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Virtual & Hybrid Fundraising – is it still possible?

When it comes to discussing events, the spotlight many times goes to annual conferences, association meetings, conferences, and other large-scale events that indeed deserve much attention, careful planning, and strategy to get executed well and provide a memorable experience for attendees, may that be in-person or online.

In today’s post, found at this link here, I’d like to turn the attention to a different type of hybrid event, the fundraising gala type that we all get excited about attending when it’s connected to an organization that pulls the strings of our hearts.

Pro’s Note:

A creative production professional is your number one ally when it comes to planning, hosting, and executing a high-quality hybrid event that fundraises at the highest level, brings broadcast quality to the table, trains the speakers for both in-person and virtual, keeps both audiences engaged, and much more. Here are some production support roles to keep in mind:

Non-technical production support roles: Registration Support, Back-End Bidding Auction Platform Support, Data Support, Website Tech Support, Moderators & Chat Cheerleaders, Script Advancer Support, Virtual Producer, Content Support, Marketing.

Technical Production Support Roles: Technical Event Producer, Video Director, Graphics Tech, Sound Engineer for In-person, and Sound Tech for virtual, Video switcher, Lighting Tech, Media/Content Support, Virtual Producer, Platform Support.

If you have any questions about hybrid – not just production, strategy, technology, scripting, run of shows, etc – please reach out.

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Maximize Your Social Influence

Are YOU maximizing your Social Influence?

Check out this experiment May King did with Neal Schaffer on his weekly Clubhouse.

Before I go into the statistics, reach and impact generated my hour of live tweeting, I thought I’d explain why I do this:

Brand – EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING starts with your brand.

Everything you write, say, appear online and in person, represents your brand and for people who don’t know who I am (yet 😊), I want to make a good impression! From the days that I delivered training and mentoring on behalf of Google’s Digital Garage project, we learned that we haev 7 seconds to impress our lurkers from their computers and 4 seconds on their smartphone. Let’s #createcontentforthelurkers and make a great first impression!

Relationship Building – how can we start to build relationships with the lurkers on our content?

  • Share great information
  • Start a conversation with people who have engaged with our content
  • Appreciate those that have followed us and lurk on their profiles. See if they are people you can start a relationship with.

Authority – you are a leader in your field but it’s not enough to dangle your business card virtually or in person and tell people you’re amazing. You have to prove it. That’s what I had to do when I started my business. I share my knowledge on slideshare, deliver and publish my presentations on YouTube. I’ve been a guest on various podcasts which I share on Pinterest.

Notoriety – to demonstate the impact we can make on future clients we can use incorporate #FOMOMarketing on top of our socila media marketing. Bridging the gap between social media and PR is what notoriety is all about so showcase your testimonials; shine the spotlight on your clients; tell the world how you have made an impact on others. Like the amazing Muhammad Ali once said:

It’s isn’t bragging if you can back it up –

Muhammad Ali

so get famous: be your own PR agency and tell the world how amazing you are (if you can back it up of course!)

Direct Communication. Timing is everything and when the time is right, you can go back to your lurkers. You can send a DM to the people you’ve started a conversation with, and get them on a call. On a Zoom meeting, a WhatsApp video. Whatever you prospect’s preferred method of having that meeting.

So! Back to Neal Schaffer and his Clubhouse meet? Here’s the impact that a few live tweets (I average 50 tweets an hour. On this occasion, I managed 39) had made when I shared his words of wisdom to the wonderful world of Twitter. I do highly recommend you follow Neal on all the socials if YOU want to know how to maximise your Social Influence.

Avoid these hybrid event mistakes

Over the course of the last almost 22 months of virtual and hybrid events of all formats and sizes, we’ve collected a few common mistakes being made as it relates to virtual and hybrid fundraising events. In the blog post below, we have highlighted some of the top hybrid event mistakes that almost every organizer makes.

Press here to take note of these hybrid event mistakes to save yourself from them.

The Future of Fundraising Events

Are fundraising events the best way to raise money? Will the future of fundraising events adapt with the event industry? With the increase in expenses during hybrid events, we will discuss the value of fundraising events in the non-profit world and provide tangible tips to amp up your fundraising event success.

Check out this bite-sized session Mary led at the #Untethered2021 Conference – “The Future of Fundraising Events”.

Check out Mary’s other tips and tricks by following her YouTube channel.

In-House Production Partners vs Outsourced

In-person or hybrid gatherings have become more prevalent lately in our industry and as Technical Event Producers and Planners, one of the main considerations and current pressing question we get asked a lot by event organizers is in regards to decisions related to hybrid event production houses/vendors/suppliers/partners, and whether or not to go with the venue’s in-house AV team or outsource their event’s AV and live-streaming needs to an “outside” production partner.

Each decision implies certain considerations, as well as the budget ramifications, and while we don’t have all the information regarding the options you’ve got to work with, we will attempt to lay out a list of considerations and give our recommendations based on our experience with both options.

Check out this blog post that goes into detail about each option presented:

In-house AV vs Outsourced Production Partners

If you’d like to learn more information about event technology and production, feel free to subscribe to our One Tip a Month newsletter or our YouTube channel.