3 Points to Progress – Creating New, More Energized Manufactured Housing Professional Events

Corporate, business and association leaders, please take note. Ron Thomas Sr., MMHF Chairman and RV MH Hall of Fame inductee, has talked about the hunger that exists for education among manufactured housing professionals.

Indeed, MH state, regional or national trade associations – as well as private events – demonstrate that hunger that Ron Thomas Sr. has pointed out.  These often do a good job of attracting and educating professionals on a range of topics.

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RV MH Hall of Famer, Ron Thomas Sr. is the Chairman of the Midwest Manufactured Housing Federation (MMHF), parent body for the Louisville MH Show.

But can more be done?

“More,” “improved,” “larger,” “smarter,” and “better” are the ideals driving any industry or businesses within it. There is no criticism of other meetings or education when we look at what’s good square in the eye and ask, how can we make that good even better?

How can we attract more attendees and greater outcomes for all involved?

The answer is in taking what we already know works, and putting it on steroids.

When the two largest regional trade events each attract over 2,000 total MH pros, surely other MH events can grow larger too!  Ron Thomas Sr., Dennis Hill, Tim Williams from Ohio and many others have praised what we do to market and attract attendees to events.  So from the voice of successful experience with the industry’s largest event, let’s share the following.

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Standing Room Only at many of the event sessions that we’ve marketed.

Creating New and/or Expanded MH Events – Do and Don’t…

  • Success is always team work. One of the common weaknesses in promoting MH events that we often see is a lack of good coordination and cross promotion.  Getting and staying on the same page is a vital key to a successful event.
  • Promotion is more than a mailed brochure or emailed PDF. Those are fine, but more is needed.  There is a secret sauce that we’ve known for some time.  Our team – working within MH in collaboration with other pros – and others outside of MH – have done it successfully.  So that means your existing or planned new event could follow the proven pattern too.
  • Opportunities for New and/or Expanded Events Abound in MH. Let’s look at just one of many possible target audiences, land-lease MH Communities. Depending on who you listen to, there are 45,000 +/- MHCs in the U.S.  So why do only 100 to 150 +/- actual MHC pros come to most MHC focused events?  At Louisville, we proved we could attract a far larger crowd of MHC pros.  The result? We had roughly 3x the number of MHC pros come to the show than attend any other MHC event in the U.S..

There is so much more that can be done.

If you have a budget for an event you want to create or expand, call or email me today for a candid, confidential discussion. We know MH, we have the largest MH Professional audience to promote and event with.  Working together, the results can get better. ##

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Photos from NY Housing Association annual meeting. Tony and team will be at the 2016 Tunica MH Show, among other upcoming events.

By L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach. 863-213-4090.