How To Organize A Seminar Or An Event
by Matt Bacak
Seminars and events have always been implemented as a holistic experience to participants. Thus,
organizing an event requires extensive planning and preparation with most work implemented at
least a few months before the actual event. Most of the time, seminars seem to run like clockwork
with all events flowing smoothly according to schedule. In reality however, much groundwork has
been worked on with the purpose of developing the right atmosphere in addition to a beneficial
experience to partipants.
1. Establishing the theme of the event
Each event follows a theme and purpose which will drive the event set-up, the target audiences or
the participants, the guests and the marketing approach. In general, a business event such as an
international conference for a particular industry will appeal to participants conducting
businesses within that industry as well as sponsors who gain mileage out of publicizing their
products during the event.
Apart from that, the theme of the seminar will also determine the type of marketing channels to
be used to for publicity. This also holds true for the seminar marketing team who will need the
event theme to correctly identify target participants and companies to sell the event to.
2. Selecting a venue
Venue selection is highly dependent on the scale of the event. Usually this is determined by the
number of participants, the presence of any guests of honor (such as royalty or politicians) the
activities during the event, or if there are additional floor space required for exhibition purposes.
A typical seminar of about 100 – 200 can be comfortably implemented in a hotel seminar room,
possibly in a theater style setting or classroom setting. However, larger scale events with
participant numbers scaling between 500 – 1000 may require a large hall, ballroom, auditorium
or a convention center.
The location and quality standard of the venue is also important especially if the event involves
the participation of VIPs. With this, a reputable location would be imperative, including good
quality and wide range of seminar facilities available. It is always wise to explore the
possibility of a few venues and examine their location suitability, level of services, ambience,
and costs before coming to a decision.
3. Seminar Marketing and Publicity
Seminar marketing is by far the most critical and often most challenging task in event organizing,
and is often regarded as the most critical factor of an event’s success. This is because the
number of participants turning up for a seminar is highly dependent on the strength of marketing
activities and publicity. Whether or not the event achieves its objective or whether the
organizers will walk home with a profit or loss largely depends on the marketability of the event.
This means that the right marketing strategy and seminar positioning must be adopted in order to
draw adequate event sign-ups.
Most of the time, event organizers who have large budgets will turn to above the line marketing
such as newspaper and magazine advertisements as well as radio and television advertising to
publicize the event. Press releases may also be sent in to major newspapers, in order to create
the awareness of the upcoming event. Additionally, large advertising media banners and posters
can also be purchased to advertise the event in high human traffic areas. When using print
advertising, the specific magazine or newspaper used must have the target audience of your event
as their primary readership base. Also all print media should be copy written with an enticing
approach, highlighting the extensive benefits of participation.
However, if budget is a problem, then below the line marketing may also do wonders. If the
event is industry specific, mass faxing to companies belonging to the industry would be feasible.
Telemarketing is a very effective marketing channel to create awareness within the right
participant group. Additionally, dispatching sales personnel to attend to the requirements of
large participant groups is an ideal and effective strategy. Mass emailing has become one of the
most cost-efficient methods to reach out to large target audiences. This would be really useful
if the event organizer already have an existing database. Otherwise, a list of names can be
rented from database companies to attain the same results.
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