4 ELEMENTS OF A GREAT EVENT

Have you ever been to an event that lacked structure?

Worse still, have you been to an event that  lacked awesome leadership? 

I've just had the massive honor of having a conversation with Paul Dunn From B1G1 (and if you don't know what B1G1 is please look it up.) Paul Dunn and I were discussing creating great, impactful events that create a community and also, bring knowledge, learning and understanding to each event. 

What Are The Elements Of A Great Event?

In our discussion we were talking about what are the elements of a great event?

To help me answer this question I reviewed my experience from my leadership of the Speakers Tribe in Victorian. Since December 2017 I've been part of the awesome leadership team. Since then we've managed to grow our numbers from, 15 people to about 40 people consistently turning up at each event. 

In reflection on this and on other communities that I have been part of, I believe that there are four key elements that are imperative to be able to create ongoing lasting events that will continue to deliver value both to the organization that they're there to uphold, and also the community that they're there to support. 

A Successful Event Requires 4 Key Elements

1. A database of engaged people believing in the cause

2. A great structure that is followed at EVERY event 

3. A great leadership team

4. Consistent communication strategy 

A Database Of Engaged People Believing In The Cause

Having a great database of an engaged community that is on board with the cause/vision of the organization or the business. 

Questions to ask yourself:

• Do I have an engaged database of people who are on board with the cause, or your business? 

• Do I have clear vision within my business so that I can easily get people on board with my cause

A Great Structure That Is Followed At EVERY Event 

The event must be structured. An event must have really clear parameters around what happens at each event. So regardless of how you run an event, the event needs to run consistently the same every time that you run it. 

Questions to ask yourself:

• Are my events structured?

  • How do we say hello? 

  • How do we introduce people? 

  • What do people do at the event? 

  • How do we say goodbye? 

  • Is there networking? 

• What do people do? 

• Can I really easily articulate the structure in a simple format? i.e. we do A, then we do B and we do C you, then we'll do D

• Do I implement this structure in every single event so that it's really easy for people to be part of, participate and also feel like they are there for the experience?

Really great structure has to be a part of every single event and that needs to be consistent.

A Great Leadership Team

Every event needs to have a great leadership team. A leadership team made of leaders in the community. Ideally your leadership team will be more than one person, but even if it's just you, your event needs to have great leadership. 

There's nothing worse than being at an event where you're not being led on a journey through an experience. People are crying out for leadership if they’re at an event. They're not there to think for themselves. They put their trust in you to lead them through the experience that you have structured. So, an absolutely phenomenal leadership is a must have.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Who is on my leadership team?

• Are the leaders in my community?

• Do we work together?

• Are we all committed?

Consistent Communication Strategy

There needs to be a really great communication strategy in order to lead people through a nurture phase for the event. The communication strategy needs to include multiple communication channels and consistently deliver value and information with every communication.

Question to ask yourself:

• What is our communication strategy

• How do we nurture people before and after the event? 

• How do we communicate? 

• What do we talk to them about on social media?

• What are we talking to them about on email? 

• Is this consistent and is this a strategy and not an ad hoc, um, and ad hoc methodology?

Create Fantastic, Successful Events

These are the four elements that I know help create fantastic, successful events.

Let’s create amazing events! Events that all want to attend. Amazing events that are going to bring us value. Events that make us feel like we’re part of a community and that we're really there to learn, grow, support and have an even bigger impact.