Years ago, a seasoned event organizer commented on one of my most powerful marketing strategies. In their words, "I've been involved in these events for 40 years, and what Eugene is suggesting is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard."
As with all things, the event organizer above is welcome to their opinion. The irony of their statement is that my "stupidest" suggestion was integrated on the event organizer's next consulting project.
Far too many event organizers make dangerous assumptions based on their personal bias. It's human nature. What that means is that one could run an event for 40 years and not have a clue of what's really going on at their own event. A simple look at post-event survey feedback adds substantial credence to my previous statement.
Please don't get lost in a 40-year haze, like most event organizers. Fortunately, there is hope, if you do the following ...
When at your event, or someone else's event, I encourage you to be exceptionally observant. Put on your marketing detective hat. That means going beyond, just paying attention. It requires you to set your personal bias aside and ask probing questions, just like Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock always digs more in-depth, often to a fault, into what most people consider inconsequential. He would get answers to important questions like, "why do people really attend our event?" or "what's our number one advertising source for ticket sales?" When asked, most event organizers cannot accurately or confidentially answer the last two questions.
Moving forward, please make sure you dig a little deeper and find out what's really going on. There is an excellent chance that you'll discover something extraordinary. And I encourage you to ethically adopt that which you uncover!
Here are some additional articles on planning a successful event:
- The Importance of Market Research in Planning Your Event
- An Extremely Dangerous Event Planning Mistake
- Your Event Promotion and Marketing Strategy - Start Point
- Event Planning: The Customer Avatar and Your Event
- Two Amazingly Powerful Event Survey Questions
- A Killer Social Media Promotion Strategy for Your Event