Event specialist, Cheryl Lawson and Event creator, Denise Quashie delivered this presentation to great response during Geekend2010. See final slide for contact and booking information. With the growing population of Tweetups, meetups and blogger conferences, social media gurus are becoming overnight DIY event organizers. Sounds okay by us, the professional event organizers, but besides having the chutzpah to pull one off what other tools are required? In this session we’ll explore the needed technology tools—some new, some old and some you never thought were needed for such an event. We’ll present a few case studies, discuss artistic approaches and confess our own pitfalls in being successful social media event organizers.

1. Confessions From Social Media Event Organizers Taking your brand offline Cheryl Lawson, Party Aficionado @PartyAficionado Denise Quashie, Events By Canvas @DQTweets

3. the dish: @PartyAficionado. “people prefer to do business with others with whom they share social experiences”

4. the dish: @DQtweets “i’m not JUST an event organizer… i’m an event creator!”

5. the breakdown: confessing in phases phase 1: taking it to the streets phase 2: the pitch phase 3: your extended self phase 4: the aftermath

6. phase 1: taking it to the streets

7. confessions | location, location, location “iNEED your help – STAT! isold tickets. spent the money. now, the free venue I had is booked by someone else!” “excuse me. can ihave everyone’s attention? to the owner in the black tahoe… yeahhhhhh, looks like your car was broken into. You might wanna go check that out.”

8. reasons | goals

9. ¡muyimportante! free venues don’t always = the RIGHT venue know your niche and avoid over saturation have GREAT content & great entertainment if money is your thing – prepare & sell tell your story before, during AND after be realistic

10. troubled finances

11. phase 2: the pitch

12. confessions|you're coming… right? “ i don’t know why i only have 10 people registered. i mean, i tweeted about it ?!” “um, yeah… this IS a cool event idea and i don’t understand why i still only have one sponsor?!” “hmm, i have NO idea who you are. what’s your twitter handle?” “a friend told me event websites are out, so i’m just going to use facebook.”

13. market your event

14. sponsors & donorswhat they REALLY want

15. attendees & evangelistswhat they REALLY want

16. don’t get jacked!

17. sustainability

18. phase 3: your extended selfknowing really is half the battle!

19. confessions | hire an expert “you may not know this, BUT in high school i was on the prom committee.” “well, right now, with the whole economy thing i can just get a college kid to intern and do it.” “i saw “old school” AND that drew barrymore movie “the wedding singer” so i totally get how to plan events.”

20. top 4 reasons to hire an expert: you build your brand; we build your presence consistency & tone our rolodex is powerful negotiating power!

22. phase 4: the aftermath

23. confessions | officially exposed “yikes! someone just tweeted my event SUCKED!” “he totally stole my idea… and my sponsors! hmph! I thought facebook had privacy issues.” “what the hell… NO one is tweeting??!!” “so, basically you’re saying I have to be camera ready. all. the. time?!?!”

25. inquiries? Cheryl Lawson Party Aficionado @PartyAficionado Denise Quashie Events By Canvas @DQtweets