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Author: Dylan Shinholser

Dylan leads the sales team as the Director of Sales here at ViewStub. He has managed and consulted for hundreds of small to large-scale conferences, concerts, and festivals throughout his event management career. He even owns an event venue in Dallas, TX called 1107 Dragon.

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How Can I Add More Revenue To My Agency?

How Can I Add More Revenue To My Agency?

There are few business owners who are content with their agency’s revenue growth. If you are one of them, then congratulations. But, if you are not, then there are ways to increase your agency’s revenue. Here is a blog that discusses how businesses can add more revenue to their agency by partnering with ViewStub.

Dylan Shinholser is one of the founding members of EventMASTERS and he is the Chief Experience Officer at ViewStub. He invited Josh Vengina, the Sr. Business Development Representative of ViewStub to his first-ever popup event, ‘Mastering the Event Business’. Together they discussed how businesses can add more revenue to their agency by partnering with ViewStub.

Let's Learn A Little Bit About Josh

“I’m Josh, from Orlando Florida. I’ve been working for ViewStub for a little over a year…I have 15 years in sales and event experience, leading teams…and driving the best kind of experience for events,” Josh says. “With ViewStub…I love this Agency Model…It really just opens up so many doors and allows us to just experiment…and get creative with ways that we can help our clients and then their clients.”

 

The agency package at ViewStub is beneficial for everyone. “I get on calls and I talk to these companies, event organizers, production companies and I tell them what the benefits of using our agency model is and more importantly, how they can market it to their clients…Because what they’re going to do is take our product, partner with theirs as a line item…As a separate filing and service and they are going to present it to their clients.”

ViewStub: The Agency Model

Dylan would like Josh to break down what the Agency Model is.

 

“So basically, it is a subscription model that you can pay for annually or monthly. It’s your preference. It allows you to have sub-accounts and divvy up your accounts and manage them on ViewStub. [It’s] All in one…so you don’t have to have multiple, ya know, softwares all talking to each other or anything like that. It’s all in one hub,” Josh says. “You can do the production. You can manage the ticketing. You can even manage their sub-accounts.”

Benefits Of The Agency Model

There are a lot of event software platforms to choose from. Dylan wants to know why people should choose one?

 

“For sanity…You’ll lose your mind bouncing back and forth…because there are so many platforms and so many capabilities. If you are able to master one, you can then offer the best service to your clients. You understand the platform. You’re communicating directly with us. If your client has a feature that they want to add, you can talk to us. That’s what we are here for. We’re here to help advance the production and the event experience for you and your clients,” Josh explains. “There is no reason you should need any other platform to host a successful event. Whether it’s in-person or virtually.”

 

ViewStub has a dedicated team that ensures every event is successful. “That’s one of the great benefits of being an Agency Model…You not only have my personal number…you have your own account manager. All these are benefits that just fall into this same category and you have that customer support and that customer care to where you can utilize the platform and market it.”

The Agency Model: Efficient For Teams

There are so many great features that come with the Agency Model. Dylan was wondering if any more benefits are included or will be included in the future?

 

The Agency package was designed to be efficient. “We have a team feature on our platform where you can delegate people and give them limited access to different parts of the platform. So, a good example of this is, you can have a team member working on the production side…and then they won’t be able to see all the sales. You can have people checking people in and they’ll see some parts of the platform but not all. So, you can restrict this and delegate…So, you’re not having to manage it all. You’re also not having to give someone the full login to the account which on a lot of the other platforms, unfortunately, you have to for them to be able to have that service.”

 

The Agency Model: Feedback and Support

Dylan wants to learn more about the flexibility of the platform. More specifically, he wants to know if the platform will support all types of events.

 

Josh assured that the platform can adapt to any event. “It has to be agnostic. It has to be as versatile as your production team…because your production can go from a car shoot, to a gala, to a wedding, and you have to have a platform that is agnostic just like that.”

 

Josh is devoted to generating memorable events. “I can help your events in some capacity. I can give you an idea that will benefit your event in some way that you haven’t thought of.”

The White Label Feature

Dylan is familiar with the ‘White Label’ feature available in the Agency Model. It allows customers to broadcast experiences right from their website. They are also able to use their branding. But, Dylan wants to hear why Josh believes this feature is so valuable to customers.

“I think that’s game-changing, right? Because what you are able to then do is not just sell a product but you’re able to sell an experience…You’re able to market yourself in a way that I’ve never seen before…To be able to take the entire platform and its capabilities and then brand that is a game-changer. 1,000%.”

The Agency Model: Create Additional Streams Of Revenue

The Agency Model adds revenue in so many different ways. Dylan asks Josh to elaborate on who will increase their revenue and how.

 

“The ability to take this software and market it…you can make profit off of that itself. You can sell it as a line item…Also the benefits of the Agency Model is that you get discounted rates on all our features and the revenue share is much lower.”

 

The newest improvement to the Agency Model empowers customers even more! “[ViewStub is] Soon to release a feature where now you can have an agency ‘Revenue Sharer’ tab. Basically, where you can add your own revenue share to the ticket,” he delves in deeper. “So, ViewStub obviously has to cover its cost of operations…from the cost of streaming…But now, instead of charging the client…a high rate, maybe 3 or 4,000 dollars for a whole event. You can charge them a minimum amount for repetition…500 dollars to set up your event and I want 10% of the ticket share. You can now set that up. This is insane…because now you have an entire platform that you can say, ‘Hey, use it at your leisure. Do you want to create your own event? That’s fine. Send over the information. We’ll create the event..it’s going to cost you 5%’.”

The ViewStub Platform: Built For In-Person And Virtual Experiences

ViewStub is so versatile that it can be used for in-person or virtual events. “You can set up an entirely in-person event. You don’t need any special equipment. It’s all web-based…But you can also have a virtual component last minute. You can make that split-second decision. You can have a completely virtual event and then [at] the last minute you can decide…’We want to go in person because we’re allowed to. We want to put an unlimited capacity on the attendees that are actually going to attend in-person’ You can do all of this.”

 

“This is dire to the foundation that we provide which is exclusivity amongst our agency clients…We make you guys feel special and if you don’t feel special. You call me directly and we will make something happen.”

The Agency Model Ensure Successful Events

As the digital reality changes, it takes time and effort to educate people on the latest innovations. We hope you enjoyed our blog post about the Agency Model. It’s a great place to start for anyone looking to learn about the Agency Model at ViewStub. 

We hope that this blog post helped you understand the benefits of using the Agency Model and what it has to offer. Please feel free to reach out to us at ViewStub.com/company/contact. We would love to hear from you!

Before we conclude, Josh left everyone with one final thought. “Events are back. Don’t wait to have an event. You have nothing to lose.”

3 Solutions. Endless Possiblities.

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How to Alleviate the Stress of Planning Hybrid Events

How to Alleviate the Stress of Planning Hybrid Events

Event Masters Interview with Will Curran

EventMASTERS is a weekly podcast dedicated to sharing tips for organizing live events. The podcast is hosted by ViewStub Co-Founder, Patrick VanDusen and live events expert Dylan Shinholser.

In Episode 11 of EventMASTERS, we sat down with Will Curran to talk about the future of hybrid events, the progress made in the industry and how he thinks about them differently. Will shares his insights and a few interesting tips, which we’ve recapped here.

We are looking forward to hearing more from Will as a speaker at EventNEXT on June 4th.

How do you relieve clients who are overwhelmed with organizing hybrid events?

WILL: I feel it all the time from our clients – and that’s very much our mission. It’s our mission is to create the equation, the idea of taking all these complicated tasks and simplifying them into something simple that you can have a great solution for.

Will Curran

Will is Chief Event Einstein and the founder of Endless Events, an AV company unlike any other. He has a passion for the industry and for simplifying the event planning process. He is known as one of the most influential people in the meeting and events industry. He also hosts a weekly podcast, Eventicons where he interviews the icons of the event industry.

Will Curran is a speaker at EventNEXT 2021 – a FREE One-Day Virtual Event on June 4th. Get tips for hybrid events from speakers like Will who are experts in a variety of areas.

Register Today to save your seat for this free event, and earn CMP credits!

This idea of like flattening the stress curve is huge. And I hear it all the time, so I agree a hundred percent that it’s complicated.

But I think the best thing you can do to be able to alleviate that stress, is the perception that no longer can a single event planner can put on an event. Right? We all know about the conference planner who is in charge of everything. But what people don’t realize is that never does just one person plan an event. It took a village; it took a team to pull this off.

So, when you say we’re going to do a conference. Well, first I’m going to have somebody who’s in charge of catering. It’s called the catering manager of the venue. I’m going to have someone in charge of AV. I’m going to have somebody be my speaker manager.

“You cannot expect one person to do it all”

And I think it’s the same way when it comes to hybrid events is that you cannot expect yourself to be able to put on an entire event.

Maybe, you can be the mastermind visionary when it comes into it. But you need someone who’s in charge of the  thinking about the virtual attendee, always thinking of them first. Then someone who’s thinking about the in-person attendees, always thinking about them first. You need somebody who is doing the audio production in person. Then somebody who’s live streaming and handling an audio video production for the virtual element.

You have to build out this vision like a dream team of people to come together. So, it’s not all falling on one single person’s plate. And I know that’s really kind of an easy answer – just build out a team for it.

DYLAN: Well, building a team is hard and a lot of people would say, “I don’t have the team, I don’t have the money. I don’t have the budget.” He just told me I need six new employees or staff on the team. And they’re thinking it’s some convoluted over complicated thing. So, what would you say to that?

 

WILL: I think there’s a couple of different routes that you can kind of go down. Let’s go with the easiest route. You can hire a company that does all this stuff. That’s something that my company does. So that’s my little mini self-plug I’ll put in there, but that’s the easy answer, right? Write a check to one person. They take care of everything.

The next thing is that you can start to bring together, kind of like your dream team of contractors and different companies to be able to do this. The most important thing when it comes to that is you need a way for them to all interface really well together.

For example, when a client says “we have an in-person AV company. They’re just going to take care of everything for our hybrid event.” And I’ll go, well you know, there’s like this whole virtual element that they are going have to worry about too. And all these additional elements, how are they going to work together? And I think a lot of people don’t think about it. That combined effort of contractors and things like that. If they’ve worked together on previous projects, or they referred them to me, it might be a little bit easier.

And then I think like a little bit of the harder route is that, you start to move things in what I call in-house, right. Hiring more employees or hiring a contractor. A technical director who’s going to oversee the live stream and hire maybe another company to do the labor and the equipment and things like that.

So, you have these ways that you can layer in and start to make these investments as they come in. You don’t have to necessarily hire a full-time W2 employee who’s a fixed cost towards your entire event. You can hire individuals who specialize in these different things.

“Start small…
All the best events in the world that are huge – did not start by being huge.”

If you are starting out small, when it comes to your events, let’s say for example, it’s a 100-person event and you have 75 people online, 25 people in person. You’re not talking about running Dreamforce as a conference. We’re not talking about going to that level of having video projection mapping. And, oh, and our event app is going to be the best one out there.

No, start small. Figure out little ways that you can make your way into that and grow. All the best events in the world that are huge – did not start by being huge.

Even if you look at one of my favorite conferences, which is the HubSpot inbound conference. Look at early years of that conference and watch how it evolved into what it is now.

Dreamforce, how did it get to the point where it is today? And Coachella? How did it get to the point where it is today?

You can’t try to go from zero to a hundred, because if you try to do it, you’re going to burn out your budget, burn out your team. And the expectation is going to be really high.

However, if you are one of those people who like got a magic check from an investor who has a ton of money put in, that’s where that first solution is available to you – companies will really help do this for you.

“Start the conversation (with dream vendors), because then you’ll at least know
I can’t afford you,
but now I know where my budget needs to be…”

Or maybe you talk about bringing multiple vendors together, but rely on doing it all on your own. And start just to have conversations with people. Even if you aren’t sure, if you can hire a company that can do all this stuff. At least start the conversation, because then you’ll at least know I can’t afford you, but now I know where my budget needs to be. And I’ll maybe talk to you in three, four years from now, and then boom, you have that vendor in your back pocket.

Or you can just get advice from them to say, what does it take to get to that level? And I think that’s one of my favorite things to do. If I know that I can’t afford a Tesla, it doesn’t mean that I still don’t like to watch YouTube videos about Tesla and things like that.

But I think that what we can’t do is just say, I know, Teslas are too expensive. Maybe I can get one in four years and just ignore it until then.

Instead. I think embrace the vendor that you’re looking at working with, I’m talking about a car, but hopefully it’s a helpful analogy to at least start the conversation.

DYLAN: No, that’s, that’s amazing. I’m with you 100%, a lot of folks maybe don’t have the resources now, but I also tell people start simple for your first event if you don’t have money. Chances are, you’re not throwing a massive event anyway.

You can start at hybrid 1.0 and just live stream it. And we have webcams and cameras and all of this, the technology has risen up to where you could shoot a decent event with like a lavalier mic and an iPad. And it looks good at the end of the day. It’s not obviously TV worthy, but like I always tell people start simple. And I’m with you a hundred percent rely on those sources.

I rely on my vendors. I’m a project manager. I put the right people in the place where they can do what they need to. So, I’m glad you touched on that because a lot of event organizers are going into this thinking, “Oh my God, I have to run two different events at one time.”

And I’m with you. I think someone should be in charge of in-person. Someone should be in charge of virtual. Now, a lot of events, we’re having those two project managers. Two top-down people that are going, I’m going to master your virtual aspect and you do the in person. So, I’m glad you were able to touch on that, because I think a lot of people need to hear that.

Join us for more discussions like this on the next episode of EventMASTERS

EventMASTERS is a live show and podcast dedicated to live events. Hosted by Patrick VanDusen co-founder of ViewStub, and live events expert Dylan Shinholser, the show takes aim at educating and connecting with event professionals on the ideas, tips, tricks and strategies to better plan, market, monetize and host live events. The goal is to take listeners on a journey from being event producers to event MASTERS.

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About ViewStub

ViewStub is a virtual and hybrid event platform that makes it easy for event organizers to sell tickets to live events or sell access to pre-recorded sessions right from their website. ViewStub‘s all-in-one platform offers ticketing, registration, video streaming and new revenue opportunities for creators seeking to monetize their content and grow their community.

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Top 5 Ways to Monetize Virtual and Hybrid Events

Top 5 Ways to Monetize Virtual and Hybrid Events

As more and more events are moving to virtual and hybrid, organizers are searching for ways to continue to make money on events. This task of reaching financial goals for events is a high priority for organizations right now and there are many new ways to turn on the cash flow through the virtual event component. Just like in-person events, selling tickets, sponsorship exposure, pay-per-view, exhibit booths, and advertising and event promotion all play into the financial success of the virtual or hybrid event. 

It’s not just organizers for professional events that are searching for ways to monetize. Sports teams are missing out on ticket sales, bands and other entertainment groups are looking for ways to supplement lost income as well as stay connected with fans. And hosting a virtual or hybrid event offers multiple ways to monetize and streamline those transactions.

Our team came together to compile our list of the top 5 ways to monetize virtual and hybrid events.

1. Sell tickets, online access, or a virtual pass for entry to the event

Never underestimate the value of your content. Take steps to ensure only your registered viewers have access to it. And selling tickets or registering attendees increases the perceived value by providing a level of exclusivity to your event content. Charging admission is also known to deliver higher attendance and higher engagement because attendees are invested in the event. Here’s an example of how Steve Patrick’s in online ticket sales.

At the very least, use ticket revenue to invest in valuable content. Bring in high value speakers or entertainment and create a better attendee experience. This holds true for non-profit organizations. Collect donations to a favorite charity in order to drive higher attendance to the event.

Bonus Tip: Reduce friction in the purchase process by selling tickets directly from your website. Don’t make your buyers work too hard. A seamless purchase process on your own site always converts to more ticket sales.

2. Sell sponsorship packages

Beyond ticket sales, event sponsorship packages are the most widely used methods of monetizing events. In these tough times, sponsors are seeking for new and unique ways to engage with prospects and virtual events are a great way to gain exposure to targeted audiences.

Plus, sponsorship in the virtual world delivers value long after the event is over. Unlike a physical event, where sponsors shell out large sums of cash to sponsor an event that takes place over a few days, digital provides extended exposure long after the event ends.

There are many ways to integrate sponsorship into the digital environment, including logo placement, video spots, banners, sponsored sessions, sponsor profiles and speaker slots. Create different levels of sponsorship packages to target specific audiences and to fit a variety of budgets.

It’s likely you, and your sponsors share audience overlap. Encourage them to cross-promote the event to their own audience. Make it worth the effort. Provide a unique sponsor link to your registration page and pay them a referral incentive for each attendee that purchases tickets through their link. Get creative and pitch meaningful exposure opportunities for premium sponsors.

Bonus Tip: Pitch exclusive exposure to your attendees through a digital swag bag that sponsors can use for special offers or discounts to registered attendees.

3. Sell exclusive replay access to sessions

Engaging with your audience doesn’t have to end with your event. Connect year-round with your community by selling on-demand access to individual sessions through a digital library of your event content. You’ll build awareness of the event and capture a new qualified audience to market the next event.

Bonus Tip: Offer extended exposure for sponsors post-event through branded viewers or a quick video spot before playback. Be sure to capture audience data, number of views and viewer firmographics – use this info to sell sponsorship packages for future events.

4. Sell merchandise or supplemental products

Your attendees are your captive audience, presenting an optimal opportunity to sell ancillary items. Capitalize on this prime moment to cross-sell a trial offer, downloadable content, books or even relevant merchandise like t-shirts or mugs.

Bonus Tip: Optimize sales with a day-of-show discount!

5. Create value add-on experiences

Optimize event revenue by selling exclusive access to Q&A sessions or workshops with key speakers. Sell raffle tickets to exclusive meet and greet sessions with industry experts or celebrities. The key is to identify upsell opportunities that your audience will find valuable to create relevant experiences that financially supplement the event.

Bonus Tip: Expand your reach. Create affiliate links for your speakers to promote their sessions to their social media audiences – offer a referral incentive on those tickets sold.

Final thoughts

Before considering monetizing, organizers first need to ensure they are providing value to the attendees. Whether the purpose of the event is to provide education, an entertainment experience, or bring a group together to collaborate – delivering on attendee objectives is essential to the event’s success. And virtual event technology presents new ways for organizations to engage their audience, build their brand and create new revenue streams.

Recommended Read: Translating in-person events into virtual environments is a big challenge for event organizers. Check out our top 10 tips for planning virtual and hybrid events.

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About ViewStub

ViewStub is a virtual and hybrid event platform that makes it easy for event organizers to sell tickets to live events or sell access to pre-recorded sessions right from their website. ViewStub‘s all-in-one platform offers ticketing, registration, video streaming and new revenue opportunities for creators seeking to monetize their content and grow their community.

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