The Red Wagon

Guest Post on Eventbrite Blog

In the midst of all the planning, we event managers often have the difficult task of leading the marketing effort for our projects. Generating demand for an event is no simple task, but it’s even harder when we spin our wheels promoting the wrong thing. When advertising efforts focus on registration (and ticket sales), they are a liability rather than an asset to the marketing plan because they require the most difficult type of commitment from our target audience: a financial decision. Conti...

No More Lineups

Online event registration has often given the illusion that it will streamline things on the event day but I rarely see it in action. Why is it that a registered and paid attendee still ends up waiting inline to "check-in"? Oh man that bugs me! Okay - so let me play "opposite George" on this one and see if I can defend the value of the event-day check-in: How else will we know if they've arrived? What about their name badge? We have to get them their name badge! We need to give them their welco...

Strategic Event Review: BC Lung Association’s RUSH

Fundraising events are a tough gig for both the organization and the event planner who has to make it all happen. Most great events take a lot of time to plan, cost a lot of money, take a huge amount of man power, and when it’s all said and done the fundraising value can easily fall short. We’re surrounded by countless causes and endless heart-breaking stories - it can be a lot to take in much less respond with our time and hard-earned dollars. Designing a great fundraising event is a difficult ...

Getting Paid

Starting a small business is tough and the hardest part for most entrepreneurs is managing their cash flow. One thing I’ve learned in starting my own event management company is that when it comes to cash flow you need cash, without it there’s no flow. I’m hilarious. The trick is getting paid! If you’re not a small business owner you might not find that statement all that profound but for those of us who “live the dream” and are making a living one contract at a time it’s epic. Here’s som...

Be Prepared for Your Next Event Emergency

Whether you've planned one event or hundreds it's happened to you: someone runs up in a panic because they need _______ and they think you'll have it because you're the event planner. That's right, __blank__, they'll ask you for anything and everything and they need it NOW! Thumb tacks, scissors, glue, a hammer, needle and thread, batteries, or Tylenol - you name it and as far as they're concerned their crisis is far more important than anything you could be dealing with at the registration tabl...

FREE is a Dirty Word

I’m convinced that the most offensive word in the event business is “FREE”, specifically when it refers to free admission for an event. Unless you’re new to capitalism, I think you’d agree that the word “free,” more often than not, communicates a lack of value. Whether or not an event can handle a zero-dollar ticket is often beside the point. What is, in fact, being communicated when no monetary commitment is required for an event is that expectations should be low. When someone registers or ...

Eleven and a Half

// It's here! Eleven and a Half is Corwin Hiebert's tell-all event planning eBook. This 18 page down-loadable PDF is crammed full of insights, ideas, and action steps with you, the event planner, in mind. Whether you're an event “professional” or someone who self-inflicts events on themselves through entrepreneurial necessity, volunteerism, or an ever expanding job description this eBook will help you make your next event a huge success. Eleven and a Half is written in such a ...

Reduce and Reuse

Here's an excerpt from the eBook eleven and a half: Clearly we’re going to get to the idea of green event planning but I want to kick off this section with a simple plea: stop the noise. One of the underlying themes behind the recent trend of sustainability is the call to de-clutter and simplify as much as possible. The call to reduce the flow of useless information, both verbal and written, belongs at the core of any green or eco-friendly event planning strategy. The justification for this...

Affiliate Program

Make Some Money Passionate about social networking? Got a thing for event planning too? As a Red Wagon Management eBook Affiliate you can quickly and easily make 30% from every sale of Eleven and a Half that you refer. So, you promote our eBook(s) and we pay you. It's that simple. Click the link below to get started: Join our Affiliate Program! Step-by-step Sign-up Process Need some help getting started? Here's how to sign-up as a Red Wagon Management eBook Affiliate: Log into yo...

Pecking Order

The days are long gone when a person's title meant something; not everyone agrees. Sure I'm willing to concede business titles such as CEO, CFO, COO tend to carry some weight but even they are prone to fall short with respect to helping communicate "what" a person does. And that's the point - a job title should say something, it should hold some meaning, otherwise it's not helpful. I find this to be true in the event industry. When meeting other event professionals I've come across many diffe...