You have been diligent in your planning, you have chosen an outstanding venue, you sent out all the right information and you have the right tools for the job. Now that it is event day, there are still some things you need to do.
It doesn’t matter if your attendees have paid for the privilege of coming to hear you speak or if you have planned a free event, you still need to ensure that you have pulled out all the stops.
Don’t fall down here, make sure you keep up the diligence right through to when the last person leaves the room. The below 10 tips could be considered fairly obvious, but I never assume anything. There is always someone who will have that ‘Aha’ moment.
- Arrive a few hours early
- Test the equipment make sure everything works
- Check the seating arrangements, if they need to be changed get onto it immediately
- Ensure the venue has supplied everything they said they would, follow up with them if they haven’t
- Do a safety check, find out where the amenities are, where are the exits, find out where fire evacuation points are
- Have you brought all support materials with you, double check that you have enough for every attendee (you would have done this before leaving the office, right?)
- Set up your registration table, make sure everything is laid out neatly. If you are asking people to leave their business cards, have an attractive bowl for them to leave them in (this also comes in handy if you are drawing a door prize)
- If you have ordered catering make sure everything is set up as you wanted, tea / coffee on arrival etc, double check that the venue has the timing right for any breaks you may be having. Don’t have food served in the room, nothing is more distracting than the smell of food and coffee in the room, instantly you have lost your attendees attention. Ensure a separate room has been organised
- Make sure you include time out for your attendees, give them the opportunity to get up and move around if your event is more than 1.5 hours. We have all suffered a ‘numb bum‘ as a result of not being able to move at presentations
- Follow up with your attendees after the event, find out what you could do better for your next one