It's always fun to be part of something big, which is why we were so grateful to put our project management skills to work on some grand opening events for the new Sanford Medical Center Fargo earlier this month. (Congrats to Sanford Health on this amazing milestone!)
We assisted the Sanford marketing team with some of the activities that took place during the three-day celebration. Of course, considerable planning and coordination happened beforehand, but here's a glimpse of what the actual week looked like from our perspective.
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As the days grow warmer, our minds turn to one of those harbingers of summer: family reunions. As much fun as old-auntie kisses are, planning a family get-together is no walk in the park, even if the event is held in one.
Whether you’re in charge of a picnic for a few cousins or a week-long vacation with the entire clan, we have some tips to make the planning less daunting and the connections more fun. Write It Down Save yourself a headache, stress and maybe even some money: jot down what you know. It’s okay if all details aren’t planned. After all, we don’t need to know right away whether there will be a sack race for the kiddos at 2:30 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. Start with the basics. Break each day into meals and broad time slots: breakfast, morning (travel), lunch (on own), afternoon (family activities), dinner (potluck), evening (family photos). As you get closer to the event, you’ll likely have a couple of different written plans: one that you can share with the family when you send out the invitations; one that is more of a planning/resourcing document; a third that serves as a communications outline. Here’s an example of information you may want to track:
Create a Budget A budget determines what type of space you can rent for the event. (Even park shelters often have fees.) Food is always a cost. Create a “per person” budget so that Cousin Sam’s family of seven doesn’t pay the same as Grandma. Determine early on, too, how you will gather the money and who is responsible for tracking down those who haven’t paid yet. Gather the Addresses Ask for both email and snail mail addresses. While most people communicate via email, remember great-aunt Maggie may not. Use something like Google sheets so you can easily share updates with the group (and EVERYONE can update their Christmas lists). Ask family members to update their own contact information and to pass along to anybody who might not be on your contact list. List families by household and double-check that cousin Sally isn’t listed twice – at her childhood home and her new SoHo flat. Venue and Accommodations Your venues and accommodations largely will be determined by your budget, but you should also think about your audience. Special accommodations may be needed if there are babies, toddlers, or family members who are visually impaired or use a wheelchair. Check out the site prior to the event. Will it accommodate the whole group if it rains? Is there a severe weather shelter nearby? Does the site have everything you need: electricity, tables, chairs, projector or screen, full kitchen, stocked bathrooms? Nothing’s worse than expecting 125 people and realizing you were supposed to bring your own TP. If you opt for a hotel, ask for a discount rate for room nights. Even if your plan is as simple as setting up tents on Uncle Bruce’s lawn, ask questions. Is there a septic system that people should avoid driving over? Invitations In your first announcement, be sure to provide the basics: dates, location (include the address!), accommodations, and any upfront fees or shared costs. As the event gets closer, update attendees with details about activities and what everyone needs to bring. Swimsuits? A dish for sharing? Additional cash for the latest edition of the family genealogy book or a regional tour? Your last communication prior to the event should contain the schedule of events. It will include a simple layout of the hours and day/s and where activities will be held. This schedule is a kindness for all involved. Keep messages simple and avoid long-winded updates about Aunt Lena’s gout flair-up or the not-so-recent discovery of great-grandpa’s third wife Anna’s missing china in Aunt Mildred’s collection. Tips: Suggest a family hashtag so you can aggregate images on social media during and after the event. Also keep each email heading similar so people can find it easily, e.g. Jaaten Larson Reunion: Accommodations and Jaaten Larson Family Reunion: Graveyard Tour. Activities Activities are a great way to encourage interaction among family members who don’t know each other well. Assign teams (mix by ages and families) to play yard Olympics: bag toss, ladder golf, bocce ball, Klub, washer toss. Create clues for a medallion hunt. If it’s a large group, use nametags. You all may be related, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everybody knows each other. (And think about it: the young ones in your group think anyone over 25 looks the same.) Color coordinate nametags for each branch of the family tree. Bonus points if you can get everyone to wear a nametag every single day. Roles and Jobs You don’t have to do this alone even if you are a prized control freak. Outline jobs for others to take on. Give family members a chance to choose how they want to help. If you are specifically asking people, don’t ask one person to do all the like activities, such as kitchen clean-up, recycling, photography. Ask Sandy to take photos in the morning and Mark in the afternoon. Split up families to prep meals so they can get to know each other. Enjoy the Moments Once the event is underway, stick to the schedule shared prior to the reunion. Everyone will thank you. Be sure to take some leisure time for yourself. After all, it’s your family reunion, too. Sometimes you just have to play the number game.
Whether you’re planning a corporate event, a training or an open house, there will be times that you need to estimate the size of your audience long before the RSVP’s or registration forms are due. You want to scream, but I don’t know how many people are coming!! Take a deep breath. At the end of the day, it’s all about comfort. Some of our clients estimate high because they’d rather have extras than worry about running out. Others tend to estimate low because budgets are tight and they have no storage space for leftovers. Estimating may not be fun, but we’ve come up with a few ways to relieve some of the pressure. By asking the right questions and considering both “too much” and “not enough” scenarios, you can sleep better knowing that your estimate might not be perfect, but you have a plan. 1. Can you easily add more? Hotels often ask for food counts three days ahead of time. If you’re expecting (or hoping for!) a lot of walk-in traffic, this can prove difficult. The good news is that many caterers will allow you to increase the amount of food up to the day of the event. They also may be able to provide meals for unexpected guests, if you are willing to be flexible about what they are served. Be sure to ask your conference location or caterer about their policy. 2. Can extra printed materials be delivered on demand ? If your training typically requires printed materials, ask if there is access to a short printer that can quickly deliver extras, if necessary. Or, determine whether materials and programs could be emailed to last-minute attendees. Most attendees have smart phones or tablets with them, making access to digital materials relatively easy. 3. Can extras be repurposed or used in the future? Nobody wants to be stuck with boxes of water bottles that will never be used or food that must be tossed away. Will the hotel donate leftovers to a local food pantry? Who gets the extra prewrapped snacks? Can you choose foods/snacks that will keep? Is there something else you can use the giveaway items for? Do you have space to store extra training binders until the next training is held? If you have space and future need for an item, ordering too much is not a problem. 4. Can evidence of a giveaway be removed? Once the free pens and notebooks are gone, remove the table that they were displayed on. Take down signage asking people to “please take one.” A few guests might notice that their friend received the freebie, but most won’t even be aware that they didn’t get a gigamawhick … unless you forget to take down the huge sign advertising it as a giveaway. If you run out of a popular item and can’t hide the evidence, you’ll get lots of questions and maybe even a few angry glares. At Reach Partners, we value connections.
We strongly believe that everything is possible when you connect the right people with the right ideas and the right resources. We believe that good can happen when we work together. That said, sometimes making a connection or networking with someone you don’t know is hard. After all, it can be hard to introduce yourself to someone new. It can be hard to continue a conversation about a topic you know very little about. And, it can be hard – at least for some of us – to maneuver through the dreaded silence that follows the obligatory swapping of biographical information. Uh, more spinach dip, anyone? This week (Feb. 2) Reach Partners will be one of the exhibitors at Business After Hours, the region’s largest networking event regularly held by the Chamber of Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo. Hundreds of people mingle with their peers, while enjoying drinks and appetizers. It’s a fun and worthy event. It’s also a time when we can celebrate connections – those with people we know and those we have yet to meet. If you find yourself at Business After Hours, stop by our booth and say hi. We’ll have high-top tables where you can comfortably take a break from wandering. We’ll even provide some fun networking questions that you can use to get to know others a little better. Make a new connection; strengthen an existing one. Either way, we hope to see you there! 5 Fun Ice-Breaking Questions It helps to have a couple of out-of-the-box questions prepared for when you meet someone new. Try these:
I am excited to introduce myself as the spring intern for Reach Partners. I am from the tiny town of Mahnomen, Minn., where everyone knows each other and where Minnesota goodbyes are a real thing. I am a senior at Concordia College, where I am finishing up my major in communication studies with an emphasis in public relations and a minor in Business.
I am involved in numerous activities at Concordia including Fall Orientation, Lambda Delta Sigma, Family Weekend, PR Club and other various community service projects. Being so involved in activities is what sparked my interest in event management, which is why I am looking forward to my internship with Reach Partners! I am excited to learn from Anita and Rachel and can't wait to put my skills to the test with hands-on experiences that will help me in my chosen field of study. I hope to work in event management after graduation. When I'm not at Reach Partners, chances are you can find me working in downtown Fargo at Kittsona, indulging in a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop, or binge-watching my favorite shows on Netflix! -Olivia, Event Strategy Intern Reach Partners is excited to work with three partners offering special events. #HungerFreeND
The Creating a Hunger Free North Dakota Coalition will bring together passion people and organizations united in their vision for a hunger-free North Dakota to the Creating Hunger-Free Communities Summit in Bismarck on September 17-18, 2015. A “Stone Soup” event for the public in the evening of September 17 is also planned. #WHCBismarck Improve the messages from your inner voice, get up and move, and learn how character register for the Women's Health Conference and Preview September 27 & 28. An event featuring activity and conversation focused on women's wellness, nutrition and fitness. Worksite Wellness Summit Improve Employee Health • Decrease Health Care Costs • Increase Productivity and Morale Research shows you can expect those results from a worksite wellness program. Attend the North Dakota Worksite Wellness Summit on October 13 in Fargo to get the information, tools and motivation you need to build or strengthen a culture of wellness in your organization. Reach Partners is fortunate to work with a committee of strong women from across the state of ND to produce a day of health and wellness designed to inspire women to take better care of themselves. Read on to learn more about this year's line-up. And register today to attend the brand-new Sunday Preview event featuring Fargo's own Jodee Bock and motivational speaker, author and storyteller, Kelly Swanson from North Carolina. The sassy southerner's message is just what we northern women need to hear. Register TODAY - laugh, learn, share, and participate. It's YOUR health. Get $5 off when you use this link: http://bit.ly/1zKnI8x
We’ve all done it, it’s embarrassing for sure, it’s not good for you and you and I both know it’s gotta stop: sitting all day long, in one position at your desk at work. It’s now proven that our sedentary lifestyle has negative long term effects. Slow-to-no-moving lifestyle choices lead to the rise of chronic disease, which increases health care costs and effects productivity.
Reach Partners has been a long-time partner in the trainings and conferences offered to ND businesses to promote and build their own worksite wellness programs. The point is to influence the workplace, change the status-quo from hunching over a desk to increasing stand-up and walking meetings to ultimately change the overall health of the state and the entire country. Today, we want to influence you. Stand up. Right now. Move. It’s because we care about you and we know there’s hope: taking short mini-breaks can lower blood sugar and benefit your entire body. OK, get moving: Deskercise! 33 Smart Ways to Exercise at Work HR professionals and management who want to influence a healthy change within their corporate environment, instill practices that decrease chronic disease and pain and what is good for productivity may benefit from the following conference and training programs offered this spring. 2015 ND Worksite Wellness Summit West, Bismarck May 13, 2015 - Learn about the relationship between the work environment, employee health and company profitability, discover the six critical domains of brain health and cutting-edge research on the effects of exercise, and discuss effect of culture on the well-being of the workplace and team members. Gearing Up for Worksite Wellness, is a 2-day small-group workshop June 15 & 16, 2015 in Bismarck for HR, managers, worksite wellness coordinators to start, build and maintain a custom worksite wellness program for their business. Register and more information on worksite wellness. Now stand up. Move. Rachel, Reach Partners When you sell out a day or two before an event you get one option: congratulate yourself on good budgeting and keep plugging away at the last minute details you need to complete to pull it off. To our extreme pleasure, we sold out an event, twice. Once three weeks before the event and again eleven days before.
When you sell out weeks before an event, you get options: 1. Open a bottle of champagne celebrate that your event will go as planned knowing you have a strong plan of action, or 2. Pour a cup of coffee, grab a pencil, sit down and consider how to make adjustments to accommodate more people. Adjustments can mean a variety of considerations from the extreme: secure a new venue or add another day to the less drastic change of furniture or room layout. Each carries additional questions that relates to settings, seating, menu, budget, staffing, and materials. Don’t Sell Out Strategy. To make the important decisions to change an event, circle back to the strategy. What’s the simplest reason to host the thing in the first place? To make money? Connect people? Educate? Go through your strategy and think through how all, not just the additional, people will be served. Do the math. All of it. How many additional tickets you have to sell to make financial sense of the added work to reconfigure the setting for new seating and additional menu items, the material and staff time? Will everyone get what they paid for? Consider the time. Do you have enough time and energy to pull it off? Do you have enough staff to manage the day with additional people? Can you order and ship more give-its for the swag bag? Print more materials for the packet? Make additional custom birch-bark name badges? Consider the place. Sure, maybe you CAN fit 75 more people in the back of the room, but really, SHOULD you make them stand? Carry the torch. Don’t forget about messages! Can you quickly create a new plan to clearly communicate the new world order? Do you need to create additional signs or activities to maximize your space or guide people to the new meeting place? Congratulations you sold out! Rachel Reach Partners Why is Reach Partners such sticklers for thinking through process before execution? We don’t want to waste time or resources and we want the experience for the user to be as seamless as possible to provide good customer service. Often, we only notice an issue or a problem comes to bear when something doesn’t work or was missed in the planning. For example, in more than a few instances, one of us signed-up our team to attend an event to only find the event organizers did not require emails for each registrant. Later, when information was emailed out to attendees many people were missed (including those on our team). Let’s learn from other’s mistakes and consider a few items when thinking through the registration process for your next event. How well do you know your own event?
Think through the desired outcomes to develop a list of items to collect from each attendee. What do you need besides first, last and payment information? Does the event include time to network, share a story? Do attendees need a special name badge with business information, a “contact me” QR code or icon to differentiate groups within the event? Do you need to know how many chicken dinners to order for lunch or if someone has a raging allergy to Milk Duds? Is there a particular track attendees wish to take or mandatory sessions for a particular job title? Is there an age minimum to participate in the sponsor-hosted Goth-themed pool party? Are some attending for continuing education points? Don’t be THAT planner and have to ask for pertinent details later in your process. There’s always something better you could be doing with your time and resources days or weeks before your event. Lesson learned: collect all the necessary information from the person paying but also those who’ll be in attendance. In using an online system like Eventbrite, you have the option to collect all kinds of information and customizable questions too. You have the power for good or evil with additional questions so please group additional questions in logical order. Also, do ask for information pertinent to the event and don’t use your registration process as a survey. Lastly, always collect email addresses so that you can communicate any last minute event details or share a sponsor’s coupon for a bag of string cheese. Rachel Reach Partners |
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