Mannequins, asses and reputation
Lessons from a Midsummer’s Ball on how to make your B2B event stand out
I’m here to collect the body, I announced to the silhouette in the cautiously opened front door.
A man, possibly in his nineties, stuck his head out to glance down the suburban South London street. “Come and see him,” he exhorted gleefully, looking delighted rather than offended by my feeble joke.
Inside, two life-sized male mannequins were guarding the entrance hall – one gleaming white in his naked plastic glory, the other in full World War II uniform and regalia. The latter was not for sale, my host said, but I did not mind. The slightly battered naked mannequin was exactly what I wanted.
It would add a little pizzazz to the summer ball I was helping organise for my son’s school, I hoped. Something unique – a talking point and a touch of humour, a fun and memorable photo op.
In my living room, the mannequin acquired gloves, a frilled shirt and trousers that could vaguely pass for Elizabethan, a cloak and a rubber donkey mask. Like Puck changed the overly confident, dramatic character Nick Bottom halfway into a donkey in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I turned the mannequin into a donkey prop for the Midsummer-themed ball. It would complement tree stilt walkers, human hedgemen, giant flowers, lit-up mechanical butterflies and a veritable wisteria forest. Tickets for the charitable event were expensive, and we wanted to ensure everyone felt they got their money’s worth.
A few days later, I was still buzzing from the ball (the donkey was a hit and EVERYONE wanted a picture with him) when I met up with B2B event marketing specialist Helen Coetzee, MPG Co-founder and CEO.
How do you make an event stand out in a very crowded B2B market, I asked. How do you offer something unique? (I did not suggest donkeys. I swear.)
While B2B events do not have to be that unique, Helen said, it is important to offer something special and make sure the event is worth attending.
“It needs to be worth leaving the office for, breaking your routine, missing meetings,” she explained.
You need to understand what delegates want to learn about, what is hot in their industry, where the knowledge gaps are and even where their strategies are focused.
Helen said they also want to meet their peers and, "quite honestly, have a bit of group therapy”.
“From a delegate’s perspective, [the question is] what am I going to learn and who am I going to meet.
“Even if we just talk about the challenges and don't find the answers, that's often valuable. So I want to talk to people like me. I also want to talk to people who are that level or two above me that I aspire to.
“If I see someone who is a CMO and I'm currently a head of marketing, it's really inspiring and interesting and exciting for me to see that person speaking on stage and then have a chance to speak to them in the coffee break. That kind of aspirational networking is really important.”
Delegates also want to meet people they want to do business with.
“That's where an event organiser has to really curate who's in the room from a supplier perspective. They want the right suppliers in the room. That's why it's so important to really attract the right exhibitors and sponsors and have a senior representation from those exhibitors and sponsors. No one who's a CMO wants to speak to a really junior salesperson on an exhibition stand selling something that's not relevant to them.
“They're very happy to speak to salespeople, but they want to have a valuable conversation.”
Another consideration is the reputional gain or risk of attending or speaking at an event. “The most valuable thing they'll give you is their time, their attention, and also their reputation. If someone attends an event or speaks at an event, they essentially put their reputation next to yours as an event organiser that usually you have to build over a number of years.”
At the mention of reputation, I tried to block flashbacks of my enthusiastic mum dancing at the ball from my memory. Group therapy? I recall much hugging. Valuable conversations? There was A LOT of talking. Aspirational networking? I have 500 new best friends. Learning? Always capture the highlights for posterity.
Value? A priceless pic with a mannequin in a gold cloak sporting a donkey’s head.
I get this events thing, I think. If only I could work in the stilt walkers. After all, we can always do with a little fun.