Here’s my list of resolutions for 2006 - please add yours in the comments or on your own blog and I will link back to them!

1) Reduce our exhibitor’s costs outside of booth space and sponsorships by 20% so that I can increase our booth space and sponsorships revenue by 20%
Every dollar spent on overtime, drayage, labor, late order and on-site fees etc. is a dollar that exhibitor can’t spend on pre-show mailings, attendee bag inserts, hallway billboards, or even bigger booth space. I will find ways to reduce these fees and at the same time show exhibitors the value of spending those saved dollars on reaching the attendees.

2) Find 5 new ways to keep attendees engaged between shows
After every show, the organizer takes a few days, maybe even a couple weeks, to breathe, re-evaluate, and then start right back at it for the next one. The trouble is, it feels like I’m constantly starting from scratch on a brand new business, working just as hard to attract the attendees all over again. There must be a better way. I’m going to find at least five ways to keep our attendees involved and talking - to keep the momentum going between shows so that we don’t have to spend so much money getting the train started from a dead stop again. Message boards, regularly scheduled online classes between Expos, podcasts etc will be part of it, but I need something “revolutionary” - something more creative than an email newsletter or a “save the date” postcard. I’m going to find it and create a category in the budget just for “between show” marketing activities.

3) Come under budget for the general contractor line item
I’m not sure why in the world this has been so difficult. It seems the only way we’ve been monitoring this is looking at the bill from the general contractor after the show and realizing that we either made it or went over - usually it’s “how the hell did we go this far over?” NO MORE. By gosh, if we have to we are going to scrutinize every banner hung, every square foot of carpet layed, and figure out once and for all how to NOT spend more than we budgeted. My gut says it’s a lot of on-site stuff that puts it over the top. We’ll need some help from Champion on this one. I’m going to give them our budget and tell them I want to know the moment we are at 90% of the budget - when we are at that point every single thing will need to be approved by me personally if not already scheduled/contracted. It’s going to be a hassle - but it MUST be done.

4) Reduce my direct mail budget by 50%
Printing and postage were big line items for the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference. Direct mail works, but if any attendee base is “gettable” with online initiatives, this is the one. Grassroots, online initiatives are often less expensive, more customizable, and faster to design and roll-out than direct mail. By 2007, I want to do all of our tradeshows without a single piece of printed attendee or exhibitor sales literature.

5) Bring more duties in-house
Up to this point, I have outsourced literally everything. Sales, meeting planning, registration, marketing, etc. If I’m going to build true value for the company I need to slowly bring these things in-house and hire full-time employees that work in our office rather than from home. I’ve already hired a well-rounded software engineer to function as a one-person IT department who will begin building our technology infrastructure and find new online revenue sources. The next step is in-house sales. The benefits of a virtual company are compelling, but it’s time to bring everyone together in our new offices (move in date: Feb. 1st 2006 - just signed the lease today!)