Hey L.A. Event Planners!

Zvents is exhibiting on June 5th at the L.A. Event Style Expo, and we’d love to meet you there! Get a free pass to the show (a $60 value!) when you register and use the promotional code PPLA. This special one-day event takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Stop by the Zvents Booth (#530) and Mention this Blog Post and get a Free T-Shirt!

Show admission includes these special events:

10:15 - 11 a.m.
Keynote Presentation by Lynda Resnick
The marketing mind behind brands like POM Wonderful and FIJI Water, Lynda Resnick knows how to integrate events into successful branding campaigns. Matching the right events with the right customers is key to her success. During this keynote presentation, discover the strategies she employed at high-profile events such as the Academy, Golden Globe, and Emmy awards to ultimately make her brands household names. She’ll offer keen insights into today’s competitive marketplace and share tips for the ultimate event business success.

3 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Behind the Scenes at the GRAMMY Awards: What it Takes to Make Mega Events
In this session, Erick Weiss will moderate a discussion with top event producers from a cross section of industries: Branden Chapman, VP with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Len Iannelli, VP with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, David Finch, CMP from Amgen and Judi Froehlich-Pascoe with Americas, BCD Meetings & Incentives and the eWomenNetwork. The discussion will focus on the commonalities and differences between the various industries and what it takes, behind the scenes, to produce world class mega events.

Panelists:
Erick Weiss, President - Honeysweet Productions
Branden Chapman, Vice President, Production & Process Management - The Recording Academy
Len Iannelli, VP of Special Events, Marketing - 20th Century Fox Film Corp.
David Wellington Finch, CMP, Sourcing & Compliance Manager, Meetings & Conventions - Amgen
Judi Froehlich- Pascoe, Director of Business Development, Americas BCD Meetings & Incentives Managing Director - LA eWomenNetwork

BizBash LA Event Style Awards 2008
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
See the events that dazzled! Celebrate the year’s best events at the BizBash Event Style Awards 2008. Glimpse best practices and get new ideas when more than 15 event categories are honored for outstanding industry contributions.

Interested in the full conference program? Visit the BizBash site for more information about the day’s educational sessions, and use discount code PPCONF for a special rate!

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We’ve been cooking up new ways to promote local businesses and events, and we’re thrilled (exhausted and relieved!) to announce that the Enhanced Listings beta period is officially open.

What are Enhanced Listings?
A new way to make your event or venue listings stand out from basic listings, and benefit from enhanced features and design options.

By upgrading your Basic Listing to an Enhanced Listing, you can:

• Tailor your marketing messages with special offers, news and announcements and promo codes
• Appear prominently in search results with a colorful, highlighted listing
• Increase brand awareness by adding your company logo
• Upload a video ad, commercial, or virtual tour
• Stylize your listing with colorful custom graphics
• Enhance your brand experience by removing advertisements or user reviews

We offer two packages - and Enhanced Detail Page package and a Search Results package. You can also add additional upgrades, such as removing ads and user reviews, or adding custom graphics to the border on your listing.

Here’s an example of an Enhanced Detail Page Package for Sibby’s Cupcakery in San Mateo:

The Search Results Package highlights your listing in search results:

For a limited time (a few weeks, most likely), you can create Enhanced Listings for your business, venue or events - for free! Join the beta now.

And remember…every listing created on Zvents is shared with our growing 250+ Zvents Media Network partners too.

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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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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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We had a chance to sit down with Local Biz Bits’ Larry Sullivan who specializes in and promotes local search marketing as a means to help small businesses build on-line visibility. Larry is an independent web marketer and designer in Augusta, GA where you can find him through LRSxpress Web Services. His interest?  Everything from our Facebook app to the Zvents Media Platform which is what our partners use to syndicate events and local search; most importantly, how to use events to promote your business.

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Every year, Special Events Magazine releases their survey “50 Top Event Companies” fairly billed as the list of the most significant providers of event resources.

“from Corporate bashes to fundraisers to high-style soirees”

Not surprisingly, George P Johnson Co. makes the top of the list. The company, who’s founder once cited, “Make no small plans,” continues that legacy through over 1,000 professionals who produce and promote more than 4,000 events each year throughout the world.

TSE Sport & Entertainment serves as one of the best choices for sports related events, with ESPN one of their closest partners, while EventQuest and Jack Morton (blog) leverage experiential marketing to deliver innovative, multi-sensual events.

The list is an invaluable resource for event planners and marketers looking for those experienced resources that can make your event.

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Octane’s Harry Hallman has been looking into social networks and suspects demand for such a service on behalf of event marketers. We whole heartedly agree and encourage you to take the survey they are soliciting in which they ask that very question.

<blockquote>”If you are an event professional please compete this survey. No names are required, but you can get a summary once it is done if you leave your email address.”</blockquote>

Octane, an Atlanta based interactive and analytics agency, leverages new media to deliver effective, efficient results. Hallman a partner with over 30 years marketing experience has, for the last 12, been devoted to interactive and internet marketing. With resources dedicated to platforms such as MySpace and social media, web design, and word of mouth marketing, Octane is worth your consideration set.

Give the survey a few minutes of your time.

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