Business Sessions

“The Echo Boomer Bride and How to Market to Her”
Presenter: Alan Berg, The Knot
Monday, July 13th, 9:00am – 10:00am – Salon B

With more than 25 years experience in sales and marketing, over 18 in wedding related advertising, Alan Berg is uniquely qualified to help local wedding professionals achieve their goals. He is Vice President of Local Strategic Solutions and Director of The Knot Market Intelligence, the company’s Resource for Education, Information and Market Research.

Alan is a professional speaker and a member of the National Speakers Association, the leading organization for professional speakers. He speaks to thousands of local business professionals every year through monthly webinars and live presentations.

The media is buzzing about the Echo Boomer bride. Who is she and what are the best ways to attract her business? The Knot Wedding Network has unprecedented access to this vital community of brides and the information you need on how to get them to do business with you.

What You’ll Hear:

• Who are the Echo Boomer brides?
• How do they use technology and what does that mean to your marketing?
• How should you communicate with brides in a digital age?
• Echo Boomers already make up a third of the US population. By 2012 two out of three brides will be Echo Boomers. Register today and get a jump-start on this market.

Marketing For DJs
Presenter: Mark Imperial, Imperial Events
Monday, July 13th, 11:00am – 12:30pm – Salon B

Mark Imperial has been in the sales training field for a number of years.

Also as a DJ has produced some of the very best educational materials available to DJs on how to improve your selling skills.

He will cover the basics of Marketing & how to build a Killer marketing campaign.  If your marketing isn’t getting you business then this seminar is perfect for you.

Building a Thriving School Dance Business
Presenter: Bill Lage, TK Sound Mobile Music
Monday, July 14th, 1:30pm – 3:00pm

Bill will reveal the secrets to a sucessful school dance business. He will cover how to keep hundreds of kids well entertained without resorting to playing music that the adminstrators have restricted.

Bill Lage has been creating fun, energetic and memorable events for all of his wedding receptions, school events, church events, private parties, and corporate clients throughout the United States since 1994 . DJ Bill Lage specializes in high interaction events for the entire family bringing his unique show of music and fun to every          event.

DJ Bill Lage is the founder and sole performer for TKSound Mobile Music Service. In 1994 Bill began his DJ career in Fargo, North Dakota. In 1998 Bill married and moved to the Twin Cities area and TKSound grew even more. With little advertising and solely through his reputation and from others seeing DJ Bill Lage perform, TKSound was soon booked so much that now Bill has chosen to DJ full-time. Hee has performed at a wide variety of events, each different in its own unique way. DJ Bill Lage has also emceed events and has rented out sound equipment and video equipment to large youth events, further expanding his services that are available.

Bill is a charter member of the Midwest Association of Professional Disc Jockeys and is a member of the American DJ Association. Bill has also attended a national convention in Las Vegas for mobile entertainers, always striving to further his knowledge and professionalism as an entertainer and event planner.

Understanding the Sales Cycle
Presenter: Mitch Taylor, Taylored Weddings
Monday, July 13th, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Salon B

In this session Mitch reveals the sales cyle, what it is, how it works and; most importantly, how to make it work for you!

Understanding the sales cyle can make the difference between booking regularly at higher rates or losing events to less qualified competitors.

Mitch Taylor Is an accomplished DJ from the U P of Michigan.  He has built a successful business on understanding how sales are made or lost.  He currently charges several times that of his closest competitor. Mitch is a regular contributor to the ADJA newsletter on the topic of sales.

Quickbooks Basics for DJs
Presenter: Robert Kreuger, Robert Kreuger Wedding Entertainment
Monday, July 13th, 4pm – 5pm – Salon B

In this session you will learn how to properly use quickbooks to keep accurate & useful financial records for your business.  Quickbooks is a must for any company seeking to grow their business. Each attendee will get a sample company file to take with them.

Robert Krueger has been successfully using Quickbooks to keep track of his business.  With it he has been able to accurately understand his production costs as well as to easily prepare financial reports & evaluations for new gear purchases.

Basics of Photoshop
Presenter: Leslie Wandel, Artistic Image Weddings
Monday, July 13th, 5pm – 6pm – Salon B

Leslie Wandel has been a professional photographer for over 10 years.

You will learn how to use Adobe Photoshop to improve the images that you use in your events & in your marketing materials.

Learn the basics of how to do image enhancement. Learn the fundamentals of selecting great images. Learn about composition, lighting effects and other elements that you can do with Adobe Photoshop.

Working With Wedding Planners
Presenter: Chad Wendel CWP, Chad Alan Entertainment
Monday, July 13th, 7pm – 8pm – Salon B

Don’t miss this high energy lighthearted presentation about understanding what wedding planners do, how they are facing some of the same problems as the DJ industry, and how to USE them as tools to build a solid never ending referral base to send your business over the top.

Certified Wedding Planner, Instructor, and Entertainment Professional Chad Wandel brings you inside the world of wedding planners to understand their roles and responsibilities in an effort to break down stereotypes and misconceptions that both industries have on themselves but also toward each other. No longer will you be the .drunken fool hitting on bridesmaids. and they won.t be the .lady with a clip board going around screwing things up.. Learn to communicate in their language, market to them, and build a life long source of quality clients.

This seminar is fun, interactive, and most of all a necessary part of building a wedding entertainment business by using wedding planners for success.

Building The Winning Brand Called You!
Presenter: Liz Goodgold, RedFire Branding
Tuesday, July 14th, 9:00am – 11:00am – Salon B

Considered a fireball of energy, Liz’s branding strategies deliver surefire results. As the author of Duh! Marketing, and the forthcoming Red Fire Branding, Liz peppers her talks with real-world examples and lessons you can learn and implement immediately. Learn how to get people to remember you so they can do business with you!

An often quoted expert, Liz has appeared in over 500 media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. She also was the branding columnist for Entrepreneur magazine reaching over 1 million readers per month and blogs every Tuesday for The Mogul Mom on branding.

If you are ready to:

· Captivate new clients
· Get more referrals
· Retain and reward your existing customers
· Get more business from your current clients
· Make more money!
…then you MUST come to this workshop. Liz will show you how to take the mystery out of marketing and bring the magic back to your business!

Keeping All of Your Great DJs
Presenter: Mike Walter, Elite Entertainment
Tuesday, July 14th, 11:00am – 12am – Salon B

Has has spoken and written for years about “Finding and Training” talent. But he has never, till this year, given a full seminar on “Maintaining your DJ Staff.” Keeping your DJs happy, motivated and loyal is a goal that every Multi-Op has and in this seminar Mike will share the techniques and philosophies that he uses to keep his company strong. Once you’ve built your crew, “Keeping All of Your Great DJs” should be your number one focus. Mike Walter’s gonna show you how!

Mike has always believed in training talent from within and his message has helped show hundreds of DJs from across the country that it is possible to grow their companies without sacrificing quality.

Mike Walter’s emceeing career began in his hometown of Queens, New York in 1984.  With an eye towards radio, Mike attended Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 1988 where he was chosen from his class of 25 as “Most Likely to Succeed.”

After school, Mike landed a job at Star DJs in Old Bridge NJ, where he helped to develop a staff of DJs from 12 to over 50 by finding and training new DJs and handling an increasingly complex schedule.  In early 1993, Mike felt a desire to venture out on his own and by March of that year he became a partner in a much smaller Mobile DJ company, Elite Entertainment.  He quickly had an impact on the Elite staff, imposing his high standards of emceeing and DJing by once again finding and training new talent.  Mike bought out his partner in 1998 and Elite Entertainment has continued its growth and today, sets the standard for excellence in New Jersey.

Facebook For Business
Presenter: Andy Ebon, The Wedding Marketing Authority
Monday, July 13th, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

There are many new opportunities in Online Social Media. One of the most prolific is Facebook which has over 175 million users. In this session, you will learn specific strategy and techniques to use them for business relationships; not just social networking.

Some of the key takeaways include:

• How developing your personal relationships through Facebook can benefit your business.
• What makes for effective and ineffective status updates.
• Drawing the line between your business and personal presence.
• How to build business relationships with just a couple degrees of separation will rapidly give you huge presence and reach.
• Understanding and implementing the different tools for business presence, including: Pages (mini-websites), Groups, and Facebook Advertising.

Andy Ebon is no stranger to the mobile DJ entertainment industry. While living in San Francisco, he launched and operated two highly successful mobile DJ services. Music Man: in 1977. then Designer Music in 1986.

His work with Designer Music earned him the distinction of San Francisco Small Business Owner of the Year. He retired from active DJ work in 1996 after 25 years in the industry.

Through the decades Andy has been a leader in Disc Jockey, Hospitality and Wedding Industries, providing leadership and innovation among various associations. Currently, he publishes The Wedding Marketing Blog, speaks on Marketing, Online Social Media and Motivational topics at local, regional, and national conferences.

Andy is a co-author of “The Power of the Platform: Speakers on Success“ featuring his chapter, Blogging Your Way To Business Success.

Building The Million Dollar Business
Presenter: Jeffrey Craig, Total Entertainment
Tuesday, July 13th, 3pm – 4pm, Salon B

Jeffrey Craig has built a multi-million dollar entertainment company from the ground up.

If you want to know how to grow your business this is the seminar for you.

In this seminar Jeffrey will break down how you really grow a business.

This seminar can help anyone at any stage of development to really start to focus on their business as a real business that can provide an income you can live on & retire from. Come learn from they guy who did it.