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producers of
The World's Largest
Touring |
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Home | Events | Partnering | Accolades | About Us | Contact Us |
© HorizonEvents.com |
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HorizonEvents ▪ Partnering ▪ Connect ▪ Presenter Guidelines
Presenter GuidelinesFormat | Topics | Tracks | Checklist | Ideas/Links
You will be doing seven one-hour briefings, starting on the hour beginning at 9:00 AM, the last briefing beginning at 3:00 PM.
Stop each briefing at 50 minutes after the
hour allowing enough time for the audience to move to their next
briefing. A typical product briefing looks something like this:
Standard Room Layout: Every event is different, but at most hotel-based events we use converted sleeping suites as briefings rooms, which creates a unique feeling of intimacy - most of the presenters don't even stand up – so think “conversational.”. We remove the beds from the rooms and setup about 20 chairs in each. If the rooms have phones in them, feel free to use them for Internet Access, etc. All rooms are set with a screen, but you need to bring your own LCD projector or other A/V.
Larger Rooms: SuperSessions and Hands-on labs are, by necessity, presented in larger meeting rooms and are typically set classroom style with tables in front of each attendee. SuperSession rooms include a plone line and an LCD projector that you can plug into, but hands-on labs required that you bring your own A/V and arrange for phone access. Only about 10-15% of the briefings are delivered in these larger rooms.
Morning vs. Afternoon: During our welcome address, we tell our attendees to try to think opposite of other attendees, to go to lower-priority briefings in the morning, and higher in the afternoon. But, in spite of our recommendations, most people follow a simple pattern of going to briefings in the order of importance. Therefore, high-priority briefings presented by recognizable national companies have standing-room-only in the morning but are nearly empty in the afternoon, and lower-priority briefings presented by lesser-known companies are packed in the afternoon. Some have tried to arrange their briefings to suit this pattern, but with so many other choices in the morning competing for people’s time, they lose out on a portion of their audience. Unfortunately, we can offer no good solution here. Therefore, just expect the pattern, and repeat your topics at least once in the morning and once in the afternoon. If you have a strategic briefing topic repeated three times, schedue two sessions in the afternoon if it is less "well-known" or put two in the morning if it is more "cruxial or timely and you are a recognizable company."
Lunchtime Briefings: Half the attendees go to lunch at noon, and half at 1:00pm. Therefore, it is recommended that you schedule your own lunch during one of these hours if you only have one presenter. If you have two presenters, keep going through lunch, but expect a lower attendance in your room. It would be a mistake to schedule your strongest topic at 10 and noon with no other repeats, while holding a weaker topic at 9,11,2.
Agenda Online: We begin putting together the agenda on the web several weeks before the event, and send the link to attendees about a week before the event. After reviewing everyone's topics and times, we may request that you change the timing or frequency of a briefing topic to better accommodate the predicted flow of the attendees.
Most companies present at least two or three different topics, and repeat them at least once in the morning and afternoon. The following should help you as you design your titles (2-5 words) and descriptions (15-20 words).
Catchy Titles & Other Hooks: With so many topics to choose from every hour, some attendees make choices based upon the 2-5 word titles alone. If your product or technology is straight-forward and an issue that everyone faces, use the issue as your title (i.e. High Speed Internet Access). If, however, your technology is a new service with little audience recognition, you may need to be more creative to grab the audience’s attention. Below are are some topic ideas and description hooks from past events:
The following are risky and creative eye-catchers that might not have been successful except they were explained well in the description: "Can Dinosaurs Learn to Fly?" - How to avoid being squashed by smaller quicker-acting competitors "Nobody Can Hear You Scream" - Build relationships on web, not waste money on unseen marketing “The Blind Leading the Blind” – Keeping up with the Jones is the biggest mistake. “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” – We shed some light on…
Description: The best way to draw attendees into your briefing is through clear non-technical descriptions in the agenda. Catchy titles draw people’s attention, but attendees must find some real content in a description to choose your briefings over others. So, after you come up with a catchy title, make sure you put plenty of solid content and good hooks in the descriptions (hooks are eye-catching, compelling, interesting and fun reasons that they will want to hear your briefing). You can find some good hooks in press releases, articles, and marketing materials. However, feel free to use the lists of hooks (and titles) above in your descriptions to make them more compelling.
Top 10 Issues: The average company sends two people to the event, and those two people tend to cover about 10 briefing topics. Therefore, to draw a large audience, your topic must be one of the top ten issues facing the companies in attendance. If your topic is too focused to be on anyone’s top ten list, then your audience turn-out will be low (but highly qualified).
Generalization: If your company is into branding and name recognition and developing word of mouth, then make your briefings very general – your objective is to bring in as many people as possible, and develop a relationship. In fact, in this case, trust is more important than specific content, and providing entertaining quality information is more important than how relevant it is to your primary business.
Specialization: Another way to look at the event is as a lead culling opportunity. You can use your briefing topics to qualify prospects. Some past presenters have been so specific that they drew in only a handful of people every hour, but because they choice that briefing over dozens of others that hour, you can be assured that that the people sitting in those briefings were HOT prospects. Because of the caliber of people in attendance, the specialization strategy often realizes excellent opportunities to meet with prime prospects in a very intimate environment.
Semi-Specialization: If you were an attorney, and you had a choice between a briefing on “Speech Recognition 101” and “Speech Recognition for Professionals,” you would choose the latter. And yet, these two topics might cover much of the same ground. Some presenters identify their briefings by industry or other specialty even though the briefings are essentially the same. What is different is that the audience feels connected somehow, and the questions asked are relevant to everyone in the room. Our attendees identify with briefing topics addressed at their industry or title or level of technical expertise, and they would prefer to go to a briefing targeted at their group rather than attend a generalized briefing that may be a higher priority issue for their company.
Interactivity: Try to make your briefing as entertaining and interactive as possible. Whereas people attend briefings in the morning based upon agenda descriptions, afternoon briefing choices are 80% word of mouth recommendations, and “cool” is the operative word here. Here are some examples of interactivity that really worked in the past: - The audience pretends to be major internet hub cities in a US map, and each is assigned a city name that is taped to their chair. The presenter asks attendees to pass a message from Miami (the front right seat) to Seattle (back left). The message is a question and is read aloud? Then answer is sent back, except the Atlanta hub is down, so they have to re-route the answer (use humor in your messages). Then, refer to everybody by city names during the rest of the briefing (which is easier to remember than names). If someone leaves early, say “Oops, there goes Houston, re-routing messages through…. Denver.” - Several attendees get an alphanumeric pager. When it goes off, they stand up and read the message, a punch-line to a joke. - Ask everyone to introduce themselves to everyone else at the beginning of the briefing. Remember their names and ask them questions relevant to their industries. - Pretend that you are a historical figure learning to use a new technology (at one event, we heard over and over, “have you seen that Christopher Columbus briefing?”)
Longer Descriptions? Admittedly, developing a briefing topic in 15-20 words is tough, especially since the exact length cannot be determined until the printed agenda is created a few days before the event. Therefore, many presenters include an insert in the agenda (see samples on the ad specs page). Since we build our agendas on the web, you can submit a longer briefing to start with, as long as you are comfortable with our judgments when it comes down to editing it to fit the agenda space allowed.
A Hard Lesson Learned: Because we endeavor to recruit the right amount of content in the right interest areas, nearly all of our presenters have a positive experience. Even those sessions which have a lower turnout than others tend to yield great prospects (the people in your room chose your briefing over two-dozen others). However, the hardest lesson you can learn is that “One-Hour Sales Presentations” don’t work here. With so many other choices, our audience prefers briefings with real content, information, training, insights, methods, case studies, etc. If you do a sales presentation and don’t give any “training,” word will spread rapidly after your first session or two, and the remaining sessions will be empty. Remember, the vast majority of attendees are Chamber members – they are incredibly well networked with other attendees. They are here for knowledge, not sales pitches. If they think you really know your stuff, they will trust you with their business.
You can submit your topics to us in any form you wish, by email, fax, or just call them in. We need four pieces of information: Title, Description, Times, & Level. For your convenience, we have a briefing topics form below that you can copy and paste into an email message and send it to the event manager: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Connect Briefing Topics for: City/Date TITLE #1 (2-5 words): Description (15-20 words): Times:[ ]9:00, [ ]10:00, [ ]11:00, [ ]12:00, [ ]1:00, [ ]2:00, [ ]3:00 Level: [ ] Teddy Bear (for novices) [ ] Executive (non-technical) [ ] Crystal Ball (sneak preview) [ ] $Dollars (ROI, TCO) [ ] Technical (IT professionals) [ ] Government Briefing [ ] Hands-on Lab (training) [ ] Panel/Roundtable Discussions
TITLE #2 (2-5 words): etc., etc. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We do not have tracks, per se. However, we do attempt to categorize briefings into one of eight styles, and each briefing is identified as such with a small icon in the printed agenda. The following sections suggest what portion of our audience is attracted to each style of briefing.
Teddy Bear (for novices): Teddy Bear briefings are for computer novices, people who may not even have a computer on their desk. These general overview briefings are particularly popular in the morning because a good portion of our audience are intimidated by our extensive agenda, and want to get their feet wet in the morning. Well done overviews (general introductions) of an entire category of technology are often the BEST ATTENDED briefings at the event.
Executive (non-technical): Most briefings fall into this category. These briefings are targeted at the CEOs and other executives at the event.
Crystal Ball (sneak preview): Future-oriented briefings are very popular if they address hot topics, hot buzzwords, and newly released popular products. "Vision" briefings tend to do very well in the afternoon as people are drawn to more concrete "now-issues" in the morning.
Dollars & Sense (ROI, TCO): About a third of our audience say they are looking primarily at the financial aspects of technology -- bottom line, is it a good investment. To attract the more right-brained CFO-type, identify your briefing as a "Dollars & Sense" briefing.
Technical (IT professionals): Only about a quarter of our audience say that they are already "technology savvy." We live in a day when CIOs are people-managers, so they tend to spend most of their time at Executive-level rather Technical-level briefings. If your topic is highly technical and you want to attract decision-makers, I recommend that you create both a technical and executive-level version of the same topic to draw in the various elements who might be attracted to your offering. If you are trying to attract those who influence rather than finalize buying decisions, a technical briefing will draw the right crowd, plus a few really sharp CEOs.
Government Briefing: In some Capitol cities, such as Sacramento, over a quarter of our audience comes from government and education. If you market to government, and the audience has a good chunk of government attendees, create a version of your briefing that is targeted at large non-commercial enterprises.
Hands-on Lab (training): Hands on labs are usually special larger rooms designed to accomodate attendees in a classroom format with tables in front of each attendee. You are responsible for bringing your own equipment, and placing it in front of the students. Most labs have one computer per two students, but we have also had labs with pagers and cell phones. Typically, only two or three rooms are setup as hands-on labs, mostly training companies offering a sample of their training expertise. Hands-on labs are particularly packed in the afternoon as word spreads about these highly interactive and engaging briefings. To host a hands-on lab, you must arrange in advance to have a larger briefing room.
Panel/Roundtable Discussions: We host a few panel and roundtable briefings at the event which involve several participating vendors. However, all vendors are also encouraged to create their own panels, which can be very successful. The best vendor-sponsored panels involve both their manufacturers and their clients on the panel.
The following items should be completed prior to the event date.
Logo: We need as many as three version of your logo: (1) We need a color GIF or JPG logo for our website, which will be maintained after the event as an online directory of participants and will link to your website. Usually, we can just grab your logo off your website. (2) We need a hi-res B&W image (JPG) or a vector drawing that will print well (about 1.5” wide) in the agenda. (3) We need a hi-res Color image (JPG) or a vector drawing that we can blow-up for the custom color banner we create for outside your room.
Please e-mail logos no later than 3 weeks prior to the event date. The sooner we receive them, the sooner we can post your logo on our site. We use Word to create the agenda and Corel Draw to create the banners. If you have any question about whether we will be able to read your format, try to include it inside a Microsoft Word file.
Badges: Staff badges will not be printed on-site and must be submitted ahead of time. If you have a last-minute change in staffing, use a business card in the badge holder. Each exhibitor is given two lunch passes. While there is no limit on the number of staff you may bring to the event, additional lunch passes must be purchased at an additional charge. Please submit your staff names, titles, e-mail and fax# to the event manager no later than one week before the event date.
Prize Drawings: Please provide two nice prizes for the drawing at the end of the day. Bring them early as they will be displayed on a table in the exhibit area. Tape your business card to each prize and write a description and the estimated value on the back.
Room Prizes: MOST presenters give small prizes away at the end of every briefing (mugs, t-shirts, CDs, etc). Giving away prizes also helps to get room passes from attendees who may have entered the briefing after the start.
Room Décor: In most facilities, you can bring banners and brochures to hang on the walls inside and outside your room. Many presenters post brochures and detailed briefing descriptions on the wall outside the door. However, do not use tacks, nails or tape to hang these -- use only poster tack. Request tripods from the hotel.
Briefing Sheets: Some presenters create a briefing description sheet which they post outside of their room for every briefing timeslot. Take this link to view a Word Document with a Sample Description Sheet. Create seven copies of this sheet, one for each time slot (9,10,11,12,1,2,3). Then, store the sheets in a plastic page holder and mount with poster tack outside your room. Creating attractive briefing sheets does increase the traffic to your rooms. Feel free to use our Connect logos on these sheets (email us if you think you might need approval)
Power & Phone: The power in all rooms should be adequate for most standard briefings. If you are in a standard suite (a converted sleeping room), a telephone should be available in the room, although it probably will go through a PBX and might have slow Internet access. If live Internet access is important to your presentation, please verify the access speeds from the hotel and make arrangements for special lines if necessary. If you are in a lab or larger meeting room, you may have to pay the hotel a fee to activate your phone line.
Audio/Visual: A screen is provided in every briefing room upon request. The SuperSession briefing room will have an LCD projector in it, and a VCR if requested. If you have your own briefing room, you will need to provide any A/V you require (LCD projectors, etc).
Low Tech & Interactive: Our audience is NON-TECHNICAL. If you need to use a technical term, define it in the presentation. If you have a technical topic, ask your audience how technical they are. Get the audience involved in the presentation. Ask questions, use interactive games. Have them touch something.
PowerPoint Presentation: Please provide your PowerPoint presentation on disk or by email to rich@horizonevents.com. Let us know if you would like your presentation published on our attendee web site.
The following ideas and resource links may help you prepare for your presentations:
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