"Sharing Wisdom Conference" Promotional Goodies

Sharing Wisdom Conference
Moderator: Gary Barg
Keynote Speaker: Deborah Reynolds
August 28, 2003; 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Phoenix, Arizona
Pointe South Mountain

#	Item	Comp/Assoc
1	ball point pen w/holder & neck cord	National Memory Impairment Insititute
7	ball point pens w/logo     there were many more to be had	Encore Senior Village Celebrex(Pfizer) Friendly Adult Home Care     (not vendor; small bus. owner attendee At Home Solutions Sunshine Village Detrol LA (Pfizer) Hospice Family Care
5	flat, standard refrigerator magnets     there were more to be had	Sunshine Village Area Agency on Aging Senior Help Line     somehow ended up with 2 Visiting Angels Hospice Family Care
1	standard sized emery board	Hospice of the Valley
1	insulating cup holder	Hospice Family Care
1	wrist sweat band	Hospice Family Care
1	jar opener	Sunshine Village
2	3x5 post-it padsthere were many more to be had	Encore Senior Village At Home Solutions
1	magnetized grocery list	Encore Senior Village
1	letter/paper slitter	At Home Solutions
1	magnetized blank note pad	At Home Solutions
1	packet of Forget-Me-Not flower seeds	National Cremation Society
1	band aid mini-holder     non-magnetized	Eunoe
1	business card holder	Celebrex (Pfizer)
1	sturdy, magnetized document clip w/top perched pen holder	Bextra (Pfizer)
1	5x7 post-it pad	Detrol LA (Pfizer)
27	Total Products	Total Vendors:  12

    Phoenix is a hard crowd to play. I have this on good second hand authority from a lighting tech/roadie and a past president of the Stage Hands Guild. From the source, this: "It's the redneck mentality." I'm not sure about that, but Phoenix has some unique qualities that caused problems from the start for a modestly funded, modestly promoted, modestly researched, modestly organized conference for one of the most potentially explosive economic demographics. All the problems came down to location, location, location.
    First of all, it's hot-hot out here in the middle of August, folks. You have to be good to catch our eye.
    Second, what are you doing throwing this shindig in August anyway, when you're missing out on a good third of your attendees and, thus, probably some lucrative vendors?
    Third, at least half our population has a multi-generational family care system that is handed down and tended from generation to generation. This group includes more than the expected Hispanic and Native American population. The young man who remarked to me, "Everyone is a caregiver. If you aren't taking care of someone, you're not alive," and his mother are Rumanian. This segment wasn't addressed. I was surprised, in fact, at the lack of Spanish language displays.
    Fourth, where the hell was the American Diabetes Association, anyway?
    And, what about PR? I heard about it from the Caregiver.com website purely by chance. I'm not an isolationist. I listen to car radio pretty typical of my age group. You'd think, too, it would have been mentioned on our local NPR stations. If I didn't hear about it locally, it's because it wasn't promoted to me, the caregiver. I watch a fair amount of TV. I notice things. I didn't notice this conference except accidentally through an oblique, unexpected source.
    Yes, I'm obsessive enough to keep a tally of what company spewed forth what promotional goodies. It gave me something to do while I was waiting for this very slow auto-web page designer/generator. As soon as I realized that some vendors were more generous than others I kept a running tally. Wouldn't you know it, the drug company Pfizer, came out on top with 5 items (under the names of different drugs but distributed from one table). At Home Solutions tied with Hospice Family Care for second place. The Most Unique Item was, hmmm, I think the magnetized document clip/pen holder; also high on the list for Most Appreciated Item, which includes the business card holder and the cup insulator. The paper slitter was a Caught My Eye Item; we need one. So was the jar opener. Most Unique Item status also goes to the Forget-Me-Not seeds. Cool.
    I have some ideas for unique and thought-provoking (name recognition) 'hard copy' (versus literature which I would consider 'soft copy') promotional goodie items that at least my part of this crowd of caregivers would appreciate:

• branded/strapped water bottle carriers, insulated
      to cart around the promotional free bottled water that should have been provided
• branded pill separators with big compartments
      someone did distribute pill separators; tiny ones that don't hold my mother's morning supplements
• magnets are always good; double-duties are well-loved
• food/supplement vendors with samples of diet-specialized convenience foods
• para-legal services distributing government forms for powers of attorney, advance directives, etc.
• The American Medical Association's handy pocket calendar/diary
      Also, abridged pocket PhyDesKAsst's
• And, damn, what about the American Diabetes Association?
  • Companies passing out glucose measuring sticks
  • Trial glucometers on display
  • computerized statistic recording demos; pass out the free software
  • a nutritionist sub-exhibit

    Where were these vendors? Maybe suffering hard economic times, but I'm wondering if they were even solicited.
    Not to put on too fine a materialistic point but we're a consumer culture. Capitalism fuels our economic engine. More and more of us are going to be caregivers and/or charges. We've already influenced the market, both product and PR, through our ailments and our interests. As well, I didn't observe a herd of mad souvenier snatchers at this conference. I was the only one, I believe, who garnered as many of the freebies as I did and even I passed up a couple of choice items because I knew neither my mother nor I would use them. The attendees, overall, were so little concerned with what goodies they could garner that during the raffles for special door prizes only one of the drawings found a winner on the first draw. When time came for the drawings, quite a few attendees were no longer attendant.
    Most of us caregivers are also a generation of reawakening advocates. The reason we identify with fearless caregiving is because we are inventing it. Conferences/Expos are a great technique for pulling together a variety of commercial and social interests to serve and be served by a fundamentally idealist, market-oriented, on the verge of becoming a highly self-conscious demographic who is already redetermining the economic metabolism of this country (at least). Get to know us at a local level. Play with us. Play into us. Consider sponsoring more than one conference in this state (maybe a Northern Arizona conference in Prescott, a Southern Arizona conference in Tucson). Remember, we've got all those recently transplanted Californians and Northwesterners. Dare I say it? Bring us someone besides Debbie Reynolds or get to know your audience and what they might appreciate before throwing your keynote speakers to Arizona wolves. I was looking forward to hearing what Ms. Reynolds had to say about caregiving. Something tells me that lack of area research caused a what could have been a dynamite keynote address to slide down the drain. Find panelists who will help us define our questions. Drum up grant money from the government(s). Did you do that? Drum up more. Pay attention to the commercial possibilities behind social issues. Pay attention to this generation's communication slogan, "The medium is the message."
    Remember, you're playing to Phoenix. Even with expensive PR Phoenix isn't kind to its opera, its symphony orchestra or its ballet (Do we still even have these?!?). Most of us come and go within 3 years (including caregivers) and are from someplace else. A lot of us live here and there in the state. We know what's available out there. We know we're in a place that is hard on community but a lot of us are community oriented. A not insignificant number of us are long-timers and a not insignificant number are native. A not insignificant number are bi-lingual. We're used to moving. When we don't like something we don't complain, we move on. This may not be the most efficacious way of dealing with problems in one's environment but it's the way this metroplex does it.
    I've begun perusing the literature, first and foremost the issues of Today's Caregiver magazine. In two of the issues different productions of the Sharing Wisdom Conference/Fearless Caregiver Forum featuring Leeza Gibbons (and, apparently her father, for whom she cares and I guess they both cared for her mother/his wife) were reviewed. They were suspiciously glowing but, the truth is Phoenix doesn't make one cynical; picky, but not cynical. I prefer to believe that these two conferences went so well that the only way to communicate this was through standard glowing journalistic feature prose. I want to trust that the conferences being described, with their stocked panels, dynamic discussion forums, well modulated and moderated segments and inspirational keynote speakers weren't, in reality, carbon copies of the Phoenix Sharing Wisdom Conference on August 28, 2003. Let us hope...
    Like I said. Hard crowd.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 00:08   email...this post