Mr Hyde's Other Notebook

The BookRapper

This is good. Seriously good.

Melbourne writer, thinker and business coach Geoff McDonald takes a current business best seller and does a very funky condensed version. He does one a month and there are 18 so far.

Here's the good bit. He used to sell these off his website.
They are now free! You can download whichever you like or a zip file of the whole lot

http://www.bookrapper.com/index.html

Condensed versions based on -

  Seth Godin- "Meatball Sundae", Chip & Dan Heath "Made to Stick", Gladwell "Outliers", Timothy Ferriss "4 Hour Work Week" . etc etc

You'll be the conversation hit at the Xmas party!

Meeting Planners & PCO Ideas - Part 5

Continuing our series of Extracts from our "White Ideas Paper"

Seven Successful Strategies
to make your next Conference Job easier

 

An Ideas Paper for - Professional Conference Organisers
Meeting Planners, Association Executives, Conference Committees

Creating Fresh Ideas

 

Repeat clients are Gold for any business and particularly for PCO’s and Meeting Planners.  But with it come the additional challenge of coming up with fresh ideas for each new event.  Activities, Entertainers, Speakers, Venues, Themes, etc. This is an area your MC can also help with!

One disturbing trend I have noticed over the last year is that some events are booking their MC at the last minute, almost as an afterthought or perhaps waiting to see how delegate numbers stack up.

This however has been balanced by a number of clients who see the benefits of booking much earlier in the process.

Apart from the obvious of ensuring that their MC of choice is secured for the next event there are some other very valuable benefits.

MC’s get to work in at a wide range of different events. At these events we get to see first hand the different Speakers, Activities and Entertainers. We experience the Venue and know how the Banquet & AV staff are to deal with. ( I recently worked with the most appalling AV Team I’ve  experienced in over 25 years, at a  top Victorian Venue. I’m advising my contacts to seriously consider bringing in their own team if they are considering the otherwise terrific facility.)

Why not start tapping into that knowledge? Once you have the MC onboard start using them as an integral part of the conference team. Here’s a few ideas.

Ask them about Entertainers they’ve worked with recently who you may not have heard about. (At the recent IBNA/AustBrokers Conference, I worked with a singer  who I believe was one of the best acts I have ever seen. The reaction was phenomenal. I had never heard of them before and perhaps you haven’t either. Ask me if you’d like to find out who it is!)

Ask them for Speaker suggestions if you have a particular gap in the program. (I’ve been MC at the National Speakers Association Conference every year since 2003 and have worked with a huge range of Australian and visiting Speakers. I and other MC’s I know, are happy to share that knowledge, but we usually wait till we are asked.)

Forward the Schedule or Run Sheet to them and ask if they can see difficulties. Your MC can advise on how much “buffer time” you should program into the schedule for housekeeping announcements.

Ask how others have handled the logistics such as; Lucky Door prizes, Speaker Giveaways, Questions from the floor during Panel Discussions etc. Why reinvent the wheel?

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You can download the complete White Ideas Paper via our Resource Page.

 

Meeting Planners & PCO Ideas - Part 2

Continuing our series of Extracts from our "White Ideas Paper"

Seven Successful Strategies
to make your next Conference Job easier

 

An Ideas Paper for - Professional Conference Organisers
Meeting Planners, Association Executives, Conference Committees

 

How do we keep our Sponsors happy?

 

Sponsors are a vital component of many conferences, paying significant amounts of money for a Display Booth, Naming Rights to a function/activity or perhaps covering the cost of a Guest Speaker. In return, they see their name in the program, on the holding slide of a PowerPoint show and perhaps their banners manage to get up on stage during a segment. It’s little wonder that some Sponsors are hesitant to commit year after year or cry “poor” as their financial commitment invariably rises.

Here is the first of two tactics that I always suggest as an MC to increase their perceived and actual ROI.

 

On Stage Interviews.

 Instead of just giving the Sponsor a brief 5 minute spot onstage to spruik their company or product, an Onstage Interview is a much more effective approach.

 There are several advantages here that shouldn’t be overlooked. A less outgoing Sponsor will feel more relaxed with the MC there with him and feel less nervous about being onstage. Important points that he wants to cover in his brief time will not be lost as the MC Interviewer will be working from a prepared set of questions or prompts. At the other end of the spectrum, the more outgoing Sponsor will not be able to “take over” and throw the whole program timing out if he goes on and on as they often do. The MC will be right up there with him to control the timing of the segment.

I suggest giving the Sponsor a brief guideline that outlines how effective these few minutes can be and how best to prepare the points he wants to cover. The MC can briefly meet and chat through the interaction before the moment. From past experience with this technique, they really appreciate your going the extra mile to help them get their message across.

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We will be posting a short version of this Ideas White Paper over the coming weeks,
but if you would like to download a Full Copy, you can do so via our Resource Page

http://www.timothyhyde.com/resources.html

Happy Birthday P.T. Barnum

199 years old and still plenty to teach us!

"Every crowd has a silver lining." is the line that most people remember OR
"There's a sucker born every minute," (which probably wasn't said by him,)
but Phineas had some other thoughts well worth our attention.

# "Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only set their minds
upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object
which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done."

# "Without promotion something terrible happens, nothing!"

# "Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary.
Every project looks to them like certain successes, and therefore they keep
changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always
'under the harrow'."

# "Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you
succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it."

# "Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season,
not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that
which can be done just as well now...Ambition, energy, industry,
perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business."

If you would like to read his book The Art of Money Getting -  Golden Rules for making Money
it's available here online ...

http://tinyurl.com/3lkt26

Fantastic Twitter Designs

Following up from yesterdays post on Fantastic Logo Designs  here is a terrific collection of Twitter Designs.

http://twitterbackgroundsgallery.com/

There is also some very good instructions for doing your own design.

I've been working on a couple of designs, though nothing that good yet ...

http://twitter.com/TimothyHyde

http://twitter.com/triviaguru

http://twitter.com/magiccoach

Are You On Twitter yet?

You may have noted we have added a Twitter feed to the right hand bar and update this on a regular basis.

Are you "all a twitter?"

This is a fantastic guide. I read the original and look forward to checking out the expanded version.

Brilliant design help

I've had a few questions from readers of this Blog about how I have made the graphics for the E-Book covers displayed here and on my site.

Well, I use Photoshop... but I spent a few $ on buying what I believe is a brilliant training tool and collection of Photoshop "Actions" and Templates.

I really don't use Photoshop enough to get good at it, I have to relearn it each time I want to get something done, so this package is a great help. Load up the type of thing you want - CD Cover, Ebook, Box, DVD Case etc.. click a few buttons and it does the work!     Full Details on Package Here

By the way, if you don't already subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter Timothy Speaks you should.
It covers material that we don't include here on the Blog.   Subscribe Here

Creative Business Cards

A feast of brilliant ideas for business cards that is going to make your head buzz.

http://reencoded.com/2008/05/20/42-awesome-business-card-designs-with-links-to-100s-more/

MagicCoach website makeover

As many of you know, apart from our Speaking and Performing activities, we also run a small publishing business, MagicCoach. This provides a range of ebooks for Independent Performers, Magicians, Clowns etc.

We've just started giving the website a makeover, after finally moving it to it's own domain.

Check out the range of products here MagicCoach.com

Sleight of Mind - Kickstart your Creativity

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last few days but we have been working hard on getting the new book into shape.

If you want to get hold of a draft copy you can, it's not the finished product but all the content and bonuses are there now.  You'll need to go in via the Brainstorming page and sign up for the newsletter, before you can even see the details, but you'll then be offered the extra special offer. I'll be working on a less convoluted process down the track.      http://www.brilliantbrainstorming.com