The “Charlotte DO” went really well. A few people have already shared their thoughts and impressions as attendees and I wanted to do the same. Here’s what I think worked, and I what I think didn’t so we can make the next one even better. I am also going to share the behind the scenes thoughts, tricks and ideas that I think made it great. As I have mentioned in the past, I have never had the pleasure of attending any of the miles/points related events that exist, so I wasn’t able to look at what is currently done and be influenced by it. I was blown away by the number of people who told me this was the best event ever.
The event couldn’t have been the success it was without the people who came, from the guests, to the presenters so first of all thank YOU for making it amazing. I had the chance to speak with many people but wish I could have had longer and done more.
I want to single out Phil (MilesAbound) for suggesting we even hold a ‘DO’ without him this wouldn’t have been a idea. Inna (The Miles Professor) picked the hotel- a great choice! And Greg, Frequent Miler helped support the entire process with his experience, wisdom and wallet. All three were instrumental to this event and continued to support and help with great ideas throughout the planning process beyond what I could have hoped for.
I was a little nervous when setting this up that we would build it and nobody would show up, so Greg, Phil and Inna not only helped me with figuring out how to make it work, they also agreed to split any losses with me so I wouldn’t be on the hook for a 5 figure hotel bill. They made this happen. I’d also like to thank Trevor for helping out as resident Tech Guru, and KennyB for the mouse!
Starting with the bad
A quick apology for the things that I didn’t do right, and will improve on.
- Sound – we started out with using the Podium for sound, but it was a single speak projecting forward. That required a lot of ‘projecting’ to reach the people in the back. I found out the hard way that we should have been using a wireless mic and the overhead speaker system, and I think that made it hard on The Miles Professor and the people in the cheap seats to hear. Apologies to all.
- Acknowledgements – I should have spoken more about the other players of #milemadness. Elena (Giddy), Michelle (Maitais), Chris (BigHabitat) were in the room and I should have given them a shout out, they all did really well in the tournament – so thanks for coming and thanks for playing!
If you attended Charlotte please contact me via comments below or via email with anything that you didn’t like so we can make it better, I’m very grateful that you took the time to attend and want to keep on improving things. I have also circulated a Survey via email, if you can find time to complete it we will use that to make things better.
Exploring the positives
I want to share what people loved about this. If you are planning your own event please steal this knowledge, if your event becomes better by it then you win, your guests win, and I get to feel good that I helped out.
The most common reaction was ‘it felt good’
The event went well for many reasons, but the whole thing worked because we had good people presenting. I allowed everyone flexibility with their talks and set no parameters. When you have people this talented it is best to let them rip with whatever they like. The feeling was that we would be sharing ideas and concepts that were important to us, not agendas to build brands or advertise. The latter came naturally when people saw how phenomenal the people presenting really were. By the time we got to lunch I knew we had a slam dunk.
I wanted this to feel like a warm and friendly environment where people could share ideas. We used Eventbrite to manage tickets and lists but it is really, really important to remember that such tracking is just a tool to help. I was lucky enough to meet with a number of people on Friday evening at the social events and tried my best to remember names. When I saw them the next day I didn’t need to worry about IDs etc and was able to speed up check-in, and hopefully make it more friendly.
Of course, that mainly worked due to the size of the event. By keeping it small I got to meet (almost) everyone. If your goal is to create a networking event size matters, and once it gets too big cliques form. I credit Frequent Miler for pushing this concept, he was spot on. The next event will be the same or smaller.
Lack of commercialism, I said I wanted to create a warm and friendly environment, sponsorship was a fleeting thought, and something we might entertain in the future should it be a win/win. A good sponsor would be Stone brewing company sponsoring the booze. A bad sponsor would be a credit card company shilling cards.
The Finances
This is key. Many people thought that it was great value for money. The reason behind this was that we ‘hacked it’ for you. This truly was an event that was intended to bring together like minded people who actually do what we say we do. There is a real difference between that and an event that is intended to make more money for the organizers under the guise of… well anything at all.
Hotel/Event Cost
Hotel is relying on, and Group agrees to provide, a minimum of 80 guest room nights. Should the Group fall below
this amount, the Group will be responsible for the difference between the minimum guest room nights and actualized
guest room nights multiplied by the single convention guest room rate multiplied by 80% (guest room minimum
minus guest rooms actualized multiplied by single convention room rate multiplied by 80%), plus any applicable
taxes.Either the Hotel or Group may cancel this contract without cause upon written notice to the other party at any time
prior to the event and upon payment of an amount based on the following scale, plus applicable taxes:44 days or less from the start of the official event dates $13,770 (90% of Rooms, Food & Beverage,
and Rental Minimums)89 days to 45 days from the start of the official event $11,475(75% of Rooms, Food & Beverage,
dates and Rental Minimums)
Inflows
We also refunded a few tickets as we agreed to do so up to 7 days from the end, and I resold 4 for people via Paypal which meant we had a little more to play with than above.
Balancing the Books
As you can see, we had a $15,000 liability, and also a need to ‘sell’ 80 room nights. These wouldn’t earn us any commission, it was just a requirement of the hotel. This is why I was a little concerned that if it didn’t sell out I would be stung with a huge bill and glad that Phil, Greg and Inna helped!!
Despite the high price we wanted to sell only a small number of tickets, and make it affordable. So we priced the tickets not by dividing $15,000 by 100 ($150 each) we instead thought it fair to charge $65/$75 per ticket, less than half what we needed, so we took that target price and hacked the cost downwards so that it was more affordable. The next event might cost a little more.
I worked with the hotel to reduce the room night requirement and negotiated this out. Next I reset the min spend amount to $3,000 (Phil had already started the ball rolling and got the $15,000 down to around $6,000 if memory serves) so we were going into things needing to spend only $3,000 at the hotel. Between the 4 of us our liability was now only $750 each if nobody at all came. I suggested if that happens we all fly down and sit at the bar drinking expensive Champagne until we hit ‘goal’!
After we reduced liability, we just set the price at the arbitrary number of $75 and made the food and beverage ‘work’. We found that if we wanted to offer good food for lunch (there were also cheaper options) we would run out of cash for the cocktail hour, so we stretched the budget by taking the Eventbrite inflows of about $6000 and boosting the amount by buying discounted Hyatt Gift Checks.
Frequent Miler generously agreed to do this, and in fairness he gave up the opportunity to use these himself to make it work. It is a luxury that we might not have next time, so we should be glad he did this, and not surprised if things cost us a ‘little more’ on the next event. I busted a gut trying to get the best value out of our accelerated budget, hence deciding to not have the drinks package in the room (which still turned out great and came with water!) in order to spend every last dollar on the event. By agreeing to do this we effectively kicked in another $1000 to our spending pool.
I can’t see how you can hold a conference like ours without spending the money like this, it has to be congruent with our philosophy.
The Invoice
Conclusion
I think we had a great event. It worked because we made it all about the art of the Gig and that shone through not only from the presenters, but right the way through to how we booked and paid for it all, taking the money spent and using the skills we advocate to make sure that we optimized. We talked the talk and we walked the walk. I looked at the money that came in as my own money (not that I would pocket it and run! But that I wanted to spend it as wisely as I would my own) negotiation on price and using our skills to stretch a dollar came naturally to us.
We are now planning the next one. Frequent Miler, The Miles Professor and MilesAbound are already talking about where next, and I know that this one will be even better (though not bigger) than than the last as we have Tahsir, the Bengali Miles Guru, as part of the executive committee this time around. He is a very talented young man and we are certain to be able to produce something better as we take what we have and refine it further.
I cannot guarantee the next one will be as good value for money as this one, but you can rest assured we will have the same attitude, we will work our asses off to make sure that the event is amazing and we will price it in a way that ensures your money is maximized. Thanks to everyone for attending, and helping to make this a really enjoyable weekend.
I loved the CLT DO and speaking at the event was awesome. I hope whatever I said made sense. I know what you said made sense and I got something out of it that may spawn a write up in my world…
Milesabound talked about how our gift is to look at things and figure out the process, the deal inside the offer. If you read some offer and really look, you may find something in it that can be scaled without breaking and rules set forth in that offer. Our gift is the ability to find this sort of thing and our responsibility is to teach THAT, not to just share the steps. You cannot learn by being hand held. You have to have this in you, and to get it in you, you have to begin to think that way too.
To me MS is not about just finding steps and going out and doing them. It is about process and living a sort of “way.” Miles Professor, who has a real job and a tight schedule in the city has this process down. It’s not how much of something you do or what CCs you have or what balances you have on some mileage account. It’s how you do it.
I got lots to say but here’s a classic Stones song that was inspired by ADK!
“DO DO DO DO DO (Heartbreaker)”
The place in Charlotte City
They chased MS right through the dark
And using multilple identities
They cleaned out CVS from the start
MSers with your forty four GCs
I wanna tear your recibo apart
You MSer with your forty four
I wanna tear your recibo a part
A ten year old Walmart on a street corner
Fat clerks with piercings in their arms
The printer died in the in the middle of my swipe that day
Another MSer said I had no chance, no chance
MSer, MSer
She used the pins in her debit cards
MSer, an S.O.’s pain maker
Stole the MOs right out of you car
Oh yeah
doo, doo doo doo doo
Oh yeah
doo doo doo, doo doo
I wanna tear that recibo apart
I’m so honored that you came and spoke. I knew that after you spoke the entire day was a slam dunk. Hope to be able to afford you for the next one after your upcoming speaking circuit.
@Marathon Man – Great presentation…hilarious! “Talk MS to me…. Talk MS to me” :p
@Matt – Transparency/ honesty = awesome, food was the best at any event I have been to and presenters were great as well! So many brilliant minds! Oh and Thanks for the shout out 🙂
@Everyone – Great to meet so many people! Can’t wait for the next one!
Jason Derulo:]
I’m that flight that you get on, international
First class seat on my lap girl, riding comfortable
‘Cause I know what gift card i need, for
New York to Haiti
I got marathon mans stamps on my passport,
You make it hard not to go to a 24hr cvs
Been around the world, don’t speak the language
But your mos don’t need explaining
All I really need to understand is
When you talk ms to me
Talk ms to me
Talk ms to me
Talk ms to me
Get gc on it
I cannot get this song out of my head – with your lyrics. LOVE IT.
Ohhh I have more coming! lol
Love, love, love the transparency and for those not there, the food itemized on these was great and it was so special to have food passed at the cocktail party. Keep it classy. Very well planned and executed event.
Huge +1 on the transparency. Thanks again to Matt and every single one of the attendees for being there just and having an absolutely awesome outlook and attitude!
Pleasure to meet you there sir, thanks very much for the kind comments too!
And thanks again Kenny!
Thanks for the transparency and an understanding of the risk and special efforts all of you made to put it together!
A pleasure. Thank you!
Couldn’t be any more appreciative for all of your hard work and those mentioned above, so thanks again Matt. The event was fun for me and agree it seemed to be a raging success. Wish i was able to stay for the cocktail hour on Saturday evening! The one thing I fear is how hard it will be to secure a ticket to the next event(s). Now that people know this was a success, the droves will want to take part in the next DO. I think that is going to be a big challenge, hopefully you can figure out a way to deal with this.
I’m sorry you missed that too, it was a blast. I am worried about how to plan that demand scale too, as I know we will sell out at double the price…
Thanks for gifting us all with such an amazing event. Absolutely fabulous experience. Most grateful.
Lovely to meet you and Jay (I ‘think’ you are that Nancy?)
I actually the food was fantastic! If everything fails, you can always set up a business as an event organizer
Thanks fella, glad you liked it and that I have a future career!
Thanks for the transparency Matt.
You might consider Nashville for the next event. 50% of the US population lives within 650 miles (hint hint) of BNA, more than any other US city. 4500 Avios to Dallas, Chicago, Charlotte, DC, Philly, etc and 7500 to Miami, NYC, etc.
Nashville has become a foodie’s dream destination, is clean, safe, and has a lot more action downtown on weekends than CLT. The airport is 10 minutes from downtown.
I love Nashville. Bourbon, Q and music. It has to be one of my favorite cities. I put it forward as a suggestion, but we were already digging deep into a different vibe for the next one so no promises!
Different vibe=Ibiza style?
We will see!
I would second NashVegas as a great idea for the next one… raises my chance of attending from “I surely want to” to “I almost certainly barring major natural disasters attend”.
Speaking of NashVegas… is Vegas under consideration? Or are we touring AA/USAir hubs? If so, just host it in the DFW Centurion Lounge 😉
What the hell is NashVegas- it sounds awesome!!!
I can see why you were stressed out! Well done on the execution! Hearing about all of the reports make me sad I couldn’t make it
I’m sorry you weren’t there too, many people asked after you!
You rock, Matt!
My very first event and loved it. The speakers, food, the genuine people, the hotel and staff. I’m pretty new to big scale MS, but had been doing a lot already after reading, reading, reading and learning, learning, learning. I love the challenge and the game of this hobby, and of course, the results. This event and rubbing elbows with other like-minded people got the juices flowing.
Thanks a bunch. I’d be happy to help plan the next one.
Thanks Maria, I am glad you liked it, and thanks for your offer. We will likely put something together quite soon.
Matt:
Thanks for a GREAT event. Well done. Can we get a list of attendees in advance? Might be able to do some planning in advance to meet new friends we made at this one. Loved the speakers, but best part was the interaction with the attendees. Learned four new ways to do MS!
Wow- that’s great. Email me so I can blog about them! Glad you enjoyed and will try to make it better to communicate.
How about a west coast location? Vegas/SF. Even HNL might be good
We’re working on something more convenient for folks out West, look forward to meeting you over that side.
Congrats Matt on pulling off a very successful event!
Thanks mate, great to meet you there.
I have a question that others may find useful: Is it valuable (for others) if a relatively novice MSer like me comes to these events? It sounds mainly like it’s for experienced people because they can share tips with one another, but what about for those who want to learn, but may not be able to contribute much initially?
We had some noobs there and welcomed them. You will have enough time before the next event to get a grounding in MS etc prior and you won’t be a complete beginner by the time we hold the event.
We want to foster a warm and welcoming environment, it isn’t a private club.
Thats a need. If you are new but into this type of thinking then you are just as valid as a heavy hitter.
Many here can help but also…
Pm me on flyertalk and let me know what hangs you up. Maybe i can help
Marathon man
Raj,
I am a relative newbie, just at it about a year and a half, and it was well worth it. I was especially delighted at how everyone mixed, mingled and shared – whether they were old or young, male or female, experienced at MS or just starting, famous blogger or appreciative fan. If you can go to round two, as we say around my town, just do it!
I hope you don’t mind me chiming in. I consider myself a newbie. I had never even heard of manufactured spending and it’s implications until almost a year ago. I read a lot of blogs, and most of my favorite writers were here. Matt from Saverocity keeps me grounded and my head out of the clouds. I tend to forget there is an actual cost involved. Greg and Tashir take this to levels I thought were only available to people with decades of experience. I was glad to find out I was wrong. The approach I was using was more of an oblique angle instead of head on. There was enough information available for anybody, even a stranger off the street, to grasp the concept, and get some valuable nuggets of information. I had several theories and listening to these people helped me connect the dots. One even showed me where one of my theories was full of landmines. EXCELLENT JOB BY ALL!!
Thanks very much Christine, if you are a newbie, you are the type of newbie we need. Not everyone is willing to start creating their own ‘gigs’ so even with some pitfalls you are already very much moving in the right direction. The help of the community to show the pros and cons of a new idea is exactly what I was talking about in terms of what I wanted from this event. Glad to hear you enjoyed!
The food was the best out of any Event I have been to. I also liked it in Charlotte as it is a cozy little city and plenty of stuff to walk to.
Great job Matt, Nice meeting you.
Matt,
I already told you during the cocktail hour how much I enjoyed the event, but I feel it needs repeating. If only to say it without a beer in my hand.
The execution was phenomenal. The day seemed to flow effortlessly, though I doubt it was for those working behind the scenes. However, the ability to create the appearance of seamlessly transitioning from part of the day to the next is real skill.
Well done to you, the presenters, and all who assisted in pulling this off. Already looking forward to the next one.
Much appreciated Andrew, pleasure to meet you in person and hope to see you again.
Glad to hear it went well. Really wish I could’ve gone, as it sounds exactly like what I wished FTU was, but isn’t.
I second the suggestion for DFW! The hotels here are cheap!
Hope to see you at the next one!
Congratulations Matt! It really was a home run.
I have planned weddings and bar mitzvahs, with blocks of hotel rooms reserved, but I had no idea that reserving enough rooms for that many attendees came with a personal obligation to cover the costs. Thank you Matt, Greg, Inna and Phil for stepping up to guarantee the bill in case it didn’t sell out, and for all the negotiating, Hyatt certificates and the like to keep costs down. You guys are the greatest.
As for DO#2, I am only quoting #PatMikeL when I say come to Portland! I’d suggested it too, as soon as the possibility of a west coast reprise surfaced. The costs here will be much more reasonable than those in many other west coast cities. We are a mecca for microbrew lovers, and we’re famous among foodies. The airport is lovely and a light rail runs from PDX right to downtown. For those who shop at stores other than WM 😉 we pay no sales tax! And we have won top billing as one of the cleanest and most polite cities in the US, so you’ll find service workers to be just as kind and helpful as the staff we met in Charlotte.
Whether you all pick PDX or another place, I can help with planning and arrangements. Since I doubt I’ll ever be the one to find the next perpetual point machine, I would be happy to give back to the community by helping that way.
Thanks for the best Mother’s Day weekend ever, and I’ve been a mom a very long time!
Hi Elaine,
Thanks so much for coming, and I am really happy to hear that you enjoyed it. We are starting to look into a second event, though it may not be in PDX, nothing is certain yet…thanks for you kind offer to help too.
Cheers,
Matt
Great write up Matt. I LOVE that you were open and transparent with the numbers. You did a fantastic job putting this event together! I can’t wait for the next one!
I’m glad to hear that! I guess I should have checked in first 🙂 I thought it felt ‘right’ though and based on what I learned working with you something that you might agree with.
Looking forward to the next one too!
Made some new friends . Very unselfish group. Everyone was willing to share an idea. I am motivated.
Thanks, Jim
Glad to hear that Jim, thanks very much for coming!
Matt,
Absolutely great event. Great size, great opportunities to network and learn. It was truly awesome to get to meet so many incredibly smart and interesting people.
Also as far as the location – A walking location is great. Even though I had a rental, I barely used it, and I appreciated not having to use it.
Trevor,
So nice to meet you and the mrs in person. Thanks very much for your help throughout and I’m glad you enjoyed!
Cheers,
Matt
Happened to be wandering the streets of charlotte when the rain started pouring. Ran into the closest hotel and somehow stumbled into a room full of nerds talking about the art of maxing out your credit cards and then visiting your local favorite department store. I just bought $25,000 in gift cards with my Citi card. Can someone tell me how to fly free on Emirates?
I kid. Thanks Matt and the presenters for putting together a great get-together. I made a lot of friends with the same nerdy hobby and learned a few tricks. Lunch was delicious. It was great being able to talk over drinks. The hors d’oeuvres were icing on the cake. I don’t have any complaints. I sat at the back but was still ultimately able to glean most of the points despite the lack of speakers during mile prof’s seminar. Charlotte is a nice cozy walkable city and the hotel was within walking distance of multiple CVSs and WG, not that I made large purchases there. I’m impressed with the amount of effort that was put into coordinating the whole event. I say for event #2 keep the numbers small again, but please hold 2 tickets for me! Looking forward to the next DO.
All around great day! The food was fabulous. Great to meet you and all the Saverocity people. The speakers were great! I am in awe of marathon man…..He has inspired me to dig deeper into ms…I will never forget his advice. ‘google is your friend’… And then Matt, you show complete transparency with the event costs…Wow.. Good Job!! Can’t wait for the next one!
lol… well, google works in many ways… For example, say I am the exec at Staples. I google the words, Upromise $200 Staples gift card. I will easily find the deal that existed for 8-9 days. Ok we want our customers to get a deal and even get something nice out of it, but man oh man, these cash back and points blogs are showing in our faces that they can not only get 5x points on this but also get PAID! We cant let em make that much! Not that many people! Lets stop this. All of it. NOW!
And there ya have it.
NEXT!
Agreed.
I would love to know what xxxx is. I live close to several SW locations and would like to try this method of MS.
I know I’m late to the comments but I wanted to echo that I appreciate the open, transparent nature of how you approached this. I hope to be able to come to the next one on the West Coast. Cheers.
Thanks Al, hope so too
I’m still reeling from how fabulous this event was. Can we pre-sign up for the next one?
Glad you enjoyed and great to meet you there. Nothing is confirmed for he next yet.
I know – just trying to work my angles and game the system 😉
remember, it’s not gaming the system. It is playing within the rules and using their own TCs to gain just as they do to us.
You may need to know this if you ever have to go to court over some MS thing
Here’s a thought for the next event, to address the issue of how to keep the event intimate enough, with the numbers low, but still meet the demand: Why not do two back-to-back events at the same venue on the same weekend?
The first would run on Saturday and the other Sunday, with half the attendees at each, hearing (mostly) the same speakers. Then some folks arrive on Friday night/Saturday morning for the Saturday event (just like CLT) and another bunch comes Saturday night/Sunday morning for the Sunday repeat.
If you think it might work better with a day in between, you could do it on a holiday weekend, when people have Monday off. Then the second group of attendees can arrive Sunday evening/Monday morning, for the Monday repeat. And the organizers/speakers have a day to relax/MS/blog in between.
I expect that everyone would want to hear speakers who, shall we say, have top billing (like MM) , but some of the others on the program might not have to be identical on both days.
Pros:
You can handle double the number of people with less than double the effort.
Easier (and cheaper in terms of transportation) than running multiple, separate events.
Cons:
May be harder to get speakers to commit.
More to organize.
If held on a holiday weekend, may be harder to negotiate a good price.
Such a plan would certainly allow you to accommodate more attendees. And from the incredibly positive reactions to CLT, that would surely be a good thing, with fewer people disappointed when the tickets sell out.
I just discussed the idea (I think it is novel) but the team isn’t sure this is the direction they want to take. Thanks for thinking outside of the box though!
Just a random comment from a non-attendee who has been thoroughly enjoying (if a bit covetously) the reviews of an amazingly successful event… You might consider (if it doesn’t add too much of a burden) giving the attendees of your first DO a break of some sort (since they contributed to your success): a 5% discount on something; an ‘early open window’ (even just one day) on reservations for the next one (I’m sure you have their email addies); heck, even a T-shirt that says: “I was there when it was born!” New attendees would (one would hope) understand that the folks who were there first, when it was speculative (and dangerous for your organizers), should get a wee-bennie for helping it happen.
Or not. {wink}
I’m somewhat in agreement, I think that the people who came the first time are wonderful and should be acknowledged. However, since ticket sales are already below what they get back out of the event there is no money in a budget to cover this. Also, in many ways we want new people to come not just the repeaters, since space is so limited. It is a tricky thing… I want to see all the people from last time, and all new faces, yet numbers must be low…
I guess its not a bad problem to have 🙂
Great event, great transparency!
The size of the event was spot on, any larger wouldn’t have been as good. It was great that it was so small that I got to meet almost everyone.
Especially liked the 1030am start! Time for breakfast and to work off the night before!
I have to say I was jealous in the GA terminal waiting for the fog to lift and watching the real 2 engine metal lifting off again and again in 200ft ceilings. Afterall, I only had 1 engine!
My vote for next time…..Bahamas!
Seriously, why not??
Thanks again for the super event!
Great meeting you there Marc and glad you liked it.
It we all lived in FM and had our own plane I think the Bahamas could work…but we might have to think about other locations still.
Cheers
Matt