This is the Transcript of the #WeddingMarket Chat on October 07, 2015 with Caryl Lyons from Roar Events. The answers were made on Twitter so responses will appear different.

Caryl discovered her passion for event planning at the young age of 16. Selected by her high school principal to plan their annual carnival, she organized the event without a hitch. In fact, she was so successful that she was tapped to do it again during her senior year. With 23+ years of events experience, it’s safe to say that she has found her calling. She has so many contacts in the industry which makes her invaluable to companies. If they need a venue, she knows at least 5; if they need an LED screen at the last-minute, she knows plenty of Visual Display Systems; if there are any complications to the event, she knows how to deal with them. Caryl’s events career started in publishing, first in fashion at Condé Nast Publishing’s Mademoiselle Magazine and then in tech for Ziff-Davis’s PC/Computing Magazine. She loved tech so much, she decided to make the jump into corporate where she managed teams at PeopleSoft, Tesseract and Symantec Corporation.

After having her son, Caryl decided to break away from the corporate world and enter entrepreneurship. Her first stint was with Helms Briscoe, a site selection company, where she honed her negotiation skills. She learned that she missed the creative aspect of planning events and took the plunge into ownership – and ROAR events group was born.

Similar to the work a destination management company would do, the quality events Caryl creates today are a far cry from the high school carnivals she planned years ago. Now they range from large conferences and tradeshows to incentives and intimate gatherings.

See more information at www.roarevents.com

Q1: How did you get involved with planning events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Started in High School planning my HS’s carnival. The headmaster saw potential in me. I was hooked. When I moved to SF I got involved in publishing and it was just as the internet was born. Started with tech tradeshows.

Q2: What corporate companies have you planned events for?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Because of where we’re located in the Bay Area, we tend to work with tech companies. Established companies and start-ups.

Q3: What exactly is a corporate event?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: It could be an internal event for employees; sales kick-off, executive meetings, incentive trip, holiday party. It could be an external event; user conference, tradeshow, summit, roadshows. There is a wide variety and many times it’s not just one event you are planning, it’s multi-faceted. We are working on a customer conference that has a welcome reception, sponsor hall, general session and party. You’re dealing with lots of vendors, internal customers and external customers.

Q4: How can wedding pros determine if corporate events would be a good niche to add to their business?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: The perfect entree into corporate for wedding pros is “corporate social” – holiday parties and company picnics. They have to like change. Corp Events is full of change. You need to be able to shift gears quickly.

Q5: How can wedding pros break into corporate events with no experience?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: It’s all about networking. Being on social media. Millennial’s are the new market. They are very visual. Use social media to show your knowledge. Follow the #eventprofs hashtag. See what other #eventprofs are saying. Corporate is so much more than pretty flowers, there is strategy, branding & budgeting. Talk to other #eventprofs to get an idea of the types of events they do.

Q6: What are some of the benefits of doing corporate events versus weddings?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: No. 1 budgets are larger. No. 2 it isn’t personal. No. 3 not as many starts & stops. No. 4 think quickly on your feet.

Q7: How do you decide what companies to target after?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Based on our area – tech is a natural fit. I look at companies I like and understand. If you understand the company and technology, it’s easier to work with them and understand their brand.

Q8: Who should wedding pros contact at a corporate office about future events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Events happens in all areas of corporate. Focus on exec assistants, HR and marketing managers.

Q9: What should wedding pros say in the first conversation with the event contact at the corporate office?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Find out what their pain points are and how you can help them. Make sure they know they need to provide a photographer brief. Let them talk and assess.

Q10: How do you generate corporate event leads?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: When I first entered the field I cold called. Now all our business is referral based. We network with industry peers and offer insight to peers. We show value to them and they refer potential clients.

Q11: How do you manage your social media daily or weekly?

Answer:

Caryl Lyons: I Facebook and Instagram mainly. I use Linkedin one or two times a week. If I instagram, I auto feed to fb biz page and Twitter. It’s hard to keep up with everything. If I’m doing a site visit, I’ll upload photos to Stellar and Instagram.

Q12: If you were just starting in corporate events now what piece of advice do you wish you could have told yourself in the beginning?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Get your core team together sooner. And – enjoy the ride. There will be lulls, but enjoy those and don’t stress so much.

Q13: What types of technology or apps do you use to help plan corporate events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Basecamp, Google Docs, Evernote, Photoshop, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Q14: Are you open to using new vendors for your corporate events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Yes & we use different vendors when we travel to different locations. For certain things, we use the same vendors as we have a cohesive team in place so it makes planning easy. We definitely partner with new vendors when we travel. We ask for referrals vs. hunting around on our own. There is nothing better than a referral, and we often have other businesses or close colleagues referring us different chauffeur services for events.

Q15: What would you like everyone to take away from this #weddingmarket chat?

Answer

Caryl Lyons : There are so many different types of events, develop your style, network & share with your community. Be open to learning from others and look for inspiration everywhere.

#WeddingMarket Chat Questions

@SweetestEvents_ What is the most challenging aspect of planning corporate events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons : Dealing with change. Clients are always switching gears & you need to think quickly on your feet.

@FrillsBridal Do you find in corporate that you have to deal with a chain of people? Executive assistance has to run your question by their boss and so on?

Answer

Caryl Lyons : Oh yes! There are lots of layers and have to go up the chain of command.

@DreamyWeddingSK Which social media does your clients gravitate towards for corporate events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons : We put together social campaigns for events so we aggregate all the social channels. Popular ones are Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin. Also having the event hashtag is important. Yes! The hashtag should be everywhere for maximum exposure.

@PaperMimi How do you manage announcements/invitations? (asking as a stationery)

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Completely depends on the event type. For incentives or executive events, we tend to do printed. For conferences – it’s email invites. I always love a beautiful invite that matches the branding of the event.

DreamyWeddingSK Which social media does your clients gravitate towards for corporate events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Our clients use all the social channels – Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter. Periscope should be interesting to see if that comes into play.

SweetestEvents_ Are there particular Apps that event planners and clients utilizing throughout the planning process?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: We use Basecamp, Google Docs and Evernote.

@EnrapturedEvents For corporate events, are email invites preferred?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: I would say email is used about 85% of the time. @EnrapturedEvents We use event web registration pages to push out invites like @eventfarm @lanyon @eventbrite .

@StmbtPhotoLoung Who should we contact first at a company about their corporate events?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Events happens in all areas of corporate. Focus on exec assistants, HR and marketing managers.

@EventSolutionSF What’s the best way to connect with these groups. LinkedIn?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: LinkedIn is great. Also find local events, connect with hotels and network.

@FrillsBridal What do you find to be the focus of most of your corp events? employee appreciation? finding new customers? etc.

Answer

Caryl Lyons: About 80% are customer facing events to drive revenue for the business. The remaining are internal.

@DreamyWeddingSK How do you get/track/record feedback of an event you have done?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: We have survey’s that are sent out to the attendees.

@SweetestEvents_ Do you find that your clients utilize Apps, or particular social media platforms when planning?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: They relay on us – but look at @Pinterest @Instagram and google images.

@iknowucandance How does a dance company work with corporate events? Any ideas?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Yes – kicking off a general session. Bringing in the element of surprise.

@TaylorWed What about teaching the group a dance? Or provide entertainment for the evening?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: One client does an opening dance number and we bring in a choreographer to design the number.

@JulieAlbaugh What topics do you discuss on #Periscope?

Answer

Caryl Lyons: Trends in events, hotels, venues, inspiration, info for newbie planners, live events that we produce.