This morning there is the official Protocol Ceremony with our Governor General and her Chinese counterpart (if you catch this on the news let me make it clear that the stage being used is the official venue of the Chines Expo Bureau - the bright red carpet and lectern flowers are all their aesthetic). The cultural component however is ours and features performers from the the afternoon Gala Concert.

The Gala Concert is being held at 3:30pm Shanghai time in the Auditorium of the Expo Centre and features nearly 100 performers from Australia including The Sydney Dance Company, Jessica Mauboy, Kate Miller-Heidke, Dan Sultan and his band, the Band of Brothers, the Umbilical Brothers, SRD Dance Company, Niki Vasilakis, William Barton, the Song Company and the Qantas Choir. The concert will be introduced by Her Excellency and attended by various VIP guest from both Australia and China as well as members of the public.

And then this evening Jessica, Kate, Dan, Band of Brothers and others will join our visiting artists (this week it’s the Martinez Brothers) and the house band in the Australian Pavilion for a Festival Celebration.

There may be some press so watch for it.

http://www.australianpavilion.com/en/default.aspx

Karen

George P. Johnson Experience Marketing (GPJ) has been ranked the number one Event Marketing Agency in the U.S. by Advertising Age Magazine in its closely-watched Agency Report, recognising the agency’s innovative approach to putting a mix of physical and digital experiences at the center of integrated marketing campaigns for many of the world’s top brands. This is the first time Ad Age has set aside a distinct category for event leaders.

Today, the nearly century-old global independent agency leads the event marketing space through a strategic, creative model that enables B2C and B2B brands to design and implement brand experiences that accelerate sales cycles, open new markets, retain customers and drive measurable ROI.

“We are incredibly gratified to receive this recognition from Advertising Age and very aware of the attention this casts on event marketing as a crucial way for brand marketers to cut through the clutter and engage audiences,” said Robert G. Vallee Jr., Chairman and CEO of GPJ. “Consumers and business customers require authentic, personalized, on-demand communication and marketers require results: integrated, strategic event marketing delivers on both counts.”

In the last year GPJ has created a number of high-profile programs for clients here in the U.S. and abroad, such as Cisco’s all-virtual Global Sales Experience (GSX) program, a multi-day B2B event that drew 19,000 attendees from 104 countries and 24 time zones. GSX included the first- ever use of an Alternate Reality Game in a virtual environment to drive audience engagement.

GPJ has long been a creative force in a number of industries including technology, healthcare, automotive, finance and consumer goods. The past two decades have seen the agency add capabilities in such as media and content development, entertainment marketing, interactive and other disciplines to create the industry’s leading one-source experiential services platform.

Importantly, the fact that the 2010 Annual Report includes an inaugural Event Marketing category also suggests that the increasingly idea-driven and strategic event marketing discipline is fast gaining a more powerful voice among all marketing channels, especially when aligned with the reach capabilities of digital marketing. As consumers increasingly self-select content and their brand experiences – and block out interruptive marketing – events are playing a larger role in helping brand marketers communicate their story in powerful, cost-effective ways.

“This honor is a confirmation of our long-term vision for how events will continue to evolve and grow within the marketing mix, which we’re championing through investments in the best strategic, creative, technology and execution talent in the industry,” said Jeffrey Rutchik, GPJ’s Senior Vice President, Client Services Worldwide and General Manager (Boston). “By focusing on performance, measurability and globally consistent campaigns built on great ideas, our intent is simply to provide clients with the proven results gained from truly integrated marketing programs.”

About George P. Johnson Experience Marketing
GPJ is a worldwide experience marketing agency that enables brand marketers to create great ideas and bring them to life through integrated live and online experiences and environments, helping them cut through marketplace noise, differentiate from the competition and create lasting relationships that directly impact the bottom line. Ranked by Advertising Age as the “#1 Event Marketing Agency” and consistently placing among the world’s top marketing agencies, GPJ provides its services through 26 offices around the world. The agency’s clients won 37 awards in 2008, five Ex Awards in 2009 and took home both the Grand Ex Award as well as the Best 100% Virtual Ex Award in 2010.

Anything we can do to contribute to a better environment for ourselves, and our children, can only be a good thing.

Please ensure that on Friday 26th March before you leave work that every piece of electronic equipment you have any relationship with in this building, and anything that you can see that has not been claimed, is switched off.

If you are able to do the same in your private life, we can only benefit.

Please think of this as one drop of water into a bucket that needs to be constantly refilled. 

In the long term journey of our lives anything that we might do to help can only contribute to a better world.

Best
Peter

[Learn more at http://www.earthhour.org.au/]

GPJ are looking for a marketing strategist with initiative and drive to join the team.

The successful applicant will be working with a world leading client. The primary objective of a GPJ Marketing Strategist is to provide our client teams with campaign design and event marketing consultation and know-how. Through such support we help our clients maximise their marketing investments through:

> Improving overall campaign design so they continue to drive the right outcomes that meet their marketing & communication objectives.
> Consideration of environmental factors and their impact on the planning and execution of marketing campaigns.
> Identify and share best practice that looks to continuously improve their marketing activity.
> Engage with their executives and senior marketing leads to help them plan, design and implement management systems and processes that improve their ability to deliver excellence in marketing.
> Lead and/or assist in the training and enablement of teams based through out a geographically dispersed region.
> Resolve agency / client issues and ensure that on-going value is delivered to our clients.
> Act as a critical support layer to GPJ country teams servicing the account.

A successful candidate needs to demonstrate:
> They have the experience and capability to navigate & manage complex, hierarchical corporate clients.
> Hands on knowledge about how to build campaign plans and lead the tactic briefing, development & deployment process. The broader the mix of communication types, the better.  Event & digital experience is a must.
> An understanding of how to manage the creative development process across multiple constituents within an agency.  Along with an ability to ‘critique’ creative messaging, graphics & design to ensure the creative response aligns to the client objectives & is executable in budget. Some level of exposure to the event space, is a must have. 
> That he or she is a good communicator and that they have worked in an international business environment.
> An understanding on how to conduct & apply market research. Experience in market, customer & competitive research is a must have. 
> A baseline understanding on the application of marketing metrics, also a must. 
> A previous history of people management as well as an ability to work in an autonomous environment.

Nice to Have…..
> Past working experience in B2B IT marketing, would enable a quicker uptake in terms of understanding the target audience needs, IT messaging & content and is favourable.

If you think it would be something you would like to pursue further please contact Carrie Ward at

The primary objective of this person is to assist the creative and operations team in the delivery of creative concepts, printing and collateral for projects.  This role will support research, development, implementation and delivery of ideas, concepts, deliverables and assets.

Our ideal candidate would have a design background and production management experience.

If you are interested in the position send your CV to Carrie Ward at or call 02 8569 7600.

In 2010 hybrid events will be in full view for as far as the eye can see. A virtual event significantly lowers costs for the host, while being cost and time efficient for exhibitors and attendees. At the same time, however, event exhibitors and attendees tell us that an online experience cannot properly replicate the handshake, the in-person meet-and-greet and the post-event cocktails. However there are several factors to consider when planning a hybrid event.

Audience Augmentation

When offering a virtual complement to your physical event, it’s natural to worry about the replication of the face-to-face venue. And while some amount of attendees will opt for your virtual option in lieu of the physical event, the hybrid events of 2009 resulted in significant audience augmentation - whereby the combined audience (virtual + physical) far exceeded the attendance that could have been generated from a physical-only or virtual-only event.

The virtual option allows event planners to capture audience members, whom they otherwise would have missed, whether it is because of budget, resource or location of the event.

By offering a virtual component, you provide a convenient option for those who are already inclined to attend (i.e. interested in your event content) – and you generate awareness to a global audience, drawing interest from potential attendees to your subsequent physical events. As a result, you not only augment the event experience this year, but you generate interest (and attendance leads) for next year.

Physical and Virtual Integration

Audience augmentation, (for example; extending the overall size of the event attendee base), is clearly a benefit – but, event planners should not stop there.  By creating innovative physical and virtual integration points, you also create audience experience augmentation. For the on-site attendee, imagine visiting a kiosk, where you can interact with a virtual attendee from across the globe.  By integrating the virtual audience, you significantly extend the pool of “networkers” far beyond the walls of the convention centre. For the virtual attendee the leverage webcams, streaming video (of presentations) and social networking tools bridge the physical experience online and give the virtual audience a feel and taste of the face-to-face experience.

Some potential integration points may include a video wall, text or webcam device to communicate with the virtual environment. It is also important to acknowledge the virtual audience during presentations and facilitate questions from this audience live. In addition, have on-site staff assigned to interact with virtual attendees. Strategically placed displays and monitors throughout the physical event may display activity within the virtual event and in social networks, for example, Twitter and Facebook.

Strategic Segment Features and Options

As you create multiple options for experiencing your event, keep clear priorities in mind. Do you prefer a physical attendance over a virtual one? Are you comfortable with equal (or more) attendance at virtual compared to physical?  If you’re offering guest (free) virtual access, along with a premium (paid) option, do you want to encourage more guest attendees to upgrade to a paid package?

Once you have you priorities set, be strategic in creating your features and options, so that you’re incenting users into the appropriate upgrade paths. If physical attendance is your priority, don’t make the virtual option “too good” – create tangible value in physical attendance (e.g. exclusive content [or opportunities to meet your executives in person], good food and post-event entertainment that is fun and generates a buzz.

For a paid virtual option, the free option should provide a taste but be sure to place your premium content behind a pay wall, incenting guest members to upgrade to gain access.  Beyond content, consider certain platform features – whereby access is available to paid members, but restricted from guest users.

Year 2010, Here We Come

We are very much looking forward to the coming year – we expect to see significant innovation in virtual and hybrid events and are excited to work with clients, partners and the industry on blazing new ground.

A few tips for a successful ‘Hybrid Event

’
Define your objectives and metrics:
Be clear about your objectives upfront so you can precisely measure the success of your hybrid event accordingly.

Plan ahead:
As with a virtual event, hybrid events are relatively new. We recommend alotting extra time for planning and to prepare for unforeseen issues, such as technology compatibility, firewalls, etc.

Survey your audience:
To create an engaging experience, be sure to survey your audience to understand the demographics and technographics. For example, if your audience is comfortable with video, then plan to incorporate video as part of your hybrid event.

Proper staffing:
The tendency is to have the same staff for the physical and virtual events. Provide dedicated staff to each to ensure that you’re addressing the needs of your audience in each format.

Blend the experience:
Create experiences that bring the virtual and physical events together. For instance, have a dedicated ask the expert session for virtual attendees.

Promote one event brand:
Whether physical or virtual, this is one event experience. Don’t overemphasize one format over the other in your marketing and communications.

GPJ Digital Networked Assets Portal: The GPJ DNA Portal contains and shares (with the ability to upload), global strategy assets, case studies for event learning’s and direction a full media library, white papers and trend reports.

GPJ Experience Marketing Guidelines: For certain clients Experience Marketing Guidelines drive efficiencies with one event guidance document and ensure worldwide event planning consistency.
These guidelines (produced by GPJ and shared with peer agencies), enable event teams to plan, design and execute events and provide a memorable event experience.

Event Resource Kits: GPJ Australia often provides worldwide guidance to GPJ and third party agencies execution events by providing a resource kit which contains messaging, strategy and assets. This experience would be effective to Optus in smaller self-executed scenarios.

Worldwide Execution: As a global company GPJ often executes events in several countries consecutively. GPJ Australia often uses offices in its network to execute events abroad resulting in consistency and cost savings.

Enterprise Resource Planning: GPJs ERP system creates reports that help improve the efficiency of the business. Whatever the report, the solution has empowers users to take action on trusted data that is delivered in real time, rather than having to use manually generated data. The overarching goal is to ensure that business processes are standardised throughout all offices, which helps with allocating resources most effectively.

Leveraging strategy: GPJ’s strategic service model supports our event design and delivery through ensuring our event executions are well planned, innovative, efficient and of a high quality. We do this through developing a clear and consistent understanding of the objectives and performance of our activities, and their role within our client’s overall marketing function. 

GPJ’s strategic services stretch across its global network, enabling us to draw on support and learning’s from other regions, thus enhancing our ability to deliver differentiated event experiences and operational efficiencies to the Australian market.

Strategic services include event portfolio planning, event sponsorship analysis, event performance management and analysis (i.e. metrics) and event research & intelligence. 

In a nutshell - GPJ Australia has made the exciting decision to bring in a Producer of Hybrid Experiences in order to galvanise our offerings in this space. This is a new role which will enable GPJ to provide an even more robust delivery of the GPJ emerging hybrid model story to our clients. It is a natural progression for GPJ Australia in response to our clients’ changing needs and the desire to extend the face to face component of live events to incoporate online, social media and new technologies.

We have interviewed many candidates, all from various backgrounds - from university lecturers to self-confessed geeks and even a chief swashbuckler in the mix, and the key learning we have taken from the experience is that this is an incredibly unique role which requires a combination of creative flair, technical know-how, familiarity with the world of event management and the ability to have their finger on the pulse when it comes to new and emerging technologies and social media. The great thing is that these interviews have actually helped us internally understand more about how we can utilise this person to help better serve our clients and grow the business.

We are now in the final stages of interviewing and have a much clearer idea of how to make the most of this new role as an exciting way forward for GPJ. Stay tuned!

Note: If you are interested in applying for this position, please contact carrie.ward@gpj.com

Creativity in event management is evolving, as is the whole business of ‘wowing’ people and putting on a memorable show for corporate and government clients. Our increasingly global, connected and sophisticated culture is demanding a different approach.

In fact, one of the biggest influences on the world of event conception, planning and production may surprise many; our increasingly technologically advanced, social media and web 2.0 world means the ‘shelf life’ of an event is no longer contained to a specific date and location.

In addition, the increasingly strategic and sophisticated nature of today’s events has prompted much greater participation by clients in the creative process as they seek genuine collaboration to generate events that support the brand and messages they want their staff or customers to experience.

These two trends, as I see it, are the biggest factors shaping creativity in events today.

It is clear that living in an increasing state of flux, both in the technological as well as the business and economic spheres of life, is proving to provide fertile ground for creativity in the events industry.

In terms of increasing client collaboration, in my 20 years of experience in events including in my current role as Executive Creative Director, Australia at global event production organisation George P Johnson (GPJ),  I’ve never been more encouraged by the eagerness of our clients wanting to join the creative process. Gone are the days of taking a brief, going away to an agency ‘think tank’ only to return to the client when ready to present your ideas.

The new approach to collaborative creative thinking, where client and agency work together, generated winning concepts like Smart Light Sydney, the sustainable light installation which was a major component of the recent Vivid Sydney festival. One of GPJ’s Creative Directors, Anthony Bastic, worked in close collaboration from the outset with the Founder and Artistic Director of Smart Light Sydney, Mary-Anne Kyriakou.  From Anthony’s original idea to seek participation from Brian Eno, the world-renowned sound artist who lent great global appeal to the event, many additional stunning ideas emerged in brainstorms with Smart Light Sydney.

Clients benefit from our ‘Square 1’ meetings, where before the project even begins we gather together creative minds, ideally from different perspectives and experiences, to generate the most creative ideas that will truly entertain and engage guests at an event. The collaborative ideas generated not only help us shape the event itself, but often provide a host of additional brand ideas for clients to consider.

Companies such as Toyota have embraced creative ideas like the Hybrid Hub interactive display, which was an idea generated through a Square 1 meeting. The Hybrid Hub enables Toyota to educate employees and visiting participants on the new hybrid technology that is shaping the future of the auto industry. This interactive educational event has proved highly successful and could only have happened with the collaborative spirit of all parties.

Today, events in the world of 2.0, are really hybrid events with online discussion, blogging, tweeting, photo sharing and the like, extending the life of an event far beyond the date it is held.

So while every event still focuses on getting people together, entertaining and prompting them to think, to talk and to connect with a brand experience, the life of an event is no longer finite but rather begins an immeasurable array of possibilities through technology – so long as you get the creative concept and execution right, in the first place.

This exciting world of social media and technology, and cross-fertilisation happening between collaborating parties has created a number of exiting new event ideas.

It is an exciting time when events are being recognised as more than static happenings, but rather seen as potential stepping stones to endless possibilities – an image which truly frees the creative mind.

…Truly, Madly, Deeply magazine has gone monthly! Rest easy though, nothing else has changed. We’ll still be bringing you fresh content and relevant articles about our industry. This issue takes a look at projects from Sydney and Raumtechnik, good news and new work from North America. We continue to take a look at partners, new technologies and market trends.

VISIT THE TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY HOME PAGE HERE