I followed this thread due to my being a video shopper, although I have only logged 141 jobs in a nine year period. I am curious: In referencing the leader of the IMSC. the two words I recall reading were president and she, but not a proper name. Has that been a coincidence or intentional? Is that in keeping with anonymity?

Pam is not a forum member to my knowledge and has not been posting in this thread. I don't think it's any secret that she is the president of the IMSC, since if you do an Internet search it the information will come up.

If I am not mistaken Pam is banned from using this forum. I was not a member (or even a mystery shopper) at that time so it is entirely possible I did not hear the whole story or misunderstood.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2018 10:06PM by bgriffin.

@shopperbob wrote:

I followed this thread due to my being a video shopper, although I have only logged 141 jobs in a nine year period. I am curious: In referencing the leader of the IMSC. the two words I recall reading were president and she, but not a proper name. Has that been a coincidence or intentional? Is that in keeping with anonymity?

Pam is very approachable and is not on this forum. You can reach her by going to www.imscinfo.com or by connecting with her by searching for "imsc" on facebook.

Just so we are all on the same page as to what it is we are talking about. This comes directly from the Las Vegas Fill a Seat site.



What is Fillaseat?


Fillaseat is a members-only seat filling service. When a theater or venue has unsold tickets to an event, they contact Fillaseat to offer the unsold tickets to our members for FREE. No one likes to see empty seats - not the performers, the management, or the audience. Fillaseat members literally fill the seats, improving the overall experience for everyone.


Free Tickets

Get free tickets to a variety of entertainment including theater, concerts, comedy shows, sporting events and more. Tickets are reserved on a first come, first served basis. Please note, we don't get tickets to sold out shows as those shows don't need help filling seats.



Submit Your Event
Why Use Fillaseat Las Vegas ?
Any time you have empty seats, you are missing out on money spent on concessions, merchandise, food and drinks. The performers also prefer performing to a packed house. With Fillaseat Las Vegas you'll have the ideal opportunity to increase potential revenue while introducing brand new patrons to your venue and events!

When you see that ticket sales might not be going as well as expected and you have extra seats available, have your event privately posted on Fillaseat Las Vegas and get those seats filled!

We privately send people to your shows & events without impacting regular ticket sales.

When you have extra seats available for a show or want to increase traffic at your event...
You fill out the electronic "Promoter Info" form and tell us about the event and number of comp seats you wish to release.

We promote the event on our "members only" private website and our members make reservations.

We issue you a Will Call list on the day of the event.

It's quick, easy and no cost to you...
Strict Privacy Policy

We won't ever publicly promote the names of our entertainment partners.

96% Attendance Rate

Know exactly how many people are going to show, instead of handing out comp tickets and just hoping people attend.

Additional Revenue

Although you are providing comp tickets to fill your seats, our members spend money on concessions, drinks, merchandise and other purchases.

[www.fillaseatlasvegas.com]

This makes perfect sense and is pretty smart. People only request tickets for things they are interested in. This means that anyone who shows up is a local, from nevada, and is interested in mystery shopping. Nobody is going to go to something they dont have some level of interest in. Id be thrilled if I were a nevada company and knew there were 100 local people who were interested in learning more.

Based off Walesmavens feedback from talking to most of these people none of them appeared to have stated candy, keychains, and pens were their reason for attending and instead showed interest in mystery shopping.

Now instead of inviting people or giving out tickets at a balloon show to people who may or may not show, they spend that time and money where they know that the tickets will be used and they will be from people in Nevada with an interest in mystery shopping.

From a marketing standpoint this is a much better system than was being used prior. Much bigger bang for the buck, the time factor is almost completely eliminated, no need to do another event somewhere else in the state, and nearly all of the tickets paid for by the nevada sponsors are redeemed by locals.

I was in charge of recruiting for 8 years at a prior job. This is an absolutely brilliant way to pre-screen for interest and geographic location. I'm not sure any arguments against using the filla seat service itself is very strong. In terms of finding local people it appears to be one of the most effective means of doing so.

Ultimately if Nevada companies keep paying, then clearly they are satisfied. Considering they keep paying, I think we can check that box.

If non-nevada companies think they are not getting a benefit then they will stop sponsoring. I bet most of these companies track where they get referrals from to see if those dollars are well spent. It's been said that there were non-nevada companies who were unhappy. If they were, I bet they vote with their pocketbook and they wont sponsor again if they feel wronged.

I'm still not convinced this is even a big deal for non-nevada companies. I'm not saying it isn't, simply that the available evidence doesn't appear to support that view.

There were still sponsors when the IMSC events were only 100 people strong, so even if it was 200 now, with 100 being nevada only this is on par with prior years and sponsors were happily sponsoring back then. Why would it be different now?

I'd love to hear from a mystery shopping company who sponsors (or did and doesn't now) and why they feel it benefits (or didn't benefit) their company rather than two people who are accusing the owner of fraud.

This whole fixation on fill a seat seems a little odd. That's clearly an effective means of getting Nevada people. That's the entire point. If the goal is to get local nevada people interested in mystery shopping is there anyone here who can recommend a more effective method? Other than craigslist which would be hit or miss, I can't think of anywhere else that is going to have a 90% + redemption rate of people fitting what I'm looking for.


I'd kill for an organization that can send me 95 quality leads for people interested in buying video equipment out of every 100 I give information to.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2018 02:13AM by jrossetti.

Just can't stop using peoples' name can ya? lol

The one I spoke with seemed to find the subject interesting but had no interest in doing shops. If I'm not mistaken she hung out for a few hours and left at lunch.


Edited to add:
I've always wondered why the non-Vegas conferences always had half the attendance of the Vegas conferences when a lot of the other conferences were closer to more shoppers. Now I guess we know why!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2018 02:14AM by bgriffin.

This was already shared earlier and yet people want to keep making assumptions. Why are these people all of a sudden showing up, promoting their events and offering nothing but negative comments to the forum? I am more apt to believe walesmaven's post over someone who seems to just be trying to say everyone else is bad and we are the only good ones.

@walesmaven wrote:

Anyone who has been to a recent IMSC event and/or checked out IMSC on line probably is aware that IMSC has a program called, "No Shopper Left Behind." This program aims to find and encourage folks who could benefit from MS income but may not know how to get started and cannot afford to pay for conference admission. From what I was told by others at the conference in question, and from the "sponsored" shoppers that I went out of my way to meet, greet, and encourage by helping them network, there were such attendees who had been referred by a local community college, an Air Force vet whose disability counselor had sent her towards the program to encourage maintaining and redeveloping her work skills, and others in similar circumstances. In addition, a couple of the Nevada MSCs, ie, those that are licensed there and control all legal NV scheduling, were said to have been desperate to recruit new shoppers and had paid entrance fees so as to recruit local shoppers and get them trained and oriented. I spent every 15 minute break between sessions, plus some lunch break time, and even stayed out in the halls to have longer discussions with as many shoppers who were totally new to MS as I could. I sat in different areas in the main conference room to expand the number of people that I would meet and welcome. As many of you know, I also recruit for a couple of less-well-known MSCs so I really have a stake in meeting as many new people as possible at every conference. Over three days (Yes, I was there 3 days and often am) I probably chatted long enough with 90 percent of the "newbies" there to ask how they found out about the conference and how serious they were about MS. All of the newbie NV residents that I met came from the sorts of sources I have named and were eager to learn more about MS. So, I am more than a bit mystified by this change of subject to some conspiracy about inflating attendance.

@Msaddict wrote:

This was already shared earlier and yet people want to keep making assumptions. Why are these people all of a sudden showing up, promoting their events and offering nothing but negative comments to the forum? I am more apt to believe walesmaven's post over someone who seems to just be trying to say everyone else is bad and we are the only good ones.

@walesmaven wrote:

Anyone who has been to a recent IMSC event and/or checked out IMSC on line probably is aware that IMSC has a program called, "No Shopper Left Behind." This program aims to find and encourage folks who could benefit from MS income but may not know how to get started and cannot afford to pay for conference admission. From what I was told by others at the conference in question, and from the "sponsored" shoppers that I went out of my way to meet, greet, and encourage by helping them network, there were such attendees who had been referred by a local community college, an Air Force vet whose disability counselor had sent her towards the program to encourage maintaining and redeveloping her work skills, and others in similar circumstances. In addition, a couple of the Nevada MSCs, ie, those that are licensed there and control all legal NV scheduling, were said to have been desperate to recruit new shoppers and had paid entrance fees so as to recruit local shoppers and get them trained and oriented. I spent every 15 minute break between sessions, plus some lunch break time, and even stayed out in the halls to have longer discussions with as many shoppers who were totally new to MS as I could. I sat in different areas in the main conference room to expand the number of people that I would meet and welcome. As many of you know, I also recruit for a couple of less-well-known MSCs so I really have a stake in meeting as many new people as possible at every conference. Over three days (Yes, I was there 3 days and often am) I probably chatted long enough with 90 percent of the "newbies" there to ask how they found out about the conference and how serious they were about MS. All of the newbie NV residents that I met came from the sorts of sources I have named and were eager to learn more about MS. So, I am more than a bit mystified by this change of subject to some conspiracy about inflating attendance.

I did not talk to nearly as many people as wales, but the half dozen I did speak with I can confirm they were interested in mystery shopping and were there to learn more. No idea how many will convert into actual shoppers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2018 03:20AM by jrossetti.

One of the reasons that I go out of my way to engage newbies at conferences is to find out more about their motivations and the likelihood that they will grow as MSers. Since I recruit for a couple of MSCs I spend a fair amount of time with each new person that I meet because I also pre-screen for the the type of dedicated shopper (or for the potential) that those MSCs value. I would like to think that spending time for a long conversation with a newbie I would find out more than in a brief interaction at a sponsor table where I am just asked a couple of questions. This means that I spend a lot of time out in the hallways because chats during 15 minute breaks often turn into extended discussions with 3 or more newcomers at a time. Attention is not like candy and pens.... things that might be begrudgingly given to a newcomer.

EOM and EOQ shops beckon! I am on the road!

If you go back to the original post, it is an invitation for people interested in video to come out to a video only conference and join a FREE organization that serves the video community. There was nothing negative until MSaddict immediately showed up to trash it. When anyone fills a post I created with misinformation, it will be corrected. It is corrected with the truth. People will judge for themselves. Come join us at AVSP, we are now international. Mystery Shop Forum has quite the impact. Kudos to the creator.

This thread has run its course and will be closed.