Baseball isn’t the only industry where there’s a lot of pitching. When you’re an event planner or designer, it may seem like you’re always pitching that next great idea to a prospective client.
You probably already know that you have just a few minutes to convince a client that you’re the right person for the job – and every single second counts. If you didn’t land a pitch, have you ever wondered why? Sometimes the client will come right out and tell you, but other times you may be left guessing. Here are some of the most common reasons event professionals don’t land a client during a pitch. Hopefully you’ll be able to turn the tragedy of losing a pitch into success on the next one!
Just remember, if you didn’t land an event pitch, it isn’t the end of the world – or your career. However, you should use every pitch, even the ones that didn’t go well, as a learning experience to help you get better and better!
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As we start gearing up for event season, a lot of clients come to Track Seven Events for our great event planning services, but we want to make one thing very clear: we offer so much more than just planning.
Many clients don’t realize that not every event professional is created equal. In fact, most people believe that terms like ‘event planner,’ ‘event coordinator,’ and ‘event designer’ are interchangeable. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. If you think about the basics, an event planner is more like a rolodex with lots of vendors they like to use: venues, caterers, builders, lightning technicians are just some of them. At Track Seven Events, we are full-blown event designers and we’ve got everything you’ll need for a spectacular event all under one roof! That’s why so many of our clients return for all of their event needs; we’ll work closely with you to plan and design the event from top to bottom. As we work with our clients, we stay laser-focused on understanding just what their goals are for the event, and together we create a thoughtful and creative strategy to achieve that goal. Whether it’s going to be the bat mitzvah of the year, a spectacular wedding, or a product launch party, we treat each and every client like they are the only one. Our services range from lighting, theme and décor, DJ services and everything else in between. As a premier Atlanta event management company offering full-service event design, we know that your event is an investment of time, money, and energy. If you’ve got a theme in mind, tell us – we aren’t afraid to get to work on building you custom props, furniture, and bars! And, if it’s something like we’ve worked on before, you might even want to come check out our warehouse of custom builds we’ve done over the years – it’s set up just like a show room and our clients are welcome to look around it! At Track Seven Events, we know that the success of our business relies more than on just numbers. Sure, numbers make all the difference on the balance sheet, but there’s a lot more to building a successful full-service event production company than just getting your clients to pay you.
The events industry is all about service and overall experience, and that’s where we place all of our attention. We put everything we’ve got into designing the perfect event for all of our clients, right down to every last detail. It doesn’t matter if it is a bat mitzvah for a young girl, a lavish wedding, or a product launch party. Our clients come first, and we treat each and every event as if it were the only event we are producing. Our success at Track Seven is all about our clients. We take pride in the fact that we are able to cultivate strong relationships with all of our clients – and many of them feel the same way as they come back to us for all of their special events! When we meet a new client – or when we’re working with an old favorite – we begin the production process the same way: we listen to your needs. We need to have a full understanding of the type of event you are hosting. And we will ask questions. What impression do you want to make? What sort of experience are you going after? Is there a target audience? The right foundation for the event is everything, and you can’t get that without really sitting down and working closely with the client. Once we’ve got that solid base, it’s time for our clients to relax and let us get to work. It’s our job to make sure everything is perfect, from the lighting and ambience, to the sound system, to the event theme. We are in this business to make memories. In the event design industry, innovation is essential. It is the driving force behind success. But when it comes to planning and designing corporate events, things can start to feel a little stale. The problem with that, of course, is that no client likes a stale product – especially when they pay good money for it.
As an event designer, you know all too well just how important it is to keep your clients happy. When you’ve pleased your corporate clients, it often leads to lots more work. Corporate clients talk to their colleagues and associates and they may even hire you for their personal events. If you deliver something that is anything less than spectacular, you’re probably not going to get that repeat business. So, how do you really plan an innovative corporate event? It doesn’t mean that you have to give up on every tried-and-true approach to planning such an event. But it does mean that you should reinvent some of your approaches and design tactics. An innovative corporate event may still follow some of the same principles and design methods as a traditional one. However, a truly innovative corporate event will wow the attendees through an imaginative event style interpretation. For example, many corporate events involve guest speakers, but why not supplement that portion with interactive audience engagement and advanced event technology? Have a serious chat with your client as to what they expect from you – and perhaps even discuss the content that they plan to share, as you might get some inspiration! The key is to always keep your ideas fresh. Sure, you may have a corporate client that needs your services for their annual industry conference, but it is up to you to make sure the overall experience is unique and memorable. If you deliver the same old boring conference design, chances are you won’t be working with that client next year. As an event design professional, you may have noticed that the market is changing – a lot. When a market evolves as drastically as the event space has, professionals really need to take a step back and reassess their approach. So, if you want to stay relevant in today’s event management market, it may be high time you reinvent your events.
What does this mean, really? The first thing you have to do is take a long, hard look at the world around you. It’s very different than it was just a decade ago, and that means people are interested in a different kind of event. While we can’t tell you how to reinvent yourself, we can let you in on a few industry secrets – the driving forces behind the changes in the market. Read on to get a handle on these, then take that knowledge and apply it to how you approach event design. When it comes to corporate events in particular, the demographic for event attendees is very different than it was just a few years ago. Today, people are working into their later years and technology has changed in leaps and bounds. It’s even acceptable to be on your phone or tablet in the presence of other people during an event. As an event professional, you have to stay aware regarding what audience and client expectations are. The event industry has always been a service-based industry with a focus on the attendee experience. However, this is now truer than ever. We live in a world of experience economy – the days of a simple transaction are gone. Today, it is all about a purely customized experience. As an event professional, you absolutely must deliver on the expectations of the audience and your client and always remember that no two clients – or events – are exactly alike. If your client has asked you to plan their special event in a private residence, don’t fret. In fact, you should go ahead and get excited! Planning a private-residence event can be exciting and challenging.
If you have been hired to plan and design an event in someone’s home, there are some things you will need to consider:
Of course, these are not all the considerations that you’ll need to make when planning an event at someone’s home, but they should point you in the right direction. Over the years, we’ve definitely noticed that the world of corporate events, non-profit meetings and social events has changed drastically – even since we founded Track Seven Events.
In our opinion, the event industry has changed for the better, thanks to evolving trends, social media, and technological improvements. We love seeing how the needs and expectations of our clients and their event attendees have changed as we evolve with the industry. We think evolution is a critical part of succeeding within the saturated events market. Everyday it seems that more event professionals are popping up, and we welcome the competition and challenges that come with that. It has been our evolution as event professionals that has kept us relevant and on the cutting edge of the industry. So, how have we at Track Seven Events learned and evolved over the years? As in the case of anything that evolves, it has taken lots of time and experience – trial and error, so to speak. With each event that we’ve designed, planned and produced, we've learned something new. And even though we consider ourselves true event professionals and experts in our field, we believe that we’ll never stop learning! We welcome event technology, and work to incorporate it into all of our endeavors, from creating elaborate lighting schemes and technical effects to event scouting and creating custom-built décor, and offering crisp sound and audio-visual support at all of our events. An event is an investment of both time and money – and it is something we take very seriously. At Track Seven Events, we strive to deliver stress-free professional and personalized service, and as our returning clients can tell you, we do so gracefully and with ease. Don’t hesitate to contact us for a consultation for your next event – let us make memories with you. At Track Seven Events, we strive to plan and design events that our clients love. Because that’s what we love.
We believe that every event is an investment of time and money. No event is too big or too small – and we approach each event with a fresh perspective and the same goals – to make it a memorable and unique experience that our clients will cherish forever. So, how do we achieve this goal? First and foremost, we make our events really stand out. While many event management companies find this to be daunting in today’s saturated event market, we view it as an exciting challenge. This challenge keeps us creative, organized, and always reaching for the stars. We work to make our events stand out by asking ourselves some really important questions when it comes to how unique the event is. And it really helps: it helps us keep things fresh and original – something our clients appreciate and come back for year after year. Here’s our approach:
At Track Seven Events, we know you want the most from your event – and you should get even more. That’s what we do and it’s why our events really stand out. As an event professional, you probably do not need us to tell you that a lot of work goes into what you do each day. When something comes along that makes your job a little easier, you want to hear about it, right?
Successful event planners are always on the lookout for more effective ways to get through their daily operations. Event planning and design isn’t just about making pretty props and setting up colorful lights; it takes meticulous time-management skills and plenty of organization. Whether you want to give your event management company a full transformation or just tweak a few areas that need a little improvement, here are some great apps we think you will appreciate.
A good event vendor not only gets the job done, they do so on time, within (or under!) budget and they will always have a back-up plan, just in case. As an Atlanta event management professional, your clients expect you to ensure that all vendors you’ve hired do just that. However, if you work with a bad event vendor, you’re setting yourself – and your events – up for failure.
All events rely on organized, trustworthy, and reliable vendors to keep things running smoothly for the duration. If even one vendor makes a mistake, it can have an effect on every aspect of the event, even if the two seem unrelated at a glance. If you are new to the event planning industry, vetting vendors can be daunting. In fact, it can be tough even for seasoned professionals. However, it is something you’ve got to do – and you won’t be sorry that in doing so, you’re building a list of reliable vendors with whom you can cultivate solid relationships. So, if you want to avoid working with bad event vendors, there are some things you really need to keep in mind. Here are just a few:
Remember: you want to build a network of vendors that you can work with again and again. Don’t sell yourself short just to save a buck and a little bit of time. You need to have strong, solid vendors on your team! |
Behind-the-Scenes with an Event OrganizerAuthorTrack 7 Events Archives
September 2016
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