Think out of box when planning.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Corporate Gifts & Event Planning

An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.

Those words of inspiration Andrea Zizman penned on her desktop calendar and exhorted to her colleagues at Sudbury's Persona Communications during the two months of planning for their technology sandbox event last February.

It was a coming-out party of sorts for the regional cable and media company, which changed its name last year from Regional Cablesystems Inc. to Persona. The business-to-business event was designed to showcase leading edge technologies.

For $30,000, Persona staged an event that drew in about 500 to 600 regular and new clients.

"That day in the building, it was just electric," remembers Zizman of the Feb. 12 show. "I still get calls from people saying, 'I am definitely coming back next year.'"

After visiting several high-tech venues in California's Silicon Valley late last year, Zizman's brain began buzzing with ideas to stage a show in Sudbury highlighting the power and convenience of technology for business solutions.

Zizman, Persona's marketing director who has previous experience with project planning working for digital high tech companies, shunned hiring an event planner because she did not want a standard, out-of-the-box trade show.

"We wanted to break the mould. We wanted to stage an event that Sudbury had never seen."

Event organizers need to know what their vision is and how that vision will be pursued, she says.

She hand-picked a project management team of about a half a dozen people from their telecommunications, media and planning departments to stage the one-day event. They in turn sold the idea to employees who were trained for various exhibits located throughout the building.

About 27 employees volunteered their time for event. Worker participation is key, she says.

"The team is so important," says Zizman, adding their employees' enthusiasm and excitement about the technology and the company made all the difference in the event's success.

Staging the event as an in-house technology show saved considerable dollars.

The event was designed to be an open house to introduce existing and potential clients to the cable media company's vast array of services and technology. Instead of renting a hotel conference room, Zizman's planning group decided their Barrydowne Road facility was the best venue of all, allowing invited guests to view the call centre, television studio and technology exhibits.

"People are always curious to see what...