Been thinking about how to host an event for your customers? Or to connect with other owners like you? Even if you read the title of this post and thought “I’m not throwing any events!” you’ll want to keep reading.
Not gonna lie: I’m an introvert. If you’re the same way, you know that even the idea of being in big groups makes you feel super tired—much less having to face getting up on stage. So it might surprise you that I’m the one who suggested hosting a live event to my team.
We hadn’t done one since 2019. The COVID pandemic changed everything in terms of how we connected; Zoom webinars replaced being in person. I think a lot of us have gotten comfortable with screen-to-screen interactions. A little too comfortable.
My sister, Annie Iverson, is the queen of parties and other kinds of events. She’s the first person I turned to in order to get the whole thing underway. She loves working in the background and she’s so dang detail oriented! It was a perfect fit. And on this episode of the How to Sell Online podcast, you’ll hear Annie talk about how she and our team got ready to host the Next Level Live event.
Start early.
If you’re going to host a live event with a lot of people, you have to start planning it early. Annie jumped in and was getting everything in motion six months ahead of time. This included finding a venue that would work for at least 300 attendees, talking through what each day would hold, and what we’d need each of those days. We also set an event budget (although we did eventually exceed it—whoops!)
Plan your swag well.
Have you ever been to a conference or event and been handed a bag of swag that’s…well…subpar? We all have, right? We kind of comb through it and either toss or give away the cheap stuff. Heck—sometimes it’s all kinda cheap stuff.
It was our goal to present our guests with high-quality swag. Each received a gorgeous event t-shirt, a really nice insulated water bottle, a notebook, pen and workbook to use during the event itself, and a couple of big surprises you’ll want to listen to the podcast to learn about. We heard a LOT about how great the swag we handed out really was. So when you’re planning your event, think about what kinds of items would be helpful to your guests during and after their time with you.
Find a way to reach every attendee (even the introverts).
You probably know people who thrive at hosted events and others that would rather just stay in their room and watch TV. So how do you get those “please let me stream Netflix” folks mingling with everyone else—and put them at ease?
At this event, we chose to host what we called “Day Zero.” Annie hit it out of the park with refreshments. The banners were beautiful and room flow was perfect. The rest of the team was out there mixing with everyone to ensure every person there had a great time. We also gave everybody a purpose to move around the room: very cool pins for their lanyards. That might not be the right thing for your event, but think of ways that you could get your guests engaging with each other from the get-go.
Choose the right speakers to keep people interested.
Most conferences have multiple speakers. It’s important that when you put your event together, you consider a few things. Like what your attendees are interested in, what will help them, and who the best speakers are to deliver the information. It’s also a good idea to have someone deliver a dose of inspiration, like a keynote speaker.
At Next Level Live, speakers were very carefully selected to maximize actions attendees could take right then to move their business forward. While we definitely had a few doses of inspiration, the “how-tos” were a big hit with guests. At the end of the first full day, tables were set up with a coach/speaker at each one to allow guests to ask questions and get even more information. Two big thumbs up!
Know that not everything will go as planned.
When you host an event (and you should!) not even someone like Annie Iverson can plan for everything. Listen to the podcast episode to find out the not-so-awesome things that happened during the event, one of which was thanks to Mother Nature herself. The takeaway, though, was that we made it through. Our guests still had a great time, and Annie and the team made it something for us all to remember.
