In the spirit of Halloween, it’s time to take a trip through a Haunted Meeting at an Eerie Event.
Thanks to MPI Chicago for running this story.
If you’re like me, you don’t like haunted houses, but you do like learning how to avoid scary situations.
Every one of these scary stories is true.
Cue the scary soundtrack with screams and turn down the lights.
Don’t worry – there’s a cure for every curse. Let’s go!
Vampire Venue
Curse: The venue tells you the party’s over one hour before your guests expect to leave. And guess what? The bar is closed now.
Cure: Read the contract out loud before you sign it.
Goblin Guest
Curse: There is only one table with seats in the room. Four panelists, all members of the media, are in presentation mode. Looking for a place to sit, an attendee pulls up a chair, joins the panel and digs in – to the food and the conversation.
Cure: Set up a seating area and save a seat or two to give away.
Spooky Speaker
Curse: The speaker completely ignores the request to customize the presentation. Their speech, obviously canned, is a subtle, yet direct, sales pitch.
Cure: Preview the speech and ask for recommendations from other meeting planners.
Witchy Wi-Fi
Curse: With three devices per attendee, the wifi gives out. As soon as attendees escape, they tweet their scary story to the world.
Cure: Confirm adequate bandwidth.
Poltergeist Power
Curse: The meeting room has zero outlets. Attendees must rely on ghostly power to keep their devices charged.
Cure: Set up a charging station somewhere.
Frightening Food
Curse: With only meaty choices, vegetarians are afraid to eat anything. So they leave hungry.
Cure: Ask for food requests in advance.
RIP ROI
Curse: Attendance is low because marketing started too late. No one tweets or takes pictures. The event is DOA.
Cure: Follow a strategic marketing plan and assign a team to cover the event.
How about you – what’s your scariest meeting planning story?
Photo Credit: Barbara Rozgonyi, all rights reserved.
About the Author: Barbara Rozgonyi is an innovative event marketer, a frequent MPI speaker / trainer, and a member of MPI-CAC’s MarComm committee. Visit Barbara’s top 50 marketing and PR blog,http://wiredPRworks.com, for tips, tools and tactics that will improve your event marketing and your results.
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