How to make your events, event-full
Having been both the organiser and attendee of more events than I can count throughout my career, I’ve picked up a thing or two about what makes a good event – and what doesn’t!
There are lots of things that can affect how successful an event is, and ultimately what one person or organisation defines as a success is likely to be very different to another. Before cracking on with any event, there must be a clear aim and reason. Is it to raise profile, to reward clients or staff, to attract new business, to forge new collaborative relationships or to communicate a message to a target audience? Very few of us have spare budget or resources to have the luxury of hosting an event, just because.
Allocating a budget, and a tone to the occasion, plus thinking of how you’ll integrate on and offline communications both pre, during and post event, is all essential in the planning stages.
I’ve had the pleasure of being involved in several events recently for clients – all very different in their aims, look and feel-but all were great occasions that hit the brief straight on!
From an inaugural panel event that was in collaboration with the BBC, to stalls at community festivals, to an awards and graduation event for students – these events have all been a joy to be part of and develop. Following one of the events, my favourite piece of feedback from an attendee said:
“It was such a well organised, glamourous and professional evening, and you made us feel like we were at the BAFTAs!”
From my experience, it’s often the little things that can make the big impact.
Here’s my top 5 tips:
1) Think about the photography
If you are using a professional photographer, make sure they are provided with a brief that explains everything about the event, the tone of the imagery, where the pictures will be used, a checklist of what to get, and what to avoid. Also asking for small and large versions of the photos will help distributing across the various comms channels.
Even if you’re not using a professional, remembering to take some good photos throughout the event is a must!
2) Brand it up
Events are a great opportunity to bring life to a brand. Whether it’s with branded popcorn holders, photoboards, t-shirts, light letters, giveaways, photography or video content.
No one wants an event to look like a brand’s thrown up over it, but some well-placed, integrated branding that attendees engage with in an authentic, real way is a positive reflection on the brand.
3) Connecting on social
Pre-event, social media is a great way to promote the event to potential attendees as well as showcasing those involved. During the event, assigning staff to look after the social accounts and preparing a social media plan that takes into consideration the platforms being used, the content that will be used throughout the night, accounts to link into and a timeframe of activity will help massively. Although I wouldn’t suggest scheduling much content, as we all know event timings can change significantly, having an idea of content that can be copied and pasted when ready to go, will save time and errors during the night. Also assigning an agreed hashtag/s will make it easier for you and your attendees to engage throughout the event.
4) House keeping
Make sure you share details of parking, accessibility, agendas before the event. If you want people to engage on social – make sure there’s good internet access, if you say there’s going to be refreshments, make sure there is, and check out the toilets! No one wants to go to the loo and there isn’t any toilet roll! These may seem obvious, but I’ve been to many events that have got even the basics wrong.
5) Follow up
After the event, make sure you follow up, sharing images of the event, a blog post on the occasion, feedback, and reply to comments. A lot of time and effort is often put into events and making the most of them to generate profile, increase revenue or develop relationships should always be the end goal.