Don't let the next conference you organise be just another forgettable event. Here are six ways you can create more engagement at your future events, with a focus on networking and professional development, at zero or minimal extra cost. This includes extended sessions, creative afternoon breaks, personalisation and the use of "passports".
Mark Herschberg is a versatile professional who is a prominent CTO within the artificial intelligence and cybersecurity sectors. In addition to his fractional CTO work, Mark teaches professional development at MIT, is frequently invited to speak at conferences and events. He is the award-winning author of The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You and creator of the Brain Bump app, where content creators can repurpose highlights of their published works.
Quotes from this episode:
"Networking at conferences for most works about as well as a middle school dance."
"(Providing) headshots... every time they looked at their LinkedIn, they'll think it was your conference that gave this to me."
-Mark Herschberg
Mark's website and book:
The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You
Connect with Mark Herschberg:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hershey
Twitter: @CareerToolkitBk
FB: @TheCareerToolkitBook
IG: @thecareertoolkit
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Adelaine Ng (00:00):
Last time on this podcast.
Mark Herschberg (00:02):
I've been a keynote speaker, panelist for
decades at different conferences, and here's the sad thing I
don't think it has changed thatmuch, and that is a problem.
Adelaine Ng (00:15):
Welcome to Upon Arrival, a show that uncovers
stories and strategies that makeup all the moving parts of
business events tourism.
I'm Adelaine Ng, and this ispart two of my interview with
Mark Herschberg, a lecturer,award-winning author,
award-winning ballroom dancer,criminal tracker on the dark web
and someone who's both been anevent speaker and a tender of
(00:38):
hundreds of conferences over theyears.
Needless to say, Mark has seena lot in the conference world
and if you missed the lastepisode, he had teased that he
would be sharing six tips forup-leveling what could otherwise
potentially be a mostlyforgettable conference.
If you remember Mark's point,you can't rely on content to be
(00:58):
king in your conferences and ifyou were relying on that model,
you can expect to see yourattendance numbers drop.
He also said that the currentsurge at in-person events
post-COVID is not a reliableindicator of future attendance
numbers.
So what are the six tips hepromised you can add to up-level
your next conference and, evenbetter, for little or no cost.
(01:21):
Here's Mark and he's gettingright into it.
Mark Herschberg (01:25):
Perceptions, networking, business development
, location-specific activities,virtual follow-ups and
professional development.
These are six things you canadd at little or no cost.
Let's jump into the sixExtended sessions.
This is the simplest.
This is just workshops.
This is more interactive.
(01:47):
You can listen to me on YouTubefor an hour.
But doing something interactive, let's have you fill out forms
or do things or work onsomething and then we discuss it
as a group or the expert theregives you feedback, or it's
literally physically hands-on.
That's a little easier inperson and that's something
that's usually higher value.
(02:07):
A lot of conferences have beendoing things like this.
I've seen some, particularly intech, where they'll have
half-day or all-day trainingworkshops that might be before
or after the general conference.
So this is one thing I havebeen seeing and something we can
continue to do.
The biggest one is networking,for instance.
Well, of course, my conferenceis about networking.
(02:27):
Look at your next event,because networking at
conferences, for most of them,works about as well as a middle
school dance.
Everyone's there, they knowwhat they're supposed to do and
yet everyone kind of sits off tothe side and doesn't know how
to talk to a stranger.
(02:47):
They even have that middleschool mentality of oh, I don't
know if I want to approach thatstranger and that timidness that
all of us have.
There are things you can do tofacilitate networking.
I'll give you three simplethings right now.
These are not the only thingsyou can do, but just three basic
examples.
I have seen some conferences dothe first two of these.
(03:11):
The first you can do thepassports.
Now, this is a little gimmicky,but the passport usually you
see it with vendors and you haveto go and speak to different
booths and you get your thingsstamped.
If you get enough thingsstamped, you get some entry into
a lottery or you get some prizeor something.
You can do this, by the way, notjust with vendors.
(03:33):
You can do it with other people.
It could be meet three people.
If you have an app, you have toclick your apps with each other
, scan each other's badges orwrite down one thing about the
other person.
Don't even worry about checkingfor accuracy.
But this is a good way to breakthe ice is go and meet people
and motivate.
It's amazing how many peoplewill go to all those vendors to
(03:56):
get the stamps, to get whateverthe little swag is.
You can do this with othermembers, other people attending
a conference, not just yourvendors.
The second thing you can do istake an unconference approach.
This is so easy to do.
Adelaine Ng (04:10):
I love that term.
Mark Herschberg (04:11):
The concept of an unconference is one where,
instead of planned sessions,we're going to have this speaker
or this panel in this room atthis time.
You say you make it up, you dowhat's important.
Now some do honestly.
There's going to be some openrooms and people can sign up
with topics or times.
An even simpler thing you'vegot the lunch tables.
Let's put on some lunch table,say we're going to designate
(04:34):
some lunch tables by topic.
You just get some small littlestandard, some table placard,
and you put the topic there.
Anyone interested in that topiccan walk over the table and sit
there.
Now you know everyone at thattable.
You have something in common.
It could be a sub-industryyou're in, it could be a
functional area.
It could even be AI in ourindustry.
(04:57):
Doesn't matter what the topicis.
You pick the topics and nowyou've created that catalyst for
conversations among people toavoid, whenever we happens,
where everyone just sits withtheir coworkers and has the same
conversations and doesn't meetanyone new.
Adelaine Ng (05:10):
I love that idea.
Mark Herschberg (05:12):
The third thing now.
One of the talks that I do atconferences, I teach networking.
It's one of the chapters in mybook.
This is a really subtle thing,but you don't need someone doing
a formal talk on networking todo this.
At the end of your keynote, youwant to give people permission
to network.
This is subtle but important.
(05:33):
We are all at the conferenceand we hope to network.
That's why we're there.
We hope it happens, just likeat the middle school dance.
We hope we get to dance withthat cute other person, but
we're scared to make it happen.
At the end of a keynote, I oftensay something like while you're
here, I want you to go up andmeet at least three people who
(05:57):
you don't know each day of thisconference.
Something as simple as that.
Because now what happens when Iwalk up to you?
Instead of oh, hi, I'm Mark,what's your name?
I walk up to you and say, hey,the speaker told us we should
meet someone new.
My name is Mark Nice to meetyou, Because what I've done is
I've basically, as the speaker,I've taken the responsibility.
(06:19):
So if you feel awkward, you say, oh, it's not my fault, I'm
doing what we were told by theconference organizer or their
proxy, the keynote speaker.
It's a subtle little mentalshift, but that permission to
network helps to break the iceand gets people out there.
So these are three simplenetworking things.
There's a lot more you can doas well.
Adelaine Ng (06:40):
That is so good because, I mean, I go to events
that are organized by, forexample, destinations, and the
people who tend to go thereusually have larger than life
personalities who are verycomfortable in social settings.
So we tend to forget that somepeople, in the events that they
are creating for, have peoplewho need that permission to
(07:03):
network, and it's just one ofthose things that we sometimes
just forget, and thank you forreminding us of that.
Mark Herschberg (07:10):
Let's jump to number four location.
We'll come back to businessdevelopment.
But you said location.
You're at a location.
How often do people just sit inthat generic conference room
for most of the time?
Now we think about there aresome cities Vegas, new York,
miami where well, okay, that'swhy I'm going to the conference.
It's kind of exciting and theymight get out and do some stuff.
(07:34):
But whether it's a big city orsmall city, there is something
local and engaging that makes itunique that they can't do just
watching YouTube videos.
Find a way to engage in localactivities.
Now there's two basic ways youcan do this.
One is you actually coordinatea local activity.
(07:54):
It might be.
There's a ghost tour.
Just about every city,including the smaller ones, have
some evening ghost tour.
I say ghost tour because it'sin the evening.
It doesn't conflict with whatyou're doing during the day.
Say, there's a ghost tour,we're getting a group rate.
Maybe it costs a little extra,maybe you just have a sign-up
sheet and you do it on your own,but we're getting one that's
(08:15):
going to be specific, just forpeople from the conference, and
so now when you go and do this,you know everyone in your group
is also a conference attendee.
It's not well.
Here's other random tourists.
I don't know why we want totalk to them.
These are the peers you wantedto meet, but now you're doing
something active together.
That's not just the boringsmall talk at a conference about
(08:36):
your industry.
It's oh, this is exciting.
Oh, I was on a ghost tour likethis, but in this place oh when
were you in that place?
And it works as an icebreakerso you can do local activities,
even if your schedule or cost orjust whatever doesn't lend
itself to additional activities.
Bring in a local person.
Every town, no matter how small, has some type of historical
(08:59):
society.
Bring in one of those localhistorians.
Bring in someone from a localmuseum and have them do a talk.
Probably they're willing to doa talk for free, or there's some
nominal cost.
We're talking typicallyhundreds of dollars.
These aren't the keynotespeakers like myself.
This is just someone who'sexcited about local history or
(09:20):
some local industry or localwhatever.
And you bring them in because,let's face it, at three in the
afternoon on the second day I amtired of talking about tax
reform or whatever the medicalprocedure is or whatever the
conference is.
Yeah, this is interesting, butwe've been talking about for a
day and a half.
I'd like a little break.
You know what?
(09:40):
Learning about the history ofthis town, learning something
about the industry, justlearning about the local
architecture it's different.
I can kind of veg out.
I don't have to pay closeattention to remember things.
So it breaks up the day andit's fun, and this is again
something that's unique to thelocation.
That helps tie in.
This is why you're here and notjust watching the videos of
(10:03):
this whole conference online.
Adelaine Ng (10:04):
Yeah, those in destination experiences are so
valuable and we talk aboutadding value to that event.
That'll be one of the thingsthat people will sign up for.
That content by itself can'tprovide.
So I'm glad you brought up thatidea.
When you're giving back to thecommunity, when you're
connecting with that localexperience, there's that travel
(10:25):
and cultural exchange thathappens when you do that as well
.
Mark Herschberg (10:28):
Tip number three Number three, business
development, and this is adifferent type of networking.
One of the biggest conferencesin the world CES Consumer
Electronics Show in Vegas.
It's a nightmare.
Every hotel room is booked,every restaurant, every cab,
everything's expensive,everything's crowded.
Why do we go?
Why do we go?
Because everybody goes, andthis is where you go to meet
(10:51):
people.
It's not even the conferenceitself.
You just know everyone is thereand so, creating that
engagement, you can do somethingas simple as speed dating.
You might have vendors andpeople looking for certain
things and they can sign up.
I hate talking to vendors.
As a CTO, I get pitched byvendors all day long, but
(11:12):
sometimes they go to aconference.
I know well, I need to look forthis type of vendor.
There's three of them at theconference.
You know what, if I do three15-minute conversations?
Great, they know they have tobe efficient.
They're going to skip the smalltalk and get right to here's
the value proposition.
So much more efficient for me.
And then, depending on how youdo it, maybe exchange cards
there or maybe afterwards,everyone swipes left, swipes
(11:34):
right afterwards, however youchoose to do it.
But we can make that moreefficient.
And again, it could be whetherit's vendors and clients, it
could just be people in anindustry looking to meet others,
but you can create this type ofspeed dating because everyone
is here and everyone's lookingto meet each other.
Adelaine Ng (11:52):
Two more tips.
Mark Herschberg (11:54):
The last two things are going beyond the
conference content.
So the first is virtualfollow-ups.
When you, as an event planner,think about your event, you are
doing so for months or even ayear prior to the event At big
conferences.
The moment that event ends,you're already talking with the
(12:15):
hotel, you're talking aboutscheduling for next year, you're
starting to find the contracts.
You're thinking about this allthe time.
Your attendees think about it acouple hours before they board
the flight, while they're there,and then, the moment they're
off the plane, they've forgottenabout this whole thing.
You get them for a small periodof time, but we can capitalize
(12:36):
on the event to extend yourbrand, to have them remember and
engage with you even outsidethe event.
The event, that is the crownjewel, that is the keystone of
what you're offering.
But that's not the only thing.
Sometimes, as a speaker, part ofthe contracts I have with
conferences and you can askother speakers if they're
willing to do this Say okay, I'mthere, I'm giving the talk or
(12:59):
whatever events I'm there doingin person we can also arrange,
for example, some follow upwebinars.
Over the next month I'll do, aspart of the contract, three 30
minute sessions and those aregoing to be a lot more
interactive.
It's not hard for me to addthat into the package because I
don't have to get on anotherplane.
It's going to be me sittinghere at my desk for other folks.
(13:22):
Again, they don't have to geton the plane, but it's a chance.
They might not have been ableto catch me after the keynote or
during the conference.
But we can extend the topicsand it might be topics you've
preset, it might be other topicsI bring, it might even be these
were the popular topics orquestions you got in the follow
up.
Another version of this is whenyou send out the hey, I hope you
(13:44):
enjoyed Mark and his talk, orwhatever your keynote speaker is
.
If you have any questions,email us, because he's agreed to
do a blog post or over the nextfew weeks we're going to do an
email.
He's going to answer some ofthese questions.
So, again, you're taking whatwas just at the conference and
you're extending it in space,but time as well.
(14:06):
It's not that hard for yourspeakers to do this, because
we're doing it from home, butyou're creating more engagement
and you're having people thinkabout your event, not just while
they're there but other times.
That builds up your brand.
Adelaine Ng (14:19):
Yeah, and this is interesting.
We have one more point to go to.
But you also have an app thatsort of fits into this picture
of post conference engagementand I mean, you told me what the
name of it was.
It's called Brain Bump and I'vehad a curse to really look at
it and if it does what I thinkit does, I think you could have
become my new best friendbecause you can apply it in
(14:40):
conferences.
But have I got this right?
This is an app that's likethose AI YouTube summarizers,
but you've marketed it forpodcasts and books, but there is
that application forconferences as well.
Have I got that right?
Mark Herschberg (14:53):
You do.
The Brain Bump app, which iscompletely free from the Android
and iPhone store, takes contentbooks, blogs, podcasts, talks,
conferences, classes Doesn'tmatter where the content comes
from.
It puts the key points into anapp.
The reason for this I know fromyears of teaching students and
years of being a student myselfand reading books.
(15:14):
I'll read a book.
I'll say, wow, there's so muchgreat information here.
Two weeks later I forgot it all.
When you listen to a podcastlike this, your podcasts have
such great advice what are theodds you're going to remember
what you heard in that podcasteven two days later?
Your conferences especially ifyou're hitting them with a fire
hose, they're forgetting 90% ofit as soon as they're off the
(15:36):
plane.
How do you help them retain thecontent?
Now, their interest inremembering the content.
You're interested in havingthem remember your brand,
whether it's we gave the exampleearlier.
You might be an author or apodcaster who want them to buy
that $5,000 consulting packageand that involves multiple touch
points to build the trust you,as an event planner or
(15:58):
conference organizer, you wantto build up.
Oh, that conference, that'shigh value.
I learned so much, I rememberedso much, I got so much out of
it.
You want to build up the brandtrust.
So the way the app works it'slike a cross between a flash
card app and a daily affirmationapp.
So it has the key points aslittle tips as little tip cards.
It can be used by the app userin a just in time way.
(16:23):
So, for example, I have thenetworking tips from my book how
to Network is in the app.
It's great for people when theygo to a conference and they say
what were those networking tipsI read about three months ago.
You open the app.
Everything is tagged.
It's like hashtags.
Everything's tagged by topic.
So you pull up the networkingtips two minutes before you walk
in the room.
Now it's all top of mind.
(16:44):
Here are some questions to askother people.
Here's how to approach astranger, here's how to exit a
conversation All the things Ineed to know right here and now.
But then there's also a passivelearning mode.
We know people remember thingsthrough spaced repetition, by
seeing it multiple times.
We also know people that comesto flash card apps very quickly
(17:06):
stopped using them.
Who has time to open apps everyday?
So this works like a dailyaffirmation.
It does a push notification ata time chosen by the app user.
So we don't spam them, we don'tsend things they didn't request
.
But each day, as soon asthey're done with your
conference, for example, eachday at 9 am as they go into work
, they get a low reminder of oneof the things they learned from
(17:29):
your event Go yep, that's great.
Swipe two seconds a day.
It helps them retain thecontent, it helps your brand
stay top of mind and build brandequity.
So it's a win for both sides.
Adelaine Ng (17:42):
Wow.
So I'm trying to figure out howthis happens, because I know
with at least with podcastsyou're just kind of connecting a
particular episode that'spicked up, or you're selecting a
particular episode inside theapp and it'll do that work.
But if you're at a conferenceand you're listening to a
speaker, are you using, I guess,your voice memo app to record
(18:04):
it and then it extracts?
I mean, I'm just wondering andcurious how that part works.
Mark Herschberg (18:08):
There's two ways this works.
We actually encourage thecontent creators to put their
content on the server so it'savailable to people, because the
content creator, they're theones who control the brand and
the brand messaging, so that'susually a path that works best.
It also means less work for theapp user and, again, we assume
people are busy.
They don't have time.
(18:28):
So often it is the podcaster,the conference organizer, the
author who puts their content onour server.
The content once they create.
Here are the key tips.
By the way, the great thingabout it is these are the same
things you're going to alsotweet out or put into an email.
So when you create thosenuggets of learning, it's not
(18:49):
just for our app.
You can repurpose them.
That's how we started earlierin the conversation.
You can repurpose them in allsorts of different ways to
generate value, and Brain Bumpis just one way to do that.
Now we're recording in thesummer of 2023.
We have a release coming out,2.0 version of Brain Bump at the
end of the summer and that isgoing to allow the app user to
(19:11):
also enter their own content.
If your favorite podcaster,author, conference organizer
didn't give you their content,you can edit yourself and you
can put in your own tips, oreven because a lot of people use
Kindles and do highlights fromKindles, you can incorporate
your Kindle highlights.
So we're going to have thisfunctionality in the 2.0 version
(19:33):
coming out end of summer 2023.
But often we see the conferenceorganizers and the podcasters
put the content in there.
Adelaine Ng (19:41):
That's amazing, and I'll just note to our listeners
that Mark is based in New York,so it's summer where he is, but
it's winter where I am.
Mark Herschberg (19:50):
Good point, I forgot about that.
Adelaine Ng (19:51):
If you're thinking summer, do I have to wait for
six months?
No, not at the time of thisrecording.
It is coming up very, very soon, and that sounds like an
amazing service, and for you tomake this free as well is
something that I'm sure a lot ofpeople are going to love.
So that was a big detour but avery valuable one, from the six
points.
What is the six point?
Mark Herschberg (20:12):
Six point is professional development and
other services.
One of the best things I got atconference is they had a
photographer standing theredoing free headshots.
All of us all of us who go tobusiness conferences we need
headshots because that's goingto appear on our LinkedIn, on
our website, and most peoplejust don't have them.
(20:34):
But now you're at theconference, you're dressed
professionally and there is aprofessional photographer who's
got everything set up and youstand there and you smile and
he'll take two or three shots.
You type in your email, you getit.
This has marginal cost.
You can hire thesephotographers two days $2,000,
probably less.
They're happy to get the moneybecause they're usually just
(20:56):
doing events.
You can amortize this cost overall your attendees.
So it's a very small marginalcost and now everyone has
something valuable they got fromyour conference and, by the way
, if this becomes your LinkedInphoto, every time they looked at
their LinkedIn, they think itwas your conference that gave
this to me.
Now, headshots are one exampleyou might do, for example,
(21:18):
resume reviews.
In fact, you can find companiesthat say, oh, we do resume
reviews, but you know what we dofor anyone at the conference.
You give us a booth and we willbe set up and we will do a
15-minute resume review foranyone who comes by, completely
free, no charge.
They're probably going to tryand upsell and they'll give you
(21:38):
real value for 15 minutes.
And then they'll say, by theway, if you want a 401, here's
what it is, they'd be happy todo that.
Or maybe it's a website review,if your audience are small
business owners, for example.
So think about little serviceswhere someone can get something
now, something quick, somethingvaluable.
Now, probably the serviceprovider.
(21:59):
You're either paying them, asin the case of a photographer,
or they see this as a great leadgen opportunity for their
website review people, or SEOpeople or resume people, and
this adds additional value forsomeone who says well, I don't
see this at every conference.
This is a cool little extrabecause, let's face it, I don't
need another water cup thingwith your logo on it.
(22:23):
My cabinets are full of thosealready.
Adelaine Ng (22:26):
So is mine.
I was going to ask conferenceswag in or out, but it's
definitely out.
I mean, can conference swag bedone right?
Mark Herschberg (22:36):
To be fair, I live in a New York City one
bedroom apartment.
I have limited storage spacealready.
I might be a little moresensitive than everyone else,
but I have just been to so manyconferences.
I have so many, so many ofthose water carriers.
I have so many mugs used to bemouse pads.
T-shirts are okay because thatI use in the gym, but I think a
(22:59):
lot of things like realisticallyand look at your field.
If you're in a field where youdon't have a lot of people going
to a lot of conferences, thenmaybe.
But I began my career in techand tech.
We're always going toconferences and they always have
the same stuff.
So do something that isn't doneby everyone else, because we
probably have it already.
Adelaine Ng (23:20):
I visited a church recently and usually there's
this point in a service wherethey say who here is new?
We'd love to just give yousomething, and usually it's a
little cloth bag or maybe alittle paper bag or something,
and inside is a pen and maybesome cards that have information
(23:40):
about the services or who youcan contact, and maybe a couple
of chocolates, things like that.
But this particular church thatI was at gave newcomers a plant
, like a small little pottedplant, and their message was
look, if you're new here andyou're looking for a home church
and you don't have one, we hopethat you'll consider growing
(24:02):
with us.
So that was the whole tie-inand I thought that was so
beautiful.
That just took the messagedeeper.
It was something useful thatpeople could bring home and grow
in.
Every time they're going to belooking at that plant, they're
going to be thinking of thatexperience when they visited the
church, and so I thought thatwas a really good idea.
Now I mean, we've been talkingabout conferences that have
(24:23):
history with people, as in theCESs or things like funnel
hacking live.
These are events that have eventhe positioning and notoriety
that people will just go to saythat they were there.
But if you were a new companydoing an event for the first
time, it's really hard now toget people to come to something
that isn't already in theirroutine.
(24:44):
Everyone's got excuses why theydon't want to go to something
they're too busy.
How would you market that eventand get buy-in?
Mark Herschberg (24:53):
Good question.
This is a little off the cuff.
I would definitely focus moreon the experiential, the content
.
Again, probably I can find itelsewhere.
You might be able to get abig-name speaker to come in and,
oh, that would be cool to seethis person, but that's
expensive.
I think the experiential partof it, which is either some type
(25:17):
of location where you're reallygoing to do something off the
beaten path not, oh, vegas, yep,one of hundreds of conferences
I can choose to go to in Vegas,but something that's a little
different you do have to balancethe remoteness and
accessibility with thepedestrianess of it.
I'll tell you one conference Idid years ago.
(25:38):
I did this as before I waskeynote speaking.
I came in as one of the peoplepresenting, as very technical
conferences, a VC conference.
This was down in Mexico andliterally the conference was on
the beach we're standing.
It's an open-air type of event.
The beach is right over there.
I'm looking at the ocean as I'mtalking.
(26:00):
Beautiful venue and they had aspart of the conference they
called it active networking,which was one afternoon you
could either do yoga down by thebeach or you could go to the
golf course and they wereputting people together in
little groups and you just playgolf together.
And that was very appealing,because going to Mexico,
honestly, in February which forme, being in New York, is a
(26:21):
pretty cold time of year it's ohwell, this is different.
So, doing something that's moreinteractive that way and, let's
face it, playing golf you mightthink, ah, that sounds like
you're copping out.
It's fun.
But I did some good networking,talked to some people and we
talked about our industry, wehad professional conversations,
we had social conversations andthat's why I go to the
(26:43):
conference.
It doesn't have to be a resortin Mexico, but if you can find
some area where it's going to besomething, where people can
actively do things together.
There are hiking trails, forexample, and in the middle of
the afternoon you're going tohave a break in the conference
and people go hiking before theygo off to dinner.
Physical activities are great.
(27:03):
I say this this comes from myexperience dating.
When you go on a date and yousit across the table from
someone, you say, oh well,where'd you grow up, where'd you
go to school?
What do you do for work?
It gets very boring when youhave a date that's doing
something, whether it's playingmini golf or even one of the
best dates I went on.
(27:23):
We were running errands you hadto run errands that afternoon
but we're physically moving andthere's natural conversation
that came out of it oh, why doyou have to return this item?
Or the stress you're picking upfrom the dry cleaner?
So yeah, I wore the stress.
I was at this event the otherweek as a gala.
It leads to conversations indifferent ways and we're staring
across the table from eachother, and the same thing is
(27:46):
true in our corporate events.
This gets to be a differenttype of conversation.
We let our guards down a little.
I think that really facilitatessome of the engagement and they
remember your brand with thatunique experience.
Adelaine Ng (28:01):
Yeah, it's also so interesting because when I speak
to incentive planners, they'rereally trying to take into
consideration the fact thatpeople have different
preferences.
So I mean, if you talked aboutthe ghost tour, I would not sign
up for that because I'm scaredof ghosts.
So I treasure my good night'ssleep.
I do not want to stay up at 3amthinking about I don't know
(28:24):
things that I arrived not bethinking about.
But if there was a Zumba classor something like that, I would
go to that, even if it was atnight after the conference.
So I'm just seeing now a lotmore personalization and just
options for people.
So it can be a particularlocation, but then, hey, those
who want to golf can do that,those who want to do exercise on
the beach can do that.
(28:45):
I'm actually loving that.
That sounds really appealing.
But I guess, if you're a firsttime event creator, I guess
that's the piece that I'm notquite sure about.
Like, how do you make thatpromise?
Because if you say we're goingto go on a hike, well, I can do
that anywhere or anytime withanother group.
It's selling the reason whythis is really worth your time
and effort and the expense thatyou're going to pay to get there
(29:08):
.
Did you have any thoughts onthat?
Mark Herschberg (29:10):
The hike, for example.
I want to say there's a hikeand again, some people they're
going to be excited by a hike,some not just like the ghost
tour or Zumba or anything else.
So you want to do a hike First.
You want to make these thingsprobably more accessible.
The hike is one of the bigthings.
You say well, there will besome easy trails and then hard
trails for those who are moreinto it.
(29:31):
But we're going to break intogroups by topic, by industry, or
it's going to be small groups.
You're going to be a group ofsix people, so all six of you
are going to spend the next hourtogether.
Guess what?
You're going to talk to all sixpeople.
It's going to be very clear thehike or the activity.
And here I'd say the onedownside to Zumba is it's not as
(29:52):
talkative as a hike might be,or ghost tour or wine tasting or
something else.
But you do so in ways whereit's particularly smaller groups
.
If I'm with six people for anhour, by the end of the hour I
will have spoken to all of them,and so that's the key, and the
activity is really just to getyou physically moving, but it's
(30:12):
about the people you're with.
Adelaine Ng (30:14):
Yeah, excellent Mark.
We have covered so much ground.
There's a good chance we'll betalking on this podcast again.
I do so appreciate you, thankyou, thank you.
Thanks for listening.
I do appreciate it and I hopeyou got some tangible tips, or
at least some ideas that mightsend you into your own rabbit
holes to add more nuances thatwill make your next event even
(30:35):
more memorable.
Do check out the show notes,where I've put links to Mark's
website, which is loaded withresources and links to his book,
the Career Toolkit, the BrainBump app, as well as ways you
can reach Mark directly or findout more about his work through
his social channels.
If you found value in today'sshow, please click the follow
button if you'd like to benotified when a new episode
(30:57):
drops.
And, by the way, have you everconsidered launching a podcast
with a strategy to land inApple's top 200 charts in the
very first week?
If so, feel free to send me anemail at
uponarrivalpodcast@gmail.
com and we'll explore how we canmake that happen.
Catch you next week for anothergreat interview to uncover more
stories and strategies for asuccessful future.
(31:19):
Till then, cheers.
Last time on this podcast.
Mark Herschberg (00:02):
I've been a keynote speaker, panelist for
decades at different conferences, and here's the sad thing I
don't think it has changed thatmuch, and that is a problem.
Adelaine Ng (00:15):
Welcome to Upon Arrival, a show that uncovers
stories and strategies that makeup all the moving parts of
business events tourism.
I'm Adelaine Ng, and this ispart two of my interview with
Mark Herschberg, a lecturer,award-winning author,
award-winning ballroom dancer,criminal tracker on the dark web
and someone who's both been anevent speaker and a tender of
(00:38):
hundreds of conferences over theyears.
Needless to say, Mark has seena lot in the conference world
and if you missed the lastepisode, he had teased that he
would be sharing six tips forup-leveling what could otherwise
potentially be a mostlyforgettable conference.
If you remember Mark's point,you can't rely on content to be
(00:58):
king in your conferences and ifyou were relying on that model,
you can expect to see yourattendance numbers drop.
He also said that the currentsurge at in-person events
post-COVID is not a reliableindicator of future attendance
numbers.
So what are the six tips hepromised you can add to up-level
your next conference and, evenbetter, for little or no cost.
(01:21):
Here's Mark and he's gettingright into it.
Mark Herschberg (01:25):
Perceptions, networking, business development
, location-specific activities,virtual follow-ups and
professional development.
These are six things you canadd at little or no cost.
Let's jump into the sixExtended sessions.
This is the simplest.
This is just workshops.
This is more interactive.
(01:47):
You can listen to me on YouTubefor an hour.
But doing something interactive, let's have you fill out forms
or do things or work onsomething and then we discuss it
as a group or the expert theregives you feedback, or it's
literally physically hands-on.
That's a little easier inperson and that's something
that's usually higher value.
(02:07):
A lot of conferences have beendoing things like this.
I've seen some, particularly intech, where they'll have
half-day or all-day trainingworkshops that might be before
or after the general conference.
So this is one thing I havebeen seeing and something we can
continue to do.
The biggest one is networking,for instance.
Well, of course, my conferenceis about networking.
(02:27):
Look at your next event,because networking at
conferences, for most of them,works about as well as a middle
school dance.
Everyone's there, they knowwhat they're supposed to do and
yet everyone kind of sits off tothe side and doesn't know how
to talk to a stranger.
(02:47):
They even have that middleschool mentality of oh, I don't
know if I want to approach thatstranger and that timidness that
all of us have.
There are things you can do tofacilitate networking.
I'll give you three simplethings right now.
These are not the only thingsyou can do, but just three basic
examples.
I have seen some conferences dothe first two of these.
(03:11):
The first you can do thepassports.
Now, this is a little gimmicky,but the passport usually you
see it with vendors and you haveto go and speak to different
booths and you get your thingsstamped.
If you get enough thingsstamped, you get some entry into
a lottery or you get some prizeor something.
You can do this, by the way, notjust with vendors.
(03:33):
You can do it with other people.
It could be meet three people.
If you have an app, you have toclick your apps with each other
, scan each other's badges orwrite down one thing about the
other person.
Don't even worry about checkingfor accuracy.
But this is a good way to breakthe ice is go and meet people
and motivate.
It's amazing how many peoplewill go to all those vendors to
(03:56):
get the stamps, to get whateverthe little swag is.
You can do this with othermembers, other people attending
a conference, not just yourvendors.
The second thing you can do istake an unconference approach.
This is so easy to do.
Adelaine Ng (04:10):
I love that term.
Mark Herschberg (04:11):
The concept of an unconference is one where,
instead of planned sessions,we're going to have this speaker
or this panel in this room atthis time.
You say you make it up, you dowhat's important.
Now some do honestly.
There's going to be some openrooms and people can sign up
with topics or times.
An even simpler thing you'vegot the lunch tables.
Let's put on some lunch table,say we're going to designate
(04:34):
some lunch tables by topic.
You just get some small littlestandard, some table placard,
and you put the topic there.
Anyone interested in that topiccan walk over the table and sit
there.
Now you know everyone at thattable.
You have something in common.
It could be a sub-industryyou're in, it could be a
functional area.
It could even be AI in ourindustry.
(04:57):
Doesn't matter what the topicis.
You pick the topics and nowyou've created that catalyst for
conversations among people toavoid, whenever we happens,
where everyone just sits withtheir coworkers and has the same
conversations and doesn't meetanyone new.
Adelaine Ng (05:10):
I love that idea.
Mark Herschberg (05:12):
The third thing now.
One of the talks that I do atconferences, I teach networking.
It's one of the chapters in mybook.
This is a really subtle thing,but you don't need someone doing
a formal talk on networking todo this.
At the end of your keynote, youwant to give people permission
to network.
This is subtle but important.
(05:33):
We are all at the conferenceand we hope to network.
That's why we're there.
We hope it happens, just likeat the middle school dance.
We hope we get to dance withthat cute other person, but
we're scared to make it happen.
At the end of a keynote, I oftensay something like while you're
here, I want you to go up andmeet at least three people who
(05:57):
you don't know each day of thisconference.
Something as simple as that.
Because now what happens when Iwalk up to you?
Instead of oh, hi, I'm Mark,what's your name?
I walk up to you and say, hey,the speaker told us we should
meet someone new.
My name is Mark Nice to meetyou, Because what I've done is
I've basically, as the speaker,I've taken the responsibility.
(06:19):
So if you feel awkward, you say, oh, it's not my fault, I'm
doing what we were told by theconference organizer or their
proxy, the keynote speaker.
It's a subtle little mentalshift, but that permission to
network helps to break the iceand gets people out there.
So these are three simplenetworking things.
There's a lot more you can doas well.
Adelaine Ng (06:40):
That is so good because, I mean, I go to events
that are organized by, forexample, destinations, and the
people who tend to go thereusually have larger than life
personalities who are verycomfortable in social settings.
So we tend to forget that somepeople, in the events that they
are creating for, have peoplewho need that permission to
(07:03):
network, and it's just one ofthose things that we sometimes
just forget, and thank you forreminding us of that.
Mark Herschberg (07:10):
Let's jump to number four location.
We'll come back to businessdevelopment.
But you said location.
You're at a location.
How often do people just sit inthat generic conference room
for most of the time?
Now we think about there aresome cities Vegas, new York,
miami where well, okay, that'swhy I'm going to the conference.
It's kind of exciting and theymight get out and do some stuff.
(07:34):
But whether it's a big city orsmall city, there is something
local and engaging that makes itunique that they can't do just
watching YouTube videos.
Find a way to engage in localactivities.
Now there's two basic ways youcan do this.
One is you actually coordinatea local activity.
(07:54):
It might be.
There's a ghost tour.
Just about every city,including the smaller ones, have
some evening ghost tour.
I say ghost tour because it'sin the evening.
It doesn't conflict with whatyou're doing during the day.
Say, there's a ghost tour,we're getting a group rate.
Maybe it costs a little extra,maybe you just have a sign-up
sheet and you do it on your own,but we're getting one that's
(08:15):
going to be specific, just forpeople from the conference, and
so now when you go and do this,you know everyone in your group
is also a conference attendee.
It's not well.
Here's other random tourists.
I don't know why we want totalk to them.
These are the peers you wantedto meet, but now you're doing
something active together.
That's not just the boringsmall talk at a conference about
(08:36):
your industry.
It's oh, this is exciting.
Oh, I was on a ghost tour likethis, but in this place oh when
were you in that place?
And it works as an icebreakerso you can do local activities,
even if your schedule or cost orjust whatever doesn't lend
itself to additional activities.
Bring in a local person.
Every town, no matter how small, has some type of historical
(08:59):
society.
Bring in one of those localhistorians.
Bring in someone from a localmuseum and have them do a talk.
Probably they're willing to doa talk for free, or there's some
nominal cost.
We're talking typicallyhundreds of dollars.
These aren't the keynotespeakers like myself.
This is just someone who'sexcited about local history or
(09:20):
some local industry or localwhatever.
And you bring them in because,let's face it, at three in the
afternoon on the second day I amtired of talking about tax
reform or whatever the medicalprocedure is or whatever the
conference is.
Yeah, this is interesting, butwe've been talking about for a
day and a half.
I'd like a little break.
You know what?
(09:40):
Learning about the history ofthis town, learning something
about the industry, justlearning about the local
architecture it's different.
I can kind of veg out.
I don't have to pay closeattention to remember things.
So it breaks up the day andit's fun, and this is again
something that's unique to thelocation.
That helps tie in.
This is why you're here and notjust watching the videos of
(10:03):
this whole conference online.
Adelaine Ng (10:04):
Yeah, those in destination experiences are so
valuable and we talk aboutadding value to that event.
That'll be one of the thingsthat people will sign up for.
That content by itself can'tprovide.
So I'm glad you brought up thatidea.
When you're giving back to thecommunity, when you're
connecting with that localexperience, there's that travel
(10:25):
and cultural exchange thathappens when you do that as well
.
Mark Herschberg (10:28):
Tip number three Number three, business
development, and this is adifferent type of networking.
One of the biggest conferencesin the world CES Consumer
Electronics Show in Vegas.
It's a nightmare.
Every hotel room is booked,every restaurant, every cab,
everything's expensive,everything's crowded.
Why do we go?
Why do we go?
Because everybody goes, andthis is where you go to meet
(10:51):
people.
It's not even the conferenceitself.
You just know everyone is thereand so, creating that
engagement, you can do somethingas simple as speed dating.
You might have vendors andpeople looking for certain
things and they can sign up.
I hate talking to vendors.
As a CTO, I get pitched byvendors all day long, but
(11:12):
sometimes they go to aconference.
I know well, I need to look forthis type of vendor.
There's three of them at theconference.
You know what, if I do three15-minute conversations?
Great, they know they have tobe efficient.
They're going to skip the smalltalk and get right to here's
the value proposition.
So much more efficient for me.
And then, depending on how youdo it, maybe exchange cards
there or maybe afterwards,everyone swipes left, swipes
(11:34):
right afterwards, however youchoose to do it.
But we can make that moreefficient.
And again, it could be whetherit's vendors and clients, it
could just be people in anindustry looking to meet others,
but you can create this type ofspeed dating because everyone
is here and everyone's lookingto meet each other.
Adelaine Ng (11:52):
Two more tips.
Mark Herschberg (11:54):
The last two things are going beyond the
conference content.
So the first is virtualfollow-ups.
When you, as an event planner,think about your event, you are
doing so for months or even ayear prior to the event At big
conferences.
The moment that event ends,you're already talking with the
(12:15):
hotel, you're talking aboutscheduling for next year, you're
starting to find the contracts.
You're thinking about this allthe time.
Your attendees think about it acouple hours before they board
the flight, while they're there,and then, the moment they're
off the plane, they've forgottenabout this whole thing.
You get them for a small periodof time, but we can capitalize
(12:36):
on the event to extend yourbrand, to have them remember and
engage with you even outsidethe event.
The event, that is the crownjewel, that is the keystone of
what you're offering.
But that's not the only thing.
Sometimes, as a speaker, part ofthe contracts I have with
conferences and you can askother speakers if they're
willing to do this Say okay, I'mthere, I'm giving the talk or
(12:59):
whatever events I'm there doingin person we can also arrange,
for example, some follow upwebinars.
Over the next month I'll do, aspart of the contract, three 30
minute sessions and those aregoing to be a lot more
interactive.
It's not hard for me to addthat into the package because I
don't have to get on anotherplane.
It's going to be me sittinghere at my desk for other folks.
(13:22):
Again, they don't have to geton the plane, but it's a chance.
They might not have been ableto catch me after the keynote or
during the conference.
But we can extend the topicsand it might be topics you've
preset, it might be other topicsI bring, it might even be these
were the popular topics orquestions you got in the follow
up.
Another version of this is whenyou send out the hey, I hope you
(13:44):
enjoyed Mark and his talk, orwhatever your keynote speaker is
.
If you have any questions,email us, because he's agreed to
do a blog post or over the nextfew weeks we're going to do an
email.
He's going to answer some ofthese questions.
So, again, you're taking whatwas just at the conference and
you're extending it in space,but time as well.
(14:06):
It's not that hard for yourspeakers to do this, because
we're doing it from home, butyou're creating more engagement
and you're having people thinkabout your event, not just while
they're there but other times.
That builds up your brand.
Adelaine Ng (14:19):
Yeah, and this is interesting.
We have one more point to go to.
But you also have an app thatsort of fits into this picture
of post conference engagementand I mean, you told me what the
name of it was.
It's called Brain Bump and I'vehad a curse to really look at
it and if it does what I thinkit does, I think you could have
become my new best friendbecause you can apply it in
(14:40):
conferences.
But have I got this right?
This is an app that's likethose AI YouTube summarizers,
but you've marketed it forpodcasts and books, but there is
that application forconferences as well.
Have I got that right?
Mark Herschberg (14:53):
You do.
The Brain Bump app, which iscompletely free from the Android
and iPhone store, takes contentbooks, blogs, podcasts, talks,
conferences, classes Doesn'tmatter where the content comes
from.
It puts the key points into anapp.
The reason for this I know fromyears of teaching students and
years of being a student myselfand reading books.
(15:14):
I'll read a book.
I'll say, wow, there's so muchgreat information here.
Two weeks later I forgot it all.
When you listen to a podcastlike this, your podcasts have
such great advice what are theodds you're going to remember
what you heard in that podcasteven two days later?
Your conferences especially ifyou're hitting them with a fire
hose, they're forgetting 90% ofit as soon as they're off the
(15:36):
plane.
How do you help them retain thecontent?
Now, their interest inremembering the content.
You're interested in havingthem remember your brand,
whether it's we gave the exampleearlier.
You might be an author or apodcaster who want them to buy
that $5,000 consulting packageand that involves multiple touch
points to build the trust you,as an event planner or
(15:58):
conference organizer, you wantto build up.
Oh, that conference, that'shigh value.
I learned so much, I rememberedso much, I got so much out of
it.
You want to build up the brandtrust.
So the way the app works it'slike a cross between a flash
card app and a daily affirmationapp.
So it has the key points aslittle tips as little tip cards.
It can be used by the app userin a just in time way.
(16:23):
So, for example, I have thenetworking tips from my book how
to Network is in the app.
It's great for people when theygo to a conference and they say
what were those networking tipsI read about three months ago.
You open the app.
Everything is tagged.
It's like hashtags.
Everything's tagged by topic.
So you pull up the networkingtips two minutes before you walk
in the room.
Now it's all top of mind.
(16:44):
Here are some questions to askother people.
Here's how to approach astranger, here's how to exit a
conversation All the things Ineed to know right here and now.
But then there's also a passivelearning mode.
We know people remember thingsthrough spaced repetition, by
seeing it multiple times.
We also know people that comesto flash card apps very quickly
(17:06):
stopped using them.
Who has time to open apps everyday?
So this works like a dailyaffirmation.
It does a push notification ata time chosen by the app user.
So we don't spam them, we don'tsend things they didn't request
.
But each day, as soon asthey're done with your
conference, for example, eachday at 9 am as they go into work
, they get a low reminder of oneof the things they learned from
(17:29):
your event Go yep, that's great.
Swipe two seconds a day.
It helps them retain thecontent, it helps your brand
stay top of mind and build brandequity.
So it's a win for both sides.
Adelaine Ng (17:42):
Wow.
So I'm trying to figure out howthis happens, because I know
with at least with podcastsyou're just kind of connecting a
particular episode that'spicked up, or you're selecting a
particular episode inside theapp and it'll do that work.
But if you're at a conferenceand you're listening to a
speaker, are you using, I guess,your voice memo app to record
(18:04):
it and then it extracts?
I mean, I'm just wondering andcurious how that part works.
Mark Herschberg (18:08):
There's two ways this works.
We actually encourage thecontent creators to put their
content on the server so it'savailable to people, because the
content creator, they're theones who control the brand and
the brand messaging, so that'susually a path that works best.
It also means less work for theapp user and, again, we assume
people are busy.
They don't have time.
(18:28):
So often it is the podcaster,the conference organizer, the
author who puts their content onour server.
The content once they create.
Here are the key tips.
By the way, the great thingabout it is these are the same
things you're going to alsotweet out or put into an email.
So when you create thosenuggets of learning, it's not
(18:49):
just for our app.
You can repurpose them.
That's how we started earlierin the conversation.
You can repurpose them in allsorts of different ways to
generate value, and Brain Bumpis just one way to do that.
Now we're recording in thesummer of 2023.
We have a release coming out,2.0 version of Brain Bump at the
end of the summer and that isgoing to allow the app user to
(19:11):
also enter their own content.
If your favorite podcaster,author, conference organizer
didn't give you their content,you can edit yourself and you
can put in your own tips, oreven because a lot of people use
Kindles and do highlights fromKindles, you can incorporate
your Kindle highlights.
So we're going to have thisfunctionality in the 2.0 version
(19:33):
coming out end of summer 2023.
But often we see the conferenceorganizers and the podcasters
put the content in there.
Adelaine Ng (19:41):
That's amazing, and I'll just note to our listeners
that Mark is based in New York,so it's summer where he is, but
it's winter where I am.
Mark Herschberg (19:50):
Good point, I forgot about that.
Adelaine Ng (19:51):
If you're thinking summer, do I have to wait for
six months?
No, not at the time of thisrecording.
It is coming up very, very soon, and that sounds like an
amazing service, and for you tomake this free as well is
something that I'm sure a lot ofpeople are going to love.
So that was a big detour but avery valuable one, from the six
points.
What is the six point?
Mark Herschberg (20:12):
Six point is professional development and
other services.
One of the best things I got atconference is they had a
photographer standing theredoing free headshots.
All of us all of us who go tobusiness conferences we need
headshots because that's goingto appear on our LinkedIn, on
our website, and most peoplejust don't have them.
(20:34):
But now you're at theconference, you're dressed
professionally and there is aprofessional photographer who's
got everything set up and youstand there and you smile and
he'll take two or three shots.
You type in your email, you getit.
This has marginal cost.
You can hire thesephotographers two days $2,000,
probably less.
They're happy to get the moneybecause they're usually just
(20:56):
doing events.
You can amortize this cost overall your attendees.
So it's a very small marginalcost and now everyone has
something valuable they got fromyour conference and, by the way
, if this becomes your LinkedInphoto, every time they looked at
their LinkedIn, they think itwas your conference that gave
this to me.
Now, headshots are one exampleyou might do, for example,
(21:18):
resume reviews.
In fact, you can find companiesthat say, oh, we do resume
reviews, but you know what we dofor anyone at the conference.
You give us a booth and we willbe set up and we will do a
15-minute resume review foranyone who comes by, completely
free, no charge.
They're probably going to tryand upsell and they'll give you
(21:38):
real value for 15 minutes.
And then they'll say, by theway, if you want a 401, here's
what it is, they'd be happy todo that.
Or maybe it's a website review,if your audience are small
business owners, for example.
So think about little serviceswhere someone can get something
now, something quick, somethingvaluable.
Now, probably the serviceprovider.
(21:59):
You're either paying them, asin the case of a photographer,
or they see this as a great leadgen opportunity for their
website review people, or SEOpeople or resume people, and
this adds additional value forsomeone who says well, I don't
see this at every conference.
This is a cool little extrabecause, let's face it, I don't
need another water cup thingwith your logo on it.
(22:23):
My cabinets are full of thosealready.
Adelaine Ng (22:26):
So is mine.
I was going to ask conferenceswag in or out, but it's
definitely out.
I mean, can conference swag bedone right?
Mark Herschberg (22:36):
To be fair, I live in a New York City one
bedroom apartment.
I have limited storage spacealready.
I might be a little moresensitive than everyone else,
but I have just been to so manyconferences.
I have so many, so many ofthose water carriers.
I have so many mugs used to bemouse pads.
T-shirts are okay because thatI use in the gym, but I think a
(22:59):
lot of things like realisticallyand look at your field.
If you're in a field where youdon't have a lot of people going
to a lot of conferences, thenmaybe.
But I began my career in techand tech.
We're always going toconferences and they always have
the same stuff.
So do something that isn't doneby everyone else, because we
probably have it already.
Adelaine Ng (23:20):
I visited a church recently and usually there's
this point in a service wherethey say who here is new?
We'd love to just give yousomething, and usually it's a
little cloth bag or maybe alittle paper bag or something,
and inside is a pen and maybesome cards that have information
(23:40):
about the services or who youcan contact, and maybe a couple
of chocolates, things like that.
But this particular church thatI was at gave newcomers a plant
, like a small little pottedplant, and their message was
look, if you're new here andyou're looking for a home church
and you don't have one, we hopethat you'll consider growing
(24:02):
with us.
So that was the whole tie-inand I thought that was so
beautiful.
That just took the messagedeeper.
It was something useful thatpeople could bring home and grow
in.
Every time they're going to belooking at that plant, they're
going to be thinking of thatexperience when they visited the
church, and so I thought thatwas a really good idea.
Now I mean, we've been talkingabout conferences that have
(24:23):
history with people, as in theCESs or things like funnel
hacking live.
These are events that have eventhe positioning and notoriety
that people will just go to saythat they were there.
But if you were a new companydoing an event for the first
time, it's really hard now toget people to come to something
that isn't already in theirroutine.
(24:44):
Everyone's got excuses why theydon't want to go to something
they're too busy.
How would you market that eventand get buy-in?
Mark Herschberg (24:53):
Good question.
This is a little off the cuff.
I would definitely focus moreon the experiential, the content
.
Again, probably I can find itelsewhere.
You might be able to get abig-name speaker to come in and,
oh, that would be cool to seethis person, but that's
expensive.
I think the experiential partof it, which is either some type
(25:17):
of location where you're reallygoing to do something off the
beaten path not, oh, vegas, yep,one of hundreds of conferences
I can choose to go to in Vegas,but something that's a little
different you do have to balancethe remoteness and
accessibility with thepedestrianess of it.
I'll tell you one conference Idid years ago.
(25:38):
I did this as before I waskeynote speaking.
I came in as one of the peoplepresenting, as very technical
conferences, a VC conference.
This was down in Mexico andliterally the conference was on
the beach we're standing.
It's an open-air type of event.
The beach is right over there.
I'm looking at the ocean as I'mtalking.
(26:00):
Beautiful venue and they had aspart of the conference they
called it active networking,which was one afternoon you
could either do yoga down by thebeach or you could go to the
golf course and they wereputting people together in
little groups and you just playgolf together.
And that was very appealing,because going to Mexico,
honestly, in February which forme, being in New York, is a
(26:21):
pretty cold time of year it's ohwell, this is different.
So, doing something that's moreinteractive that way and, let's
face it, playing golf you mightthink, ah, that sounds like
you're copping out.
It's fun.
But I did some good networking,talked to some people and we
talked about our industry, wehad professional conversations,
we had social conversations andthat's why I go to the
(26:43):
conference.
It doesn't have to be a resortin Mexico, but if you can find
some area where it's going to besomething, where people can
actively do things together.
There are hiking trails, forexample, and in the middle of
the afternoon you're going tohave a break in the conference
and people go hiking before theygo off to dinner.
Physical activities are great.
(27:03):
I say this this comes from myexperience dating.
When you go on a date and yousit across the table from
someone, you say, oh well,where'd you grow up, where'd you
go to school?
What do you do for work?
It gets very boring when youhave a date that's doing
something, whether it's playingmini golf or even one of the
best dates I went on.
(27:23):
We were running errands you hadto run errands that afternoon
but we're physically moving andthere's natural conversation
that came out of it oh, why doyou have to return this item?
Or the stress you're picking upfrom the dry cleaner?
So yeah, I wore the stress.
I was at this event the otherweek as a gala.
It leads to conversations indifferent ways and we're staring
across the table from eachother, and the same thing is
(27:46):
true in our corporate events.
This gets to be a differenttype of conversation.
We let our guards down a little.
I think that really facilitatessome of the engagement and they
remember your brand with thatunique experience.
Adelaine Ng (28:01):
Yeah, it's also so interesting because when I speak
to incentive planners, they'rereally trying to take into
consideration the fact thatpeople have different
preferences.
So I mean, if you talked aboutthe ghost tour, I would not sign
up for that because I'm scaredof ghosts.
So I treasure my good night'ssleep.
I do not want to stay up at 3amthinking about I don't know
(28:24):
things that I arrived not bethinking about.
But if there was a Zumba classor something like that, I would
go to that, even if it was atnight after the conference.
So I'm just seeing now a lotmore personalization and just
options for people.
So it can be a particularlocation, but then, hey, those
who want to golf can do that,those who want to do exercise on
the beach can do that.
(28:45):
I'm actually loving that.
That sounds really appealing.
But I guess, if you're a firsttime event creator, I guess
that's the piece that I'm notquite sure about.
Like, how do you make thatpromise?
Because if you say we're goingto go on a hike, well, I can do
that anywhere or anytime withanother group.
It's selling the reason whythis is really worth your time
and effort and the expense thatyou're going to pay to get there
(29:08):
.
Did you have any thoughts onthat?
Mark Herschberg (29:10):
The hike, for example.
I want to say there's a hikeand again, some people they're
going to be excited by a hike,some not just like the ghost
tour or Zumba or anything else.
So you want to do a hike First.
You want to make these thingsprobably more accessible.
The hike is one of the bigthings.
You say well, there will besome easy trails and then hard
trails for those who are moreinto it.
(29:31):
But we're going to break intogroups by topic, by industry, or
it's going to be small groups.
You're going to be a group ofsix people, so all six of you
are going to spend the next hourtogether.
Guess what?
You're going to talk to all sixpeople.
It's going to be very clear thehike or the activity.
And here I'd say the onedownside to Zumba is it's not as
(29:52):
talkative as a hike might be,or ghost tour or wine tasting or
something else.
But you do so in ways whereit's particularly smaller groups
.
If I'm with six people for anhour, by the end of the hour I
will have spoken to all of them,and so that's the key, and the
activity is really just to getyou physically moving, but it's
(30:12):
about the people you're with.
Adelaine Ng (30:14):
Yeah, excellent Mark.
We have covered so much ground.
There's a good chance we'll betalking on this podcast again.
I do so appreciate you, thankyou, thank you.
Thanks for listening.
I do appreciate it and I hopeyou got some tangible tips, or
at least some ideas that mightsend you into your own rabbit
holes to add more nuances thatwill make your next event even
(30:35):
more memorable.
Do check out the show notes,where I've put links to Mark's
website, which is loaded withresources and links to his book,
the Career Toolkit, the BrainBump app, as well as ways you
can reach Mark directly or findout more about his work through
his social channels.
If you found value in today'sshow, please click the follow
button if you'd like to benotified when a new episode
(30:57):
drops.
And, by the way, have you everconsidered launching a podcast
with a strategy to land inApple's top 200 charts in the
very first week?
If so, feel free to send me anemail at
uponarrivalpodcast@gmail.
com and we'll explore how we canmake that happen.
Catch you next week for anothergreat interview to uncover more
stories and strategies for asuccessful future.
(31:19):
Till then, cheers.
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