medium & the message

As someone who plans a lot of events I am impressed when, at another event, the planners take care of the little details.

What I have come across is that all corporate events have some sort of theme attached. Now, sometimes its glaringly obvious, sometimes its not noticeable at all, but if you get it right, its those little details that make your guests go “aahhh….I get it.” This is a very difficult task without being too tacky.
Such a specific example occured at the CPRS Hamilton Pinnacle Awards. This was the 2nd year I have been in attendance and I went for the social aspect [I wasn't up for any awards if thats what you were thinking ;)]

This year’s theme was titled “Passport to Communications Excellence,” a fitting theme considering the global impact and speed at which communications occur (those of us that blog can identify with this concept only too well).

However, it wasn’t the food or the booze that made me remember this night; it was the program. As I was flipping through it the intricate designs on the borders of the page caught my eye - it was all looking very familiar - then it hit me: This program is designed to look like a passport!

I turn back to the cover and immediately the pieces come together - the dark blue cover, the ‘embossed’ stamp, the inside even had fake stamps from other countries. Except instead of country names or “approved”, the words were the titles of the awards. Even the background of the page looked like it had those funky design security features on it.

As someone who designs A LOT of programs I was impressed. It is all about the details. And, funny thing, it made me realize that this was first time I was disappointed that my name wasn’t written on the inside.

p.s. I want to make an honorable mention of a gentleman named Charles* who sat at my table. He came up with a genius scheme to score more wine at function with limited table service. Make sure that there is at least one empty seat at your table. Then, with your glass of wine, pour a tiny bit in the bottom of the empty wine glass. The next time the server rolls around, they will assume that this person has gone to the bathroom and will fill up their glass. Voila! You have an extra glass of wine.

*names have been changed to protect the innocent. Unless ‘Charles’ reads this; then feel free to take credit

My brother sent me this article a couple of weeks ago and I just had the chance to read it and I’m sure glad I did. Its tag line reads “A PR expert reveals the tricks of marketing movies so bad they can’t even make the remainder bin.”

It is a great read but if you have a short attention span I would like to draw your attention to #6: “Recruit an Unpaid MySpace Army to Create Buzz.”

Whether or not this tactic seems unethical to you, it is a great example of the impact that social media has. [hello? Anyone remember Snakes on a Plane?]

Now, if only we could use this power to solve world peace and hunger.

Okay, so it seems that I will have missed the past 2 Third Tuesdays (TTT), which is a shame because the one I actually went to I had a lot of fun at. I really wanted to go again.

But it seems that third Tuesday of each month is a really bad time for me at work. It appears that on my events calendar, I am coordinating an event which happens just about the third Wednesday of every month. Coincidence? Probably yes. However, it still is unfortunate; the night before an event is hardly the night I can skip off to go to another city and have drinks and be social.
You would think, well so what? This week TTT has been moved to Wednesday; you can go!

Alas, I cannot. For this month my big event is THE big Corporate event and it happens on the Thursday. DOH!

Hope you all have fun. I’ll see you next month (keep your fingers crossed).