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3 tricks to get more from conferences

Illustration of a person handing out business cards and ideas

Bringing your networking A-game to a conference is important. But it’s not the only thing you’ll need to take with you. If you want to make connections that count, meet the right influencers and – of course – grow your business or land the job of your dreams, you’ll want to brush up on the best ways to ace your next conference.

Before the conference

Plan ahead. If you’ve got deadlines looming, you’ll be distracted so either deliver your stuff in advance or shift the deadlines. You’ll want breathing room – your aim is to be relaxed and undistracted to maximize your mingling.

Next, turn your mind to why you’re attending this event. Are you looking to learn a new skill? Or looking for new clients? Or service providers? Conferences often have programs with a range of events, so make the most of these by matching your intention with the session. Save skill-learning for the expert lectures, finding clients at lunchtime mixers and service providers during happy hour. Whichever way you slice it, you’ll want to have a clear focus – ask yourself: ‘what do I want to get from this day?’

If your focus is growing your own profile, being active on the event hashtag with your social handle is a great way to be visible, start new conversations and make more connections. Familiarize yourself with the speakers and their chosen subject matter, then find the ones that most closely fit your goals from the event. Speaking directly to the right influencers can have a huge impact.

With a week to go, now is the time to refresh your Business Cards. Do they leave a lasting impression? Do they have the most up to date contact details? Yes to all this? Ok, you’re ready to level up with NFC-enabled Business Cards+. These cards can be tapped on the back of an Android phone, giving your recipient instant access to whatever destination you’ve selected, i.e. a Linkedin profile page, your new app download page or your latest album on Spotify. Cool right?

How-to Conference

While you’re there

Now you’ve arrived fresh and ready to implement your game plan! If you’re meeting a lot of people in the same day, it’s easy to get both overwhelmed and forget who you spoke to about what. No one is good with names right?! But as you’re meeting people and exchanging Business Cards make sure that before you move on to, you take a few moments to send them a message referring to yourself and what you spoke about. For example, “Hi, Toby! We met at the keynote today and talked about Kanye and sales strategy. Let’s stay in touch about our plans for 2017. Next time you’re in Boston, lunch is on me!” Cementing connections right then and there works better than trying to pick through a heap of cards when you’re back in the office, days later, and trying to remember your Mikes from your Marys.

Another great way of tracking conversations and contacts is to use Evernote, an app which has a great function allowing you to take pictures of Business Cards. The information on the card is then automatically added to your phone contacts list. Cool, right? And of course, there’s LinkedIn – but we don’t need to tell you how to use that…

Finally, at the end of each day, organize all of the Business Cards you’ve received. Keep the ones you need, sort them into relevant groups, make notes of your next actions or thoughts and get rid of the ones you don’t need. Doing this each day for a few minutes saves you hours further down the line, trust us.

How-to Conference

After the conference

You made it! Post-conference glow usually last 48 hours before you’re knee deep in email and to-do lists. So to keep it fresh, refer back to your document no later than a week later. Set yourself a helpful reminder to either arrange a time to meet, speak or simply a thank the people you met for their time and attention. If you really want to stand out, make the connection offline too – a personalized. Notecard is a great physical reminder of the relationship you’ve just started. If you don’t have any yet, it’s time to stock up – try one of these beautiful, professional templates to get you started. Happy conferencing!

Let’s face it: networking events can be intimidating. You’re worried about what to talk about, how to represent your company, and how to show off the best version of yourself. Thankfully, with a little planning, you can keep your nerves at bay and network like a pro. Try out these tips at your next big networking event to ensure you score that second meeting.

Networking dos

  • Unless someone is working at a company booth, it’s always nice to start your conversation with a question about the person’s interests. By opening with, “What are you most excited for this week?”, you differentiate yourself from those who initiate conversations with their own interests in mind. In other words, you highlight that you’re interested in them as a human, rather than just a business connection.
  • Yet while you might want to be remembered most for your conversational skills, a large part of making a good impression is doing your research. Make a list of goals before you arrive at the event, and target a few key attendees who can help you meet them. For example, maybe you want to pitch your latest product update to five people. Find out who’s attending from the event page or organizer, note who’s most relevant to you, and reach out to them on Twitter or LinkedIn beforehand. A pre-event intro could even make a good in-person ice-breaker.
  • While you’re at an event, make sure to demonstrate your value in person. There’s only so much you can do to communicate your offering online, so while you are networking, take the opportunity to do a product demonstration or field questions about your company. These in-person meetings allow you to put a voice to your brand that could seal the deal for new prospects.

Networking don’ts

  • Aside from snagging lots of free stuff, the purpose of attending trade shows and conferences is to meet leads— and hopefully convert them into clients down the road. But, as we mentioned, that doesn’t mean that you should treat everyone like a walking dollar sign.
  • Instead of rushing to get your pitch out, listen actively to the people you meet. And, as Dale Carnegie would advise, make sure to use their name in conversation. As he suggests in How To Win Friends and Influence People, “A person’s name, to that person, is the sweetest, most important sound in any language.” So start working on your memory now!
  • It sounds antithetical to the very spirit of networking, but don’t hand your business card out to every person you see. For example, CEOs get tons of business cards every day. However, this method of interacting forces the person to accept their contact information, even if they’re not genuinely interested. Instead, simply ask for their card. This approach highlights your interest in the person, and suggests that you’re not interacting with them solely to sell your services— even if you are. No judgment.
  • Lastly, don’t head into the event space without an idea of the layout. You could easily waste an hour trying to figure out where all the B2B Marketing panels are. Instead, check out the event’s website in advance. If a detailed schedule and map aren’t available, simply call the organizers and ask for an emailed PDF. Boom. Now you can maximize your time for networking and learning.

 

Want more networking tips and tricks? Click here to download our new infographic.

Every idea should have its shot, and every creative should have their moment. That’s the principle that Indiegogo was founded on in 2007, and years later, the crowdfunding platform has helped entrepreneurs all around the world turn their ideas into reality. We chatted with Erica Labovitz, Indiegogo’s head of integrated marketing, about how they got their own start, and why they keep customer stories at the center of the business model and brand.

How Indiegogo got its groove

When Indiegogo launched back in 2007, the idea of crowdfunding was virtually nonexistent. “It just wasn’t a word that people used yet,” Labovitz says. “All funding was done through venture capital firms, bank loans, or donation.” But much like the way a then-young PayPal would change the way people managed money online, Indiegogo was soon to catalyze a transformation of how startups found investment.

As funders and company founders warmed to the concept of cash coming not from one or two major investors but from a crowd of micro-investors, competitor platforms began to sprout around the web. Still, Indiegogo held its ground with a few unique points.

“Historically, we were the only open platform, meaning that we have no application process for campaigns,” Labovitz explains. (Other crowdfunding platforms have restrictions on the types of projects accepted.)

Indiegogo is also global, with campaigns in 223 countries around the world. “We’ve always stayed true to our mission to allow anyone access to capital, and have remained open to all types of projects that meet our terms of use,” Labovitz says.

Community is central to the brand

Campaigners and funders have come together to accomplish a range of amazing things — from uniting to help the nation of Greece with its immense debt, to raising over $4.5 million to bring Super Troopers 2 to the big screen. These campaigns changed the personal funding landscape and got people thinking about just how much can be accomplished through the power of crowdfunding. “It’s impossible to say which is the most successful, since success is about a lot more than funds raised,” Labovitz says, “but we’ve had tons of memorable campaigns over the years.”

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Brown
Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Brown

In 2014, Indiegogo underwent a comprehensive rebrand and the team decided to make its community of backers and project owners the focus.

“Our customers have always been central to what we do.”

Today, stories of the incredible projects funded on Indiegogo are threaded throughout the company’s marketing materials, from its website and newsletters to social media channels. The team even took storytelling onto its business cards, using MOO’s Printfinity tech to showcase a different, awesome customer story on the back of each business card. That means employees can pick and choose the right featured story for the person they’re going to meet — say, Super Troopers 2 for the media executive in Los Angeles, and Ubuntu Edge for the technology campaigner in New York City.

Indiegogo marketing materials

“It’s a nice opportunity for us to share our entrepreneurs’ stories when we meet people in person and tell them about the impact Indiegogo is making,” Labovitz says. “It’s been a big hit!”

A culture of customer support

The appeal of Indiegogo also lies in its commitment to the customer experience — and that’s something that continues to evolve every day. “We are always developing product features to improve the process for both campaigners and backers,” says Labovitz.

To that end, the company introduced a campaign strategist team, making Indiegogo the only crowdfunding platform that works directly with project owners to bring ideas to life. It has formed partnerships with major retailers including Arrow Electronics, Brookstone, Newegg, and Target to help get new products on the shelves. It also provides online resources to help campaigners launch and market their projects, and constantly refines its platform to make it easier for backers to find campaigns they’ll love.

“Now, we are really setting ourselves apart by being the best partner for entrepreneurs throughout their entire journey of bringing a product to market,” Labovitz says.

Indiegogo team

Bringing ideas to life is what Indiegogo is all about – which is why the Indiegogo brand story is so tightly weaved with the stories of its users and the projects they’re passionate about. “Our customers have always been central to what we are doing at Indiegogo, and we want to showcase them in any way possible,” Labovitz says.


Tell your brand story with MOO Business Services

At MOO, we’ve been helping people make their mark in the world with amazing quality print products for over a decade. And as our customers have grown, so has our service offering. That’s why for bigger businesses—with 10+ employees—we now offer MOO Business Services. It’s MOO + benefits. MOO Business Services combines dedicated account management with an easy online ordering platform and expert design services. It’s a complete package for businesses to give you more brand control and consistency—while saving you time, stress, and money in the process.

Fill out the form here and a friendly Account Manager will reach out to you.

OFFSET is an event for anyone with a love of good design. With a long list of incredible speakers, panel discussions and opportunities for expert career guidance, it’s the hot ticket for anyone in the creative industries. We caught up with Lisa Haran, the event’s co-director, to find out a bit more about her background – and what we can expect to experience. (more…)

There’s something a little magical about getting a package in the mail. A click here, a click there, and voilà! The object of your internet desire arrives. But if you’re in the business of sending packages through the post, what can you do for you brand stand out? Well, presentation can have a pretty big effect. Here are three easy ways you can add some bang to your box (and hopefully make more bucks in the process!).

1. Customize your box with a design that is not only eye-catching, but share-worthy.

We now live in an age where people share everything – they share their breakfasts, they share their hobbies, and they definitely share their purchases. Having a beautifully designed (and well-branded) box that someone will want to photograph alongside their purchase can help get the name out for your company. Packlane makes it easy to design a custom box for your products, with 3D online renderings and tiny minimum orders. Check out how Chris from Paleo Life Box customized their subscription box here.

2. Remind customers that businesses are human.

If you have the time (and handwriting skills!), a handwritten note can go a long way when it comes to impressing your customer. Ordering online can feel impersonal – so why not remind buyers that you’re a real business with real people working hard to ensure their order is perfect? There are dozens of affordable online stationery companies that can help you with designing a branded note. Also, if you don’t have the time to write a custom message, you can print stickers that feature an employee and stick them on any box they packaged, or add a “Packaged by _____” line on your custom box design that they can quickly fill in when they’re putting together an order.

3. Add a little freebie (and consider a partnership!)

Nothing that’ll break the bank, of course, but a freebie like custom stickers, buttons, totes, a sample scent, or even a coupon for their next purchase can help incentivize people to order again. If you don’t want to be responsible for coming up with an add-in, consider partnering with a like-minded company that’s looking for some free promotion. You can even go tit-for-tat and throw something small into their orders, doubling your reach. After all, who doesn’t love free stuff?

Written by Ashley Suarez

There’s something irreplaceable about putting pen to paper, whether you’re scribbling midnight ideas or jotting down a morning checklist. That’s one of the reasons we launched our new Hardcover Notebook. That and the fact we have an obsessive love of paper, of course.

Douglas Bevans, tutor at London’s Central Saint Martins art school and bookbinder, shares this love – and has done since setting foot in his grandfather’s San Francisco typesetting shop. We invited him to MOO HQ to talk about paper, illustration, binding – and why you can never have enough notebooks.

How did you come to be a bookbinder?

After working at my grandfather’s typesetting shop, I went to art school about six blocks from there and studied print-making, which I felt was somewhere between design and fine art. The love of bookbinding grew out of that because I didn’t really like things to go on a wall, I preferred things you could use. I was pursuing a career in illustration in the US, until I made the move across the pond in ’85.

What enticed you to move to London?

That’s a long story. There was a girl involved. The decision to stay here was instantaneous. I remember getting off the plane and taking the Piccadilly line into town. Each time the train would stop I’d look out and see a station full of illustrations. At that time photography had really taken over back where I was working in Los Angeles, so I was really happy to see illustration in abundance in London. I remember thinking to myself, “is this the promised land?”

What is so special about paper?

I’m obsessed with it. It’s an everyday thing you can make art with. It’s everywhere, yet you can make something fantastic out of it. It has that wonderful kind of commonality – you could make a hundred prints and give them to all your friends, but you could also make one print and sell it in a gallery. You can make anything with it – coffee cups, newspapers, clothes, money. It’s just fascinating.

What is it about bookbinding that appeals to you?

Whatever your medium, it’s important to know what came before. It’s interesting because not many people could afford a real fancy binding, so the most beautiful books – especially during the 16th and 17th century – would be printed in the same way but come with a paper wrapper. Not even attached like a paperback book – it was just a piece of paper wrapped around with the idea that you would some day get it bound. There’s so many fascinating processes; sewn, coptic, glued.

Do you carry a notebook?

Several. I carry a small one in my top pocket, as well as a larger one in my bag. I use them mostly for drawing and jotting down things I hear or think. I still find it a lot more natural than getting out my phone for a memo.

What makes the ideal notebook?

Apart from the quality of the paper, it depends what I use it for. Overall it’s got to be the ability for the pages to lie completely flat. Not something you see too often in notebooks as there are few binding processes that allow true lay-flat pages. It means pages will have no curvature and you can write as close to the centre as you need to without your hand placed in an awkward position. It’s much more functional.

Order your MOO Notebook now.

Words and photographs by Josh Fray