CTSM Candidate Portfolio

Anna Cody

Trade Show Marketing Manager The College Board

October 2013

45 Columbus Avenue New York, NY 10025

Tel: (212) 713-8331 Cell: (646) 236-6777

acody@collegeboard.org http://www.collegeboard.org

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section Chapter Page

I. Vital Statistics 2

II. Overview 8

III. Show Schedule & Measurable Show Objectives 10

IV. Management of Exhibit Design & Production 16

V. Management of Integrated Marketing Communications 25

VI. Management of Results Reporting 35

VII. Conclusion 38

VIII. References 41

IX. Appendices 42

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I - VITAL STATISTICS Personal Profile Like a few other trade show marketing managers before me, I arrived in the industry of exhibits and face-to-face marketing by an indirect route. My educational background included a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a Master of Fine Arts in Dramatic Arts from the University of San Diego. After graduation, I relocated to New York City to pursue a career as a Shakespearean actress. Thereafter, I performed throughout the U.S. in venues such as the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, and the Cleveland Playhouse. Favorite media reviews include the New York Post which said about my performance as “Helena” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that, “Anna Cody proves an excellent and likeable comedian”; and the New York Times said about my portrayal as “Mercutio” in Romeo and Juliet that, “Anna Cody…has all the vulnerable effrontery the character calls for.”

In between acting projects—for as you may have heard, acting can be a tough business— my passion for polished and visually-stimulating professional events led me to work for five years at Sawyer Creative, a corporate events and entertainment company based in New Jersey.

In 2007, I began working at the College Board in the Advocacy Department and later transferred in 2009 to manage the College Board’s trade show marketing program, in order to make better use of my skills. I am still in the position as of the writing of this portfolio. The College Board’s national Exhibits Program requires oversight and coordination of exhibits at approximately 55 conferences per year. In this capacity I, along with team members Lynda Roy, Executive Director of Membership Engagement; Mary Carroll Scott, Vice President of Membership Engagement; and Farzad Novin, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing:

• Work with staff from marketing, regional account services (our sales equivalent), and across programs (product managers) to create an approved exhibits schedule that meets the goals of the organization;

• Coordinate exhibit processes with internal constituents to ensure smooth operations of exhibits at national conferences;

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• Supervise setup at larger shows;

• Recommend overall strategy;

• Design the College Board exhibit and resource centers at our annual conferences and other conferences;

• Select and evaluate vendors;

• Evaluate competition;

• Coordinate messaging and prioritize focus on new initiatives;

• Develop, monitor and reforecast budgets;

• Develop metrics and reporting system to measure effectiveness of College Board presence at larger conferences;

• Design and obtain exhibits components and graphics that represent the College Board’s evolving look and feel; and,

• Keep abreast of industry-wide traffic-generating trends, new ideas, and advanced marketing opportunities.

My key accomplishment during my tenure thus far at the College Board is consistently delivering high quality, creative venue management to stakeholders, all with an eye on fiscal responsibility. Despite a reduced budget, the organization has expanded its exhibit schedule, and has maintained a strong presence at education conferences across the country. It has revitalized exhibits at our three biggest shows: including the resource centers at the College Board Forum and the Advanced Placement Annual Conference (APAC) and at the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), where a focused approach to marketing and exhibit programming was implemented. Exhibit presentation has been improved in terms of streamlined graphics and the creative use of light in the exhibit, and newer components have proved to be more cost-effective. The exhibit hall at the AP Annual Conference 2012 utilized innovative flow and was described as “intimate” despite being housed in the cavernous Moscone convention center in San Francisco.

Company History The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit membership organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB), the College Board was created to simplify the application process for students and college admission offices and to expand access to higher education.

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A set of common entrance examinations was an improvement over separate examinations by individual colleges. Originally formed by a handful of colleges, with notable early architects President Charles William Eliot of Harvard University and Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, the first college entrance examinations were administered to high school students in June 1901. The examinations became known as the “College Boards” and were later replace by the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT®) in 1926.

Today, the membership association is made up of more than 6,000 of the world's leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students to prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success—including the SAT and the Advanced Placement Program®. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools. The College Board is headquartered in New York City and has more than 1,400 employees at fourteen offices nationwide. The current President and Chief Executive Officer is David Coleman, who is poised to take the College Board in exciting new directions.

Company Market and Major Products and Services Each year, the College Board serves 7 million students and their families, 23,000 middle and high school students and 3,800 colleges in over 100 countries and territories through programs and services in College Readiness, College Connection and Success, and Advocacy:

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College Board Divisions Key Products

College Readiness The College Board seeks to ensure that every student in the United States has access to a high-quality education and is prepared to succeed in college. Initiatives are designed to promote curricula, assessment tools, district and guidance resources that help K–12 students prepare for the academic rigors of higher education.

• AP • SpringBoard • PSAT/NMSQT • CLEP • ReadiStep • CollegeEd

College Connection and Success The College Board can help students connect with and successfully complete a high-quality college education. It provides resources, tools and services to students, parents, colleges and universities in the areas of college planning, recruitment and admissions, financial aid, and retention.

• SAT, SAT Subject Tests™ and SAT Readiness Tools

• CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE® • College Board Search • ACCUPLACER® • CLEP

Advocacy The College Board invests in the future of America’s students by promoting high academic standards, supporting educators, and building critical connections between policy, research and real world experience to drive systemic reform in education.

• CollegeKeys Compact™ • NOSCA • Trends in Higher Education • Education Pays • College Completion Agenda • Access & Diversity Collaborative

The College Board offers more than 800 products and services and the four major products are expanded below:

Advanced Placement Program (AP)

The Advanced Placement Program offers high school students the opportunity to participate in college level classes, preparing them for college work and broadening their intellectual horizons. The program allows some students to gain college credit for high performance on

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the AP exams at participating colleges. Currently around 3,000 colleges nationwide grant credit or advanced standing.

SAT The SAT is currently the leading standardized test for college admissions in the United States. Developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the SAT tests a person's ability to analyze and solve problems. It focuses on writing, reading, and mathematics. Scores range from 600 to 2,400, with each of three sections being worth 800 points. Most students take the test during their junior or senior year of high school. SAT Subject Tests are designed to measure student performance in specific areas, such as mathematics, science, and history.

PSAT/NMSQT The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) provides first hand practice for the SAT and serves as a qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship programs. The PSAT measures students’ critical reading and math skills.

SpringBoard SpringBoard is the College Board’s official pre-AP program and was created to help prepare students who will take AP courses or college level courses during their scholastic career. The program provides a vertically-articulated curriculum to students in grades 6-12 that scaffolds learning skills and subject test knowledge.

Other key products include CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, a financial aid application service that many institutions use in determining family contribution and financial assistance packages; ACCUPLACER, a variety of computer-based placement tests that assess reading, writing and math skills to determine a student’s needed placement in high school and college; and CLEP, which provides students of any age with the opportunity to demonstrate college-level achievement through a program of examinations in common undergraduate college courses. By successfully passing CLEP exams, college students may be able to earn credit or placement in certain college courses and save on college tuition.

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Competitors

The SAT currently competes with ACT, Inc.’s standardized college admissions test. Other competitors include Pearson, Harcourt, and Google Educational Testing.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Program is a competitor of the Advanced Placement Program. IB is a comprehensive curriculum designed to prepare students for liberal arts education at the tertiary level. It is directed by the International Baccalaureate Organisation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, community colleges offering dual enrollment credits are also considered to be competitors of AP.

Harcourt and Wiley are valid competitors of the SpringBoard program.

In spite of the above, as of the date of this publication, there are no broadly accepted alternatives to the AP, SAT Subject Test, and the CSS/Financial Aid products.

For additional company information, please visit http://www.collegeboard.org.

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II - OVERVIEW

As a participant in the Certified Trade Show Marketer (CTSM) program for the past two years, I have attended 43 Exhibitor conference sessions and workshops. This curriculum has assisted me in making improvements to the College Board’s presence throughout our roster of shows. After transitioning to the Exhibits Program, we were asked by our Finance Department to accommodate the same number of shows despite a budget that was reduced by approximately 50% compared to previous years. Partly due to information learned at the Exhibitor conference and in the CTSM sessions, we made this adjustment without losing valuable exposure—and revenue—for the College Board. More industry-specific practices were incorporated into our Exhibits Program, including:

• Better vetting of shows;

• Streamlining our graphics and exhibit presentation;

• Measuring our success with newly created benchmarks;

• Improving our internal reporting methodology; and,

• Replacement of physical exhibit elements with streamlined, light-weight, and flexible components to cut costs.

CTSM Portfolio Focus One of the challenges of this portfolio was the decision about whether to focus on a full season of shows or to choose a single conference. I selected the National Association for College Admission Counseling Annual Conference (NACAC), held on October 4-6, 2012 in Denver, to be the focus of this portfolio for three reasons:

• NACAC is one of the larger conferences we exhibit at, with more than 5,500 attendees;

• More than sixty College Board staff members attend the conference each year. They use the College Board’s exhibit as the main hub of their endeavors, which adds organizational complexity to the exhibit; and,

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• More than thirty different products and services are shown at the exhibit each year, requiring careful strategic planning to find the best way of utilizing our space without losing the overall focus upon our marketing efforts. I drew heavily on skills learned during the CTSM training and worked with a large number of internal constituents in order to launch a successful show.

NACAC Annual Conference 2012

The NACAC Annual Conference is currently the largest professional development conference of school counselors held annually in the United States. With over 5,500 participants from secondary education (K–12) and higher education (HE), the NACAC conference provides our organization with an exceptional opportunity to interact with educators throughout the United States. This is the national meeting of key admissions and school counselors, and it is the association most aligned with our mission to connect kids to college. Attending the NACAC Conference is also an opportunity to advance the mission and goals of our organization, to gain critical competitive intelligence, and to address questions about our programs and services.

School counselors are a pivotal audience for the College Board. They represent a group uniquely positioned to not only benefit from our products and services themselves, but also to promote them to other teachers, administrators and students at their schools. We therefore need to focus our efforts on reaching them in the best possible way. In addition to school counselors, the conference draws many participants from the other side of the admissions process, college admissions and financial aid officers. Both audiences are key customers of the College Board.

Special Notes

The portfolio requirement that we did not employ for NACAC was to create an RFP for a new build. In lieu of current budgetary constraints, we opted instead to rent new components for a portion of the College Board’s exhibit at NACAC 2012 through our exhibit house, and to customize the graphics for its use. Information on this will be found in Section IV.

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Part III – SHOW SCHEDULE & MEASURABLE SHOW OBJECTIVES

Overall Corporate Objectives for Trade Show Marketing Program The Exhibits Program enhances the College Board’s presence as a global organization and reinforces its image as a trusted and influential organization in education. Attending trade shows also provides opportunities for our organization and educators to exchange ideas through rich and robust face-to-face marketing experiences.

The corporate objectives for our overall season of trade shows are to:

• Generate leads for future sales;

• Create and maintain brand awareness;

• Demonstrate new and existing products and services;

• Meet with existing customers;

• Collect intelligence from our customers and collect feedback;

• Counteract our competitors’ presence at the same conferences and gain information about their products; and,

• Save travel expenditures on individual sales calls.

Barry Siskind’s elective session on trade show objectives, Session 106—Trade Show Objectives and Performance Measurement, ELC# 2 (What are you hoping to Achieve?—100 Reasons for Exhibiting), was instrumental for working with colleagues in Marketing and Regional Account Services, to drill down on what our corporate objectives should be for attending trade shows.

How Shows are Selected Annually

At the College Board, the yearly conference schedule for exhibits begins with program staff submitting proposals (example below), which are then reviewed and forwarded by the division SVP. Through this process we gather valuable information from our sales representatives and product managers to obtain background on marketing objectives, competitive climate, and product detail.

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Example of conference request by program

All program requests are vetted in a rigorous selection process as outlined in Session 20110—Selecting the Right Shows: The Critical Decision, ELC# 1 & 5 (Background Analysis & Analysis/Decisions) for the best audience fit. All shows are analyzed in trade show directories, internet sites, and other sources. The final selection is chosen with the broadest range of products and audiences in mind, and shows are dropped from previous years based on audience changes and exhibit staff reporting, as well as lead review.

• Requests are reviewed and evaluated by exhibits and marketing staff; and,

• The approved schedule for the full-year is created and circulated to all staff, which allows the organization to ensure synergies of messaging and goals.

NACAC Conference Planning

In reviewing the attendee breakdown for the conference (pictured below), there are large audience segments for both K–12 and HE attendees. In selecting the objectives for this year, we had to keep this breakdown in mind in order to maximize our success at the conference.

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Chart from National Association for College Admission Counseling Media Kit

We understood through Session 31111—How to Grow Your Brand, ELC #3 (Determine Event Brand Goals) that the College Board brand identity is that of a stable, dynamic, traditional, and trusted organization. As marketing professionals, our goal is to secure the College Board’s brand in mature markets. In choosing specific objectives for NACAC, the decision to demo the Big Future website was chosen with this in mind. Big Future is an extensive college planning website designed for K–12 students who are preparing to go to college. The website is free to use and offering this resource reflects another reason to trust the quality and depth of the organization. Counselors are bombarded by cost-related products and services at NACAC and it reflects well on our organization to offer a high-quality free service to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to education.

Specific College Board Exhibit Goals for NACAC Conference After meeting with Marketing staff and reviewing the results from last year’s show participation, it was decided that we should be able to achieve the following objectives and results from our campaign:

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Session 328—The Six Biggest Mistakes People Make in Preparing Trade Show Content, ELC #1 (Develop an Overarching Strategy and Align Your Content With It) taught us to include other stakeholders besides Marketing, i.e., Senior Management and Regional Account Services staff, to secure buy-in for our goals. We noted an improvement in our performance from adopting this practice.

Fiscal Year 2012-13 Approved Exhibits Schedule

The College Board exhibited at 56 national conferences during the 2012-13 fiscal year. This number represents an increase of eight shows over the conference total for the previous year. Listed below are the ten largest national conferences that I managed. (See Appendix A on page 42 for the full calendar.)

National Association of Student Financial Administrators (NASFAA) Dates: July 22-26, 2012 Location: Chicago, IL Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: Enrollment, Financial Aid

Department of Defense World Wide Symposium (DoD WW12) Dates: July 23-25, 2012 Location: Las Vegas, NV Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: CLEP, ACCUPLACER

National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) * Dates: October 4-6, 2012 Location: Denver, CO Exhibit Size: 20’x20’, 10’x20’ Programs: SAT, AP, SpringBoard, Regional Account Services, Enrollment, Financial Aid, Big Future, Advocacy

*This show is the focus of the portfolio. National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Dates: October 15-17, 2012 Location: Las Vegas, NV Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: SpringBoard, AP

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Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) Dates: January 28-29, 2013 Location: Austin, TX Exhibit Size: 20’x20’ Programs: SpringBoard

National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Dates: February 28-March 1, 2013 Location: Washington, DC Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: Regional Account Services, Advocacy

National Art Education Association (NAEA) Dates: March 7-10, 2013 Location: Fort Worth, TX Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: AP Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Dates: March 20-23, 2013 Location: Dallas, TX Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: SAT, ACCUPLACER National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Dates: April 17-19, 2013 Location: Denver, CO Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: SpringBoard, SAT

National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA) Dates: May 26-28, 2013 Location: St. Louis, MO Exhibit Size: 10’x20’ Programs: International

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Part IV – MANAGEMENT OF EXHIBIT DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Overview

The NACAC conference draws from both sides of our constituent and customer base— school counselors and admissions officers. The College Board invests heavily in the show, both in terms of exhibit resources and in staff time and expenses. What makes NACAC important for us, however, can create technical and logistical issues that must be solved in order to successfully stage our presence. These issues include the number of products and displays creating issues of a focused presentation, challenges in terms of staffing a limited space, and keeping a clean and coherent look.

Feedback from the Previous Year

Most notably, due to budgetary constraints, the layout of the exhibit space the previous year combined meeting space as well as demo space for twenty-plus programs and services. All were crowded into a 20’x20’ island configuration.

In order to better represent our varied programs and services, we conducted a survey of staff and programs after last year’s conference using SurveyMonkey. The internal College Board staff survey from NACAC 2011 reflected discrepancies between the layout and desired traffic flow. This resulted in too much activity in too small an area. In addition, there was insufficient storage space for materials needed for handouts/giveaways and to demo so many programs and services. This resulted in a lack of clarity as to where to direct attendees for the best service for their needs and requests.

This year, we made the following three changes in our exhibit space to address this issue:

1. Second Exhibit for Meeting Space

In order to allow our sales representatives the opportunity to meet privately with key leads, we rented a separate meeting space. That would open up additional room in the main exhibit for demos and other functions.

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2. Changed Main Exhibit Layout to a Peninsula Format in an Island Space

We opted to separate the main exhibit into a peninsula format with four distinct areas and established unique goals for each—Big Future (300 online demos), NOSCA (100 sign-ups for “Own the Turf”), and separate K-12 and HE Areas to keep their literature apart and have program-specific staff on hand to assist with questions and requests for each. In addition, this floor plan gave us ample room for an extended storage area.

3. Rental Marketing & Storage Structure

We had budgetary constraints that made us unable to procure a new build. In order to effectively display materials for the programs, we opted to rent an E-Z Fabric Wall System storage area with door by Moss from Art Guild, our exhibit house. This gave us ample storage room as well as a custom graphics display to maximize our presentation.

EZ Fabric Wall System Gallery Photo, Moss Inc.

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Exhibit Layouts—Main Exhibit

Key requirements for the main exhibit include:

• Create separate, definable areas for NOSCA, K–12, HE and Big Future demo areas; • Utilize the peninsula layout; and, • Incorporate a rented storage area with a locking door. The back of the storage area

featured a large area for a branded graphic display.

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Although we did not have a new build for the conference, we utilized key points from Session 61911—Exhibit Design: From Concept to Completion, ELC #5.4 & 6.0 (Freight and Transportation and the Human Factors). We ordered light weight light boxes and saved 25% off our annual freight costs. In the session, we learned that people space requires 18 inches around each person in order to feel comfortable. With our budgetary restraints and so much to promote, we were unable to accommodate this in a 20’x20’ space, even with the inclusion of a second exhibit. We realized that an island configuration was not an optimal way to display so many products and services while helping attendees to feel comfortable entering the space. Our team opted not to give up our strategic location near the main entrance. More will be said about this in Session VII and how we plan to solve this in subsequent years.

Exhibit Layouts—Secondary Exhibit

Key requirements for the secondary exhibit include:

• Ensure the relative privacy of the meeting space, to allow for semi-private meetings; • Order four meeting tables; and, • Equip the space with internet-enabled areas to support A/V equipment and allow for

private product demos.

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Budget Plan

The budget to attend NACAC was $90,000, excluding program staff travel costs. After a comprehensive review of all costs associated with this show in prior years, we determined that costs would be lower if we required the program and regional account services units to pay for their own travel and housing. Because we recently chose to renew an exclusive contract with our exhibit management firm, Art Guild, we did not issue an RFP for our materials. We did, however, negotiate extensively to secure the components needed for our build design, including storage space, which Art Guild built to the specifications of our exhibit. Following is a simplified budget for the conference. (The full budget can be seen in Appendix B on page 44.)

Simplified Budget for NACAC Annual Conference 2012

Category Estimate Actual Variance

Sponsorship $25,000 $22,000 $3,000

Exhibit Space $7,200 $10,200 ($3,000)

Exhibit Structure $9,671 $9,600 $71

Graphic Design/ Production $3,455 $3,412 $43

Freight $4,414 $4,400 $14

Show Services $27,459 $27,514 ($55)

Exhibit House Supervision $2,000 $1,892 $108

Marketing $1,300 $250 $1,050

Miscellaneous $6,300 $3,232 $3,068

Total $86,799 $82,500 $4,299

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Several indispensible CTSM sessions allowed us to improve our budget reporting. In Session 20312—The Nuts and Bolts of Budgeting for Results ELC# 2 (The Absolute Basics), we learned a quick “ball parking” technique to allow the organization to better plan for how much an exhibit will cost. For example, for existing inventory, Kimberly Kee recommended that we multiply the cost of space by three. This technique has allowed us to prepare departments for the investment necessary for exhibiting.

In another half-day workshop, Session 204—Stop Wasting Time-Organize Your Planning with Templates, ELC #3.0 (Learn the Timesaving Tools That Exist Within Your Software), Kimberly Kee showed us budgeting templates in Microsoft Excel that were excellent for quick reporting and have saved the company money over expensive industry specific software.

Graphics & Signage

Our colleagues from Marketing reminded us that it was important in our messaging to stress the College Board’s recognition of the vital functions that school counselors have for students and our field. Marketing created a specialized graphic and key message to emphasize support for the counseling profession (see next page). The College Board has long-term customer brand recognition and loyalty, and we needed to reach beyond the scope of selling in order to embrace an energy of celebration.

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Rear Wall Graphic for EZ Fabric Wall Panel Structure

Session 61710—Graphics Boot Camp: What Every Event Manager Should Know, ELC# 5 & 7: (Integrating Your Message and Messaging Hierarchy) has improved the College Board’s graphics look and feel in face to face marketing environments. Certainly keeping our trademark cyan blue and logo prominently displayed has allowed the exhibit to be recognizable in a visually competitive exhibit hall. In addition, we persuaded Marketing to limit the amount of copy on exhibit graphics and to place key messages at eye level. We also included signage to designate K-12 and HE separate areas, the meeting suite, as well as signage for an attendee drawing (see next page).

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Part V – MANAGEMENT OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS (IMC) Overview Six months prior to the conference, we met with College Board marketing executive, Kim Foley; the Executive Director of Membership, Lynda Roy; and the Executive Director of Relationship Development, Stephen Handel. The goal was to develop our key message, to settle on planning goals, and to develop an integrated marketing strategy for the exhibit. We compared possible key messages and determined the best strategy to successfully stage our presence.

Key Message for NACAC 2012

We opted to use the key message of Celebrating Counseling and Admissions Professionals for NACAC. As an organization, we have a tendency to focus on school counselors to such an extent that it is important to recognize the vital function this constituency has for students. This message focused attention on Big Future and NOSCA, both of which are supportive of the counseling profession and were therefore chosen as main features of the exhibit.

External Communications

Various media and other forms of exposure were compared for maximum impact in a competitive exhibit hall environment. Session 31511—Integrated Marketing Communications, ELC #2 (Matching Show Objectives to the Right Medium) stressed the importance of weaving our key message into all methods of communication and to tie the results back to our goals for each. The following table details what we included in our marketing program for the NACAC 2012 conference and the rationale for each:

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Pre-Show—Methods of Communication

Online Program & College Board Website The pre-show initiatives that were selected included posting in the conference’s online program and on our company website. The online program featured our logo, company description, key product categories, and a link to the company website. We also posted on the Membership page of the College Board’s website with a link to the conference and a “come visit us at NACAC” message.

This was our first year tracking how many web hits were accomplished by both methods. We were unable to obtain the number of specific clicks from the NACAC website and we were also told by our internal Information Technology department that the Membership page was not the preferred placement on the company website for tracking web traffic. Next year, as instructed, we will post on the calendar page of the company website, which is designed for more specific measurement.

Pre-conference Email to NACAC Attendees Attendees were contacted with a pre-conference email which encouraged attendees to visit the College Board’s exhibit at the conference. The email was opened by 2,112 attendees, which was a negative -15% variance of our goal of 2,500. That said, our internal marketing department believed this to be a successful outcome and that our target was set too high. We will adjust for next year’s conference. The pre-conference email used for NACAC 2012 is on the next page:

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Pre-conference Email to NACAC Attendees

At-Show—Methods of Communication

A number of at-show strategies were used at NACAC 2012, including sponsoring the conference, inclusion in the show directory, participation in the College Fair, and participation in both in-exhibit and conference-wide contests.

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Sponsorship The College Board sponsored the conference in three highly visible ways:

• Resources were allocated to the NACAC Imagine Fund luncheon, which was well-branded with College Board signage and an announcement of our contribution during the event. The NACAC Imagine Fund awards grants to NACAC affiliate members, allowing them to increase participation in professional development programming and implement special projects. Our target was 800 attendees to participate in the luncheon. We went beyond our target with 950 attendees and a variance of 18% above our goal.

• The College Board also sponsored the 5K Run/Walk, and the T-shirts for participants included the company logo. 15% more attendees participated than was anticipated. Our target was 1,500 attending and 1,732 was the final number.

Notice for 5K Run/Walk in NACAC Program Book

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• Finally, College Board branded pens were included in the conference bags. The attendance for the conference was predicted to be 5,500 and the final was 5,650, which meant that 3% more attendees than expected received a branded pen.

Image of College Board-branded pen included in conference bags

Show Directory A listing in the show directory is important so that attendees can plan their visit to the exhibit hall ahead of time. Our leads in the exhibit totaled 318 leads over the target of 200 and this represented a 59% variance.

National College Fair The SAT program participated in the National College Fair. 218 leads were collected at the event, which represented a 9% variance over the target of 200.

Exhibit Contests Several contests were selected to help drive traffic to the exhibit. An in-exhibit drawing for College Board Handbooks and iPods as prizes was chosen to be an excitement-building opportunity to help draw traffic to the exhibit. 353 entries were collected, which represented a 17% variance over the target of 300.

We also participated in the conference-wide SCVNGR Game, in which attendees visited various exhibits and answered game questions on their mobile devices. Attendees were directed to come to the College Board’s exhibit to answer the following:

"BigFuture, the new college planning site from the College Board, includes videos from

students, educators and admission professionals. How many total unique videos can be

found on bigfuture.org?"

Attendees were directed to a demo station to find the answer: 175 videos.

We targeted 100 participants for the contest and the final was 88 which was a negative -14% variance off an already low target. Attendees seemed rushed to complete the contest and were not interested in further inquiry. We do not plan to repeat our participation next year.

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Post-Show—Methods of Communication

Thank You Email A thank you email was sent to collected leads and all drawing entries, with a link to register for online mailings if desired. 410 email openings were registered, which represented a 27% variance over the target of 300.

Email to College Board Membership An email to College Board membership was sent with a link to the transcript of College Board President David Coleman’s session on the upcoming SAT Redesign. 4,213 email openings were registered, which represents a variance of 29% over the target of 3,000. Information Technology believed the open rate was higher due to high industry interest in the topic at this point in time.

Post-Show Attendee Survey A post-show attendee survey was planned for the first time but was not implemented this year. The survey content was not approved internally in time for a quick post-show launch. Next year we will plan ahead and possibly engage an outside vendor to assist us with the process.

Internal Communications Pre-Show —Methods of Communication Registration Reports Beginning three months prior to the conference, the name and organization listing from the NACAC website was continually cross-checked with internal College Board data to identify current customers registered for the NACAC conference. These detailed registration reports were then distributed to Regional Account Services staff to schedule onsite meetings. 55 meetings were conducted at the exhibit, which represented a 10% variance over the target of 50.

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Staff Briefing Document One week prior to the conference, a comprehensive and confidential staff briefing document or messaging guide for the organization as a whole and for each program represented was prepared and distributed to all staff, both those working at the exhibit and those attending the conference. (See Appendix C on page 45 to view document.)

Conference Call A regularly-scheduled conference call for managers to review strategy and logistics was arranged and repeated several times during the planning process, with a final one including all exhibit and attending staff one week prior.

At-Show—Methods of Communication

Staffing Plan One of the key lessons learned in prior years was that a careful review of exhibit staff is required for this conference. Numerous programs, services, and products are represented, and it was necessary to have staff available who could speak to each of these. All attending staff was required to honor the schedule. Because the staffing plan needed to be carefully organized so that necessary staff—but only necessary staff—members were in the exhibit at all times, a contingency plan was created, and contact information for alternate staff members was close at hand. (See Appendix D on page 48.)

Onsite Meeting An on-site, all-staff meeting was organized and held at the convention center just prior to the show’s opening which was critical to our success. Only 30% of our exhibit staff had experience with face-to-face presentation prior to the conference. Most were program-specific employees who needed coaching in how to address the wide array of questions that are typically asked by counselors.

We maximized our success by following several key points from Session 20410—Don’t Skip the Meetings—Pre, At, and Post: Guideposts to Success ELC #3 (Pre-Event Meetings). For instance, we were encouraged to obtain a “champion” from within the organization to ensure full participation by staff. Stephen Handel, Executive Director of Relationship Development, and Fabrizio D’Aloisio, Executive Director of HE Regional Account Services, were brought on as “champions” and they were instrumental in rallying the staff for better participation.

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In ELC #8, Elements of Successful Pre-Event Meetings, we learned to use supporting tools like role-playing and games in the meeting to get staff in the spirit to work the exhibit. We trained them in a quick and humorous way to use the demo stations and lead retrieval scanners. This training inspired the staff to actively pursue connections with attendees. We offered a $15 Starbucks card to the staff member after the conference that collected the most recorded clicks and leads, to inspire a sense of fun and healthy competition. Daily Check-in’s We offered check-in’s to exhibit staff both in-person and via email at the end of each day. The content was simply tips on how to do things that we discovered onsite, but mostly offering encouragement and complimenting each staff member on one thing they did well. Staffing is hard work and to be noticed seems to improve morale and future effort.

Post-Show—Methods of Communication

Lead distribution Lead distribution to Regional Account Staff was done immediately after the conference, with follow-up planned for two weeks after.

Thank You Email to Staff A thank you email announcing the winner of the Starbucks card for most collected leads was sent internally the week after the conference. This was an acknowledgement of everyone’s hard work and success. Staff Survey A staff survey to obtain feedback for next year was sent immediately following the conference. A 78% response rate was recorded. More on the staff survey in Part VI.

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Part VI – MANAGEMENT OF RESULTS REPORTING Overview The CTSM program and especially Session 10810—How to Measure the Value of Trade Show Participation, ELC #10 (Presenting Results to Upper Management) taught me the essential need of measuring our successes and failures and reporting it to management. This process has been a learning curve for us because no measuring or reporting was done prior to my arrival to the Exhibits Program. Because of this, some of our goals and targets were little more than best guesses. By starting this process we now have targets based on real statistics. We established new benchmarks and will continue to add more. As Session 10810 indicates, measurement and metrics is critical for justification, continuous improvement, and growth. The show objectives set for NACAC 2012 were to:

• Create and maintain brand awareness and the organization’s commitment to education;

• Generate leads for future business; • Increase business with current constituents; and, • Launch new products.

The following table shows the results of tactics used to achieve our show objectives:

Measured Tactic 2011 Result 2012 Goal 2012 Actual Variance

Sponsorship: Number of NACAC Imagine Fund luncheon attendees

723 800 950 18%

Sponsorship: Number of 5K Run/Walk participants N/A 1,500 1,732 15%

Sponsorship: Number of branded pens in conference bags

N/A 5,500 5,650 3%

College Board sessions 4 5 6 20%

Pre-conference email opens 1,900 2,500 2,112 -15%

Leads retrieval scans 75 200 318 59%

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Measured Tactic 2011 Result 2012 Goal 2012 Actual Variance

Number of customers assisted at exhibit (not resulting in leads)

N/A 300 835 178%

Meetings at exhibit 40 50 55 10%

Demo “Big Future” website N/A 300 283 -5%

Register counselors for NOSCA’s “Own the Turf” campaign

N/A 100 161 61%

Drawing entries 286 300 353 17%

Spend within budget Did not meet goal

$90,000 $82,500 8%

Which of the Tactics Worked? An important overall objective for the conference was to create and maintain brand awareness and the organization’s commitment to education. To that end, the engagement of our sponsorships was strong. We exceeded our expectations for attendance at our two sponsored events, the Imagine Fund Luncheon by 18% and the 5K Run/Walk event by 15%. College Board staff presented at more sessions than planned. More branded pens were given out, although we do not get credit for this because conference attendance was higher than expected in Denver. When it came to generating leads for future business and increasing business with current constituents, we far exceeded our goals. Leads were up by 59%, which is a testament to better staff training and improved internal communication of our goals. The number of current customers assisted in the exhibit was 178% over our goal. However, this was the first year to set a benchmark for this and we didn’t know what to expect. Next year we will set a goal based on 2012 actuals. Regional Account Service staff held more meetings in the exhibit with constituents, which was positive. Launching new products was also successful. NOSCA’s online registration for the “Own the Turf” campaign was higher than expected.

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Which Tactics Could be Improved? The pre-conference email was opened by fewer attendees than expected, down by 15% over the previous year. The launch date for the email might have too close to the conference date, and may have been missed by attendees traveling to the event. In 2011, the email was sent one full week prior to show opening. We also underperformed in our goal to demo the Big Future website. Too few staff in the exhibit was trained to give demos, and they were not as proactive in giving them as expected. Next year we plan to connect completion of the demo to a quality giveaway, to make it easier for staff to promote the demos. We also plan to train more staff to give them. Staff Survey Results

Session 10510—Using Surveys in the Trade Show and Event Decision Making Process, ELC #1.0 (Benefits of Measuring Results) taught us the importance of collecting feedback from each show. We were gratified to find that 90% of staff felt that Big Future and NOSCA attracted attendees to the exhibit and represented the College Board in a positive way. 95% reported that having separate areas for HE and K-12 in the exhibit was effective and promoted better traffic flow. Having a separate meeting space for private meetings with constituents was well-evaluated by 88% of staff. Most staff felt it kept traffic in the exhibit down and afforded more privacy for meetings. 70% of staff felt the island configuration in the exhibit was a problem in that it did not allow attendees to come inside the exhibit. This issue will be discussed further in Section VII. (The full survey can be found in Appendix D on page 48.)

Reporting Results Prior to the CTSM program, we had not reported our results on a show-by-show basis. Session 20211—Basic Project Management and Reporting Skills, ELC #9.0 (Final Reporting on Show/Event Results) taught us this step was crucial to justifying our budget to senior management. This year we created a one-page executive summary on each conference. In this summary, we discussed the goals set and whether or not they were met. The summary was given to the Executive Director of Marketing, the Executive Director of Regional Account Services, the Vice President of Membership, and to all staff who attended the conference. (See Appendix E on page 51 to view the executive summary.)

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Part VII – CONCLUSION Overview

Pursuing the CTSM Certification over the past three years has improved my abilities as a Trade Show Marketing Manager and made me a better-rounded professional. Within the organization, I am now seen as an expert within the field. As a result of the sessions, I have learned how to “talk the talk” to my colleagues organization wide and this has kept our program thriving despite a recent corporate restructuring. I have learned the value of measuring our success and how essential it is for us to partner with other departments and divisions to improve buy-in for our goals.

A few sessions even helped me with an important personal learning curve in this position, that of separating the people behind the problems. The position of Trade Show Marketing Manager requires working with a lot of internal stakeholders with varying positions and interests. It is my role to fulfill the goals of multiple departments internally, and sometimes people do not agree. Session 52110—Negotiating Skills to Win, ELC #6.0 & 7.0 (Separate the People Behind the Problem & Focus on the Interests Behind the Positions) helped me to not take it personally when there are differences of opinion. This adjustment of attitude has helped me on the job and in my personal life as well.

Session 52310—Communicating With Others: Essentials for Success, ELC #6.0 (How To Be Versatile) further taught me how to work with so many internal stakeholders’ personalities. The session states that “Versatility: is the perception others have of your willingness to make them comfortable with you.” I learned through this session that by matching the relating style of the other person, either Ask vs. Tell and Control vs. Emote, that the other person feels more supported by me and we get more accomplished. Again, this has made my involvements with colleagues and vendors easier, both on the job and off.

Changes Made for NACAC 2013

There were a number of changes and improvements that we made to the NACAC 2013 conference, based on measurements and recommendations from 2012. We changed the launch date for the pre-conference email to attendees which realized an improved open rate. We better trained staff for giving demos, and created a special giveaway to encourage attendees to take the demo, which resulted in higher numbers of demos given.

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In addition, as stated in Section IV of this portfolio and in the staff survey from 2012, we realized that the 20’x20’ island configuration was not optimal for displaying so many products and services while also allowing for people comfort in the space. We decided to change our exhibit shape for NACAC 2013, and reserved a 10’x50’ exhibit space located along the perimeter of the exhibit hall. This layout was extremely successful for us and will be a model pursued in subsequent years.

Exhibit Layouts for NACAC 2013

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What I Plan to Accomplish in the Next 1-3 Years to Exhibits

The following are improvements to the Exhibits Program that would improve our work even further:

• Create a metric system with ROI and ROO that correlates with program and organization-wide goals;

• Incorporate public relations opportunities in exhibits—we are not doing anything with this at present;

• Introduce post-attendee surveys—hire a company to assist with this; • Encourage inclusion of College Board social media into roster of exhibits; and, • Utilize a Google Docs site to improve the transparency of shared documents.

Summary and Plans for Future Development

My pursuit of certification has helped me to grow within the profession. Without reservation, I plan to pursue further levels of CTSM Certification, which will result in continuing to find efficiencies in the exhibits process and keeping the College Board abreast of new trends. Many thanks to the CTSM program for the opportunity and growth, and to my advisor(s), especially Mark Flinn of MC2, for the hard work and skillful encouragement, and to Jeffrey Hale of the College Board, for his careful editing.

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REFERENCES

Seminar Code Seminar Title Page

106 Trade Show Objectives and Performance Measurement 10

20110 Selecting the Right Shows: The Critical Decision 11

31111 How to Grow Your Brand 12

328 The Six Biggest Mistakes People Make in Preparing Trade Show Content

14

61911 Exhibit Design: From Concept to Completion 20

20312 The Nuts and Bolts of Budgeting for Results 22

204 Stop Wasting Time-Organize Your Planning with Templates 22

61710 Graphics Boot Camp: What Every Event Manager Should Know 23

31511 Integrated Marketing Communications 25

20410 Don’t Skip the Meetings—Pre, At, and Post: Guideposts to Success 33

10810 How to Measure the Value of Trade Show Participation 35

10510 Using Surveys to Measure Your Performance in Trade Shows and Events

37

20211 Basic Project Management and Reporting Skills 37

52110 Negotiating Skills to Win 38

52310 Communicating With Others: Essentials for Success 38

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APPENDIX A – FULL YEAR SHOW SCHEDULE

# Acronym Details HE/K-12 Start City St. Exhibit Progam 1 APAC

Advanced Placement Annual Conf. K-12 07/18/12 Orlando FL RAS, SpringBoard 2 NASFAA

Natl. Assoc. of Student Financial Aid Admin. HE 07/22/12 Chicago IL Advocacy, Financial Aid

3 DoD

Dept. of Defense World Wide Symposium HE 07/23/12 Las Vegas NV CLEP

4 NCTA

Natl. College Testing Assoc. HE 08/01/12 Minneapolis MN ACCUPLACER, CLEP

5 NCSL

Natl. Conf. for State Legislatures HE 08/06/12 Chicago IL Advocacy

6 NCAN

Natl. College Access Network K-12 09/17/12 Las Vegas NV SAT

7 NACAC

Natl. Assoc. for Coll. Admission Counseling HE/K-12 10/04/12 Denver CO Advocacy, SAT, RAS

8 NACADA

Natl. Assoc. of College Advisors HE 10/04/12 Nashville TN ACCUPLACER

9 ALAS

Assoc. of Latino Administrators & Super. K-12 10/10/12 Miami FL RAS

10 NSPA

Natl. Scholarship Providers Assoc. K-12 10/16/12 Austin TX RAS

11 HACU

Hispanic Assoc. of Colleges & Universities K-12 10/20/12 Washington DC SAT

12 Forum

College Board National Forum HE/K-12 10/24/12 Miami FL Advocacy, SAT, RAS

13 NYSSBA

New York State School Boards Assoc. K-12 10/25/12 Rochester NY RAS

14 CAEL

Council for Experiential & Adult Learning HE 11/07/12 Washington DC CLEP

15 ACSA

Assoc. of California School Admin. K-12 11/08/12 San Diego CA RAS, SpringBoard

16 AMLE

Assoc. for Middle Level Education K-12 11/08/12 Portland OR SpringBoard

17 AMATYC

American Math. Assoc. of Two-Year Coll. HE 11/08/12 Jacksonville FL ACCUPLACER, CLEP

18 NCTE

Natl. Council of Teachers of English K-12 11/15/12 Las Vegas NV SpringBoard, AP CCD

19 NCSS

Natl. Council for the Social Studies K-12 11/16/12 Seattle WA AP CCD

20 ACTE

Assoc. of Career & Technical Ed. HE 11/29/12 Atlanta GA ACCUPLACER

21 CSBA California School Boards Assoc. K-12 11/29/12 San Fran. CA RAS

22 AVID

Advancement via Individual Determination K-12 12/06/12 San Diego CA SpringBoard

23 AEA

American Economic Assoc. K-12 01/04/13 San Diego CA AP CCD

24 AAPT

American Assoc. of Physics Teachers K-12 01/05/13 New Orleans LA AP CCD

25 JMM

Joint Mathematics Meeting K-12 01/09/13 San Diego CA AP CCD

26 AAMC

American Assoc. of Medical Colleges HE 01/16/13 Phoenix AZ RAS

27 TASA

Texas Assoc. of School Admin. K-12 01/28/13 Austin TX SpringBoard

28 ATP

Assoc. of Test Publishers K-12 02/03/13 Ft. Laud. FL Research & 29 ABHES

Annual Natl. Conf. on Allied Health Ed. HE 02/13/13 San Diego CA RAS

30 AASA

American Assoc. of School Admin. K-12 02/21/13 Los Angeles CA RAS, SpringBoard

31 CCME

Council on College Military Education HE 02/25/13 San Diego CA CLEP

32 NADE

Natl. Assoc. for Developmental Education HE 02/27/13 Denver CO ACCUPLACER

33 NAIS

Natl. Assoc. of Independent Schools K-12 02/27/13 Philadelphia PA RAS

34 NASSP

Natl. Assoc. of Secondary School Principals K-12 02/28/13 Washington DC Advocacy, RAS

35 NYSCOSS

NYS Council of School Superintendents K-12 03/03/13 Albany NY RAS

36 SIGCSE

Special Interest Group on Computer Sci. Ed. K-12 03/06/13 Denver CO AP CCD

37 NAEA

Natl. Art Education Assoc. K-12 03/07/13 Fort Worth TX AP CCD

38 CCSA California Charter Schools Assoc. K-12 03/11/13 San Diego CA RAS

39 ASCD

Assoc. for Supervision & Curriculum Dev. K-12 03/16/13 Chicago IL SpringBoard, RAS

40 TESOL

Teachers of Eng. to Speakers of Other Lang. K-12 03/20/13 Dallas TX ACCUPLACER, SAT

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# Acronym Details HE/K-12 Start City St. Exhibit Program 41 NCLC

National Chinese Language Conf. K-12 04/06/13 Boston MA AP CCD 42 Ellucian

Ellucian Live Summit HE 04/07/13 Philadelphia PA Financial Aid

43 OAH

Organization of American Historians K-12 04/11/13 San Fran. CA AP CCD

44 NPEA

Natl. Partnership for Educational Access HE 04/11/13 Boston MA RAS

45 NSBA

Natl. School Boards Assoc. K-12 04/13/13 San Diego CA RAS

45 NCTM

Natl. Council of Teachers of Mathematics K-12 04/17/13 Denver CO SpringBoard, SAT

46 AACC

American Assoc. of Community Colleges HE 04/20/13 San Fran. CA Advocacy

47 NAGAP

Natl. Assoc. of Graduate Admissions Prof. HE 04/24/13 Orlando FL RAS

48 AERA

American Educational Research Assoc. K-12 04/27/13 San Fran. CA Research & 49 AIR

Assoc. for Institutional Research K-12 05/18/13 Long Beach CA R&D, Advocacy

50 NISOD

Natl. Institute for Staff & Org. Dev. HE 05/26/13 Austin TX ACCUPLACER

51 NAFSA

Natl. Assoc. of Foreign Student Advisors HE 05/26/13 St. Louis MO International

52 APSCU

Assoc. of Private Colleges and Universities HE 06/05/13 Orlando FL RAS

53 CCSSO

Council of Chief State School Officers K-12 06/19/13 Natl. Harbor MD Government Relations

54 ACBSP

Accredit. Council for Business Schools HE 06/21/13 Salt Lake C. UT CLEP

55 ASCA

American School Counselor Assoc. K-12 06/23/13 Phoenix AZ Advocacy, SAT, RAS

56 ACCU

ACCUPLACER National Conference HE 06/27/13 San Antonio TX ACCUPLACER, RAS

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APPENDIX B – NACAC ANNUAL CONFERENCE BUDGET 2012

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APPENDIX C – STAFF BRIEFING DOCUMENT

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APPENDIX D – STAFFING PLAN

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APPENDIX D – STAFF SURVEY

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APPENDIX E – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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