Matrix Group International

Month: September 2021

  • Using Video to Promote Your Meetings and Conferences

    Using Video to Promote Your Meetings and Conferences

    We all know that video rules. Check out these amazing video statistics from 2021. 

    Non Dues-a-Palooza Pre-Event VideosI recently attended Non Dues a Palooza (NDaP) in Nashville, TN. NDaP is devoted to helping associations and nonprofits learn new ideas for generating non-dues revenue. Yes, I attended in person and it felt great! Teri Carden, the conference organizer and CEO of 100Reviews, uses video to promote her meetings and make them feel special. Here’s what she did for NDAP:

    Ahead of the conference, Teri invited her speakers and attendees to record and share a video about why they were excited to be attending NDaP.  Teri used Gather Voices to make this happen. Check out the video promo page. Maybe I’m just a conference marketing geek, but I found the videos compelling and I wanted to watch them all!

    When I checked into my hotel, there was a welcome letter from Teri that contained a QR code. The QR code led me to a video from Teri, welcoming me to Nashville, inviting me to the pre-conference happy hour, sharing highlights for the next day, and providing me with contact information if I have questions. In typical Teri fashion, the video was fun, authentic and super helpful.

    At the happy hour at the end of the conference, she asked a few attendees to talk about their experience, what they learned, and why they loved the event. These videos were shared in an event debrief put together by Association Briefings (another great touch – more on that later), and it was so fun to hear the takeaways from fellow attendees. And by the way, now she has video marketing material in hand for her next event. Genius! 

    Whether your next conference is in person or virtual, I’m sure you can use these ideas to promote your event, provide your attendees with useful information, and make all of your attendees feel welcome and special.

  • How the Air and Space Museum is Using Virtual Docents

    How the Air and Space Museum is Using Virtual Docents

    My younger son and I are listening to Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Andy Weir also wrote The Martian, which was a great movie and an even better book. Both The Martian and Project Hail Mary are adventure books set in space. Both are full of science and science fiction. If you love space stuff and science fiction, buy this book.

    Anyway, Project Hail Mary inspired me to take the boys to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum. This museum is full of all types of vehicles that fly: planes, helicopters, amphibious ships, missiles and drones. There’s even a Concorde plane, the space shuttle Discovery, an honest to goodness SR-71 reconnaissance plane (my favorite), and a scale model of a Martian lander and rover.

    Whenever we go to Udvar-Hazy, I look forward to speaking with the docents, who are usually (in my experience) knowledgeable and friendly former NASA, Boeing, or Lockheed employees, or just plane or space buffs. Alas, because of COVID, there are no docents available in person. 

    Scott, Virtual DocentWhat the museum instead was probably just as good. Next to the SR-71, Enola Gay and Discovery space shuttle, there were large screens with volunteers in their homes, available to chat with in real-time. I realized this when I walked by the screen by the Enola Gay and Scott said hello. I looked at the screen, said hello and asked him if he was there in real-time. Yep, he was speaking to us from his home in Falls Church, VA. Scott was terrific. He answered our questions about the Enola Gay, like how much did Little Boy weigh, and why were the bombs called Little Boy and Fat Man.

    Patricia, Virtual DocentWe also spoke with Patricia, who was stationed next to the Discovery space shuttle. And Jim, who was next to the SR-71. Turns out they were all trained to answer questions about pretty much anything in the museum, but our questions were mostly about the ships they were next to.

    What a terrific, innovative and surprisingly simple way to bring back docents! All three docents say they are looking forward to being back in person, but I’m wondering if some virtual docents should stick around. Virtual docents could be anywhere in the world; they wouldn’t need to drive to Udvar-Hazy; they could have disabilities that prevent them from driving, standing or walking;  they could speak different languages.

    Virtual docents are just one thing borne of this pandemic that could/should stick around. I know there are lessons learned and many, many innovations and practices should endure post-pandemic. What do YOU think should stick around?

  • Combine Virtual and In-Person Networking Before Conferences to Increase Engagement

    Combine Virtual and In-Person Networking Before Conferences to Increase Engagement

    Non Dues-a-Palooza Pre-Event Networking on Zoom I’m attending Non Dues-a-Palooza (NDAP) next week in Nashville, in person. NDAP is a conference devoted to helping associations and nonprofits increase their non-dues revenue by bringing together execs and solution providers, through case studies and panels. This will be my third NDAP event and I’m pretty excited.

    Even though the event will be in person, Teri Carden, the founder of NDAP decided to do a digital drop-in event a week before the actual event. She held a two-hour Zoom meeting and sent out an email to all attendees, asking them to drop in at any time during the two hours to say hello, meet fellow attendees, and share what’s on our minds before we come to Nashville.

    I loved this idea because:

    • I got to network with some people before the event next week
    • I got to schedule coffee with someone I want to do business with
    • It was fun to see Teri
    • The drop-in got me excited about next week

    I think this drop-in event shows that even as we look to a post-pandemic meetings landscape, we can and should continue to mix in person and virtual to create more high-impact events. And as usual, many thanks to Teri for showing us the way!