Share Your Event with the Universe

January 20, 2010

Make this the year when you maximize the value and return on your meeting or event. The biggest mistake I see organizations make is not getting the word out soon enough, and frequently enough, to maximize attention and attendance. Here are six tips to help ensure your event gets noticed – and attended – in 2010:

• Start early. As soon as your date and location are confirmed, start sending out “Save the Date” announcements through newsletters, mailers, blogs, your email signature line, and all other available opportunities. Be creative!

• Maximize use of social media to build interest in your event. If you or your staff aren’t Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter-savvy, find a volunteer or hire a professional who can help.

• Remember the importance of extending your invitation in multiple ways, and multiple times. As you are developing a communication plan, build in a mix of electronic communication and print pieces.

• Invite others to help your event succeed. Encourage speakers, vendors, sponsors, and volunteers to extend invitations to their colleagues and friends. Make this easy by providing text that can be used in an email communication or blog, and better yet, provide a nicely designed electronic invitation that can easily be forwarded. Encourage stakeholders to involve their own networks by offering a special discount they can extend to their colleagues.

• Develop media sponsorships with television, radio and print media whose target audience is similar to yours.

• Remember the power of the personal touch by making time to extend personal invitations to contacts through emails, or better yet, a phone call. Encourage your staff and volunteers to do the same. In the sea of electronic messages we all receive daily, a personal call does get noticed!

I wish you all the best in receiving the greatest possible return on your event investments in 2010. Please feel free to contact me for ideas and inspiration.