7 Things to Get Right When Managing an Event
These are often the event areas that surprise
For small and medium businesses, getting to meet their customers face to face is a luxury in today’s social media world. But when the opportunity presents itself to participate in or sponsor an event, there are several “must dos” that can make the experience rewarding and revenue generating.
Here are 7 of those “must get right” items:
1. Plan, plan and plan again.
There is no substitute for planning an event thoroughly from beginning to end. The plan starts with the company’s objective.
- Ask yourself, does this event support the company’s objectives?
- Is the intended audience for the event the audience for your company?
- Do you have the resources (time, money and people) to make this event a success?
- Are there others, either sponsors or co-sponsors, who would be interested in reaching this same audience?
When you are satisfied with the answers to the strategic questions, then detail every action that is needed to make the event a success. Nothing is too small – from speakers’ notes to food caterer to access to the venue. Start a list of these items early and keep referring to it and updating it each day.
2. Location, location, location.
This step is often overlooked but is very important especially if you are developing an event for just your company. Venues reflect your company’s image.
- Does the college auditorium tell CEOs of small businesses that you are socially responsible or watching your budget?
- Does the hotel room at the Four Season say that your product is “expensive” or that your services will be “first class”? The impression the location gives is first consideration.
- If you are satisfied with the impression, then you can move on to the more mundane considerations such as is the space adequate for trade show booths or tabletop displays?
- Is there adequate space for catering?
- Does the location provide for large group presentations as well as panels and what about small group break out sessions?
Remember, too, that locations carry with them hidden costs and sometimes not so wonderful surprises. Be sure to check security and access for both your set up crews and your attendees.
These are often the areas that surprise:
3. Play-by-play analysis.
If planning is important, then making sure that each person knows exactly what they are responsible for is essential. Like football teams that play positions and review plays, event management teams need to be just as disciplined about what needs to be done and who has the action. Action plans without owners and timelines are doomed to be ineffective.
4. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Today, social media makes it easy to communicate broadly and immediately. That doesn’t always mean that your messages are hitting the right targets. Well before your event create a communications plan that includes traditional media such as email and advertising as well as social media such as posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and X. Make sure that your posts are positioned on the sites and with the people that can get the most views. Your goal with any communication is registration for the event. Remember, you usually need about 50% more registrants than people you expect to attend. For all events there is a 20 to 30% dropout rate. So, signing up 150 people for an event venue that can accommodate 125 is a good rule of thumb.
5. Manage the agenda. Managing the agenda has two major components:
- Managing the content of the event.
The goal of an event is usually to get the word out about your product or service. But the goal of your attendees is to get the most information possible around a topic of interested to them. The hope is that your product and the topic are related. That means that you must carefully manage the agenda and make sure that each item on the agenda addresses the overall goal of the event. The goals that you established in Step #1 are those that you want to keep foremost as you develop a list of presenters, panel members or keynote speakers.
- Managing the delivery of the content.
Event attendees in today’s world expect events to run like Japanese trains – on time. That means that appointing a timekeeper and/or an emcee for the event is important. This ensures that the attendees know what is happening and how long it will take for each speaker or activity.
6. Create a lasting impression.
Like the last sentence in a great speech, you want to ensure that you leave your attendees with a positive impression of your product, your service and the event they just attended. Make sure that in the last few minutes of your event that you reiterate the reasons why your attendees came to this event and make sure you provide a call to action. All great salespeople know that you never leave a client without asking for the order. So, don’t forget to ASK.
7. Follow up aggressively.
You have probably just spent a few thousand dollars and countless man hours on an event to showcase your product or service. You want to make sure that you follow up with each attendee and those that didn’t attend but registered. Your follow up with each is different, but both deserve your contact after the event. This is the important time for you to determine if there is interest in your product or service and to determine if the attendee got the information they needed. This is an important part of the follow up that most event managers fail to solicit. Determining if the event provided the needed information helps you plan for the next event.
Events can be lucrative ways to get your product or service in front of the right buyers or users, but they require attention to detail and planning. And remember the worst thing that you can do when managing an event is to not give yourself or your teams enough time and support to do it right.
You may not get another chance to make a first impression with your potential client.
