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 Discuss
–  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
–  Answers to your specific questions


About Me
Founder, President

Largest Meetup for Interns
and Recent Grads in the Country


What is Your Goal?
–  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
–  Landing 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


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
–  Max out your Meetup’s topics
–  Don’t let users email your mailing list
–  Use your welcome message and keep it updated


Eventbrite
PROS
–  Plenty of ticketing options
–  Customizable widgets
–  Discount codes

CONS
–  No community
–  High ticket fee on expensive tickets


Eventbrite
PROTIPS
–  Use their 24 hour phone customer service
–  The countdown widget drives the most sales
–  Create tracking links
–  Export email addresses
–  Add news and updates to event page
–  Collect custom information


Facebook
PROS
–  Acts as a great reminder
–  Can easily invite friends

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


Facebook
PROTIPS
–  Update the title to cause a notification
–  Send message reminders
–  Always create one…it’s worth it


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 company specific
–  Write a to the point subject line
–  Try to make it a “warm” pitch if possible with a referral


Promoting Your Event
–  Promote your sponsors and partners
–  #FF speakers and partners
–  Be gracious with your social posts
–  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


Check In
–  Make your first impression a great one
–  Have at least two people on the door
–  Plan the set up of check in table, name tag tables, etc
–  Eventbrite Entry App is the best way to check in
–  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 links and thank yous in captions on FB photos
–  Create a wrap up report for any partners


Miscellaneous Tips
–  Trader Joe's is great for cheap food, beer, and wine
–  Free = 50% no show, Paid = 25% no show (goes
down the higher the price)
–  Add 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. Think of it as
marketing for future events
–  Make a shot list for photographers and videographers


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


Other Event Tools
–  Ticket Leap – ticket sales option, lower fee
–  Splashthat – event page management
–  Hashtracking – track hashtags
–  YappBox – make a custom event app
–  Square – collect payments at the door


Contact
emily@nycreativeinterns.com
twitter.com/emilymiethner

How to Throw a Kickass Event on a Shoe String Budget

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