After discovering these facts you will neither underestimate nor treat your events with kid’s gloves no matter how small or insignificant you think it may be.
Organizations have often played down their events to mere meetings of stakeholders, shareholders and or sales executives. Consequently, this may have led to scaling down of the impact of their event on guest thereby watering down the main objectives.
Events are a subset of any organization, it reflects in a nutshell organization’s core values, policies and interest. “Show me an event and I will tell you who you are”. Organizations, who use events as a marketing tool or who always interact with a public want to be seen in a specific way and want the public to know them with a specific image.
With our wealth of experience in events management and planning, we do not underestimate any event, no matter how small that event is. This is because we have discovered that every event is a network connecting one or two bridges together. These bridges may become necessities tomorrow, but the important thing is that you are already in the web of things; so you may never be exonerated making you relevant at all times. Give your all in every event; treat it as if the future of your organization depends on it.
You are never a lone ranger, if no one is watching you, your competitors are watching you and studying your game, it’s your choice if you want to remain dorsal or active oozing the best that your industry has to offer. Your weakness is a strong point to your competitors and your strength is what they will try to beat. The objectives of your events must be one that reflects you as the best option in your industry. It should wear relevant aesthetics that suggest corresponding meanings. Colours, themes, logos and event sequences must all represent who you are. These are image forming properties of the event. They last longer in the subconscious of your guest much more than the venues, the food or even the invited icons. According to a biologist John Medina in one of his works Brain rules, people are likely to remember only 10% of the information they hear but “if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retain 65% of the information 3 days later”.
Use your event to tell a compelling story of your brand and what it represents, it’s enough ground to make your guest believe that you are the best. Much more than this is that you can keep that promise which is your brand. Ensure that there is coherence in all graphics design, aesthetics and all collaterals. Colours have been known to affect how people feel about a particular figure. Make sure it aligns with the objectives of the event and then the brand.
Another aspect you should really consider is digital inclusion. Events have now gone digital, in order words, any event without a digital inclusion may just be a plan to fail. People are thinking and living digital, and their life is now on the go. To be on the same page with your audience, think digital, find out ways of transferring or exchanging information with them in a manner they will understand using digital tools and channels. Establish your brand on the digital space so that you can be visible when searched or on demand digitally. Get your brand presence on that social media that is relevant to your industry and successfully build a community that you will constantly engage with, which may stand with you when you need them. Take advantage of live streaming for the events to be viewed by some others in a different location and or those who are not opportune to be at the event location.
In conclusion, set up a feedback mechanism to filter in comments from your community, let them tell you what your brand means to them, how they want to be served better and what they think you are not doing well. All of these is to place your brand in good light, making them feel that you respect their views and comments.
Written by
Mfonabasi Barry
Mfonaabasi Udoh Barry is a PR professional, a communications and social media strategist. He works with DOXA DIGITAL
