Partnership theory

Fresh Ideas For Event Partnerships

Let’s see if this sounds familiar: you come up with a great idea for an event; sell the concept to supporters and the community; coerce friends and family to help; work the week leading up to the big day fueled only by caffeine and sugar; hear a snippet of your PSA on the radio and cringe when they don’t mention your sponsor; catch the laughter of a child enjoying a moment you created; rush to take care of an emergency; gather stacks of publicity to read later; struggle to pay the bills; remember to thank everyone; and eventually fall into an exhausted heap.

Then, optimist that you are, you pick yourself up and do it all over again. And the second year is even better. You repeat the process and the third year breaks all records.
But somewhere along the way, usually between the third and the sixth year, the winds begin to change. The economy stumbles, your volunteer coordinator moves to another city, your title sponsor changes its business strategy, and your event suffers. Like all good products, events can grow stale without an infusion of new ideas that keep things fresh and keep audiences clamoring for more.
So, what’s a dedicated event organizer to do?

First, take an inventory of all that you do for your event. Include EVERYTHING no matter how small – from picking up the trash to running through the sound check, from distributing the tickets to surveying your volunteers and sponsors. By conducting a thorough examination of your operations you create a great planning tool. Be sure to record the information in a way that can be easily shared with key members of your team and then ask for their input. By making time for a collective brain dump you document your history, and create the start of a detailed succession plan, insuring that when changes do occur you are ready.

Next, identify the key partners who support each segment of your event. Those can include sponsors, committee chairs, volunteers, and community groups. Or, take it a step further and create separate categories listing your key partners in each. Once you complete this step, you’ll begin to see the holes, and where there is white space, there is opportunity. Highlight the areas where you need to expand your partnerships or secure additional resources.

Third add notes and ideas related to each of those inventory details. Those may include, but are not limited to: identifying problems that need to be fixed, viewing a specific segment from your customer’s perspective, learning more about the new businesses that have opened in your community in the last year and looking for ways to include them, or dreaming of creative ways to capitalize on the success of a specific activity. Pull out your magnifying glass (for hard-hitting scrutiny of what works and what does not), your magic wand (for all of those things you would love to do if only you had a fairy godmother and mountains of money), and your telephone book (for the details and contacts) and let your imagination run wild.

Remember that no one experiences your event the same way you do, and each member of your team views it through a slightly different lens. By engaging a diverse group in the process, you build camaraderie, provide an avenue to air and address concerns, and help to alleviate burn out.

And if everyone is engaged in the process then they all take ownership, allowing you as the event organizer to release some of the stress.

Five Creative Ideas to Enhance the Things You Already Do

Sound Check – Check one . . . check two . . . turn this “must do” into a check for you!

Make the sound check with your headline entertainment into a pre-event for one of your major sponsors and build that exclusive benefit into a request for additional support. Everyone wants to see “behind the scenes” and have “an exclusive engagement” and this initiative gives your sponsor the opportunity to spread his enthusiasm for your event with his staff and customers, who then become your new resources for additional partnerships. And if you can get the entertainer to sign autographs and take photos, even better. For example a ballet company recently marketed its dress rehearsal of The Nutcracker as a private holiday party for the corporation located directly across the street. This corporation had never been a sponsor before. Their benefits package was tailored so that the corporation’s employees and their families could experience this holiday classic before it opened to the general public. It was the first time that the corporation had opened up their holiday event to their entire staff as well as their families. And best of all, the funds didn’t come out of the corporation’s traditional community sponsorship or marketing budgets, but out of the company’s year-end celebration funds. So even during challenging times when budgets are being shifted, there may be more than one pool of funds to draw from within a single corporation.

Trash Collection

Being green is the new gold. – Events create trash, and what you do with it matters. Institute recycling, redemption and composting competitions between school and community groups at your event. The Boy Scout troop who collects the most cans wins! Partner with recycling and redemption centers, local farms and garden centers as well as your state and county agricultural extension agents. All of them can provide expert advice and materials to set up your collection stations for optimum use. Many may be untapped sponsors as well, as they may have outreach funds for just this type of community partnership. Bring in your media sponsors for year-round exposure featuring a series of stories on the number of tons recycled and redeemed immediately following the event, the amount of compost created six months later and the products that were grown using that compost by community groups three months later. Once your “Turning Trash into Cash” plan is up and running, you can even create multiple new revenue streams. Some include: the redemption value of cans and bottles, selling compost labeled under your event to gardening enthusiasts, and selling produce, flowers and other value-added products (like jellies and jams) at your event which were nurtured by the previous year’s trash. Or turn the bounty of your green harvest into a new community partnership with your local food bank or Meals on Wheels distribution center.

Child Care

Bring in the experts and provide outstanding value-added service for your customers. – Evening entertainment is a wonderful way to cap off your event’s excitement. But a constant concern for people with children is child care. Partner with your local day care centers and sell premium tickets that include the evening event, parking, and child care all for one price! Most child care centers are closed at night, and in these tough economic times everyone is looking for innovative ways to increase their revenues. And, if the tickets can be marketed and distributed at the child care centers, you may tap into a whole new audience. Or if your performance venue allows, set up a satellite day care center on site. Then Mom and Dad can
escape for a little reconnection time without worry. And school service clubs and senior volunteers can provide the extra hands and eyes you need to take care of the children on-site.

Pamper Your Volunteers

Remember that everyone loves a little R&R. You’ve bought t-shirts, meals and hosted an annual thank you event, but still your volunteer numbers dwindle. Why not create an exclusive area for volunteers with much more than the basics? Partner with massage schools, spas and nail salons for an on-site lift. The salons and spas receive marketing, visibility and access to potential customers and your volunteers receive the royal treatment. Who wouldn’t be ready to head back into the fray after a 15-minute chair massage, or a foot soak, or a cooling eye mask in the heat of the day? And salons, spas and massage schools can be great partners for ticket distribution and event promotions, tapping in to new audiences. And if you conduct your volunteer surveys while your volunteers are relaxing and being pampered, just imagine your return rates! For key volunteers who may not be able to take advantage of the day-of activities, provide follow up gift certificates for a day of decadence.

New Kids on the Block – Reach out and touch someone.

Every day your local Chamber of Commerce, government business registration division, and phone book company receive leads on new businesses in your area. Partner with these agencies and be the first in your community to extend the welcome wagon to these newcomers! Let them know about your event, discover what they have to offer, and work together to find a marketing or sponsorship strategy that is win-win. They’re excited, they’re hungry and they’ll be incredibly appreciative that you took the time to help nurture their endeavors and introduce them to your audiences, volunteers and other sponsors.

Finally, use the network that IFEA provides and share your success stories and your missteps with your colleagues from across the world. Just because an idea doesn’t work in your area this year, doesn’t mean it won’t be a great fit for another festival and event. And they’ll return the favor. Working together we can create a world of celebrations!