(Dave Marra,
Apple Systems Engineer, offers advice on how to get
presenters for your group’s meeting,
from Apple’s User Group Bulletin for Leaders of Friday, October 19th,
2001.)
Within most technology companies, there are four general
categories of employees: Management, Sales, Systems Engineering, &
Marketing. Most presentations are conducted by Systems Engineers
or Marketing teams. Reach out beyond your Sales Representative to
the Systems Engineering or Marketing teams to acquire the best presenters.
1. Use the sales rep “locators”
that many companies have on their web sites to locate your regional company
representative. Work through this person to schedule a presentation with
their Systems Engineering or Marketing teams.
2. Use the contact information found
at the bottom of most company press releases, if you cannot locate or do
not know a representative for a company. These people can often assist
in locating a person within their company who can present to your MUG.
3. Consider showcasing your MUG by making
a “media kit” or a flyer and distributing it to local computer
stores, internet service providers, real estate offices, schools, etc.
These materials can get more people interested in joining your MUG.
When mailed to companies, they can also be a great way to get them interested
in sending presenters to your events.
4. Let the presenter know if your MUG
has specific areas of interest so that a presentation can be customized
for your audience.
5. Let other MUGs know via the MugCenter
and/or the Apple User Group Digest when you find a good presenter or topic.
6. Consider opening extra special presentations
to other MUGs in the area so that everyone can benefit. The big presentation
“seasons” for companies that sell Macintosh-related products
are the weeks right after Macworld Expo San Francisco in January and Macworld
Expo New York in August.
BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE SHOW
7. Write a press release about the upcoming
event, your MUG and the presenter. Distribute it to the local media
and major Mac info web sites, such as MacCentral. This will help
generate interest and awareness not only for the event, but also for your
MUG.
8. Include information about the upcoming
presentation on your MUG’s web site, including a link to the presenter’s
company and/or products.
9. Consider making each MUG activity
education-focused. Send your MUG’s “media kit” and
press releases to school districts, inviting teachers and students to participate.
Consider offering student membership discounts.
10. Provide the presenter with names and locations
of the nearest airports and/or hotels if necessary, a few weeks before
the event.
11. E-mail the presenter with the street address
and directions for your meeting facility a few weeks before the show.
In addition, provide an address (not
a P.O. box) to which the presenter can ship equipment
and/or raffle items to ahead of time.
12. Provide plenty of open table space and power
strips for the presenter’s demo equipment, props, etc.
13. Make sure that the presenter knows who the
MUG’s primary contact person should be and their phone number (cell phone number, if possible)
a few weeks before the show.
14. Allow for enough time before the show for
the presenter to set up the presentation and to run through the demos.
Make sure that all necessary equipment (projector,
internet connection, audio system, etc.) is available
when the presenter arrives.
15. Maximize the amount of time the presenter
has to do the actual presentation, allowing enough time for demos and Q
& A.
16. Do not have more than one presenter per
meeting.
17. Give the presenter an estimate prior to
the show of how many people will be in the audience.
18. Make sure that the presenter knows prior
to the show how much time is allocated for setup, the presentation itself,
for pack down, and if the presentation venue must be vacated by a certain
time.
19. E-mail the presenter with network info and
settings (speed, TCP/IP configuration,
etc.), as well as audio and video considerations (projector resolution, number of video inputs,
what type of microphone, etc.) prior to the show.
20. Consider having a pre-show conference call
or brief meeting before the event to fine-tune the presentation, focusing
especially on the specific interests (if
any) of the audience.
21. Make sure to properly introduce the presenter
to the audience since this is one of the easiest ways to generate excitement
right before the presentation begins.
22. Dim the room lights during the show and
provide adequate lighting on the presenter if the presenter is using a
podium and a projector.
23. Provide a good audio system with a wireless
microphone, if possible.
24. Provide adequate time for, and assistance
with, packing down the presenter’s demo equipment at the end of the
show.
25. Let the presenter know if he/she did a good
job by sending them an e-mail a day or two after the show, copying their
manager if possible.
26. Consider adding the presenter to your list
of “subscribers,” if your MUG distributes their monthly newsletter
via e-mail, so that he/she can keep up to date with the activities of your
MUG.
— Dave Marra, Apple Systems Engineer
http://www.marrathon.com/present.html