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P 53 REP_Self.si.FINAL
P 53 REP_Self.si.FINAL 6/26/06 5:47 PM Page 53 COAST TO COAST Self Brings Outdoor Workout to Four Cities PHOTOS: BILL MCGEARY PHOTOGRAPHY (NEW YORK), COURTESY OF SELF (MIAMI, SAN DIEGO, CHICAGO) Exercise-seeking women came out in droves to spend a fitness- and beauty-filled day in the park with the magazine. SELF MAGAZINE PRACTICED WHAT IT PREACHES FOUR times this spring, hosting its 13th annual Self Workout in the Park in San Diego, Miami, New York, and Chicago every Saturday from April 29 to May 20. The coast-to-coast event brought a four-hour Crunch Fitness workout program to a total 12,000 attendees, as well as a quiet zone with meditation, yoga, and Pilates classes, and a boxing ring with kickboxing, capoeira, and Thai boxing lessons. Beyond fitness, Self also had 16 advertising sponsors on hand in individual blue dome-shaped tents, SELF MAGAZINE’S where consumers could get free product WORKOUT IN THE PARK samples and demonstrations, in addition to San Diego, Chicago, Miami, beauty, nutrition, and health consultations. New York, “Essentially we wanted to bring the look, 04.29.06 to 05.20.06 feel, and purpose of Self to life for our readers,” said Yung Moon, Self’s executive director of creative services, who oversaw the program. Self charged $10 for advance-purchase tickets, and all who bought a ticket were given a one-year subscription to the magazine (which usually goes for $9). When it came to planning the four-city tour, Moon said, “We created a template of what the event needed to look like, and we rolled it out the exact same way in each city.” To facilitate this, Moon worked with Dan Mannix of LeadDog Marketing Group to choose large, flat parks in each city that would best fit the 60,000-square-foot event and the sponsors’ needs—such as accommodating caterers and keynote speakers. One such need included the tour’s first-ever L’Oréal Paris “Mind and Beauty” brunch that was held from 9 AM to 11 AM each morning in all four markets. The breakfast accommodated 200 people in each city and required a caterer and styling stations for cosmetics, skin care, and hair color consultations. “The biggest challenge we faced in planning the event this year was homing in on what exactly each advertiser was trying to achieve,” Moon said. “With L’Oréal Paris, for example, we had to go over what the design elements of the brunch were going to be, who was going to attend, how to promote the event, and, most important, we had to assess exactly what their expectations were.” For Mannix, the biggest challenge was coordinating the shipping and receipt of the 15,000-plus samples handed out during the four-week event. “It was critical that we set up how the sponsors’ samples were going to get to each market before the tour occurred,” Mannix said. “It was definitely the biggest aspect of the program. Live interaction with consumers was vital to each sponsor, so the samples had to be there.” Prior to launching the tour, LeadDog had all the samples—everything from Aveeno SPF 45 lotion packets to Nexxus Salon Hair Care mini-shampoos and conditioners— shrink-wrapped and shipped to each market. To achieve a consistent look from city to city, Mannix had a traveling team of four people on hand at each event. Local vendors with whom LeadDog has worked in the past (and trusts) in all four markets helped with everything from setting up, breaking down, securing portable toilets, and providing security, staffing, and more. National trucking company Shomotion drove a 48-foot-long truck packed full of the event decor from one city to the next. Workout in the Park added Miami to its roster of cities for the first time this year, and the beachfront Lummus Park location proved to be difficult terrain. “Setting up an event on the sand presents challenges in terms of staking things down and securing items, as well as the ease of access for consumers,” Mannix said. “We could potentially look at a new location next year, but a big part of the Miami event’s appeal was that the workout was being held on the beach.” —Courtney Thompson NEW YORK Crunch Fitness instructors led their massive classes from a stage at Rumsey Field in Central Park (top). Self partnered with L’Oréal Paris to host the “Mind and Beauty” brunch from 9 AM to 11 AM on the day of Workout in the Park in all four cities. The brunch, pictured in New York on May 13 (above left), was a new addition to the program, and allowed Self editors to interact with readers and V.I.P.s. New York attendees participated in a yoga class in Central Park (above right). SAN DIEGO While weather was a concern for planners, the event, held in Balboa Park on April 29, had blue skies throughout the day. MIAMI A 24-foot-tall rock wall provided by R.E.A.D. Amusements, which traveled to all four cities, went up in Lummus Park on May 6. CHICAGO On May 20, thousands of women came out to Lincoln Park to participate in Crunch Fitness courses. bizbash.com/newyork august/september 2006 53 054 6/27/06 4:39 PM Page 54 $/.4¬,%4¬ !.9/.%¬34%!,¬ 9/52¬$!4% 8IFUIFS ZPVSF QMBOOJOH B TPDJBM CVTJOFTT PS GVOESBJTJOH FWFOU BWPJEJOH TDIFEVMJOH DPOnJDUT JT FTTFOUJBM 5IF#J;#BTI&WFOU $BMFOEBSJTUIF POMZDPNQMFUF DBMFOEBS 4WO 'REAT 0RODUCTS 0ROVIDE 9OU¬WITH¬THE¬"EST¬*OB ,ISTINGS¬IN¬THE¬"USINESS 4HE¬ONLINE¬SOURCE¬FOR¬SPECIALISTS¬.OW¬YOU¬CAN¬BE¬LISTED¬OR¬LOCATE¬STAFF¬BY¬PROJECT¬NEED 5IF'SFFMBODF.BSLFUQMBDF L L 7JTJUXXXCJ[CBTIDPNOZDBMFOEBSPS XXXCJ[CBTIDPNMBDBMFOEBS 'SFFMBODFSTDBOMJTUUIFNTFMWFT GPSPOMZQFSNPOUINJOJNVN UISFFNPOUITSFRVJSFE 7JTJUXXXCJ[CBTIDPNGSFFMBODFST GPSNPSFJOGPSNBUJPO 5IF#J;#BTI+PC#PBSE L 'SFFEBZUSJBM 5IFQMBDFGPSRVBMJmFE GSFFMBODFSTUPTIPXDBTF UIFJSTLJMMTUPQMBOOFST 5IFRVJDLFTUXBZUPmOERVBMJUZ GSFFMBODFSTUPNBUDI TQFDJBMJ[FETUBGmOHOFFET L #J;#BTICSJOHTZPVUIFCFTUKPC PQQPSUVOJUJFTXJUIJOUIFTQFDJBM FWFOUTBOEIPTQJUBMJUZJOEVTUSZ 1PTJUJPOTBSFVQEBUFEXFFLMZ 7JTJUXXXCJ[CBTIDPNKPCCPBSE UPWJFXUIFMBUFTUMJTUJOHTPSUP MFBSOIPXUPQPTUBOBE Have you received editorial coverage in BiZBash ? When your company is featured in BiZBash, expecting your prospects to read your story isn’t enough...you need Reprints. 800-290-5460 ext. 125 bizbash@reprintbuyer.com RMS is the authorized provider of custom Reprints, Eprints and NXTprints for BiZBash magazine. P 55 REP_LA_DaVinci.jb.FINAL.RVSD 7/6/06 4:44 PM Page 55 LOS ANGELES EVENT REPORT A blowup of a relief sculpture decorated the bar area. At Sony’s party for The Da Vinci Code, a 40-foot truss pyramid and two 20-foot truss pyramids mimicked the Louvre. Gold-framed art hung in a mock gallery. Da Vinci ’s U.S. Party Has Euro Inspiration PHOTOS: LINE 8 PHOTOGRAPHY Massive trusses on a Sony soundstage gave the space a Louvre-like look. WITH ALL THE HYPE SURROUNDING THE DA VINCI CODE , there was only one official party related to the film held in the United States (The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival two days before its worldwide release.) Craig Waldman of 15/40 Productions, working with Craig Smith of Sony, transformed a soundstage at Sony for a Europeaninspired party for 1,300 guests. The event was a part of L.A. Screenings, a weeklong, multistudio, industry-wide series of gatherings for television network executives from around the world to view television shows and movies to purchase for broadcast. One 40-foot-tall and two 20-foot-tall pyramid-shaped trusses mimicked the Louvre, and one 40-foot-tall and four 24-foot-tall screens rotated through scenes of Paris, London, and Rome as well as scenes from the movie. Elevated lounges looked out over the space, SONY PICTURES where 12-foot-tall fountains sat under the TELEVISION pyramid structures. INTERNATIONAL’S PARTY By the way, the soundstage wasn’t the FOR THE DA VINCI CODE venue originally intended for the party. It had Sony Pictures Studios soundstage been planned and largely set up by crane in a Monday, 05.22.06, 30,000-square-foot space outside, but the 9:30 PM onward threat of rain made organizers disassemble Catering Wolfgang Puck the trusses again by crane and move them to Catering the 17,000-square-foot indoor space on SaturEvent Production day afternoon before the Monday event. (The 15/40 Productions Flowers Collage Floral Design weather on event night? Clear.) —Alesandra Dubin and Events Lounge seating accommodated guests inside after the original choice of an outdoor space got nixed on account of a threat of rain. bizbash.com/newyork august/september 2006 55 056 7/5/06 3:57 PM Page 56 NON-STOP CREATIVITY. UNTIL BUSINESS IS DONE. Tisha Industries is a full service, award-winning agency of passionate people, providing clients with integrated creative solutions. From exhibits & displays, to advertising & print collateral, to video & web multimedia – let us take your brand, your event, your whatever to greater heights and better returns. An industry that has to be creative anywhere and at anytime, needs an agency that can provide just that. Creativity is what we live by. And as you can see, we don’t take it lightly. Partner with Tisha for cutting edge design solutions and innovative thinking without boundaries. Call 201.227.7610 or email jmindak@tisha.com to learn more. graphic design • web design • advertising • branding • photography • video • printing w w w. t i s h a . c o m P 57-60 EventIntelligence.si.FINAL 6/28/06 10:00 AM Page 57 EVENTIntelligence S M A R T S T R AT E G I E S How to Score Hard-to-Get Reservations A top exec, client, or salesperson wants to go to a hot new restaurant—but it’s booked. Here’s what to do. MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION When you speak to a reservationist, be polite on the phone. Consider your tone—it should be friendly and respectful—and be patient. “Speak slowly and be more conversational as opposed to robotic and monosyllabic,” says Stephen Starr, the owner of the popular new Manhattan restaurants Morimoto and Buddakan, plus a string of successful spots in Philadelphia. Chances are, at busy new restaurants, the reservationists have been bombarded by anxious, pushy callers, and sometimes just being sympathetic and understanding is enough to make them want to help you. “Nice manners really go a long way,” says Richie Notar, a managing partner for the Nobu restaurants. “Those people who say, ‘Do you know who I am? I’m friends with this one, or that one’—they were those kids who used to hold their breath and stomp their feet to get what they wanted. Being a bully is not going to get you your way. I figure people who are mean to the reservationist are going to be mean to the maitre d’ and their waiter too. I try to reward people that are nice to us. We actually make a note on their reservation if they were mean or nice.” ASK FOR A MANAGER You can also try asking for a supervisor; sometimes announcing that the matter is important and needs to be handled by a higher-up emboldens the reservationists to approve the request without having to check. Of course, it helps to have a special occasion or V.I.P. guest to mention if you get challenged, but sometimes the suggestion that the reservationist isn’t senior enough to handle your request is enough to make that person want to handle it personally. “Better yet,” Starr says, “go to the restaurant in person and give the manager or reservationist eye contact.” DO YOUR HOMEWORK Educate yourself about how restaurants book their tables. Tables are like real estate—the general goal is to turn the room and have an early and late seating. Understand that a 7:30 PM reservation can mean a restaurant misses out on a second seating later on, so it is less likely to offer that time. Also—although it might not help when someone calls with a request for dinner tomorrow—it can help to find out how far in advance a restaurant accepts reservations. Then call early and book a table for a future date. You can always choose your guest later. TRY TO WAIT IT OUT If the restaurant doesn’t have anything open when you call, ask if PHOTO: DAN HALLMAN FOR BIZBASH the reservationist keeps a waiting list. Some restaurants do, and since many high-end restaurants require a credit card to hold the table—especially for large groups—your fellow diners are more likely to call to cancel if they’re not coming. The restaurant’s goal, after all, is to fill as many seats in a night as efficiently as possible, so the staff will want to replace cancellations. Joe Bastianich, owner of the wildly popular Babbo (with Mario Batali), says, “Find out what time restaurants confirm their reservations. If it’s 3 PM, make a note to call back at that time and you might get lucky.” Likewise, Nobu calls to reconfirm all reservations, so if someone cancels, you might get the table. “If you call us at 12 or 1 PM the day of, that’s when we get our cancellations,” Notar says. Bastianich also suggests a riskier option: “My favorite is just show up with your best smile on and be willing to wait a little. That’s what I do.” (Granted, he’s a well-known restaurateur, which brings us to our next point.) BECOME A REGULAR As in most business relationships, there is much to be said for becoming a frequent customer. Restaurants often try to take care of guests who come in regularly—at least a couple of times a month—which can help those diners get into an owner’s next project when it’s new and harder to book. “We use an internal proprietary system that allows us to recognize new and regular guests instantly with their phone number,” says Stephen Hanson, the founder of B.R. Guest, which owns Blue Water Grill, Barça 18, and other restaurants, and was one of the first companies to keep a comprehensive database of their frequent diners. “As our restaurants expand into new cities, it’s important to us to know that a guest that eats frequently at one or more of our New York restaurants will To nab a reservation at the popular new restaurant Buddakan, owner Stephen Starr suggests being friendly and personable to the reservationist—in person if necessary. receive the same star treatment at one of our Chicago restaurants.” Restaurants that use the Open Table online reservation system also keep a database of guests and log their visits. One of the best-kept secrets in the business is that restaurants often extend one another industry courtesies. So asking the manager or maitre d’ at your regular spot to call on your behalf to introduce you as a good customer might help you get an in with their counterparts at a new place. ADJUST YOUR APPROACH In today’s ever evolving market, restaurants are now serving food at the bar, in the lounge, in the lobby, or at communal tables. While these setups aren’t appropriate for all occasions, sometimes—for a client who’s dying to get into a new place—they can be a great way to try a new restaurant, or get a foot in the door. You might also consider going for lunch, which is often easier to book than dinner. FLASH YOUR CREDENTIALS Being an event planner is a perfect excuse to ask a maitre d’ or manager to see the private room, or inquire about catering, which can work as a conversation starter that leads to a relationship with one of the restaurant’s gatekeepers. CALL A PRO If you are a frequent guest of a hotel, or do regular business with one, ask for help from the concierge. Similarly, if you have a premium credit card, belong to a private club, or live in a full-service building, most of these have concierge services for their members. Or you can opt to subscribe to a professional concierge service, although different services have different levels of special access. (One new service: Pascal Riffaud, president of Personal Concierge International, started a division called Sorted that specializes in hard-to-get New York restaurant reservations.) THANK YOUR HELPER Obviously, top-notch restaurants would never sell access to a table, but showing appreciation for a good table, or help with a last-minute reservation, is certainly appropriate. Tip the maitre d’ directly, as the gratuity on your check at the end of the night goes to the waiter or into the pool. Twenty dollars or more is customary, and can be give on your way out. It is sure to be remembered, and definitely will be appreciated. BUT DON’T LIE Every restaurant has tales of the pathetic caller who exaggerated his or her relationship with the owner or chef, or told a dramatic tale (“My doctor says I only have six months to live…”), or completely fabricated a story about a celebrity needing a table. Invariably, you will be discovered, and some restaurants keep records of such things, so you could be blacklisted for good. —Caryl Chinn bizbash.com/newyork august/september 2006 57 P 57-60 EventIntelligence.si.FINAL 6/28/06 10:00 AM Page 58 Intelligence EVENT IT HAPPENED TO ME The Courier Didn’t Deliver 5 Tips From Nonprofits for Cutting Costs To get good ideas for working within a tight budget, we asked some people who should know—planners who must focus more on raising money than on spending it. 1. Ask About Overstock Emma Angevine, director of individual giving and special events at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, always asks printers to compare her choices of paper or cardstock with any overstock they have on hand. (Sometimes printers end up buying more paper than they need to fill another order, so they offer it at a substantial discount.) Angevine recently saved 20 percent off her paper costs when her printer had an overrun from a previous job that closely resembled her original cardstock choice. The color, texture, and weight were close enough to Angevine’s selection that she was able to forgo her original choice in favor of the less expensive alternative—a switch her guests would never notice or suspect. 2. Hit the Gift Shop Holding an event at a museum or other venue that has a gift shop on-site? Don’t overlook it as a source for unique decor elements. For the recent opening of “Concrete Kingdom: Sculptures by Nek Chand,” an exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum featuring the work of an Indian artist, the museum’s special events manager, Katie Hush, played off the exhibit’s theme by using Indian items for sale in the gift shop. Hush used rugs as wall hangings and tucked pillows into seating nooks to add some vibrant colors to the room. She has also used carved wooden folk art tchotchkes in lieu of flowers or candles as centerpieces. Hush says museums are often amenable to this practice because it gets their merchandise in front of prospective buyers. “Leave the price tags on them so people know they’re for sale,” she says. Or—for guests who might not appreciate a tag sale at the center of the table—purchase the items to give out at the end of the night, so you save money by getting both decor and gifts for one price. 3. Get Competitive To procure art for the invitations for Amfar’s annual Amfar Rocks benefit at Tavern on the Green, Andy Boose, president of event firm AAB Productions, which produces the event, hit on an inventive, no-cost idea: turning the invitation design process into a contest. For the past three years, Amfar has gotten fresh, original art that doesn’t cost a Amfar got free invitation design by holding a contest dime. Boose gets the word out among art students. through Amfar’s event committee and provides a detailed spec sheet, right down to the weight of paper required. Art students at local institutions submit their best efforts, and the winner has his or her name featured on the invitation and is mentioned in event materials. Boose says appealing to artists’ competitive as well as creative spirits has yielded a great response to the contest. 4. Go Ethnic Working with New York’s many ethnic restaurants can be rewarding for the wallet as well as the palate. For the recent opening of “Let There Be Light,” an exhibition of ancient oil lamps at the Museum of Biblical Art, the museum’s membership and marketing manager, Idyl Mohallim, had a local Turkish restaurant handle the catering. Platters of mezes and crudités with hummus added a dash of the exotic to guests’ noshing. “That had a great feel,” she says. “It worked really well with the theme, and it was a lot less expensive.” 5. Ask for Goodies If you need a little something extra that won’t cost a vendor much to fulfill, use your request for proposals to ask for a nominal freebie. It won’t cost you anything, and you’re likely to find that suppliers will take the request in stride. When the Folk Art Museum’s Hush puts out RFPs for catering, she throws in a request for gratis gift bag treats. “I ask for desserts like a brownie to donate to our goodie bags, and they can include their card for a little bit of publicity,” she says. While some caterers do decline, Hush says that putting the request right in the RFP gives her a good indication of which caterers are willing to work within her constraints—knowledge that’s far more valuable than a few dozen cookies. —Martha C. White 58 bizbash.com/newyork august/september 2006 When designer Lily Holt’s goods didn’t arrive at her launch event, she improvised with the help of the models on hand—and foot. Even with all the technological bonuses that go along with life in the 21st century, certain basics of event planning, such as getting things from place A to place B, can still get buggered up. That’s what happened to sandal and jewelry designer Lily Holt of Palm Beach, Florida, when she made her first foray into Los Angeles on May 10. Working with Allison Kavanaugh, her company’s vice president of sales and marketing, and publicist and event planner Merritt Loughran, president of Venicebased MML Inc., Holt threw a press event at the Beverly Hills Hotel to lay the groundwork for a planned store opening in Los Angeles in early 2008. (After all, Southern California and South Florida share at least one thing in common—they’re both warm enough for sandals year round.) Holt embellishes her sandals with semiprecious stones, pearls, and beading, which coordinates with her line of jewelry. There was just one problem the day of the event—the parcel carrier didn’t get the jewelry to the Beverly Hills Hotel on time. So Holt and company improvised. They’d planned to display the shoes around the perimeter of a large square platform in the middle of the hotel’s Sunset Room and then place the jewelry in the center. Instead, one of the shoe models donned a white bikini and silver tie up sandals with tassels and wore fanciful, metallic makeup around her eyes, resembling a Mardi Gras mask. The model reclined stylishly in the center of the platform while press people examined the sandals around her. As publicist Alice Slater observed of Holt’s sensuous centerpiece, “She has on tassels, which are very sexy, especially when you’re wearing a white bikini and lying on a table.” —Irene Lacher A bikini-clad model was the stand-in for the caught-intransit jewelry. QuickTip:Waiters & Wine “Servers like to refill glasses that are still half full so that the host will have to reorder faster, which increases the bill and the tip. So get into the habit of telling your waiter to fill the wine glasses only one third full and, importantly, to ask each person at the table if they want wine before pouring or refilling their glass.” Christine Ansbacher , author of Secrets from the Wine Diva: Tips on Buying, Ordering & Enjoying Wine (Sterling Publishing, September 2006) 059 7/5/06 4:04 PM Page 59 THE newyorkperspective MB Productions is New York’s Premier source for video staging & production services. For over 25 years, MBP has been the vendor of choice for Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall & Carnegie Hall. > DLP Projection > SDI Camera Packages > Plasma Monitors 800.622.2224 www.mbvideo.com > Seamless Switching > LED Screens > Production Support MB Productions delivers the solutions for today's complex world of video presentations. P 57-60 EventIntelligence.si.FINAL 6/28/06 10:01 AM Page 60 Intelligence EVENT TECH QUESTIONS Should You Podcast Your Events? Making content available to people on demand is revolutionizing the music and television industries— so why not events? Here’s a primer on the latest digital communication trend. What exactly is a podcast? But podcasting is too complicated. I can’t manage yet another piece of technology! A podcast is a digital audio or video file that can be distributed over the Internet. While podcasts can be listened to or viewed on a desktop or laptop computer, they are changing the way we communicate because they can be downloaded on demand to a portable device. Podcast creators, or podcasters, can also employ the Web to set up subscriptions to podcast feeds, whereby users can sign up to automatically receive new podcasts as soon as they become available. Events professionals have just recently caught on to the power of podcasts. They are deploying these messages via the Web in the hopes of creating stronger, more profitable connections by both marketing their events and distributing event content to a wider audience. “A lot of events and companies are using these to build communities among customers and suppliers,” says Tim Scannell, principle at Shoreline Research, a technology consulting firm in Needham, Massachusetts. If you have ever used the video editing software on a home computer, you can probably handle editing an audio podcast. “It’s not brain surgery, but it can get tricky,” Scannell says. While a large company may be able to entice in-house IT staff to take a crack at podcasting, a smaller company may want to invest in audio editing software and a dedicated computer and server to manage all the files. In a pinch, event managers can even outsource podcast editing. The thorniest challenge, however, may not be technology related. The primary problems most podcasters face are capturing quality audio and producing podcasts that are lively and entertaining. What’s the next step beyond podcasting? So what does this have to do with my iPod? Technophiles coined the word podcast in 2004 as Apple’s iPod portable device surged in popularity. (Analysts predict that by the end of this year, Apple will have shipped some 85 million iPods since they were introduced in 2001.) But the term is something of a misnomer. Almost all podcasts can be downloaded and played on any device that supports the nearly ubiquitous formats such as MP3 (audio) or MPEG (video). IMG Media produced vodcasts of Olympus Fashion Week in New York and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Los Angeles and made them available on the Web. Vodcasting (also known as video podcasting or vidcasting) is the next frontier. IMG Media produced cutting-edge vodcasts for Olympus Fashion Week in New York and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Los Angeles earlier this year. Both vodcasts ran 22 minutes and mimicked the highglam style of behind-the-scenes shows on MTV or E! In fact, don’t even think of vodcasting badly lit or poorly produced video of your event to a discerning audience. “This allows people to get content that may not fit on their TV schedule, so quality matters,” says Russell Quy, an IMG executive producer who booked fashion editor Kelly Killoren Bensimon to host the vodcasts. “Three years ago people were using sped-up slide shows. Now you have to [work with] people that specialize in not only production, but people who can tell a story.” Can I just convert the conference audio I record now? So how much is this going to cost me? You can, but it may not get you very far. Few podcast listeners will endure recordings of 50-minute keynote sessions or long sales pitches. Content should be sliced and diced for this new, portable medium. Focus on shorter formats and one-on-one interviews. Some companies produce podcasts in the months and weeks leading up to an event that feature previews to market the live conference. “Most companies think they are making an audiotape, but you really need a broadcast perspective,” Scannell explains. “It’s like creating a radio show.” The best podcasters are adept at writing scripts for the ear and have the interview skills and sonorous voices that work best in this medium. If your company does not have someone who possesses these talents, consider hiring an experienced podcaster for your event. If you already make high-quality audio- or videotapes of your events, that’s a start. You will probably need to pay someone—perhaps the audiovisual company that handles your tapes—to edit and convert your content to a downloadable format. If you need to hire a freelancer, expect to pay at least $60 per hour for a consulting podcaster, or as much as $350 per hour for a professional editor—and that’s for audio. Vodcasts can be much more expensive, as they usually require high-end equipment, significant editing, and skilled producers and editors. Bourquin brought his podcast production in-house for less than you might think. He invested about $2,600 on hardware and software and hired his brother, a software engineer, to produce the podcasts. Won’t podcasting my conference eat away at attendee revenue? Tim Bourquin, who produces the annual Podcast and Portable Media Expo in Southern California as well as podcasts focused on business So this is just another tech fad that I can ignore, right? trends in this market, scoffs at this idea. “It’s an urban legend. Nothing replaces the face-to-face encounter,” he says. Bourquin will podcast all 44 sessions of his September event, after producing 36 in 2005. Live attendees will enjoy free access to the podcast when they pay to attend, but he also plans to sell podcast-only registration for those who cannot be onsite—for nearly as much as live attendees pay. “It won’t cannibalize attendance, but it could add extra revenue,” Bourquin says. 60 bizbash.com/newyork august/september 2006 Worldwide sales of portable digital audio players hit 140 million units in 2005, up from 35 million in 2004, according to market research firm InStat. The company predicts shipments will reach 286 million by 2010. Moreover, some 7.5 million portable media players will be providing consumers video-on-the-go by 2009. While Bourquin, who boasts 263,000 podcast downloads from his Web site since last November, admits that podcasting is not yet a requirement for event executives, “it’s like email was a few years ago,” he says, “and now everyone has email tools.” —Matt Purdue Original Casts Events both large and small are now integrating podcasts into their audience marketing strategies. Here is a sampling of some notable podcasters: INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW The show features 16 vodcasts from its 2006 incarnation. Offerings range from short, rather amateurish interviews on today’s “hot” technologies to full keynote sessions that run more than an hour. www.cesweb.org/podcasts/ default.asp NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS The association provides, naturally, a plethora of vodcasts from its annual show. Highlights packaged from each of the event’s four days lead the way. As any NAB denizen might expect, the vodcasts are slickly produced. www.nabshow.com/ highlights.asp REBOOT8 Only the most dedicated technophile will be intrigued by the content of this event based in Copenhagen. But the show’s approach applies to any prospective podcaster. Leading up to the event, conference organizers conducted some 10 interviews with speakers to juice interest in Reboot8. Interviews range from 15 to 36 minutes in length. www.bloxpert.com/ reboot-podcast.php CATO INSTITUTE The famous libertarian think tank presents MP3 files of its live events, a mix of traditional luncheons, briefings, and book discussions. www.cato.org/podcasts/ PODCAST AND PORTABLE MEDIA EXPO The self-styled Podcast Brothers, Emile and Tim Bourquin, produce regular podcasts to promote their annual event. 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