How to conduct professional events with business benefits?
In one of my previous articles ( How can thematic events help your business? ) I described how holding events can help your business get new customers and reach a new level of development. I would like to continue this topic and tell you how and where you can conduct your own professional events, how to make them effective for all participants, what you need to foresee.
First, let's define and make a small list of what we need to organize our event:
1) the room;
2) The topic of the meeting;
3) Format of the event;
4) Who might be interested;
5) Cost;
')
In our opinion, this is the minimum list of tasks that must be solved before each new event. Let's take a closer look at each item.
Where can I hold events?
It is obvious that not all companies can afford to rent a conference room in modern business centers. But, nevertheless, the room can be found. Here is a list of places where you will be happy to be given a room for a couple of hours for a small fee or even for free.
1) Classrooms in colleges and universities. Most of them will be glad not only to offer you an audience, but also will invite their students to meet you. For these purposes, you should contact the trade union or student council.
2) Coworking and open spaces. These are the places where young professionals most often gather. Interested in your event, they will tell all your friends about it, which will provide a good viral ad.
3) Anti-cafe. It is beneficial for you and them to hold the event in such places. Many of them make announcements about such events in their social networks, which provides additional advertising to you.
4) Conference rooms. Despite the fact that they are quite expensive, there is a way to significantly reduce the fee or even reduce it to zero. If your events are popular enough and they are attended by at least 50 people, then you should think about finding sponsors. These can be companies with related business that can advertise their products or services at your events. Mention them in your lecture or speech, and the sponsors will want to work with you further.
Topic of the meeting.
However easy this point may seem, it is also worth thinking about it for some time. Of course, you can write simply: “We are discussing modern strategies of website promotion in RuNet”, and wait for the users themselves to show interest and register for the event. But this happens very rarely.
I would recommend reading a few articles on how to make headlines that attract the attention of readers. This can significantly affect the public interest in your meetings and provide a full house.
Do not forget to give a brief description of what awaits the participants of your event. It would be better if you also add some photos of lecturers, materials or premises to the meeting annotation.
Event format
From personal experience I can identify several formats of events:
1) Seminar, training or lecture. Often these formats are conducted by small companies telling stories from their personal experience. For a long time they are engaged in, say, promotion in the network and want to find new customers at their events. Sometimes they hold contests right at meetings where they play free services or products. This ensures the interest of the participants and motivates them to attend follow-up events.
2) Conference. This format brings together several companies - professionals in the same industry. They tell about new achievements, arrange open lectures with questions to experts, and give free consultations to the participants of the meeting. Conferences are always present market leaders, whose names are widely known among the participants.
3) Presentation evenings. Here it is possible the presence of both one organizer and several. Very often the organizer invites his colleagues to speak in a related field. They talk about their products and learn the opinions of guests about them. These evenings include meetings where startups present their projects and receive first reviews from potential customers and investors.
4) Networking. The most informal kind of events. Its members come to get to know each other, find business partners, or just have a great time with people with the same interests. At some meetings, the organizers offer participants free drinks and food (for example, pizza).
If I have not named any other format of events, then you can always add an article in the comments. But in my opinion, these 4 are much more common.
Who might be interested in this event?
“It will be interesting for everyone!” - such a statement can be heard from the majority of organizers. But you need to take into account the fact that “everything” will not always come to your events, talk about them online and bring acquaintances. First of all, you need to try to attract customers who need your events. Surely, you have your own customer base and affiliate network. In my opinion, you need to start with them. And let at your first meetings there will be only 10-15 people. They will advertise you to their friends.
I would also like to note that of the 20 guests, one or two people will attend the meeting, and out of 10 who confirmed their participation, only 5-6. Therefore, calculate the size of the premises and everything else based on these figures.
Cost of holding.
Many people who have decided to organize their event, already at the initial stage, are frightened by the cost of its holding. Initially, they lay in her expensive premises, equipment, advertising in social networks and search engines and consumables, not realizing that this could have been avoided.
Do not be afraid to look for partners and sponsors. Call your business colleagues and offer a mutually beneficial partnership. Think about who could be a sponsor of your event in exchange for advertising its products: you can hand out flyers to all participants or advertise them from the stage, and do not forget to indicate them in the description of the event. I think this way you can reduce the cost of the event or even make it free.
In the future, when the number of participants at each event will be at least 50, you can start selling tickets.
As you can see, holding an event may not be so difficult and problematic, if you try to provide some nuances. Now even small companies are starting to hold their events, and this trend will only grow in the future.
Only one question remains: “ When will you start?” "
First, let's define and make a small list of what we need to organize our event:
1) the room;
2) The topic of the meeting;
3) Format of the event;
4) Who might be interested;
5) Cost;
')
In our opinion, this is the minimum list of tasks that must be solved before each new event. Let's take a closer look at each item.
Where can I hold events?
It is obvious that not all companies can afford to rent a conference room in modern business centers. But, nevertheless, the room can be found. Here is a list of places where you will be happy to be given a room for a couple of hours for a small fee or even for free.
1) Classrooms in colleges and universities. Most of them will be glad not only to offer you an audience, but also will invite their students to meet you. For these purposes, you should contact the trade union or student council.
2) Coworking and open spaces. These are the places where young professionals most often gather. Interested in your event, they will tell all your friends about it, which will provide a good viral ad.
3) Anti-cafe. It is beneficial for you and them to hold the event in such places. Many of them make announcements about such events in their social networks, which provides additional advertising to you.
4) Conference rooms. Despite the fact that they are quite expensive, there is a way to significantly reduce the fee or even reduce it to zero. If your events are popular enough and they are attended by at least 50 people, then you should think about finding sponsors. These can be companies with related business that can advertise their products or services at your events. Mention them in your lecture or speech, and the sponsors will want to work with you further.
Topic of the meeting.
However easy this point may seem, it is also worth thinking about it for some time. Of course, you can write simply: “We are discussing modern strategies of website promotion in RuNet”, and wait for the users themselves to show interest and register for the event. But this happens very rarely.
I would recommend reading a few articles on how to make headlines that attract the attention of readers. This can significantly affect the public interest in your meetings and provide a full house.
Do not forget to give a brief description of what awaits the participants of your event. It would be better if you also add some photos of lecturers, materials or premises to the meeting annotation.
Event format
From personal experience I can identify several formats of events:
1) Seminar, training or lecture. Often these formats are conducted by small companies telling stories from their personal experience. For a long time they are engaged in, say, promotion in the network and want to find new customers at their events. Sometimes they hold contests right at meetings where they play free services or products. This ensures the interest of the participants and motivates them to attend follow-up events.
2) Conference. This format brings together several companies - professionals in the same industry. They tell about new achievements, arrange open lectures with questions to experts, and give free consultations to the participants of the meeting. Conferences are always present market leaders, whose names are widely known among the participants.
3) Presentation evenings. Here it is possible the presence of both one organizer and several. Very often the organizer invites his colleagues to speak in a related field. They talk about their products and learn the opinions of guests about them. These evenings include meetings where startups present their projects and receive first reviews from potential customers and investors.
4) Networking. The most informal kind of events. Its members come to get to know each other, find business partners, or just have a great time with people with the same interests. At some meetings, the organizers offer participants free drinks and food (for example, pizza).
If I have not named any other format of events, then you can always add an article in the comments. But in my opinion, these 4 are much more common.
Who might be interested in this event?
“It will be interesting for everyone!” - such a statement can be heard from the majority of organizers. But you need to take into account the fact that “everything” will not always come to your events, talk about them online and bring acquaintances. First of all, you need to try to attract customers who need your events. Surely, you have your own customer base and affiliate network. In my opinion, you need to start with them. And let at your first meetings there will be only 10-15 people. They will advertise you to their friends.
I would also like to note that of the 20 guests, one or two people will attend the meeting, and out of 10 who confirmed their participation, only 5-6. Therefore, calculate the size of the premises and everything else based on these figures.
Cost of holding.
Many people who have decided to organize their event, already at the initial stage, are frightened by the cost of its holding. Initially, they lay in her expensive premises, equipment, advertising in social networks and search engines and consumables, not realizing that this could have been avoided.
Do not be afraid to look for partners and sponsors. Call your business colleagues and offer a mutually beneficial partnership. Think about who could be a sponsor of your event in exchange for advertising its products: you can hand out flyers to all participants or advertise them from the stage, and do not forget to indicate them in the description of the event. I think this way you can reduce the cost of the event or even make it free.
In the future, when the number of participants at each event will be at least 50, you can start selling tickets.
As you can see, holding an event may not be so difficult and problematic, if you try to provide some nuances. Now even small companies are starting to hold their events, and this trend will only grow in the future.
Only one question remains: “ When will you start?” "
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/295326/
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