Build it and they will come

NOT!

I’ve learned when it comes to events, people will attend if they want to.

Let’s talk about the hot topic of the last week the Christian Book Expo. They set up this wonderful expo and the readers didn’t come.

WHY?

This is the question every event planner wants to know. We can debate about it for months, but the real deal is, they didn’t want to come. If they knew about it and it sounded interesting enough, they came. If they knew and didn’t want to pay the fee or if didn’t offer what they wanted, they didn’t come. If they didn’t know about it, they couldn’t come. Most people talked about what went wrong with the event.

What advice would you give them to improve the event for the next time?

I’m currently working on my bi-annual online conference, here are a few tips I do.

1. Ask the attendees what they want.
2. Schedule the event at a place they will come to
3. Keep the price reasonable
4. Have presenters the attendees want to see
5. Offer workshops the attendees want to attend.

Your event can only be successful if you have people to attend.

What do you do to plan your events?