Being grown up doesn’t make us immune to booboos. It simply means that instead of bumping ourselves into the furniture and having a bruised knee, we slip up by mistaking mistakes at work – and as event planners, this means bruised and battered events that could have gone better.
The best way to avoid these event-related “booboos”, is to know what they are. These are the most common, yet easily avoidable mistakes that event planners make.
Neglecting the importance of the “early birds”
The early birds are your event attendees who were the first to raise their hands and say “YES!” to your invitation. This is where your biggest fans, and most loyal supporters are.
And while many event planners understand this, what they fail often fail to recognise is the power this group of people have to be advocates for their event. Encourage your early birds to tell their friends about your event with special rewards. You may also reward them again when their friends and recommendations sign up for your event as well.
This is a fantastic (and really easy) way to pump up your registration numbers.
Trying to save money by ignoring the “little things”
Depending on where you live, high speed mobile data connections may be commonplace. However, that doesn’t excuse you from being an inconsiderate host and not catering Wi-Fi for them – especially if you’re asking them to download and use an event app (which, by the way, we highly recommend as such apps can dramatically increase audience engage and improve your ROI) during your event.
Think about it. If you invite a friend over to your home after lunch, would you not offer them at least a glass of water while they’re there? (Even if you know they’ve already had a drink before entering your home.)
Be a good host and show your generosity by providing your event attendees the “little things”, such as complimentary Wi-Fi access and refreshments.
Reusing old acts
The goal of every event planner should be to deliver incredible value to your attendees. While this may be easy to do with fresh faces, your most loyal fans will not be so easy to satisfy – mainly because they’ve probably been to previous events, and are looking forward to a new programme this year.
While it may be easy to simply reuse the speakers and entertainers you know received a positive reception – take it a step further and aim to impress everyone with a new programme that’s even better than before.
This way, you’ll win over the hearts of all your event attendees – new and old.
