Convention/Special Event/SWAG

[Senusret I]

Annoyance:

People who say "Other than you, Becky, John, and Sue, I won't know anyone there so I don't know if I am coming."

BITCH you will know four people WTF do you want from me?

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Annoyance:

People who say "Other than you, Becky, John, and Sue, I won't know anyone there so I don't know if I am coming."

BITCH you will know four people WTF do you want from me?

+1

Add to that "I'll come, but I don't know if I'll come to the business meetings. Where's the party?"

*also annoyed with conference planning*

[Gusteau]

My related pet peeve is people who worry about their +1 not being able to meet anyone or socialize. I find it troubling that any adult can't maintain an evening of polite conversation - even if it's not their absolute favorite thing to do.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Annoyance:

People who say "Other than you, Becky, John, and Sue, I won't know anyone there so I don't know if I am coming."

BITCH you will know four people WTF do you want from me?

This right here annoys me.

Especially with alumnae and events like Homecoming, Founder's Day, etc.

My most fave is "I don't want to come, no one from my pledge class is coming. I'll feel way awkward."

You have been out of college for like 5 years. The presence of "your group" shouldn't determine whether you're going to come out and support your chapter.

[als463]

Senusret I,
Since we discussed it in another thread, maybe it would be a good idea. What about giving everyone (or selling) leather padfolios with your crest embossed in them so, it doesn't look too juvenile. It's Greek without throwing it in the face of others. It could look professional for all of the young professionals in your organization, as well as, be useful to your Chapter Presidents (if they attend convention-I know for my GLO they do).

I feel like you couldn't go wrong with something semi-professional.

[Senusret I]

^^^ We're doing the bags mentioned on page one. I think the padfolios would have been cute, but I didn't have the support for fundraising early enough that I should have had to make it happen. Thanks though.

[als463]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

^^^ We're doing the bags mentioned on page one. I think the padfolios would have been cute, but I didn't have the support for fundraising early enough that I should have had to make it happen. Thanks though.

Yeah, I hope that sometime you get a chance to have those made (even just to sell at your GLO events). I asked the sister in charge of our "Carnation Collection" if they had any more and she said, "Sorry, we didn't sell a lot of them. We don't make them any longer." I thought, "Ummmm...I bet a lot of ALUMNAE would like that, though." Please post a finished product of the bags you get made. I'd love to see them!

[Senusret I]

It's over. Bags went over well. Souvenir journals themselves were a hit. I can rest. Amen.

[modorney]

Glad it went well, swag is always hard to pick. Post some pictures of what you ended up with.

One thing I always liked, especially with tech conventions is (at registration) getting a badge holder/lanyard that also has a pocket in back with a small foldout summary of all the conferences and the rooms they are in. Plus a map of the hotel/convention center. Usually they have a slot for a pen, too; handy if you have a shirt without a pocket.

If you give away shirts (I know, hard to match sizes) pocket Tee shirts are handy, as are pocketed polo shirts. I realize these can be expensive.

> anyone with special event experience could recommend the best way to sell tickets online... EventBrite looks like the best contender

I've had good luck with Eventbrite. I think most of these sites only charge the credit card fees (around 3 percent) WePay charges a little more; but none of these are outrageous like Ticketmaster.

Three things you always want to do:

1. Since you have everyone's e-mail (which you send to the invite company), also send everyone a text-only summary with the date, time, location and contact number (someone who will be there at the start of the event). Put this info in your house/alum chapter website, too.
2. Have a "sweet sixteen". Have sixteen different alumni test the software, each with a different computer (PC, Mac, Linux), browser, phone, etc. Try to make it universal (no .DOC files, use .PDF, etc.) Avoid flash, or have a no-flash option. Corporate computers don't like flash. Alert your sixteen techie alums, and call back in a few days to make sure your site/invite works.
3. Even with all that, many corporate computers, AOL, hotmail, yahoo mail, ... don't handle evite, eventbrite, wepay, etc. That's because every little box you see on the screen, plus all the ones you don't see have "handles". A corporate computer will pass only so many handles. Plus, the corporate software the nukes the objectionable ad also eats another handle.

[Senusret I]

^^^ Good advice!