It’s just after the new year but it’s not too late to start planning for success.
Perhaps you’ve determined creating a new event will help you or your company reach goals set for the new year. With all the work ahead, it’s important to ensure the event you decide to produce
will actually help you meet these overarching goals.
Establish Event Objectives
It’s also important to define objectives of the event, especially if you plan to offer it from year to year. This will allow you to more effectively measure success out of the gate, as well as over time. So you know if the project is working, and what to adjust if not.
What are your event objectives? It could be brand building by creating exposure through good will or other projects; direct business-to-business (B2B) or direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales; education; fundraising; commemoration; celebration; membership sales, or volunteer recruitment. What goals do you want to achieve?
In determining the type of event to create, it’s also important to think about who is the audience, what should attendees do as a result of the event, and are you ready for the type of response that will be created?
Event Example
As an example, a not-for-profit organization created a new event to educate the public about their services. They provide financial assistance and other aid to lower income families unable to pay utility bills, purchase a home, and the like.
So they decided to create an event to highlight tiny house living as the movement offers affordable housing solutions to young families. They anticipated offering at least 15 houses for attendees to view along with vendor booths with exhibitors showing items used in the industry. The event was marketed to everyone in the community. The thinking was, get the word out to as many people as possible as odds are, most people know someone who could benefit from the organization’s services.
The unfortunate part of this example is that in the end, there were only 3 tiny houses to view. Therefore, there was less to see than anticipated and attendees had to wait in long lines to view them. Most attendees left feeling like they overpaid to attend which could leave a negative lasting impact in the mind of attendees about the event and the host organization.
Summary
In summary, many people attended the event but because the organization under-delivered on their promise, the event may have actually hurt the organization in the end.
At ExitZero we’ll help you look through the magnifying glass to determine if creating or even maintaining an ongoing event is the right thing to do. Remember, strategic intention matters! So together we’ll be planning for your ultimate success.
