I overanalyze pretty much everything.  Luckily, my friends support and encourage this habit.  Events – the ones I’m involved with, the ones I attend the ones I hear about – are fun to analyze.

What makes the successful ones successful?  What makes the failures flop?

The simple answer: Successful events change lives.  Failed events were created without a clear, value driven purpose.

 

WHICH EVENT WILL YOU GO TO?

There’s money in events, we all know that.   Unfortunately, money is the driving force behind many events.  Other unique marketing messages and value propositions for events often aren’t the focus point.  Let’s get into the meat of this – which event would YOU want to go to?  Which event would YOU support?

  1. “Hello (your name), I’m holding an event to make money.  Will you be there?  Will you tell your friends?”
  2. “Hello (your name), I’m holding an event to (help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and meet other entrepreneurs / help nonprofits connect with passionate volunteers / help college students find mentors / help local professionals make meaningful connections to grow their businesses and have fun)  you get the idea…

Which is more appealing?

CHANGING LIVES…WITH EVENTS?

No, I’m not talking about earth-shattering, light-shining-down-from-the-sky “life changing” moments.  “Changing Lives” simply means that something in a person’s life changes for the better because they attend your event.  Here are three examples: Your event helped make a connection for them; your event solved a problem for them or your event created an opportunity for them.

Focusing on those 3 criteria when creating events can change the way you think about your events – which will change they way you design your events.  How are you facilitating one or more of those things in EVERY event you create?  What activities are you building into your events to guarantee one (or, go crazy and do all three) will happen for your attendees?

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE INTENTIONS MEETING THE ACTIONS

Just to put it out there: If an event is wildly successful the person or company organizing it should make money.  A lot of well deserved money.  What we’re going to look at is how to make that (money) happen.

YOUR INGREDIENTS:

  1. Honesty & Integrity: This starts with YOU.  Find a purpose for the event.
  2. Clarity & Transparency: Share your purpose with others – if you have a powerful purpose there’s no “sugar coating” needed.
  3. Over-The-Top-Value: Give more than expected before, during AND after the event.

YOUR RESULTS:

  1. Support & Help Designing The Event: Great minds think alike – people that believe in your purpose will believe in your event – and go out of their way to make it happen.
  2. Marketing The Event: People will rally behind a cause and tell their friends verbally, in emails, on social media and more.
  3. Sustained Success:  With the right support, creative help and people marketing your events you can achieve ongoing success AND a great reputation to go along with it.

Remember: Just like beauty, “success is in the eye of the beholder”.  Just because you fill a room with a bunch of people each month or each quarter doesn’t mean they are walking away with value and telling their friends that they love your events.  Create an event with purpose, give attendees something new (and useful) to walk away with and repeat.  You’ll enjoy more success with your events and so will everyone involved.