Wedding University - Andy Ebon, The Wedding Marketing Authority, comes to Richmond, Washington and Baltimore

Tuesday, November 16 in Richmond: Details at http://richmondbridalshowcase.eventbrite.com

Wednesday, November 17 in Washington: Details at http://washingtonbridalshowcase.eventbrite.com

Thursday, November 18 in Baltimore: Details at http://baltimorebridalshow.eventbrite.com

If you want BRIDES to invest in you, shouldn't YOU invest in you?

Would you like 2011 to be your most successful year ever? Make plans to attend this informative seminar, and you'll be taking the first step toward making this goal a reality.

Wedding University will be tackling all of your hard hitting questions and more, including: What makes selling to a bride different than selling to anyone else? What are the most cost-effective ways to reach her? How can you make the most of every advertising dollar?

Attend this fast-paced, intensive seminar and you will unlock the secrets of selling to the lucrative wedding market. Fresh from the Wedding MBA Convention in Las Vegas, marketing experts Andy Ebon and Marc McIntosh will share their knowledge and help you dramatically improve your marketing to brides.

Your Speakers:

Andy Ebon, The Wedding Marketing Authority, spent more than 25 years as a vendor in the wedding industry. Building on that experience, Andy is now a public speaker, writer and marketing consultant focused on the wedding industry.

Andy has presented at local, regional, and national conferences, including NACE (National Association of Catering Executives), ISES (International Special Event Society), The Special Event Show, Wedding MBA and more. Andy publishes TheWeddingMarketingBlog.com, one of the most respected industry blogs, and has contributed chapters to The Power of the Platform series, including "Blogging Your Way to Success" and "Building a Focused Social Media Strategy." He is a monthly columnist for WedLock Magazine, the wedding marketing journal.

Marc McIntosh has spent his entire career in the wedding industry, first as a wedding vendor and for the past 17 years a producer of bridal shows. His company, Showcase Events, produces the highly successful Washington Bridal Showcase as well as shows in Richmond, Baltimore and Houston.

Marc has shared his practical advice with thousands of wedding professionals throughout the U.S. and Canada. Most recently, he spoke to a capacity crowd at Wedding MBA in Las Vegas. He has also served as a keynote speaker for NACE, the Association of Wedding Professionals, the American DJ Association, and the Association of Bridal Consultants.

The Details:

The Showcase Events is presenting this seminar at a nominal charge as a service to the local wedding community. Admission to our networking luncheon is included in the price of the ticket. Bring plenty of business cards as this will also be a great opportunity to network with other wedding professionals. Space is limited, so reserve your seat today. Your investment is ONLY $49 if you register by November 9; after that it increases to $69.

Schedule of Events:

8:30am Registration and networking

9:00am Morning Sessions

Improving Your Website Usability: When selling to today's bride, your website is the centerpiece of your marketing efforts. Virtually every prospective customer, even those who were referred to you, will visit your website before contacting you. In this session, we will analyze a variety of websites, including some from right here in the local area. You will discover how to improve your website to make it a more effective sales tool.

Print Advertising That Drives Leads and Sales: Print advertising, whether a magazine ad, a brochure or a bridal show handout, is a key element to increasing your sales. Learn how to make your ad dollars work harder by enhancing headlines, graphics and content.

12:00pm Networking Luncheon (provided)

1:00pm Afternoon Sessions

The Myths of Selling to Brides: How do you cut through the clutter to find out what really matters to the bride? In this presentation you will discover what works and what doesn't when selling to her. Find how to better target the bride and maximize the effectiveness of your advertising dollars. What you thought was working might just be missing the mark and costing you business.

The 10 Steps to Bridal Show Success: Arranging face-to-face contact with potential customers has become increasingly difficult, making participation in bridal shows even more important than ever. We'll show you dozens of innovative, cost-effective ways to maximize your results from bridal shows, including a step-by-step plan for designing your booth, motivating your staff and converting the leads you generate at the show into sales.

Social Media Strategy for the Wedding Professional: Just "having a blog" or "being on Facebook" is not enough. This session will demonstrate how different social media tools, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, interact and support each other, helping you to crystalize an effective Social Media Strategy. You'll discover numerous ways take your social media presence to the next level.

4:30pm Seminar Concludes

Have questions or want more information?

Call us at (703) 425-1127 or email to info@BridalShowcase.com.

Tuesday, November 16 in Richmond: Details at http://richmondbridalshowcase.eventbrite.com

Wednesday, November 17 in Washington: Details at http://washingtonbridalshowcase.eventbrite.com

Thursday, November 18 in Baltimore. Details at http://baltimorebridalshow.eventbrite.com

As I suspected ...

Remember my earlier post about the "big" Boston bridal show scam? Supposedly, hundreds of exhibitors had registered and thousands of tickets had been sold before the producer disappeared with the money. I disputed these numbers based on my experience with shows. According to an article in the Boston Herald, an arrest has been made in the case. The producer sold 57 exhibitors into the show but only sold a few tickets. I thought that the numbers thrown about by the prosecutors sounded suspect, and that has proven to be the case.

Just Announced - Spring Seminar Schedule

You’re invited to a FREE seminar sponsored by Showcase Productions. Reserve your seat now!

Bridal Marketing Boot Camp

Houston, Texas - June 2 and 3, 2010

Alexandria, Virginia - June 15, 2010

Beltsville, Maryland - June 16, 2010

Do you sell to brides?

Would you like to sell to more of them?

Are you sure you are getting the most out of the money you spend on advertising?

How can you increase your sales (and your profit margins) in these tough economic times?


Our Bridal Marketing Boot Camp is coming to Houston on June 2 and 3, Alexandria on June 15, and Beltsville on June 16. Invest just two hours of your time (but none of your money, because it’s free) and we will show you how to dramatically increase your wedding business ... even in this uncertain economic environment.

At this seminar, you will discover why selling to the bride is different than selling to anyone else. Learn cost-effective ways of reaching the bride and turning her into a valuable customer. We guarantee that you will walk away with dozens of innovative ideas and strategies that you can put to use immediately. These are fresh ideas ... not the tired ones used by your competition!

• Where are the most effective places to advertise? This list is different than it was even a year ago.
• What are the seven myths of selling to brides, and how do they impact your marketing?
• Why are brides ignoring the traditional wedding planning timelines? What does this mean to you?
• How should I integrate Facebook, Twitter and You Tube into my marketing program?

Plus, you will learn why bridal shows should be a part of your marketing program. Find out how shows work, why they work and how to make them work for you. Learn the 10 steps that will ensure show success and the 10 things that you must avoid at all costs. Discover how to make your booth do the selling for you, and how to maximize your results both during and after the show.

If you are serious about selling to brides, this will be two hours well spent. Admission is free and there is no obligation. These will be our only seminars of the year and space is limited. Reserve your seat today!

Houston Sessions:

Wednesday Evening, June 2 or

Thursday Morning, June 3

Ashford Oaks

2022 Wilcrest Dr

Houston, Texas

June 2: Doors open 5:30pm, Seminar 6pm-8pm

June 3: Doors open 8:30am, Seminar 9am-11am

Northern Virginia Session

Tuesday, June 15

Hilton Alexandria Mark Center

Alexandria, Virginia
Doors open 8:30am, Seminar 9am-11am

Maryland/Washington Session:

Wednesday, June 16

Sheraton Washington North

Beltsville, Maryland

Doors open 8:30am, Seminar 9am-11am

RSVP Now ...

Space is limited and advance reservations are requested. To reserve your seat, please email to marc@bridalshowcase.com with your company name, the date you will attend and the names of the attendees. Limit of two attendees per company, please!

Bridal Show Scam in Boston

Anyone remotely associated with the wedding industry has no doubt heard about the Boston Bridal Show Scam. This story was picked up by media literally all over the world. I guess that wedding-related bad news makes for a good story. Bridal shows come and go all the time, and many new shows are announced that never happen. Most aren't scams, just business failures. The Boston show was probably a scam from the beginning, since the promoters never even booked a date at the convention center, but I think that the media has blown this way out of proportion. Here's my take:

The situation in Boston is truly unfortunate, and I feel sorry for the brides and vendors who were taken in by this scam. That said, I think that the numbers thrown about by the media are grossly inflated. Through my years of experience in producing shows, I know that only 20 to 40 percent of attendees purchase their tickets in advance, and more than half of those sales come the week of the show, and the majority of those two days prior. Applying these percentages to this situation, if they had sold 6000 tickets a week out, their total attendance would have ended up as as high as 25,000. There are only a few bridal shows in the entire country that get even 5000 attendees (remember, we're targeting only the one percent of the population that is planning a wedding), and these are long-established shows with lots of television, radio and print advertising. I highly doubt that a new show that was promoted only online would have had anything close to these attendance numbers. Likewise, wedding vendors tend to have a healthy degree of skepticism, and even in shows where we have a 15 year track record, there are very few who would pay by phone or Paypal without some sort of documentation. When the smoke clears, I believe that you will find that, at best, they sold a couple hundred tickets and a couple dozen booths. Still unfortunate, but not nearly as bad as the press has described.