How To Brand An Event In 5 Easy Ways

brand noun 1. a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name. 2. an identifying mark burned on livestock with a branding iron. A successful brand isn’t just a type of product with a particular name, look, and feel – it’s something that embeds ideas into your brain. So while I doubt you’re a cattle rancher, you’ll want to metaphorically leave your mark on your attendee’s brains. They should feel certain things whenever they think, attend, or talk about your event. And you want this to happen because great branding makes your event successful in the long run. If you want to know how to brand an event, keep reading. Wal*Mart shows that you can make more money simply because you have a powerful brand. Go to a cereal aisle and you’ll see Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. Sitting next to Kellogg’s, you’ll see Great Value frosted flakes. These two cereals offer the same exact thing, however the Kellogg’s cereal is higher priced and more commonly bought. This is true even though the Great Value flakes tastes the same and is cheaper. Great Value sells less simply because they lack the brand! So, how do we not only create a strong brand for events, but create an impression on your attendees? As it turns out, it’s much like creating a company.

  1. Create A Descriptive, Simple Name
Creating a good name can be difficult if you overthink it. At the end of the day what you truly want is just a name that perfectly describes what the event does. The less words, the better. Think of some of the most popular events: Woodstock, Coachella, Burning Man, Live Aid, and Comic-Con. Some of them might describe places, and others describe what they do. But they’re all simple and evocative, and you probably got a good idea of what Comic-Con is about just by the name.
  1. Design A Logo
Designing a logo might seem weird if you’re doing a trade show but it’s super important. Logos are one of the most important parts of branding. In the case of Starbucks and McDonald’s, they don’t even have their name on some of their storesThey know that their logos are immediately recognizable. Logos should be simple and generally 2 colors or less. Even 1 color can work since you’ll be wanting to have swag with your logo on it.  Feel free to do something creative, like with Live Aid’s logo being a guitar of Africa. It was a perfect descriptor of the event with music being used to raise money to help out starving and impoverished Africans.
  1. Create Your Presence
By now, it’s pretty well established that people rarely buy something the first time they’re exposed to a product or a potential event. Even once they’ve bought something, companies still have to use channels to keep customers aware of their product. You probably had a Sierra Mist soda before, but if I asked you to name 3 different sodas, would that one first come to mind? Maybe it would, but probably not. You would likely name Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper. Why? Because they do a ton of advertising. So keep this in mind, you need to have an overall presence. This means having not only a website, but having people talk about your event  on other websites and blogs. Have branded social media pages and even run ads if you are looking to make a huge impression. keep in constant contact with people once they’ve purchased tickets to your event. Once the event is over, continue contact through postings and emails sent out, especially if this is going to be an annual event. The more you keep your event “top of mind”, the more likely you will not only have a lot of return attendees, but a lot of new ones as well.
  1. Tribal Mentality
From the way some people talk about football teams, you’d think that they owned the team! Overheard:”My Cowboys are going to be so good this year, their offense is totally stacked.” You need to make an effort to create this same sort of mark on people attending your event. Make them not only proud to be a part of your event, but also elitist. And I don’t mean elitist in the sense that they’re walking past a poor person and spitting on them, but in the sense that they feel superior for being a part of it. You can do this through VIP tickets if the opportunity is there.
  1. Endorsements
“Hi, I’m Robert Downey Jr. and when I want to make an event, I use Ticketbud.” – Robert Downey Jr. Okay so RDJ doesn’t actually use Ticketbud, but if he talked about it, people would be interested in checking us out. They would look up Ticketbud solely because a popular celebrity (redundant I know) talked about the product. In fact you’ve probably noticed that a lot of advertisements and products today have a celebrity endorsing the product. This works a lot in part with creating the Tribal mentality, as I mentioned before. I’m totally wearing Levi Jeans right now because a cool action hero in a movie wore them once (okay not really but this stuff does influence you!). So, in conclusion, you need to have a simple name and logo that combine to create an impression on your attendee. This leads to creating your presence both online and in the real world while continually pushing to make your brand known. You can also easily do this with celebrity appearances and endorsements which will help further your event’s appeal.Finally, you need to create a sense of togetherness for your event to help boost numbers and create a following which will help bring in additional attendees down the road.]]]]> ]]>

Best Damn Tailgating Guide

tailgate Theme A theme for your tailgating party may seem unnecessary but it makes the rest of the planning easier. Your event appears cohesive and gives the impression that you spent weeks planning it. Most tailgates have pretty self explanatory themes. You want to go all out for your team and drench everything in the colors that matter. So if your’e a University of Texas fan then burnt orange and white would work here. To truly make your tailgate a masterpiece, go one step further and ask yourself what type of party you want to have. Are you more a “quick-grilling, hotdog-eating, beer-in-a-can out of the cooler” type of tailgater? Or are you a “crock-pot bringing, themed cocktail making” type of tailgater? Knowing this allows you to put together food, drinks and all the essentials. (But of course, don’t forget the team colors!) Food [caption id="" align="alignright" width="318"] Mmm, hot dogs.[/caption] Mmm, hot dogs. It should surprise no one that food is high on the list of important needs at a tailgate. Some might say it is the most important thing and they wouldn’t be wrong. Good food makes any social event and this is no exception. Keeping your theme in mind, put together a few sure-fire food options that will appeal to everyone. Know how much time and effort you’ll have to spend during the tailgate. Don’t feel like spending a lot of time cooking while you’re there? No problem! Crock-pots are a god send and its easy to put together some quick dishes before hand that will travel well. If you decide nothing beats the fresh, smokey taste of meats off the grill (and we can’t blame you!) make sure where you’re going allows for grilling. Also keep track of everything you need to not just start the grill, but also put it out safely. Still not sure what you should do? Too many options to choose from? No problem, we can help you out. Here are a couple sure-fire options for your tailgate:

        Drinks [caption id="" align="alignright" width="316"] For the truly transcendent tailgating refreshment.[/caption] Are you having an all ages event? Or is your tailgating party more a kick-off kegger? Either way, you need to have some kick-ass drinks available for your event. Whether you make your own beer punch (we really like like this one) or toss a couple local brews into the cooler, you should have enough to keep everyone properly hydrated. If you do have a kid-friendly kick-off going on, make sure to keep coolers or drink dispensers separated and easily marked. When the event gets underway, much easier to ensure that what the kids are drinking is actually Kool-Aid. And if you really want to kick it up a notch, you can always go for a sweet bar-in-truck set up.   Cooking/Cleaning supplies While it seems obvious, make sure you have all cooking and cleaning supplies handy as you’re cooking. Inventive tailgaters have come up with a variety of different methods for keeping everything handy and nearby. No one wants to grab a hot dog and some potato salad and not be able to find a napkin or a fork to eat! There are a bunch of ideas for keeping your utensils from being lost from the quick and easy to the elaborately pinterest-y (that counts as an adjective right?) depending on your theme and how much effort you want to put into it. Whichever way you go, make sure you have everything before you set out for the stadium! Music [caption id="attachment_22846" align="alignright" width="182" class=" "]tailgating Pre-made playlist and lacking the [insert your team here] fight song but handy when you need something quick.[/caption]Proper tune-age is essential. You can go the homemade mixtape route like your inner 90’s kid totally wants you to do (admit it) or you can check out iTunes Music or Spotify Playlists and check out the pre-made selection if you’re in need of some music quickly. Tent & Chairs While we don’t get too many rainy days here in Austin (gotta love that perpetual sunshine!), tents are an essential part of your tailgating gear no matter where you’re setting up (we’re sure many of our fans in the less sunny parts of the country would agree). Doesn’t matter if it is hot Texas sun, pouring rain or, god forbid, freezing snow, a tent will save your tailgate from ending before the kick off. Also, be sure you have more options for seating than people you expect to be there. Without a doubt, Jimmy is gonna show up and even though he said he was coming by himself, you know he’s going to end up bringing that girl he just started dating (or who knows, you may make friends while you’re there!) Either way, extra seating ensures that no one is going to have to have the sad seat in the dirt. TV [caption id="" align="alignright" width="273"] These bold fans are really stepping up their TV Tailgate Game.[/caption] There was a time when tailgating was mainly done just as a precursor to a football game. You would go early, wait with your friends and family for the stadium to open and then head on in to watch the game. Nowadays, the parking lot is the end destination for many people heading towards the football stadium. If you’re one of the many heading out to grill and drink and watch the game from the outsides of the stadium, well don’t forget to take your TV. If you’re really ambitious, throw in a second TV so you’ll be able to keep track of all the games going on. Good Friends Of course there is nothing more necessary to a tailgate than having good friends with you. Make sure To get as many people together as you can as tailgating really benefits from the more the merrier proviso. Provided they’re cheering for the right team of course.   So have fun! Go crazy! Make the most kick-ass tailgating event you’ve ever done! Check out our Pinterest board for more tips and tricks on food, drinks and everything in between. And remember when it comes to tailgating and your team, you can never go too far or do too much.]]]]> ]]>

Facebook Events – Read Receipt Apocalypse Now

here and of course, everyone is freaking out over absolutely nothing. I’m just going to do a short post on why this is a great change! I’m instead going to be positive about this change, and I’ll tell you why: remarketing. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="268"] Pls respond :<[/caption] How many times have you gone to a website with the intent to purchase something, but then something else came up and you forgot about it? How often do you not buy something the first time you see a commercial or product placement, but only after seeing it for a couple times? If you really want to appreciate an album, you need to listen to it multiple times. When you see a read receipt for a friend that you invited to an event but they haven’t accepted it (or done anything about it), don’t get discouraged. Instead, view this as an opportunity to reach out to those who may have seen your event but didn’t do anything about it.  Especially for Facebook, where there is so much going on, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. I highly recommend messaging each person (individually! group messages suck) who has a read receipt but took no further action. You may find that they may respond to this and say that they’d love to go, or maybe that they can’t because of a conflict. No matter the answer, at least you got something. And you will most assuredly receive more people to your event because of your simple outreach. After you message a person twice and still have received no response, feel free to write them off – after all, a Facebook “friend” isn’t exactly the same thing as a friend you hang out with all the time. Anyway, that’s all for me – I only wanted to take a look at this new feature from a positive angle rather than one of disgust or confusion.]]]]> ]]>

Virality; The Yawning Effect

The Power of Referral More and more, you see people tuning out ads on Facebook and search engines. Or, they run an adblocker so even the a really well designed advertisement don’t show up for them. This is stuff that virtually all marketers run into everyday. So, how do we circumvent this? We incentivize. 1. Social Shares A. The Contest. This is a super easy one to do and you might have already thought of it since a lot of events have used it to great effect to sell tickets online! Put on a contest for attendees and potential attendees to share the event on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or even LinkedIn depending on the crowd you’re going for. Then you put everyone who shared it into a raffle and then winner(s) then receive prizes such as backstage passes, free passes, or other event-appropriate items. This one works super well simply because people are going to want the free stuff and so will their friends. Give extra “raffle tickets” to people who’ve liked your page. B. The Discount. After attendees have purchased a ticket, encourage them to share their purchase on appropriate social networks for your event. Once they share the site, have them send proof and then give them something like a drink ticket or a small discount off their ticket. This one could be a bit difficult to do and keep track of, but this one may be a bit more enticing to your attendees. 2. Attendee Affiliates This one will also be a bit more tricky but has further potential: offer to compensate attendees who refer other attendees to your event to purchase tickets in the form of either discounts, drink tickets, or again any other event-appropriate items/regalia. While difficult on its own, you could certainly use a software platform such as https://gleam.io/ which is perfect for running contests and getting users to complete actions to gain benefits. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="474"] Source: Gleam.io[/caption] Source: Gleam.io 3. Gamify What’s a better way to draw interest for your event than to make it supremely interactive and exciting for your attendees? After doing some research for helping events keep audience interest, I came across this: http://www.gamifyapp.com/ With the ability to get points for completing tasks, you’re going to have a much more engaged audience. Heck, even getting points for referrals is something that you could easily do and prizes are always appreciated. Source: Quickmobile In conclusion, there’s a lot of ways to really engage a contagious, “viral” effect to draw more attention to your event with very little marketing effort for yourself. Instead, your attendees are the ones who end up pulling the weight, getting their friends, family, and coworkers interested instead. The bigger plus for this is that you’ll have more people and your attendees will be much more excited to check out your event and will be more engaged before, during, and after.    ]]]]> ]]>

You Get What You Pay For

When I began writing for Ticketbud a little less than a year ago (my my, time flies!), we had recently transitioned our pricing model from a fixed fee per event to a per-ticket “service fee”..  It was admittedly not the smoothest transition. Whenever you radically change a pricing model, you’ll always be on the receiving end of some negative feedback. We expected this and took the proactive route in educating our customers why we were making the change. Many understood and continue to get immense value out of our platform. Others used us because of our old pricing model and moved to a solution that fit their needs. Ultimately, we’ve now served more customers than ever before and you want to know the best part? Everyone has been able to get exactly what they wanted out of the platform. I’m going to open up a bit here with what I’ve learned over the past year. I will be as transparent as possible and while there may be some things that aren’t so great, there’s a lot of great things here too. You’ll see a lot of ticketing companies out there claim that fees are absolutely horrible and why? Well, the problem all stems from a particular ticket “master” in the ticketing industry which charged huge, completely unexplained fees and had the gall to make you pay a fee to print your tickets. Naturally, that rubbed everyone the wrong way and as a result, companies that collect revenue via ticket fees are unfairly compared with highway robbers. Here’s the great thing about per-ticket fees:  Event organizers can use the platform for free if they choose to pass on the small per-ticket fee to their attendees. This makes online ticketing MORE cost-effective than before, since now you’re not paying a fixed fee per event. In fact, you’re not being charged anything. Our opinion is that if you’ve done the legwork to produce an exciting event, a small service fee won’t deter attendees from purchasing. So what about companies that brag about having no ticket fees? Well they have to make their money somehow, and they do that through charging you some sort of subscription or fixed price per event. That’s great, but they either end up being too expensive to use (what if your tickets are $5 and you’re expecting 20 people?) or the functionality that they provide at the price is too low for a larger scale event.. Try running a 1000 person Comic Con off of a $25 per event site and you’re bound to run into some issues.  Meanwhile, companies that utilize service charges can scale much more efficiently and more adequately fulfill your needs. As an anecdote, back when Ticketbud  had a fixed price model, we  didn’t offer a customer support line you could call. It just wasn’t cost effective! So yeah, we were cheap – in more ways than one. And it just wasn’t very sustainable either, which is why  we made the transition in the first place. So, long story short, service charges have been unfairly maligned in the ticketing industry. Too often, people focus on the service charges and forget that with them, they can use platforms for free. And if they do choose to accept the service charge, then they’re only charged based off how successful they were. Ultimately it encourages companies such as ours to make YOU, the event organizer, as successful as possible.]]]]> ]]>

Ticketbud Widget Showcase III

One and Two, respectively) I’ve talked about the power of branding with your own widget site, as well as the advantages of utilizing Ticketbud’s event registration to have your site gain more visibility. This time, I’m going to talk a little bit about optimization for your website so that you can rank higher in search engines. One thing I’ll warn against, however, is thinking that there’s only one search engine out there. You need to think about all of them! While it’s super basic and it’s a rough description, search engine algorithms determine how important you site is by the number of links to your site. And if you have an event website, you obviously want people to be able to find it. The first step after creating your event (for example, on Ticketbud) is to put a link to your site IN the description of your event. Once your event is activated, you’ll get a link to your site in your description. Next, you’ll want to post your event to something free like Evvnt , a free event posting service. It will then post your event (including its description) to those event listing sites, basically giving your site a bunch of free links. Pretty nifty, huh? Anyway, let’s look at two recent (awesome) looking event websites that are taking advantage of the equally awesome Ticketbud ticket widget. This ticket widget is super beneficial for event websites, and you’ll quickly see why. At the end of this post, you can see both websites as well as by clicking on the links in each description. 1. Kitchen Bootcamp This Bootcamp won’t have a drill sergeant yelling in your face, but it will have you learning how to bake bread, make cheese, and even homemade soda over the course of a week! The website is very well laid out, with some delicious looking pastries serving as a header (good thing I had lunch by the time I was writing this). The Ticketbud widget, as always, is unassuming and doesn’t look out of place on the site. The ticket name is also pretty funny and keeps with the theme: “Kitchen Magician”. You can check out the entire Bootcamp site here. 2. Keep Ruby Weird Keep Ruby Weird is a conference for Ruby developers located in Austin TX with the name playing off the city’s unofficial motto of “Keep Austin Weird”. And wow, what an awesome website! Given that this conference is for Ruby developers, I can’t say that I’m surprised at how great it looks. Regardless, it’s extremely impressive and in my eyes it’s the coolest site that I’ve seen utilizing the Ticketbud ticket widget yet. You’ll notice that the Ticket Widget even fits in with the color scheme of the website and doesn’t even stand out as an eyesore. Everything about this site beautiful, from the colors to the layout.  You can find their Austin event website in full regalia. And if you’re in Austin and/or are a Ruby Developer, this is one conference you won’t want to miss. P.S.- Does this look cool to you? Use Squarespace with our widget to fulfill your event registration needs! Learn how here.

                                                  GALLERY OF WEBSITE SCREENSHOTS

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Snapchat: Event Organizers Best Friend

Event promotion is tough. There are so many things going on and it takes something awesome to stand out in the crowded social landscape. However, Snapchat is perfectly suited for promoting an event and building an audience. The key is to tap into what makes Snapchat better than all other social media platforms: accessibility and time. (more…)

Influence: Get Exclusive

Do you want to sell more tickets to your event? Do you want higher profit from your tickets? Of course you do! Read on for this special blog post only for Ticketbud blog subscribers… Okay, so this totally isn’t a special blog post just for subscribers, but it made you more interested, right? Right? *Crickets* Exclusivity (and in another name, scarcity) are powerful drivers to humans. Everybody wants to have something rare or something unattainable by the general public to enhance their self worth. One of my favorite books of all time is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini. The six principles of persuasion it describes are so powerful that even United States PSYOP teams read it. One of the six principles in the book is the Principle of Scarcity. Essentially, it boils down to people wanting what they can’t have a lot of. In the book, the principle is demonstrated by an experiment with two jars of identical cookies. One of the jars is filled to the top, the other jar just has a few left. Despite the cookies being from the same package, volunteers reported that the cookies from the nearly empty jar tasted better. SO yeah, “cool story bro, what does that mean for my event” you ask? Well I’m glad you asked, here are several easy ways to increase your ticket sales without having to put in much work. 1. Early Bird Tickets Although this one is very obvious, I often only see bigger events putting out early bird tickets. Anyway, what are early bird tickets anyway? Early bird tickets are a cheaper, but more limited (there we go!) ticket type that encourages people to purchase tickets to their event earlier than they normally would. So if you’re thinking of starting selling tickets two months out from you event, try selling a limited amount of early bird tickets three months out. Early bird tickets have several main advantages and allow you to kill two birds with one stone – see what I did there? With early bird tickets, you not only get a better idea of your audience size and as a result can plan more accordingly in the upcoming months, but you again have that exclusivity factor – the tickets are less expensive, but there are also a fixed amount. In events on Ticketbud that actually do utilize early bird tickets, they almost always sell out. People want to take advantage! 2. VIP Treatment This one is a great one to do, but ONLY if you have the resources necessary to actually make it an awesome experience for those who have purchased a “VIP” ticket. For bands and musicians, VIP tickets are super easy to do – backstage meet and greets and autographs are perfect for people who are huge fans. If you’re doing some sort of art festival, perhaps a VIP ticket might give the attendee access to a private room with some hors d’ouevres and wine and some special art pieces. If it’s a comic convention, a VIP ticket might give attendees access to certain stars or exclusive product before anyone else. It’s really all up to you of course, but when people buy VIP tickets they expect to be treating like VIPs so if you’re just doing a small art festival or intimate concert, it’s probably best to skip these. 3. Fanclubs and Loyalty Discounts Being part of a group that not everyone can enter gives a sense of “cool”. I don’t mean this in a mindset where you exclude people, but rather where you reward attendees for having attended your convention for 10 years or getting someone a free drink since they come to your bar without fail every weekend for the past year. It could be something that people pay for, like how bands have fan clubs that get exclusive content, or it could just be something that attendees get “for free” provided that they’ve been part of your events for a long time. How you determine it is up to you, of course, however finding the most hardcore fans or attendees and rewarding them is always going to look great for you because these are the types of people that will share your gifts to their friends and on websites such as Reddit or Facebook. 4. Wait Lists and Lines This is the most apparent in nightclubs and other dance venues – the line. Here in Austin, we have a barbecue called Franklin’s Barbecue. Let’s go through this whole post and see if anything sticks out to you : it’s only open from Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and it’s famous for having 4+ hour long waits, with people showing up there at 7:00AM to get in line. People there rave about the barbecue and as a result it has a 4.5 star rating on Yelp with 1000 plus 5 star reviews. Now, is Franklin’s good? It is. But is it possible that perhaps, since people have to devote so much time and energy to achieve it plus the actual wait and the limited time, it tastes better than it really is? Think back to when I mentioned those cookies in the jar. Now I’m not here to knock Franklin’s, but I would personally love to see reviews for it if it was open all day and the wait was 20 minutes. So, let’s wrap it up here: people love exclusivity and love to be considered elite, and like to have things that other people don’t have. Sort of paints people in a bad light, but don’t think of it as a negative, think of it as a positive! Otherwise, we wouldn’t have progress. And you, the event organizer, wouldn’t have ways to increase your ticket sales and profit from people wishing to get in on your exclusive action.]]]]> ]]>

Social Media 101: Best Practices for Events

How?”, you may ask. Great question. Each social media platform is different and has a different audience. Knowing your events audience allows you to then figure out where and when your audience is on social media. We’ve put together a handy guide that should help you out as you begin to plan how to market your next event. Social Media 101: Best Practices for Events ]]]]> ]]>

Event Tech Isn't Your Savior

Back To Basics, aka Ignore The Chrome I see a lot of people raving about new developments in event tech, but invariably people stop focusing on actual needs for the event and get more focused on the shiny things, the “chrome” of the event. Heck, even things like WiFi can be forgotten for basics such as check in apps. At Ticketbud, we ran into this several years ago for an event we did checkin for. You can read all about that hectic day here! Tools like conference apps, such as those marketed by Double Dutch, can be legitimately useful when used for the right purpose. And some of these tools are almost required nowadays for purely convenience sake. However, there aren’t a lot of these. The Crutch Isn’t A Banner When you’re looking to wow attendees with the newest digital gif creator while recording it on Periscope, you need to craft a plan around how to implement and what you are aiming to achieve. With great power, comes great responsibility. What do I mean by, the crutch isn’t a banner? You’re not going to have more attendees just because you have an interactive RFID chip. However, there are always exceptions if you know what you’re doing – when Disney began implementing RFID chip wristbands, they had a strategy behind it. They had a plan and they took a deliberate course of action. This Emperor had clothes. Disney’s RFID chip wristbands, known as Magicbands, give visitors complete access to the park. They’re connected to credit cards for seamless purchases (I’m sure parents will love that!) and convenient access to skipping lines. All done with the goal in mind of helping employees serve their guests better. Overall, it creates a personalized experience for the visitor. People already loved Disneyland and this new innovation made the whole experience even more “magical”. But do you really think that Disneyland will increase attendance through this wristband? Perhaps, but they’re a worldwide, well known brand. They also have near-monopoly power in their theme parks. If you’re using event tech as a crutch to grab attendees and you wave your crutch high, you’re going to fall over and hurt yourself. Make it Seamless The best event tech, in my eyes, is the event tech that is seamless with the guest’s experience. They shouldn’t have to go out of their way to take advantage of it. Event Tech should be perfectly integrated with your brand. There shouldn’t be an interruption in the mindset of guests. I remember last Halloween, I was at a bar and Dos Equis had this virtual reality “masquerade” you could watch. But even before I knew of it, I was handed a free token for a Dos Equis beer and a masquerade mask by some women wearing masks, and then invited to take part. This is an experience that sticks out to me almost 9 months later because of how well done and smooth it was. As always, make it focused on the actual human portion and make it interactive. Oculus Rift is really cool, and I’m curious to see how it will play out in events because to me it’s more inherently focused on a single interaction rather than the entire event. We will see, though!]]]]> ]]>

Your Event Needs Customer Service

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” There are several important parts to think of when you’re wanting to optimize the experience of your attendees with customer service. Customer Service. As an event planner, you need to hope for the best but expect the worst. One thing I’ve learned is that Customer Service isn’t just a reactive thing for when crises arise but also a proactive move to ensure attendees are well cared for.  You’ll want to have angles of attack for both types to provide your attendees with a world-class experience that leaves them satisfied and eager to return! Anticipate With Foresight Part of providing top-tier customer service is anticipating the needs of your attendees. Anticipation refers of course to things that you have reasonable foreknowledge of and you can put systems in place to minimize or eliminate the issues, whereas reactive is just that – reacting to the events that take place. If you’re doing an outdoor event and it’s extremely hot, you’ll want to have refreshing items such as misters and places to get water. If you’re inside and it’s particularly cold due to AC, you need to be able to fix that as soon as possible to avoid discomfort. Be prepared for all kinds of weather. Here in Austin, one day it can be sunny and nice and the next day it’s raining and there’s thunder. these aren’t issues if you are running an indoor venue, but indoor presents its own issues such as the aforementioned AC. There also needs to be clear signs for where everyone is going and where your attractions are, as well as ways to stimulate line moving. Be sure that your event is able to work with people who may have disabilities and need wheelchair access. You should spend a lot of time attempting to make everything as simple and systemized as possible, this way you won’t have to be fretting about issues and reacting. React Like Ritz This is where you don’t let a crisis go to waste. What does that mean? It means that if something bad happens, not only do you resolve the issue but you go above and beyond the call of what a normal response might be. The luxury hotel chain, Ritz-Carlton, is the gold standard of customer service and it might as well be known as the Ritz standard for which the hotels are named. One story I recall reading was about a boy that accidentally left his stuffed giraffe at the hotel. When it was returned to the boy by the Ritz-Carlton loss prevention team, included were pictures of it receiving a massage, hanging out on a lawn chair, and being in the driver’s seat of a golf cart! The boy was happy but the parents were probably even more ecstatic. Needless to say, they’re likely to be life-long customers. So when something negative happens, your first thought needs to be on how to change it into a positive experience or at the very least one that shows you care and are willing to do everything you can. Your volunteers and team members should all have the same state of mind here. That being said, you should attempt to keep reactions to a minimum but still be adequately prepared for anything to happen. Other Considerations If you’re using an online ticketing platform, you must ensure that you pick one that has a stellar customer service record. Nothing can be more frustrating than breaking your back to put on a great event only to have it foiled by a poorly designed site that prevents customers from purchasing tickets. If you’re using check in apps, make sure that they work beforehand and have a print-out sheet alongside just in case it isn’t able to handle the influx. One last consideration is to engage with your customers post-event in a helping manner. Lost and founds should be well taken care of and respected. Engaging with your attendees post event, is extremely important since it helps cement positive memories as well as extending the psychological presence of your event in their mind. If you’d like to read about some simple ways to help increase the number of returning attendees to your events, check out our post here.]]]]> ]]>

How To Plan An Event With No Money

We’ve all been there, trying to pull off an event with little or no cashflow.  So we’ve put together a short list of options that may be available that will allow you to plan an event without money. 

  1. Get Sponsorships and Donations
    Let’s face it, it’s pretty difficult to plan even a tea party without spending even a couple dollars. And if you’re looking to do a bigger event, you’re going to inevitably have to spend money somewhere. That’s where sponsorships and donations come in handy! If you’re wanting to be doing a bigger event, sponsorships are a very viable option. Think of your event and the type of crowd going to it, and then think of the kind of products that might appeal to them or the companies that may want to target them, and then contact those same groups for sponsorship opportunities. If you’re doing a smaller event, perhaps look into getting donations from friends or family.
  2. Volunteers
    Free volunteering may sound tricky to you, but if you’re going to be doing an event that requires volunteers, you’ll need to think of some alternative way to compensate them. Alcohol sponsorships can make this a lot easier for you, but of course you’ll need your event to be 21+ and also have it be appropriate for your event.
  3. Venues
    Venues cost money, but does your house? Does the local community center? Perhaps a friend’s place? Look closer to your home, both literally and figuratively. I know of multiple events that have taken place at a local community center and friend’s or relative’s homes and they’ve done extremely well.
  4. Marketing
    Thanks to the internet, you can do marketing for next to nothing. In a lot of cases, the only true investment will be your time! Social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest are all ideal for talking about and marketing your event. If you’d like to know more about how to market your event for specific niches, check out my event marketing post here. Do some target audience planning beforehand as well to make the most out of your time.
  5. Event Websites
    Creating a normal website costs money unless you’re doing a free trial (only 2 weeks) on Squarespace or Wix, but putting your event on a website such as Ticketbud costs absolutely nothing to you. Plus you can sell tickets, do RSVPs, and post your sponsorships (if you have them).
  6. Team Communication and Accounting
    If your team consists of more than one person, you’ll want to have an easy way to communicate with them as well as a way to print out fliers or do spreadsheets to see what you need to do the event. My best recommendation is to use Google Drive. Not only can you do documents and spreadsheets, but your entire group can collaborate on event items. You can even chat inside each document which will further allow you all to stay up-to-date.

So while creating an event without funds may be difficult, it’s certainly not impossible. In addition with Ticketbud’s daily payouts you can quickly generate a new cashflow to grow event.