You guys – 2014 is literally almost done. And 2015 is going to be nuts (how can the world handle a new Star Wars and a new Avengers in the same year!?). As the days continue to slip by, so do our old, tired ways of doing things. Get a head start on the new year and re-invigorate your event planning expertise with some new perspectives on these age-old sticking points for #eventprofs.

Drumming up PR

The Old Problem

PR is hard to measure, includes a ton of work on your part up front, and really only seems accessible for well-established events. And most of us can’t afford a PR agent, much less the time to go pitch a bunch of media sources ourselves.

The New Solution

It might be worth your time to pitch traditional media sources. If you land the right source, it could pay off big time for your event. But what if you took your traditional pitch and started hurling it at a whole new crowd? I’m talking about influencers and tastemakers.

Influencers and tastemakers are folks that have a voice in your industry. It could certainly be a prominent blogger – but they may also be people who have a large Twitter following, run a big LinkedIn group or be that one guy or gal that is always at your industry’s events with his or her posse.

So try working up a personable pitch where you invite an industry “cool kid.” They might just end up bringing their posse and recommending you to the world!

Attracting Event Sponsors

The Old Problem

You’ve got a sponsorship list that’s out-of-date, pretty confusing when it comes to options and has a million choices for sponsors to choose from. And none of them are biting.

The New Solution

This is the year to restructure your sponsorship packages. Sponsors are looking for innovative ways to reach audiences and you are in a perfect position to give that to them.

Wrap up audience touchpoints and sponsorship elements into fun packages that will appeal to sponsors and audiences alike. Give foodies the opportunity to win people via attendees’ stomachs with a food-themed package. Tech-savvy sponsors can reach the masses with a package that includes banners in your mobile app, a spot on the interactive wall and conspicuous branding of the mobile charging station.

It’s also time to start making use of that data you’ve aggregated from your event tech tools. Give sponsors an idea of how many people they’ll be reaching, what their interests are and how often past attendees are interacting with sponsors – you’ll find sponsors will be a lot more likely to take the bait.

Staying Up to Speed

The Old Problem

You look at your Twitter feed and you’re lost. Why did you follow that guy again? Is he important? What was the name of that good event planning blog you looked at that one time?

The New Solution

Well first of all, you can take a look at Guidebook’s round-up of the web’s best event planning blogs. We put together what we believe is a pretty great list of some of the internet’s event planning crème de la crème (techsytalk included).

Of particular interest might be eventpros.co. This tool actually curates the most popular posts bearing the eventprofs hashtag so that you don’t have to filter through mountains of retweets and spambots. Also, you’ll find a link to Grass Shack Events and Media’s event planning podcast. If you’re like us – you’re kind of podcast crazy. I’m no longer physically able to commute without listening to a podcast. Grass Shack is currently sporting a number of episodes featuring IMEX influencers (maybe a good place to start your search for non-traditional PR outlets).

Have fun doing things the new way!