Just a day or so, ago, I posted an item about an effort by businesses in Naples, Florida that have experienced a drop on business inquiries due to misconceptions about beach conditions, related to the BP oil spill.

Coincidently, USA today ran a front page article on the same issue, today. The article describes the greater geographical issue affecting businesses for general travel, destination weddings, and the like.

Thank you to the Naples Chapter of the National Association of Wedding Professionals for inviting to present a seminar and meeting talk, yesterday. It was a treat to meet so many new people and enjoy this most beautiful area in Southwest Florida.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Reno, NV – Creative Coverings, a Reno-based, national linen rental and sales company, announced that Kate Kovalick has joined its staff as national sales executive. Kovalick will take on the task of growing the company’s rental and sales division.

“Kate brings with her an exceptional amount of experience in restaurant and hotel catering,” says Robin Brockelsby, Creative Covering’s president.  “With Kate travelling the country and visiting trade shows and industry conferences, Creative Coverings will be better serving our current customers, reaching out to new customers, and also be increasing our national presence – one of our top goals for 2010.”

Creative Coverings serves the event and event-planning industry, providing fine linens, including a wide variety of tablecloths, napkins, chair covers and sashes, with trendy and traditional fabrics. Wedding, corporate and private event planners use Creative Coverings to create their tabletop look and feel.

Prior to her new position, Kovalick worked in the catering industry with MGM Mirage Corporation at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino where she was responsible for all large-scale conventions and social catering events.

As Creative Coverings new National Sales Executive, Kovalick will help represent the company at National Association of Catering Executives (NACE) and International Society of Event Specialists (ISES) events.

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Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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In the last two weeks, I’ve logged about 15,000 frequent flier miles in disparate destinations, such as: Wichita, Indianapolis, and the Beaches Resort in Turks & Caicos.

Over the next few days, I’ll be doing a follow up on some of the great experiences and interactions I’ve enjoyed along the way.

Today, I’m wrestling with Delta Airlines. Delta managed to lose my garment bag on a direct flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas. That aside, please expect a variety of updates, soon.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Monday, November 16th – Beaches Resort, Turks & Caicos: Wedding planners, attending the Wedding Conference, were treated to an advance look at some of the inspirations and images from Sasha Souza’s upcoming book, Signature Sasha.

As a member of Modern Bride Magazines Top 25 Trendsetters, Sasha Souza is one of the premiere event designers and a top innovator in the wedding industry. She is one of only a handful of wedding designers who have been named a Master Bridal Consultant, the highest designation given by the Association of Bridal Consultants and she currently serves on the Modern Bride advisory panel.

Souza is the recipient of numerous awards including the Special Events Magazine Gala Award winner for Best Dining Tabletop Design, Event Solutions Magazine Designer of the Year and three ISES Westie Awards.

Souza is releasing her wedding design book Signature Sasha: Magnificent Weddings by Design (Beaufort Books) in January 2010. Signature Sasha: Magnificent Weddings by Design is a stunning, hard cover wedding design book featuring beautiful photography of all aspects of wedding design including never before seen Sasha Souza Events real weddings.

Attendees were entranced, not just by the images, but by the big-picture-view presented by Souza.

No photos are posted from the presentation, as they cannot be shared, prior to the January book release. Her book is now available, for pre-order, from Amazon.com

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Sunday, November 15, 2010 – Beaches Resort, Turks & Caicos: Ciara Daykin is the self-titled Rock Star Wedding Planner. The title, is now reality. Her Calgary-based company serves many of the highest profile and opulent wedding events.

Daykin spoke, effortlessly, about her transition from the corporate world to selling real estate, all the time, building her fledgling wedding business.

Her career exit from real estate, became reality, as she focused, absolutely, on the important mindset of seeing herself as full time, highly paid, professional wedding planner.

Attendees at the Wedding Conference presented a whole range experience from beginners to seasons veterans.

She cited Napoleon Hill’s classic book, Think and Grow Rich, and its discussion of fear: What people fear most, and how fear often holds one back. The essence of conquering fear is that changing your mindset can move you past ‘a sticking point’ in your career.

One of the key strategies offered is to surround yourself with people who are positive and represent those who you envision as your peers. And if you do so, it will elevate both your outlook and your business.

Finding your flavor (of bride): Using an ‘ice cream flavor’ metaphor, Ciara spoke, extensively on understanding what kind of bride is a ‘good fit’ for you, and targeting her, specifically.

Authenticity was another important element of her presentation. Being authentic, in person and in all communications, is key to connecting with your target client.

All in all, an inspiring and thoughtful presentation, giving attendees added fuel to the entrepreneurial fires.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

PS: I’m attending The Wedding Planners Conference at Beaches, in Turks and Caicos. I had the privilege of giving the Keynote Address, this morning, and will be blogging about the conference throughout.

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Season 3’s fresh take focuses on brides discovering their bridal personalities to express their uniqueness

Stacie Francombe, CEO and HOST, Get Married Media

Get Married Media’s production team is creating an exciting line-up for the new season airing on WE tv starting January 2, 2010 every Saturday at 9:30am ET/PT. Premiering at the pinnacle of holiday engagements, season three will reflect the fresh voice and focus articulated through the newly-launched Get Married magazine and the re-launched website. It’s fresh, sassy and–most importantly–it is all about the bride.

As part of the strategic approach to offer brides a truly integrated and unified wedding lifestyle media platform –on TV, online and in print–Stacie Francombe, CEO and founder, will take on an additional mantle as show host.

“This year is full of bold moves for Get Married, and the fresh approach we are taking with the show is consistent with our bride-centric focus,” said Francombe. “Brides are at the epicenter of everything we do, and I am incredibly honored to be immersed in their wedding planning as we share captivating moments and inspirations with a national audience.”

Francombe’s background includes a wealth of broadcast experience, from producing and writing for TBS and CNN to launching a successful full-service production company, all of which will further strengthen the production process and final product of Get Married’s TV show.

Get Married’s new season will show brides, and by extension the audience, how to discover their bridal personalities and how to express their uniqueness during their celebration, through trends, services and products. The series will include real brides partaking in fun wedding planning challenges and activities with expert wedding professionals.

With the shift to WE TV, a women-centric network dedicated to the wedding genre, Get Married’s TV show is among an audience of brides seeking bright, innovative ideas and inspirations. Available in nearly 74 million homes, WE tv is the premier source for women looking to satisfy their curiosity with fascinating, original stories and entertaining content. The series will also simulcast to an additional three million on Wedding Central, a 24/7 multi-platform, interactive programming service devoted to weddings, dating and romance.

About Get Married Media
Get Married Media, a national, integrated multi-media wedding lifestyle resource that reaches passionate brides through a highly synergized, tri-media platform: a TV show on WE TV, a highly-trafficked website (www.GetMarried.com) and a glossy print publication (Get Married magazine). Get Married connects brides with local and national wedding vendors and industry experts through entertainment and news.

Launched October 1, 2009, Get Married magazine (circ. 300,000) – the new shopping and trend guide for the savvy bride – moves beyond the traditional ways of delivering a bridal publication – from the newest interactive technology and latest trends in bridal shopping and style to a colorful, fresh voice in the wedding genre. The first issue of the wedding magazine is FREE in single copy (www.getmarried.com/magazine) or bulk (magazine@getmarried.com).

Closely integrated with the TV show and Get Married magazine, the online portal offers brides an interactive experience, including a newly-launched wedding shop that sells wedding supplies and products as seen in the magazine, as well as a wedding blog (bloggerbrides.com), video segments from the show, articles, image galleries and planning tools.

Comment: In a time when a couple of national wedding magazines have closed, and ‘reality’ television shows dominate the wedding tV category, Get Married is going another direction. 2010 Should provide them the opportunity to draw a distinctive difference between their brand and others that serve the bride and the wedding vendor.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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It can be said of many people, that we are better at giving advice, than taking it.

My career consists mostly, of public speaking, authority blogging, writing and consulting. Or as Monica Morgan would needle me, “Telling people how they are wrong, and how to fix it.”

Knowing what to do, and actually doing it, are two different things. As I nudge you to gather your thoughts and information from 2009, set aside a time for creating a 2010 plan, and putting that plan in writing, I’m going to participate.

I’m poised to implement my own advice. Some of the points that have made it to my agenda for planning are.

• Updating my logo, and accompanying print materials.
• Actively choosing which organizations and associations I will belong to, be involved in, and at what level.
• Create a visible manifestation of organizations and associations, across North America, that I should target for speaking engagements. This will include national, regional and local conferences. — In fact, I’ve already purchased the cork board, map, and push pins for this purpose. Now, I’ll put an intern to work, for the research.
• Having published a second book, and an eBook on DVD, a more thorough marketing plan must be developed.
• Utilize the video recordings that I have in hand, to created a demo reel, snippets for the website, and snippets for promotional materials.
• Employ the lists functions in Facebook and Twitter to more effectively focus on specific groups of people.
• Utilize the recommendation function on LinkedIn more frequently to praise others, and hopefully, receive praise.
• More consistently express thanks and acknowledgment for the people that assist me, in my work, and otherwise.

… I’ll stop there, for the moment.

The list is JUST a start. In brainstorming, and preparing, anything and everything that comes to mind, goes on the list.

The actually planning will assign priorities, timelines, and dollars to each of these elements. Some of them may not make the cut for 2010.

I believe that successful times mask all kinds of waste, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness. These are challenging times.

To have the most prosperous and enjoyable 2010, by serving the greatest number of wedding industry business professionals, through speaking, coaching, writing, and consulting, I have to take my own advice.

Implement a structure, written, marketing plan. There… I said it.

Will you be playing along?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

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The National Association of Catering Executives brought the NACE Experience 2009! to Charlotte, North Carolina. The quick highlight reel will give you a sense of the excitement, education, style, ideas, networking, and camaraderie at NACE Experience 2009!

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing Blog

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Mobile Beat seminar tour

Tomorrow, I fly to Chicago for the first stop of the second leg of the Mobile Beat Pioneer ProDJ Tour (Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh).

There hasn’t been much time to refresh from the first tour leg, but I have put together a few thoughts that may be interesting. To start with, here are some cumulative statistics (approximate) from the first four stops (Phoenix, San Diego, Orange, & Silicon Valley).

• 75-80% of the DJ’s had a Facebook presence (mostly personal, some business).
• 40-50% had a profile on LinkedIn, but many professed to not using it frequently or fully.
• Only a handful at each stop had a Twitter account.
• Just a few at each stop published a blog.

The thrust of my presentation, Social Media Strategies, was two-fold.

1. Help people frame a strategy/goal/reason-for-being-there for Social Media.
2. Explain enough about the different social media tools, and their features, so as to help people frame their tactics, to accomplish their strategy/goal.

It is clear, when talking to people, that many have just followed the crowd (often fueled by national media), and have not yet focused their social media strategy or tactics.

Social Media is not free: I am continually annoyed by seminars or articles that boast the no-cost factor of social media. The statement is nonsense. One’s time is worth money. If you are investing 4-5 hours a week in social media, that has value. For that reason, alone, it’s important to zero in on  your purpose, and apply the proper tactics, consistently, to achieve it.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

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The Mobile Beat DJ Tour hits 15 U.S. Cities

Sponsors, Speakers and Mobile Beat crew were greeting to a seats-full audience at its first stop on the Mobile Beat Pioneer ProDJ Tour.

Digigames’ Rob Johnson MC’d the evening which offered a great variety of education, information, and inspiration.

Many members of the Phoenix ADJA Chapter were in attendance. And, happily, a mighty contingent from the Tucson ADJA Chapter had made the 2-hour trip to attend.

Wedding Marketing Authority, Andy Ebon, is the opening presenter on this leg of the tour, speaking about ‘Social Media Strategies.’

Joe Fabitz
Contributing Writer
The Wedding Marketing Blog

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