Marketing Virgin

We just completed our first annual customer Symposium in Germany last Friday. The event was a huge success and we’ll repeat our efforts next year. I learned a few tricks in the process…
1. When presenting to an international audience, speak at a 5th grade level and at about 70% of your usual speed.
2. If you distribute a survey that has a rating scale, keep the following in mind:
-United States: 1 is the worst, 10 is the best.
-Europe: 1 is the best, 10 is the worst.
3. Package your event as “educational”. Companies in Europe tend to put heavy emphasis on continuous improvement.
4. Travel budgets are tight - make sure you go to the highest concentration of customers, or choose a city that is easily accessible by air and rail.
5. Dinner often doesn’t begin until after 8PM.
6. When using technical equipment overseas, be aware that it will be in the native language. A keyboard in German is not an easy thing to figure out. Microsoft will allow you to change the language.
7. Attendance counts! While many events in the US have a high attrition rate, Europeans tend to stick to their commitments.