All the bits and pieces required for running a successful event!
If you are ready to stand up for what you believe in, now is the time to put your brave boy/girl pants on and do it
Why purpose, intention and love must be at the center of influence today Read More »
After more than a year of work, a team of 22 volunteers delivered a five-day digital Convention – The Asia Professional Speakers Convention 2020.
#18 Weekend reads – exhausted, elated, happy Read More »
WhatsApp is not a collaboration tool! It’s a messaging app and it’s absolutely useless when it comes to collaboration.
When did WhatsApp become a collaboration tool? Hint, it’s not Read More »
Of course it’s not easy to do when fear is so thick in the air.
Are you taking the time to reflect and consider our collective future? An invitation… Read More »
What can I do to help address climate change? That is the question I am constantly asked after sharing information on the crisis the world is facing. So, I’m doing what I can do, and that is sharing ideas, which hopefully can contribute to a collective surge of change. But based on my experience and business background, the best contribution I can make is in mobilizing business and the professionals who work for the world’s largest companies. I think we are the best hope our planet has. I encourage you to read and invest time in acquiring knowledge about the climate crisis. All angles. As an example, you can read this article if you want to understand more about CO2 emissions. It’s at a critical point now and most people do not understand it… Where we are as a planet In early 2019, the UN released a report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The warning is stark. The ecosystems on which all life on planet earth depends – including human life – is deteriorating at an unprecedented pace. If it continues, IPBES chair Robert Watson said: “We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.” A million species of plants and animals are threatened by extinction. Three-quarters of the planet’s land and about two-thirds of the oceans have been significantly altered. It’s now likely there will be grave consequences for people around the world. Plastic has even been found at the deepest depths of the oceans, following an extraordinary expedition, led by Victor Vescovo. They descended nearly 11km to the deepest place in the ocean – the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench (read that story, it’s amazing) and even there, they found human pollution. Plastic has also been found on the highest mountains on earth. And then we had UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said: the World is ‘not on track’ to meet the Paris climate accord objectives and that “the political will to fight climate change seems to be fading at the same time as things are getting worse for those feeling the effects.” Most recently, the IPCC released a Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate and you can click here for all reports released by the IPCC. If you are paying attention to this crisis, despair is mounting. Climate anxiety is a real thing, and while I’ve sunk into that anxiety a few times this year, I continue to come out fighting. For me, the climate crisis we all face is the only story that matters right now. If we don’t act… Read the reports, I mean it, you NEED to read the reports. I am honestly amazed at how many people are not giving this even the smallest amount of attention. We cannot ignore this. There is no time! I know it’s frightening. But we can not put our heads in the sand anymore. Taking action, wherever we can But what can we do? We must impact every person in our lives by sharing knowledge to educate them, and then we must inspire them to act, because we all need to change behaviours. If we can’t rely on the politicians to do what is needed – which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly conducive to re-election, right? Based on the old political paradigm I don’t think it is. But what we’re fighting for is not conducive to democracy anyway. There is too much short-term pain that we need to suffer, and no politician wants to ‘own’ that. Not to mention, I believe our democracies have become fundamentally corrupted by big business interests (aka the donors) who are getting priority above all else. As Tim Winton says in this article: Our leaders are ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence. It’s unforgivable. So, we have no choice but to increase the pressure from we the people to make it impossible for the politicians, media, business – and anyone else profiting from business as usual – to ignore. Our voice is powerful. We are powerful. Believe it and let’s create a better world. It will be a painful change, but it will be worth it out the other side. The power of business professionals And as business professionals, we can make an impact with the individual choices we make, the wider influence we can share with colleagues and our communities, as well as being a force within the companies we work for to wake the leadership up to take action. We can be the change. In fact, it’s the only way to get it moving as quickly as it needs to move. But don’t expect it to be easy. A recent report from Amazon showed the employees wanted change, but the shareholders voted it down – 8,000 Amazon employees asked the company to do more on climate change. Shareholders just said no. Keep fighting the good fight employees. One day the shareholders will realize that there will be no more profits for anyone if we don’t sort this out! To inspire you, to start conversations, to share with colleagues, or as content you can print and stick to the wall in your office, here are 10 ideas to get started. Don’t forget to tell me what else you would add to this list? Let’s keep building and driving the world forward, to ensure a better future for all. Let’s share the message! Let’s drive the conversation and turn the earth ship around – for ourselves, our children, and all living beings on planet earth. So here are 10 actions business professionals can take to address the climate crisis Green audit your business A great opportunity we all have, whether we work for a global MNC or we’re a solopreneur, is take a good hard look inside our businesses and work out where we can make significant changes that matter. For bigger businesses, we can recruit fellow green ambassadors,
10 actions business professionals can take to address the climate crisis Read More »
A couple of weeks ago, the UN released a report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The warning is stark. The ecosystems on which all life on planet earth depends – including human life – is deteriorating at an unprecedented pace. If it continues, IPBES chair Robert Watson said: “We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.” A million species of plants and animals are threatened by extinction. Three-quarters of the planet’s land and about two-thirds of the oceans have been significantly altered. It’s now likely there will be grave consequences for people around the world. I mean plastic has been found at the deepest depths of the oceans, following an extraordinary expedition, led by Victor Vescovo. They descended nearly 11km to the deepest place in the ocean – the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. Read that story, it’s amazing. And then we had UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, say: the World is ‘not on track’ to meet the Paris climate accord objectives and that “the political will to fight climate change seems to be fading at the same time as things are getting worse for those feeling the effects.” If you are paying attention to this crisis, despair is mounting. Climate anxiety is a real thing, and while I’ve sunk into that anxiety a few times this year, I continue to come out fighting. For me, it’s the only story that matters right now. If we don’t act… Read the reports, I mean it, you NEED to read the reports. I am honestly amazed at how many people are not giving this even the smallest amount of attention. We can not ignore this. There is no time! Taking action, wherever we can So, what can we do? We must impact every person in our lives by sharing knowledge to educate them, and then we must inspire them to act, because we all need to change behaviours. If we can’t rely on the politicians to do what is needed – which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly conducive to re-election, right? Based on the old political paradigm I don’t think it is. But I think we’re entering a new paradigm, and I am hoping the forthcoming Australian election reflects this change. It will be a vote for climate action… or it won’t. Based on Australia’s intense last 12 months from a climate perspective, I feel hopeful Aussies will vote for Mother Earth. However, I also believe our democracies have become fundamentally corrupted by big business interests (aka the donors) who are getting priority above all else. As Tim Winton says in this article: Our leaders are ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence. It’s unforgivable. So, we have no choice but to increase the pressure from we the people to make it impossible for the politicians, media, business – and anyone else profiting from business as usual – to ignore. Our voice is powerful. We are powerful. Believe it and let’s create a better world. It will be a painful change, but it will be worth it out the other side. What did we do? Last year at the Asia Professional Speakers Convention 2018, current President of APSS, Fredrik Haren, made a pledge for equality and diversity on the stage. It was brilliant, and I wrote about it last year, because this is the sort of action we must take to create the change that is needed. We all believe that when you get people focused on equality and diversity, they work harder to deliver it. And at the Asia Professional Speakers Convention 2019 we focussed on sustainability. Not only was it a case of no plastic bottles, straws, coffee pods, balloons, unsustainable glitter, etc… we had limited printed items and focused on getting the message out through the digital tools available. We also didn’t print the staging. We projected it. It looked great too! Next year I’d love to see zero paper and a vegetarian menu, but we might have had a rebellion if we offered no meat 😊. Slowly but surely, change happens. Regardless, we made a start, people started thinking about the issue more, and we all committed to doing more, and we will. The response has been very heartening. The other exciting project was getting the 270+ speakers in the room to sign the Speakers Sustainability Pledge. Here it is in all it’s glory. Illustrated by the incredible Tim Hamons of Art of Awakening, and supported by Stephanie Dickson, founder of Green is the New Black, Asia’s Largest Consciousness Festival, and the Wedge Asia. Check out the incredible work both are doing!!!! We are now sharing this commitment across the Global Speakers Federation community worldwide, with commitments flowing in from India, Australia, Namibia, Sweden and more already. And we are asking everyone to share it with connections in the events industry (or any industry), hotel and event venues, and to anyone they know that can make a difference. We must reduce the extraordinary amount of waste that comes out of the millions of events happening around the world, EVERY SINGLE DAY! In fact, here’s a blank version of the pledge. Add your logo, print it out as a poster, get it signed, hang it in the middle of your office, and let’s get more people thinking and acting to reverse the threat all of humanity is facing! Let’s clean up our world. Let’s stop trashing it. So, can you reduce the impact in your business? If you can, please join us!!! And make sure you work with partners committed to sustainability too. If you are someone contracting with professional speakers and the event industry, how about you commit to partnering with those committed to sustainability? As part of the Speakers Sustainability Pledge, we are asking all speakers to add to their speaker contracts the below information. It’s a simple cut and paste job, and hopefully it will get more people
Hundreds of Professional Speakers sign event sustainability pledge in Asia Read More »
I’ve been blogging and building a personal brand for a decade, and if you’ve been following my blogs, I rarely ask for anything in return. In fact, I’ve discovered I don’t need to sell anything. I get phone calls and emails within minutes of publishing blogs from professionals wanting to work with me. These leaders value what I share and how I’ve carried myself in the digital realm for a long time, and that is the most powerful sales tool we all have today. Therefore, when it comes to the ROI of blogging and building a strong personal brand – I can assure you, it works, it works, it works. Andrea is the best Personal Branding and Content Marketing mentor I’ve had the fortune to work with. Wherever she goes, she empowers. Nishan Weerasinghe, CMO, IBM Systems for Cloud One thing I do get asked a lot is to run public personal branding workshops. I can’t do this very often, because my calendar is choc-o-bloc full of corporate commitments and travel this year – I know, I’m very lucky and grateful. However, I do want to share this message more widely (because I really believe in it) with those who want to understand and embrace this opportunity for themselves and their business. I am passionate about my work because I know it completely changes the game when you get it right. I always start my workshops finding out who the cynics are in the room and there are always a few. They tell me they feel this way because they don’t see examples within their communities of people building brands with integrity, a mind-set of service and authenticity. Instead, people are doing too much self-promotion. It is turning them off. Andrea understands content and what to do with it better than anyone and her strategic, common sense and realistic approach on all things ‘social’ is a breath of fresh air. Above all else, she’s a communications professional who knows how to have an impact and be effective over the long term. Andrea is a very positive and generous person with a genuine passion for what she does. She’s terrific. David Cook, Global Communications Director at GE I completely understand this point of view and agree with it, which is why I have been building my training program over a number of years to address those very concerns. Because it’s not about that at all. Personal branding, in the digital realm, is an act of service. It’s about being humble. It’s about giving all you have to your audience to make their lives better. It’s about being a real contributor in this digital world. How do you become a Social Leader in Singapore? My goal is to help attendees understand how to do it right and with integrity. That’s the heart of it. That’s what this course focuses on – finding the meaning each of us has behind building a powerhouse personal brand. Because it must have meaning. Without it, social just feels like a megaphone for people’s opinions (and dietary preferences), and it is so much more than that. So much more. At this workshop, we’ll start with identifying our focus (what we want to be known for), and then we’ll go step-by-step through how to get set up, where to focus, how to get started, and then, how to build a powerhouse personal brand. Andrea ran a Social Media training – it was both very insightful on the importance of Personal Branding and very helpful in navigating through the multiple platforms. Her delivery was fun and authentic using her own life and work experiences in social media and personal branding. Highly recommend Andrea for any advice on Social Media or Personal Branding. Judith Jamieson – Regional People and Culture Director South Asia Pacific at World Vision I love delivering this course. I have watched people’s lives completely transform. That is such an honour for me and can you imagine the impact it has on my life, knowing that little old me is capable of doing that for people? It really is incredible and humbling. This course is not fluffy stuff. It aims to get to the heart of who you are and the magic you have within you to offer the world. I know magic sounds fluffy, but 1. I love fantasy books and 2. we all do have magic within us. We’ve got to embrace our magic. My goal is to help you draw yours out and then most importantly, find the self-confidence to embrace your voice on social media. Self-confidence and belief is definitely the biggest inhibitor to getting started. I met Andrea 12 months ago when we were seeking a professional trainer to help RBS employees update their LinkedIn profiles to improve job search opportunities. I cannot say enough about the impact Andrea has had on the 200+ employees that have attended her sessions. More than updating LinkedIn, Andrea is getting people to tap into what they stand for and she encourages them to go out into the world as an ambassador for themselves first, and their business second. I have watched people’s lives completely change from this training, as they come out inspired, impassioned and ready to take ownership of their future through the amazing tools we have available to us today on social media. Andrea lives and breathes this stuff, but more than anything, she passes her passion on to her audience and considering the vast cultural mix of our employees, it’s saying something that she can touch so many with her message. I enjoy working with Andrea immensely, and if you are seeking to train your employees to be ambassadors for your brand, or are going through changes and want to help your employees find new work, I could not recommend a professional more. Andrea is great to work with and I promise you something else – you’re going to have a lot of fun working with Andrea too! Kylie Barry, APAC Recruitment Manager: Finance,
It’s almost here, how to become a social leader, in Singapore. Join me Read More »
If you’re like me, the ideas and opinions around our millennial work-colleagues has started to become tedious and, quite frankly, patronizing. I’ve had the pleasure of working with thousands of young, nubile minds, and the broad-brush statements across a whole generation has never sat well with me. Besides, I’ve always felt I’m a millennial in a Gen X body, so I celebrate this generation and hope they collectively change the world for the better. We need them too. But there is a difference about this generation – a quality that exudes from every millennial I meet. It’s a desire for a different future. A willingness to go into battle to fight against ideas and work models that my generation never really had the opportunity to change. This quality is always there and it’s what I want to understand. What is it? What drives it? So I talked to one of the best millennials I know, Stephanie Dickson, co-founder of The Wedge Asia and Singapore’s most anticipated consciousness festival, Green is the New Black – which is happening this Saturday, 22nd October. Book now or be disappointed. I’m definitely going. I have known Steph for a long time. In fact, I knew Steph when she was still in school uniform, because I am friends with her fabulous mother, Sheila Dickson. For me to have watched her grow into the forward-thinking, entrepreneurial, tribe-building, business leader she is today, well let’s say I’m super proud of her. I’m also proud of the conscious human being she is. Steph is terrific. So I asked Steph, what is important to millennials? “When I look across my community, including all of the people who have joined The Wedge tribe, I would have to say that having a sense of purpose is absolutely central to what drives us professionally. We have a thirst to build something, we want to make an impact, and we want to get involved. “Of course, we all want this, but the other quality I think people miss about this generation, is we know that before we can achieve any of this, we have to understand ourselves first. That is why millennials are pursuing wellness in higher numbers than any generation before. “Our desire for this wisdom is deep, and if I focused on one thing business leaders are missing today, it is understanding our deep commitment to wanting something better. We don’t want what they have. It’s not good enough anymore. We know life can be better, for all of us.” But why now? Why this generation? “I was brought up an expat kid in international schools, and most of my community is either from this background or from a relatively wealthy background, especially when it comes to the wealth of gaining a tertiary education. This provides us with a safety blanket in our home life – something previous generations didn’t have. “Younger people, more and more, have the option to stay at home in the early years of our careers, and often have amazing support from our parents or community – financially and/or emotionally. So, when you have what you need to survive, it gives you the space to search, and for us, that search is all about how can I be happier? “Business in Asia is crazy and we are all operating at a speed that makes our heads spin, but is this what life’s about? Is this all we can expect from life? Then we have a choice: do we escape the craziness and dull our experience through alcohol or other forms of self-abuse? Or do we go inside and work out how we can achieve inner peace? More and more, millennials are turning to the second option.” What are the priorities you see for millennials in this quest? “Millennials are looking for the tools and people that can help them on life’s journey, which is why we launched Green is the New Black, Asia’s First Conscious Festival. The three themes of the day are Having, Being and Doing.” Having – “millennials know there is a better way to buy and want to be educated about being conscious consumers. For example, fashion consumption that negatively impacts the planet is a hot issue for our generation.” Being – “we also know that we need to have inner peace before we can become conscious citizens of the world, who are empowered to make a positive impact. We know we must own us” Doing – “and we know we need to be doing more and making more of an impact on our magnificent world. We see ourselves as the custodians of earth’s future and we’re not happy with the status quo.” “We look at the world from a 360 viewpoint, and while we are at the centre of our world-view, we also see ourselves as individually responsible for what happens next. I think this is the biggest shift of our generation – personal responsibility.” Wow I don’t know about you, but Steph’s thoughts gave me an amazing sense of peace. I have been extremely concerned by the global apathy towards our planet for many years – especially when being confronted with the haze in Singapore – something we can get involved in stopping by changing how we buy and demanding corporations do more. Therefore, knowing the next generation of leaders are taking the future seriously, but especially by taking personal responsibility, gives me warm and tingly feelings all over. It’s brilliant. As a supporter of the work Steph, Jerald and the team are doing, I encourage us oldies, based in Singapore, to head along to Green is the New Black this Saturday and to also connect with The Wedge Asia community. My experiences with this tribe have opened me up to the collective mindset of the next generation, and that is a huge gift. When I hear so many business leaders today say they are struggling to understand what to do to make millennials happy in the work-force, it is events
Understanding the millennial mindset – what’s important to young professionals? Read More »
I enjoyed a great couple of days attending Content360 in Singapore last week, with ACMA as the Association Partner for the event. The 180-strong audience enjoyed case-study rich presentations from some of the world’s greatest brands, and I definitely agree with the general sentiment that Singapore (and Asia) has moved beyond the why of content marketing into the how. While the event was predominantly focused on B2C and video content, the overarching message I took from all of the presentations and discussions is this: don’t get confused by the processes, because it’s easy to get distracted (and stalled) by the details. Instead, we must all work to focus on what is most important – creating really compelling content that makes your customers (the ‘audience’) want more, and deliver it over the appropriate channels based on where your customers are most engaged – online and off. That said, throughout this event there was definitely a strong focus on digital. My concern is the audience taking that message too literally when it may not be appropriate for their brand? Another key take-away is that content marketing has moved into the mainstream and with ad-blocking now a reality, delivering awesome content that is mobile-enabled has never been more critical. Industry events normally attract a smattering of good speakers and for the rest of the time we yawn our way through, but at Content360 this year, it was definitely not the case. I wasn’t bored for a second and every speaker taught me something new and valuable. I hope everyone else felt the same. Some highlights from two days, but do check out hashtag #content360sg for more: The event got off to a great start with the effervescent Tony Chow from Marriot International. Marriott are doing great content in this region, with plans to grow both budgets and the content team. Radha K Raman, of Brightcove, Asia Pacific, discussed the difference between YouTube and Your Tube. A very interesting distinction. Video was definitely a hot topic throughout the event. A great panel discussion followed, honing in on how significantly budgets are changing, with a dramatic decrease in advertising spend as well as traditional viewing channels. Chantal van Wijnbergen, of Jetstar Airways made us laugh when discussing the very successful Jetstar Airways Singlish campaign. If you haven’t watched it, do check out the link. And later, Angela Hunter of Prudential Assurance Singapore made us cry with her presentation on Prudential’s beautiful #relationshipreconnect campaign. Pass the tissues. The results speak for themselves. Phil Townend, MD Asia Pacific for Unruly gave a very spirited presentation, claiming that content marketing will be the saviour of the free internet. I agree Phil. And did you know you are 475 times more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner ad? John Williams of the BBC discussed building brand purpose in a compelling presentation from one of the world’s greatest storytelling brands. I am looking forward to seeing what BBC Storyworks achieves in the content space in Asia. Rashish Pandey of Cisco gave a great B2B example in discussing how Cisco evolved into a content marketing organisation, with an internal focus in building its content muscle the first core focus area. Kevin Hagino of LEGO Group was an outstanding highlight for the event, mainly because he is a great storyteller. The table I was sitting at saw us all giggle for the first 10 minutes as he explained his early career in feminine hygiene products. Why a man enters that field, I don’t know! However, as a brand, it’s hard to get a better story board to work with than LEGO. Kevin’s focus on creating content that’s really meaningful to customers – the idea that a human is at the end of all marketing – struck a big chord with the audience. ACMA board member Timi Siytangco of Outbrain did us all proud as she discussed the three moments of attention – intent, influence and interest. But definitely not interrupt! And Aseem Puri, CMO, Unilever International, gave a highly irreverent but impactful presentation on a number of content campaigns that have achieved phenomenal results. Poo-Pourri as a closer was an interesting choice. Check it out. Everyone did a great job and shared incredible insights and examples, and there were many more speakers and presentations worthy of a mention. So I really do recommend reviewing the Twitter feed #content360sg, where there is lots of tweets and interactions throughout the event to learn from. For anyone who attended but found the big brand success stories daunting and is maybe struggling to understand how to apply all of this to your business and budget, here’s some key messages I hope will help: It’s about stopping thumbs and winning hearts today – so focus on creating great content that is all about the human at the end of your marketing Define your customer, define your story and then deliver magic to them Understand where your customer is and interact with them there If you are still focused on the ‘old’ style of marketing and advertising as your primary focus area, it’s time to take another look, shuffle your priorities, and put content at the heart of your strategy There was a lot of talk about moving to digital, but as above, where is your customer? If you can reach them in-person, don’t forget the old tactics in your mix as well Take risks, be brave, be prepared to make mistakes and learn Be patient, give your content marketing strategy time to work What external content can you use? Is user generated content (UGC) an opportunity? Measure what you’re doing, track trends, understand SEO and SEM Get started Also, do check in to ACMA regularly for our content, events, research and learnings. We’re here to help you succeed so bookmark this page and follow us on social media. Congrats to the team at Marketing Magazine/Marketing Interactive. You pulled together a great event and I’m looking forward to next year. Let me
Asia Definitely Moved Beyond Why of Content Marketing to How Read More »
I’ve been attending lots of industry events in recent weeks – social media, content marketing, technology, and even a rugby dinner – and here’s the thing. It’s 2015 and still STILL event organizers and speakers aren’t appreciating the power of social media at events. We’ve got to change that. I’ll give you one example of how this stuff can make a massive impact from a project I was involved with before I left Microsoft last October. We ran an enterprise event in Singapore and 200 high level executives were in attendance. Prior to the event, we defined a content marketing and social media strategy aligned to the event agenda, and throughout the event week, we pushed out content and live-tweeted during the sessions. We also asked the speakers to get on board. The impact? We took the event influence beyond the 200 people sitting in the room, to potentially influencing 2.5 million people around the globe. That’s what it can do. In the picture above, you’ll see Tiffani Bova from Gartner. Not only do I love working with Tiffani, but she gets her role on social media as a speaker. Famous for her selfies from the stage, Tiffani Bova was a guest speaker at the Microsoft event and her social support was phenomenal. But it’s more powerful than that. How she interacts on Twitter has two benefits – it elevates what she’s doing to her community, but it also elevates the brands she is working with. Considering she has 25,000+ loyal followers (which include business decision makers who take her advice seriously), she’s a very valuable speaker to have on your team. All speakers need to think like Tiffani. So please, I don’t want to have to ask another event organizer what the hashtag is upon arrival. I want it to be up in lights from the second I arrive, and preferably, I want it before. I am engaged on social media, I want to elevate what you’re doing, and I know other socially savvy people do as well. Make it easy for us. Hootsuite did it this week at it’s first Singapore HootUp #instaHootupSG – they get it! My tips: Event hashtag everywhere – put it on the banners, delegate badges, and on every slide presented (it can be small and subtle, just make sure it’s read-able from the back of the room). Keep the hashtag simple and if you don’t want to put it on every slide, put it on the break slides and have a stand-up banner at the front with the hashtag. People need to be reminded of it all day Speaker handles – ask your speakers to include their Twitter handle on every slide in their deck. Again it can be small and subtle, but if your speakers want their presentation amplified, if they want publicity, if they want the ability to grow their social presence, this is a minimum requirement. So speakers, if you’re not on Twitter, get on it. (If you’re after a younger audience, Instagram is also relevant, as are others.) But Twitter is where the moments happen, so if you’re on the speaking circuit in whatever form, you’ve got to be on Twitter. No excuses But give back – as a speaker, you have to give, because it’s not all about you. If you have a high profile, the brand benefits from your interaction, and that means you’ll be invited back. Also when people Tweet something you’ve said (especially if they’re nice), say thanks, retweet and favorite what they’ve done for you. Your audience is giving something to you – they are elevating your brand – have the courtesy to show your appreciation in return. You’ve got a part to play and I encourage you to embrace it Create social buzz – all throughout the event, from event introduction to the end, encourage people to participate on social media. Mention the event hashtag, run competitions for best Tweet, Tweet pic, or Instagram post, but the most important thing is to brief the emcee to create energy behind social media participation from the stage – all day. Your audience wants to participate, they really do, encourage the hell out of it Socialise the social – if you really want people on board, have a live Tweet (or Instagram) board in the room – a big one. It doesn’t distract from what’s happening and you know what, people love seeing their name up in lights Live-Tweet – someone from your organisation needs to be live-tweeting from the event – capturing the moments and sharing it with the world from a brand handle. A tip, if you get the majority of content before the event (and I know this isn’t always possible) you can create Tweets in advance, and then live-tweet additional moments on the go. This is a great tip for highly regulated industries where Tweets need to be approved first. Whoever owns this handle needs to retweet and favorite Tweets from attendees Content, content, content – define a content strategy aligned to your agenda and plan it well. Find world class content your business is creating and share it when the topic is covered on stage. This provides a knowledge resource for attendees – they can go back to it after the event, and it’s easy to find because they only have to search for the hashtag. If you have guest speakers, find 2-3 pieces of awesome content they’ve created (such as blogs) and live-tweet that as well. It gives them more exposure and publicity. They’ll appreciate you for that Benefits You will spend anything from $100K to a million or more dollars running an event. Take that investment beyond the room and magnify your influence to the millions of people on social media in your region. Brands who get this are killing it You’re delivering a higher profile opportunity for speakers and this is great when you’re trying to attract sponsors. If you run a sponsored event series, capture the data from
Event Organisers, Speakers… Hashtags & Handles I Beg You, Please Read More »
Andrea T. Edwards is a truth-teller, strategist, and advocate for a liveable future. She decodes the polycrisis for leaders and changemakers, turning complexity into clarity – so we can act with courage, not fear. Her work has two pillars: strategic advisory, guiding organizations through the polycrisis with clarity and purpose; and people empowerment: transforming organizations by activating their greatest asset, their people.
Copyright © 2005 – 2025 Andrea T Edwards | Design & Development by Biz Scale
