Your First or Next Event is on The Horizon, Now What?

Strategic Intention Matters

So you’ve decided to move forward with planning your first or next event after all, now what? As I will repeatedly say, strategic intention matters.

Define Your Audience

If this event is to grow sales or market share, who is your current customer? What characteristics define them? Where do you find more people like them? How will you reach them? What will be your message?

If your prospective customer is a business that buys machined parts, creating a community event probably isn’t a wise move. Perhaps a showcase for prospective customers showing all the parts you’ve made and the industries that have benefited might be a better investment of time and funds.

Prepare for the Response

In today’s world where time is so precious, there’s nothing worse than going to an event and finding it a waste of time, especially if you paid to travel to attend, or to get in.

If hosting a national sales conference, the event must be fun to fire up the troops. But also make sure to have information available on new products so sales people leave with valuable tools in hand. Also have product experts on hand to explain why the product exists, how you produce it, and other vital information that will aid future sales.

If sponsoring an event, make sure to have employees dressed in clothing that positively reflects on your company and includes your company’s name.

If offering a new community event, make sure to have enough volunteers to move the crowd through the entrance gate and venue, as well as who could answer questions, etc.

What Should Attendees Do as a Result of Attending

When establishing event objectives, it’s important to determine what you want attendees to do as a result of attending. Do you want them to make a purchase, become a member, volunteer, give money, or something else? No matter the desired outcome or profit, be prepared with additional information.

If you want attendees to make purchases, have information about products available along with associated pricing. If you want them to become a member, volunteer, or give money, be sure to offer information about your organization; where they spend their time or money; who will benefit and how; potential tax benefits, and more.

Offer ways to register for more information both in print and electronic formats. Different types of people respond in different ways so it’s important to offer a variety of platforms for attendees to interact with your business. Data is the key to all event success. It’s a missed opportunity if you don’t capture data while you can, you aren’t able to read what someone wrote, or it’s entered incorrectly in your customer tracking software. 

Making a Difference

Hosting a new event can be scary at times. Events are not an inexpensive way to tell your story though virtual events certainly offer more options today.

However, with strategic intention (proper event planning, establishing measurable goals, finding and communicating with the right audience, being prepared for the response you’ve created, and ensuring action items are defined and enabled), you can deliver a successful, fun, and productive event to help you meet your company or personal goals for the new year.

Looking for support to help you plan your event? Connect with me.  Let’s talk about your event vision and goals.  I can provide options to help you take your event ideas take flight!