#i miss the snail I kept for a while back in like 2016 he was giant and he was so so sweet he loved me sm :)

[bumpscosity]

Snails are so Aminal and also they love you

[bodybymegatech]

Strangers when we meet

One partly sunny day in Long Beach, California…

I was sightseeing with my family near the Queen Anne. My brother had just proposed to the woman who would become my sister in law and during a boat ride I did something that I am historically not very good at: I introduced myself to an attractive young lady from Seoul. I’ll call her “Heather” “Belle” for reference.

I said hello, made a little small talk and asked her where she was from. When she said she was Korean, I replied “Annyong haseyo” - the only Korean I knew at the time. She was genuinely surprised and the ice was officially broken. Belle asked me who the girl I was with was. “Oh that’s just my sister”, I said dismissively. My sister rolled her eyes and said “I’m outta here”.

We exchanged email addresses and parted ways. She had been visiting her grandparents and as I said goodbye, her grandfather gave me the side eye, which I still think is funny.

We would spend the next few years writing each other via snail mail and during that time maybe feelings got stronger. Being a part of her life is one of my fondest memories. One year, I sent her a snow globe of my hometown and a Norah Jones CD (the first one with “Come Away With Me”) and maybe the second one too. I don’t know if she ever got it because I never heard back from her.

I wrote back a couple of times. Nothing desperate sounding or long missives like this post. Just a “hey, I sent you something for Christmas. Let me know if you got it. I hope you like it. Missing you.”

The next one was a “hope you’re doing okay. Things are fine here. Write back soon…” type of letter.

Nothing.

Strange, considering the last thing she sent was a large greeting card that declared in big cartoony letters “Sarang-he” — I Love You.

The package I sent included a letter that reciprocated her feelings but the silence was crushing.

Over time, I came to accept the possibility that she lost interest and moved on with someone in the same city. Maybe she focused on her career or maybe she was pressured into stopping the relationship. Maybe her heart broke because she never received my messages and she thought I ghosted her. I don’t know. I didn’t push the issue because I didn’t want to make it awkward by harassing her for a response. Or maybe something happened to her? Like an accident? The thought terrified me. Her email address had long since been abandoned.

I moved on. I met someone new. She filled a void. She was nice but she had a habit of pushing me away. This is a habit I would pick up and is still something I’m trying to undo.

Every now and then I would try looking for her in various social networks over the next couple of years and came up with nothing. Although I’d taught myself Korean, I was nowhere near the level of skill needed for any kind of deep dive.

I let it go. There was just no point.

Time passed and things take a turn for the surreal.

I would have a recurring dream where I would be at school, or at work. Maybe while out shopping or out doing something. I would talk to someone in this dream and this person I don’t recognize would say, “Do you remember Heather Belle? She was just here.”

Any further responses to my questions were met with vague and conflicting information and I’d spend the rest of the dream looking for her.

I would have these dreams maybe once or twice a year.

Sometimes this would prompt me to look for her again and I would wonder why, after all this time I would still be haunted by her ghost.

The last time I had this dream was nearly two weeks ago just after New Year’s Day and it was the same as all the others except this time I was at a convention.

I decided to try again. I found one of her postcards and plugged it into google maps. I wasn’t expecting her to live in the same house but I can get an idea of what to expect in street view. The address showed me an apartment building and I knew there was no way she’s still there. But there was no indication the old address was a condo, apartment or even a multi-family home.

There was a button to show what this corner looked like in 2009 and it showed a single family home.

Like a hole in the water, her trail was gone.

I’ll try Facebook again, I thought. Instagram, too. Belle is a very common name so I’ll probably run into the same dead ends. After narrowing down a list of candidates in Instagram, I sent a query to two users.

I turned to Facebook and did the same. I had a short list of leads but one stood out. It had no selfies or personal pictures. It was scarcely updated and the last post was back in august 2020. The earliest post was 2016 which by that time I had long since abandoned Facebook (Instagram would follow three years later.) However, it said she worked at a news agency. She had told me in one of her letters that she was studying journalism.

I have nothing to lose. The worst that would happen is I’d run into another dead end and keep having these dreams in perpetuity. After a few drafts, I sent a message through messenger.

We had a brief conversation - we both needed to go to work but I think the overall tone was a happy one. I hope…

This happened Thursday, January 7, 2021.

To be fair, I know she has a busy job with hard deadlines and odd schedules. Add to that all the duties that married life brings and a 7-year old girl.

I get it. And I didn’t have any illusions that no one would put a ring on her finger. It’s fine and I’m very happy for her. I’m just glad that she’s okay and doing well for herself and told her as much. A couple days later I had a good cry out of sheer relief and that I was finally able to find her.

But I don’t know how to proceed now.

I haven’t heard back as of this post (nearly a week later).

She did say she wanted to meet again after the pandemic but I’m concerned that maybe she was being insincere. Or I may have opened a wound. Or perhaps I introduced an unwanted complication in her personal life. Maybe she is having second thoughts and thinks I have some kind of an ulterior motive. I don’t know.

I’m tempted to write back to apologize for any problems I might have caused and say that it’s not my intent to do so. I don’t know why I felt compelled to keep looking. Actually, I do know but I’ll get to that later.

I do know this: I want her to know that regardless of how we may have felt about each other in the past, we were friends first. She was my friend when we kept in touch, and I had always considered her to be my friend after we lost contact. I would not hesitate to call her friend for the rest of my life.

Even though we’re on opposite sides of the world, I would always want to be there for her with the good and the bad, because that’s what friends do.

Now, how do I say that without sounding creepy? Should I send another message?

How I found her was very difficult. But why I kept looking, even after we both moved on…

The why is easy. I would say,

“Because you’re worth it.”

[valentinaonthemoon]

Hello, everybody! I thought I’d share with you what’s up with my life outside of the internet these days! (Also I guess this has become a constant post with its own tag, so it might come up again in the future.)

I have finally met my friends for an ice cream after months of not seeing each other and it was really sweet. I’ve missed them! I’m still quite scared of going out, though, because no one cares about wearing a mask to protect themselves or others and it’s very unnerving.

I actually posted a parody song on youtube on the “mask discourse” not so long ago, it took me a whole day to get it right LMAO. I love playing guitar. This is the video.

That made me want to start making more of these guitar playing videos, so I asked on Instagram for some quotes to sing as famous songs, and somebody actually responded! But I haven’t had time to arrange them yet because I started gardening.

I have a garden in front of my house, but it’s so full of weeds that crept from ANYWHERE. And my neighbours’ gardens are always so curated, and I guess that in my case that old saying about greener grass is true. My dad is not that young anymore so he stopped doing the gardening work, though, so it’s not like he’s to blame.

The other day I was like: “Oh, I remember seeing some lovely yellow flowers, maybe I could go and pick them up for fun!”

Then I arrive in front of the “forest”, sigh, and I start thinking: “Well, I GUESS that I have another hobby now.”

(Anyway, if you have to unstan anything these days, begin with cancelling the ivy plants. Creepy little malevolent bitches.)

I saw so many snails! And so many little bugs that in any other setting would have bugged me a lot (the pun wasn’t intended because if it was it would have really been bad).

Have you seen Hamilton? I remember listening to the OCR back in 2016 and then again, and again, and then knowing it by heart. I had also seen a bootleg of it on youtube in 2017, but I forgot what happened in it, because I kept imagining my own scenarios while listening to the cast recording.

The HamilFilm was such a great experience though!!! I loved everything about it: from the costume to the choreographies; and the acting!!!!! You can’t see that in a soundtrack! I was so happy! I still wish I could have seen it at the cinema, though. I know I could never see it in a theatre because I definitely cannot afford it.

Thank you for still following me, you lovely people. I hope that you all have a beautiful day, any time you’re reading this. Don’t be afraid of just going into my inbox and tell me how your day has been, if you want! Or if you got special achievements recently; or if you had a mediocre week; or if you just need a hug, I know how that feels.

Love to you all!

[lucyariablog]

Pre-Event Content: 5 Tips for Creating Excitement (and a Bit of FOMO)

Next week I’ll join my counterparts from around the world in Berlin to talk about live event experiences. It’s an annual gathering where we can share ideas, successes, and challenges, and learn to better understand each other’s businesses. For many, creating pre-event content to build excitement (and maybe a bit of FOMO [fear of missing out]) for our events is a hot topic.

Regardless of your industry or region of the world, pre-event content is an important element for delivering on an amazing event experience.

While marketing campaigns are often centered on content, event marketers often think about content too late. That’s precisely what UBM found in its Content Connects research among technology brands. Laura Forer of MarketingProfs, UBM’s research collaborator, notes that pre-event content shouldn’t be an afterthought: “Ninety-six percent of attendees look for information prior to attending an event, and 90% continue that search post-event. Effective content before, during, and after an event is vital to the overall experience.”

Effective #content before, during & after an event is vital to attendee experience via @MarketingProfs Click To Tweet

I’ll admit, I’m a bit jealous of the Diner en Blanc events – chic gatherings in beautiful places around the world that rely mostly on secrecy and word of mouth. They don’t have to spend time and budget on creative content – other than a tantalizing invitation – to draw thousands of people to eat, drink, be merry, and wear white.

The rest of us, though, need to be more vocal and consistent to make our events pop with high quality and engaging pre-event content (which, in some cases, can be used on-site and post-event.)

I share five ideas for pre-event content that you are welcome to steal as you plan your next event. And I’d love to hear about some of your favorites in the comments.

1. Create educational and fun videos to define event topics or goals

Short videos can give prospects and attendees a sneak peek at event topics and speakers. The CMI team posted videos before the 2017 Intelligent Content Conference (spoiler alert: we’ll do it again for ICC 2018 because they were effective). The videos were educational, but producer (and CMI Chief Strategy Advisor) Robert Rose also kept them lighthearted and funny to make them worth the three to five minutes people would spend watching them.

Short pre-event #videos helped prospects better understand topics in lighthearted ways, says @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

They were designed to help marketers better understand tools and innovations behind content strategy – the topic of the conference. Subjects like augmented reality, content audits, localization, and journey mapping were part of the video series that were shared on the ICC event blog, promoted in emails, and posted to YouTube in the months leading up to the event. In each case, the ICC presenter on the topic was mentioned and additional related content was offered.

Watch Robert talk about journey mapping – and sing a Journey song. All I can say is don’t stop believing pre-event videos will work. These videos really resonated with the audience and didn’t require extensive time or budget.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 10 Tips (and a Ton of Tricks) to Maximize Your Video Content Investment

2. Send a clever piece of (snail) mail

Yeah, you read that right – send the kind of stuff that shows up in a physical mailbox. In a time when digital is the primary distribution channel, a piece of mail can be a welcome surprise. Just ask Ann Handley, chief content officer at MarketingProfs. “The key is to send something fun, cool, AND that also encourages sharing on social platforms,” she says.

The key to pre-event snail mail is sending something fun that encourages sharing on social, says @annhandley. Click To Tweet

One of MarketingProfs’ most brilliant examples of pre-event snail mail was the creation of the “Flat Handley,” (a take-off on the popular and long-lasting Flat Stanley literacy project).

Image source

“We encouraged people to document their journey to Boston for the B2B Marketing Forum along with Flat Handley,” Ann explains. “Every year we try to outdo ourselves from the previous year.”

In 2017, the MarketingProfs team sent its mascot, Jay Bird, as a traveling buddy for attendees. The language on the back of the cardboard Jay Bird explained what to do – using some hilarious bird puns:

Hi I’m Jay! I excel at flying, and I’m here in your mailbox because it’s almost time for us to take flight for the MarketingProfs B2B Forum! I don’t want you to be owl by yourself; that would be hawkward. Document my journey on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtag #MPB2B – it’s a great way to tweet new marketing friends, because more than toucan can play at this! I can help you take your relationships to the nest level.”

This seriously made me laugh out loud. As Ann notes – it’s “FOMO-liscious!”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Deliver Emails That Will Increase Reach, Impact, and Subscriber Satisfaction

3. Develop original research to be shared with attendees and used by event speakers

Original research is an important part of any content marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity to highlight industry trends, challenges, innovations, and above all, thought leadership. The content team that supports Interop ITX, an event for tech leaders, fields topical research surveys and shares the results with attendees, prospects, and speakers.

For its 2017 event, the team released four reports (IT Salary Survey, State of Cloud, State of DevOps, and State of Data Analytics) and published companion infographics, podcasts, and articles in the months leading up to the live event. The research topics directly reflect the event conference tracks and the Interop team encourages speakers to incorporate the data into their presentations where appropriate. Kelley Damore, executive vice president of content, says, “We – editors and presenters – are all speaking from the same data and highlighting the research.”

.@Interop ties its research reports directly to its event conference tracks, says @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

The Interop team already released research on the State of Infrastructure that connects to the agenda for 2018.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Content Influences the Purchasing Process: Tips for Content Marketers [Research]

4. Love your speakers

Your event speakers are your lifeblood. Their expertise makes your event educational and inspiring. Promote them. Celebrate them.

Mike Winkleman, founder of Leverage Media, is a big proponent of featuring speakers in the weeks leading up to an event. One of his favorite examples was a program he launched for Chief Executive Magazine in 2016 which included speaker-focused articles published in its e-newsletters about six weeks before its Talent Summit. The articles reflected thought leadership in key areas and helped promote the speakers’ expertise.

Says Winkleman, “Interviewing the speakers for the e-newsletter articles was combined with prepping them for their talks at the event itself, which gave it added value.” Subsequent post-event coverage in the magazine nicely rounded out the experience.

Visual content can also play a role in promoting speakers – and to have them promote your event. One of my favorite strategies for Content Marketing World comes from our creative genius, Joseph Kalinowski. He creates unique “posters” for all the sessions and speakers reflecting the event theme.

Check out all of the posters from Content Marketing World 2017.

Beautifully designed, they are easily shareable on social media by CMWorld speakers. The printed versions are displayed during the event and are often taken home by speakers as souvenirs. Find ways like this to share the love and speakers will share back.

Create #visual content for sessions & speakers using event theme. It's great for promotion. @EditorStahl Click To Tweet

I am STOKED for #CMWORLD. Who’s with me? If you aren’t yet, use code SPKR100. Save $. Sign up. Learn more @ 1 event than you might at many. pic.twitter.com/cTKnR8BCAp

— MichelleParkLazette (@mp_lazette) August 17, 2017

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Tips to Harness Your Event Superpowers

5. Highlight user-generated content that shows attendees how to make the most of the event and to have fun

When loyal audience members take the time to create content about your event, it’s like winning the lottery. It’s one thing for you and your brand to tout the event, but it is more sincere and meaningful when your audience does so. Embrace it and showcase it.

When audience members create content about your event it's like winning lottery – showcase it. @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

In this blog, Unforgettable Value at Your Next Conference Without Being a Speaker, Content Marketing World attendee Aaron Orendorff (@iconiContent) highlights fun aspects of the event (including attendees being photographed in an orange hat and with Lego props), and offers great tips for making the most of the event.

Aaron, with Venngage’s Nadya Khoja, also created this infographic, 26 Headliners on How to Connect With Influencers (at a Conference), to showcase valuable insight on how to connect with conference speakers from CMWorld presenters and industry influencers such as John Hall, Andrea Fryrear, Michael Brenner, Andrew Davis, and others. Their comments are fun and thoughtful, and provide a great way to get the community talking.

Let’s get talking about pre-event content. What are you doing to draw people in for your event or what have you seen others do that you think is – in Ann’s word – FOMO-licious?

Be one of the first to see the pre-event content created by Content Marketing Institute for the Intelligent Content Conference and Content Marketing World. Subscribe to CMI’s free daily newsletter or weekly digest.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Pre-Event Content: 5 Tips for Creating Excitement (and a Bit of FOMO) appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/12/pre-event-content/

[eelgibbortech-blog]

5 Tips for Creating Excitement (and a Bit of FOMO)

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Next week I’ll join my counterparts from around the world in Berlin to talk about live event experiences. It’s an annual gathering where we can share ideas, successes, and challenges, and learn to better understand each other’s businesses. For many, creating pre-event content to build excitement (and maybe a bit of FOMO [fear of missing out]) for our events is a hot topic.

Regardless of your industry or region of the world, pre-event content is an important element for delivering on an amazing event experience.

While marketing campaigns are often centered on content, event marketers often think about content too late. That’s precisely what UBM found in its Content Connects research among technology brands. Laura Forer of MarketingProfs, UBM’s research collaborator, notes that pre-event content shouldn’t be an afterthought: “Ninety-six percent of attendees look for information prior to attending an event, and 90% continue that search post-event. Effective content before, during, and after an event is vital to the overall experience.”

Effective #content before, during & after an event is vital to attendee experience via @MarketingProfs Click To Tweet

I’ll admit, I’m a bit jealous of the Diner en Blanc events – chic gatherings in beautiful places around the world that rely mostly on secrecy and word of mouth. They don’t have to spend time and budget on creative content – other than a tantalizing invitation – to draw thousands of people to eat, drink, be merry, and wear white.

The rest of us, though, need to be more vocal and consistent to make our events pop with high quality and engaging pre-event content (which, in some cases, can be used on-site and post-event.)

I share five ideas for pre-event content that you are welcome to steal as you plan your next event. And I’d love to hear about some of your favorites in the comments.

1. Create educational and fun videos to define event topics or goals

Short videos can give prospects and attendees a sneak peek at event topics and speakers. The CMI team posted videos before the 2017 Intelligent Content Conference (spoiler alert: we’ll do it again for ICC 2018 because they were effective). The videos were educational, but producer (and CMI Chief Strategy Advisor) Robert Rose also kept them lighthearted and funny to make them worth the three to five minutes people would spend watching them.

Short pre-event #videos helped prospects better understand topics in lighthearted ways, says @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

They were designed to help marketers better understand tools and innovations behind content strategy – the topic of the conference. Subjects like augmented reality, content audits, localization, and journey mapping were part of the video series that were shared on the ICC event blog, promoted in emails, and posted to YouTube in the months leading up to the event. In each case, the ICC presenter on the topic was mentioned and additional related content was offered.

Watch Robert talk about journey mapping – and sing a Journey song. All I can say is don’t stop believing pre-event videos will work. These videos really resonated with the audience and didn’t require extensive time or budget.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 10 Tips (and a Ton of Tricks) to Maximize Your Video Content Investment

2. Send a clever piece of (snail) mail

Yeah, you read that right – send the kind of stuff that shows up in a physical mailbox. In a time when digital is the primary distribution channel, a piece of mail can be a welcome surprise. Just ask Ann Handley, chief content officer at MarketingProfs. “The key is to send something fun, cool, AND that also encourages sharing on social platforms,” she says.

The key to pre-event snail mail is sending something fun that encourages sharing on social, says @annhandley. Click To Tweet

One of MarketingProfs’ most brilliant examples of pre-event snail mail was the creation of the “Flat Handley,” (a take-off on the popular and long-lasting Flat Stanley literacy project).

Image source

“We encouraged people to document their journey to Boston for the B2B Marketing Forum along with Flat Handley,” Ann explains. “Every year we try to outdo ourselves from the previous year.”

In 2017, the MarketingProfs team sent its mascot, Jay Bird, as a traveling buddy for attendees. The language on the back of the cardboard Jay Bird explained what to do – using some hilarious bird puns:

Hi I’m Jay! I excel at flying, and I’m here in your mailbox because it’s almost time for us to take flight for the MarketingProfs B2B Forum! I don’t want you to be owl by yourself; that would be hawkward. Document my journey on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtag #MPB2B – it’s a great way to tweet new marketing friends, because more than toucan can play at this! I can help you take your relationships to the nest level.”

This seriously made me laugh out loud. As Ann notes – it’s “FOMO-liscious!”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Deliver Emails That Will Increase Reach, Impact, and Subscriber Satisfaction

3. Develop original research to be shared with attendees and used by event speakers

Original research is an important part of any content marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity to highlight industry trends, challenges, innovations, and above all, thought leadership. The content team that supports Interop ITX, an event for tech leaders, fields topical research surveys and shares the results with attendees, prospects, and speakers.

For its 2017 event, the team released four reports (IT Salary Survey, State of Cloud, State of DevOps, and State of Data Analytics) and published companion infographics, podcasts, and articles in the months leading up to the live event. The research topics directly reflect the event conference tracks and the Interop team encourages speakers to incorporate the data into their presentations where appropriate. Kelley Damore, executive vice president of content, says, “We – editors and presenters – are all speaking from the same data and highlighting the research.”

.@Interop ties its research reports directly to its event conference tracks, says @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

The Interop team already released research on the State of Infrastructure that connects to the agenda for 2018.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Content Influences the Purchasing Process: Tips for Content Marketers [Research]

4. Love your speakers

Your event speakers are your lifeblood. Their expertise makes your event educational and inspiring. Promote them. Celebrate them.

Mike Winkleman, founder of Leverage Media, is a big proponent of featuring speakers in the weeks leading up to an event. One of his favorite examples was a program he launched for Chief Executive Magazine in 2016 which included speaker-focused articles published in its e-newsletters about six weeks before its Talent Summit. The articles reflected thought leadership in key areas and helped promote the speakers’ expertise.

Says Winkleman, “Interviewing the speakers for the e-newsletter articles was combined with prepping them for their talks at the event itself, which gave it added value.” Subsequent post-event coverage in the magazine nicely rounded out the experience.

Visual content can also play a role in promoting speakers – and to have them promote your event. One of my favorite strategies for Content Marketing World comes from our creative genius, Joseph Kalinowski. He creates unique “posters” for all the sessions and speakers reflecting the event theme.

Check out all of the posters from Content Marketing World 2017.

Beautifully designed, they are easily shareable on social media by CMWorld speakers. The printed versions are displayed during the event and are often taken home by speakers as souvenirs. Find ways like this to share the love and speakers will share back.

Create #visual content for sessions & speakers using event theme. It’s great for promotion. @EditorStahl Click To Tweet

I am STOKED for #CMWORLD. Who’s with me? If you aren’t yet, use code SPKR100. Save $. Sign up. Learn more @ 1 event than you might at many. http://pic.twitter.com/cTKnR8BCAp

— MichelleParkLazette (@mp_lazette) August 17, 2017

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Tips to Harness Your Event Superpowers

5. Highlight user-generated content that shows attendees how to make the most of the event and to have fun

When loyal audience members take the time to create content about your event, it’s like winning the lottery. It’s one thing for you and your brand to tout the event, but it is more sincere and meaningful when your audience does so. Embrace it and showcase it.

When audience members create content about your event it’s like winning lottery – showcase it. @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

In this blog, Unforgettable Value at Your Next Conference Without Being a Speaker, Content Marketing World attendee Aaron Orendorff (@iconiContent) highlights fun aspects of the event (including attendees being photographed in an orange hat and with Lego props), and offers great tips for making the most of the event.

Aaron, with Venngage’s Nadya Khoja, also created this infographic, 26 Headliners on How to Connect With Influencers (at a Conference), to showcase valuable insight on how to connect with conference speakers from CMWorld presenters and industry influencers such as John Hall, Andrea Fryrear, Michael Brenner, Andrew Davis, and others. Their comments are fun and thoughtful, and provide a great way to get the community talking.

Let’s get talking about pre-event content. What are you doing to draw people in for your event or what have you seen others do that you think is – in Ann’s word – FOMO-licious?

Be one of the first to see the pre-event content created by Content Marketing Institute for the Intelligent Content Conference and Content Marketing World. Subscribe to CMI’s free daily newsletter or weekly digest.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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The post 5 Tips for Creating Excitement (and a Bit of FOMO) appeared first on Ebulkemaimarketing Blogs and updates.

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[eelgibbortech-blog]

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Next week I’ll join my counterparts from around the world in Berlin to talk about live event experiences. It’s an annual gathering where we can share ideas, successes, and challenges, and learn to better understand each other’s businesses. For many, creating pre-event content to build excitement (and maybe a bit of FOMO [fear of missing out]) for our events is a hot topic.

Regardless of your industry or region of the world, pre-event content is an important element for delivering on an amazing event experience.

While marketing campaigns are often centered on content, event marketers often think about content too late. That’s precisely what UBM found in its Content Connects research among technology brands. Laura Forer of MarketingProfs, UBM’s research collaborator, notes that pre-event content shouldn’t be an afterthought: “Ninety-six percent of attendees look for information prior to attending an event, and 90% continue that search post-event. Effective content before, during, and after an event is vital to the overall experience.”

Effective #content before, during & after an event is vital to attendee experience via @MarketingProfs Click To Tweet

I’ll admit, I’m a bit jealous of the Diner en Blanc events – chic gatherings in beautiful places around the world that rely mostly on secrecy and word of mouth. They don’t have to spend time and budget on creative content – other than a tantalizing invitation – to draw thousands of people to eat, drink, be merry, and wear white.

The rest of us, though, need to be more vocal and consistent to make our events pop with high quality and engaging pre-event content (which, in some cases, can be used on-site and post-event.)

I share five ideas for pre-event content that you are welcome to steal as you plan your next event. And I’d love to hear about some of your favorites in the comments.

1. Create educational and fun videos to define event topics or goals

Short videos can give prospects and attendees a sneak peek at event topics and speakers. The CMI team posted videos before the 2017 Intelligent Content Conference (spoiler alert: we’ll do it again for ICC 2018 because they were effective). The videos were educational, but producer (and CMI Chief Strategy Advisor) Robert Rose also kept them lighthearted and funny to make them worth the three to five minutes people would spend watching them.

Short pre-event #videos helped prospects better understand topics in lighthearted ways, says @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

They were designed to help marketers better understand tools and innovations behind content strategy – the topic of the conference. Subjects like augmented reality, content audits, localization, and journey mapping were part of the video series that were shared on the ICC event blog, promoted in emails, and posted to YouTube in the months leading up to the event. In each case, the ICC presenter on the topic was mentioned and additional related content was offered.

Watch Robert talk about journey mapping – and sing a Journey song. All I can say is don’t stop believing pre-event videos will work. These videos really resonated with the audience and didn’t require extensive time or budget.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 10 Tips (and a Ton of Tricks) to Maximize Your Video Content Investment

2. Send a clever piece of (snail) mail

Yeah, you read that right – send the kind of stuff that shows up in a physical mailbox. In a time when digital is the primary distribution channel, a piece of mail can be a welcome surprise. Just ask Ann Handley, chief content officer at MarketingProfs. “The key is to send something fun, cool, AND that also encourages sharing on social platforms,” she says.

The key to pre-event snail mail is sending something fun that encourages sharing on social, says @annhandley. Click To Tweet

One of MarketingProfs’ most brilliant examples of pre-event snail mail was the creation of the “Flat Handley,” (a take-off on the popular and long-lasting Flat Stanley literacy project).

Image source

“We encouraged people to document their journey to Boston for the B2B Marketing Forum along with Flat Handley,” Ann explains. “Every year we try to outdo ourselves from the previous year.”

In 2017, the MarketingProfs team sent its mascot, Jay Bird, as a traveling buddy for attendees. The language on the back of the cardboard Jay Bird explained what to do – using some hilarious bird puns:

Hi I’m Jay! I excel at flying, and I’m here in your mailbox because it’s almost time for us to take flight for the MarketingProfs B2B Forum! I don’t want you to be owl by yourself; that would be hawkward. Document my journey on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtag #MPB2B – it’s a great way to tweet new marketing friends, because more than toucan can play at this! I can help you take your relationships to the nest level.”

This seriously made me laugh out loud. As Ann notes – it’s “FOMO-liscious!”

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3. Develop original research to be shared with attendees and used by event speakers

Original research is an important part of any content marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity to highlight industry trends, challenges, innovations, and above all, thought leadership. The content team that supports Interop ITX, an event for tech leaders, fields topical research surveys and shares the results with attendees, prospects, and speakers.

For its 2017 event, the team released four reports (IT Salary Survey, State of Cloud, State of DevOps, and State of Data Analytics) and published companion infographics, podcasts, and articles in the months leading up to the live event. The research topics directly reflect the event conference tracks and the Interop team encourages speakers to incorporate the data into their presentations where appropriate. Kelley Damore, executive vice president of content, says, “We – editors and presenters – are all speaking from the same data and highlighting the research.”

.@Interop ties its research reports directly to its event conference tracks, says @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

The Interop team already released research on the State of Infrastructure that connects to the agenda for 2018.

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4. Love your speakers

Your event speakers are your lifeblood. Their expertise makes your event educational and inspiring. Promote them. Celebrate them.

Mike Winkleman, founder of Leverage Media, is a big proponent of featuring speakers in the weeks leading up to an event. One of his favorite examples was a program he launched for Chief Executive Magazine in 2016 which included speaker-focused articles published in its e-newsletters about six weeks before its Talent Summit. The articles reflected thought leadership in key areas and helped promote the speakers’ expertise.

Says Winkleman, “Interviewing the speakers for the e-newsletter articles was combined with prepping them for their talks at the event itself, which gave it added value.” Subsequent post-event coverage in the magazine nicely rounded out the experience.

Visual content can also play a role in promoting speakers – and to have them promote your event. One of my favorite strategies for Content Marketing World comes from our creative genius, Joseph Kalinowski. He creates unique “posters” for all the sessions and speakers reflecting the event theme.

Check out all of the posters from Content Marketing World 2017.

Beautifully designed, they are easily shareable on social media by CMWorld speakers. The printed versions are displayed during the event and are often taken home by speakers as souvenirs. Find ways like this to share the love and speakers will share back.

Create #visual content for sessions & speakers using event theme. It’s great for promotion. @EditorStahl Click To Tweet

I am STOKED for #CMWORLD. Who’s with me? If you aren’t yet, use code SPKR100. Save $. Sign up. Learn more @ 1 event than you might at many. http://pic.twitter.com/cTKnR8BCAp

— MichelleParkLazette (@mp_lazette) August 17, 2017

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5. Highlight user-generated content that shows attendees how to make the most of the event and to have fun

When loyal audience members take the time to create content about your event, it’s like winning the lottery. It’s one thing for you and your brand to tout the event, but it is more sincere and meaningful when your audience does so. Embrace it and showcase it.

When audience members create content about your event it’s like winning lottery – showcase it. @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet

In this blog, Unforgettable Value at Your Next Conference Without Being a Speaker, Content Marketing World attendee Aaron Orendorff (@iconiContent) highlights fun aspects of the event (including attendees being photographed in an orange hat and with Lego props), and offers great tips for making the most of the event.

Aaron, with Venngage’s Nadya Khoja, also created this infographic, 26 Headliners on How to Connect With Influencers (at a Conference), to showcase valuable insight on how to connect with conference speakers from CMWorld presenters and industry influencers such as John Hall, Andrea Fryrear, Michael Brenner, Andrew Davis, and others. Their comments are fun and thoughtful, and provide a great way to get the community talking.

Let’s get talking about pre-event content. What are you doing to draw people in for your event or what have you seen others do that you think is – in Ann’s word – FOMO-licious?

Be one of the first to see the pre-event content created by Content Marketing Institute for the Intelligent Content Conference and Content Marketing World. Subscribe to CMI’s free daily newsletter or weekly digest.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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