EVENTS ARE HERE TO STAY
For those of you who have read my articles more than once, you would know I have been banging on about the importance of events for a long time. Not because I own and run an events agency, but because in the ever-changing, dehumanised world we are living in, events are still for me the best way to engage an audience on a personal, human level. The best way to market your brand and “take it to the people”. The best way to shake a prospective client’s hand, look them in the eye and tell them about you and why they should bet on you, rather than your opposition.
For me it is ALWAYS been the best way to close a deal. Get me into a meeting and I will close it. Why? Because I genuinely like people and understand that personality plays a major part in the decision to go with an agency. Who wants to work with someone they don’t like or trust? Sometimes you have to and sometimes you need to, but most of the time, given the choice, you go with someone you like and or want to work with.
A study just completed by Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) and recruitment specialists Ambition found that more than three quarters (78 per cent) of 1,100 business executives surveyed, prefer meeting in-person to using technology-enabled communications such as video conferencing.
An article in the latest Biz Events Asia quoting that CWT article stated:
Nearly one in four (23 per cent) respondents surveyed across Asia Pacific said face-to-face meetings help them build stronger, more meaningful relationships.
Seventeen per cent said they prefer to read people’s body language and facial expressions when in a meeting, while 15 per cent said they find it easier to get their point across and be persuasive when face-to-face.
The vast majority (92 per cent) of respondents, … agreed there are tangible business benefits to face-to-face meetings that outweigh any cost savings achieved through technology-enabled meetings.
So, what does that mean for us? It means events are here to stay and no matter what form of tech (digital media) we might use to supplant events and how much social media we push out, in the end the best way to get your brand out there, is to do it face to face.
The traction and cut through is still the best and even if you cannot measure the ROI and tie it specifically to one event, the ongoing relationship build is there. It works, and it does return results over time. Whatever else we come up with, that one on one moment is always going to win out. The two best ways to get that moment? Meetings and events!
So folks, let the email, smart phone, teleconferencing and other technology deal with ongoing communications and find your agency and get eventing! Make it new, exciting, real and make it happen!
Make 2019 the year you engaged your market consciously, in a considered pro-active non-random way. Find yourself an events agency you trust, like, want to work with and “sic em rex”! Take no prisoners and for my final cheesy moment, take the world by the hand, smile, looking to their eyes, shake the s##t out of it and close the deal!
Happy eventing!