People familiar with the Star Trek TV shows or movies knows about first contact situations -- the first time the Federation interacts with some alien culture there are certain practices that have to be followed. Without these practices, the Federation's representatives might not survive the first contact and the alien culture's people might be harmed.

Many people don't realize that a very similar situation exists when you meet someone for the first time or when someone reads your brochure or when someone comes to your website. Fortunately these first contact rules are well known and established, and take the form of 10 "First Contact" Messages. These messages communicate such things as trust, recognition, friendship, identity and leadership.

These messages -- trust, recognition, friendship, identity and leadership -- are extremely important in marketing because, as stated above, every time someone comes to your website or encounters your collateral material you're in a potential first contact situation. The goal of this training is to

1. Learn the 10 "First Contact" Marketing Messages,
2. Recognize When You Are and Aren't Using Them and
3. Put them into Practice

• Starts with instruction in the 10 Messages
  1. How they work,
  2. How people perceive them and
  3. The order in which they need to be perceived.
• Next, classwork focuses on recognizing when the 10 Messages are being used. This is done by
  1. Analyzing various websites chosen at random,
  2. Analyzing standard design practices and
  3. Analyzing group and individual responses to different web and brochure designs.
• This training requires individual participation and all NextStage trainers ensure a safe environment for learning these techniques.

• Time - The day long training covers slightly more than 8 hours from beginning to end, starting at 9am and going until 5pm (including breaks). It is strongly recommended that participants have a light breakfast before class starts and where loose fitting clothes. Lunch and snacks are provided.
• Location - This class can be conducted at a host company's facilities or at a NextStage certified training facility (usually a woodland inn). Cell phones, pagers, etc., must be turned off during the class.
• Class Size - 10-30 students (10 students minimum)
• Certification - This training is given without grading of any kind, including Pass/Fail. While this training is a prerequisite to further NextStage trainings, participants will be given a Certification of Training (time in class) only, not a certification of ability.
• Training Materials - NextStage provides the training materials for all of its classes and trainings. These materials include notebooks and handouts. In some cases a projector or DVD player and a screen will be requested by the hosting company or provided by NextStage for advanced studies.

• Learn the 10 "First Contact" Marketing Messages
  • Understand their meaning
  • Understand their usage
  • When to communicate them
  • Why to communicate them
  • How to communicate them
• Recognizing the 10 "First Contact" Messages
  • When communicated by others
  • When you communicate them to others
  • When others aren't communicating them and why
  • When you're not communicting them and why
  • Learning to communicate them when you don't want to
  • Helping others to communicate them when they're unsure
• Practice, Practice, Practice first in self then in one's work (because you can't extend what you haven't got to give)

1. Morning
   1. Greeting and open discussion of training goals
   2. Team building exercises
   3. Break
   4. The 10 Messages
      1. Examples
      2. Practicing
      3. Discussions
2. Lunch
3. Afternoon
   1. Team building exercise
   2. Exercises
      1. Example of each message
      2. Practice
   3. Design Element Practice
   4. Break
   5. Design Element Practice
   6. Cross Platform Practice -- Placing the Messages in All Your Communications
   7. Break
   8. Discussion
   9. Closing

• Onsite
  1. US$1,295/student (minimum 10 students)
  2. Faculty travel and expenses extra
  3. US$2,500 non-refundable fee due upon registration
• At NextStage Training Facilities
  1. US$1,395/student
  2. Student travel and expenses to NextStage Nova Scotia training facilities extra
  3. US$700 non-refundable fee due upon registration

You can get an idea of putting the 10 First Contact Marketing Messages into practice in the following online articles and book excerpts:

• Make Sure Your Site Sells Lemonade
• Websites: You've Only Got 3 Seconds
• 6 Ways to Make Your Ads Sticky
• How to Build a Super-Sticky Homepage
• Gender Marketing Web Design Differences
• Shared Traits of Great Web Design
• Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 4 "Anecdotes of Learning"