Things wedding planner must know

A wedding planner helps engaged couples coordinate the logistics of a wedding day. When it comes to interviewing possible bridal clients there is one thing every certified wedding and event planner must be prepared. Being prepared means being on top of new and exciting wedding trends and it means that planners must anticipate the questions brides-to-be are going to ask.

Here are some of questions that wedding planners should expect; how would you answer them?

. How long have you been a planner?

. Are you a certified wedding and event planner?

. Is this your full-time job?

. How much do you charge?

. How many weddings have you planned?

. How many clients do you take on at one time?

. What is the largest wedding or event you have planned?

. Will you be at the wedding?

. Are you willing to travel to another region on the day of our wedding?

. Do you bring a staff with you?

. What are the best venues that fit our budget?

. (Once they choose a venue) Have you worked with this venue before?

. Can you help us with venue contracts?

. Can you get us discounts with vendors?

. Are you willing to stick to our budget and not guide us in a direction we can’t afford?

. How, and how often, may we contact you?

. Do you also plan honeymoons?

Suffice to say - brides are likely to add numerous questions to this list, but these are some common ones that every planner should expect to answer, and answer well. Remember that brides want to feel comfortable and feel heard. They’re likely going into this interview with a very specific vision in mind, and although your ideas may enhance their dreams - they’re still the clients’ dreams!

It’s important to remember, also, that although you’re the one being interviewed it’s a good time for you to get to know potential clients and try to figure out if you will work well with them. To do a great job and end the day with a satisfied client you have to make sure your personalities mesh well!

Radio jockey as a career

Although radio as a popular medium suffered badly once Television arrived, yet the commencing of the FM radio and its many channels have installed a new life into the medium of radio. Radio Jockeying happens to be a promising, exciting and a challenging career option for those having a passion for music, to know diverse things and of course for those who loves talking!  It happens to be the sole profession where one might be recognized by his or her voice.

Radio Jockeys are basically those whom you hear anchoring various types of programs, mostly music, on the radios. The job of a Radio Jockey, more popularly known as RJ is to offer entertainment to the listeners by conveying messages, interacting with the listeners and playing music, all in an attractive manner. They interview guests, manage contests, play music requests from the listeners, provide information on several things including weather, traffic and obviously music. Presence of mind is the most important and vital factor needed to sustain and flourish in this field. The popularity of a particular radio channel depends largely on the performances of the Radio Jockeys.

·         Career Options and Job Prospects

The job of the RJ is of diverse nature and depends on the subject matter of the type of program to be offered by the channel. It is not a 9 am to 5 pm job. A RJ can be needed to host programs anytime during the day or night. The job profile of the Radio Jockeys consists of music selection, scripting and also presenting the radio shows. The key to successful Radio Jockeying largely depends on the very way a program is hosted. The RJs are required to come up with original and interesting ways of presentations, using humor  punches, variations and one-liners. RJs are also needed to have sound knowledge of the technical equipment and computer systems.

Radio Jockeys have great job opportunities in the government and private radio channels. They can also go for voice-overs in television and radio advertisements, audio magazines and documentaries. They can host TV shows or live events and shows.

The most important attributes for a RJ are- Good voice, ability to modulate according to the situation, clear diction, accurate pronunciation, fluency and flare in language, ability to control voice pitches, the knowledge to use one’s voice to the best, good Response speed, good communication skills, good sense of humor  individuality, creativity, spontaneity, good and detailed knowledge of music, staying updated about the many happenings around, qualities of local dialects, mimicry, and comedy, diplomacy while interacting, approachable and down-to-earth attitude, friendly, spontaneous, warm, dynamic.

Event Management Certification - What it really means when it comes to finding a job.

In the rapidly growing business of event Management, professional certification is fast becoming a way to ensure that event managers are ready to meet the demands of corporate and social events across the globe. The decision to earn an event management certification can be a significant one, so make sure you choose one that best fits your current expertise and your future career plans.

You can apply for any certification that matches your qualifications, and most certifications are independent of each other. In broad terms, any certification is the process through which an organization grants recognition to an individual or an organization that meets certain established criteria. For event management certification of individuals, the individuals usually have to meet eligibility requirements, such as academic achievement, pass an examination and pay a fee.

It is important to note that certification is voluntary - unlike licensure which is mandatory in order to practice in the licensed role in a given geographic location, such as a city, state or nationally. However, that's not to say that certification is less valuable - that’s because in this highly competitive job market, employers require and perhaps prefer applicants who are certified. So why does certification matter to employers? In a word, commitment. An event management certification signifies that you’re dedicated and truly committed to your career in event management and are investing in your professional development. It highlights this dedication to employers, colleagues and stakeholders, with the end benefit of giving you an edge in the job market.

The 3 Most Common Mistakes in Event Planning (and how to avoid them!)

Events can be failed by cost overruns, poor scheduling and customer dissatisfaction due to a range of factors related to planning, communication and resource allocation. Here are the five most common event planning mistakes, and ways smart event planners can avoid them.

Mistake No. 1: Failure to allocate the right resources, with the right skills.

Problem: It’s seems fairly obvious that proper event staffing is critical, yet improperly allocating resources tops the list of most common event management mistakes. Not having the right people managing an event can be a recipe for disaster. The key to a successful event is getting the right people with the right skills. All the planning in the world won't overcome an insufficiency of talent.

Solution: Event managers need full visibility into the skills and workloads of all of their resources, including vendors, contractors and outsources  who often get left out of skills assessments even though they're doing a "huge" proportion of work. A thorough assessment of all resources at the outset of the planning process can provide such visibility into everyone's skills and workloads. Once event planners know everyone's capabilities and who's doing what, it becomes far easier to figure out how to allocate resources across the myriad elements and day-to-day work.

Mistake No. 2: Lack of experienced event managers.

Problem: Event planning can quickly grow out of control without an experienced event manager at the helm who knows what they are doing.

Solution: The first step is to hire event managers with certifications and the finesse required to understand and manage the customer’s needs. Good event managers have the right combination of ‘soft skills’ and can demonstrate how to facilitate planning meetings, manage risk and handle a variety of different stakeholders. it’s really comes down to people skills, especially given the different stakeholders.

Mistake No. 3: Simple process mistakes by not following standard, repeatable event management processes.

Problem: This is a far more common event management mistake than most event planners imagine. Lack of an agreed upon plan increases the risk that tasks related to the event will fall through the cracks, that the event will have last minute issues,  fall short on budget and ultimately miss a major objective.

Solution: A well defined and agreed upon event plan helps planners tackle every task efficiently and raises the appropriate level of awareness of all the activities involved in the execution of an event. Having baseline of repeatable processes for scoping, scheduling, allocating resources and communicating with stakeholders removes a lot of the guesswork associated with events.

Public Relation: Best Tool for Today’s Marketing Scenario

Looking to build a favorable brand name for your organization amongst public? If your answer is yes, then public relation services are there for you. Public relation is the best and most effective concept which is successfully implemented by various media organizations, marketing and communication professionals and even brand managers. In recent times it has been seen that along with advertising people also go for effective public relations services. By this they not only easily communicate their message but can also generate a favorable response. Communication field is very vast and in that public relation plays a vital role. Public relation’s main aim is to have a direct relation with public that’s why public relation has become one of the most significant parts of a communications strategy. At times people tend to confuse public relation with advertising. This is a wrong notion as public relation solves different purpose whereas advertising has some other goals. Advertising is mainly product centric whereas public relation mainly emphasizes on public image. This is the reason public relation campaigns include various media events and functions. A company providing public relation services mainly act as a bridge between the public and organization. In fact they are the gateways to propagate any message to the general audience. It has been seen that with the help of public relation agency one can easily reach out to the masses and the clients and provide what they crave for. But achieving positive public relation isn't an easy deal and prior going for hiring public relations firm, it is very decisive to understand the activities involved within and around the media with an alert mind. According to the experts, public relation is a process of building better and effective relations for the growth of any business. In other words, the main aim of public relation is to provide various media services such as powerful advertising campaign, effective marketing strategy, concrete media planning and also expert marketing consultation. All these factors play a vital role in making any public relation campaign a success. Thus, if you are looking to have a sound public image then this is the time to hire the best public relation agency. Therefore for more information on public relation  please visit http://www.emdiworld.com/dubai/index.html

Goodyear Middle East bag Award for 'Best Use of Outdoor' at MENA Cristal Festival

Goodyear Middle East & Africa have bagged an award for 'Best Use of Outdoor' media at MENA Cristal awards. The campaign focused on making drivers aware that tire temperatures can be significantly higher then ambient temperatures on weather forecasts by developing a live digital temperature feed on an outdoor billboard.

The outdoor campaign in April 2012 educated drivers on the 'road temperatures' on the Sheikh Zayed Road Highway in Dubai, UAE where approximately 500,000 people commute daily. Road temperatures can affect tires severely especially during the summer where surface temperatures can be much higher than those forecasted.

Along with an awareness campaign that that was implemented, the Goodyear Middle East team went to great lengths to ensure that their latest Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 high performance and Efficient Grip SUV tires had been diligently hot weather tested.

“We have always strived for better safety through innovation using the technologies we employ in developing our tires,” commented Ersin Ozkan, Marketing Director at Goodyear Middle East. “But that is not enough; drivers need to be aware of the condition of their tires during hot summer months, and this is what our winning campaign focused on – giving them live information on what is happening on the roads.”

The MENA Cristal Festival 2013 saw both international and regional brands and agencies come together from North African and Middle Eastern countries. The event rewarded the best advertising creations with the famous ‘Cristal’ trophy, which is synonymous with the Cristal Festival in Switzerland.

McDonald's named one of world's top ten most powerful brands

McDonald's was recently named the world's seventh most powerful brand in Forbes's World's 100 Most Powerful Brands list. The only quick service restaurant to be named in the top 50 brands, McDonald's earned its top ten position based on input from 2,000 consumers from across the world.

According to the data, which was provided by Landor and Penn Schoen Berland, all 100 companies named in the list have been successful by providing products and services that enable consumers to do things better and faster. 

Mr. Rafic Fakih, Managing Director and Partner of McDonald's UAE, commented, "We are truly honoured to have been included in this list and recognised for our success. McDonald's - on a global, regional and local level - prides itself on a long history of offering high quality, delicious and convenient products. We believe strongly that our ongoing success stems from a combination of doing what is right for our loyal customers, as well as doing what is right for our business."

"McDonald's began its relationship with the UAE in 1994; in this short time, we have grown to draw a devoted and enthusiastic customer base, and in turn, we have become the largest and fastest growing international quick service restaurant in the region. The success of our business in the UAE is based on a marriage between McDonald's global practices and our own local insights, and we look forward to continued success throughout the region," he added.

The results of the study were gathered based on a combination of brand valuation exercises and a consumer survey, which asked participants to evaluate a brand based on 12 attributes of purpose. Attributes included honesty and trustworthiness, investment in innovative ideas and research, and level of impact on the everyday lives of consumers. According to Landor, consumers are becoming increasingly selective when evaluating brands; simply delivering a product or service is no longer enough, and consumers they tend to respond most favourably towards brands that have had a positive impact on their lives. Also named on the list were Apple, Microsoft, and McDonald's long-time partner, Coca-Cola. 

McDonald's restaurants across the Emirates are 100% locally owned and operated, with more than 109 restaurants operating across the UAE.

Want To Know What is Great Marketing, Read Apple’s Example.

On August 20, 2012, Apple surpassed Microsoft to become the largest public company in history. It’s a fact that makes it easy to forget that, not that long ago, Apple didn’t even exist.

What’s contributed greatly to Apple’s success is great marketing. As most people know, Steve Jobs was a big believer in great, smart, creative marketing. It’s something he believed in from the very beginning of Apple.

Back in 1976 when Apple was just starting, Steve and his two partners had some big decisions to make. One, was about marketing. Unlike other startups and small businesses who see marketing as a questionable or unaffordable expense, Steve saw it as an important investment that was absolutely necessary to get the word out and grow the business – even with limited funds.
So, just months after incorporating, Jobs hired ad agency Regis McKenna. The agency designed Apple’s logo and handled all of Apple’s early advertising, marketing, and branding. Apple took off.
A few years later, after Regis was sold to Chiat/Day, Apple continued a close relationship with Chiat to produce some of the most brilliant advertising of all time. Steve Jobs will go down as one of the greatest marketers in history. Yet he’d be the first to tell you that most of the credit belongs to the great advertising and marketing people he hired.
Because Steve was such a dynamic front man for Apple, it’s easy to think he deserves all the marketing and advertising credit. He was involved with all of it, and he had the final say, but he didn’t create it. Steve came up with the Apple name and that’s about it. The iconic “1984” and “Think Different” campaigns were created by the agency. The name “iMac” was created by the agency. All the advertising and marketing for the Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone, including the brilliant “Mac vs PC” campaign was created by the agency.
And, what many people will find hard to believe is that some of the best marketing ideas for Apple were ones that Steve didn’t even like…at least initially.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with adman Ken Segall who worked directly with Jobs for 12 years as his ad agency Creative Director. In Ken’s book, “Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success,” he describes an episode with Steve in 1997 when Ken’s team was given the assignment to name the innovative, new, candy-colored Mac that Apple was about to introduce.

Steve informed them that the name that he had in mind was “MacMan” and they had two weeks to come up with something better. Confident that “MacMan” would not be hard to beat, Ken scheduled a meeting with Jobs the following week. At the meeting he presented a handful of names including “iMac.”
As Ken tells it, “Steve hated them all” and informed them that they now had one week to justify their jobs and come up with something better than “MacMan.” Not the reaction that Ken was expecting.

A week later, Ken and his team presented some new names, including “iMac” again, with stronger arguments as to why it was the best name. Listening to Ken’s strong conviction Steve paused thoughtfully and said something like, “Well, I still hate it. But, I hate it a little less this week.” The rest is history.
It’s a great story because while everyone knows the names iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, few people know how close we came to MacMan, PodMan, PhoneMan, and PadMan. It’s also an important lesson in marketing and management. Because as smart as Steve Jobs was, he was also smart enough to know the areas where others knew more than him — like creative marketing.
It takes a certain amount of guts for any business owner to trust the ideas and direction of outside marketing experts, especially when there’s no guarantee those ideas will work. Steve obviously had the guts and trust in the people he hired. So did Ryan Blair — a small business owner who followed Apple’s example by creating a great product and investing early in the best people to get the word out. Ryan’s company, ViSalus, is now valued at over $600 million.

In a recent interview, Ryan was asked about his most valuable business lesson: “Hire the best possible people that money can buy.” Like Steve, Ryan had the guts and vision to choose that path even when he was a startup with little money – and even when he had to pay some people more than he paid himself.
While I’ve never worked with Steve Jobs, I and my partners, have had the pleasure of helping other savvy business owners like him. One was an ambitious young shoe designer who left his dad’s shoe business because his old school dad didn’t believe that spending money on marketing was a good investment.

That young man was Kenneth Cole. And what started as a few attention getting ads became the foundation for what is now one of the most successful fashion brands in the world. We’re happy to continue helping other savvy small business owners who, like Steve and Kenneth, understand the value of investing in smart, creative marketing.

Apple makes the perfect case study. As a small business owner Steve Jobs understood that regardless of how great Apple’s products were, his business would fail if the marketing didn’t connect with, and emotionally resonate with, the regular people he was trying to reach.

Apple’s marketing success is the combination of great products, a relentless desire to tell the world about them, and Steve’s ability to find the right, talented people to help do that.

Gather A Larger Audience At Your Events

Success of a marketing campaign depends on the response of your target audience. For any professional event planner, convincing the audience is a top priority to deliver a successful event. They achieve this by drawing a larger audience to witness the event so that their clients get to sell their products and services in greater numbers. However, event management to capture a big crowd requires advanced strategic considerations that are different from those required to deliver a small-scale event. Therefore you should mold your event planning skills accordingly, to successfully draw a big crowd to your event.

1 - Choose the right venue and location

One of the first things to consider is the overall setup of the venue where you plan to host this event. Choose a venue that is large enough to accommodate the crowd while maintaining comfort and security. The venue must also be decorated with a theme that compliments the message of the event. Such an ambience would increase the convincing power of the campaign and eventually result in larger sales for your clients. Event planning should include prior commitments and invoice payments to make sure that you won’t require a plan B when the delivery day approaches. After confirming these important details, you should seek various modes of advertisement to reach a wider target audience.

2 - Advertise to a wider audience

Event planners should advertise with the help of social media sites and the World Wide Web for immediate response. Introduce a proper registration process to confirm the amount of people willing to attend, so that you can manage the event accordingly. Give them reasons to attend; include special incentives and benefits for the attendees. This strategy is a proven technique to successfully manage an event. Planning for a large-scale event without such a process can result in chaos on the delivery day. Make the arrangements just about perfect with respect to the strength of attendance; otherwise the setup and investment might result in excessive spending or leave a negative impression among the audience due to improper event planning.

3 - Benefits and incentives

Another key strategy to gather a larger audience is to provide the crowd with post-event incentives. As long as your client allows, including discount coupons and recruitment incentives to attract the crowd. Event planners should also consider making this event a fundraising campaign. This would make the event management process easier and you would attract a larger audience and sponsorship with little effort. Think differently and come up with new, better solutions to every issue that hinders your efforts. These strategies guarantee a successful marketing campaign no matter how tough the competition gets.

The 5 Most Popular Events In The Market Today.

Events are not only limited to weddings, annual dinners or product launches. The trends in the market today are more focused on events that generate an income for the host or organizers in return for holding the events. This would make sense as huge amounts of money are spent on venue rentals, food and beverage, set ups and advertising campaigns. So what are the five most popular trends in events in the world market today?

List of the 5 most popular events by order of popularity

1. Conferences and seminars – are usually short events where it can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Revenue from these events comes from participation fees paid by the attendees. A host can employ an event management company to host such events several times a year making it one of the most lucrative events to organize. A seminar is organized based on key speakers and make use of only one venue such as conference or seminar rooms for the duration of the event thus keeping the cost low. Conferences are held in slightly more lavish settings such as hotels or convention centres and the opening includes a keynote speaker session with intermissions in between program topics and multiple concurrent sessions.

2. Trade show events – are held for the purposes of lead generation and include such industries as tourism, property and development, electronics, food products or automobile manufacturers. Revenue from trade shows are generated via the participants who rent space in the trade show to display and brand their products. The more successful a tradeshow higher is the participation.

3. Events for executive incentive programs and retreats – are held for organizations to reward their management teams or hold important discussions such as organization strategy meetings in a non-formal manner. Such events last over 3 to 5 days and include venues that are exotic or exclusive. These are considered extravagant events that are paid top dollars to organize and event organizers who are reputed for such events will be much sought after.

4. Golfing cum business events - is a highly prized event to organize. These are networking and relationship building events held by high level management of organization for company networking purposes. They can stretch over 3 or 4 days and hosts will expect top notch organizing capabilities from the event organizer.

5. Appreciation and loyalty reward events - are held as reward incentive programs by organizations for members or clients. These bond and relationship building events allow a host to spend time with their guests to develop mutual opportunities in business.

Getting into the best practices for these events can be accomplished with an event management system where the event management solution helps the organizers keep track of developments and work flow. Building your reputation in hosting such events is a breeze when you have the right event solution in hand to help you in the event planning stages. Event Malaysia companies can be just as competitive with the international market with the advantage of a great local tour destination.

Event Planning Industry & Its Services Explained

The event planning industry has paved its own way and achieved a niche for its own. The expensive and complex services which mostly served the elite section of the society for decades, is now converting into a simplified service. With the advancement of technology, event planners can now take help of various online event management services which eliminates the headache of planning an event. In short, event planning services has witnessed a significant shift in the past few years.

Event Planning: Corporate and Personal

Much of the expected growth in event planning industry is the result of various business meets, parties and conferences of the corporate world. Yet there are also certain contribution of the private events such as birthday parties, anniversaries and weddings, where organizers are availing the services extensively. Thus, the industry is becoming more trusted, more recognized and more cost-effective. Though the economy is witnessing a downward trend, the event planners are capable of protecting themselves from hurdles and are surviving, by marketing their services in the vast marketplace. Event planners are getting multiple scopes to develop, where the options are increasing and the cost of event planning is minimizing.

You, as an organizer, will always want your event to be unique and memorable. For this you will always need to hire a good and experienced event planner. The event planner will assist you in planning and executing your event. However, you must coordinate with the event planner regarding the following factors, while planning:

Budget:

Budget is a very integral part of an event, and must be dealt with care. An effective budget planning will ultimately result in a good event. Being an organizer, you must discuss the planning cost and other expenses with your planner. Also clear up the cost to be charged by the planner.

Event Venue:

 You may select your venue for the event before discussing with the planner. But other times, choosing the right venue can be the biggest task in the event planning list. So, you need to discuss every detail, expectations and the capacity of the probable venues with your planner.

Dates and schedule:

Selecting a date as well as an alternate date for the event must be given a top priority. But you should also discuss your schedule with your planner for smooth coordination. Event planners are professionals and not mind readers, so effective communication is a must.

Logistic arrangements:

You must sit with your planner and list down the supplies and equipments required in the event. Items may include tables and chairs, microphones, speakers, electricity arrangement, etc.

Thus, event planning services offered by planners can now assist you in performing various activities required within an event, with ease and simplicity.