Everyone wants to have successful events—well-attended and enjoyable. The single most important factor driving success is having a timeline and sticking to it.
Event promotion drives attendance, and the sooner people can put an event on their calendar, the better. Details help!
Here are some common causes for delays.
Date uncertainty – A key committee member is trying to plan a cruise, and his wife is not sure when she can get away.
Venue vacillation – The event chair has a favorite hotel, but others think it is too far away for most members to drive. The decision is delayed.
Topic turmoil – The committee has narrowed it down to three topics, but can’t make a decision.
Speaker stagnation – The committee chair asked someone to speak, but the speaker is not sure of her schedule.
Although these are all valid reasons for delays, if any one of them occurs, it can cause major problems.
Management will be able to give guidance in terms of how much in advance to promote an event. An event stretching over multiple days might require nine months to a year advance promotion, whereas a single night meeting might require six weeks. Even with a single evening event, if you are attempting to promote it with less than a month’s notice you will see a drop in attendance.
Yes, the “save the date” card is a good thing to do, provided you have the date, of course. But if all you can say is “save the date,” and don’t say where it is or what the topic is, or who the speaker is, it really won’t get you that much traction.
The best thing to do is to set up the timeline and stick to it. When talking with speakers, give them a deadline to respond by; ditto for venue reps. Don’t keep the timeline a secret. Share it with all involved, at every chance, check progress.
