These past few months I have neglected to post anything on my website which is a shame. Although I have been super busy which is a great sign on a fun project called Neonology.

The study of the new, Neonology is all about promoting a welcoming, safe and inclusive community for all youth. Neonology encourage today’s youth, teachers, school administrators and parents to become leaders of change and help silence stereotypes and prejudices.

The project provides youth with the tools to understand the impact power and privilege has on their lives, teachers and administrators with the means to become aware of the power they have to create an anti-oppressive teaching culture, and parents will a deeper awareness of the complexities and intricacies of their children’s social framework.

During this time I have worn several colourful hats during the development stage of this project. With no real communications plan in place I stepped in to help the North Shore Multicultural Society grow this project into full fruition. Which means that I worked with them on their brand while working alongside an illustrator to get the vision and message on to paper and online.

Our next step was to create a content strategy of what the website would hold for youth. Once the framework of the website was in place, I built their channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to help share their message online. Because this project was more visual than content rich, I decided to bring in a film production company to create a promo video for their audience to share.

Did you know that Neonology workshops are in a few high schools across the North Shore and over 1000 students gained a new perspective this year and they are continuing to gain more interest.

Our next step is to get some publicity around the workshops so that they could implement them into other schools around the world but their first priority is the have them across the North Shore.

Lastly we will be launching an event for the students, which will have an arrage of fun workshops focussed on movement physically. Ironically Neonology is a MOVEMENT.

This week on Collaborative Corner, Conny Millard talks about the importance of promoting your trade show booth and creating a strategy that will deliver results after the event.

It is the season for conferences, trade shows and business events with thousands of dollars being spent on generating more sales leads and key business connections in your industry.

Getting a good return on the company’s investment on these events is crucial and is typically monitored by the management. From organizing the booth, to getting marketing materials ready, inviting key clients, to planning staff cover, every aspect of a trade show undergoes careful planning and meticulous execution and takes a lot to time to prepare.

In all the busyness surrounding the event, two things are often overlooked, one is promoting your booth to existing, past and potential clients, suppliers or target audiences and the other is the lack of follow up with every visitor to the booth afterwards.

As a sales executive, I have been attending many trade shows either as an exhibitor or as a visitor. As senior management during my corporate years, I have also had the task of measuring the returns and consider the true value to the company of investing into attending these events.

It is proven, that however well the booth and preparations are taken care off, only with the right communication strategy as well as committed immediate follow up with all connections made, are the returns worth the investment.

Therefore when planning your next event, allow for additional funds for promotion starting at least 4 weeks in advance to ensure, your target audience is able to attend.

After the event, implement a system that captures all contacts to receive a written communication within 48 hours, thanking them for their visit to your booth and arranging follow up actions.

This is the proven way to a successful trade show marketing strategy!

I am pleased to announce that my site as been re-vamped and feeling a lot better than it did before.

I am also really excited to announce that I am collaborating with a few colleagues who will be posting articles on my site. They specialize in business development, web and content management, SEO, graphic design, strategic and creative thinking.

Every Tuesday I will add one of their articles and call this post ‘Collaborative Corner’ so stay tuned!