Trying Out A New Resource for Canvas Prints, Car Magnets, and Promotional Materials { Sponsored }

I recently had the opportunity to sample Printcopia's online canvas prints service. I found the interface to be fairly straightforward and easy to use, and my print arrived within 7 days. While I'm not sure this would be the solution for personal items needing professional editing and cropping such as wedding portraits (please use your professional photographer for those!), I found the self-service canvas prints to be of excellent quality and more than adequate for my needs as an event planner. These would be great for display materials for tradeshows and decorative marketing of event photos around the office.

Printcopia also offers car magnets, custom banners, and inexpensive signs -- items that all of us as event planners need to use at one time or another. I haven't tried these items yet, but if they are the same quality as the canvas print I was able to sample, this would be a great resource to add to my list.

Disclosure: We received a complimentary 11x14 canvas print sample prior to writing this review.

Design Competition: ISES Portland's Art of the Party

Photo by Paul Rich. L to R: Emee Pumarega, EJP Events; Cindy Thompson, Cindy Thompson Event Productions; Gene Dent, SCi3.2

Last week I had the pleasure of serving as a judge and participating on a panel discussion for the International Special Events Society - Portland Chapter's annual tabletop design competition, called "The Art of the Party". Inspired by the likes of DIFFA's Dining By Design events, the event brings together florists, designers, and planners from all over the area to compete for three awards: Best Use of Theme, Best Use of Alternative Materials, and People's Choice. Many thanks to the ISES Portland board for including me, and to Food in Bloom / Montgomery Park for hosting the event.

As a judge, alongside event planner Cindy Thompson of Cindy Thompson Event Productions and Gene Dent, of SCi3.2 (the company responsible for most of the floats in the Portland Grand Floral Parade during the Rose Festival), we were tasked with evaluating each of the ten entries according to the criteria given. In addition, we had to sit in the hot seat and answer questions about our own approaches to special event design. It was a great event and I learned so much from my co-panelists as well as the attendees who asked the hard questions!

I will be blogging more thoughts about event design over the coming weeks, as there were many questions we prepared for that we didn't get to, due to time constraints.

Highlights of the panel: Unconferences and Un-Themes, Che Guevara as a touchstone for a "Fifties" event, what "modern" means when it comes to event themes, which themes are overused. If you missed the event, you missed some great discussions and you should participate next year!

More about ISES Portland and its upcoming educational events here at their website.

The winners:
Best Use of Theme: (a tie) Bird Dog Creative & Peter Corvallis Productions

Bird Dog Creative's "glamping"-themed table.

Peter Corvallis Productions's "superhero" themed table.

Best Use of Alternative Materials: "Time Machine" by East West Floral Arts/Barclay Event Rentals; was also the People’s Choice Award: East West Floral Arts/Barclay Event Rentals.

"Time Machine" steampunk-inspired table by East West Floral Arts and Barclay Event Rentals.

Full photo documentation of the event and all competition entries by Paul Rich available at his blog.

Event Planner Tech Tip of the Day: Reading PDFs in iBooks

For us in the event planning world who use iPhone, iPad, and iOS (which seems to be the majority), we are always looking for that cool new shortcut or hack that will make life easier. While not splashy, using iBooks to read PDFs that are emailed is one that I have found to be a huge time-saver.

Let's say someone emails you a PDF that is important, but you want to read later. The other day, I received the Splendid Insights Global Study Wedding Report (thank you Liene!). It is 41 pages of wedding marketing goodness that I do not have time to read in one sitting, unfortunately. I also am a compulsive inbox-cleaner, so I can't leave something like that in my inbox.

Enter iBooks, the Kindle alternative for iOS. The thing is, it's not just for books, it reads PDFs as well and organizes them elegantly on a nice little bookshelf.

To put your PDFs in iBooks, first tap once on the PDF attachment to make sure it is fully downloaded. Then simply press and hold down down on the attachment in your email. A pop up menu will ask you if you want to "Quick Look", "Open in iBooks", or "Open In...". Select "Open in iBooks". It's that simple!

Now your PDF is on the bookshelf ready to read when you are on the train, waiting for your table in the restaurant, or whenever. You can also use this method to save any PDF - such as event plans, event timelines, or diagrams. No more clunky clipboards at the event, just put your phone or iPad in a handy spot!

Find this hint helpful? Know any other quick event tech tips? Please leave a comment below. And if you did find it helpful, please feel free to share or pin.

Planner Olympics 2012

Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/communitiesuk/

Two thoughts have been cooking together in my head lately. With the London 2012 Summer Olympics all over my various dashboards, it's hard not to think of all of the related events and the planners involved. This year, CareerCast.com also listed event planning as the #6 most stressful job - right behind soldiers, firefighters, and police. (Really?)

I hereby propose the hashtag #plannerolympics to my event planning community. If you've ever gone 8 hours without a restroom break, worn high heels on concrete convention hall floors for 12, or (my true story) sat politely eating nothing during a 2-hour menu tasting whilst 12 weeks pregnant and starving (because the client barely touched her food and I didn't want to look rude), then #plannerolympics is for you.

July and August in Oregon are especially trying for independent event planners as we juggle current clients with incoming inquiries for next year, while also fielding last-minute inquiries for every event type imaginable. Strength, stamina, patience, and focus...needed by medalist athletes and professional event planners alike!

So whichever social tool you're using, be it Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, or Google+ ... tell me about your #plannerolympics. Long distance marathon walking? Heavy decor deadlift? The "don't put that steak entrée in front of our vegetarian VIP" sprint? Do tell!

Internship available at Portland Children's Museum

I was recently contacted by Claire Tronvig, the Volunteer Coordinator at Portland Children's Museum, who alerted me of an interesting opportunity for a wedding planner who is interested in transitioning into nonprofit events. This half-time internship reports directly to the Director of Development and will focus on assisting with fund raising events for PCM that support donor creation and retention while meeting and, hopefully, exceeding budgeted expectations. 

More about this internship can be found after the jump. To apply, please contact Claire at ctronvig@portlandcm.org.

Keeping your business's blog and your editorial blog separate

As event planners, we wear lots of hats. Because there are so many aspects to planning events (are you a designer/stylist? A logistician? Do corporate? Social? etc. etc...) we get used to multitasking.

So it is with event planner blogs. I read avidly, and it's great to see so many people sharing their ideas and best practices. One thing I think is dangerous about blogging though, is when the motive for a blog is not transparent.

Example: the other day, I stumbled across a wedding I had coordinated, on a beautiful, editorial-looking blog. The writing was well-crafted, and the blogger advertised that they accepted submissions through Two Bright Lights. In every way it appeared to be an editorial post, although I thought it was weird that, except for some fine print at the bottom, there was no mention of my company specifically as the wedding coordinator. On the other hand, vendors for the cake, flowers, and attire were mentioned and name-checked in detail.

A few weeks later I saw an update, where the blogger shared a brand new social media page and excitedly announced a new division of their coordinating business. Confused, I went back to their About page. After reading, I realized the blog belonged to an event planner in the Portland area and that it doubled as their business blog and website.

I recommend that businesses not do this. Posting a detailed blog post about an event called a "Real Wedding" on your event planning business blog implies that you have some connection to the event. If you are blogging to increase awareness of your event planning business, you are subtly passing off these "Real Weddings" as your own work.

If you want to be a journalist-blogger that covers real weddings, great. If you wish to be an editor of beautifully curated content, that's wonderful! (Offbeat Bride and Every Last Detail are some sites that do this very well.)

On the other hand, if you are a planner marketing your business by blogging, post "Real Weddings" of only your own events. Be very clear about the use of pictures for events that you're not connected with. That way your motives are clear, and you won't appear to be trying to mislead the public.

Agree? Think I'm way off base? Leave it in the comments.

Image of me, working the Oregon Nurses Association 2011 convention, courtesy Casey Campbell.

Voting open for NW Meetings and Events Best of 2012

Event professionals in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho can show their appreciation for their favorite meeting venues and services in the pages of Northwest Meetings and Events magazine. Voting is now open for the magazine's "Best of 2012", where hotels, attractions, and service providers can be nominated for the Readers' Choice Best of Awards.

Make sure to cast your vote before the deadline on February 24th.