On Thursday, May 19, Tasneem Khokha, Managing Director of Growth Play joined LMA-MN over Zoom for “Forging Ahead: Hosting Events in a Post-Pandemic World.” During this program, we explored how to plan events in an ever-evolving world, execute relevant and timely events, and reinforce event best practices that apply in any condition.
When planning an event, it’s important to ask a few key questions prior to getting started, including who is your target market? Understanding important attributes of your target market, such as industry, geography, job function, etc. can assist in making the most of your event for your attendees.
Make it Epic
Once you know your target market, Tasneem spoke about how you can use the framework “Epic” adapted from The Power of Moments by Chip & Dan Heath to elevate your event. The framework includes: 1) Elevate: create events that are unique and memorable that will encourage people to attend; 2) Pride: host an event people feel accomplished attending; 3) Insight: ensure attendees received insightful knowledge from the event; and 4) Connection: empower attendees to nourish their relationships and connections during and after the event.
After giving us checklists for evaluation criteria for creating events and a pre-event planning, Tasneem dove into how to use the Core4 for Prep when planning an event which includes, identifying an objective for the event, what questions do we want to use to spark conversations, what key messages do we want to accomplish and finally what are the next steps post-event.
Don’t Forget to Follow Through
In a fast-paced world, it’s easy for post-event tasks to be neglected, however, post-event follow through can be one of the most valuable interactions to ensure you’re making the most of your event and sealing a new connection or business. Post-event follow through can be as easy as sending a thank you note with a copy of the materials or can be a little more thoughtful by inviting a connection out to coffee.
Also, don’t forget to follow up with no shows—there’s still an opportunity to connect and share your expertise even if the registrant wasn’t able to attend your event.
Finally, make sure you track your follow through efforts to ensure you’re making valuable connections and track your ROI. A win report can be very helpful when evaluating whether an event was successful or not and to help plan future events so you can make sure you’re making the most of your events.
Authored by: McKenna Taylor, LMA Minnesota Programming Director