Today I drove to Kansas City (about two hours away) to visit my favorite paper store. It would be better if I could find a good paper store here in Columbia or closer than 120 miles away, but we make do with what we must.
I went because I needed paper for invitations. Yes, many events now handle all invitations electronically, but there is still no substitute -- in terms of sending a message of quality and class - for paper. In addition to the class issue, people also still pay a lot more attention to high quality, mailed paper invitations than they do to electronic. Paper will increase your response rate (and their is no reason not to couple paper invitations with electronic follow-up).
With that settled, the big issue is cost. We must provide high quality at the lowest cost possible.
For me, the answer is typically to print my own invitations on nice stock that I've bought at a bulk paper store. Doing this also shortens the printing time (since printers typically take a week or two to do what I can do in an afternoon).
Even with the cost of gas, if I several jobs worth of paper at at a time, going to the Kansas City store is a worthile expenditure of both money and time.
- sean
Sean Spence
Community Events
www.commevents.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Get the money in the door
For a long time, I was a fulltime political professional, doing a lot of fundraising. I still do quite a bit. Today, I had a meeting with a gentleman who is chairing a fundraiser for a candidate.
In fundraising, all that matters is getting the money in the door. In this case, we have a June 30th filing deadline with the state -- everything we do is focused on raising every dollar we can by that date.
Originally, this fundraising event was scheduled for the last week of June, to accomodate our deadline. When I arrived, the host told me he needed to move it to early July. Ugh. You'd think that the change of a week or so wouldn't matter, but all that matters in fundraising is getting the money in the door. And if there is a deadline involved (because of a state filing, or a bill that is due, or whatever) then nothing else matters.
My initial response was to make an effort to shift us back to June, but it was quickly apparent that this couldn't happen.
So here's the salvage plan -- we'll send the invitations on June 18th. That's three weekends before the event (right in the 2-3 weekend timeframe that is best for event invitations). Importantly, it will give us almost two weeks to collect money that can apply to the June 30th deadline. In the invitations, we can include a line like, "Contributions received by June 30th will be particularly helpful." And we can focus on the deadline in follow-up calls and details.
None of this will make it as good as if the event itself were scheduled earlier, but it might just be good enough.
- sean
Sean Spence
Community Events
www.commevent.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308
In fundraising, all that matters is getting the money in the door. In this case, we have a June 30th filing deadline with the state -- everything we do is focused on raising every dollar we can by that date.
Originally, this fundraising event was scheduled for the last week of June, to accomodate our deadline. When I arrived, the host told me he needed to move it to early July. Ugh. You'd think that the change of a week or so wouldn't matter, but all that matters in fundraising is getting the money in the door. And if there is a deadline involved (because of a state filing, or a bill that is due, or whatever) then nothing else matters.
My initial response was to make an effort to shift us back to June, but it was quickly apparent that this couldn't happen.
So here's the salvage plan -- we'll send the invitations on June 18th. That's three weekends before the event (right in the 2-3 weekend timeframe that is best for event invitations). Importantly, it will give us almost two weeks to collect money that can apply to the June 30th deadline. In the invitations, we can include a line like, "Contributions received by June 30th will be particularly helpful." And we can focus on the deadline in follow-up calls and details.
None of this will make it as good as if the event itself were scheduled earlier, but it might just be good enough.
- sean
Sean Spence
Community Events
www.commevent.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Keep it short
One of the best ways to increase the chances of a successful event is to keep it short. Think about how much time events of a similar sort usually are and then cut it by 25-50%.
The event we did tonight was a business awards dinner. Two hours or longer is an average length for this kind of thing -- three hours or more is not unheard of.
Our event started at 6:30 and was over just before 8:00. In terms of the program, this included presentation of several awards and three speakers -- one scheduled for ten minutes, one for five minutes and the third one for two minutes. With the speakers, we emphasized the importance of staying on schedule at least three different times, verbally and in writing. This message was also driven home with the MC, who was inclined toward brevity, anyway.
Still, leaving nothing to chance, I stood at the back of the room, in the direct line of sight for the speakers, and they knew that if I stepped forward, that meant it was time to wrap up, immediately. All three had assured me that this would not be necessary because there was no way they would exceed their alotted time; for all three, giving the signal was absolutely necessary, and absolutely worked.
Streamlining the events does several things. It shows attendees and everyone else that we value their time. It gives little time for attendees to think of other things they could be doing, and forces speakers to use their best material.
In all cases, I would rather leave my guests wanting more, instead of wondering why that event couldn't have ended just fifteen minutes earlier.
- sean
Sean Spence
Community Events
www.commevents.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308
The event we did tonight was a business awards dinner. Two hours or longer is an average length for this kind of thing -- three hours or more is not unheard of.
Our event started at 6:30 and was over just before 8:00. In terms of the program, this included presentation of several awards and three speakers -- one scheduled for ten minutes, one for five minutes and the third one for two minutes. With the speakers, we emphasized the importance of staying on schedule at least three different times, verbally and in writing. This message was also driven home with the MC, who was inclined toward brevity, anyway.
Still, leaving nothing to chance, I stood at the back of the room, in the direct line of sight for the speakers, and they knew that if I stepped forward, that meant it was time to wrap up, immediately. All three had assured me that this would not be necessary because there was no way they would exceed their alotted time; for all three, giving the signal was absolutely necessary, and absolutely worked.
Streamlining the events does several things. It shows attendees and everyone else that we value their time. It gives little time for attendees to think of other things they could be doing, and forces speakers to use their best material.
In all cases, I would rather leave my guests wanting more, instead of wondering why that event couldn't have ended just fifteen minutes earlier.
- sean
Sean Spence
Community Events
www.commevents.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308
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