How to Throw a Party! (Not your usual keggar)

If I could only list three…

1. Venue
2. Audience
3. Take some shots

1. The venue is everything. Choose either the hottest spot that your audience will want to go out of their way to be at or go with their already favorite, close by, Friday night spot. Not only is location key but you also want the venue to reflect the type of party you’re looking for: small and intimate vs. open space and very social, sitting drink in hand or body on the dance floor? This may seem obvious but last year I reserved a space and a night that turned out to be a little too low key for our Spring Break Escape party. It’s easy to assume that the party will form itself.

2. Your audience demands a certain type of party. Ask them what they want. Then deliver.

3. This could also be seen as bad advice. BUT if you planned your event right, formed a committee, delegated responsibilities, and had a great turn out then why not party too? And hey, if your party sucks, throw one back and cheers to next years’ event…event planning wouldn’t be a profession if just anyone could throw a great party.

Condoms and Candy: College Media Throws the Ultimate Hot Summer Party

Events, events, events. That’s how College Media is going to build a relationship with its audience. And so we did! Last Thursday we threw a hot summer party at Santa Fe Café. And yes, it was hot.

About two months ago I knew we were ready for another party. There’s just this itch I get where I’m like “I need to make sure college students know who we are.” What was so cool was that now that we’re on our sixth issue, students did know us. 

So to get started on the party planning, we chose our location: College Park. It's where we have the largest, most concentrated audience, so it's the best place for us to set the standard for our event reputation.

Anna, our PR director, took the reins on running the show: recruiting a talented committee, brainstorming themes, meeting with our contacts at Santa Fe, organizing sponsors for our raffle giveaways (from Rita’s Italian Ice to Hanami sushi), shopping for decorations and setting the script for the night. Anna rocked. I’ve planned our events in the past and to pass the responsibility onto someone new on the team made me realize that we’ve grown. I felt confident that Anna could pull it off from her enthusiasm right from the beginning.

So how did the party turn out? We had awesome decorations, all fitting with the red hot theme—red lamps hanging above our table, red candies, red mardi gras beads, a sick looking red banner (props to Ruben for making that happen) and the red hot chili pepper piñata. Yes, I said it, piñata, filled with two very important resources for students: condoms and candy. The health center on campus even donated the condoms!

Students were wearing the beads, signing up for the raffle and getting to know College mag. There were probably over 500 students there. The best part—we had College mag photographers there as paparazzi for the night. This was key for tying in our website, so now the night’s evidence is online at collegemagazine.com…pretty sneaky eh?

As I’m taking a College magazine shooter with our editors, Brian, Ashley and Ian and then another College mag shooter with Anna, and then another with, wait, I can’t remember, I thought to myself, wow, I may be out of the college scene, but this is great party.

Stay tuned to my post on the key to event planning.

How to Maximize a Press Trip

If I could only list 3…

1. Take notes in unusual situations
2. Interview that cool surfer dude
3. Think like your reader

1. Sure you had your note pad ready to go at the Sydney Opera house, but so did the rest of the world. You’re goal is to capture the real action. Sometimes the best parts of a press trip are when you’re dared to eat kangaroo, the bus driver plays a trick on everyone and you teach a bunch of foreigners how to play Kings. You’re probably too in the moment to think about documenting. It’s hard to do, but if you’re laughing or enjoying an experience, it’s probably worth writing down.
































2. Who doesn’t like a good character? My strongest interviews stemmed from talking to real people that I thought were cool. Before I even thought about interviewing a subject, I asked myself whom I was absolutely dying to hear a story from. In this case, was it the student who went surfing for the first time or the surfer dude who sees tourists all over the world fall off their boards every day?













































3. I’m fortunate to have a pretty awesome reader: college students. It’s important to always remember your audience. What does the student want to know? The top beers in Australia? Has anyone ever fallen on the bridge climb? How to hook up in a hostel and leave without an STI? Or D, all of the above?

To the Land Down Under

Right around the time I meant to start The 23 Year Old Publisher blog, I received one of the most shocking emails ever. It went something like this: “Dear Amanda, We would like to invite College Media on a press trip to Australia.” Australia! Sure I’ve tried Vegemite and yes, I’ve had an Australian boyfriend at summer camp, but I never imagined actually traveling to Australia, not yet at least. I’m at the age where beach vacation usually means Ocean City, not Queensland.

The email continued: “The trip is next week.” My first thought: scam. Well, little did I know, in the media industry, these press trips are not that unusual. Tourism Australia is promoting their fairly new U.S. student work/holiday visa and since College Media caters to their target demographic, they wanted to work with us. What better way to promote a country than to send magazine editors there to experience it themselves?

At first I was hesitant, because with only a weeks notice, I wasn’t sure if I could step away from College Media for a whole ten days. In fact, I’ve never really taken off. Is it wrong to wonder if your whole business will die if g-d forbid you’re not there? Wait a minute, what was I thinking. I have the best team imaginable and there’s a solid system in place; College Media doesn’t need me physically there 24/7, and if it did, then I have failed as an entrepreneur. Plus, wasn't the perk of entrepreneurship the ability to experience a different kind of working world, one where adventure and possibility exists—this was an opportunity of a lifetime.

A week later, I was on a flight to Sydney along with a few other lucky media representatives. I would tell you all the sweet details but you’ll have to wait until the article releases in our September issue. I will, however, reveal that I did in fact see a koala, I tasted kangaroo...and liked it, I can officially say I’ve herded cattle on a horse and I learned how to surf.

Stay tuned for my post on maximizing your press trip!

How to Pitch Your Business

If I could only list 3...

1. Make every word a home run
2. Practice
3. Get Real








1. Your presentation should only say the most important "Home run" points. Go through and say to yourself, "Does the audience absolutely have to know this about my business?" If not, cut it. If so, make it one of few. Keep your presentation down to one message per slide and three speaking points to convey that message. As for your slides, use less text (and only "home run" text) and more visuals. Take advantage of showing trends through one simple graph or chart. Making every word a home run was advice that Dominic Crapuchettes, founder of North Star Games and a previous Cupid's Cup winner, gave to me when I was preparing for my presentation; it was, without a doubt, the best advice for my College Media pitch.

2. If your business means a lot to you, you need to convey that to your audience. Practicing your business pitch to the point of memorization so that you can present with confidence and with a conversation-like style, shows that you put in that extra effort. If you can run a business, then you can prepare a solid business presentation. No matter how many people I've seen do this, and do it well, holding a piece of paper in your hands just looks unprofessional.

3. This is not just any business, this is your business, this is your dream. Show your passion. Share the real story, how much this business means to you and why.

Struck By Cupid

I won my first business competition! It feels like a dream. Unreal. Of course I went into the competition prepared with my slides, my story and a super high dose of passion—ready to win it. But when I actually won, when I stood there next to Kevin Plank and a held this humongous check, the kind you only see in movies, I was completely ecstatic and surprised. No matter how much I knew I wanted it and could win, to actually win is such an amazing feeling. It felt like everyone in the room, almost 300 people, the business students, my advisers, the judges, they all believed in College Media Group. I felt really proud of the business I had built thus far. I was proud of my team for all their hard work. I felt like after this, we could do anything.

I applied to the University of Maryland’s Cupid’s Cup Business Competition, sponsored by Kevin Plank, CEO and Founder of Under Armour, back in February and then found out I was one of five finalists to compete. So I spent over two weeks preparing slides, deleting them, and preparing new slides. Then I shared them with my advisers to get the business perspective—did I describe the spending power of my audience, explain the market size, present a visual of my growth projections? Once I had my message down, I re-organized my slides into a new order: Audience, Challenge, Solution, Growth, Business Plan, Competition, Team and Future.

For each slide, I wrote down three key speaking points and practiced presenting in front of my neighbors to get the outsider's perspective. They immediately pointed out that my presentation was an information overload. From there I went through my speaking points and only kept the "home run" statements. Then I rehearsed, rehearsed, rehearsed.

On the competition day of I tried not to get shaken by the other finalists. Watching them freak out too was not helping, so instead I went off to review my slides a couple times before showtime. I was the first to present. Sure every minute of that day was nerve wrecking, but once my mic was set up and I was standing in front of the crowd with the power point clicker in my hand, I felt calm and ready.

Stay tuned for my post on How to Pitch Your Business.

Signs That You're an Entrepreneur

If I could only list 3…

1. You see quality solutions everywhere
2. "Rainmaker" is a serious word
3. Your enthusiasm is contagious

1. When you're in the car, do you simply accept the fact that your cup holder only holds a medium sized cup and that when you place a water bottle in it, it topples over? Or are you the one who says "What if I came up with a new cup holder that expanded and had higher sides to keep bottles in place?" If you're consistently seeking quality solutions to daily problems, one of these solutions might just be the perfect start-up business.

2. If you set your mind to something, can you make it happen? Do you start out with a project concept and follow through? Can your friends consistently rely on you? If so, you're probably a rainmaker. Anyone can have a good idea, but it's the rainmaker that turns an idea into a great business.

3. Behind any solid business is a solid team. How do you find your dream team? By spreading your enthusiasm. If your team is as excited about your business as you are, then they'll be just as determined as you are to make it succeed.