eROI Event

Okay, so it is an Education theme.

We went silent for awhile but now we have come back with a vengeance. Over the last two months we have been working at designing, revising, designing and producing a number of free eROI Event themes for you, our beloved followers, to use at your free will. Below are a couple screen-shots and links to three files – header.txt (the header HTML file), footer.txt (the footer HTML file) and css.txt (the css file). Feel free to download, implement, edit to your heart’s desire. We put these out there so you have some choices and a good starting place for your eROI Event look and feel. Have fun and let us know what you think of these themes as we roll them out over the next few weeks.

EDUCATION

Perfect for lectures, workshops or school related events, this theme lets your audience know its time to get down to business (or knowledge). Evoking the feeling of sitting at your desk, this theme is easy on the eyes, yet uncluttered and to the point. Professional enough for staff, but casual enough for students.

Download the Education ZIP file

How do you take a movie with a $15,000 dollar budget that was originally released more than two years ago and blast it into the stratosphere in terms of popularity? Apparently viral promotion is the answer here.Paranormal Activity a film by unknown director Oren Peli which was originally screened at Screamdance Film Festival in fall 2007, has become the talk of the internet. It seems there are two main reasons for this, the first being that it is phenomenally terrifying (I’m too scared to see it), and Paramount has been using some interesting tactics to promote it in the online realm.

One of the main pushes for this effort is the “Demand an Event” feature on Eventful which is featuring the film on the site home page. Users can come on and “demand” that Paranormal Activity be shown in their city, Paramount will respond to the most demanded cities by having midnight screenings of the film in those locations. By doing this, the experience is transcending a normal trip to the movies and is turning itself into a genuine event. The results have been astounding. As of this writing, Paranormal Activity has over a million demands on Eventful, more than twice the current second demanded performer. It also has strong presences on Facebook, and Twitter where it has quickly garnered a large following. Each of these portals contains mostly positive buzz about the film, including lots of posts and lively discussion on the Facebook message board.

I think this case is a great example of how simple, and generally inexpensive social media tactics can be used to generate hype, attendance, and revenue for an event. If a person demanded on Eventful that the film come to their city, they are almost guaranteed to go see it, so the demanding works not only as a marketing tool, but also can help gauge future revenue and add more in depth metrics to your event analytics. Though the same tactics may not be able to work for your particular event, this can help give you an idea of how creative and slightly unorthodox methods can be used to create excitement and buzz for your next event.

Have you used Eventful to have people demand your event? Are there other similar platforms that have been effective for you? Let us know in the comments section.

The first step to putting on a great event is figuring out what the purpose of your event is. For a simple example, think about a birthday party. The purpose of the event is to celebrate your (or your friend’s) birthday and for that person and the guests to have a fun time. This purpose will dictate everything else about the event. For a birthday party you would want friends and family to attend, maybe acquaintances, but not just random people. The party should probably be at the birthday boy or girl’s house or possibly a fun location such as a restaurant or bar. Attendees will need to bring a gift with them. You will need some sort of snacks or food to appease the guests, and of course, a cake and candles. You will probably promote the party through personal contact, phone, or letters, maybe even eROI Event. It is also important to think about special factors, if it is a surprise birthday party you will need to make different accommodations for that, secret invites, a cover story to fool the birthday boy or girl, etc.

The same logic applies to any other type of event you might want to host. Rather than starting by planning the logistics and outward appearance of your event, think about why you are putting in the time and effort to make your event a reality. If the purpose is strong and meaningful, the venue, refreshments, and attendees will all fall into place. By doing this you will not only make the event more successful, but it will be more rewarding to your attendees and ultimately, your business.

Over Labor Day weekend I headed up to North to attend the Dave Matthews Band concert at The Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington. This event, which is commonly referred to as simply “Dave”, without further explanation for band name or location, is a three night concert with camping and debauchery during the day, happens every year over Labor Day weekend.

This was my first year attending the event, but I’m pretty sure I was the only one. My buddy who convinced me to go has been to 20 Dave concerts over the years (six at The Gorge I believe), and every person I ran into was ecstatic to meet a first timer, as they had also been to Dave many years running. The simple explanation might just be that people from the Northwest really enjoy Dave Matthews Band and that The Gorge Amphitheater is a great venue, but I think there is more to it than that.

I think the reason for it’s popular following is that the event has a great sense of community. This all starts with the band itself, who come back to play every year, talk on the mic during the show about how much they love playing the event annually, and are known to be seen riding around the campgrounds on their bikes. It works down from there, everyone camping is amazingly social, hippie vendors sell great fresh food, people reminisce about their past experiences at Dave.

When you are planning future events for your organization, remember to keep in mind that the sense of community is what will keep people talking, it is what will keep people coming back every year, and it is what has people bring their friends to it to experience the magic for the first time. Build that community from the top down, the event organizers and the stars of the show should be enthusiastic and positive about the event, the energy and community will work their way down from there.

How do you create committed followers? What are some events you always attend? Sound off in the comments section.

Generally when we think of events the mental image is a group of people gathering at a specific place and interacting. Talking, networking, eating, dancing, etc. But with the huge proliferation of social media and digital connections, we may need to expand our concept of what an event really is. Here are three examples of “events” that are unique because of their format and method of connection.

The Invisible Festival
I was doing some research on social media applications for music and stumbled upon a really cool “event” that happened recently. The happening in question is called The Invisible Festival. It utilized Spotify, a music social media platform to allow all of the participants in The Invisible Festival to listen to the same music at their gatherings. The event took place over a weekend, with different people at different locations hosting their own individual parties and tuning in to the Spotify playlists created for the festival.

The creators supported the individual gatherings with fun extras like printable wristbands for participants, a unified dress code, and encouraging everyone to take pictures (to be posted during and after the event), and to tweet (live stream on the website during the event.)

World of Warcraft Brewfest
Last year one of my good friend’s younger brothers was being a typical rebellious tween and got grounded by his parents. This was upsetting to him, not because he wouldn’t be able to spend time with his friends, or go play sports, but because he was going to miss Brewfest in World of Warcraft. Before this instance I wasn’t even aware that this celebration existed (I have never played World of Warcraft), but it is nonetheless a very interesting look at a new type of event.

Players of all different species, guilds, and creeds come together to enjoy some in game brew (which blurs the players screen unless enjoyed in moderation), participate in a number of different activities, including Ram Racing, and win special prizes that can only be found at Brewfest. I had heard of corporate events taking place in Second Life, but this is a unique take on digital events and interactions.

Netflix Instant Parties
This is also a new phenomenon for online interactions. People with Netflix and an Xbox Live subscription can join up in a “Party” within the Netflix Instant watch interface on the Xbox 360. The avatars for each of the attendees will be present for the movie or TV showing and can interact with each other. Voice and text chat is also enabled, so you can discuss the mysteries of the hatch in LOST or act surprised when Bruce Willis turns out to be dead in The Sixth Sense.

What do you think about these new digital events? Have you heard of any other examples? Sound off in the comments section.

We are very excited that eROI is hosting Lunch 2.0 again September 16th and especially excited about eROI Event powering the registration. If you want to attend, you can register here.

Event Information:

Hosts: eROI

Where: 505 NW Couch, Suite 300, Portland, Oregon, 97209

When: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 from 12 PM to 2 PM

Register Now

Silicon Florist Adds:

We’re headed back to eROI for Portland Lunch 2.0, making this eROI Lunch 2.0.1 or something like that.

A lot has happened since they last hosted Lunch 2.0 back in April 2008, including the launch of their new event registration service, eROI Event.To showcase their new service, eROI wants your suggestions on what they should raffle off at their Lunch 2.0. Current suggestions include, robots (toy ones, I assume), gift certificates, and innocence.

I’m pulling for innocence, but it’s early. So, head over to the Lunch 2.0 event, register and suggest something for eROI to raffle. You’ll get a chance to test-drive eROI Event, and the winner will be selected from those who register there. If you don’t register, you can’t win the raffle.

Please also RSVP on Upcoming as usual, or only there, if you’re not into winning free stuff. As if. This tells the hosts how much grub to get, and if you’re vegetarian or vegan, make sure to drop a comment on the event page for planning, unless you don’t want to eat.

Read the whole post on Silicon Florist>>

Also posted on Calagator.org>>

As mentioned  here,  applying  a custom theme to to your event  to match your branding was designed to be extremely easy to do with eROI Event.  The positive response and feedback about the usability of  the interface has been so encouraging to see.    As we have begun applying themes to more and more customers sites we, along with our users,   have been documenting  the tips and tricks on how to most effectively apply a custom theme.

The ideas and shared knowledge has been great and it is exciting to see users engage with the product  and each other  in our  Support Forum. We have always believed in the philosophy of encouraging our clients to own their experience with eROI products and we look to their suggestions and feedback to help us carve out the future of our products. So please check out our Forum and don’t be shy! Keep sharing with us any tips and feedback  from your own experiences with eROI Event.

Also stay tuned as we will be providing a detailed customization guide for download soon!