Jason Allan Scott

Houston, I don’t think we have a problem.

Jason Allan Scott

It starts with listening.

I grew up in South Africa, in Cape Town, and the first significant president I had was Nelson Mandela, better known as Madiba. His father was a tribal leader and his father said he taught him that when you’re sitting in a circle with people, you should always speak last because you can find out the needs of everyone in the room before you need to say anything.

Jason Allan Scott

I think with event planners, when you’re putting an event whether you’re planning or not professionally, you need to understand the point of that event. Is that a promotion? Is it exposure? Is it networking?

Once you understand that exact need, then you can address it.

Jason Allan Scott

Eight out of ten of my events are client-focused.

Jason Allan Scott

Let’s look at very recently. I did an event for small business within the United Kingdom. So they came in and they said: “We are all these incredible small businesses within the United Kingdom.”

How do we give them more attention that they deserve? We want to put on an event show. We said “Okay. They’re going to call at the small awards and it’s going to highlight small business.”

Well, then, now we got the focus. We know exactly what the success metrics is. We understand that if we can get small business to feel special, it’s a successful event. Then, we work backward.

We also know, I have a Master’s in clinical psychology, that the brain only remembers two parts of an event; the emotional peak and when you leave, so we immediately add that in.

If you got a win at the event, then, of course, that’s going to be an emotional peak, but maybe you don’t. Most event shows have more losers than winners in the room.

Jason Allan Scott

So how do you get them to feel an emotional peak? Then, how do you make the “exiting strategy,” something that they’ll never forget?

It’s why a lot of the time, in these of events and parties you’ve seen all over the world, you’ll see the famous goody bag. It’s because it guarantees you something memorable as you leave the event.

Jason Allan Scott

There are many.

Event planning was voted as the fifth most stressful job in the world by Forbes Magazine three years in a row. It’s because part of our job is firefighting. Part of it is realizing that there’s so much you can plan. As Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they got punched in the face.”

Jason Allan Scott

So you prepare yourself for the fact that the AV is probably going to go wrong. In most events, the mic has some sort of feedback or there are some problems with the musical choice. Following that lighting is very popular for going wrong. But probably, the most popular after the sound is food.

Vegans have been served meat. Meat eaters have been served vegetarian options, not enough vegetarian options. Things have been served cold. The wrong type of entertainment pops up once in a while very rarely.

We recently had a Taiwanese act at a Chinese show that was ridiculously bad. None of us picked up on it. We just obviously weren’t aware of that particular flounder.

Jason Allan Scott

All kinds of things happen. There’s no way to fix it pre-planning. You just got to know that you have the right team in place to fix the mistake the moment it pops up.

Jason Allan Scott

Firstly, I just want to say that that’s an excellent question.

Jason Allan Scott

I recently did a talk at Google. I think that might have been last year now. This year is flying past me. The question was this exact question. It was when do you put on an event? How do you put on an event? What’s the right route to market for your event?

You should put on an event as soon as you have a product or a service to sell.

It’s part of common parlance now for someone to say, do you have a website? Is it SEO-ed? Is there a funnel approach? Do you have an email sequence?

The truth is that can be a doc science. You’re not sure what SEO means. You’re not sure if the person you’re hiring is the right person who’s doing all the things.

But let me tell you what isn’t a dog science; events.

Jason Allan Scott

We’ve been throwing parties or have been part of a party or an event from the moment we are born. There’s no easier way to sell a product or a service than to look in the eyes of your customer and say “This is it.” It’s also a great opportunity to find out if you’re product is wrong or if you’re service is wrong or if you got the wrong audience.

Jason Allan Scott

Some people say, “Well, you should first have an audience.” You don’t need an audience. Thanks to social media. You can now reach out to other people’s audiences. Thanks for things like podcasts. We can now bring various tribes all together.

Jason Allan Scott

Much like a podcast, an event just gives you an opportunity to really address what needs to be said or what needs to be heard.

So I’d say, do an event the moment you understand what your product and service is. Test it with your market because you’re never going to get a better opportunity to see if it’s the right product, the right service, or the right audience, which you’re serving.

Jason Allan Scott

Top three, wow!

One, listen to your clients.

Jason Allan Scott

Decide right in the beginning what the success metrics is.

Is it that it’s popular? Is it that it’s spoken about? Is it that it’s photographed? Is it that people just feel good and you’ve done something great for your community or your town or whatever it is you’re doing?

Two, remember that every single person in the room needs an emotional peak. They need something that elates and excites them, and that they can talk about after they leave. Again, this is very easy. You can shareable moments with food, sound, textile, or touch.

Jason Allan Scott

That’s my third, which is always engage all five senses when organizing an event.

We’ve become very iconic. In other words, we look through our phones to see everything yet the memory through the eye is only 100 milliseconds long whereas the memory through the taste is four to five seconds. The memory through touch is three to four seconds.

Incorporate all five senses when you organize an event. I guarantee more people will remember you and the truth is the event business is the storytelling business. It’s the memory making business.

Jason Allan Scott

I’m going to apologize for not answering the last part of your question in the last one.

Jason Allan Scott

I would say, definitely hire an event planner the first time you organize an event because once you’ve learned all the rules, you can do it yourself.

But to answer that question, I’m actually an introvert. I am very shy. I prefer being all by myself, writing books or courses, or helping to write Master’s Degrees.

That said, I believe that extreme need is the mother of innovation and if pushed, it brings out whatever we need in ourselves.

Jason Allan Scott

With events, you can easily be an introvert because you can have someone else step in front of the limelight. You can be the back of the house and the last someone else to be the front of the house like your catering manager, your operations manager, or your show caller. There are many roles in the event space and it’s very easy to be the man or woman behind the face of the business.

I have made myself the face of my business only because I wanted to create a role that would never end. I wanted to follow Seth Godin‘s rule of always being an impresario. That impresario is always needed no matter what industry you find yourself in.

Jason Allan Scott

My number one ninja trick is to know your audience. This is right at the beginning of Google. I would try and find people’s pictures and I would put little comments next to it.

What I would do is something that I’d always wanted to happen in my life, which is to be able to walk into a room as an introvert and have someone come over and say, “Hi, Luis! I’d like you to introduce to Michael. Michael works within events and really loves dealing with children. Luis is looking to have a child. I’ll leave the two of you and move off.”

Jason Allan Scott

As an introvert, to be introduced to someone, especially with your something of interest, it makes you feel comfortable. It makes you feel relaxed. I also guarantee that as a host, you’ll be someone that will always be remembered, as a business owner, to be like “Oh my gosh! Jason always speaks so well of. Michael and Luis introduced me to so many people that I’ve now got this bunch of business.”

Be a great introduction specialist. Be someone that cares about their audience, cares about the fact that everyone’s there for a reason, and always introduce people to people with one thing of interest to each other.