Yeehaw, we’ve partnered with the Wildest, Richest Rodeo in the West!  Please join us and welcome the Reno Rodeo to the Saffire Community!

We’ve known these folks for quite some time, but this summer they let us know that they were getting ready to pull the trigger on a new website for their event.  After meeting with them one more time at ARC, we knew this would be the perfect partnership!

Get ready for a brand new online presence from this well-known 10-day rodeo in June 2013!

PS. The Saffire movement continues to spread far and wide, and we’ve now expanded to 10 states!  Get ready other 40, we’re coming for you!

Wow!  These past 4 days have been quite a whirlwind for the team here at Saffire.  We just returned from the TFEA Conference and Trade Show in San Antonio and it's safe to say we had a blast!

The weekend kicked off with a wonderful party at the Lambermont, a historic castle in the heart of San Antonio.  The evening was filled with mariachi music, food trucks, entertainment from the legendary Vince Vance and even a laser show!

We were honored when Jennifer Allison asked Saffire to design the logo and website for this conference.  The theme came together perfectly and Jennifer and the Board of Directors put on a wonderful event.

Saffire friends, please join us in congratulating our very own Jerry Huffman from the Texas State Forest Festival for being named the new Chairman of TFEA.  We know he will do a great job leading this organization!

We were surprised and thrilled when Saffire received the award for "Best Trade Show Booth" at lunch on Saturday.

It's safe to say we got at least one vote from Mary with the Pasadena Strawberry Festival, who also happened to be the winner of our TV Giveaway!  The team from their event was a lot of fun and we had a blast sitting with Mary and her friends at the Marketing Awards Dinner. 

Ladies, remember to send us info so we can get some blinging shirts like yours!  They were just so cute!

Of course we couldn't be with so many of our friends at TFEA without having a little get together of our own.  The yummy queso and pink lemonade margaritas we served helped us make some new friends.

Our team wants to give a big thanks to several supporters of Saffire for making the special effort to come to our happy hour.  It means a lot!

On Friday night, we took a break from the conference and enjoyed a nice dinner at Paloma Blanca with our friends from Palomino Fest and Heart 'O Texas Fair & Rodeo who were also in San Antonio.  The food and company were both a treat for all of us!

Overall, we had a great time at our first TFEA Conference.  The people we met were so kind and welcoming, and we couldn't have asked for more.  We're already looking forward to catching up with many of our new friends at the joint conference in January!

We'll leave you with this last photo which best describes our weekend: fun!

We (Cassie and Kendra) just got back from the North American Livestock Show and Rodeo Managers’ Association Annual Meeting in Shreveport, LA, and we had a blast! Of course, we learned how to host a stellar rodeo and livestock show, but these folks sure knew how to have a good time while we learned.

Louisiana has a ton to offer and we took full advantage of the culture, food and warm weather.

One of our first stops was Alligator Park, where we saw, you guessed it, a ton of alligators!

We even saw the house where the wedding from Steel Magnolias was filmed!

Then in the evening, we spent a little time drinking mint juleps on the porch and having delicious BBQ at a fabulous plantation.

We also took a trip to the country and saw the fantastic LSU Ag Research Center, where we took a hayride to visit some cows. They were also growing some amazing-looking tomatoes in a greenhouse. These were honestly the biggest tomato plants I’ve ever seen. So delicious!

We had the change to hear from a great speaker named Teresa Allen, who kicked her presentation off with a Mardi Gras style entrance by the officers, who threw beads to get the crowd going.

Our visit to the Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City was incredible. We saw some awesome planes and got a tour from a retired Air Force vet. It was such a treat so close to Memorial Day!

We got to eat crawfish at the LA Exhibit Museum, where Jarrod from HOT Fair and Karla from State Fair of Texas showed us how it’s done.

To cap off our trip, we went to Mudbug Madness, Shreveport’s biggest crawfish festival!  The festival hung a sign to welcome our group, and Cassie  made sure everyone was using their new Saffire koozies!

A special thanks to the staff and volunteers at The State Fair of Louisiana for showing us around your great state.  We had such a fantastic time at the NALS&RMA Annual Meeting, and we can’t wait until next year!

I attended a session on Monday presented by Helen Klein Ross, the creative mind behind @bettydraper, a twitter account that maintains the voice of AMC’s mega-popular character Betty Draper, played by January Jones, in the hit show Mad Men. Everything about this twitter account is spoken in the voice of the character from the show.  Not the actress, not the writer, but the character is perpetuated in this easily accessible and massive platform.

She provides a connection for several thousand fans of the Mad Men brand, and gives them an opportunity to interact with her in a way that helps them feel personally connected to the show. 

Social media allows you to stay connected to your consumers, but it’s not just about having a twitter account or Facebook page.  Those are simply the platforms for building a connection with your brand.  You have to give consumers a REASON to connect, because just being present in these spaces is typically not enough.

Whether it’s maintaining your brand recognition and story throughout the off-season when consumers may “forget about you,” or just perpetuating your brand in new arenas, it’s a way to broaden your market and at the same time strengthen your connection with your existing fan base. Creating content that engages your consumers creates an emotional connection and gives them a reason to want to share that experience.

As you begin to craft your story, consider your audience.  Think about who you are trying to reach, and instead of considering how many people you are trying to connect with, think about WHICH people you are trying to connect with.  Think about the stories you can tell that will resonate with your customers, and if you’re ever in doubt, use Betty Draper’s recipe for successful storytelling.

Create the content (the more the better), keep a consistent and continuous voice for your brand, keep it simple and always make it easy for others to share it with their friends.

We were happy to be invited to attend the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals Convention in Baton Rouge, LA over the weekend.  And one thing is safe to say: Louisiana folks know how to party!

It was great to see a few old friends from IAFE and make lots of new connections in the industry.

Kendra presented on “The Latest and Greatest in Online Marketing.” We may have drawn the short straw, as our time slot was at the same time as the evening gown competition of the Queen of Queens Pageant. But I mean really, who can compete with all of this!

All jokes aside, we had a great conversation and hope that we provided some fresh, new insight to the industry. Thanks again to all of the attendees who took time out of their busy day to listen to our presentation.

And a big thank you to the LAFF for their hospitality. We were glad to be a part of the weekend’s festivities!

After a quick trip to California, we were happy to return to Austin to get ready for the Texas Association of Fairs & Events Convention.

It was nice to attend an event here in our hometown, and we can say that these were our kind of folks!  The truth is, TAF&E cleaned us out of ALL our boot koozies!  We’ll need to place another order soon.

One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to see so many of our clients here in Texas.  We got to spend time with South Texas State Fair, Brazos Valley Fair and several new clients whose websites aren’t quite ready to show to the world.

But hands-down the BEST part of the weekend was our happy hour on Saturday evening!  Our suite was packed with current clients and, hopefully, soon-to-be clients.  We enjoyed cotton candy cocktails (of course!), beer and lots of snacks.

We also gave away a TV which went to Tanner Moore from the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo.  Congratulations Tanner!

We wrapped up the weekend by attending the Foundation Night Dinner and Dance.  We appreciate Wes Allison for inviting us to sit at his table.  We enjoyed a night of two-stepping and raising money for scholarships!

It is safe to say we’ve already put next year’s convention on our calendar.  See y’all at TAF&E 2013!

Well, to say that last week was a whirlwind doesn’t seem to say quite enough!  We had back-to-back conventions and trade shows, starting out with a trip to sunny Anaheim, California.

Since we had worked with the staff at WFA to give them a new website for the WFA Convention, we were excited to see how the website was received.  Several people stopped by our booth to tell us how user-friendly the website was, which was the best compliment we could receive.

We set up our booth and had a chance to chat with our friends Carrie and Liz for just a few minutes.  And we finally got to meet Lori!  We’ve worked with her for months, but it’s always nice to actually meet face-to-face.

The trade show was filled with lots of interesting attractions including butterflies, alligators, knights in shining armor and lots of clowns!

And congratulations to the winner of the TV giveaway: Katherine Rosser from Flying U Rodeos!

After two days at the trade show, Kendra presented on the benefits  of Mobile Marketing.  We had quite the crowd; over 80 people joined us.  If you’re interested in learning more about what Kendra discussed, please feel free to email us at info@saffireevents.com and we can send you the slides from her presentation.

Overall, we had a great time visiting several of the suite parties, the entertainment showcase and listening to keynote speaker Kelly McDonald.

Congrats to our friends at WFA for a job well done on this convention!  Hopefully, we’ll be back again next year.

One of the best parts about the IAFE Convention was getting to talk to individuals in the fair industry.  It was a great chance for us to find out exactly what you want to know about Saffire!  We compiled a list of the most popular questions, so if these were your questions…here are your answers!

1)      Does Saffire help with people using Google to search for us?
Yes, in fact you have the ability to control not only the content within each page you create, you can also individually manage all SEO related page information (page title, keywords, meta description) from the same tool. This ensures you can target searches most likely to bring people to your site.

2)      Can I sell tickets with your software?
You bet! In January, Saffire will be implementing a new bar code system to let you create and validate tickets with barcodes right on the receipt to the customers. Already have a ticketing system you love? No problem! Saffire also lets you link directly into your existing ticketing system from each page to drive your customers to EXACTLY the tickets and purchases they are looking for.

3)      My current site doesn’t let me change the layout of my pages, does Saffire?
Absolutely! Our content management lets you decide what to include on your pages and how you want it to layout. We currently have over 10 page modules you can include and we’ll be adding more. Have something you’d like us to include? Send us an email with your suggestions! Saffire features are customer driven and we are always looking for new features and ideas!

4)      Can I get include Google analytics in my site?
Of course you can! Saffire is built to include Google analytics with every site. You’ll also receive training on how to view and interpret your site stats so you can continually improve your content and offerings to your customers.

5)      My biggest issue is I have to wait forever for my guy (or gal) to make the updates we asked for. We’re still showing stuff from last year!
Well…that’s not really a question, but we understand!  The whole point of Saffire is to let YOU control and update you site whenever YOU want to. No waiting for us or anyone else. Just update your site and see results instantly!

6)      Can I get an extra koozie?
Of course you can!

- Aaron

So here’s the scoop: We needed a BIG TV for our booth at the convention trade show and we had two options: We could pay to rent one and give it back, or buy one when we got there and send it in the mail to a lucky winner. Since Vegas is all about playing the odds, we thought everyone would love a good giveaway. Turns out we were right!

The rules were simple. All contestants had to do was collect two cards from us by visiting us at the booth, coming to our presentation in the Product Showcase Room or stopping to talk to us while we walked around the trade show. Once people saw our TV, everyone wanted to enter the contest!

So as the trade show was ending on Wednesday afternoon, Kendra drew the lucky winner, and we’re happy to announce: Terry Burroughs from the Okeechobee County Fair as the proud owner of a new 47” LCD Vizio Television! He was so excited he came right over to take a picture with us.

We loved hosting this contest and -shhhh! We’ll let you in on a little secret! Our giveaway was so popular, we’re doing it again at the TAFE Convention in Austin, TX right after the new year. Texas fairs, come find us at the trade show January 13-14 for your chance to win!

If you’re not from Texas and you want to come to our booth at the TAFE convention anyway, don’t worry.  We know how to keep a secret.

- Cassie

As we’ve mentioned, this was our first year to attend the IAFE Convention and Trade Show, so we wanted to make sure and let the fair industry know we had arrived.

We would like to take a brief moment to thank the folks at IAFE and our other friends around the fair industry for answering our countless questions as we planned our trip.   Because trust me, we had a lot of questions!

So 1000 business cards, 600 koozies, 80 square feet, 24 UPS deliveries, 7 hoodies, 5 suitcases and 1 cotton candy machine later….we were ready!

It didn’t take much time walking down aisle 11 at the trade show to spot booth #1122.  We were hard to miss with our turquoise hoodies, shoes, koozies, sign and tablecloth.  At least we hope you saw us!

If you stopped by our booth, you probably caught a glimpse of the “Are you a Saffire Event?” video.  This video gives you a quick, easy overview of all that Saffire Events can do to help give your event the online presence it deserves.  If you didn’t get a change to see it,  you can watch the video again on our website.

Our team wasn’t really sure what to expect this year, but we were thrilled with the traffic at our booth.  We were able to make some wonderful new connections and look forward to working with these folks in the future.

Telling people about Saffire is one thing, but when they get to see it in action is when the light bulb really comes on.  Software can seem a little intangible, so we wanted to show our visitors how user-friendly and intuitive Saffire is for even people that hate computers.

We’re excited about the splash we made at the trade show this year, and are already talking about next year, and we want some feedback from you!  Did you like the turquoise?  Or would you like us to surprise you with an all new color ext year?

- Rebekah