Joanne's Meeting and Event EGuide May 9, 2020

Joanne's Meeting and Event EGuide

May 9, 2020 - Part Two

This is “Part 2” of the April 28, 2020 EGuide as I warned you about. This one is more focused on your organization, than you personally. Feel free to delete if that is not your thing.

Be safe and be well.

Joanne

Just in case you missed the last edition, here is a link to it for you

April 28, 2020 Edition

Got a question? Want me to find something for you? Did you get this forwarded to you? If you would like to be on the list, text MEETGUIDE to 22828. Or just sign up here online.

Meeting and Event Intensive CMP Class

Partnering with AVFX and Eventsquid

Livestreamed May 12- 15, 2020

10 am – 2 pm Eastern Daylight Time

16 hours CE’s for CMP application and re-certification

Class is eligible for those looking to do their “Take Twice”

or 3 ^rd , 4th Option

Anyone attending this class will also have the option to “Take Twice” again in the future

Payment Plans are available along with other payment options…eggs, meat, toilet paper, chocolate…

For More Information and Registration

I am a small business. The reality is almost every business is hurting, the small ones just feel the true pain faster. I have been thinking, observing, talking with others and figuring out things for both mine and other businesses.

You may think—“Well I don’t own or manage this business, so this does not pertain to me.” Really? It does not “pertain to you” to make your organization survive so you can have a job or even a paycheck now?

When the world all changed on March 11, I was on a cruise in the Caribbean. We were to be home the night of the 14 ^th , and it ended up being the 17 ^th . I kept trying to figure out what had happened, and what I was going to do. The first thing I realized is I probably would not have any income till at least July. So what could I do, and what should I do?

The first three days I wrote and wrote on my flipcharts (yes, I have them set up in my home). I began with:

How can I help?

I realized if I led from my heart, it would lead me to what I needed to do. I am not an essential worker, and I couldn’t cure this. How could I help other people?

Visibility

I realized if I was to have a business in the future, I had to stay visible, but I quickly realized it had to be in an appropriate way. There was a huge drop in marketing right away because no one knew what to say. So they said nothing. The first ones that I remember, and more as they unrolled were messages of help, from the heart, and as someone I was talking to recently said, Hope. Those have been my guiding light.

Help, Heart, Hope.

Then “Who is Thriving?” and “Who is Hurting?”

Both are groups I can help, and you can too. Some will be giving, for free. Some will be for money.

All again around Help, Heart, and Hope.

Sell What You Have and Market it Well.

Every organization has something they sell whether it be goods or services. The question is how do you use what you have ----possibly quite differently? What is going on right now in this “New World” that you can be part of? I don’t know if the farm stand by us normally sells this, but with the exploding interest in home gardening, they are selling what they have, marketing it well, and giving Help, Heart and Hope---along with a laugh!

I was facilitating what I call an “Out Loud” session the other day (Think Out Loud, Talk Out Loud, Create Out Loud—you get the idea), with a group of business people, many entrepreneurs or with smaller businesses. One person, who to me had a great business to recreate, even temporarily, said “But Joanne, you know I don’t like the personal market—I only do corporate”. I asked if she wanted to have a business in 6 months. You can always go back to a version of what you were.

Right now the goal is survival in an ethical and legal way. Maybe bring in some money, to keep the hypothetical doors open, and maybe even pay a few people. Also to be there as things develop even though we don’t know what that looks like.

What do you have? How else can it be used? If not your original market, who else?

In the meeting and event industry you can do so much---you’re creative! Let’s start with who is hurting is some way—what can you do for families going through (See links with ideas):

Birthdays?

These are mostly online ordering, but could certainly be done locally.

Birthdays

Graduations?

Weddings? Or postponing them?

Postponing Weddings

Anniversaries? (Businesses too—who is hitting a milestone?)

Gender Reveals?

Someone Isolated in a Health Care Facility?

This could include decorations for windows or current pictures of loved ones

Grieving at the loss of a loved one?

Happy Birthday Julia!

I share with you the picture of Julia Schenk of Tennessee, who is the daughter of a friend of mine. She is one of the many people who are celebrating her birthday during this time. Luckily Mom and Dad are well respected (and loved) photographers in Nashville, and very involved in our industry. And friends in the industry made sure Julia had the best possible birthday. Her family had no idea why all these cars were honking! (It was early on before everyone was doing drive by celebrations). Julia is also one of the graduating seniors this year, and will be attending Western Kentucky University. What can you do to erase some of the sadness of not getting all the “senior things”? Families and school systems are looking for options—do you have them?

Schools and other Education

Do you have someone who can teach cooking, building, scenic design, floral arranging, theater, comedy…people are looking to learn right now maybe more than ever. Things for kids---even better.

Can you create something that people can use to say thank you to the essential workers?

Food, treats, signs, things that make them smile? I read the other day that one of the clothing companies for women, had sent tens of thousands of comfortable shirts and pants to hospitals for the women working there. Why? Because they couldn’t even get to clean clothes. The hospital near me is looking for individually packaged energy bars, candy, tea bags and k-cups so the medical staff can grab it quickly and safely on their few breaks.

Here’s a few things I have been reading and collecting (I have many more, but this is already extremely long).

Not only do they keep you visible, but I am finding it makes people want you more. None may be the exact answer for you, but at least show you possibilities to get your creativity and problem solving going.

Recipes:

If your business has food and beverage, what's your clients' favorite that you can share?

Here’s one that has a bunch including Doubletree Cookies

Ikea Swedish Meatballs and Sauce

Disney Dole Whip

Hotels:

Behind the scenes tours, best views, things people have never really noticed, history, stories, memories of guests and workers

Geographical Destinations :

Tours—walking, driving, boat, horse and buggy, golf cart—what works? If there are tours that people can take such as driving on their own, give them info on places for food and restrooms.

Printers/Signs/Decorators/Props :

Here is a tea company that is “Tea-ping” peoples houses

Tea -P

One place I used to live, the church youth group would “Flock” people’s yards with pink flamingos as a fund raiser. You could not help but laugh, and people did it to their friends. What do you have that you could decorate a yard with?

Photographers:

Photographer Documents Own Birthday

Unusual Bridal Shoot

Creating a Mobile Photography Studio

Planners:

You can still coordinate and put packages together. They don’t know where to find this stuff, especially if it was really only avaible to corporate before.

Also working together to put “packages” together using your industry friends you normally work with. Create a birthday, Night out, graduation, sympathy, package. People are looking to buy local and support small businesses more than ever. Make it easy for them.

Not only is it social media worthy, the standard media is looking for local, small business “good“ stories, to balance out the other.

Do you have a sign outside your business that you can put messages on? Here is one article that maybe you can adapt:

Dad Joke

General Small Businesses

Here's an article about how some Small Businesses Are Doing Well

Best is a Moving Target ™ . You have to make decisions based on what you know today, not what yesterday was, or what you might know or have tomorrow.

Depending on the reaction to this one, I may write more on this in the future. I am saving everything I can about what businesses are doing to stay afloat, and I am hoping this helped at least some of you.

People who work with me in their business (In The Guidance Counselor for Grown Ups part of my business), joke that I can come up with more in 15 minutes, that they can actually do to move forward, than they get from most people in an hour. I finally created business advising sessions, that people could do for 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. If you want 15 minutes of my time, for free, let’s see if its true, And I won’t try to sell you at the end to hire me. Promise.

Help, Heart, Hope.

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The Ordinary Success Project LLC is a CMP Preferred Provider. The program(s) identified with the CMP Preferred Provider logo meet the requirements to receive continuing education (CE) credit for the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) credential. The use of the CMP Preferred Provider Pre-Check logo is not an endorsement by the Events Industry Council of the quality of the session. For more information about the CMP credential or CMP Preferred Provider Program, please visit www.EventsCouncil.org .

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