You’re planning an event. You’ve got a client, a production team, vendors, sponsors and attendees. You’ve got your social media community and even random strangers who are reached by your marketing and PR efforts. You‘ve been networking your ass off. So who are you going to hang out with after it’s all over? Have you thought about that?
Well you should. Every event you produce is another opportunity to build your go-to team and develop your community, both physically and virtually. At every phase of your event’s development – before, during and after production – you can be creating some great and lasting relationships. Ultimately, isn’t this what it’s all about?
Building Your Business Team
Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur, part of a large company, or anything in between, you’ll be working with many individuals who’ll be helping you to make this thing happen – technical crew, designers, caterers, photographers & videographers, furniture rental houses, carpet installers – the list goes on.
These are the people who do the work to turn your idea into a reality. You rely on each and every one of them to show up on time, perform their task and help get the show up and running on schedule. These folks should be good-natured, quick-on-their-feet, and excellent problem solvers. This is your team. Depending on if you play well together or not, you may or may not want to work with them again.
Tips:
- Be thorough, honest and detailed in your communication.
- If circumstances change, make sure to share the necessary information with all of the appropriate people in your team.
- During your working experience, leave room for positive and negative feedback to flow in all directions, between all collaborators. Learn to deliver constructive criticism, even when it’s critical.
- Mistakes will be made by everyone – expect them, and be ready to learn from them.
- Observe who knows best how to roll with the punches. Make them part of your dream team.
Creating an Active and Engaged Community
The people who attend your event or somehow connect to it via social media before, during and/or afterwards are all part of your community. They may be critics or fans, but they are also your future customers, clients and organization members. Don’t talk down to them – no one wishes to have their intelligence insulted.
You might be surprised how many enthusiastic supporters are out there just waiting to hear from you. If they can’t make it to your event in person, tell them about it via your blog. Post pictures and video on your FB and Twitter pages, or via Pinterest or Instagram. Seek out their feedback. Enjoy their praise and learn from their criticism.
Don’t Waste the Opportunity for Face-to-Face Contact
This is one of the most significant aspects of interacting with your guests at a live event. You actually get to shake hands, share some food and drink, and hopefully a laugh or two. All the Skype conferences in the world can’t take the place of getting to meet your online friends in person. And bringing new people into your circle is an equally exciting opportunity for growth and development of your project. Your success is all about the relationships you cultivate.
Remember – the way most people choose someone they want with them on their team is by determining if they can stand spending a significant amount of time with that person. In other words, who do they want to hang out with while they are working? If someone rubbed you the wrong way, I mean, you simply couldn’t stand being around them, would you hire them to work in your company with you? Would you want them for a client? Of course not!
Meeting someone in a social setting, like an event you’ve produced, is a great way to make at least a partial evaluation about whether or not they’d be a good addition to your team, or someone you’d like to collaborate with going forward. Think about that the next time you plan an event, and keep your eyes out for your peeps!
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