-Amy Nebons owns event management company Blink Events LLC

Last post we talked about building effective strategy for your events to ensure you see a positive return on investment. This week we address a common fear: what if nobody shows up?

Getting people to attend your event is a part of your overall event strategy and contributes to how effective you are at seeing a positive ROI.  Here are 5 sure-fire ways you can ensure the people you want at your event are there.

1. Create event attendee profiles:  Start back at the drawing board by truly shedding light on what types of people you want to attend your event. Compile a list of adjectives that describe your perfect attendee. Then allow these adjectives to manifest themselves into specific people. Don’t just throw paint at the wall by inviting everyone. Rather, be laser focused on creating a specific and concise list.  Brainstorm with your team to create a list of your top 100 people you would like to attend and then allow your list to spider web out from there. You should begin profiling your target list of attendees about the same time you begin brainstorming your event objectives to ensure your messaging aligns with the intended audience that will be receiving it.
2. Send your target group compelling messaging: Now that you have compiled your top 100 list, determine what avenues make the most sense for you to reach them.  Develop captivating and unique marketing materials that you can send their way.  Find ways where you can connect with them personally to share about your event.  The key is to convince folks they MUST be at your event.
3. Tap into existing networks: Form partnerships with like-minded, non-competing organizations that have an existing network of engaged individuals that you would love to have at your event. Together work out a strategic, mutually beneficial plan to reach those individuals and entice them to attend your event. Provide partners with email templates or copy that they can easily distribute to their networks, saving them oodles of time.
4. Send unique invitations: Whatever happened to snail mail? Send out an eye-catching and clever invite that sets your event apart from all other events. Always include a call to action and a teaser of what can be expected on event day.
5. Create incentive: Promise your attendees that they will be getting something out of your event. Time is money and your attendees will want to know what value is to be gained by attending your event. Provide (3) concise bullet points on why your event is worth attending in your outreach marketing material.
6. Build event momentum: Talk about your event a lot and share all the exciting things that will be happening at it. Highlight your speakers, share content teasers, and advertise giveaways. Use your social media outlets to reach your audience. Take advantage of targeted ads to boost your post engagements and make updates frequently to ensure you are at the forefront of your audience’s mind. Encourage your in-house staff and early bird attendees to share the event information on their social media, thus increasing your reach. Ask your speakers if they wouldn’t mind writing a short blog post to provide a sneak-peak into what they will be sharing. Make it clear that this is the event that is NOT to be missed!

Now it goes without saying that if you go through all this trouble to make sure your attendees show up, you better deliver.  Be innovative, be creative and be original.

- As posted on the IowaBiz site (http://www.iowabiz.com/2016/01/phase-3-creative-logistics-what-is-the-recipe-i-follow-to-make-this-apple-pie.html)

Phase 3:  CREATIVE LOGISTICS:  “What is the recipe I follow to make this Apple Pie?

At this point, you have set some solid ground work during Phases 1 and 2:  You have your big innovative and creative ideas, you’ve developed your clear event objectives, you’ve assembled your team and assigned them their designated roles, you’ve set deadlines and you now have a working event program.  So now it is time to get into the nitty-gritty.

Phase 3:  CREATIVE LOGISTICS:  “What is the recipe I follow to make this Apple Pie?”

1. Nail down your venue & final date: Establishing this deadline will light a fire under you and hopefully fuel your excitement to power through this phase of planning.
2. Engage Your Out-of-House Team: This will be all of the experts that you don’t currently have in-house (outside of your event planner, who should already be involved at this point).  These members might be:   an A/V production company, marketing & graphic design company, décor company, caterer and any other special groups that will assist you in executing other elements of your event. By engaging these vendors you will begin to understand the overall cost of your event.  Once you have a complete budget, you can always look at each line item and value engineer where you see fit. Treat your vendors like the experts they are and ask them how they can work within your budget but still achieve your objectives. Your vendors will perform best when they are given the freedom to own their own role. Remember you hired them for their expertise so avoid the temptation to micro-manage-it will only stress you out.
3. Refine Your Event Program: Finalize your schedule. Be mindful to the flow and view the program from the eyes of the attendee. Avoid long expanses of content delivery where attendees are tied to their seats for hours. Incorporate frequent breaks so the blood can continue to flow. Think about how you can deliver messaging in varied ways so to avoid monotony and maintain attendee engagement. Any elements that you can incorporate into the event that are unexpected but add value are encouraged. Delivering your content by using a variety of tactics will increase the chances of your message being received and retained by your attendees. This will also avoid the chances of brain fatigue. Variety is the spice of life-so use it to make your event unique!
4. Marketing Outreach Strategy & Momentum Building: Spend some time developing a strategy on how you are going to engage your attendees and begin to build momentum prior to the event.  Perhaps it is through a social media campaign or event specific app, but whatever it is, make sure it is purposeful.  The most successful events are the ones that everyone is talking about before it begins, exceeds their expectations once it arrives and holds their attention after it is gone.  This type of reception doesn’t happen by accident, it needs to be strategically planned and diligently executed.
5. Determine ROI Measurement Strategy: Your ROI strategy will be intimately tied to the efforts of your marketing strategy.  Leverage the power of social media and engage your attendees early.   For example, associating a hashtag with everything these days is common practice –so come up with something creative and work that hashtag.  Implement an intentional social media plan.  Pose questions, provide visual and interactive “shareable moments” and incentive your attendees to share.  This will increase your social media participation and thereby increase your event reach AKA- FREE marketing!  By vocalizing your hashtag early (prior to event) you can also start to build momentum for the event itself, getting attendees excited for what is to come.  Likewise, you can utilize the hashtag following the event to sustain the excitement and encourage attendee feedback.  Make sure you are encouraging pointed attendee participation throughout the event and asking specific questions about what your attendees are responding to.  Guide conversation but allow organic feedback to surface.  Be the facilitator of participation but don’t overly interfere.  Create a fine balance between encouraging the conversation while avoiding contrived and somewhat superficial dialogue.In addition to social media event specific apps can be employed to build a community around your event.  As the event organizer you can post updates and information to attendees prior to, during and following events.  These apps are also equipped with detailed analytics that can demonstrate how active attendees were and gauge overall reception.  If you want to get really detailed on seeing quantitative results on how your event was received, you might consider adding an Advertising Agency to your team of gurus to implement a more detailed strategy.
6. Details & Logistics: The devil is in the details: Be thoughtful in everything!  Don’t ever let something be “good enough,” when it could be great.

Phase 3 can be a bit overwhelming, so creating a reliable and capable team to delegate tasks to is vital.  Next time we will watch our event come to life as we talk about Event Production and ways to review our event’s success.

As always please let me know your thoughts and if you need more clarification!

Last time we began our discussion on the different phases of event planning.  In Phase 1, you developed your list of event objectives, now it is time to set up the infrastructure so we can put them into action.

Phase 1: CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT– “I want to make an apple pie.”

In Phase 2 we embark on the journey of turning our conceptual ideas into solid action steps:

Phase 2: PROGRAMMING — “What ingredients do I need to make this apple pie?

Develop a preliminary event program: Begin to wrap your mind around how this event actually looks by creating an event schedule from start to finish. This is a first draft, so allow yourself to be free here. Don’t get too wrapped up in getting it right. The purpose of this exercise is to take everything you have learned from Phase 1 and begin to apply it in a practical way.

This is where logistics are welcomed back into the conversation. Start to apply your out-of-the-box ideas in a realistic way without compromising on the innovation. If you find yourself getting too stiff, this is where you pull out all of your sketches from Phase 1 and bring back to life the creativity and excitement that you previously cultivated.

You should walk away from this exercise with a working event schedule, including different logistical elements (speakers, breakouts, breaks, meals, entertainment…etc) and their associated time frames. You should also have a good idea of potential event dates and venue choices.

Assign roles & responsibilities to your team members: Develop a list of clear expectations for each team member so each knows their allotted tasks. Assign tasks based on the strengths of each member and their ability to achieve the best results. For example, the stickler for the rules might make a good “objective enforcer” to make sure decisions are in alignment with event objectives; whereas the daydreamer might make a good event décor designer.

Create team categories to cover each area of the event. These team categories might differ from event to event (and will most likely have sub-categories within them) but some good starting categories might be:  Venue Logistics, A/V Design & Logistics, Marketing & Messaging, Technology & Innovation, Décor & Graphics…etc.  Essentially you must compile the list of ingredients you will need in order to make this event happen.

Create a meeting schedule, assign tasks & set deadlines: Assigning tasks and developing deadlines will ensure everyone is being held accountable to their roles and will limit the threat of oversights.  Rule of thumb:  for a smaller 2- to 3-hour event, starting the planning process  one to two months prior might be adequate time. For a larger half-day or full-day event with multiple speakers and break-out sessions, it makes sense to start planning at least three to four months prior.  Anything larger it is advised you allocate at least six to eight months of planning time to ensure the event is thoughtfully executed.

With this infrastructure in place, you are now ready to proceed into Phase 3, the Creative Logistics Phase.  This is where we start to get into the nitty-gritty details.  As always, contact me for more information or clarification on the phases we just covered!

Contact me by phone: 617-840-5073 or email at anebons@blinkevents.net. Find me on LinkedIn , Facebook or at my website www.blinkevents.net.  

- As posted on the IowaBiz site (http://www.iowabiz.com/2015/12/the-strategy-behind-creating-successful-corporate-social-events.html)

So you’re tasked with planning your company’s annual event and don’t know where to begin? Before we get too far into the specific details that go into planning a successful event, let’s have a high-level discussion on how to approach the general task of event planning. The best approach is to simplify it and break it down into manageable pieces.

In an effort not to overwhelm you, this will be a 4-part series detailing the steps to effectively plan an event. Let’s think of it like making an apple pie.

Phase 1: CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT:  “I want to make an apple pie.”

This is the single most important phase of event planning. This is where creativity comes out and you create your road map for the planning ahead.

First, you must assemble your event team then find a quiet space with a door and large white board and allow your uninhibited ideas to flow. This is not the time to stifle yourself with logistics but rather this is the time to innovate. The point of this meeting is to share ideas and build objectives. Get to the true point and narrow down the: who, what, andwhy. 

Your goal for this meeting is to walk away with three to five clear and concise event objectives as well as a slew of innovative and engaging ideas for how you will achieve those. I cannot stress enough, that this is NOT the time to be reasonable. Allow your brain to dream BIG. You should close this phase of planning with lots of sketches, buzz words and diagrams; (save these, you will need them in phase 2). I should also mention, if you are planning to engage an event planner (out-of-house), you will want to include them at this time so they are privy to your thought processes. They can also be incredible catalysts in helping to brainstorm innovative ideas.

The objectives you create during this phase will drive every decision you make when it comes to planning. Some high-level objectives might be: Creating wider brand awareness; Educating attendees on your company’s core mission and values; Demonstrating leadership in the industry…etc. OR you might choose very specific goals like:  Increasing sales by 10 percent; Signing at least (50) new clients; Recruiting (10) new donors…etc. The more specific you are about your event objectives, the more pointed you can become when you create your messaging.

Below is an example of how I approach this brainstorming phase. Because I come from a design background, this phase for me is often often made up of quick and messy sketches that show ideas in space. I am not creating a specific plan at this point, but rather I am conveying ideas in a generic box to help me understand the components I want to be a part of the event. The key is to make this process your own. I am visual, so sketches work for me. Others might work better with buzz-words or quotes.  Allow the creative you to come out!

NOTE TO THE PLANNER:  If ever you find yourself going down a path that is not in alignment with one of your objectives, it is time to stop and reevaluate which path is right. Building a successful event is a process, so you can allow yourself to reevaluate the objectives you have created if that is what makes sense; but know when it is time to ditch ideas that do not work within the context of the overall purpose of this event.

So that concludes Phase 1, simple right? All you have to do is brainstorm!  Next time we will move into Phase 2: PROGRAMMING: “What ingredients do I need to make this apple pie?” In this phase we turn our ideas into working logistics. We will discuss developing a preliminary event program, assigning roles and responsibilities to team members and assigning tasks and setting deadlines.

How do you begin your event planning now? Visit my blog to learn a little more about the components that make up effective event strategy! As always, feedback is always welcome and encouraged!