A guide for creating great events, whether you're running an event's business, hosting events for fun, or using events as a marketing strategy. This is what I've learned over the past 12 years of working on events.

1. EVENTS
LIKE A PRO
EVENT MEETUP @ ROCKETSPACE
NOVEMBER 2014

2. WHO AM I?
Olivia June Poole
Director of Community Development at RocketSpace (here)
• Home of 180+ funded technology startups….and more.
• Event Venue, Event Marketing Consulting, Education, and Member
Engagement (hint: events!)
Historically:
• 2003 – Started working at professional conference events
• 2006 – Explored the world of nightlife events, and music industry
• 2008 – Campaigned events, out in the world, and hitting the road
• 2010 – Corporate events & enterprise lead gen
• 2013 – Educational events – 500 events, 10 months, no budget
• 2014 – Today!

3. 6 BASIC RULES OF
EVENT PLANNING
1. Know your audience
2. Know your goals
3. Know your brand
4. Know your strengths
5. Prioritize like crazy
6. Engage your audience

4. RULE # 1: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
• Who is your target audience for your product/business/event?
• What is their profession? Level of experience?
• What are their activities and interests?
• What do they want to learn about?
• Or are they more interested in fun?
• Where do they hang out?
• What other companies/products do they like?
• Who do they look up to?
• What is their goal in coming to your event?
• Ultimately - what problem are you solving for them?

5. RULE #2: KNOW YOUR
GOALS
• What does overall event
success look like?
• Brand building – exposure
to X # of people
• Growth/lead gen – capture
of X # of email addresses
• Revenue – sell X $$ of
tickets/sponsorships
• Attendance – X # of people
showed up
• Engagement – X# of
people
tweeted/facebooked/instagr
amed/played with your app

6. RULE #3: KNOW YOUR
BRAND
• Don’t have a brand? Create one.
• Make sure everything you do
supports your company’s mission
statement and looks and feels like
your brand
• Event website design
• Event copy
• Event logos
• Event collateral
• Event swag aka premiums
• Social media tags
• Backdrops
• Etc…

7. RULE #4: KNOW YOUR
STRENGTHS & ASK FOR HELP
• It’s all about the barter system…
• What can you leverage to get more out
of your event? Content? Design?
Talent? Your audience?
• Cross promotion
• Co-host with a partner for a greater
reach and split costs and responsibilities
• Take advantage of your audience
• No catering budget? Find a new caterer
looking for exposure

8. RULE #5: PRIORITIZE
LIKE CRAZY
FIRST:
1. Nail down the details for Rules #1-3
2. Write your event description
3. Find a date & time any major keynote speaker is
available
4. Post your event registration page (if needed)
5. Book your venue
6. Promotion and marketing!
THEN:
• Fill in speakers and other content details
• Figure out your catering stuff, space design,
swag, etc.

9. RULE #6: ENGAGE YOUR
AUDIENCE
• 20 minutes – the average person’s attention span for one
speaker or type of content
• 60 - 90 minutes – the average time someone can sit in a chair
without a break
• 50/50 – People attend your event 50% for the content, &
50% for meeting other people at the event
• Help them do BOTH
• Don’t forget about social media!
• Connect with a live audience online

10. RULE #7: SURPRISE
AND DELIGHT

11. ACTIVITY!
1. Why are events important to you?
2. What is the best event you ever went to
(or worked on) and why?
3. If you could ask this group for one thing
what would it be?

13. HOW DO YOU PROMOTE
YOUR EVENTS?
Depends who your audience is!
But for the most part…
• Email marketing (most effective)
• Partnerships – co-hosts, media
partners, etc…
• Event listing websites and
newsletters
• Paid social media
• Flyers and signage
• Cold outreach to community
leaders of your audience

14. HOW DO YOU FIND
SPEAKERS?
• Referrals
• Linkedin
• Twitter

15. WHAT TOOLS DO YOU
USE?
Project Management:
• *Google Spreadsheets* – checklists, forms,
calendar/scheduling, databases, revenue, and metrics tracking
• Trello – good for large teams and moving activities through
defined stages
• Asana – functional & inexpensive task/project management
Event Registrations:
• Eventbrite.com
• Uniiverse.com
• Splashthat.com

16. WHAT’S ONE THING ORGANIZERS
CAN DO TO MAKE THEIR EVENTS
BETTER?
Create magic.
Prioritize the networking portion.

17. HOW DO YOU KEEP THINGS
FRESH?
1. Talk to your customers
2. Go super tactical and break down the details
3. Don’t underestimate repositioning the same content
4. Change up the format, partner, location, etc…
5. Get inspired by your surroundings… and break out of the
office walls

18. TIPS FOR CUTTING COSTS?
• Partnerships!
• Leverage your audience – you’ll be surprised how
desirable it is for people to get in front of your group
• If you can spend money on only one thing – make it food.

19. TIPS FOR WHEN YOUR
PLAN GETS F*CKED.
• It happens & the most important
thing is to not show that you’re
stressed about it.
• Venue gets double booked – you
can find another place… go
unconventional. Airbnb?
• Speaker calls in sick – find a back
up… or post pone your date
• Caterer screws up? Pizza.
• Nobody is registering? Reposition
your content.
Treat everything like an experiment.

20. QUESTIONS?
Olivia June Poole
Email:
olivia@rocket-space.com
Twitter:
@oliviajune
Linkedin:
linkedin.com/in/oliviaclement