With Scott Shepard from SDG Events (Wing-A-Rama)

Overview

In this episode we chat to Scott Shepard from SDG Events, who talks about coordinating the multi-city food festival Wing-A-Rama. Scott discusses the importance of ensuring the event offers value to his three key stakeholder groups; restaurant vendors, sponsors and event attendees. He also shares his experience growing from a single city to multi-city event, and the challenges of expanding into new markets.

Listen now or read the show notes below

About Scott

Scott Shepard is Co-founder and Partner of SDG Events, which is the company behind Wing-a-rama. 2019 is Scotts 3rd year running this annual event which has expanded to now be in Austin, Dallas and Houston. Scott comes from a legal background working as an entertainment attorney.    

Topics

About Wing-A-Rama

Wing-a-rama is a specialized food festival with 20 different restaurant vendors competing for the title of best wings in the city. An event ticket gets attendees all you can eat wings and wing inspired food. Attendees vote on the best wing and best inspired dish, with one restaurant taking home the bragging rights. They also have a wing eating competition with a giant wrestling style belt for the winner (to hold their stomach in).

Attracting Restaurant Participation – What’s in it for them?

Ultimately its about customer acquisition. The event provides exposure for participating restaurants through pre-event promotion and event day engagement. The event is a chance to reach a large number of potential customers in the community at one time, who have come specifically to taste their food.  

The winning vendor has great bragging rights, voted by the community as having the best chicken wings in Austin.

Challenges of Launching into New Markets

The event started out as Austin Wingfest, and has expanded to other markets and rebranded as Wing-a-rama.

It became clear that even within the same state, the buyer behaviour is different. You have to know your market, the customer base and their different buying habits. For example, due to the unpredictability of Houston’s weather, people leave it to the very last minute to buy tickets. This is nerve wracking as an event organizer, but if you know your market you can plan for it accordingly. Knowing you’re going to experience a sudden demand for tickets at the last minute is important. Wing-a-rama in Houston for example sold out fast, but only in the last 36 hours.

Other important aspects of running events in different cities is that each city has its own local rules, laws and regulations. It’s important to be across these things in the local market and not to assume they will be the same.  

When and Where?

One of the biggest event challenges in Austin is calendar availability and location options. There are so many events and food festivals going on, you have to take that into consideration. Because Wing-a-rama is now a more established event, they have the credibility to gain access to premier event locations.   

Know Your Customer

According to Scott, one of the most important things you can learn is to always put yourself in the mind of your customer. Wing-a-rama has two key customer types, the vendor restaurants and the event attendees. Keeping them both in mind is important.

A common frustration for food festivals is long lines and waiting for food. It’s frustrating for attendees and also vendors that have to deal with frustrated attendees. Scott tried to look for ways to reduce lines. This included an early bird ticket at a premium cost, what allows some patrons to get in an hour early to access food. This helps to break up some of the congestion.    They are also trying things like having beer carts serving drinks to people while they are in line waiting for food. At least they are kept refreshed while in line and don’t have to line up again for drinks.

Evolving the Event

Each year Wing-a-rama looks for ways to take the event to the next level. This year they will be hosting a podcast from the festival, talking about everything that is going on. They continue to look for more ways to interact with people at the event, aside from eating food. The voting competition and the eating contests are a couple of those initiatives.  

Event Sponsorships

When it comes to sponsorships, lead time is vital. A lot of sponsors have their budget allocated 12 months out, so you have to plan early. Wing-a-rama are talking to potential sponsors at this years event ready for next years event.

Brands are looking for opportunities for attendees to engage with them at the event. Identifying ways to facilitate brand activations is hugely valuable. Being able to sell a creative engagement idea to a sponsor is much more valuable than saying, we will slap your logo on a banner.

Maintaining the attention of an audience and getting them to retain information is hard, particularly with all the messages and distractions available today. Gamification is a great method for increasing engagement. When implemented correctly triggers emotions associated with a positive user experience and can influence human behavior.

People by nature are programmed to enjoy games, usually because they’re fun, social, competitive or challenging. We associate games with childhood, play and entertainment. Various businesses, educators, marketers and event organizers have taken this concept of game play and integrated it into other activities, to encourage interaction with content or an experience. This method is valuable because it creates a more immersive experience rather than a passive one.

In order for event attendees to have a positive and memorable experience you need them to have an engaging experience. This is where gamification comes into play.  

What is Gamification?

Gamification simply integrates the familiar elements of game play, such as competition, point scoring and rules of play, into other areas of activity. This can be used as part of a marketing strategy, in learning environments, or at events to increase engagement with a product, service or brand. The goal of gamification is to get people involved and engaged in an experience. Including familiar game elements makes it fun and easier to elicit participation.

Examples of gamification elements:

• Clear rules of play
• Reward structure – Incentives/awards/badges
• Competition
• Point scoring
• Leaderboards
• Challenges / levels
• Virtual currency
• Avatars

Why is Gamification Valuable?

People who have a higher level of engagement with an experience are more likely to:

1. Remember it.
2. Have a positive association attached to it (and the brand/product/service).
3. Talk about and share that experience with others.

When implemented correctly gamification has the power to:

• Change behavior by engaging an audience around an identified set of behaviors.
• Enhance learning and skills development through a more interactive and immersive learning experience.
• Encourage innovation by creating an environment where participants can collaborate, experiment and problem solve.

Before Getting Started

It’s important to consider your goal/objectives and your audience before attempting to incorporate gamification into your event strategy. It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole and lose sight of what you’re trying to achieve. Ask yourself:

1. What is the goal? What are you hoping to achieve through the engagement? What are the key outcomes that would enable you to measure the success of this goal?
2. Who is your audience? Be clear about who your audience is. Understand the people you are trying to engage. What technologies are they familiar with? What types of activities do they enjoy participating in.  
3. What is most likely to appeal to and engage your audience? Different audiences will be engaged by different tools and methods. It isn’t a one size fits all approach and it’s not about what interests you. There are various ways of incorporating gamification into your event. Carefully consider what your target audience is likely to be most responsive to.

Build Your Experience

Once you’re clear about the steps above, next you can build an experience that will engage your audience and achieve your desired outcomes. There are a variety of different tools and methods you can use, but you need to identify what will work best for your audience and help you reach the desired outcomes.

Gamification lends itself well to recording and measuring intended behaviour, which allows you to effectively evaluate the event or activity. However you need to be clear about what those metrics are. You can’t just run a fun game and say, everyone seemed to enjoy it. How is the interaction achieving your objectives and how are you assessing engagement?

There are a number of companies and apps that can help you create an interactive experience, from trivia to live interaction at a conference or event. Mobile devices and in particular smartphones are key to gamification at events, allowing you to use apps to engage an audience.

How to Incorporate Gamification (including great tools!)

Conferences and Expos

Conferences and expos use gamification to encourage key event goals such as networking, session attendance and interactions with booths and exhibitors. Customizable interactive experiences can be a great way to do this, using apps like EventMobi, The Go Game or SCANVenger Hunt. Attendees can receive points for desired behaviors such as check-ins or answering questions. Prizes can be redeemed with a certain number of points or when a position on the leaderboard is reached. Scavenger hunts with scannable QR codes at various stations can be used to get clues about where to go.

Presentations

Creating fun opportunities for participation is a great way to keep your audience engaged during a presentation. No one wants to sit through a boring lecture. Turing a passive audience into active participants by incorporating gamification, is a game changer for gaining and retaining attention during a presentation. There should always be at least one interactive element included. CatchBox is one option that takes the boring old crowd mic to the next level. What says fun more than throwing a colorful padded microphone cube around the room.  

An app like Kahoot specializes in creating your own quizzes. This can be used in many different ways for all kinds of events. You can ask multiple choice questions during a presentation to gain immediate audience feedback or challenge them to guess an answer. You could ask the audience to vote on what topic they want you to focus on. Alternatively, participants could be asked to answer short quiz questions at the end of a presentation, to show they understand key concepts.  

LiveTweetApp and EverWall are great tools to create a Social Wall (with Twitter or Instagram) to help you increase social interactions at your event. You can use these tools to search, moderate and display social media posts on a screen at your event. You could ask questions or poll attendees and get their real time responses via Twitter and Instagram for you to display. This both benefits the event engagement and social promotion.   

Learning and Training Environments

Gamification has been used extensively in formal and informal learning environments. From university learning and e-courses, to a mobile app that turns learning a language into a game. It is also used in staff on-boarding and training, designed to be more interesting and fun so that staff will engage and retain the information. The ability to earn badges are a popular way to encourage people to progress through learning levels, OpenBadges is one organization that facilitates this.   

Workplace Engagement

Gamification is used to encourage workplace engagement. Organizations use different methods and tools to encourage desired behaviors they want to see in their organization. This could be facilitated staff events and team building exercises to encourage collaboration, or a gamified employee recognition and rewards software program such as Redii.

Marketing Campaigns

Gamification can be incorporated into marketing campaigns to get an audience to participate in the promotion. Loyalty programs are a classic example of this. The McDonald’s Monopoly Game promotion is another popular example with the tagline – ‘The simple joy of being a winner’. Burger King just launched a new campaign that incorporates augmented reality and gamification. Burger King will give you a free whopper if you Set Competitors Ads on ‘FIRE’.

The Final Word

There are many ways gamification can be incorporated into your strategy, regardless of the type of event or business you have. It’s all about getting people to become involved participants in an experience. Start by being clear about your audience and objectives, before creating an event experience or implementing apps and tools. When it comes to incorporating gamification into your events, the strategy determines the game, not the other way around.

Lacy Roesler from Austin Chamber of Commerce

Overview

Gain a deeper insight on event planning for a large Chamber of Commerce membership based organization.  Lacy Roesler, Manager of Partner Events and Engagement at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, talks to us about the wide range of events and initiatives she manages for the chamber. She shares insights from her extensive background in event management including working at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.

Listen now or read the show notes below.

About Lacy Roesler

Lacy Roesler has an extensive background in event management including working at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Lacy is currently the Manager of Partner Events and Engagement at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Lacy is team leader on all Chamber events, from large signature and advocacy events, to networking socials and member engagement opportunities. Lacy manages event budgeting; managing the bidding processes and RFPs for audio visual, food & beverage, and venue selection; logistics; speaker and sponsor coordination; all day-of event logistics execution, and registration.

Topics

To step up and learn fast – get a mentor

Lacy talks about one of her early event management roles at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. An opportunity arose for her to step up into a management position, which was out of her comfort zone in terms of experience. Lacy engaged the help of an experienced mentor with key insights, who could provide guidance as she learnt fast on the job.

Austin Chamber of Commerce Events

The Austin Chamber of Commerce creates events to engage with businesses and the community. As a membership based organization it provides opportunities for people to network and make connections and find new clients. The Chamber hosts events large and small, from receptions, networking events, award ceremonies, member engagement events, educational and panel events. Some of these include:

• Power Up Austin Series, which consists of Power Up Austin Women events and Power Up Austin Tech events.
• Austin A-list Awards hosted in conjunction with SXSW, recognizing the most innovative homegrown companies coming out of Austin. Ticketbud is excited to have been nominated for the 2019 Austin A-List Awards.
• Greater Austin Business Awards recognizes the great work local businesses are doing.
• Austin Gives Generous Awards recognizes philanthropy in business.

Business to Business Events

While there are similarities in the event planning process across all events, there are differences to consider when planning a business to business event. Lacy highlights some key additional considerations.

• Timing – A B2B luncheon is generally advised not to run longer than an hour and a half, as people have to take time out of work. Events starting at 4pm are often a good time for business events, so people can leave work a little early but it doesn’t completely cut into their personal time.
• Venue/Location – Make the location somewhere convenient and easy for most people to get to. Is there parking? Find out the availability for your venue options before setting a date!
• Calendar – Be aware of what other events and occasions are on in your city at the same time, especially any that may conflict with your target audience. Even when an event is unrelated to your audience, it may have implications such as road closures or booked hotels. When you work in events, it’s always good to be aware of other events in the calendar.

Request For Proposal (RFP)

Requests For Proposals (RFPs) can be put out for different suppliers and providers involved in your event. This can be something that is done on a per event basis or across all events. The main RFPs that the Chamber does is with hotels, which is usually the first round of RFPs for one of their events. This includes comparing date availability and package deals for the number of rooms and venue space needed. Other RFPs can be for anything from printed programs, physical awards, AV providers and other suppliers.

Event Promotion

As part of the event planning process there will generally be a kickoff meeting with the digital marketing communications team to work out a marketing plan. For the Austin Chamber of Commerce this might include a combination of channels such as:

• Identifying relevant partner organisations who can help promote
• Email blasts
• Invite only events
• Blog posts
• Social media
• Austin Statesman (Newspaper) – homepage takeovers and print ads
• KVUE (TV station) – advertisements

Lacy’s Quick Tips for Event Organizers

Get your timeline right!

Give yourself enough time. On event day, make sure setup happens early and staff arrive early. Ensure you build in enough time to set up, test equipment and brief staff. Anything can go wrong with events and you want to have enough time to respond to it thoughtfully, rather than be in a mad panic at the last minute. Give yourself buffer time, it can mean the difference between finding a good solution or having to cut something completely.

Use an event management tool

Lacy recommends Asana or using a spreadsheet if you need to, but find tools to make the planning process easier. Event management tools are also great for making sure everyone in the team knows what’s going on

Great Advice

Lacy shares how event planning can be intense and stressful. Experienced event organizers know this and generally try to give you good advice. Lacy says she has been lucky to receive great advice early and throughout her career.

Given how stressful events can sometimes be, Lacy says self care is really important to prioritize as an events manager. Make sure you look after your body, take multivitamins, do some exercise, decompress at night and get enough sleep!

Lacy Roesler from Austin Chamber of Commerce

Overview

Gain a deeper insight on event planning for a large Chamber of Commerce membership based organization.  Lacy Roesler, Manager of Partner Events and Engagement at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, talks to us about the wide range of events and initiatives she manages for the chamber. She shares insights from her extensive background in event management including working at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
Listen now or read the show notes below.

About Lacy Roesler

Lacy Roesler has an extensive background in event management including working at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Lacy is currently the Manager of Partner Events and Engagement at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Lacy is team leader on all Chamber events, from large signature and advocacy events, to networking socials and member engagement opportunities. Lacy manages event budgeting; managing the bidding processes and RFPs for audio visual, food & beverage, and venue selection; logistics; speaker and sponsor coordination; all day-of event logistics execution, and registration.

Topics

To step up and learn fast – get a mentor

Lacy talks about one of her early event management roles at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. An opportunity arose for her to step up into a management position, which was out of her comfort zone in terms of experience. Lacy engaged the help of an experienced mentor with key insights, who could provide guidance as she learnt fast on the job.

Austin Chamber of Commerce Events

The Austin Chamber of Commerce creates events to engage with businesses and the community. As a membership based organization it provides opportunities for people to network and make connections and find new clients. The Chamber hosts events large and small, from receptions, networking events, award ceremonies, member engagement events, educational and panel events. Some of these include:

• Power Up Austin Series, which consists of Power Up Austin Women events and Power Up Austin Tech events.
• Austin A-list Awards hosted in conjunction with SXSW, recognizing the most innovative homegrown companies coming out of Austin. Ticketbud is excited to have been nominated for the 2019 Austin A-List Awards.
• Greater Austin Business Awards recognizes the great work local businesses are doing.
• Austin Gives Generous Awards recognizes philanthropy in business.

Business to Business Events

While there are similarities in the event planning process across all events, there are differences to consider when planning a business to business event. Lacy highlights some key additional considerations.

• Timing – A B2B luncheon is generally advised not to run longer than an hour and a half, as people have to take time out of work. Events starting at 4pm are often a good time for business events, so people can leave work a little early but it doesn’t completely cut into their personal time.
• Venue/Location – Make the location somewhere convenient and easy for most people to get to. Is there parking? Find out the availability for your venue options before setting a date!
• Calendar – Be aware of what other events and occasions are on in your city at the same time, especially any that may conflict with your target audience. Even when an event is unrelated to your audience, it may have implications such as road closures or booked hotels. When you work in events, it’s always good to be aware of other events in the calendar.

Request For Proposal (RFP)

Requests For Proposals (RFPs) can be put out for different suppliers and providers involved in your event. This can be something that is done on a per event basis or across all events. The main RFPs that the Chamber does is with hotels, which is usually the first round of RFPs for one of their events. This includes comparing date availability and package deals for the number of rooms and venue space needed. Other RFPs can be for anything from printed programs, physical awards, AV providers and other suppliers.

Event Promotion

As part of the event planning process there will generally be a kickoff meeting with the digital marketing communications team to work out a marketing plan. For the Austin Chamber of Commerce this might include a combination of channels such as:

• Identifying relevant partner organisations who can help promote
• Email blasts
• Invite only events
• Blog posts
• Social media
• Austin Statesman (Newspaper) – homepage takeovers and print ads
• KVUE (TV station) – advertisements

Lacy’s Quick Tips for Event Organizers

Get your timeline right!
Give yourself enough time. On event day, make sure setup happens early and staff arrive early. Ensure you build in enough time to set up, test equipment and brief staff. Anything can go wrong with events and you want to have enough time to respond to it thoughtfully, rather than be in a mad panic at the last minute. Give yourself buffer time, it can mean the difference between finding a good solution or having to cut something completely.
Use an event management tool
Lacy recommends Asana or using a spreadsheet if you need to, but find tools to make the planning process easier. Event management tools are also great for making sure everyone in the team knows what’s going on
Great Advice
Lacy shares how event planning can be intense and stressful. Experienced event organizers know this and generally try to give you good advice. Lacy says she has been lucky to receive great advice early and throughout her career.
Given how stressful events can sometimes be, Lacy says self care is really important to prioritize as an events manager. Make sure you look after your body, take multivitamins, do some exercise, decompress at night and get enough sleep!

Overview

The Ticketbud Tidbits Episode 16 Podcast is with Ever Gonzalez, the Founder of OutlierHQ and organizer of the Outlier Podcast Festival. Hosted by Lisa Carson, Ticketbud Content Marketing Manager.

Ticketbud catches up with Ever to chat about the Outlier Podcast Festival coming up in Austin in May and Denver in June. We talk about what makes this festival different and the ingredients for  a great event. Ever shares what goes into coordinating a traveling festival and engaging with local markets. As well as tips for new podcasters and how a podcast can be a great vehicle for you brand.   

Listen Now or read the key highlights below.

About Ever Gonzalez

Ever Gonzalez is the Founder of OutlierHQ, a media and events company that helps entrepreneurs start, grow, and scale their business. Ever is the host of Outlier On Air, a weekly podcast with over 400 episodes, interviewing Founders, Disrupters, and Mavens. Ever and his company have organized over 200 events including entrepreneur and business networking events. Ever created and organizes the Outlier Podcast Festival which is in its second year, travelling across the US. Ever and the OutlierHQ team are excited to visit cities with unique podcasting communities.

Event: Outlier Podcast Festival

The Outlier Podcast Festival is an event where podcasters and digital influencers gather to learn, network, and connect in real life. It’s a festival full of speakers, workshops, breakout sessions, live shows and more. If you’re interested in podcasting or looking to grow as a digital influencer then you won’t want to miss this.

This event is for outliers. People who are doing things a bit differently or people who are underrepresented in podcasting. It’s about highlighting and celebrate what the outliers are doing.

TOPICS:

Event sponsorships and leveraging smaller events to grow your business

Ever talks about capping event attendance to better facilitate engagement. He keeps his events smaller to create an environment for speakers and attendees to interact. It also allows sponsors to get up close with clients and potential clients, to develop relationships and gain direct feedback. Ever suggests that sponsoring smaller events is a great opportunity for businesses to get great value through putting a face to your brand. You can have more impact than sponsor banners, you can really get involved with your prospective clients.

The key ingredients for a great event

For OutlierHQ, events are all about building a community. For the Outlier Podcast Festival, which is a traveling event, a key ingredient is finding podcasting leaders in each city the festival visits. Ever talks about reaching out and connecting with local podcasters to be involved. He shares how the locals in each city can give you great advice and feedback. They will tell you what will work in that market, who you should be talking to, and how to tailor an event specific to that community. The goal is to offer great content and experiences, and set everything up so that people are able to make true lasting connections.

Where to start with event planning

When it comes to planning, Ever starts with the big picture. Asking the question, what do you want the attendees to walk away with? Next you pick a theme and then it’s all about finding great speakers. Yes you need food and drinks and things like that, but the speakers connecting with the audience is what makes a great event. Is the content on the stage good enough to help and inspire. It’s about ensuring people learn something and are provided with networking opportunities to create community.

What was Outlier looking for in a Ticketing Partner?

Ever explains that the reason they chose Ticketbud to be their ticketing partner is because Ticketbud aligns with their brand. Ticketbud is the Outlier, a startup that’s doing things a little differently. Ticketbud is about building partnerships and offering genuine customer service. Ever was thrilled to discover that Ticketbud offers early payouts, so you don’t have to wait until after your event to get paid. It is a huge benefit for event organizers to be able to access their funds sooner to cover upfront costs.

How can podcasting be great for your brand?

Having an established podcast makes it easier when reaching out to people you want to work with. Outlier On Air is now a global brand with over 400 episodes. This makes it easier for Ever to open discussions with founders and CEOs, the first thing it does is get you through the door to have a conversation. The podcast has facilitated the building of partnerships and relationships. Many people who have been guests on the podcast, end up working with OutlierHQ or participating in an event.

Tips for new podcasters

Focus on putting out good content. But don’t wait for the perfect equipment, script or guest. Ever recommends getting started sooner rather than later. The barrier for entry for podcasting at this point is really low. You just need a laptop, free recording software such as Audacity and some earbuds. Eventually you can upgrade to fancy microphones and equipment. However getting started and gaining experience that you can learn from and build on is incredibly valuable. Most importantly, it’s about not missing an opportunity.

Ever says, if you’re not embarrassed by your early podcasts, you’re not doing it right. The idea is to get better and better. As you develop a following, they go on that journey with you. That’s part of the experience.   

What advice do you wish you had been given early in your career?

Ever shares that he wishes he’d known about the value of playing to your strengths. It’s easy to get distracted by all the possibilities. Be true to the brand and your personal skill set. While it’s great to learn different things, you should double down on your strengths and what makes you unique. Find a niche! Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Refining that niche is where things started to really come together for Ever and OutlierHQ.  

Ever says, find out who your are, what you like and what you’re good at. Focus on that. Be known for that.

Get tickets now for Outlier Podcast Festival

Austin – May 17 & 18

Denver – July 12 & 13

There are endless event experiences your business could host, with success depending very much on what fits your brand and target audience. Having a clear goal and understanding your key customer base is vital for successful events. It allows you to focus your efforts to offer experiences that appeal to your target audience.

What is Your Event Goal?

• Is it an event designed to have immediate profitable impact? Such as a fundraiser.
• Is it an experience designed to get people to try your venue?
• Is it more about engagement and building affinity with your brand?
• Is the event about community building?
• Is your priority to build a database you can market to?

These are different goals and you may be aiming to achieve more than one. However the key to your event planning is being clear about what you want to get out of an event.

Who Are You Targeting?

Equally important to having a clearly defined goal is knowing exactly who you are targeting. A generic event trying to appeal to everyone is a tough sell. Different events can be used to appeal to various segments of your target market. Think about who you really want to draw in for this specific engagement. Who are these people? What do they like? What do they do? Who are their influencers? How can you tailor an event that they will love? The clearer you are about WHO the event is for, the better chance you have of creating an event they will truly engage with, remember and share.  

Another great option to spread your event profile even further is identifying and inviting social influencers with a large following that matches your target market.

Create an Engaging Event

Theme parties and happy hours have stood the test of time, but they don’t offer anything new. For this social media generation there are greater opportunities to connect with your audience on and offline. Today people want unique experiences that they can enjoy in person and share online. A simple happy hour doesn’t provide that opportunity.

The key to a good event experience is its ability to create an emotional response from attendees. If people connect with the experience they are more likely to remember it and share with others. The word of mouth value of a good experience is exponential. People love to share unique experiences. Create excitement, mystery or secrecy around your event. Give them something to interact with and share. Think instagram worthy! Make sure there’s a photo worthy opportunity at your event. Get creative with something unique and visually appealing.  

Offbeat Holiday Celebrations

There is a great opportunity for event venues and restaurants to capitalize on today’s perfect pairing; social media and obscure holidays. An event tied to the theme of an offbeat official holiday is a great opportunity to keep your eyes open for. Today (April 29) is International Dance Day. A Spanish restaurant for example, could hold a dinner and show event with traditional Flamenco performances. The themes present opportunities that you can interpret in a way that makes sense for your business and provides a unique experience for your customers.  

Take advantage of the myriad of holiday occasions throughout the year. For restaurants who have relationships with food and beverage resellers, why not get tequila sponsors in the door for National Tequila Day (July 24) and host a tasting, or hot dogs for National Hot Dog Day (July 17). There are also month long occasions like June’s Rose Month or August’s Family Fun Month. For more of these special holiday themes, check out our Mark Your Calendar article.

Who knows where all these quirky National and International holidays come from, but consider these new found days as an opportunity to let your creativity flow and attract foot traffic into your establishment.

Get Creating

You know your event goal, your target market and have thought about how to make your event unique and visually appealing for sharing socially. Apart from capitalizing on special holidays, what other unique event experiences could you create?

Here are some fun ideas to get the juices flowing:

RESTAURANTS

• Special tasting event – a tasting menu event is a great opportunity to invite people to sample new menu items.
• Curated dining experience around a rotating theme – a theme can be a great way to build interest around a dining experience. What about world dishes, with influences from specific cultures. If you are a restaurant already focused on a specific cuisine, what about a special dinner showcasing the different regional influences within that cuisine.   
• Dinner for the senses – Build a dining experience around the senses. Get people to smell, hear, touch, taste and see in an immersive dining experience.  
• Host a cooking demonstration – Bring in a guest chef to do a demonstration while your chef prepares the meals to follow. Break down a special dish with a tasting to follow. Give guests a recipe to take home.
• Dinner in the dark – this can be done in a darkened room or guests can be blindfolded. The idea is that eliminating sight from the equation, heightens the experience of the other senses.
• Social dining event – Host a social dining experience with pre-sold tickets. Guests could change tables at each course to meet new people. Organize icebreakers and things like a pot of fun questions on tables to encourage people to interact and get to know each other.    
• Date nights – don’t wait for Valentine’s day to get all loved up. Host special date nights where couples can share a romantic meal. Make these nights extra special with romantic music, a live performance or special package menu items for two. Partner with a spa and offer a spa package prize (their services can be promoted to everyone who attends). The lucky prize could be taped under a chair and revealed over dessert.   
• Charity events – Host an event and offer a portion of the proceeds to a local nonprofit that has meaning to your target audience.
• Girls night out – Host an event for friends to come together. Organise goodie bags, with giveaways or samples from complementary businesses.

VENUE SPACES

• Watch parties – Sports bars have a leg up because of built in access to pay-per-view for sporting events. However other entertainment watch parties can include anything from awards shows to Game of Thrones or The Bachelor.
• Trivia and bingo nights – These are an old favorite. How can you put a unique spin on one of these events? Combine an activity with a theme that people can also dress up for, like a specific decade or musical genre theme. Join us for Big Bang Bingo!
• Paint and wine/dine night – Cover your tables and get an artist to host a group painting class, with either drinks or a meal. This could be a popular date night for couples or fun for groups of friends.  
• Host a social games night – Promote a social games night where people are encouraged to meet new people and play games, while enjoying drinks and food. Have a host that is great at getting people to mingle.  
• Support a local team – invite local sporting teams to share a post game meal together with teammates and supporters.
• Host a workshop or course – lots of organisations host evening workshops and lessons that could be held in your venue. They bring in the people and host the event, you provide the space, food and drinks.

Get Planning

Whether you host an event around a special holiday theme or create a unique and engaging experience, there is a lot of room to get more creative with your events. Understand your target audience and create events specifically for them, with a sense of occasion, a unique theme or experience.

Whether you want to take registrations or sell tickets, using a free ticketing platform like Ticketbud can make the process much easier. There are so many added benefits and as the organizer it’s free to use. Within minutes you can have a great branded event page, a process for registering or selling tickets, and customer support for optimizing registrations and sales. One of our ticketing specialists can work with you on ticket programming to increase sales opportunities. Free events are free to host on the platform, and paid ticket events allow you to build the low transaction fee into the price of the ticket. This makes it free for the event organizer.

Get planning your next event experience and reach out to Ticketbud to help you maximize the success of your event.

Join Ticketbud Tidbids for a chat with Deidra Sibila, an expert in event ticketing. We talk to Deidra about event planning, the role of ticketing and ticket programming, dealing with the unexpected, and the importance of Event Protect ticket coverage for unexpected cancelations.

Listen to the podcast or read more below

About Deidra Sibila

Deidra has done it all from theatre events to concert tours and festivals. Deidra worked for Live Nation for 13 years including corporate touring as Senior National Director of Ticketing for Touring in North America. Deidra managed ticketing for major concert tours across the US, from Coldplay to Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Jay-Z. She has also managed ticketing for C3 Events, known for festivals such as ACL and Lollapalooza. Deidra now works as an independent contractor for festivals and events including local holiday favorite, the Austin Trail of Lights.

Event: Austin Trail of Lights, Holiday festival.

The Austin Trail of Lights is the largest holiday tradition in Austin and the 2nd largest event in the city. The annual event held in Zilker Park and run by the Trail of Lights Foundation, welcomes 400,000 people every year over two weeks in December. As you walk through the park you will see 2 million lights, and experience themed light displays. The family friendly event shares Austin music, food and holiday fun.

Unexpected Event Cancelation

Deidra talks about dealing with cancelled events from a ticketing perspective. There are always going to be unforeseen or unexpected reasons an event has to be cancelled. Mother nature doesn’t spare your carefully planned event, with anything from strong winds to flooding causing an event to be shut down. There are also other unexpected possibilities such as a major supplier falling through.
Different event insurance options are available and some can get quite expensive. Trail of Lights was Ticketbud’s pilot event for our new partnership with Event Protect. After researching options Ticketbud felt this was a simple and cost-effective way to protect ticket revenue by insuring the ticket transaction. This meant that when strong winds forced the Trail of Lights to be shut down one night, organizers were protected against that loss of revenue, and ticket buyers could quickly and easily get a refund for their ticket.

Event Protect

Ticketbud event organizers can now opt-in for Event Protect’s comprehensive ticket revenue protection. This coverage gets built into the ticket price and protects the full value of the ticket transaction.
Because organizers often have significant sunk costs leading up to an event. Event Protect minimizes the financial risk for organizers if their event gets cancelled.

Managing Unexpected Challenges

With events anything and everything can happen. Artist illness, fence jumpers, people who try to sneak in the gate. Sometimes the challenge is ensuring it’s quick and easy to communicate with attendees. That’s why it’s important to have a good system in place to be able to do that effectively.
When an event if cancelled due to bad weather it’s obvious to attendees why the event isn’t going ahead. But if you have to cancel because of flooding on a previous day that is now causing safety concerns (think water and electricity for a light show), that might be less clear to attendees when it otherwise looks like a perfect day.

The Role of Ticketing

We talk about how ticketing is the face of your event. It’s the first thing that people experience when signing up or buying a ticket, it’s part of the event communication process and it’s the first thing people experience when they arrive at your event. If they have to deal with ticketed parking that’s another layer. The ticketing experience is a huge part of the customer experience for any event.
The ticketing role is responsible for gate management and staffing, the box office, production elements and ensuring that the technical systems are in place and working, from scanners, to wi-fi and power.

Large Festival Event Planning and Key Roles in the Organizing Team

It’s important to have community buy-in, a solid ticketing partner and reliable vendors. You want team members who are working as a team to make it a great event and people who are calm under pressure.
Large events and festivals need gate managers to keep entrances under control, safety experts and of course customer service managers to look after all the customer enquiries.
Having a great marketing team is important and a good event website. It’s important to be able to build and segment your database, analyze event data and look for trends in the analytics. This helps you make better and more informed decisions for the next event and keep improving. A social media manager is important to keep people informed in real time about the event, especially when there are last minute notifications, often people will look to social media for updates.

Building a ‘Run of Show’

A ‘Run of Show is your event bible and is particularly important for large events and multiday festivals. It communicates everything that’s going to happen at the event, when it’s happening and who is responsible. It includes a build schedule, when different teams need to be on site, when deliveries are arriving and all the operational elements leading up to the day of the event.
On event day the Run of Show communicates when bump in starts, when doors are opening, when the show begins and details and timing for pack down. It provides clear communication so that everyone is on the same page because they are all reading from the one document. For ticketing and gate staff the Run of Show also enables them to be informed to answer attendee questions.

Ticketing Management

Ticketing is both an administration and operational role. You start with planning, setting up event pages, ticket programming and looking at purchase flow and ways to optimize. You have to consider volume expectations and high sales times. Then you also work on customer service documents, FAQs and staffing.
When you get on site its more of an operational role, setting the event up and checking gate flow, testing equipment, setting up logins and making sure the internet works.

Event Page Digital Experience and Purchase Flow

Ensuring a frictionless purchase flow and making it as easy as possible for people to buy tickets is a significant consideration. This includes having mobile optimized event and ticket sites. Buyer behavior is increasing shifting to mobile when researching and buying tickets for events.

The Importance of Ticket Programming

Ticket programming is about maximizing sales by offering different ticket types for various times and audiences. It includes things like early bird sales, the offer of cheaper pricing incentivizes people to buy sooner, which is ideal for planning, financing and for generating word of mouth buzz. VIP experiences allow you to charge a premium for a higher end experience to cater to a different end of the market, tiered parking is another version of that.

Event Day Logistics

On event day there are a lot of logistics to manage. What are current sales and inventory levels, what is the weather today, what are the event location conditions, to get a picture of what the day is going to bring.
Considering what the programming is for that day. What changes need to be made, does signage need to be changed, are different gates open, are special guests or sponsors expected on this day? Things like cash banks need to be prepared for on the door ticket sales, point of sale gets set up, and briefings need to happen with security and event staff.
Ticketbud is great for setting up logins per day. This is a different login per location, per day so you can see exactly where sales are coming from. It makes it much easier to track and reconcile sales data.

Gate Management Communication

Communication is important at any event, but particularly important for large events with high volumes of attendees. You need to have safety and emergency plans, as well as communication documents prior to the event so that everyone knows what to expect. Then when on site for event day, ensure there is a group meeting to re-clarify key information people need to know for their area.

Choosing a Ticketing Partner

Deidra talks about how valuable it is to work with a ticketing company that really is your partner. Having accessible staff that want to see your event be a success, with ongoing customer support.
Deidra recommends asking questions such as:   

• What is their event cancelation policy? What solutions can they offer you?
• Is their site mobile optimized?
• How detailed is the reporting and what information are you getting?
• Do ticket buyers have to create an account, how easy is it for people to buy a ticket?
• Do you have the flexibility for various ticket types which allows you to do effective ticket programming?
• Can you have access and promo codes for discounted or sponsor tickets?
• Can you customize the ticket information for different ticket types, such as a map relevant to that ticket?
• Can you communicate to a specific ticket type easily to send custom messages through the ticketing platform?
• What are people saying about them? Ask for recommendations.
• Do they have hardware available? How does that hardware work if things go offline?
• Are they willing to listen to your feedback as an event organizer and make improvements?

Join Ticketbud Tidbids for a chat with Deidra Sibila, an expert in event ticketing. We talk to Deidra about event planning, the role of ticketing and ticket programming, dealing with the unexpected, and the importance of Event Protect ticket coverage for unexpected cancelations.

Listen to the podcast or read more below

About Deidra Sibila

Deidra has done it all from theatre events to concert tours and festivals. Deidra worked for Live Nation for 13 years including corporate touring as Senior National Director of Ticketing for Touring in North America. Deidra managed ticketing for major concert tours across the US, from Coldplay to Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Jay-Z. She has also managed ticketing for C3 Events, known for festivals such as ACL and Lollapalooza. Deidra now works as an independent contractor for festivals and events including local holiday favorite, the Austin Trail of Lights.

Event: Austin Trail of Lights, Holiday festival.

The Austin Trail of Lights is the largest holiday tradition in Austin and the 2nd largest event in the city. The annual event held in Zilker Park and run by the Trail of Lights Foundation, welcomes 400,000 people every year over two weeks in December. As you walk through the park you will see 2 million lights, and experience themed light displays. The family friendly event shares Austin music, food and holiday fun.

Unexpected Event Cancelation

Deidra talks about dealing with cancelled events from a ticketing perspective. There are always going to be unforeseen or unexpected reasons an event has to be cancelled. Mother nature doesn’t spare your carefully planned event, with anything from strong winds to flooding causing an event to be shut down. There are also other unexpected possibilities such as a major supplier falling through.
Different event insurance options are available and some can get quite expensive. Trail of Lights was Ticketbud’s pilot event for our new partnership with Event Protect. After researching options Ticketbud felt this was a simple and cost-effective way to protect ticket revenue by insuring the ticket transaction. This meant that when strong winds forced the Trail of Lights to be shut down one night, organizers were protected against that loss of revenue, and ticket buyers could quickly and easily get a refund for their ticket.

Event Protect

Ticketbud event organizers can now opt-in for Event Protect’s comprehensive ticket revenue protection. This coverage gets built into the ticket price and protects the full value of the ticket transaction.
Because organizers often have significant sunk costs leading up to an event. Event Protect minimizes the financial risk for organizers if their event gets cancelled.

Managing Unexpected Challenges

With events anything and everything can happen. Artist illness, fence jumpers, people who try to sneak in the gate. Sometimes the challenge is ensuring it’s quick and easy to communicate with attendees. That’s why it’s important to have a good system in place to be able to do that effectively.
When an event if cancelled due to bad weather it’s obvious to attendees why the event isn’t going ahead. But if you have to cancel because of flooding on a previous day that is now causing safety concerns (think water and electricity for a light show), that might be less clear to attendees when it otherwise looks like a perfect day.

The Role of Ticketing

We talk about how ticketing is the face of your event. It’s the first thing that people experience when signing up or buying a ticket, it’s part of the event communication process and it’s the first thing people experience when they arrive at your event. If they have to deal with ticketed parking that’s another layer. The ticketing experience is a huge part of the customer experience for any event.
The ticketing role is responsible for gate management and staffing, the box office, production elements and ensuring that the technical systems are in place and working, from scanners, to wi-fi and power.

Large Festival Event Planning and Key Roles in the Organizing Team

It’s important to have community buy-in, a solid ticketing partner and reliable vendors. You want team members who are working as a team to make it a great event and people who are calm under pressure.
Large events and festivals need gate managers to keep entrances under control, safety experts and of course customer service managers to look after all the customer enquiries.
Having a great marketing team is important and a good event website. It’s important to be able to build and segment your database, analyze event data and look for trends in the analytics. This helps you make better and more informed decisions for the next event and keep improving. A social media manager is important to keep people informed in real time about the event, especially when there are last minute notifications, often people will look to social media for updates.

Building a ‘Run of Show’

A ‘Run of Show is your event bible and is particularly important for large events and multiday festivals. It communicates everything that’s going to happen at the event, when it’s happening and who is responsible. It includes a build schedule, when different teams need to be on site, when deliveries are arriving and all the operational elements leading up to the day of the event.
On event day the Run of Show communicates when bump in starts, when doors are opening, when the show begins and details and timing for pack down. It provides clear communication so that everyone is on the same page because they are all reading from the one document. For ticketing and gate staff the Run of Show also enables them to be informed to answer attendee questions.

Ticketing Management

Ticketing is both an administration and operational role. You start with planning, setting up event pages, ticket programming and looking at purchase flow and ways to optimize. You have to consider volume expectations and high sales times. Then you also work on customer service documents, FAQs and staffing.
When you get on site its more of an operational role, setting the event up and checking gate flow, testing equipment, setting up logins and making sure the internet works.

Event Page Digital Experience and Purchase Flow

Ensuring a frictionless purchase flow and making it as easy as possible for people to buy tickets is a significant consideration. This includes having mobile optimized event and ticket sites. Buyer behavior is increasing shifting to mobile when researching and buying tickets for events.

The Importance of Ticket Programming

Ticket programming is about maximizing sales by offering different ticket types for various times and audiences. It includes things like early bird sales, the offer of cheaper pricing incentivizes people to buy sooner, which is ideal for planning, financing and for generating word of mouth buzz. VIP experiences allow you to charge a premium for a higher end experience to cater to a different end of the market, tiered parking is another version of that.

Event Day Logistics

On event day there are a lot of logistics to manage. What are current sales and inventory levels, what is the weather today, what are the event location conditions, to get a picture of what the day is going to bring.
Considering what the programming is for that day. What changes need to be made, does signage need to be changed, are different gates open, are special guests or sponsors expected on this day? Things like cash banks need to be prepared for on the door ticket sales, point of sale gets set up, and briefings need to happen with security and event staff.
Ticketbud is great for setting up logins per day. This is a different login per location, per day so you can see exactly where sales are coming from. It makes it much easier to track and reconcile sales data.

Gate Management Communication

Communication is important at any event, but particularly important for large events with high volumes of attendees. You need to have safety and emergency plans, as well as communication documents prior to the event so that everyone knows what to expect. Then when on site for event day, ensure there is a group meeting to re-clarify key information people need to know for their area.

Choosing a Ticketing Partner

Deidra talks about how valuable it is to work with a ticketing company that really is your partner. Having accessible staff that want to see your event be a success, with ongoing customer support.
Deidra recommends asking questions such as:   

• What is their event cancelation policy? What solutions can they offer you?
• Is their site mobile optimized?
• How detailed is the reporting and what information are you getting?
• Do ticket buyers have to create an account, how easy is it for people to buy a ticket?
• Do you have the flexibility for various ticket types which allows you to do effective ticket programming?
• Can you have access and promo codes for discounted or sponsor tickets?
• Can you customize the ticket information for different ticket types, such as a map relevant to that ticket?
• Can you communicate to a specific ticket type easily to send custom messages through the ticketing platform?
• What are people saying about them? Ask for recommendations.
• Do they have hardware available? How does that hardware work if things go offline?
• Are they willing to listen to your feedback as an event organizer and make improvements?