How to Throw a Kickass Event on a Shoe String Budget

By @EmilyMiethner of @NYCinterns

How to Throw a Kickass Event
On a Shoestring Budget

Presented by

Emily Miethner
Founder, President


What You Will Learn
50+ event planning tips that will help you produce
an awesome event

All the tips include free or cheap services and
strategies for keeping costs low


What We’ll Cover
–  Venue hunting tips
–  Choosing the day of the week to hold your event
–  Differences between Eventbrite, Meetup, Facebook
and protips for use of all three
–  How to approach partners and sponsors
–  Minimizing check-in awkwardness
–  And more


About Me
Founder, President

30+ events for 1,400+ guests


Know Your Goals
–  To build a community
–  To expand your network
–  To promote a product
–  To make a profit
–  To support an organization
–  To help the community
–  To celebrate an achievement


First Things First
–  Location
–  Date
–  Time
–  Name of the event
–  RSVP page


Venue Hunting
–  Don't look for space, offer an opportunity
–  Find a place who's mission aligns with yours
–  See where similar events are hosted
–  Learn about the space’s goals before you reach out


Pick a Day of the Week
–  Monday: Doesn’t leave time for promotion
–  Tuesday: Better, leaves one day for promotion
–  Wednesday: Good for networking events
–  Thursday: Good for more party-like events
–  Friday: Good for party-like events or happy hours
–  Saturday: Good for conferences or social events
–  Sunday: Good for conferences or social events


Where to Post the Event
–  Are you trying to create a community?
–  Is your event one time only?
–  Is the event free or are you trying to make money?
–  Do you mind getting last minute RSVPs?
–  Are you able to take cash at the door?
–  Do you want commitment from attendees?
–  Are events a supplement or your main thing?


Meetup
PROS
–  Get discovered by 9.5 million members
–  Members have profiles
–  Members are alerted about new events

CONS
–  Can only create one ticket price
–  You don’t get attendee email addresses


Meetup
PRO TIPS
–  Gather email addresses when people join the group
by making it a required question
–  Max out your Meetup’s topics
–  Don’t let users email your mailing list (change in settings)
–  Use your welcome message and keep it updated


Eventbrite
PROS
–  Plenty of ticketing options
–  Customizable widgets to advertise your event
–  Discount codes creation and management

CONS
–  No community


Eventbrite
PROTIPS
–  Use their 24 hour phone customer service
–  The countdown widget drives the most sales
–  Create tracking links track sales from different sources
–  Export email addresses into other mailing lists
–  Add news and updates to event page
–  Collect custom information when people buy tickets


Facebook
PROS
–  Acts as a great “in your face” reminder
–  You can easily invite friends without being invasive

CONS
–  People forget to officially RSVP
–  No customization of event page (photos, logos, etc)


Facebook
PROTIPS
–  Adjust the event name to cause a notification
–  Send message reminders
–  Always create a Facebook event as a supplement…
it’s worth it


General Event Page Tips
–  Creative the main RSVP page on your organization’s
website (use Eventbrite widget)
–  Make the RSVP link big, bold, and obvious
–  Keep info minimal on pages directing to main RSVP
–  If your guest list is impressive, show it off


Finding Sponsors & Partners
–  Emphasize what you can offer them
–  Find companies who have done something similar
–  Reach out on multiple platforms (email, Twitter, etc)
–  Announce what you need through social media
–  Under-promise and over-deliver


Pitch Tips
–  The shorter the better
–  Anticipate questions and answer them in your pitch
–  Make your pitch specific to the company you email
–  Write a succinct and explanatory subject line
–  Always try to find a referral to avoid “cold calls”


Promoting Your Event
–  Promote your sponsors and partners
–  #FF speakers and partners
–  Tweet at organization who may retweet to their
community
–  Find other organizations who will tell their members
and offer a discount
–  Use free industry event listing sites like Gary’s Guide
and keep on ongoing list


Speaker Preparation & Care
–  (For panel and networking events)
–  Create a Google Doc one sheet with all information
(your contact, arrival time, sample questions, etc)
–  Send information in the email and link to Google Doc
–  Figure out your email schedule. Don’t send too many,
but don’t let them forget about the event
–  Always have a phone call with them if possible to
create a stronger connection


Check In
–  Make your first impression a great one
–  Have at least two people on the door, one to handle
checkins and one to handle issues
–  Don’t create a bottleneck. Think about the set up of
check in table, name tag tables, etc
–  Using the Eventbrite Entry App is the easiest
–  Smile!


Sample Run of Show
–  6:00 - Set up starts
–  6:30 - Bartenders arrive
–  7:00 - Doors open
–  7:30 - Jenny welcome
–  7:33 - Emily welcome
–  7:35 - Ashley welcome
–  7:37 - Julie welcome


Sample Run of Show (con’t)
–  7:42 - Speaker
–  7:47 - Speaker
–  7:52 - Julie closes
–  7:55 - Mingling starts again
–  8:50 - Start letting people know we're closing up
–  9:00 - DJs turn music off
–  9:00 - Clean up


Post Event
–  Send a follow up email to attendees with photos, blog
entries, etc. Do this within one week if possible
–  Put a link to your site and sponsor shout outs in
captions of event photos on Facebook
–  Create a wrap up report for any partners


Miscellaneous Tips
–  Trader Joe's is great for cheap food, beer, and wine
–  Event drop off rate:
Free = 50% no show, Paid = 25% no show (goes
down the higher the price)
–  You can most likely get away with adding Eventbrite
fees on top of the ticket price


Miscellaneous Tips
–  Are you going to be doing another event soon?
Promote future events at events
–  Photos and videos are worth it. If you have a budget,
this is where you should spend. You will use the
content as marketing for future events
–  Make a shot list for photographers and videographers


Helpful Tools
–  Rapportive – learn about contacts through your email
–  37signals– task management and CRM
–  Hootsuite – social network management
–  Mailchimp – email newsletter creation
–  Google Docs – share word docs, powerpoints, etc


Contact
emily@nycreativeinterns.com
twitter.com/emilymiethner

How to Throw a Kickass Event on a Shoe String Budget

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