I am excited about a book that was two years in the making. It is a book that will hit all the universities in the country. It is a book that is simple but not simplistic. It is a book that will make events planning easier for the uninitiated. It will also be a book that will act as a review for veteran events manager and events organizer.

The book was born out of a discussion to offer resource materials for people and students who find it difficult to have one in our bookstores that are made by Filipinos.

I know the feeling of looking for a book with local authors in a particular subject matter. I scour heaven and earth during those moments to find one but, alas, my effort is like a journey taken by the early merchants in finding the promise land – it is like a quixotic journey.

So I also know the joy or hubris, if you may allow my indulgence, in finding a book that you are looking for. It is like winning lotto! The feeling is so great that you can hardly breathe because of extreme happiness.

The book I am talking about is for M.I.C.E. organizers and planners – a very select group who took upon their shoulders to slug it out with other countries in this very competitive industry. I remember Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Department of Tourism, saying that “our advantage in MICE is not on the physical structures but the excellent service our people provide”. I strongly agree.

Although I am hoping that our excellent service or people can be combined with excellent physical structures so that we can generate a compelling result in the MICE Industry. I want our country to produce a MICE result that will not only put a dent in the world but will cut a large chunk of the cake of this multibillion industry.

I want to be a proud MICE player (do not be mistaken, I am a proud Filipino MICE Player) with a country that has world class MICE products and services. I know that we will be there. Hopefully, I am still part of this industry when we reach that stature.

Anyways, I am getting ahead of myself. Going back the book, it is not only for upcoming MICE players but also for upcoming event managers, event organizer, exhibition managers, exhibition organizers, conference managers and conference organizers.

This is the book that is just a start of the many local books that will be produced on the MICE and Event Management Industry by PRACTITIONERS (this is the key selling point of this book!).

The book is entitled “ The Events Planning Manual” an apt title, produced by the Philippine Association of Convention and Exhibition Suppliers and Organizers (PACEOS) which I am part and a current board of director.

If you want to have a copy, you may contact me. You will only need to invest P295.00 for this easy to read and actionable book. A real bargain this I promise!

Event Technology will change and improve but there are timeless and unchangeable things in event management that all event managers and event organizers should keep into heart. These timeless gems are:

1.    Passion

It is hard to be an event manager, for that matter run an event management company. I should know it. We have been running a twelve year old company. If you do not have a big PASSION for this industry you will not stay long and your company will not stay long. Passion is what will keep you going. Any big problem is nothing because you have the resistance to overcome it because you have a big fire in your heart that is called Passion.

2.    Competence

If you do not have competence in this field your clients and potential clients will desert you. Competence is what makes other people calling your phone, asking you to work with them. Competence is what keeps the word of mouth marketing machine from spreading your company from potential clients.

3.    Creativity

The event management industry, the exhibition industry and convention industry is all about creativity. Creativity in content, execution, in generating buyers and other things that will make your event FRESH and act like a MAGNET for clients and potential clients. Your idea even if others argue that is similar to their ideas will always be DIFFERENT. You know why, it is because GOD IS IN THE DETAILS. The execution of the idea will always be different if placed to different hands.

4.    Efficiency

You must be efficient. Event Managers and Event Organizers must be like a Swiss watch in terms of efficiency. Yes, there is no excuse. Clients expect us to be efficient. If you are forgetting we called ourselves event organizer and event manager, we have no choice therefore but to be organized and great in management – in other words efficient.

5.    Resourcefulness

Even if we plan, Murphy’s Law will always catch up on us event organizers and event managers. The only way to counter this is to be resourceful. I have lots of stories about event organizers and event managers acting spontaneously because of the situation and their decisions proved brilliant in solving a problem. Example, in one of the event stories I am privileged to listened into, the dancers of the event failed to show up and there part in the program is about to start. The event organizer was able to gather available event staff and craft a simple dance number. The audience have no idea that people dancing in the stage are not the supposed dancers – the performance is clean and good and the event staff turned dancers generated a loud applause of appreciation.

6.    Values

No matter how good the event manager or organizers if they do not have values that are worth emulating then the event management company or exhibition company they are running are useless. No doubt about it, an event management company that do not have values and built only to make money will be short lived. Values are like compass, it will serve as a direction to the leaders of the event management companies. Values serves as a unique selling point (USP), clients love event management companies that embody values they can identify with.

7.    Relationships

In order to make a successful event management company or exhibition company, all members of the organization must value internal professional relationships and client relationships. Again, if we nurture staff and client relationships money will come. If we do not nurture staff and client relationships say goodbye to your event management company or exhibition company. The business of events is all about creating strong relationships with your people and clients.

8.    Trust

In event management and exhibition management, competence builds trust. Trust is what we must aspire to generate from our clients. If clients trust us then it is easy doing business with them. Clients will allow us to create events for them if they know we can be trusted. Clients will join or sponsor our exhibition if they know we can be trusted in delivering the results we promised.

We can still add from these eight attributes but for me these are the bedrock where we all can strengthen our event management companies.

Exlinkevents CMO bags two recognition awards in the recent Philippine Marketing Association (PMA) first monthly meetings held last January 30, 2012 at Tower Club, Paseo De Roxas, Makati City.

Michelle De Ocampo Ballesteros, Chief Marketing Officer, Exlinkevents was recognized for having PERFECT ATTENDANCE and PROFITABLE PROJECT. The Perfect Attendance Award is given to PMA members who have complete attendance in all PMA monthly meetings and activities. On the other hand, Profitable Project is given to members who have contributed net profits to the organization.

Last year, the Asiannovation Exhibition in Glorietta contributed a huge profit to PMA. Mitch Ballesteros and Exlinkevents helped PMA market and manage the particular project.

Exlinkevents under the leadership of Mitch Ballesteros is a consistent PMA member awardee and active in helping PMA forward its goals and objectives as an association.

Exlinkevents also helped in the marketing of Asiannovation Conference last year – an event that is very successful and one of the best conferences in the country.

Other awards given by PMA in the past years to Exlinkevents and Michelle Ballesteros are Haligi Awards, and Presidential Awards.

Michelle Ballesteros is active contributor in PMA’s Monthly General Meetings, Agora Awards, National Marketing Conference and other related activities. She was also a past board of directors of the association.

The Philippine Marketing Association is one of the oldest associations in the country. It is the leading marketing association in the country and contributed so much in the development and progress of the marketing industry.

On the other hand, Exlinkevents is one of the leading professional exhibition and congress organizer in the country (PEO and PCO). It organizes and manages an average of 20 to 30 events a year. Among the bigger exhibition events it organizes are MegaBalikbayan OFW Expo - now on its 10^th year, and International Beauty, Health and Wellness Expo (IBHWEX). As for conferences, last year it staged the first Loyalty and Rewards Conference – a very successful conference for retailers, banks and finance companies.

This year Exlinkevents is staging another ground breaking conferences: the Telemarketers Summit and Data Conference. The Telemarketers Summit is the first conference that aims to improve and increase the productivity of telemarketers of the companies. Data Conference is a conference aim at providing companies the right tools on how to read data and help them in making correct decisions.

Exlinkevents is also an active member of the Tourism Congress, PACEOS, PMAP, MAP, ASAP and PCCI.

These affiliations allow Exlinkevents to be an effective event management company in the Philippines. The affiliations also allow Exlinkevents to partner with other event management companies in the country and, most especially, in international arena. 

Last year, the event sector of the Advertising Suppliers Association of the Philippines agreed to implement this year 2013 the Intellectual Property Rights Cover Page.

This cover page is a milestone. This simple but meaningful cover page informs the clients that all materials presented by ASAP members are their properties and may not, except with our expressed written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other physical form or in other forms of electronic retrieval systems.

The Philippines Intellectual Property Code is one of the best laws in Asia. In fact, in one of the forums I have attended it was revealed that some countries use our law as benchmarks in crafting and improving their own Intellectual Property Code.

Since ASAP members are one of the best producers of creative concepts, its members are also the first to experience violation of their intellectual property rights.

In order to minimize and improve this situation, the Intellectual Property Rights Cover Page will be a standard staple in all presentations of ASAP members.

The Intellectual Property Rights Cover is hoped to act as one of the powerful means to educate and inform clients of the intellectual property rights of their partner suppliers. It is hoped that by including this cover page in presentations to all bidding materials of ASAP members violations committed by clients knowingly and unknowingly on this particular critical area will be lessened, or at best eliminated.

The Philippines is a nation of creative people. All over the world we are recognized and tapped for our creativity. This gift must be protected and respected; most especially, inside our country and in our industry.

There are two theories that come along with this action of ASAP in implementing the Intellectual Property Rights Cover Page. One is the “Broken Windows Theory” – this theory is popular in New York under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

During Mayor Giuliani’s term they found out that by repairing and preventing people in the ghetto in breaking the glass of windows in their community, they were able to eliminate crimes in that particular area. In addition, when the safety and security condition of that particular ghetto (a place where the highest number of crimes was recorded) improved, the nearby areas safety and security condition also improved.

This leads me to my second theory the “Butterfly Effect” which means that a butterfly that flaps its wings can alter the direction of the wind and, even, cause a major storm in another part of the world.

The second theory is akin to a ripple effect. The ASAP Intellectual Property Rights Cover Page if whole heartedly practiced by the members can create a healthy condition for our concepts, ideas and other things related to the creative process; and be given importance and respected by our clients.

We can even be the best case study on how Intellectual Property Rights are valued, but this is getting ahead of myself and the challenges our sector and ASAP members face in realizing this critical goal.

Last January 31, 2013 the Philippine Tourism Congress was held gathering all members of the industry. This is the second time the tourism congress was held. Compared last year where it is beset by problems on how to maximize this tool, the Tourism Congress this year is full of positive reports. 

In addition, the Tourism Congress is a forum where members, as far as Mindanao region, were able to voice their concerns.

The event’s theme “Philippine Tourism Towards Global Competitiveness and Sustainability” is very evident in the roster of speakers and the updates presented to the congress.

The Tourism Congress was attended by Hon. Ramon Jimenez, Sec. of the Department of Tourism, Under Secretary Daniel Corpuz, Tourism Planning and Promotions, Under Secretary Ma. Victoria Jasmin, Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Generation, Hon. Domingo Ramon Enerio III, COO, Tourism Promotions Board, Hon. Lorenzo Formoso, COO, Duty Free Philippines, Hon. Mark Lapid, COO, TIEZA.

All official gave positive reports that energize the congress. One of the positive news these officials shared is the breaching of 4 Million visitors that was achieved last year. Also, another thing to rejoice is the approved infrastructure projects that will definitely impact the progress of the industry.

I also wanted to give special mention to the emphasis place by Hon. Enerio about the emphasis on MICE Development and Promotion. However, I wish that besides promoting the country as a MICE destination, the government should have mentioned programs and incentives for MICE Players – I hope my ear is just weak but I did not hear anything on this aspect.

Important topics that were discussed in the event are: Philippine Tourism Towards Global Competitiveness by Mr. Grant Govertsen, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Union Gaming Research; Hospitality and Service Excellence for Global Competitiveness by Mr. Sean Mahoney, ADB Consultant on Skills Development Program for the Philippine Tourism Industry; Sustainable Tourism: Striking a Balance Between the Visitor – Experience, Natural Asset Protection and Direct Community Benefit.

The Davao delegation invitation for delegates to attend the MICECON 2013 is also a fresh sight in the event. The invitation is simple yet creative. Kudos, Davao and right now I know MICECON 2013 is successful because of the very hardworking and responsible Davao team.

The event is also allowed me to reconnect to old acquaintances and partners. Everybody is in a jovial mood. All the people I talked with are messengers of good news. No doubt, the Tourism Industry is on the upswing.

Right now, the country is the Darling of ASEAN. The economic indicators and the thumbs up we are receiving from financial analysts support this fact. But the challenge is to make this growth meaningful to our countrymen and sustainable – this is a challenge all players must join hands to realize.

However, for now what happened and what was accomplished will suffice.

Again, congratulations to a very meaningful tourism congress and let us all go back to buckle down to work.   

Work should be fun and challenging.

These two things give us the reason to go to work every day with passion and energy.

In Exlinkevents we strive to do that. We strive to make it FUN. This is the reason why we have two GREAT ORGANIZATIONAL OUTINGS A YEAR. Every place we go we strive to know it. We always believe that the people that go to a particular place are changed, and sometimes forever changed.

We also strive to make it CHALLENGING. Ask one of the Exlinkers and they will tell you the challenges they face in staging an event to make it successful. No doubt, for us the event is an ART.. It is like a blank canvass during the conceptualization stage and colors appear during the implementation stage – making it an ART, we are all proud of saying we have a small part in making it an ART.

So we now go to the most important reason we are discussing about the FUN and CHALLENGE, this year Exlinkevents further challenge its internal capacity by creating bigger events. When we say bigger we mean BIGGER! Now because of this we need additional people in sales and marketing.

In particular, we need people who have EXPERIENCE in sales and marketing. This is to shorten the learning curve of knowing the industry. This also speeds up the contribution of these lucky people to the vision that we set this year.

The vision is simple:  Create Business Events that will make an Impact to the Learning and Economic Development of the Country.

The FUN and CHALLENGE is the gravy of what we do and who we are.

Who we are defines what we do. This is very important. Exlinkers work not only for personal economic reasons but for improving our society, our country. In what we do, we create progress.

You see, we do business events like tradeshows that facilitate business transactions. We also create and manage conventions that act as vehicle for knowledge transfer and dissemination.

Every time we do what we do best, in our hearts and mind we know that we are making a better society, a better country. This knowledge is enough for us to KEEP MOVING FORWARD AND FLYING HIGHER.  

Now if you have the experience, send your resume to info@exlinkevents.com. If you do not have the experience but believes in our Vision we will give you a shot to be part of our family.

Yes, we need additional people to expand the panorama of the organization. Lastly, to make the group jump shots that we take yearly, in our out of town sorties, BETTER and BIGGER.

The buzzword right now is Relationship Marketing. However, even in the past one way to gain clients and maintain customers is by strengthening the relationships between the seller and the buyer.

But the current tough business environment made relationship marketing even more meaningful and compelling. It is a must for all companies who wanted to survive the brutal competitive environment.

Relationship Marketing makes doing business easier. Relationship marketing uses the common sense that people will care for you if you show first that you care for them.

Relationship Marketing develops trust and with a trust transformed like a strong Narra Tree, there is no doubt that continuous business is ensured.

One way of developing a strong relationship with your clients is by using the phone. Yes, by maximizing the affordable tool that is telemarketing.

You can use telemarketing by:

1.Greeting Clients During their Birthdays

2.    Greeting Clients A Good Day

3.    Calling Clients Just To Know How They are Doing

These are simple things but are very important things for a human being (all your clients are human beings, if you are forgetting about this fact).

This fact gives telemarketing a new meaning. For majority, telemarketing is about pushing sales. Yes it is but it is not only that. We now can see that telemarketing is one of the best ways to do Relationship Marketing.

A Telemarketer Saves A Client’s Day

There is one story that I love about Telemarketing. It begins like this, a telemarketer called a client that has not yet done any business to his company. During this time the client is undergoing an emotional situation. The client had a very ugly fight with her husband.

At first, the client is very mad for the call she received with the telemarketer. Sensing that this is not the best time to sell, the telemarketer sincerely asks the client how she is feeling today. This question led the client to open up with the telemarketer.

The great thing with the telemarketer is the he is a good listener. He listened intently and emphatically to the client. The client feeling his sincerity opened up. The telemarketer did not advice anything, he just listens and, from time to time, answered and asked questions. The client became comfortable with the telemarketer because of this gesture.

After the emotional outpouring to the telemarketer the client felt good. Anyone who has made an emotional release will feel good. The client say thank you to the telemarketer for giving her time to listen to her. The telemarketer just says “no problem” he felt the need to do it and said goodbye.

After a week, the client called the telemarketer and did business with him. She gave the telemarketer a big sale. The telemarketer earned the Sales Achiever of the month in his company because of this account. End of story.

The lesson now is that Relationship takes time with the client. Telemarketing is a powerful tool, we just have to know how to use it most especially in our quest to do Relationship Marketing.

  

There are rules to make your job as telemarketers easier. Here are 3 Rules to remember to make it more fun and, yes, easier!

1.    Know Who Your Calling

If you know who you are calling, like if he is a manager, you will understand that a telephone conversation with him/her must be precise and will not waste his time. In addition, if he allows an extended conversation you can dwell on his interests – people love talking about their interests. Allowing him to extend the conversation in his areas of interest allows you to establish an initial trust with the person.

2.    Schedule the Call

People hate telemarketers that gate crash. Since we have emails and mobile phones, we can use this tool to schedule a telemarketing conversation that he will feel comfortable talking and answering you in the phone.

If telemarketers do this the term cold calling is gone since there is an initial awareness by the one receiving the call that the telemarketer will call and, best of all, he is expecting it.

3.    Inform the client how long will the conversation last

Time is of the essence to everybody, most especially those that are holding supervisory and managerial positions. If you the telemarketer promised that the conversation will last for 5 minutes make sure it ends five minutes or else you lose your credibility. But if you feel that the client is willing to extend then ask permission, if he obliges then you have the opportunity to further convince him about what you are offering.

These simple rules are all about being prepared and being respectful. Simple it may seem but this helps the telemarketing profession a respected profession most especially in the Philippines.

He is quiet. He just seat in his corner cubicle and opens his work computer. After this simple ritual, he clicks the adobe Photoshop icon and a new world is created, a new universe traversed.

He has been wielding his magic in Exlinkevents for five years by creating logos and other graphic design requirements of the organization and clients.

Yes, he is quiet like graphic artists are. But make no mistakes about him, his scarce shared observations and comments are deep and sometimes mental. It is a sort of out of this world experience that gives you a wide grin or sometimes asphyxiation for laughing too much.

He only talks a lot when he is drunk and it happens during company outings.

He is quiet but his silence is the calmness that allowed Exlinkevents to have wonderful logos and designs, for five years that has been the case and will continue to be a commonplace to this chaotic world that he seems not to mind.

So Fox I raise a toast to this long overdue piece.

Thank you very much Fox for spending your five years in Exlinkevents productively. We hope to have you for many more years to come.  

And please remind me, we will have to change the red wine you are holding into Mardi Gras Vodka the only key to make you express your PURE LOVE ( if you know what I mean).