Beyond RFPs: Creativity with Your Event Partners

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Welcome to the Event Pro show, your ultimate guide to the world of corporate

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events. Whether you're a corporate event planner, experiential marketing

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pro, producer, technician, or anyone involved in creating exceptional

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events, this podcast is your go to resource for valuable insights,

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expert tips and inspiring stories from the industry's leading

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professionals.

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Well, welcome to the Event Pro Show. I'm your host, Seth Mackey

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and I have some thoughts today today on boring events.

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You know what, your events might be boring because you don't know how

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to pull creative ideas from your partners. Let me

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explain. Sometimes there's an unspoken rule in

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events, and probably anywhere that

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RFPs are required. I, I have thoughts about RFPs.

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Creating RFPs before you have all, all sorts of all

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the information. But there's kind of an unspoken rule that

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you need to have all the answers. You're expected

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to be inspired with new and fresh ideas, and

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that approach could be limiting you. Because you know what? It's

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okay to not know everything. That's why you have

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partners. So I will share with you a new

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paradigm, specifically how it relates to working

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with AV services partners. Now,

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this would work with all sorts of partners. I mean, this would work with a

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catering partner or a florist or different

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partners that you work with. But from my perspective, AV

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is where I've spent most of my career and so I'll stick to

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that. But it's applicable. So do the

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following next time. This is what I suggest to start getting away

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from creating yet another season of boring

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events. First of all, I would build a relationship with a

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solid regional AV company. And the reason why I say

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that is if you're, if you could find a regional AV

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company with a great reputation, they're already fully vested in

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the region, in the area, typically a city that you're in or the cities that

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are in your metro area, they have great institutional

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knowledge of venues, freelance,

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freelance techs, equipment available, lots

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of, lots of regional information. Start bringing them

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into the ideation process early. So once you have that

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relationship, you start bringing them in. As you're thinking of

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creating RFPs, you have a partner that you can reach out to for

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ideas. You can develop a creative

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strategy together that speaks to your end

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client or your needs,

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and then they utilize the tech in the most inspiring way. So

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the, the idea here is that as you're ideating and you're putting together this

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creative strategy, that you're doing it in line with what

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you want, but you're not having to guess how all the tech is going to

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work before you create an rfp. You're just saying,

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this is where I want to go. Can you guys speak into that? Give me

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some, give me maybe two or three options, and then we can talk about budgets

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after that and how we might land on something.

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Another advantage to having this AV partner that you've developed

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a relationship with is that they work on many events for many

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clients every year. So they, they don't

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only. Not only see how others are doing it really well, they might

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be seeing how others are doing, doing it wrong. And so they can

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steer you in the right direction. And I, I'm a big

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believer in using the

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shortcut of other people's experience, taking advice

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from really smart people, surrounding yourself with people like that.

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And it really is a shortcut in life

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and in business and in events as well. So they

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can guide you in ways that they're seeing things being done really well,

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maybe not so well, but it keeps you centered

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on what's important and creating one step closer to

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creating a compelling, engaging event. So put all that

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experience to work for you. Get their input, allow them to be part of the

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creative process, and that'll help your events go to the next, to

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the next level. Now that, that leads to another question of, you know, what if

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I have like one event a year, one major event a year. I'm a

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planner and this is my event. And so I do build my partners,

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but I don't really see them but like once a year, you know, every, every

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cycle when we do this event in the fall or whatever. So

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I have some ideas on how you can also stay connected

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to your production partners year round. Here's a couple

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thoughts. So as you're thinking through your event

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portfolio in the year and you're thinking of different venues of where you want to

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go, remember, oh, I've got these production partners that are in all the

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venues all the time. Get venue insights from them, Just

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reach out randomly. It doesn't have to be about a show that they're producing for

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you or developing with you, but that they'd be

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glad to talk about. Yeah, I, I've had experience in that venue before

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and they can give you specifics about it, tips, common

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challenges. They, they might even provide venue layouts

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or drawings to help you plan better and say, hey, this is the last time

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we were in here. This is what we experienced. Here's a drawing of how we

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did the room. So let me know what other, you know, the help

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you need. That, that's easy. That's an easy thing.

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Another thing you could do is you could reach out occasionally, just discuss

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new trends, just what's going on in the AV world.

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What's exciting to you right now? What things are you implementing that are

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really successful? AV companies are on the pulse of what's trending

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because they again, they work with many clients in different industries, all with

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different needs. They're always solving different problems, whether that's

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through cutting edge technology or low tech

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solutions that they've developed to solve a problem. They just are

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always kind of on the edge of what's trending right now. So

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get ahead of the curve by tapping into their knowledge now so you're ready with

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fresh ideas for your next event. Again, see we're, we're trying to elevate your

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events so that they're compelling and interesting and exciting for your

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attendees. Another idea is just go take a

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warehouse tour. Many AV partners would love to show you

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their equipment capabilities. You can meet the behind the scenes

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team that you never get to see. But most AV partners, AV companies have

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people back at the home office that are preparing your show you're never going to

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get to see. But they're excellent, great people to meet

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so you can get a behind the scenes tour gives you a better sense of

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what they can offer and it could also help you understand the

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resources available to you for future events. Again, this is, this

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is trying to, to generate new ideas to see what

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resources are available to you. So what do you walk away with

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with these reach outs? This, this strengthens your

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partnership. That's, that's a goal here, right? We're trying to streng

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partnership. This is expanding your knowledge and

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specifically in this instance your knowledge of av. But you could do

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this with other partners to get your knowledge of catering or you know, our

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florist example, just expanding your knowledge and you're preparing

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for success on your next big event. Again, it's building your

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confidence and your bench and your mind of creativity

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so you can put together more creative events. I'd love to hear

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ways that you stay connected with your production partners, but

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until then this has been great. I hope it was useful to you.

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Please stay tuned to the Event Pro show where we will continue to

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share tips and introduce you to experts

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in the field of corporate events. And remember, the goal here

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is I just want to introduce you and have conversations with people

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that are all involved in this thing we call corporate events and

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guests come at it from different directions. All these

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conversations are so fun to have and each one I walk out of

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learning something new. So I hope that's the same for you, but until

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next time, I hope you have a fantastic day. Thanks for

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listening. The Event Pro

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show is a production of LEMG video by Nick

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Barrett, audio and post production by Prince

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Thompson. You can learn more about us at LEMG Live.