The Official Charts are Officially Moving

In about 20 minutes the official UK number 1 single will be revealed on Radio 1, but not for much longer. This summer the chart is moving to a Friday slot.

I wasn't too happy with this news when I saw the headline earlier this week as it's always been on a Sunday afternoon and thought it would be such a shame to move it. I was more convinced when I read the article however.

Friday is to be made a global release day for music in order to try and combat piracy so the chart is changing to fall in line with this move. Illegal downloading is a massive problem for the music industry the world over so it's a good move by the industry to do something globally. Every country needs to have in place measures to stop illegal downloading in its own country but there is nothing to stop a UK resident using a foreign website so it's not enough to have these measures alone.

Currently in the UK music is released on a Monday so it will be interesting to see if sales figures alter by moving the release date to the end of the week, right before the weekend.

Here is the full announcement from the Official Charts Company.

REBLOGGED: Fill Conference Bags With Things People Won’t Throw Away

I love conference bags (I hate filling them though) but usually the first thing I do when I get home is throw away the printed material. This is a bit soul destroying if you're the one who spent ages! filling the bags just to see delegates have removed half the stuff you put in into the bin. It happens though because not enough event organisers put the effort into really thinking about what goes in their bags. Quite often they're not the ones who have to fill them either, it's the volunteers who do that for them. This is a really good article on the subject and more event organisers need to start taking note of it!

Conference bags must breed in the dark. Everyone seems to have at least a dozen stuffed in the back of the closet. But they can be much more than a container for “stuff” during an event. They can be effective, desirable and memorable. Here’s how to pick a smart one and fill it with things attendees will keep, so your time and budget won’t be wasted.

A conference-event swag bag is nothing more than a hole surrounded by cloth with handles. Yet it’s one of those traditions that meeting professionals just can’t seem to leave behind. Promotional bags and products are a $19.4 billion industry.

A functional, stylish conference bag can make a strong first impression. After all, who doesn’t want cool stuff? But an ugly bag filled with lame, useless things will end up in the nearest rubbish can when no one’s looking. So sharpen up before your next event. Do not underestimate the event marketing power of the bag.

The conference bag is the first gift you give an attendee.

Make It Personal

When you hand attendees their bags, you are saying that you appreciate their attendance and this event is going to be something special. Don’t let them down. The key to improving your bags is to make them an integral part of the overall event strategy. Have a communication plan for the conference bag and solid reasons for its contents.

Set a goal that you want the bag to achieve. Just giving people a place to stash junk and office supplies is a wasted opportunity.

Communicate the strategy to workshop leaders and exhibitors. Enlist them in the plan.

Start With A Smart Bag

There are literally thousands of options at different price points. Before you select one, do this quick exercise. Think of three or four of your top clients or typical attendees.

– Would they truly want the bag you are considering?
– Why would they want to take it home after the event?

Let that be your guide. I’m not in the promotional products business, but here are some suggestions and a few free ideas from a guy who’s done decades of events:

1. Avoid any bag design that’s commonplace, boring and forgettable. Don’t make it black!

2. Think style first and marketing second. Go for attractive colors, interesting fabrics and a stylish look. Surprise attendees with the design.

3. Bigger isn’t better. Remember, attendees have to carry it around all day.

4. If you display a logo, make sure it fits the design and doesn’t look stuck on.

5. Don’t put a date on it! That makes the bag outdated the moment the event’s over.

What About Recyclable Bags?

I am 100% behind green events and managing event waste. However, you need to be careful to separate the philosophy from the marketing. Just because something is recyclable doesn’t always make it the smartest bag choice. Remember, another word for recyclable is: toss-it-before-you-leave. Is that what you really want?

Reusable is the better goal. You want to make the conference bag a part of a positive overall event experience. You want every person to see new ways to use your event bag after they get home. Here are some free ideas you can try.

Free Ideas

Have several designs. Thanks to new technology, you can have beautiful printing on your bags. Offer attendees a choice of bag. Research shows you have a better chance of the bag making it home if the person can pick the one she/he likes best.

Have the bag designed by a local artist. This makes it unique, distinctive and personal. Plus, it gives the bag a story and people will view it as exclusive.

Use logo tags instead of printing on the bag. Add colorful luggage tags with the logo. They will look better and make the conference bag more desirable. Plus, you can use several for conference sponsors.

Killer Free Idea

Use a backpack or book bag instead of traditional shopping bag or tote bag designs. I saw this at a show and it’s brilliant. Events and conferences are filled with people with children. Every child wants and needs a backpack for school, so make it your conference bag! A colorful backpack with bold graphics will be taken home and used. Your attendees will see and remember the event every day. I realize the initial cost may be higher, but no event bag is a deal if it ends up in the trash.

Fill It With Value And Not Junk

Remember, a great-looking conference bag is just half the communication strategy. Part 2 is filling it with great stuff that’s meaningful, functional and relevant.

You can and should share your conference bag strategy with sponsors and trade show exhibitors. They have their own objectives, and they will appreciate anything that makes them look and feel like a part of the big picture. You can’t control what sponsors and exhibitors give away, but you can influence them.

Take It Or Toss It

A few years ago, I asked the venue hotel to show me the trash from 20 attendee rooms after the event. It was both revealing and depressing. The trashcans were filled with conference bags, workshop materials, promotional items and the client’s $100-a-piece product demos. What I learned was there’s a giant difference between picking up something on an impulse and making the decision to take it home and use it.

The choice is Take It or Toss It. Here’s how you can decide what’s worth your time and money.

Take It

The key question every attendee asks is, “Do I need or want this?” So you have to help them to see themselves using it. Here are the top things people will keep and take home.

Attendee-specific information

Electronics

Attractive clothing

Anything for children

Toss It

You may notice this list includes some of the obvious and traditional event items. Attendees see them every time. Just how many water bottles, coffee mugs, ball caps and pens does anyone need? Here are the top things people will toss before they go home.

Printed collateral

Anything that won’t pass airport security

Super-branded items

Cheap, low-quality items

The airport security issue is important. I saw this not long ago. An event sponsor gave away souvenir bottles of hot sauce. They were fantastic – custom labeled, funny copy and made by a small company that was used as a business example in one of the general sessions. The bottles went fast! The next day at the airport I saw hundreds of bottles had been thrown away. The hot sauce was in 5 ounce bottles. In the US the largest size you can have in carry-on luggage is 3.4 ounces. The lesson is – you have to think things through.

One More Free Idea

Use conference bags to encourage early registration. Create a special swag-bag version that includes high-end items like gift cards, tickets to shows or sporting events. You know how this works. Then offer these exclusive conference bags to the first 100-500 people who register. You are building the perception that your conference bags are valuable before the event.

In Conclusion

Whether it’s the conference bag or the items you fill it with – make it matter. The conference bag is the first gift you give an attendee. It becomes personal. So make it too good to throw away. Just imagine how it could increase the image of your organization and the impact of your conference if the attendees loved your bags and considered them filled with unique, exclusive, valuable items and information?

Maximize the potential of your next bag. Make it part of your overall communication strategy and use it to support and enhance your event message. Oh, I have one more new free idea for you – Edible Conference Bags. Sounds like a winner!

Written by Andy Johnston

24th June 2014

Event Manager Blog

7 Tips That Will Help You Enjoy Your Dissertation

This is an article I wrote and had published on The OpinionPanel Community.

The dreaded dissertation doesn’t have to be so dreaded, mine certainly wasn’t. I loved writing it! It’s easy for me to say that now but I said it at the time as well - it shocks most people. Writing thousands of words on one subject isn’t easy and for lots of students, me included, it’s the first time they’ve attempted anything of the kind. With this in mind and having come out of the other side in one piece, I decided to draw up a list of my top tips on how to survive your dissertation.

1. Subject

This is MAJORLY important and you can’t do anything until you’ve decided upon this. Forget about a title for now, that can come later.

I knew at the end of second year I wanted my dissertation to focus on the music industry as I’d previously written an essay on the topic for an assignment. I managed to get a first and I’d enjoyed writing it. The word count had limited me and I knew I could have written so much more had I the opportunity to do so. Third year presented me with that opportunity.

I made a spider diagram of what interested me within the music industry and what areas I could potentially research in to. The page was full by the time I’d finished and I used this as my starting point come third year.

I think this is where many students go wrong, they think too much about what sounds like a good research topic for a dissertation rather than thinking about what really interests them. You’ve got to pick a topic you know you will be interested in researching and writing about otherwise it will be hard going and you’ll find it even harder to motivate yourself. Your topic needs to be something you have an opinion on so you can argue and really get your teeth into it. It’s even better if you’re passionate about your subject.

2. Notebook

Have a notebook close at hand in which you can write down ideas, sentences or even small paragraphs. This is something I found really useful. I never truly switched off when it came to actually writing up my dissertation and this meant I would think of something to write at random times and needed to jot things down for later on. The first few lines of my introduction came in the early hours of the morning whilst lying awake in bed!

3. Colour Coded Quotes

I had reams of paper once I’d printed off my research so I put coloured crosses next to my highlighted quotes. Each chapter had its own colour so whilst I was doing my reading I could mark which chapter each quote was suitable for, if it could be used in a number of chapters then I put as many different coloured crosses as necessary. This made it so much easier to find quotes as I was able to flick through my research without having to read every quote, I just had to look for a specific colour.

4. Favourite Tweets

The Favourite button on Twitter is a great tool for saving articles. See it, favourite it and you can go back and read it later.

In order to find relevant news articles I followed a lot of music companies and magazines. It’s a good platform for finding the most up to date content and means you can get it all in one place. Even now I’ll see an article on Twitter and think “that would have been good for my dissertation”.

5. 10% Rule

It’s worth checking with your supervisor if you are allowed to use the 10% rule in your dissertation, especially if you think you may go over the allocated word count. You don’t want to run the risk of getting penalised.

Def.: The 10% rule is when you are allowed to go under or over the word count by 10% either way. For example, if you have a 2,000 word essay, you have to write at least 1,800 words and can write up to 2,200 words.

I had to write an 8,000 word dissertation but knew I would go over the word count as I had so much I wanted to write. My chapters were split up into sections on my plan so I allocated an amount of words to each, allowing me to keep an eye on how many words I had left, section by section. Unfortunately I had to cut out some of the smaller sections or amalgamate them with others but I was able to this as I went along because I was monitoring my word count. This saved me from having to cut out whole paragraphs at the end.

6. Don’t ‘Go It Alone’

Writing a dissertation is quite a solitary process but it doesn’t mean you have to do it completely on your own. Get flatmates or fellow members of your course involved, you’re all in the same boat after all.

I was often talking dissertations with my flatmates. We’d be comparing notes about things our supervisors had told us or discussing ideas. It was useful to have someone else there who you could ask “does this sound ok?” if you weren’t sure about anything. Once I’d finished my dissertation, I asked both my Mum and my flatmate to proofread it for me. It’s important to ask someone to look over it as well as yourself as they can pick up on things you will have missed. I was able to repay the favour for my flatmate and it was interesting to read someone else’s dissertation.

My deadline came before my flatmates’ so once I’d finished I was able to help them out with reading chapters and providing moral support. It became quite a ‘team effort’ for us in the run up to their deadline. We kept each other going.

Everyone has a different experience so it’s nice to be able to talk about it with friends. It will feel like it has taken over your life so make the most of those around you.

7. ENJOY IT!

I think this is the most important thing when writing your dissertation. It will help a great deal. This is one of the biggest things you will undertake whilst at uni, if not the biggest, so it’s really worth trying to enjoy it. It is a daunting prospect when you first have that blank page in front of you but once you get stuck in, it will become easier, especially if you’ve picked the right subject for you.

If I could, I would go back and do it all over again. The only regret I have is that I only had a word count of 8,000 instead of the 10,000 my flatmates had, I’d have swapped with them any day! I was so relieved once I’d submitted my dissertation but at the same time I was at a loss for what to do, that was it, it was all over.

I’m still so proud of my dissertation and indeed of myself. My ultimate goal was to get a first and I achieved that. The bonus was the fact I enjoyed the experience as much as I did.

REBLOGGED: Notes From An Event Management Course: Staying Organised

In my last post I spoke of the importance of team work – a skill taught in the event management course I’m taking – that will reoccur throughout life, especially once you hit that milestone of full-time employment.

However, university not only encourages group work, it also encourages independent studying and self-discipline.

Those of you who may be in your first year of university will probably be thinking; “I have so much free time – to do what I want!” Although this may be the case, I have learnt over the years not to leave work to the last minute.

This might be dismissed as one of those ‘I’ve heard that before’ comments – I’ve felt this exact same way at some stage. However, developing efficient organisation skills to handle the consistent flow of work is a talent needed, especially in the third year.

That’s why in this post I’m covering 5 tips that have helped me handle my increase in workload throughout uni (especially in third year!) Although these are things that work for me, I am aware that you may work differently and already have your own style, if so – keep going! These may offer some inspiration either way:

1. Write lists!

If you know you have a busy week coming up, it can definitely help by jotting things down – anything and everything! Sometimes I even wake up in the night and remember things I need to do so I grab pen and scribble them down (they’re not always readable in the mornings, but it still helps me get back to sleep!)

2. Use your calendar or a reminder app

Nearly every phone out there has a calendar already on them, unless you still have a ‘brick’ phone… So, use it. It helps me to keep track of up -coming deadlines, appointments and social events. If not, there are free reminder apps you can download which also do the job.

3. The notes feature

Once again, this goes back to making lists and reminders. However, if you enjoy writing anyway and ever have a thought that pops into your head that you may want to use in the future; for your blog or uni work, it helps me to get the notes feature up on my iPhone and type away; whether I am inspired or maybe have things on my mind – it helps to let it out.

4. Regular breaks

When there are looming deadlines and you’re slaving away at the library remember to take regular breaks: walk around, drink water (normally coffee) and take banana fuel! The brain just can’t concentrate properly for hours at a time, so it’s really important to do this regularly or the quality of your work can suffer.

5. Reward yourself

Once you’ve submitted an assignment you worked really hard on, go and treat yourself! – arrange to go out and see friends; buy your favourite meal for dinner or have a movie day in your PJ's! Whatever it is, rewarding yourself gets you into a positive routine of working hard and having something to look forward to afterwards.

Summary

For many of you who are at university, as you know, prioritisation is crucial. There are things you may really want to go and do and by all means go and do them! But try not to fall behind because it will only make you stressed and that isn’t healthy.

Written by Harriet Adkin

3rd March 2015

Eventbrite

Tricky Interview Questions

You've prepared for your upcoming interview, you've got your outfit sorted, know what time you're going to leave the house and have researched the company inside out but no matter how much preparation you do, there will always be one question in your interview which will throw you. It might just be nerves getting the better of you, the interviewer has phrased it in a way you're not sure about or they've talked for so long you've forgotten what the question is. The point is, you feel like you've gone completely blank and you don't really know what to say to answer that question.

I know I've definitely had this. My weak point comes when the interview says "tell me about your strengths and weaknesses" - I'm just not very good at it. I never really know how to big myself and when it comes to talking about my weaknesses, the only thing I want to answer with is "talking about my weaknesses". With this in mind, I've been having a look through TARGETjobs careers advice on how to answer those tricky interview questions. Here's a few which I've picked out;

"What is your biggest weakness?" (Obviously!)

"Give an example of a time when you showed initiative."

"How do you manage your time and priortise tasks?"

"What motivates you?"

"Why do you think you will be successful in this job?"

BBC Academy Profile: Live Events Runner

Having a look through some of the BBC Academy Profiles I came across one about volunteering as a live event runner. If you've never volunteered for an event before but are thinking about doing so, the short video gives a good overview of the sorts of things you might be doing. Obviously job roles will vary depending on the event but quite often I've found that most events I've worked at have had a pretty similar structure so this will give you a good insight.

Profile: Live Events Runner

REBLOGGED: Using Colour to Make Ideas (and Results) Pop

Interesting article about colour - thought it would brighten the blog up a bit.

Tiger Lily. Chilli Pepper. Fuchsia Rose. No, these aren’t the latest celebrity baby names (OK, some might be) – they’re actually all previous Pantone Colours of the Year.

This year the folks at Pantone have presented us with the wine-inspired Marsala. They describe it as ‘earthy’, others liken it more to rust or, ahem, dried blood – either way this rich hue is popping up all over the place, from the catwalk to the kitchen. It even makes an appearance in the new Pantone Fashion Colour Report!

Here at MOO, we’re up for celebrating colour every bit as much as Pantone – and with a little know-how you too can use colour to make your ideas pop!

Think happy colours

Let’s start with a quick exercise: picture your favourite colour (we’re keen on our Hero green). Now think of a couple of other colours to complement your choice. Done that? Then you’ve already got the basics of colour theory – how one colour relates to another. Great stuff.

By putting colour theory into practise we can mix and match different colours to stamp our own visual style on the things we create. For our friends at Poppin, colour is everything. Their brightly-hued office products and furniture come in all sorts of shades and pigments, designed to help people ‘Work Happy’, allowing them to pick colours that genuinely make them smile.

And that’s why colour is so exciting – it conveys a mood or feeling – so pick a colour you respond to, or alternatively choose one that’ll unite your employees. Having branded supplies is a subtle but powerful way to make your co-workers feel like part of a team.

For Poppin, colour is a product differentiator, helping people shop for office products and furniture in a different way. After launching with White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Pink, Lime Green, Pool Blue, Purple and Black, they’ve since expanded to include ‘seasonal colors’ based on trends and demand – from Mint, Coral, Navy and Light Gray for summer, to holiday season metallics. And 2015 is looking brighter than ever – with Cobalt freshly added to their lineup.

When it comes to styling your space, Poppin believe there are no real rules – the best approach is to have fun experimenting and see what works. Even so, applying a little colour theory magic can really give your workspace that coordinated look – by balancing one or two colours against a neutral tone like white. Neat huh?

And Poppin isn’t alone in its passion for the palette. A brand’s colour selection is a crucial part of its identity and can say as much about the business as its logo or tagline. Poppin themselves have chosen ‘Poppin Orange’ as a key part of their brand personality, conveying genuine friendliness across both their products and customer service.

So make sure you choose yours carefully. You don’t want to draw comparisons to a certain fast food chain after picking a fiery red and yellow combo, for example.

Getting in the tone zone

“But I’m just no good with colours!” we hear you cry. Worry not – that’s what the internet is for (or a brand design agency). There are loads of online tools with ready-made colour themes – our favourite’s Adobe Colour CC, but it’s worth having a scout around to find one that works for you.

Written by Mike

2nd February 2015

The MOO Blog