An email from Peep Laja breaks down the common mistakes organizers make when running events. And many of them were on point. James shares what they are in this quick tip.
James Schramko here and I want to share with you an extract from an email that someone forwarded me from Peep Laja. He’s from ConversionXL. He’s an awesome marketer, very good at conversions, but he’s having a rant about events.
He says, food, is there food at these events? There isn’t always. Is it a crappy, triangular white bread sandwich that clearly costs $1 or less? Drinks, is there coffee available all day long or is it only out during the breaks? Is there water or other kinds of beverages? What happens after the sessions are over at 5pm? The amount of events that don’t organize fun is ridiculous. I just can’t wrap my head around this. Maybe there’s a one-hour happy hour. People just leave and go and walk alone or retreat to their hotel room.
The best events understand the real event starts at 5 pm. It’s just about bringing the community together and facilitating conversation. That’s what events are for. You can build a great relationship on top of a 30-minute conversation with someone at a conference. People feel vulnerable at events, they’re more open, accessible to forging relationships. And that’s the perfect setup for building a strong network of people you can reach out for advice, knowledge-sharing opportunities. And it goes on about speakers.
But he said 80% of a conference is about who else is there. In addition to that, it has to have amazing food, all-day-long coffee, and importantly, lots of time for making connections. He says here, and I like this the most because I’m in this phase of spending a lot of money right now on my own event. Events are extremely expensive. The venues, the hotels, know how to charge money. Boy, they do. They nickel and dime you for everything. Every little move is an additional 10K. The catering costs, don’t even get me started on the internet. I mean, I spend like $12,000 just on staging. The video crew’s like $10,000. The hotel is like $50,000. I’m paying for three-course meal and drinks for 120 people at SuperFastBusiness Live.
If you want to connect with me and this amazing community we’ve built, and come to an event unlike any other event in Australia, get to SuperFastBusiness Live in March, in Sydney because just like Peep says it’s a great usability experience and I’d love to welcome you to my event. Details at SuperFastBusiness.com/live.
*Update: SuperFastBusiness Live 2020 is sold out.
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