Everybody needs a visit from their muse once in awhile. If you’re looking for some fresh thoughts for great event ideas, get inspired with these award-winning events, recently honored with Gala Awards at this month’s Special Event conference in Atlanta.

Best Event Marketing Campaign
The Lundquist Co., Sacramento, CA

To draw media attention to its commitment to its historic roots, the City of Rancho Cordova, Calif., staged a New Orleans jazz funeral-style parade at the re-dedication of a 133-year-old cemetery. The event team made savvy use of the media to locate descendants of those buried in the cemetery and staged a ceremony honoring the deceased. The event drew five times the number of guests originally expected while maintaining a balance of celebration and decorum.

Best Theme Decor: Total Decor Budget $20,000 To $50,000
AOO Events, Los Angeles, CA

A financial services company bid “aloha” to a conference in Hawaii with a final night dinner honoring legendary fire goddess Pele. The outdoor “Lava Lounge,” featuring an island bar big enough to accommodate eight bartenders, glowed beneath suspended flame pots and masses of yellow and red jamestory orchids. Custom red leather banquettes and distressed brown leather ottomans allowed guests to recline while watching the performances set against a lava rock stage glowing with moving fire projections.

Best Invitation
BBDO Detroit, Troy, MI. and Chrysler, Auburn Hills, MI.

“Camp Jeep” enticed targeted Jeep owners with a tin case invitation to an owner loyalty event in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. The case included a pocket guide to the event and illustrated cards with humorous camping scenarios, such as how to make “radiator burgers.” More than 10,000 participants gathered to celebrate the Jeep lifestyle.

Best Event Produced For A Nonprofit Organization Or Association
The Webster Group, Washington, DC

AirForce Memorial Dedication by The Webster Group

The Air Force Memorial Dedication took place in October with 40,000 participants, including U.S. President George W. Bush, to honor the millions of men and women who have served in the Air Force. The memorial took more than 15 years to design, fund and build, and the Air Force celebrated its reveal with the three-day event. Activities and entertainment included an air show featuring the Thunderbirds, displays of the latest helicopters, fireworks and the U.S. Air Force Band’s Singing Sergeants.

Best Multiple-Day Event Program For A Corporation Or Association
Circ Corporate Experience, Wiesbaden, Germany, And Wizcraft International, Mumbai, India

The “Volkswagen Mumbai Cross Culture Experience” brought 30 future top Volkswagen executives to India for five days to learn about one of the company’s future key markets. Instead of seminars, Circ immersed participants in Indian culture with a no-frills approach. Participants visited the Kamla Mehta School for the Blind; the dabbawalas, who deliver thousands of meals a day with no IT system; and Lijjad Papad, a cooperative of more than 40 million women responsible for baking all the bread for India.

Best Event Produced For A Private Individual: Budget Under $1,000 Per Guest
A Joy Wallace Catering Production & Design Team, Miami, FL

“MaxStock” celebrated the bar mitzvah boy’s love for classic rock of the ’60s and ’70s. To stay true to the theme, Joy Wallace produced the event like a concert: Tour buses transported guests from ceremony to reception, “state troopers” directed cars and buses to the parking area, and a 10-by-10-foot mosaic of rock ‘n’ roll posters welcomed guests. Everyone was welcome to music festival standards such as chicken fingers and sliders; parents dined in the “green room” on upscale fare such as beef tenderloin and root vegetable salad.

Best Event Produced For A Corporation: Overall Budget $250,000 To $500,000
The Event Co./The Companies, Munich, Germany

Turning away from motivational speeches, two companies that had recently merged used dramatic symbolism to show unity. The 350 employees of the new firm entered a gallery to find an astonishing array made up of each person’s portrait; they then hung the portraits as directed on a wall to spell out the new entity’s name. The group dined at three long tables to signify the company “family.”

Best New, Innovative Event Product/Technology
Get Flipped, Orange, CA

In order to provide a unique party favor for a bat mitzvah, Get Flipped created the Flip Strip. Guests posed for four pictures, which were then morphed into two animated pictures. The bottom cell of the strip featured the honoree’s name, the date and a horse jumping over a fence to match the bat mitzvah’s horsey theme.

To view the complete award list, visit the Special Event site.

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We announced some big news this week - the launch of federated local search! This unique, blended local search technology combines all facets of local content into one search results page: business listings, movies, restaurants, events, sales, performers/celebrities (in town), sports, etc.

Another feature included in this product release is that we now display images on our SERPs (search engine results pages). Want to make your event or business stand out? Add a picture to your listing. Not only will it make your listing page more attractive, it also increases its attractiveness on SERPs, where your listing is competing with others for attention.

Look at these business listings in San Diego - which look more interesting to you: those with a picture, or those without?

Right, listings with images look better.

To add an image to your event or business listing, follow these steps:

1. Go to your listing page and log in.

2. Click on the “+ Image” link.

3. A pop-up screen like the example below will open. Select “Browse” to find your image on your computer.

Image size: For optimal display, we recommend uploading an image that is 400 pixels wide. We accept images in .jpeg, .png, or .gif formats. Your image may be cropped to fit into the available space, but the full image will be displayed when a user clicks on it. We recommend using photos over graphic images (like logos), because they are more appealing to other users (think about it, would you rather look at Maria Sharapova or a Nike logo?) - plus, they resize better.

3A. Adding the information in Step 2 is optional (Photo Credit, Caption, and Title/alt-text), but we recommend adding it to tell users more about your listing. The most important of the optional fields is the Title/alt-text, because it helps optimize your listing. When other search engines visit Zvents and index your page, some index images separately. This gives people searching on image sites, like Google Images, another way to find your listing (It’s a good idea to add alt-text to images on your own site too, to improve SEO). Currently, if you don’t fill in the Title/alt-text field, we automatically pull in the title of the listing.

4. After you’ve found your image and filled out the relevant fields, select Upload. Your image is now on your listing page!

5. Bonus! If you add multiple images to your listing, you can choose which image to set as the Primary Image by rolling over other images associated with your listing, and clicking on the small “+” symbol. The system will prompt you with the question “Are you sure you want to make this your primary image?”. Click “Ok”, and that image will become the main image on your listing, as well as the image displayed on SERPs.

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Is your company one of the best and brightest in today’s interactive marketing industry? PROMO Magazine is hosting their 3rd Annual Interactive Marketing Awards…and hopefully Zvents will make the cut (our fingers are crossed)! But if you’re an Interactive Event Marketer and think you’re up for the challenge, there are several categories for entry which include:

• Viral Promotion
  For campaigns that incorporated friend-to-friend components to build reach, create brand ambassadors and drive sales.
• SMS/MMS Mobile Marketing
  For campaigns that engaged consumers via short message service or multimedia message service technologies, to build brand engagement and drive sales.
• Internet-based Trial Recruitment
  For campaigns (such as digital sampling or coupon programs) that used the Web to engage consumers with a product or company for the first time.
• Internet-based Loyalty Marketing
  For campaigns that used Web-based programs to engage employees or consumers and build their affinity for a company or brand product over time.
• Promotional Web Site
  For either interim or long-standing Internet sites that supported an overarching integrated consumer-targeted promotional campaign, or integrated program targeting employees, sales reps or distributors.
• New Media
  For programs that used social networking, podcasting, blogs, RSS or other new media to build brand engagement and drive consumer behavior.
• Search Engine Marketing
  For programs that leveraged SEM to drive brand promotion.
• E-mail Marketing
  For programs that used electronic direct marketing to drive brand promotion.

Plus, One Best Overall Interactive Marketing Campaign will get selected from among the the category winners.

Enter soon because the Deadline is on February 15, 2008!

Best of luck!

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How’s this for the evolution of offline events to the internet? (I’m sure you can imagine why this caught our attention)

Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau represents over 300 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. What is interactive advertising you might ask? We’re talking about digital advertising, that which we’re dealing with online but more, that which you can leverage through emerging “interactive” technologies such as video games, DVRs (TiVo), search engines, and cell phones. When you promote an event with flash ad creative, that’s interactive advertising. Television commercials, print advertising, radio, billboards… all are passive forms of advertising; the audience absorbs the message and reacts or ignores. Interactive gives the audience a measure of control, influence, or interaction on the message you present to them; most would argue you are more likely to reach target audiences than with traditional advertising and you can certainly more effectively measure the performance of your marketing.

According to the IAB, IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the U.S. The IAB supports the continued growth of interactive advertising as well as interactive’s share, and of its member’s share, of total marketing spends.

The IAB’s VP of Events helps build their conference, event and exhibition business (sounds a little like us!) in through with the IAB presents recommended standards and practices along with effectiveness research and education about the advertising industry and interactive advertising. You’ll have the opportunity to work with interactive advertising industry leaders, programming exciting and cutting edge topics regarding Web 2.0, gaming and mobile.

If interested, get in touch with IAB’s David Doty at (david at iab dot net). The successful candidate will participate at the highest levels of management, manage events P&L, and direct industry events such as MIXX Conference Expo and Awards dinner, Leadership Forums and Luncheons, Innovators Roundtable Dinners, and the IAB Annual Meeting, the industry event focused on the future of the interactive ecosystem.

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Are you an events professional interested in furthering your professional development, networking with industry peers, and keeping up with the hottest trends in professional events? If your answer to any or all of the above is YES, then attending one or more of the following conferences is a must in 2008. Shows are listed in chronological order.

1. The Special Event Conference 2008: Atlanta, January 15-18

Touting itself as “…the Premier Annual Tradeshow and Conference for Event Professionals in the United States”, it is hailed as the fastest-growing trade show and conference for event professionals. This year they expect to have over 8,300 attendees and over 300 exhibitors.

Known for its educational sessions, this year’s conference features over 150 hours of content divided into eight educational tracks. Topics include Event Management, Design, Sales & Marketing, Food Services, Weddings, among others.

If you’re attending this conference, make sure you stop by booth #1718 and meet the Zvents folks!

2. MPI Professional Education Conference: Houston, February 2-5

With over 23,000 members in 68 countries, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is one of the largest and most respected global meeting and events industry communities. Their mission is to “help our members be their best by building human connections to knowledge, ideas, relationships, and marketplaces.”

Learn about the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation, and attend any of the dozens of specialized Knowledge Sessions. Keynote speakers include Mary Boone, Kay Caldwell, Jeff De Cagna and Richard Laermer. Over 2,500 attendees are expected to attend.

3. Event Solutions Idea Factory: Las Vegas, February 24-28

Produced by Event Solutions magazine, the Idea Factory promises “4 days, 100 classes, 4,000 attendees – 1 million ideas to take home”.

Maybe it’s because this show takes place in Vegas, but I have to say it looks fun! With a creative bent, Idea Factory focuses on trend-setting ideas to help you create cutting-edge events. Significant attention will be devoted to food and beverage services too, as the popular catersource Conference has merged with Idea Factory.

This show is designed for event professionals from corporations, associations, non-profits and independent event producers. Featured speakers include the Hearty Boys, Robyn Waters, and Oprah’s preferred event planner – Colin Cowie.

4. 2008 Experiential Marketing Summit: Chicago, April 21-23
In its sixth year, details are yet to be announced for EMS (formerly the Event Marketer Summit). Produced by Event Marketer magazine, over 1,000 event marketers are expected to attend.

5. MPI World Education Conference: Las Vegas August 9-12
Featuring education sessions for all levels of event planners, this MPI conference has a more international focus than their Professional Education Conference.

Session and keynote details have not been announced, but based on the 2007 event, expect more than 100 sessions divided amongst the following tracks: Novice Meeting Professionals, Senior Meeting Professionals, Small Business Owners, Sales & Marketing, and Strategic Meeting Management. Approximately 3,500 people are expected to attend.

6. ISES Eventworld 2008 – St. Petersburg, FL 8/21-23

Produced by the International Special Events Society, Eventworld 2008 features education sessions, leading industry experts, and networking opportunities. ISES also sponsors the Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP) designation and the ISES Esprit Awards.

The International Special Events Society is comprised of over 4,000 professionals in over 35 countries representing special event producers (from festivals to trade shows), caterers, decorators, florists, destination management companies, rental companies, special effects experts, tent suppliers, audio-visual technicians, party and convention coordinators, balloon artists, educators, journalists, hotel sales managers, specialty entertainers, convention center managers, and many more.

Did we miss something?

If you know of other trade shows, conferences, or programs that benefit event professionals, let us know. We’ll do a follow-up post on other relevant events.

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