Know Your Audience
By putting yourself in your attendee’s shoes, you’ll not only be able to anticipate their needs, you’ll be able to strategically plan their journey through your event so they see / do and feel the things you want them to.
Would you ever plan a seated dinner for a 2 year old birthday party? What about a tea party for IT executives?
Sure, these are extreme examples that planners like you obviously would never consider, but I’m surprised at how often we forget to pause and get into the minds and hearts of the people who we’re planning for.
This makes the difference between connecting with your audience and missing the mark, wasting your precious planning time and budget.
What is a Target Audience?
A target audience is the demographic of people most likely to be interested in a your product, service, content, or event. If you work for a wedding planner and are hosting a promotional event to make your company’s flair known to the surrounding area, your target audience will likely be as simple as men and women in their late twenties and early thirties.
Below are some questions if you’re struggling to determine your target audience, or helping a client identify them:
What age is your target demographic?
What region are they from?
What are they passionate about?
There are many more questions, but these three apply to any demographic.
Plan their journey
When thinking through how you’re going to allocate space planning for your event, many of us immediately think tactics rather than strategy. We slot programming in where it fits our diagrams best, without pausing to consider the flow of how an attendee will move through the day.
When you begin by thinking through the attendee journey, you may do a bit more legwork upfront, but ultimately it will pay off because they will be drawn to the things you want them to see and do rather than passively navigating through the space and potentially missing specific areas you’ve planned.
Plan meals strategically so attendees have to walk through a demo or sponsor area you want them to see in order to get food
Consider lines - what spaces will end up having the most traffic - if there will be people waiting in line, what can you offer to capture their attention or offer them some delight while they’re captive?
Consider the arrival - how are attendees arriving at your event? Think through navigation issues that could occur if, say, there’ snot a clear ride-share drop off location, or if guests tend to get dropped off at the wrong entrance to your event.
Attendees show up when they want to show up:
One thing that always fascinates me is how different types of attendees tend to have specific qualities including how early or late they arrive at an event.
Our developer audiences tend to arrive hours before a keynote and will line up outside the venue waiting to get a prime seat. However, our corporate audiences tend to show up just 5 minutes before keynote starts. And I’ll never forget, when I used to plan EDU events, our teachers would arrive even before the published time on the agenda!
For the early birds who will line up outside your conference in droves, consider thinking ahead and investing in coffee and donut carts! Not only will you please these devoted fans of your brand, but it’s probably cheaper than serving the venue’s food and this will help your buffets from getting hit hard all at once when doors open.
When you know attendees tend to show up late, plan buffer time into your agenda, so you can let keynote start late and run a bit long without throwing off the rest of your day’s schedule. Also message that reserved seats will be released 15 minutes prior to the event to make sure people get there in time for you to fill your room or backfill any reserved sections.
If you know you’ll have guests who arrive before doors open, tell your caterer they need to be set a full hour early and/or have a clear location at your venue or off property to usher these early guests to wait until the appropriate time.
The Power Of Knowing Your Audience
By putting yourself in your attendee’s shoes, you’ll not only be able to anticipate their needs, you’ll be able to strategically plan their journey through your event so they see / do and feel the things you want them to.
It’s a win/win!
Planning a theme
Themes aren’t always needed for events. But if your event does warrant a theme, it’s important that it resonates with the kind folks you’re catering to.
Themes aren’t always needed for events. But if your event does warrant a theme, it’s important that it resonates with the kind folks you’re catering to.
Some events don’t require a theme, but have an inherent one.
For example, I’ve planned cybersecurity summits and political events that in and of themselves are the theme. Try to be clever about a theme without over-doing it. Here area few examples:
When you think cybersecurity, the last thing you want to do is instill fear in attendees.
They’re already terrified about hackers, so steer clear from icons like locks, bars, and other things that will make attendees want to close down
Instead, consider the opposite: what things instill comfort and security?
I selected a clear, open venue with lots of light rather than a dark conference center so attendees would feel different at my conference than standard dark security summits.
I’ve planned political debates, conventions and galas.
One thing that brings people together more than overt political themes, red/white/blue stripes and stars, is the people and place themselves.
If I had a debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I focused on the local flavors, bringing in elements of the city to my event and featuring local specialties and vendors.
When you have to come up with a theme
Other times, a theme isn’t as obvious and you as a planner are tasked with developing a theme. How do you create one that won’t feel cheesy or outdated? Here are a few ideas.
Consider seasons
They aren’t offensive, and you can use local, seasonal ingredients, florals and materials that will inspire memories in people.
Everyone can relate to a season, so if you’re hosting an event in the spring, play up the theme of rebirth and greenery. In the winter, focus on things that make people feel cozy and grateful since it’s a season of giving.
Go Retro
Similar to seasons, people love nostalgia. I find retro themes are often popular ways to get people to naturally reminisce and bond with each other.
Plus, it’s really fun to plan everything from the fonts on your signage to the food and beverages you’re serving around a certain era, be it the Gatsby 20’s, Madmen 50’s or hippie 60s. And there’s nothing like an 80’s cover band to get your guests on the dance floor!
Look At Current Events
Another great theme for an event, especially if you need to theme the content, is around whatever’s in the zeitgeist. Take cybersecurity, or women’s initiatives, or sustainability.
Execution:
Here are a few additional tips to execute on the above themes
If focusing on an important theme that’s in the zeitgeist like sustainability, make sure you talk the talk.
Source local, sustainably farmed foods and use local brewers and wineries for your catering.
Use compostables and even consider partnering with an eco-friendly or LEEd certified venue.
Take inspiration from the seasons when hosting a dinner party.
For fall dinners, I love using leaves, buckeyes, and other found organics like persimmons, squash and gourds to decorate.
I also use organics as place settings - etching people’s names into pumpkins or persimmons.
You can also serve your first course in a hollowed out pumpkin shell to make a beautiful, festive presentation on your table.
I once hosted a retro pool party-themed reception that was hugely popular.
We hired synchronized swimmers, planted pink flamingos around the pool, and left 60’s style sunglasses on the high boy tables for guests to wear.
No matter what you do, make sure your theme is on-point.
You’d never want a theme that could offend any of your attendees or one that promotes stereotypes. Have any great theme ideas you’ve used recently? I’d love to hear!
Pro Tips for Planning Women's Events
Women need events where they can access role models, support one another, and hear success stories specific to women.
"We are linked not ranked." - Gloria Steinem
Hosting women’s events helps companies retain female employees, acquire new talent, make new business connections, and increase female employee morale and career development.
Making Equality The New Normal
Women need events where they can access role models, support one another, and hear success stories specific to women. There are many things we can do to make events more women-friendly in addition to hosting women-focused conferences:
Consider setting a goal to have 50% speakers and 50% of your attendees be female
Consider the marketing and graphics you’re using on your event site. Is there good diversity and inclusion represented?
Consider offering travel grants or subsidized tickets to under-represented groups like women to encourage them to attend.
A great way to create a baseline of diversity within your event is by adding questions to your event registration form. Take into account cultural sensitives and labor law based on your the location of your event. Doing so will help you capture needed information.
How do you plan a women’s only event properly?
There is a lot of debate around whether women-only events perpetuate segregation or benefit females. Personally, I feel the offer a valuable experience for attendees to safely share and connect with others like them, make career connections, get inspired, and speak openly.
When planning women’s only events, you should consider whether you are making the event exclusive to women, or women-centric, allowing males allies to attend (and hopefully learn how to support women).
Ask yourself questions around what the goals of your event are which will help guide you to a decision. Some other best practices around hosting women’s events are listed below:
Add a mother’s room so that nursing mother’s can attend your conference.
Consider the hours of your conference and adjust them to accommodate pick up / drop off times for parents and/or offer childcare or a childcare stipend.
Offer pronoun stickers she/her, he/him, they/them, ze/hir, and blank field for people to self-identify.
Choose your colors and vendors mindfully
For a women leadership summit I planned, we were careful to select all women-owned businesses as our vendors and were also mindful not to lean into gendered stereotypes (like focusing on shopping, manicures, and pink/purple).
We featured women-owned businesses in a market place where we served up confections, coffee and healthy treats throughout the day.
Our production agency, videographer and photographer were all female and our female musicians even complimented us that we’d hired female sound technicians!
Without leaning into stereotypes, we featured content relevant to women like a VR experience that featured women in different industries including America Ferrera and other inspiring and diverse females.
We created networking activities like postcards featuring work by female artists that attendees could post around the room with inspiring messages, or mail to someone (postage and adorable mailbox provided by us)