The team at SoolNua welcomed a group of talented marketing and strategy specialists to share their tips for optimal event marketing, at the stunning Smock Alley Theatre. Here are a few helpful recommendations we took away from the event.
It is glaringly obvious to state that the world we live in today is very much an ever changing digital world. However for some reason, we still insist on putting the word ‘digital’ before almost any work term that involves technological systems, which is almost all of them! And as we rapidly power through innovative game changing technologies, not everyone is taking advantage of these wonderful, time saving, cost saving, and often entertaining tools. The conference organised by SoolNua and hosted by Padraig Gilligan and Patrick Delaney focused on the three important concepts of growth and effectiveness in an ever growing, ever changing economy of the digital age: event marketing technology, strategy, and execution. With some added yoga positions for health and balance!
Venue
What better a venue to demonstrate modern technological innovation, than the contrasting historical Smock Alley Theatre in the Medieval Quarter of old Dublin City. This stunning venue was a custom built theatre in the 1600’s, and later went on to be a church, a tourist attraction, and since 2012 the building has been restored to its original purpose, the Smock Alley Theatre.
“..the most atmospheric theatre in the city. With its exposed brick, declining gangway and multi-storey viewpoints”
[Caomhan Keane – Irish Theatre Magazine]
smockalley.com
Content
Simon Geraghty, owner of the B2B Marketing Company Dot Dash discussed the importance of content marketing and design in today’s competitive environment. Simon recommends focusing on these 4 core areas to ensure a successful digital business.
- Solve problems
- Make it shareable
- Drive visits
- Become and authority
Also read: Networking Like a Boss – A guide to networking events
Strategy
John Treacy, Managing Director of Treacy Consulting talked about 3 key principles he recommends focusing on in order to optimize HR and sales effectiveness within the corporate sector.
- Sales Force Effectiveness: Ensure your team understand the business goals, and are clear on how to achieve them.
- Strategic Rewards: Re-engage your staff through motivation and fresh ideas.
- Organisational Transformation: Take a step back in order to make the necessary changes to company cultures.
Yoga
Aoife Delaney, Director of global sales at Ovation, re-energised the crowd with some simple and effective yoga stretches to improve the circulation, relax the muscles and focus the mind. Definitely something everybody should be incorporating into our everyday lives.
- Hands to feet: Aids digestion and circulation
- Inhale deeply through your nose, raise arms above your head, & look towards the sky
- Exhale slowly as you bend at the hips, touching your feet with your hands. Breathe normally, and enjoy the stretch in your spine and back of legs.
- Superman Warrior pose: Opens lungs, improves concentration & confidence
- Exhale deeply and move one step back, keeping your weight on your back leg, then move the other foot forward and lean your torso forward.
- Stretch your arm out on front of you, or behind you like superman. If you can raise one foot straight off the floor behind you, even better.
- Prayer twist: Energises, stretches the hips and calf muscles
- Inhale deeply and bring hands to your chest in a prayer pose. Sit back onto your glutes into the chair pose.
- Exhale slowly, and twist your torso to the side, keeping your hands in the prayer position at your chest, and look up.
Technology
Martin Klöfver, founder and CEO of Trippus Event Solutions supplied the event with a very simple yet innovative communication system for the conference. Implementing it at the user’s end on both a strategic level and hands-on during live events, Trippus is an effective and easy to use event marketing technology tool, that optimizes both desktop functions and text formats for mobile onsite use.
- Pre-event communications and reminders – share information about the speakers and venue which can be read directly through a link in a text message.
- Ticketing system – a bar-code ticketing text system allows for paperless registrations directly through the phone.
- Polling system – encourage interaction at any stage of the event, by texting a poll question to all the attendees phones, with optional visual display at the event.
- Onsite communications – For larger events a reminder system can be utilised to inform guests of various presentations and other announcements.
- Post-event marketing follow up system – Automatically thank your attendees for their participation, send presentation slides, and information about the next event, directly to the users’ phone and email.
Motivation
Kevin Kelly, motivational speaker and author of Do! The Pursuit of Xceptional Execution ended the event on an interactive energy inducing pep talk.
- Exceptional execution of a normal idea: You don’t need an amazing idea to succeed in business. Instead choose to be exceptional in your execution.
- Don’t let knowledge scare you off taking risks: There are incredible success stories based on unlikely business ideas. Be smart in your execution to make it work.
- Be the message: You and your team represent your business. Make sure everyone is on the same page, and is demonstrating the business message in unity.
Also read: Conference Planning – How to choose the ideal location for your conference event
Refreshments
No effective conference is complete without visually pleasing, mouth-watering snacks to keep the energy levels up throughout the day, and the team at SoolNua made sure to do just that. The day began with various breakfast options of fruit salads, brioche, French toast and banana porridge. A selection of Raw and Natural Juices were supplied by Ginger, and Aoife Mc Crum and Sarah Kavanagh went all out baking a gorgeous selection of cookies especially for the event.
Final Thoughts
Upon looking back at all the information and advice shared at the SoolNua conference, here are the key points taken from the event.
- Have a clear goal for your business, and know your audience
- Solve problems and make your content shareable
- Make sure everyone is on the same page, and reward your employees
- You don’t need an exceptional idea, you do need exceptional execution
- Don’t let knowledge hold you back
- Remember your health, it will support you
- Find the right venue for your conference events
VenuesWorld provides free local venue-finding and optional destination management services in more than 36 countries across Europe, Asia & Africa. Contact us today for your Free Venue Finding Proposal.
Management Company’ in the Event Industry Awards 2015. We are delighted for venuesireland.com to be recognised for the business brought to the Irish market through our global business presence venuesworld.com. The EIA is a fantastic event, offering the Irish Events Sector the ideal platform for continued grown and improvement, and we are honoured to be involved in this year’s event” 
