Build Momentum - Thought Leadership for Education, Global Workforce Edition

S02E07 - Insider tips for a successful event! | Carolyn Durkee

November 21, 2021 Sarah Williamson Season 2 Episode 7
Build Momentum - Thought Leadership for Education, Global Workforce Edition
S02E07 - Insider tips for a successful event! | Carolyn Durkee
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Carolyn Durkee. Carolyn is the marketing director at Edison Learning, an education management organization that provides courses and instructional services in public schools.

Some Questions I Ask:

  • What is your role at Edison Learning? (2:12)
  • What is your advice for ensuring an event is a success? (4:11)
  • What is your recommendation for paying for panelists at an event? (7:41)
  • How do you structure communication and disseminate information to presenters? (12:22)
  • What happens after we do a handoff? (15:16) 
  • What do you recommend as a follow-up strategy for thanking clients, speakers, or presenters? (17:20)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

  • Carolyn’s role at Edison Learning (2:21)
  • Tips in planning for an event (4:45)
  • Policies for panelists’ or guests’ expenses at an event (8:01)
  • Best practices for communication with the people involved in an event (13:24)
  • Steps after doing a handoff (15:53)
  • Different ways to thank your clients, speakers, and presenters after an event (18:08)

Quotes:

“One [step to ensure an event’s success] would be communication. That's communication with your teammates, making sure you're all on the same page, as well as communication with panelists so that you can ensure they have the information they need and everyone's clear on responsibilities, expectations, all of that. And then the other piece would be documentation because the logistics do change frequently.”

“[Covering travel expenses] is always ideal when you can extend that and when their company can receive that. I think that's an ideal scenario because you're asking them to come and represent you.”

“It's easy to get caught up in the logistics of the conference and the speaker and forget to close the loop with the person who gave you that name in the first place to reach out.”

“It's nice to just send like a little handwritten note in the mail or just a little something that says thank you, especially when you've had webinars that are fully virtual and you're not covering travel. I will send a gift box in the mail—like a chocolate assortment gift box—for that presenter, and they like to share with other people in their office. It's just something small that says, ‘Hey, that was really awesome that you spent your time sharing about your work with us.’ It's small, but it goes a long way.”

Connect with Carolyn Durkee:
Edison Learning Website
Carolyn Durkee's LinkedIn


Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn

About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook

Sarah Williamson:

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum where we help education organizations, blow past their competitors with strategies that make an impact. We think beyond traditional press releases and generic communication tactics, and seek out big, bold ideas to create meaningful results for our clients. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson. And I've spent more than 15 years in public relations for the education sector, where our team has learned what works, and what doesn't when it comes to PR, from launching groundbreaking new industry awards to landing sought after panels at the most prestigious shows, we absolutely love this stuff. But the best part is, we have an opportunity to interview some of the smartest people we know who share their knowledge and strategies or success right here on the show. If you enjoy what you hear, we would so appreciate if you please take a moment to drop us a review on whatever platform you listen. And if you want to learn more about us, visit swpr-group.com. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Let's dive into the show. On today's episode, we're here with Carolyn Durkee, the marketing director at Edison learning welcome, Carolyn.

Carolyn Durkee:

Thank you. Yes, excited to be on here. Absolutely.

Sarah Williamson:

So Carol and I have had the pleasure of working together in Apex Learning for years. I don't know how many years but definitely a few years, particularly with planning conferences, which is actually why I invited you on the show today and what I want to get into more detail about today. But first, Carolyn, I know you've had a lot of change in your life recently you got married you change jobs, anything else major happen? Is that cover it?

Carolyn Durkee:

No, that doesn't cover it, you would think that would be enough for one season of life. But yeah, within the space of a month, maybe a month and a half, I had a wedding, two weeks later started a new job. And I want to say two or three weeks later moved into a new home. So it's pretty much every area of life that you could have changed. I'm just doing it all at once, and then I'm gonna settle in for the winter,

Sarah Williamson:

Then you'll settle in for the next 10 years.

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah.

Sarah Williamson:

Oh, my goodness. Well, that is very exciting. All of those things are very exciting. I'd love to learn more about your new role at Edison learning. What are you up to over there?

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah, I'm the Marketing Director. Edison learning is an education services provider. So they provide courses and instructional services, they haven't had someone to represent them within a marketing capacity for quite some time. So I'm really excited to be joining the team to be helping refresh the look and feel and help tell the story of the company. It is a really cool story. They have a huge focus on equity, I think the largest education company owned by a minority. And so Oh, wow. Yeah. So Tom Jackson, t he CEO has a really awesome story about how he came into education. And really, it's his passion for equity and education that drives the entire business. So I think a lot of people talk about equity, because it's sort of a thing happening in the industry. But this company was actually sort of based on that focus and continually driven by it. So it feels a little bit more deeply ingrained, that that focus and mission. So it's really exciting. I think we'll be doing a lot of fun work around that in the next few months to surface some of the stories and, you know, share a little bit more about Tom's story with the rest of the market as well.

Sarah Williamson:

Oh, that's exciting. Yeah, it sounds like it's a more authentic equity story than some of the trending. Yeah, equity stories for other companies. That's great. Okay, so Carolyn, one of the reasons I've enjoyed working with you so much is that you have many of the strengths that I lack, as you know, you are exceptional with logistics and coordination for big events. And I want to talk about that today and dive into some of the strategies you apply for seamlessly planning and producing large scale events.

Carolyn Durkee:

Awesome.

Sarah Williamson:

So what Yeah, talking about, you know,

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah,

Sarah Williamson:

So in particular, one of the areas of our work together is securing panelists and putting together really powerful groups of people who can speak at industry events. And we've typically done this where we do a handoff after our team comes up with the strategy and secures the panelists. And then we head off to you to execute on the logistics for these events. And I know so planning these events can be so overwhelming for so many of us, me included. What is your advice for taking some first steps to ensure an event is a success? What do you think we should think about first,

Carolyn Durkee:

I would say two things. Actually, when I was thinking about this, I sort of came up with a whole list, but I think we'll get through some of my ideas later. So I'll just start off to really small things in the beginning. One would be communication. So that's communication with your teammate making sure you're all on th same page, as well a communication with thos panelists so that you can ensur they have the information the need. They're on the same page And everyone's clear o responsibilities, expectations all of that. And then the othe piece would be documentation. S that's more for myself, keepin myself straight. Because th logistics do change. frequently We've seen some conferences, I' thinking of one this past year particularly in the midst of th pandemic, where people's plans presenters plans change in term of are they going to be there i person or virtually, if you'v got a panel of people, and on is no longer comfortable to b in person, then all of them ar then moved to an online setting And they all need to have tha update. So there can be a lot o moving pieces. And I think it' really important to have som sort of system of documentatio to keep track of every littl iteration of the plan as it goe along

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, absolutely. So communication and planning and documentation. Totally agree. And I'm curious, you have a framework or process you follow for every conference or event to ensure logistics are streamlined.

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah, absolutely. And I use those documents I'm talking about to help guide me and keep me on point as well, almost like a checklist. So if I've got, it could be a Word document or

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, an Excel document. But you know, it'll have sort of those key points that I need to touch on. So that's one of the things you clarify with the communication fees. So if you're working with your teammates, and there's a pass off, like you've passed off to me, the first thing I need to understand is what are the pieces you've already communicated? Or, you know, what are the pieces that still need to be communicated? So have we talked about? Who's paying for what yet? That's one example? Wooh big one!

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah, exactly. So if you've already talked about that, then I need to think about do I need to refresh that? At some point, if it's been too many months, since they first heard that? Or if you just told them all that information on who pays for what, then maybe I don't want to say that because I don't want it to be repetitive or seem like we don't know, we're talking about in sync with each other. So having some sort of checklist where we're keeping track of have we shared information about who's paying for what, you know, that could be a column on the spreadsheet, where you just simply note that date when that conversation was had, but you can do that with every piece of the planning. So at the end of the process, you should have a filled out spreadsheet where all of those objectives have been met. And you can easily see what things are left open.

Sarah Williamson:

Yep, that makes perfect sense. And I'm curious, so what is your recommendation for I know, I have my recommendation, but for paying for panelists out of it. If you're a client, and you're inviting your clients, district leaders, for example, to join you at a conference, What's your suggestion for covering your travel?

Carolyn Durkee:

Absolutely. So I think that a good starting point would be if your organization asking someone else to come and present on your behalf, then it would be a good practice to offer to pay for their registration. That's pretty basic. And then beyond that, in terms of other travel for, you know, hotel, airfare meals, all those types of expenses that come up throughout the course of someone going to a conference and presenting there are more considerations there. So first of all, there's that company's policies to consider if they have policies against receiving money from another organization or sponsorships or something like that. They might not be able to be the recipient of you paying for their airfare or their hotel or something like that. Or they might have limits on what they can receive. There also are company policies that you're obligated to within your company. So if your company has guidelines on travel expenses, or you know, a per diem for how much you can spend on food per day, when you're traveling, then you still would have to abide by those policies, even if you're doing this on behalf of someone outside of your company. So taking all that into consideration. I put together a travel policy document that covered all this and said, Okay, we're going to take care of your registration, check with your district, because they might not even know they should do that. Check with your district, your company or organization to see what their policies are on travel. And if you need help with lining that up or paying for it, reach out to me, and we'll go from there. We can help with hotels or flights as needed. And if you need help with food, here's our per diem, you know, so you kind of have to make sure you've laid all that out. So just everyone's clear on what the expectations are policies are.

Sarah Williamson:

It's so interesting, because you're right, we have to consider the fact that some districts don't allow their people to travel and you know, on a Companies dime. That makes sense. Yeah. But it's also nice to offer if you're able to, we do recommend, our company recommends that if you're inviting clients to offer,

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah,

Sarah Williamson:

to cover their travel at as much as you can, because they are traveling, you know, to a conference, you're inviting them. So it's just kind of the gracious thing to do.

Carolyn Durkee:

Yes, I agree with that. Yeah, I think that's always ideal when you can extend that where company is capable of doing that. And when their company can receive that, I think that's a ideal scenario, because you're asking them to come and represent you, you know, exactly, yeah, it's something to keep in mind from the beginning, though, because if you're going and submitting conference panels, and you want to be able to extend the reimbursement for travel to those presenters, you have to consider that cost when you're building your budget upfront. So you know, if you kind of benchmark This is how much it typically costs for hotel airfare registration meals, then I've got, you know, a benchmark number in mind of how much one presenter at one conference will cost, multiply that by the number of presenters on a panel, and then multiply that by the number of panels you're submitting and hoping to get through, and you've got a whole budget that can increase quite quickly. So you have to keep that in mind and think if that's in your company budget, or your, you know, Department budget to even pull off because it might change your strategy around what you're even submitting.

Sarah Williamson:

Yes, that's such a good point, because it's easy for people like me to go crazy on submissions. And then Carolyn says, "whoa, how many 1000s of dollars are we spending on all these panelists?"

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah, it absolutely adds up.

Sarah Williamson:

Yes. Especially with the number of submissions we get accepted. Right, Carolyn?

Carolyn Durkee:

Yes. I know, like, 10, 12.

Sarah Williamson:

I know. So I mean, it's just definitely worth thinking about, Oh, if I'm covering travel for every single person on this panel and registration, it can get extremely expensive. So maybe limiting it the submissions, at least if you partner with us, for sure. But thinking about how many submissions you want to get accepted and balancing that with the costs. That's great. And I think, you know, after this conversation, if you're really intrigued, please reach out to us. And we can probably share a template document with the travel guidelines that Carolyn's talking about maybe even an example of how she would use some of her documentation, we could probably share some of that with you. Would you be comfortable with that, Carolyn?

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah, absolutely.

Sarah Williamson:

Okay, great. So another question for you. So Carolyn, how do you structure communication and disseminating information to presenters because I know you mentioned this is important, and I can't emphasize enough how important communication is, I mean, from the very beginning, when I reach out to panelists and talk to them. And even let me side note, sometimes in your organization, you have to be careful. If you're reaching out to clients , you have to navigate the sales team and reps from sales teams and make sure they're comfortable with you reaching out to the clients about certain opportunities. That's another consideration as you're inviting panelists, making sure they're in good standing, that they're still a client, and everyone's happy to include them. But how do you recommend? I mean, obviously, it's over communication, I think is the key. But any other suggestions that you have, in terms of communication?

Carolyn Durkee:

Feel like I have a lot of thoughts on this. I had a lot of thoughts on communication before, you mentioned talking to your sales team. And I'm like, that's a whole nother part that I was excited.

Sarah Williamson:

I know.

Carolyn Durkee:

I mean with the sales team, that is really important. Usually, if they're talking to a client all the time, they don't want to look like they're in the dark that that client is doing something for us. They want to be Yeah, you know, when they're touching base checking in being like, Oh, I'm so excited about your theme of this conference, you're presenting it next month, can't wait to hear it. Or thank you so much for doing that. That was great. If you've got a sales rep that you're talking to all the time. And they have no idea that you're just representing their company at a conference that looks really bad on the sales rep. And so I understand that, right? Like, sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the logistics of the conference and the speaker and forget to close that loop with the person who probably gave you that context name in the first place to go reach out.

Sarah Williamson:

Okay I hear you, Carolyn, I know...

Carolyn Durkee:

I'm not pointing a finger at you. I think I have responsibility in this too. Because once that handoff is complete,

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah.

Carolyn Durkee:

And I'm walking the person through it. You know, it's just as much on me to make sure that they're, I'm already communicating with salespeople all the time on conference logistics, it's easy enough to make sure that those presenters, representatives within the company are aware of what the conference logistics are as well. So it's just that's another thing you can add into your checklist right to make sure anything like this that you think should be part of your best practices, added to some sort of checklist and I like Excel, we can do it in Word. It starts with, again, going back to that list of what is everything that has been covered already and what still needs to be covered. And it's like you're creating a timeline for yourself, and then realize things like, oh, I should communicate with a sales rep, add that into your template and start that practice going forward. So that's a little off the beaten path, because I know you asked about communication. So back to that.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, it's good to remember that sales rep piece. I've had my hand slapped so many times, I can't even help, because it's important to include them. But yes, starting with reaching out, then you get approval, and you're reaching out to the client, then I mean, I can tell you what I do. And then we do a handoff. But what are your thoughts in general

Carolyn Durkee:

After the handoff with communication?

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, so we got so excited,they're excited they want to speak. I said, hey, we'll cover all your travels will be so great. And Carolyn says, whoa, Sarah slowdown. Reel it back in? Pretty much this happens every time. And then what do you do from there?

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah, soI actually came up with a template email that I would send to every presenter after that handoff. So Sarah is passed along all the contacts of the panelists the name of the session, the session time and date. And then I've got a whole email template that I kind of plugged in those unique details into. But the email covers all those key points we've kind of touched on already, you know, it outlines for the presenter, what we're doing for them what we need them to do. So that's the biggest communication piece there is, we're going to cover your registration, we're open to covering your travel, but check with your district car policy guide attached, send us your headshot, because we want to promote the session for you check your title, make sure that it's accurate. So we're all on the same page that we're representing you correctly on the conference website, on our website, across all of our promotions, we want to make sure we're we're representing you correctly. And next steps from here, we're going to set up some time to go through everything as a group and make sure everyone knows what we're all talking about. So we'll follow up with some time to get into the actual topic planning. And then you would do that once probably pre conference and maybe just have a more casual Meet and Greet at the conference itself. So everyone can see each other's faces and develop some natural rapport before actually going onstage in front of whoever it is they're speaking to.

Sarah Williamson:

Exactly. So creating an engaging dynamic between the panelists. And we actually, at Apex L earning, we have an amazing person, Jason Mitchell, shout out who should have you on the show who coordinates these, he not only gets the presentation, all pretty and set up, but then he coordinates this lively dynamic between the panelists prior to going live at the show. So I'm curious, Carolyn, okay, so you have them you communicated? They got travel book. They're excited. Everyone attends the conference. Usually there's a dinner or breakfast hosted with Jason to get everyone excited and create a powerful dynamic between the group after the session, what do you recommend a follow up strategy for thanking clients? Are there any, anything that you have same sort of framework for that you can tell us about?

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah, well, I always like to follow up a conference with an email to everyone who was involved in that session. So if there's a way to have a list of who was in the room, sometimes the conferences, collect this and provide it other times, maybe you can have an optional, give us your email, and we'll send you some materials list in the conference room. And you don't always get either of those things. So this is not always something you can do. But if you have that option, it's a great idea to highlight your presenters again, by surfacing anything that they've already put out there. So if they've got an article they've written or a book, then it's an awesome opportunity to share that with those who attended the conference. If you're hosting it, it also gives you an opportunity to put your content in there. So you've got article by Speaker One and book by Speaker two, and a white paper from the company that asked them all to come. So that's one way to kind of get your name out there a little bit in conjunction with some of these thought leaders. But then it's also important to thank your speakers too. So going back to the salesperson, the salesperson can follow up and thank them or you can thank them as well. It's nice to just send like a little handwritten note in the mail or just a little something that says thank you a lot of times, especially when we've had webinars that are fully virtual and you're not covering travel will send like a gift box in the mail like a chocolate assortment gift box for that presenter and they like to share with other people in their office and it's just something small that says, hey, that was really awesome that you spent your time sharing about, you know, your work with us. So it's small, but it goes a long way.

Sarah Williamson:

I really love that idea. That's such a great idea. We can't underestimate the value of thank you and thank you gifts especially in this virtual world of virtual thank you is just like virtual hug.

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah. And especially virtually, you know, this last year where people are working out of their homes, they're not going to be sharing their home address, like, you can easily send a gift to a business address. But if people are working from their homes, you can't necessarily find out their home address and send them a box of chocolates as delightful as that might be. So you can even do a virtual gift in that case, like a gift card to Starbucks, or Yeah, some meal delivery service or Amazon, people love Amazon gift cards,

Sarah Williamson:

That's a really good point

Carolyn Durkee:

Lots of school supplies on there.

Sarah Williamson:

That's a good point.

Carolyn Durkee:

Yeah,

Sarah Williamson:

I love it. Well, thank you, Carolyn. This has been so informative. I think that I bet you I'm gonna get a lot of emails requesting your framework. So I'll make sure I have all the details that I can share out. But thank you so much again, and congratulations on all your exciting years. And exciting new time in life.

Carolyn Durkee:

This wonderful. Yes. been fun chatting with you.

Sarah Williamson:

Thanks so much, Carolyn. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you enjoyed the show, if you wouldn't mind leaving a review, we'd be so grateful. This helps other listeners find and learn about our show. And please reach out if you're interested in learning more about how we can elevate the leaders of your organization is our PR services. If you'd like to get even shoot me a direct email at Sarah sarah@swpr-group.com. I look forward to hearing from you and we will see you next time.