Tag: event planning

Things That Annoy Your Attendees During Online Event Registration

Posted on by Emee Pumarega
gif via Popkey

I just saw a tweet about a really interesting conference coming up on the East Coast. Relevant speakers, education credits, a great registration fee, a compelling location. However, I’m stuck, just stuck, right in the middle of the registration process, trying to find out more. My pain is your gain, however, as I walk you through the things that are completely annoying me about this event registration page.

1. When is it?

The date is in 9-pt type in a light grey, against white background. I’m squinting. Come on guys, your target audience is meeting professionals and many of us are over 40 and starting to lose our eyesight. PLEASE MAKE THE DATE BIG, and put it first so we even know whether or not we can attend.

2. No link to hotel information

The hotel looks really nice! There is a huge embedded Google map showing the location. However there is no reference to a group rate for the conference, nor a link to the hotel, nor a group code. Nothing. I can’t fly across the country to your event and not knowing if I can stay at the convention hotel. PLEASE MAKE THE LINK TO THE HQ HOTEL BIG. And clickable.

3. Sponsors are listed, but no links to their websites

Look at all these sponsors! Some of the top players in my industry. But if I put my finger on the logo (yes, I’m on mobile, just like 73% of the world’s population) nothing happens. What? The logo should take me to more information about this great company, so I can learn about what they do and offer. You’re not giving your sponsors full value, and you’re doing a disservice to attendees, if you don’t link out to their information.

Please, for the love of your attendees, and so you don’t lose us during this process, take care of the basics! (Note: I did not end up registering for the conference. Oh well.)

 

Delta Innovation Class to TED – Is Social Seating Coming to an Airline Near You?

Posted on by Emee Pumarega
airplane interior
Is social seating coming to an airline near you? Photo: Suhyeon Chun

Event planners have to fly a lot for their jobs: off-site meetings, destination weddings, continuing education, site selection… the list goes on and on.

Delta and LinkedIn recently partnered to make flying a bit more social, according to this post on FastCoCreate:

The serendipitous meeting on a flight is the stuff of urban legend.
We’ve all met someone who has a story about a marriage, business deal,
career move, or even just an inspiring conversation that began with a
random seat assignment.

Just in time for TED 2014, Delta Airlines has teamed with LinkedIn to make the whole lucky flight
partner legend a bit more official with a new initiative called Innovation Class.

Created by agency Wieden+Kennedy New York, the campaign is offering
customers who are LinkedIn members the opportunity to meet and fly with
select industry leaders on a designated Delta flight. The first winner
was CEO of Patten Studio James Patten who won a seat next to Pebble
Technology CEO Eric Migicovsky on a flight from Salt Lake City to
Vancouver for TED, and now stars in a brand video of their airborne
encounter.

This got me to thinking about Ticketmaster’s built-in social seating function; is social seating coming to your flights in the near future? What do you think of airline social seating — would it be creepy or cool to connect your LinkedIn account when you purchase a plane ticket, and select your seat based on the possibility of striking up a “serendipitous” conversation? What do you think about social seating in general, especially seating software apps like SocialTables that let planners use social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn to seat guests?

BarStocker – the iPhone app that calculates liquor needs for your party or wedding

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Many of our clients are in turnkey venues where they can provide their own caterer and bar. But figuring out how much liquor, beer, and wine to order is always a challenge. Order too much and it's a bit of a waste. Order too little and you risk running out during the event, and having to send a wedding party member to the nearest 7-11.

EJP Events is pleased to unveil our own iPhone app to tackle this continuing problem. Based on an algorithm developed over our 13 years in the event planning, catering, hotel, and wedding planning businesses, BarStocker will save you time and prevent a waste of money or alcohol by helping you figure the perfect amount to order.

Iphone-app-event-planning-bar-liquor-drinks

 

 

Iphone-app-event-planning-bar-liquor-drinks-2

Customize your order based on length of party in hours, time of year, types of alcohol being served, and how much your guests like to party :-)  It's available right now on the iTunes store. Please let me know what you think!

Email etiquette tip: the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field

Posted on by Emee Pumarega
photo of laptop on a table, next to a vase of flowers
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

Here’s an email etiquette tip some may not know: when you CC: (Carbon Copy) an email to a list of unrelated contacts from your regular account for a group or “blast” email, it’s considered to be poor etiquette. This is because all who receive the email will then be able to view each other’s private email addresses. Your contacts may or may not wish to have their personal or work email broadcast far and wide, and it’s safer to assume that they would rather not.

Next time, use the “BCC:” (Blind Carbon Copy) function to send an email like this. Put your own email address in the TO: field, which  sends it to yourself. Put the list of email addresses that you’re sending to in the BCC: field to keep everyone’s email private.

Technorati short code: 6PRGAEPTKZCY

Updated 9/17/2020 by Emee Pumarega

What’s your emergency plan?

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Emergency-300x199Recently, at summer’s end, we had the pleasure of hanging out with the crew from Hybrid Moon for a little get-together at PGE Park.  Also there were our friends Holly from Hitched Weddings and Events, Monica from Divine Designs, Jill from The Sidewalk Studio, and Eric from All Wright Music.

We were enjoying the warm weather (sigh — it seems so long ago), a few hot dogs and brews, and supporting our Portland Beavs as they were being trounced by the Tacoma Rainiers, when suddenly, all the lights in the ballpark went out.  I could see the MAX train going by up on the hill, and it stopped as well.  All the streetlights were out too.

Continue reading “What’s your emergency plan?” →