Bums on seats

A neat idea from the DMAW Bridge Conference. Ask the speakers to sell your event by emailing their own contacts. I have spoken now at dozens of conferences and this is the first time I recall ever being asked.

So, if you are in America, you can come along - and I can reserve you front row seats at my presentation!

One critism though, and this was disappointing - the email requires me to fill in my details, including my session title, session times and topic. This will supress take up, and could have been easy to deal with since DMAW will have all that information on file - it is easy to personalise emails these days. Hey, maybe I was in a test / control group and the others were personalised?

Either way. good stuff American DM & Fundraising people; thanks.

Here is the email:


Dear Sean Triner,

The attendee list is growing for the 4th Annual Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference and, fortunately, we have not experienced a significant decline in registrations like other organizations. There is so much value in this conference that even in a down economy, we expect nonprofits and direct marketing agencies will choose to spend precious professional development funds here.

You can help us continue to reach potential attendees and expand your own professional impact at the same time. What better way to reconnect with customers, donors, and colleagues than for YOU to invite them to have a front row seat at your own presentation! Whether they choose to attend or not, they will be impressed by your expertise, recognition, and warmth in inviting them.

Here is the draft of an invitation e-mail that we promised to send to you so that you can edit and then send it out. Please send this to everyone in your address book. Yes, even your Mom should know that you are speaking at this conference! Cultivation of donors, customers, vendors and colleagues can only result in positive reflection on you don’t miss this opportunity to invite others to join you at the Bridge Conference. We all know that the survivors of economic hard times are poised for greatness when the economy improves.

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share an exciting opportunity I have this summer. I was selected as part of a small number of experts to present at the 4th Annual Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference, an event that brings together fundraising and marketing professionals from all over the world.

I will be presenting on [insert topic] at [insert time] on [insert day of week and date]. This subject is important to all of us right now because [insert reason]. I invite you to join me at this rich educational conference to learn more about this and other issues, helping each of us to do our jobs more effectively.

You can register for the conference by clicking here. If you are unable to attend, you can look at the website to see if there are helpful resources for you there, or I can tell you about my presentation afterward.

Either way, this is a welcome opportunity to connect with you. I look forward to hearing from you soon and hope to see you in person at the conference.

Kristin McCurry and Lisa Boccia
Bridge Conference Co-chairs

P.S. Don’t forget, if you would like to connect to your potential audience we have a variety of social networking tools available exclusively to speakers to connect them with Bridge Conference attendees. Just send a message to Dawn Smith and we will have one of our volunteer social networking and technology wizards reach out to you.