EVENTS AS AN INVESTMENT?!?!?

Since my post yesterday, which was a link to an AMAZING EVENT MARKETING ARTICLE!!! Proving how important including events in any marketing plan truly is! For the next couple of posts I will be going through that article and dissecting it to every day terms and making you true believers that events are the way to go!
Article states:
A jazzy display at a popular event is not enough, in itself, to give you noticeable results. Too often businesses invest a goodly chunk of change in a booth or a sponsorship and are disappointed when their passive purchase brings them few – if any - new customers. No matter what form it takes, follow-up is essential to building lasting relationships with the leads generated at your event.

Alistè Comments:
This is very important what the article is stating. Anyone can construct an event and slap their logo on it, however will it be worth the money? When you take the leap and bring events into your marketing plan you are making an investment!!! Designing an event to either educate clients or bring new prospects into your office should not be a onetime deal and then that's it. It is a process, just like planning the event. You need to make a list of the tasks at hand for the before, during and post event. By doing this you not only include your clients in a face to face event but continue the relationship long after the 'last call'. Use your networking skills to follow up with every attendee and continue building those relationships so that when you are ready for the next event those relationships that you built will bring in new prospects that you can then FOLLOW UP WITH!