Fun-Nominal Seminars/Workshops

Re-Alignment Workshops (Half & Full Day)

Could your festival, event or event Board get back to the basics? Looking for new ideas or simply a fresh, new look? We offer customizable half and full day re-alignment workshops on a variety of topics that can be catered to your organization’s or community’s needs.

Re-alignment workshops typically include six topics and lunch for small groups up to 25 people. Fill out our contact form to request more information.

Individual Seminars

Sponsorship 101: An Introduction

Wondering where to start when it comes to sponsorship? Advertising? Event Marketing? Partnerships? This seminar explores the concept of sponsorship, including all aspects necessary to develop an outstanding sponsorship program that will yield financial support, in-kind resources, and marketing initiatives for your event.

Sponsorship Inventory

Before you can begin selling sponsorship for your event, it is essential to possess a full understanding of your product, its commercial assets, marketing and promotional value, and an identifiable pricing structure. In this seminar, we explore ways to identify an event’s complete “sponsorship inventory,” and how to assign sponsorship benefits that align with pricing.

Sponsorship & Partnerships

Effective sponsorship is based upon creating value and benefit for both the event and its sponsors. This seminar explains how to create sponsorship programs designed to individually meet the marketing and business goals of an event’s corporate partners. Partnerships are two-way, where both parties invest in the relationship to make both partners stronger, realizing that both also lose if they don’t work together.

Food & Beverage Programs

Many events serve food and beverages to help generate additional revenue for its programs, as well as to accommodate the needs of patrons. In this seminar, we examine the questions you should ask before launching food and beverage programs for your event. We’ll explore every element necessary to create successful food and beverage ventures, including: Structure, Applications, Logistics, Evaluation, Presentation, Quality, Safety, and of course, Financial Success.

Alcohol at Your Event

Beer, wine, hard spirits and other alcoholic beverages can mean substantial revenue streams for festivals and events, but at what price? This seminar explores the pros and cons of securing and serving alcohol at your event, including: licensing, location, insurance, tips training, security risks, logistics, structure, presentation, professional partners, sponsorship, and more.

Parking and Transportation

Your event may be spectacular, but if your patrons can’t get to it, it’s destined to fail. Learn how events have successfully created systems to park and transport patrons safely, successfully and profitably. This seminar outlines the key steps to follow in creating a parking and transportation program tailored to your event’s needs.

Evaluation

What separates a good event from a GREAT event? Very often, it is the full knowledge and understanding of your product. In this seminar, we explore the importance of critiquing every aspect of your event, to keep it fresh and to give your leadership and staff the information they need to make informed decisions. We’ll go in-depth on what to evaluate, how to evaluate it, and what to do with the information.

Hospitality

Hospitality is arguably one of the most valuable sponsorship benefits an event can offer to attract, renew, and expand its sponsorship base. This seminar explains important aspects of sponsorship hospitality programs to consider and how to create them for your event. In addition to creating specialized hospitality programs to attract and entertain sponsors, we you explore the truths and myths about business-to-business marketing and how it impacts sponsorship at events.

Pins & Tickets

s5432Whether your event is gated (paid) or free, all events can benefit from ticketed areas, ticketed concerts, ticketed food and beverage programs, ticketed transportation systems, etc. This seminar examines the opportunities that buttons/pins/tickets create for an event – be it sponsorship, pre-festival promotions, enhanced media awareness or interest, and/or revenue potential. Creative sponsorship packages, promotional vehicles, and antidotal examples will be provided.

Festival Logistics

When your success depends upon operational revenue, it’s important to have your event managers review every detail to assure logistical expertise and full implementation. This seminar provides the organizational structure necessary to assure all logistical details are handled – from communication to rest room facilities, parking and transportation, security, safety, risk management, signage, food and beverage, merchandising, etc. – are covered.

Organizational Structure

Before concerts are booked, sites are designed, and marketing strategies are established, an event or festival should have a solid organizational structure. In this seminar, we examine how the development of a sound organizational structure can create the foundation upon which a festival can be built, mature, and grow to those levels its community will celebrate. We’ll review communication issues, committee structures, job responsibilities, timetables, goals and objectives, measurement and re-evaluation.

Using Volunteers to Build Sponsorship

Volunteers mean a great deal to festivals and special events. But, how many of us have really looked at our volunteer base as a sponsorship solicitation tool? This seminar examines ten (10) ways your volunteer program can be strengthened, while at the same time utilized to identify new sponsors, increase an event’s chances to enhance sponsorship, and utilize numbers and strength to build value for its sponsorship dollars.

The Future of Festivals – Free vs. Gated (Paid)

In most cases, festivals that started in the US were free. Over time, the expense of maintaining an organization and running a quality festival safe for its patrons has become increasingly expensive. This seminar explores the pros and cons of free versus gated events. Examples from events across the country that started as free and have transitioned their events to gated will be provided.

The Development & Management of an Event Volunteer Program

Most community festivals and special events cannot survive without volunteers. But, just what do volunteers mean for an organization and its events? In this seminar, we explore the importance of creating a sponsorship program philosophy, operating procedures, and establishing the resources necessary to develop and maintain a quality volunteer program. Review essential elements to the development of a quality volunteer program, how to find volunteers, how to register and track volunteers, identifying volunteer assignment methodologies, volunteer job descriptions, program evaluation, and volunteer benefits packages.

Festival Memberships

While most festivals seek operational revenue, admission proceeds, sponsorship dollars, and/or grant monies to fund its programs, the creation of individual and corporate membership programs is gaining more popularity. This seminar reviews how a festival and its corporate community can benefit through the establishment of membership programs. We will explore key elements necessary to provide as benefits for membership, the delineation of key membership levels, tracking, communication, and appreciation programs. An overview of both individual patron levels and retail business membership programs will be provided.

Individual Workshops

Brand Positioning Workshop

Positioning your company or organization successfully requires both planning and strategy. Identifying your target audience and your competition to create brands that are believable, unique and compelling.

Non-Profit Branding Workshop

If your non-profit organization is thinking about, or preparing to embark on, a brand refresh or rebranding project, consider this branding workshop before moving forward. This workshop brings together leadership, senior staff and other team members for constructive and collaborative discussions centered around branding. These moderated workshops can identify challenges and opportunities, and start a foundation for your updated brand. Exercises and team-building sessions help extract vocabulary that should or should not be used in communications. You will also get help in drafting of positioning statements and core messages. These proclamations help define key information about competitors, and also helps confirm what the team does best. This exercise will continue to inform branding decisions deep into the process.

Social Media Marketing

Learn the importance of matching your brand to the right social media platforms with original content, creative messaging, optimal use of keywords, timing, and ad placement. Understand how to build and audience and engage them with your services or goods.

Search Engine Optimization

Explore SEO and how to reach customers. Learn how both traditional and digital media work together to create a water-tight campaign that speaks its truth across any and every channel. Plus, understand the difference between inbound and outbound marketing.

Content Management (Social Media)

Digital media is powerful because it’s person-orientated while still being data focused. Learn how to engage with how people think and also see how and what they do. Learn how to create content that speaks to people, but also how to send it out into the big wide digital world at the right time and via the right channels.

Email Marketing

An email is post sent directly to your inbox, so it’s important but needs to be done properly to make stand out and get opened. It’s the beginning of your recipients’ click-through journey of discovery. Also see how email can be automated for maximum efficiency as well as how to manage your lists, subscriptions, and opt-outs.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Online and digital marketing can endow you with audience influence and reach, customer data, and insight. Learn how to create relevant objectives to get high performance results. Plus, review the importance of having a clear vision, budget, channel and media plan.