EVENTS LIKE A PROEVENT MEETUP @ ROCKETSPACE

NOVEMBER 2014

WHO AM I?

Olivia June Poole

Director of Community Development at RocketSpace (here)

• Home of 180+ funded technology startups….and more.

• Event Venue, Event Marketing Consulting, Education, and Member Engagement (hint: events!)

Historically:

• 2003 – Started working at professional conference events

• 2006 – Explored the world of nightlife events, and music industry

• 2008 – Campaigned events, out in the world, and hitting the road

• 2010 – Corporate events & enterprise lead gen

• 2013 – Educational events – 500 events, 10 months, no budget

• 2014 – Today!

6 BASIC RULES OF EVENT PLANNING

1. Know your audience

2. Know your goals

3. Know your brand

4. Know your strengths

5. Prioritize like crazy

6. Engage your audience

RULE # 1: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE• Who is your target audience for your product/business/event?

• What is their profession? Level of experience? • What are their activities and interests?• What do they want to learn about?• Or are they more interested in fun? • Where do they hang out? • What other companies/products do they like?• Who do they look up to?• What is their goal in coming to your event? • Ultimately - what problem are you solving for them?

RULE #2: KNOW YOUR GOALS

• What does overall event success look like?

• Brand building – exposure to X # of people

• Growth/lead gen – capture of X # of email addresses

• Revenue – sell X $$ of tickets/sponsorships

• Attendance – X # of people showed up

• Engagement – X# of people tweeted/facebooked/instagramed/played with your app

RULE #3: KNOW YOUR BRAND• Don’t have a brand? Create one.

• Make sure everything you do supports your company’s mission statement and looks and feels like your brand

• Event website design• Event copy• Event logos• Event collateral• Event swag aka premiums • Social media tags• Backdrops • Etc…

RULE #4: KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS & ASK FOR HELP• It’s all about the barter system…

• What can you leverage to get more out of your event? Content? Design? Talent? Your audience?

• Cross promotion

• Co-host with a partner for a greater reach and split costs and responsibilities

• Take advantage of your audience

• No catering budget? Find a new caterer looking for exposure

RULE #5: PRIORITIZE LIKE CRAZY FIRST:

1. Nail down the details for Rules #1-3

2. Write your event description

3. Find a date & time any major keynote speaker is available

4. Post your event registration page (if needed)

5. Book your venue

6. Promotion and marketing!

THEN:

• Fill in speakers and other content details

• Figure out your catering stuff, space design, swag, etc.

RULE #6: ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE • 20 minutes – the average person’s attention span for one

speaker or type of content

• 60 - 90 minutes – the average time someone can sit in a chair without a break

• 50/50 – People attend your event 50% for the content, & 50% for meeting other people at the event

• Help them do BOTH• Don’t forget about social media!

• Connect with a live audience online

RULE #7: SURPRISE AND DELIGHT

ACTIVITY! 1. Why are events important to you?

2. What is the best event you ever went to (or worked on) and why?

3. If you could ask this group for one thing what would it be?

HOW DO YOU PROMOTE YOUR EVENTS?

Depends who your audience is!

But for the most part…

• Email marketing (most effective)

• Partnerships – co-hosts, media partners, etc…

• Event listing websites and newsletters

• Paid social media

• Flyers and signage

• Cold outreach to community leaders of your audience

HOW DO YOU FIND SPEAKERS?• Referrals

• Linkedin

• Twitter

WHAT TOOLS DO YOU USE?

Project Management:

• *Google Spreadsheets* – checklists, forms, calendar/scheduling, databases, revenue, and metrics tracking

• Trello – good for large teams and moving activities through defined stages

• Asana – functional & inexpensive task/project management

Event Registrations:

• Eventbrite.com

• Uniiverse.com

• Splashthat.com

WHAT’S ONE THING ORGANIZERS CAN DO TO MAKE THEIR EVENTS BETTER?

Create magic.

Prioritize the networking portion.

HOW DO YOU KEEP THINGS FRESH?

1. Talk to your customers

2. Go super tactical and break down the details

3. Don’t underestimate repositioning the same content

4. Change up the format, partner, location, etc…

5. Get inspired by your surroundings… and break out of the office walls

TIPS FOR CUTTING COSTS?• Partnerships!

• Leverage your audience – you’ll be surprised how desirable it is for people to get in front of your group

• If you can spend money on only one thing – make it food.

TIPS FOR WHEN YOUR PLAN GETS F*CKED.• It happens & the most important

thing is to not show that you’re stressed about it.

• Venue gets double booked – you can find another place… go unconventional. Airbnb?

• Speaker calls in sick – find a back up… or post pone your date

• Caterer screws up? Pizza.• Nobody is registering? Reposition

your content.

Treat everything like an experiment.

QUESTIONS?

Olivia June Poole

Email:

olivia@rocket-space.com

Twitter:

@oliviajune

Linkedin:

linkedin.com/in/oliviaclement