stay longer, in this case to well past 9pm (it started at 5pm).

Upon Leaving. The last person an attendee sees as they leave has a tremendous impact on their long lasting impression of the event. IA had a team of exit greeters thanking people for attending and answering questions. They also gathered up the badges from people as they left. The plastic badges that IA uses are top of the line and they can cost $.70 each. That is $350 for an event of this type and that can almost pay for the band!

There are a lot of great take-aways here for all types of events. You will probably find that some of them are more relevant than others depending on the organization’s goals.

A great event puts the spotlight on your organization and it can greatly increase both awareness and membership. Even those that don’t attend are attracted as they hear about it from those that did attend. It is like marketing for your organization. If it is done well you can sell a lot of iPods. If it isn’t done well, you might have a lot of Edsel’s on the lot.

If you have some best practices related to conducting large networking events I would like to hear from you. If you are looking to do networking events and are seeking help, IA does these types of services on a contract basis. IA has produced over 60 events in over 3 years of operation.

 

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Contact Mike at MikeO@TheNationalNetworker.com or via TNNW Blog.