NZEA Events Update May 2018

EventsUpdate MAY 2018 AMATEUR SPORTS GAIN FROM WMG2017— See page 2

editorial@nzea.co — ­ New Zealand Events Association, C/- PO Box 24018, Auckland 1345 ISSN 1179-3678

CREATING WINNING PARTNERSHIPS SEMINARS – BOOK NOW! — See page 3

DEVELOPING YOUR CORPORATE EVENTS STRATEGY — See page 5

FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER

Lots on for Members Get in quick for seminars!

If you haven’t registered for our upcoming seminar series Creating Winning Partnerships with Mildie Meyer-Els, do so now! We kicked the series off with a great Auckland event on Monday, which was at capacity. Feedback from attendees has been incredibly positive, with many saying it is valuable to hear a sponsor’s perspective on partnerships.

Mildie has a wealth of

expertise to share so make sure you don’t miss out as she tours Napier, Wellington, Wanaka and Christchurch from the 5th to 8th of June. All details on page 3.

We’ll shortly be opening registrations for our Health and Safety seminars in July, quickly followed by Strategic Planning workshops in August and Marketing & Digital Media seminars in September.

Lots of opportunities for

networking and development!

NZEA Event Awards: A reminder to start thinking about those Awards entries!

This year’s qualifying period is 1 April 2017 to 31 July 218 - if your event occurred between those dates, it’s eligible to enter. Entries will open 1 August. We’ve been busy finalising this year’s new categories and are looking forward to announcing them shortly.

Eventing the Future 2018 Conference: Just a reminder that NZEA members receive a $100+GST discount on conference registration, and that the earlybird rate is only available until 23 July, there are also great discounts for organisations registering more than two attendees.

Warm regards, Ségolène de Fontenay NZEA General Manager

Amateur sports gain from World Masters Games 2017 Auckland SOURCE: ATEED Release, 30 April 2018 Amateur sport is to receive nearly three quarters of a million dollars thanks to Auckland hosting the World Masters Games last year.

World Masters Games 2017 (WMG2017), which wrapped up a year ago today, generated a surplus of $831,000. After a grant of $50,000 to New Zealand Masters Games, the balance is being allocated to key sporting organisations involved in WMG2017.

WMG2017 had more than 28,000 participants (more than an Olympic Games), generated $34.2m and 241,480 visitor nights for the Auckland regional economy and was declared the ‘best ever’ by the rights holder, the International Masters Games Association.

WMG2017 Ltd was a subsidiary of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), which invests in major events on behalf of Auckland Council in order to

generate economic and social benefits for Auckland and its people.

an event of this scale can deliver for its host city and its people.”

ATEED General Manager Destination Steve Armitage says the ethos of the World Masters Games is to promote and encourage participation in sport throughout life, for people of all abilities.

WMG2017 Chief Executive Jennah Wootten says, “It is wonderful to see the WMG2017 amateur sport legacy lives on as a direct result of the immense combined effort from Sport Partners and the Local Organising Committee.

WMG2017 has reinforced that major events, when planned and delivered strategically, deliver significant economic and social benefits.”

“World Masters Games 2017 was one of largest events Auckland has hosted in its history, in terms of participants, venues, range of sporting disciplines, visitor attraction and injecting new money into the region. Aucklanders turned out in their thousands to participate, volunteer and watch, and it’s fitting that WMG2017 continues to benefit the region and our people, boosting amateur sports across the 28 codes featured in WMG2017.”

“Major events are an internationally proven mechanism for driving economic and social development for cities, and WMG2017 has been a textbook example of how

The WMG2017 surplus will be allocated partly by direct grant and partly via application to a contestable fund.

Of the $781,000 balance, half of the surplus funds ($390,500) will be distributed by direct grant to the 28 primary sport partner organisations involved in the Games. The remaining half ($390,500) will be distributed to the same sports via a WMG2017 Legacy Fund.

The direct grants include a

fixed component of $6,973 for each sport, and a further award that is prorated based on the number of participants who participated in the sport in WMG2017.

The organisations are also invited to submit a single application for funding of up to $16,000.

They can apply to the fund for initiatives that will benefit Auckland amateur sports, such as bidding for and/or staging an event; capability building relating to events; to put towards infrastructure upgrades; purchasing sporting equipment; or strategic planning support.

A panel including representatives from ATEED and Aktive – Auckland Sport & Recreation will assess the applications. Applications will be open from 1 May – 31 July 2018, assessed during August and will be announced in September 2018.

Cover Image: The Christchurch Casino Golden Oldies Sports Celebration 2018 made history in April – See page 5 for more detail Credit: ChristchurchNZ Events Update, May 2018

Page 2

Creating Winning Partnerships with Mildie Meyer-Els, former Barfoot & Thompson Sponsorship Manager

Auckland: Monday 28 May, 12.00pm to 2.30pm, Level 22, PwC Tower, 188 Quay Street – SOLD OUT

Grab this opportunity to learn from the best, and network with your peers!

Napier: Tuesday 5 June, 12.00pm to 2.30pm, Napier Conference Centre, 48 Marine Parade, Napier

TICKETS: $35.00+GST for NZEA members / $55.00+GST for non-members

Wellington: Wed 6 June, 9.30am to 12.00pm, CBD venue TBC

BOOK ONLINE AT: www.nzea.co/seminars

Wanaka: Thursday 7 June, 9.30am to 12.00pm, Wanaka Recreation Centre, Sir Tim Wallis Drive, Three Parks

CANCELLATIONS: 24 hours’ notice for cancellations must be given to secure a refund.

Christchurch: Fri 8 June, 9.30am to 12.00pm, ChristchurchNZ, BNZ Centre, Lvl 3 (West), 101 Cashel St • What are your biggest sponsorship pain points?

• Sponsorships v Partnerships – how do they differ?

• How do you engage your audience?

Mildie Meyer-Els, events sponsorship and brand activation specialist, will share her extensive experience in this notto-be-missed seminar series focussed on the New Zealand sponsorship landscape.

Former Sponsorship Manager for Barfoot & Thompson, Mildie’s seven year tenure in the role culminated with the company’s high profile sponsorship of the World Master’s Games 2017 winner of the 2017 Sports Event Sponsorship of the Year Award at the New Zealand Event Awards. A consummate professional, Mildie herself was also a finalist for the Event Sponsorship Professional of the Year 2017 Award.

Passionate about the power sponsorships and events can bring to a brand, Mildie has worked with sponsorship budgets both large and small including projects for the Starship Foundation, Fast 5 Netball, Auckland Rugby, The Blues, and many more.

Mildie believes in making the most of opportunities, regardless of budget. Money should not be an obstacle to a job well done!

So are you taking a strategic view of your event’s sponsorship and partnership opportunities? Are you a Sponsorship professional looking to maximise your investment? Do you need to understand the potential of a true partnership relationship?

Top 3 ways to stop visitors from bouncing off your website business websites. It’s easy to fix and cheaper than paying to acquire new clients.

So what can the busy business owner and entrepreneur do?

Why is Bounce Rate a problem?

Rebecca Caroe of Creative Agency Secrets is an expert in search engine marketing and direct response copywriting, and presenter of NZEA’s 2017 Marketing and Digital Media for Events seminar series.

Keep an eye out for Rebecca’s articles over the next few months as she shares her top marketing tips with Events Update reader.

Getting people to visit your website is tough and when you’ve got them there, it is very disheartening if they immediately leave.

Bounce Rate is the metric for one-page visitors to a website.

In the immortal words of Avinash Kaushik, author and Google employee, a bouncing visitor thinks “I came, I puked, I left”.

A high bounce rate is a problem faced by many B2B

When we search on the web, we are all impatient. We know what we are looking for and search engines have made it easy for us to research options that match our needs.

We are “bouncing” off a site if we visit, read quickly and then leave. During the search process we have become adept at rapidly assessing a web page and deciding if it fits what we want or not.

As business owners we need to align our website content with consumer search needs.

Visualise two circles overlapping in a venn diagram. One is called “Customer Intent” and the other is “Web Page Intent”.

The greater overlap you can create between what the customer wants and what your web page offers, the lower likelihood of the visitor bouncing off your website without viewing more than one page.

Creating robust landing pages

which have a clear purpose is a new skill and an important one for modern businesses who use their website proactively.

Why aren’t your marketing team working on this already?

Marketers like myself dream of extensive above-the-line awareness campaigns – it’s what we are built to do. That and the ‘sexy’ 30 second advertisement plus billboards and an entry to Cannes for a Lion Marketing Award.

Many of us forget that there are cheaper and easier ways to improve website metrics for clients. Not so high profile, not such high budgets but nonetheless effective at turning a strong return on investment for marketing spend.

Chief among these is bounce rate. That is the beauty of bounce rate – at a macro level it shows how much your website stinks.

Increasing the time on site and the number of pages viewed by each visitor can significantly improve your website metrics and the KPIs or goals you have set. And so learning specific tactics to implement on high bounce pages will help and delight your boss.

Three ways to reduce bounce rate: • Improve your website engagement - make your website relevant to the customer’s needs and use design to push them towards engaging (clicking, phoning, emailing) with the business. Use analytics to find your high bounce pages and review them for page intent compared to customer intent.

• Impove website loading times - many NZ sites load very slowly. This is partly a function of internet speeds and partly website design.

Ask your web design team to recommend speed improvements.

• Have a clear customer journey - plan the pathway through your website for different types of visitor.

Get the marketing team to align customer personas with a journey map. On each page ask “what is the ONE thing I want the customer to do next?”. That will hep determine the changes you need to make.

In a digitally competitive world where it takes only seconds to hold a user’s attention, getting engagement on your website is more important than ever.

Read the slides for this seminar https://www. slideshare.net/rcaroe/top-3ways-to-stop-visitors-frombouncing-off-your-website

Farout Showers are proud to be the leaders in supplying showers for events nationwide.

FAROUT SHOWERS www.farout-showers.co.nz

Events Update, May 2018

Established in 2004, we are now the largest supplier of portable showers throughout New Zealand.

Page 4

REGIONAL UPDATES

The latest from our NZEA Regional Reps

CANTERBURY:

Jen Beatty - jennifer. beatty@ccc.govt.nz Golden Oldies Makes history in Christchurch The Christchurch Casino Golden Oldies Sports Celebration 2018, held in April, was a world first for

Golden Oldies, marking the first time in history multiple Golden Oldies sports events have been held in one city.

Organised by Vintage Sport and Leisure with the support of ChristchurchNZ, this was one of Christchurch’s largest sporting events. Around 5,000 participants from over 12 countries took part in the Celebration. With their ethos of ‘fun, friendship & fraternity’ players took to the fields with a ‘less serious, more social’ attitude. Sports represented in 2018 were rugby, cricket, netball, golf, hockey and lawn bowls.

GOT A VACANCY TO FILL? Target New Zealand Events Industry Professionals with NZEA’s job advertising service!

• Direct email alert to NZEA members with your listing.

•Your listing on the NZEA Careers’ page until your closing date.

$195+GST for NZEA members, and $395+GST for non-members.

Contact info@nzea.co for more details and to book your ad.

Events Update, May 2018

Page 5

STRATEGY FOCUS

Corporate events strategy put simply, isn’t simple. Shakespeare makes it easy. interpretations of the words has always been a highlight, so what better way to express my thoughts on event strategy than with the words of the bard himself.

“All things are ready, if our mind be so.” - Henry V

A special feature on events strategy development from NZEA’s new Regional Rep for Auckland, and PwC’s Events and Markets Networks Specialist, Jon T Kemeys: The corporate event industry of today can learn much from the words of the past. The same for myself, as much of what I employ as an events leader now, I learnt from my own early experiences.

I’ve been fortunate to work across multiple sectors - corporate, government, non-profit, creative, tertiary and commercial industries.

The one truism I have learned is that effective events strategy isn’t always about the money. Expansive budgets vs tight. Extensive assets vs under-resourced. A number of organisations I have had the pleasure to work with have operated events and marketing on some extremely tight and under-resourced asset and budget bases (if they had a budget at all!).

The most important factor to an effective event strategy is about what’s in it, not what’s on it.

Growing up in the performing arts industry I have always had a love of theatre and have been lucky to be part of a number of Shakespeare productions. Examining the text and developing

Events Update, May 2018

Get your mind right. Get your head in the game. You’ve heard these phrases before.

Shakespeare was right on the money. All things are ready if our mind be so.

To develop a cohesive and consistent events strategy you need to understand the Why. The raison d’etre. As a business, as an organisation you must know your own mind. An easy start point is your organisation’s mission, vision, and values. As Socrates said “Know thyself”.

This approach can help inform your strategic development process and open your scope for outside-in thinking about how you can take yourselves to market.

“Strong reasons make strong actions.” - King John A strong reason, a known why, a defined purpose gives you clarity. Make things clear for yourself. Why run this event? Why sponsor or exhibit? Who are you trying to reach? What message do you want out in the market?

When? What does success look like for you? Maybe you are looking to realign your brand to a shifting audience demographic, or manage a smaller budget, streamline your events approach, achieve better administrative time management, Perhaps it’s controlling operational spend, or trying to crack a new market. Understand and evaluate your event purpose and you’ll have your reason. Your WHY.

“We know what we are but know not what we may be.”

- Hamlet Taking what you are and turning it into what you will be. With your purpose clear, you can now work on your presence. Creating an event presence aligned to your purpose doesn’t have to be as challenging as you think. Keep your clarity alive.

Consider all the event types you feel are a good fit and don’t be afraid to get some external thoughts from trusted colleagues on their perception. Surround yourself in knowledge about who you are (now – both internal opinion and external) and measure against where you’d like to be. Are you product sellers, thought leaders, specialists, generalists? Answer these questions about yourselves.

Next, evaluate all potential events options that can bridge or reinforce that position.

Do you need to launch your own event? Is there an event that you could feasibly align with. One-off events? Series events? Take time to develop this picture of your best fit.

“Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.” - Henry VIII It doesn’t have to scare you or cost the earth. Prepare yourself for the market you are seeking. Use your data.

What metrics do you have or can produce to aid your planning? What’s your spend to date? What measurements of success are you employing?

Your current audience make-up? Use what you’ve got. What’s your organisation’s P.O.D.? What sets you apart from your competitors? What look and feel with collateral, exhibitions sites, branding can convey that? Developing

your own events? Take a good look at what marketing, publicity or promotional material you have been putting out. How you can create an alliance with that in an event strategy through look, feel, content or style.

“For this alliance may so happy prove.” - Romeo and Juliet Looking for an event to involve yourself with? Seek out those that align well with your purpose and don’t be afraid to talk to organisers about how you can be involved outside of the standard Gold, Silver, Bronze support categories.

Often from a strategic event and sponsorship perspective you may have a lot to offer in services, sector or audience reach, not just financial contribution.

“Money is a good soldier, and will on.” - The Merry Wives of Windsor Looking to keep costs under control? Do research on modes and methods that are combinative - can be used in multiple formats – this will keep your spend under control and you can pro-rate costs against multiple events if you need to justify spend.

Sponsoring or exhibiting?

Talk through with the events or exhibitions you’re at as to what options you can consider.

I enjoy the creative scope that event collateral, physical spaces, sites and event design gives me. I grew up in the performing and creative arts so every chance I get to spread those wings and fly, I love it. Corporate events though regularly ask organisers to do more with less. Don’t be afraid of ‘package options’. They are

Page 6

not a poor option. Bespoke is great, but oft comes at a higher cost, more often than not. Package options can be effective if branded well and are less time-consuming in your planning process. Keep in mind that a ‘package’ is an example of what the supplier does well and efficiently so they can offer it at a marginalised rate.

“When we mean to build, we first survey the plot, then draw the model.” - King Henry IV Plan your work and work your plan. Benjamin Franklin said “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” He was right. When purpose, presence and position align, you should have the early makings of a strong plan.

Define your plan further by the why, what, where, when, how and who. Prepare a strategy against each of these and from there you’ll have the skeleton of your approach.

The meat on the bones of it is up to you. There’s a lot of information out there around strategy but I quite like this one pager as a good start point.

“It is a wise father that knows his child” - The Merchant of Venice So, you’ve established your why, your purpose and you’ve developed a position, a presence, your plan. Your events strategy is ready to grow. Your child is ready for the world. It’s time to promote.

When you know who you are, your customers are, what you have to offer and they want, what they expect. You’ve already looked, so now you can leap.

“How far that little candle throws his beams!” - The Merchant of Venice An event strategy means little if you don’t crow about it. Consider your purpose, your presence and take it to market. Consider all the channels through which you

Events Update, May 2018

can get your event content and message out and plan it. Negotiate packages and schedule your content delivery for maximum impact and effect.

“Boldness be my friend!“ - Cymbeline Boldly go. Prove to your audience you know who you are, your customers are, what you have to offer and they want, what they expect.

Promotion then becomes easy – well, less complicated anyway. Keep your clarity.

Trust that you know your messaging and take the plunge. You’ve already looked, so now you can leap.

“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” - The Merry Wives of Windsor Don’t let budget force you into a negative promotion position. Timeliness is just as important a part of the promotion of your events as the content of the event itself. “Build it and they will come” was that familiar Field of Dreams phrase but you have to know it’s there in the first place so ensure you are getting your message out ahead of time.

“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.” Hamlet Suit your marketing to your audience. Not everything has to be print media, signboards and billboards. Social media channels can give you low-cost reach early in the process, you can promote via all your own channels (website, mailing lists, memberships, partners, supporters), or as an event sponsor you can get good promotional presence on the back of the events you support. Break down every potential touchpoint for your organisation and maximise this. For your event related content, there are some great providers out there you can work with, or use your own

in-house people/teams to tell your story.

Regardless of how your events strategy lands, how you approach the events market, make sure that it is authentic.

When you wear an outfit that fits, that feels right, you approach everything easier and more comfortably. You look good and feel good and people notice. Your audience is the same. If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s a duck.

So where possible, be a duck. Make it easy for your customers, supporters to engage with you. That doesn’t mean you have to be a duck all the time, just ensure that if you shift purpose, make sure presence, position and promotion falls in step too. When your strategy is aligned to who you are and what you want to be, your audiences and markets will buy in or As Shakespeare puts it: “This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” - Hamlet

Linked In NZEA Group

Over 250 members have already signed up to the Linked In exclusive NZEA Group.

Visit our Linked In page HERE.

NZEA Facebook Page

Like our Facebook page HERE.

Need advice on EVENT

SUSTAINABILITY

for your

EVENTS >

Resource Bank Page 7

DEEP DIVES and REWARDS with ETF2018 Thought for the day: “the world is moving so fast that the person who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it” ~ Elbert Hubbard “THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE (worm) FREE RESOURCE” Taking the theme of opportunities here is a great deal: All conference registrations received by 10 June will receive Tahira Endean’s bestselling book ‘Intentional Event Design – Our Professional Opportunity’.

Maximise the opportunity to hear and workshop with Tahira at ETF2018 and then digest the learnings in her excellent recent publication on how to design events and

apply to the re/design of your event.

her own research and the Deloitte Millennial Survey.

**The 282-page paperback is organized around seven principles of intentional event design, which touch on everything from technology integration at events and brain-friendly design to digital marketing and creative learning formats

In her first session she will give insights into the very different approach required for Millennials, also called Gen Y (1980 – 1994) and Gen Z (1995 – 2012), our predominant event target markets covering their preferences, ways to engage, experiences they seek and how to reach them.

Keeping to our theme of disruption we have EMILY MCLEAN a Millennial (just)! coming to ETF this year to share her insights about what motivates and challenges her generation. A former journalist, Emily now specialises in turning ‘non-sexy brands’ into stars.

She has been involved in researching the rewards and challenges the Millennial demographic bring to our workplaces and the buying market having written ‘The Millennial effect – what this means for our workplaces and our markets’ using data from

Her second session, part of the Deep Dive Labs, will focus on the need for different applications and types of social media engagement with diverse target markets showing there is no ‘one size fits all’ in the new marketing vehicles. The labs will provide interactive discussion and application to your event.

DEEP DIVE & DISCOVER… Have you wished there was time and opportunity to ask questions, explore an

opportunity, discuss an issue but the session format just doesn’t allow for it? Well the Deep Dive Labs, incorporated into this year’s programme will provide the opportunity to dip below the surface.

Our topic specialists in social enterprise, social media, presentation effectiveness, music industry changes, risk management, and more, will host small group interactive sessions. The topic will be introduced then it’s over to you to pick their brains! If you want to do two topics you can, as they will repeat! Due to very restricted numbers a booking system will apply.

Check out the latest update of the programme on eventingthefuture.org. nz/programme REGISTER BY 10 JUNE & RECEIVE ‘Intentional Event Design’ by Tahira Endean

WELCOME TO NZEA’S NEW MEMBERS! NZEA’S SUPPLIER MEMBERS HAVE YOU COVERED. Whatever your event needs, our suite of over 30 Supplier Members can help!

www.nzea.co/suppliers Events Update, May 2018

Mitre 10 Creative Agency Secrets Missing Link Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre Cloud M Limited (Blerter) FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF MEMBERS, PLEASE VIEW OUR MEMBER DIRECTORY.

Page 8

2018

EVENTING THE FUTURE CONFERENCE 6/7 AUGUST RYDGES LATIMER CHRISTCHURCH

#ETF18 JOIN THE CONVERSATION PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE FOR THE CORPORATE, BUSINESS, INCENTIVE, AND EVENT INDUSTRY SECTORS. "New Zealand's premier conference for the event industry and the official conference of the New Zealand Events Association

Tahira Endean

Author & Event Producer

Kim Skildum-Reid Power Sponsorship

Kaila Colbin SingularityU

thought leaders | topic specialists | event trends PROGRAMME RELEASED Check out the programme online now for details

CONFERENCE OFFERS 3 or more from the same organisation discounts NZEA member rate Early bird savings until 23rd July

SPEAKERS & SPECIALISTS Strategically selected for their expertise on developments & issues relevant to the event industry