The 13th annual WISE Symposium went off with great success last week. For the first time it was held at the Carrier Dome on the Syracuse University campus. This was by design so that students, particularly those at Whitman School of Management and the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship could attend. Sharing knowledge, experiences, and insight is one of biggest benefits of a symposium like WISE. Entrepreneurs from a variety of industries came from around Syracuse and around the country to ignite the passion of local women who own their own businesses or dream of doing so one day.

There were so many wonderful speakers, we couldn't hit everything, but here are some valuable takeaways that might help push you in the right direction for your business or endeavor. You can still see some of the tweets with hashtag #WISE2015.

• The federal government has a 5% goal of contracting with women and hasn't reached that goal yet. Maria Contreras-Sweet, administrator of the Small Business Administration encouraged attendees to get certified for government contracting.
  @MCS4Biz  @SBAgov
  
• A vision board can become something you walk by and don't interact enough with - Jamila Payne suggests you try a vision journal that you carry with you. Tape in pictures that speak to the areas of life you want to address.
  @jamilapayne
• Think about what you can or should do yourself (where the most value comes from you being personally involved), what you can delegate (what is taking you away from the things that will most help you achieve your goals), and what you can delete (things that no longer help you reach the specific goal you are trying to achieve). 
  @jamilapayne

Coincidentally, on the same day as WISE, Entrepreneur posted this article about key areas to delegate.

• Email is everyone else's to-do list for you. Take the first hour of every day, don't look at email, and work on your business, not in it. 
  @jamilapayne
• Reflective time management, a concept from Joanne DelBalso: Knowing exactly what you spend your time on can help you manage your day. For a few few weeks, track your time spent on the various activities you do and categorize them into six life centers: body (physical goals - health, wellness), brain (intellectual goals, things that stimulate your brain), being (spiritual goals, "me time"), time (organizational goals), people (nurturing those people most important to you, friends and family), and money (financial goals). When you see where your time goes, you are able to take actions to correct where time isn't being spent on the right things to reach your goals. @nofussacctng
• Joanne recommends a 'brain dump' at night: write down everything that's on your mind before bed; in the morning organize into action items or schedule appropriate meetings into your calendar.
  @nofusscctng

• An excuse is a declaration to yourself that the fulfillment of your desires isn't enough of a priority for you to do what is required.
  Tough love from Kelly Covert and Maggie Quinn.  @SBWHeart
• Shift your perception: are you looking at what is right or what is wrong? Most people are trained to look at the negative, and that allows you to leave options out.
  @SBWHeart
• Three  reasons it's hard to make a decision: you're not equipped, you're not empowered, or you're not connected.
  Productivity expert Nikita Devereaux @nikitadevereaux
• You're a leader by providing opportunities for others to do good, and achieve what they never thought they could.
  From the acceptance speech of Carmen Gendebien owner of Glow Spa and winner of the Key4Women Achievement award winner
  

• "We overestimate what we can do in short amount of time, but underestimate what we can do over long period of time." Words by Gretchen Rubin, shared by afternoon keynote speaker Tory Johnson. @toryjohnson

• "Even if the best thing that happened today was that an email to a potential contact didn't come back undelivered, celebrate that. Focus on what you can be grateful for." @toryjohnson

Hard to believe, but the holidays are only a mere nine weeks away! It's not too late to start planning a holiday party you and your coworkers will talk about into next year.

The types of holiday parties we help companies plan range from cocktail-and-hors d'oeuvres receptions to full-scale family experiences. Your party can be on-site at your offices or we can help you find an appropriate venue for the kind of celebration you wish to host. 

Once you decide where and when, you can think about how: How can we WOW them? If you're thinking of a family-friendly experience, you can opt for a mood influenced heavily by holiday cheer. Last year, we created "Santa's Workshop" for a client that included games, a bouncy house, a candy bar, a Jack Frost character, and a visit from Santa. 

If you're thinking about hosting employees only (or employees and partners), any number of themes would entertain: a Casino Royale theme and an underground Speakeasy complete with a Who Dunnit mystery are two of the types of holiday parties we've done in recent years. 

And even though it's Syracuse, don't feel limited to partying indoors: We designed a Fire and Ice holiday party for one company which included outdoor activities such as dogsled races, fire and ice inspired food and beverages, and an incredible outdoor custom pool table made of carved ice!

When it comes to holiday parties, we love them, big or small; we've done festive gatherings for companies of 20 and 200. Give us a call and let us help you! 315-422-9400

We realized in talking to some of our long-time clients that there may be a little confusion about how The Events Company and SKY Armory work, both separately and together. So we'd like to help clear that up!

The Events Company (TEC), which has been in business for 18 years, is not changing. We are still your go-to for exceptional weddings, corporate meetings and events, Bat and Bar Mitzvahs, milestone birthdays and anniversaries (both social and corporate), galas, bashes, fundraisers, awards dinners, community events - you name it! We are an event planning and design company and we will help you plan your event at any location.  

Our sister company, SKY Armory, is an event venue in downtown Syracuse. SKY has its own staff, which includes a sales manager, executive chef, food & beverage manager, event planners, and kitchen, dining, and service staff.  SKY is an urban open-loft style space and it is one of the larger event venues in Central New York - SKY is able to hold up to 900 people between the two large ballrooms and has already hosted or booked many of the types of events listed above. 

The companies, both owned by Nicole and Kevin Samolis, are two separate entities with their own staffs: The Events Company event planners and production team manage events at indoor and outdoor locations all over the region (and beyond). SKY Armory's staff handles events held only at SKY Armory. 

When you come to The Events Company about your event, depending on your projected headcount, event style and vision, we may suggest SKY as a venue if we think it's right for you. If you select SKY Armory as the venue for your event, you'll still work directly with your TEC planner, who will liaise with the management staff at SKY to help schedule decor meetings and tastings. 

SKY is not only one more great local venue in our arsenal of top venues in the area, it provides a very different atmosphere than other locations where you might have held events. If you choose another location for your event, your TEC planner will guide you through the planning process and day-of management. 

As always, our goal is to ease the stress and pain of event planning for you and help you create a memorable event that people talk about long after they depart. 

When brides choose the colors for their events, it's probably safe to say the majority of them are picking two, maybe three, solid colors to work with. Different color combinations can evoke a variety of moods, but have you thought about mixing in a pattern?  (This doesn't just apply to bridal clients - the right pattern can be appropriate and add visual interest to any corporate event or fundraiser, too!)

When we present linen options for a client, we have a wide range of solids and patterns on hand in a variety of materials, sheens, and textures. Color, texture, the way light reflects off the material, any embellishments such as sequins or embroidered thread - all of these enhance the look of your event. Patterns even more strongly convey a message about the mood and style of your wedding.  Patterns can be subtle or bold, neutral or bright, and used in large or small doses. (And not just on linens.) 

Above are outtakes from an inspiration shoot we did a few years ago, and below are some beautiful examples we've found from more recent events:

Don't feel constrained by the phrase "wedding colors" --  there is a world of pattern available to you that includes geometrics, stripes, ikats, ethnic patterns, florals, abstracts, damasks, and more. Click the links below to see even more ideas.

Event and wedding planners are often asked about the essential elements that make an event special. The more obvious answers of good food, music, and decor are all true, but something that people hosting events usually don't think of is flow -- how people will move through the event space. 

All of our planners spend a lot of time considering options when designing the layout for a wedding, gala, fundraiser, or bash. The purpose of the event helps to guide the process and, of course, the venue configuration has a significant role as well. 

From there the specific needs of the event - be it a dance floor, stage or platform for a speaker or performer, the bar, seating and tables, and any transitions (i.e. fabric draping) - inform the plans for the space. 

In a recent post on BizBash, Josh Tierney, director of style and design for planning company Great Performances, said: “The best parties have a mix of seating that takes the personalities of guests into account—lounge seating by the dance floor for the party animals, lots of high-tops and tall communal tables by the bar to create a bar scene, a dark lounge tucked away so that wallflowers feel cool and have a space to observe, traditional guest seating for older folks, and a reserved place for senior management to hold court. Building the floor plan should take real people into account.”

A past article from InTents Magazine outlined some best practices for designing good event flow. In addition to aesthetics, there are safety concerns as well: you don't want guests tripping over power cords or sitting at tables that are in the way of the bathrooms or kitchen door. 

In the article, Kelly Murphy of Pompano Beach, FL-based Panache said:  “Walking the space with the client is also very helpful,” she says. “People do not always see things that can be obvious obstacles, like trees, ground covering in terms of selecting the proper tent option for staking or construction, and guest accessibility. It is the foundation from which to build, so the initial phase of understanding the layout and being able to visualize it is vitally important.”

If you're planning your own event, try to visualize how people will enter and move around the space. Think about the pieces of the event and how it will progress. Of course, if you're hiring an event planner, he or she will be able to take all factors into consideration when laying out your event and will have contingency plans or be able to think quickly on their feet if something isn't quite right. 

We often help organizations of all kinds produce fundraising events.  When you're producing an event that benefits a cause or a charity, getting attendees and potential donors to feel as passionately about the issue as you do is key. Creating an emotional connection means that you could potentially raise more money for the organization, and you may earn new supporters who continue efforts to raise awareness and funds beyond the event itself.

Having something tangible makes the challenges others face seem more real. In Brooklyn, past-its-prime food and a scrubbed-down garbage dumpster have become the foundation for Salvage Supperclubs. Conceptualized by designer Josh Treuhaft for his recent master's thesis, the idea is to create a six-course meal from food that is imperfect or about to be thrown away. Guests pay $50 (suggested donation) to attend the dinner and the goal is to raise awareness about how much food is actually wasted unnecessarily. The proceeds from the dinners go to various charities dealing with hunger relief, healthy food access, and other food-related concerns. 

A Huffington Post article on the supper clubs stated this: "According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, American families throw out about 25 percent of their groceries each year, often because they don't maximize the food's full use -- for example, some people throw away broccoli stems and only use the florets -- or they don't know how to store perishable items correctly. What's more, according to the World Resources Institute, about one-third of all food produced worldwide gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems annually."

Having guests sit in a dumpster eating food that was nearly wasted creates a much bigger impact than having them listen to speeches, however impassioned. 

Another great example of this strategy is from charity: water. Most of us have likely seen pictures of African villagers carrying large jugs of water back to their homes. You see the image and you understand that getting clean water is hardship in many places, but you don't necessarily connect with the reality of it. Charity: water held an event where guests were encouraged to carry a standard 40-pound jerry can of water about 50 yards. The guests couldn't believe how heavy the cans were and how hard it is to move the cans even a short distance. Guests were able to more fully realize the difficulty many people face in accessing a basic human right and felt more passionately that something must be done. 

For another clever example, see this article from Event Solutions. Creative ideas like these create a physical and emotional experience that garner a much larger investment from guests and benefit the cause in a more meaningful way.


Photos: The Huffington Post, Event Solutions

We've all been to at least one office party in the conference room for someone's birthday/shower/going-away party, right?  It's always nice to take a break and fight the afternoon slump with a sweet treat (and celebrate a coworker), but why not step it up a notch with a few affordable decorations? Put down the styrofoam cups and thin paper plates from the office kitchenette and try something a little more fun. 

Simple and cute -- yet more environmentally-friendly than the usual party supplies -- plates, cups, and napkins from Susty Party are compostable, non-toxic, and made from renewable materials in America. 

A little confetti, like this blue pack from Acme Party Box, makes a conference table a little more festive.  

Stationery brand Minted offers a wide range of party decor including customizable table runners, like this one for a shower. 

Leave it to Martha Stewart to come up with clever ways to use office supplies to decorate: colorful masking tape on folders, glue small balloons to wooden sticks (maybe coffee stirrers would work?), and crafting a customized birthday banner out of bright sticky notes.

In case you haven't heard about our sister company SKY Armory, we wanted to share a little more information. Yesterday, the team at SKY held a press day where members of the press, local bloggers, and community activists were invited to get a hard hat tour of the property while learning more about SKY from our owner Nicole Samolis and the SKY executive team Amy Preble, sales manager, Jason Neville, food & beverage manager, and Jason Jessmore, executive chef. 

SKY had a great turnout and has already received some lovely press mentions from the reporters who attended:

Syracuse.com 
WAER Syracuse Public Media
Time Warner Cable News

The building is still under construction and will be open mid-September for their first event. SKY Armory is also hiring for various positions in the events and food service areas - employment opportunities.

Now more than ever, we find we are helping our clients add social media components to their events and thinking about the media now goes beyond the old-school traditional formats; bloggers are considered major players.  A guest blog on Special Events discusses how to get bloggers involved in your event the right way. 

Bloggers are trusted influencers and their readers often utilize services and make purchases based on what bloggers recommend. In the article, publicist Jenni Izzo gives five guidelines for engaging bloggers for your special event. We agree and add some thoughts: 

1. Think Local
It makes the most sense to consider where your event takes place, who the guests will be, and if the event impacts a specific location. Bloggers have reach beyond the local, but are often very interested in promoting local companies and events and can help drive attendance and interest in your event. 

2. Research
According to the article, there are no more than 152 million blogs on the internet. Targeting the right bloggers who have similar interests and values as your company is essential. Be sure that your event is something that aligns with the kinds of content the blogger posts before engaging them to help promote your event. 

3. Read multiple posts
Get a real feel for the blogger's personality, interests, values, and voice by reading through their posts and any other pages on their website like the 'About Me' page. Check their category/tag list to see if any of the tags lists include content that syncs well with what your event is about. Just as you would with a member of the traditional media, be sure to spell the blogger's name correctly, include the right name of the blog, and craft your email specifically to that person. Create a connection and the blogger will be more willing to engage with you.

4. Clearly define the offer and expectations
Once you have narrowed down which bloggers you'd like to work with, spell out exactly what you're hoping for and what you can offer in return.  Can you provide tickets for a giveaway? Is there a VIP section the blogger can gain access to? Blogging is time-consuming, so understanding their time has value goes a long way. Determine your goal and in what way you hope the blogger can help. If you have a timeline, discuss that as well; many bloggers plan their content in advance. 

5. Share the love
As the blogger publishes posts about your event, be sure to share it on all your social media platforms by liking, sharing, retweeting, or reposting. This gives the blogger additional exposure to a like-minded audience and builds good will. 

Bloggers are an excellent resource for generating buzz and boosting ticket sales and attendance. Get to know them and their audience and it can be a beneficial tool for your business. 

Recently a LinkedIn blog post looking at the impact of work relationships made the social media rounds. The site conducted a global study of 11,500 professionals and found some interesting facts about how friendships in the workplace affect overall happiness and productivity. This isn't a new topic but the study takes a look at the shift caused by millennials in the work force.

Some of the interesting findings from LinkedIn's study:

• 67% of millennials are likely to share personal details including salary, relationships and family issues with co-workers, compared to only about one third of baby boomers.
  

• 46% of professionals worldwide believe that work friends are important to their overall happiness.
• 51% stay in touch with former colleagues

To me, one of the more staggering statistics is: 33% of millennials vs only 5% of baby boomers think socializing with colleagues helps them move up the career ladder.

Making a connection at work is not always easy -- in some cases, the process may help your career, just not in the way you thought. I had a job where the work environment wasn't the best, but our small team was tight-knit and we truly enjoyed each others' company; that made all the difference in getting through the day-to-day. 

Making sure employees and team members are happy, or at least feel valued, is integral to a company's success. It seems to me, if a company makes the effort to help employees succeed, employees are more likely to care (beyond earning their paycheck) about the company's success and mission. 

In an effort to take recognition, morale, and relationships to the next level at The Events Company (and SKY Armory), our HR consultant came up with the idea for the WOWski (a take on how we always make sure our events have the WOW factor). It's an incentive program where we each receive 5 WOWskis at the beginning of the month (eventually per quarter) and we submit them when we see a member of our team handling something really well or going above and beyond for a client or another coworker.  The two team members who receive the most WOWskis in recognition of their work win a prize that could be monetary or tailored to their interests. We recently completed the first month and our winners were very happy to see that their hard work does not go unnoticed; everyone on our team has received at least one WOWski so far.

We've helped plan corporate team-building events that combine fun, strategy, and of course, teamwork. There are all kinds of activities, big and small scale, that can build the camaraderie of a team.  

This morning I read about a scavenger hunt involving over 1,500 business people. Teams download an app to their smartphone and then use it to navigate through the challenges ahead of them including trivia, photos, and checkpoints; results are immediately available and photos can be downloaded. Aside from sounding like a lot of fun, I think these outings are great because in addition to fostering team skills hands-on, the common experiences and the memories give employees a foundation on which to build friendships.

What have you done to team-build or develop friendships at work?