This guest post is written by Larry Chiang, a co-founder of Duck9 who also regularly blogs for for BusinessWeek. In this post, he discusses some of the pros of organizing events as a means to increase your own exposure and make connections.
My party mentor, Susan Roane, the author of ‘How to Work a Room‘, once told me, “Larry, there are two types of people in this world: hosts and guests”. She argues that hosting gets you more influence and adds value at a party. I believe her.
I took it a couple steps further because partying and social engineering intrigue me. I see how people in positions of power use parties to further grow their influence. In this post, I boil down my knowledge and reveal how hosting and producing events can boost your visibility, increase your deal flow and help you sway people.
Multiple Party Agenda Fulfillment.
Getting a bunch of groups together to agree on ONE single deal is very hard because everyone has different agendas. This is a technique where you listen so well that you can extrapolate what they want to say and what they are afraid to say. We do this to better guestimate their agenda.
I know Congressmen who do this so well that they know everyone’s agenda better than they do. Win-wins and ‘best alternative to a negotiated agreement”are what is taught in business school. In the real world, this approach is cloudy and messy.
Learning this technique is essential to producing a party or getting a deal done.
Take Two Down The Aisle.
Venue locations and the people that manage them can be smarmy. By smarmie, I mean they want to monetize you in any way possible. They don’t have enough Friday and Saturday nights in a year and will change your deal the last minute to squeeze you for more money. Solve this by booking TWO venues for the same time.
By taking two venues down the aisle you’re buying a real insurance policy against a deal changing. Your cost is losing the deposit. For example, when I hosted the TechCrunch after party, I chose the Four Seasons. My back-up location was the Three Seasons in downtown Palo Alto. (You can find more countermeasures in my post, “The Art of Changing the Deal“)
Back on topic, “taking two down the aisle”, I do this with mortgage bankers where I bring TWO down the wire, right to the closing. Yes, your FICO score remains barely affected. The maneuver is outlined here.
Party Karma is Real.
Actively love those that love you at the party.
Reciprocate the givers. Avoid karmic black holes. Character compass your guests like a seasoned front desk manager at the Four Seasons in Austin. Character compassing is the skill in determining which direction their soul is pointed. Failing to take this into account can result in a poor experience for your guests.
Building party karma gets you real ROI.
Set Aside Your Need to Make Money.
“Money delayed is not missed money,” said MC Hammer (Hip Hop Schools Silicon Valley should be required reading for MBAs). Delayed money gratification is a common trait among rich people I know.
Cut and Paste a Theme
Parties without themes are like companies that don’t solve problems. Having a theme unifies the experience and gives direction to an event. The best theme is a time-tested one. I cut and pasted the party theme, “Launch Party 2.0″ by changing one word from a hit party in December, “Holiday Party 2.0″.
Get a Celebrity Co-Host.
If you want to attract prominent co-hosts, you have to know their agenda better than they do. If you are not an expert character compasser, then at least yearn to want to know what their agenda is. There’s a secret method to doing this: You listen (and read the material they’ve written). Also, listen to what they tell you to read because it affected them.
Promotion is the Dirtiest Work
A Hollywood agent once told me, “They don’t pay big bucks to act, they pay you to promote”. It was eye opening when I realized that promotion of products or services (or a party) is the hardest work. If you can have your party promote something else, you will curry favor.
Flirt with Illegitimacy
Consider being the “Unofficial, Unauthorized Party” and embrace your illegitimacy. I am the writer and primary promoter for the scandalous sequel to “What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School“. Yeah, it is a sequel to a book I did not write. By writing the sequel, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School”, it in effect turns Harvard into a friend.
You can use the same technique when it comes to parties. Don’t be afraid to be the unofficial party, or the after-party.
Simultaneous Close
In business, there are often catch-22s. I can’t get funding until have a working website. I can’t get financing for my film until I have a tier one actor. Producing a party is no different.
To battle the chicken or the egg, catch-22 syndrome, I say get a simultaneous close by combining any two or three (or all) of the above seven previous tips.
I was able to be the official Web 2.0 Expo After Party by combining all eight. Now I’m going to offer a chance to win a sponsorship to the Official Web 2.0 AfterParty on Wednesday April 1st. The theme is “Launch Party 2.0. Don’t be Asse9 on April Fools”. Enter by posting in the comments what and how your start-up can benefit from winning a sponsorship. Deadline is 11:11am, 04-01-09. No this isn’t an April Fools joke.
** Off-Topic
Alexa updated its tracking to let you know.
Must be April’s fool because no way Mike would let something so badly written get published here.
No kidding: “I know Congressmen who do this so well that they know everyone’s agenda better than they do. ”
Wha? Huh? Did you even read this back to yourself?
My start-up would benefit because it would actually start to get off the drawing book. It would also help to grow our employs for 3 to more… hopefully
Isn’t that Ando???
JK :p
apparently TC readers are stupid AND racist
Criticizing incoherent writing does not equate with racist behavior…hello?
I did not understand a single point in this post. WTF?
Great work Larry. Try not to break that mirror from staring at it too hard.
April fools?
Today everyone is thinking like every post on the blog is April Fool..That’s lolz..
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Great post, Larry!
ThanksBud – Online mobile marketplace changing the way people buy and sell services. We are building an exchange that goes further than providing service provider reviews. We are providing local pricing averages, user reviews, and we are doing it all for free. Second, we are building a real-time distribution method like nothing else. Posting a job offer will not only get posted to our online marketplace but will also be distributed straight to hundreds of providers cell phones. These people in the field, not at a desk. Finally, we don’t make money until the transaction is completed which aligns our interests with the ThanksBud user. Best Price and Best Quality offered like never before.
We would benefit from the exposure greatly. We are applying to many incubators and beginning to meet with investors. We understand that our team is our biggest asset. Our idea is big and the industry is crowded and fragmented. Investors seem to steer clear of things this big because of how likely they are NOT to succeed. However, we know that with contact and face time with the right people, we can make them see that we have the tools as co-founders to build our company and ThanksBud will be the first online marketplace to take market share of this expanding, wide-open market.
-A. Johnson, Co-Founder
If you want to make real world connections without a party, try MeetingWave.com. It’s a free patented online tool that allows members to post invites for proposed meetings with new people over coffee, meal or other meeting activity.
MeetingWave Features:
* Control when and where you meet and whether the meeting occurs.
* Control who you meet and when to disclose your identity.
We have entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, attorneys, real estate professionals, recruiters, job seekers, and others posting invites for coffee, lunch, dinner or drinks to meet new clients or make new business contacts. It’s free and easy to use.
If looking for a job, check out the writeup from Alison Dolye on About.com’s job searching blog at http://jobsearc...meetingwave.htm
Good night.
wtf x 2?
WTF
Everyone in the Bay Area know what type of character Larry is (I don’t know anyone who will give him 10secs of their time). Why is he allowed to BS here?
Come on guys, do some background checks (simple asking around – like in those social parties mentioned in the article).
I really hope this is an April Fool.
I’m curious. Could you elaborate? What kind of person is he?
I always think of Larry as the male Julia Allison except that he tries 3x as hard (really) and is 1/10 as “famous” hehe
Several years ago, I ended up on this guy’s evite party list without my permission. I have a feeling he got my email from my friend’s list. I wonder if that’s how he builds his party lists? Anyways, did some research on this guy. Seems like a hack.
this is gross. absolutely terrible writing on a terrible topic. case in point that most mba’s are dbags. “monetize you”? “character compasser”? “money gratification”? this ins’t even biz jargon, this is some hack mid iq mba patois from some frat boy who read /the game/. terrible. purge it. and def purge the first comment which is a flagrant promotion. who let’s this through?
he wishes he has a legitimate MBA
I’ve read Larry’s garbage on bu.blicio.us as well and can’t follow a damn word. It’s not “edgy”, it’s wack!
I met him once on the roof at Medjool. From what I gather – this guy is like 42 and still lives in a studio apt in Palo Alto. He has no business guest posting anywhere other than blowhard.com. Sad.
Painful. Grow up…
I am coming to web 2.0 with a mission (and desperate need) to make some things happen for our company. Even if I had a marketing budget and your guide above there isn’t a better, more appropriate amazing opportunity I could wish up.
Our company, Klout, measures influence across the social web. So being a co-sponsor of the official after party for web 2.0, where all the influencers are hanging out, is the picture we need to paint. I mean if we aren’t picked we are just going to have to sponsor the unofficial after after party and that could just be awkward.
We just yesterday transitioned from private to open beta and over the next few weeks we are releasing some amazing features. We are in serious Launch 2.0 mode. Can’t imagine anything better than hosting a bunch of new best friends and getting the chance to talk a little about what we are doing and how understanding and leveraging influence changes the marketing game.
Thanks Larry! Check out your Klout account here:
http://bit.ly/95mrG
requiring a follow to use your product is completely lame, you will fail
haha great. First he asks for a pitch then he deletes the comments. Good work.
All these posts about parties and not a single mention about the weird implicit rule that it must be held at 111 Minna.
wtf is this article about? And doesn’t someone edit these things before they get posted? Its brutal on several levels. I sincerely hope this is an April fools joke.
cheezy
Does an after party get you (paying) customers?
If yes: good – continue
If not: don’t go to after parties
this guy has absolutely no credibility. . . would have been that crazy “nerdy girls are hot” spammer except he lives in the valley and spends all day spamming events in real life . . .
these are the type of people that frequents the scene unfortunately
seriously, WTF?
Hi! Larry,
My name is Meng, and I’m the founder of ShoppingNotes.com, a shopping bookmark and price alert service. We would like to be the “unofficial” sponsor of your official Web 2.0 Expo After Party, because I think we’ve implemented at least 3 of the doctrines you preach here:
1. Multiple Party Agenda Fulfillment: we make it a lot easier for users to monitor multiple products’ prices so that they know the best time to buy. In fact, one of our users is even monitoring more than 800 products at the same time.
2. Money Delayed Is Not Missed Money: Our users know that by setting price alerts they may get much better prices down the road.
3. Promotion is the Dirtiest Work: We know that. Yet we’ve managed to get our site on the Oprah Magazine, CNet, LA Times, and many other mainstream media.
I’d really appreciate it if we can get the great opportunity! Hope to see you tonight.
Larry asked me out a couple of times. I was thinking of calling him back until I read some of the comments here. Are there things about him I need to know?
@danielBru thx
@joshF hahaa I agree
@adam, @joeFernandez @meng Call me before 11:11 but text my cell, 650-283-8008, before you do. Or call me at work 650-566-9600 x1111. Shhh, don’t let anyone else know
@all Larry@larryChiang.com is my email and put your cell in the subject line and I’ll answer questions y’all might have about my mechanical engineer tainted writings
Larry – please do us all a favor and stop blogging!
Larry, are you wondering who it is that gave out your phone numbers? Btw, how many calls did you get? Larry, are you really 42 years of age?
what about the after after party in the hotel lobby?
Creative spin. Looking forward to tonight’s Launch Party 2.0 and Afterparty.
Marissa – we all know you’re a shill for Larry. Your annoying posts on bu.blicio.us are similarly incomprehensible.
I figured that with the downturn, the Larry Chiang’s and Marissa Louie’s would fade away — damn it!
Ad-village sources ads from adbrite. do we really need a middle man to run crappy ads on our sites????
I love how he is a self-proclaimed Business Week blogger. To set the record straight, it’s the Business School online section–and ANYONE can create a blog there.
http://www.mbab...sinessweek.com/
the narcissism and continual reference to “2.0″ NEEDS TO STOP!
samantha thanks of pointing this out
let’s set the record straight about his self-proclaimed Business Week blogging. It’s http://www.mbab...eek.com/– and ANYONE can make an account and blog. You are not a paid contributor or someone selected to represent Business Week.
Also, please stop using the word 2.0. Thank you.
Two point Oh
Two Point Oh
Two Point Oh
Two point oh la cai gi?
This guy tried to pick up on my gf at a party, said he was “pretty rich”
Larry, it will be a proud day when we get “what they don’t teach you at Harrvard Business School” back on the bestseller list…I am recommending it to all of my Kellogg peers
cant wait to plan THAT after party
it goes to show from all the haters on the comments that Larry is right.
easy to be whiney little bitches on the sideline than to be the promoter on the field.
what? it’s also easy to write terrible posts. anyone can do it.
no one is saying posting in and of itself it bad. just larry’s posting. back to the dojo, lowly ninja.
We were party hopping on Thursday night at Web 2.0 Expo and I actually met the guy at a quirky little side event of his that was completely out of left field, mildly surreal, and really fun. Instantly likable, smart fellow, with great social skills. I don’t understand the haters here at all.
“Louis-Eric” — don’t lie! We know that you’re either Larry Chiang or Marissa Louie!
Nah, couldn’t be confused with any one of them; at 6′2″ and 250 lbs I don’t think I’d fit in their clothes either for a quick impersonation.
@Louis-Eric Bernad Madoff is also wildly popular, fun, smart and absolutely instandly likable too!! I bet you those ppl who liked him are kicking their own ass now. Instant likability does not tell you anything until you fall prey of it.
I would trust the collective intelligence from ppl who had experiences with this dude than the superficial party encounter.
We shouldn’t be encouraging wasteful interpersonal interactions driven by greed. I would gladly socialize with someone sincere that had a solution to some problem that affects me. Larry sounds like a really cool person, but am not sure what he is saying here. Someone clarify
People were not haters of Larry. They were just sharing their own experiences or keen observations from the past dealing with this guy. And when so many ppl shared similar bad experiences, it’s the collective intelligence. There is something seriously wrong with this dude.
I personally had pretty bad business experiences too and bunch of friends or even ppl I barely knew started to tell me that this dude is a bad news. It’s very un-Silicon Valley to have some one like this roaming around claiming he’s a PR or biz dev expert. Huge trap for you guys out there to avoid.
So I vote for Larry and Marissa should just go away.
Agreed – let’s start a Facebook group: “Bon Voyage Larry and Marissa — time to get back to actually making money”
Larry is the definition of poseur in the SF startup scene. He’d be a smarmy pick up artist using canned lines if he was in NY instead of SF. This is a guy to avoid.
i love this post!
I was thinking of calling him back until I read some of the comments here. Are there things about him I need to know?
Larry asked me out a couple of times. I was thinking of calling him back until I read some of the comments here. Are there things about him I need to know?
pls stop spamming your crappy startup
Read the post Patrick!