TYPICAL MISTAKES WHEN PLANNING AN EVENT CALENDAR

Being effective at the event is vital, however, planning the event calendar may play a significant role in further outcome.  In this article, being an event organizer with extensive experience I would like to share with you the most common mistakes in planning. As a result, I believe it may help you to avoid them and create the most efficient event calendar for your company. 

Mistake №1. To overload a calendar with the events.

Many companies mistakenly believe that the more events the better. In fact, practice shows that only 2-3 events out of a hundred can be really effective for a company depending on its business goals. Moreover, adding dozens of events to your calendar inflates the budget. At the end of the day, a huge amount of money is spent and the goals are not achieved. 

ADVICE: try to choose only those events which may bring you a desired result, do not try to fit in your budget as many events as it is possible.

Mistake №2. To orient to reviews of people from another field. 

It occurs that some businessmen choose  events based on recommendations of their friends, acquaintances or partners. Unfortunately, quite often the reality does not meet their expectations. It doesn't mean their friends are giving bad advice; there can be a bunch of reasons for this. For instance, one can work in b2c business and achieve tremendous results at open-door expo while his partner or friend who works in b2b will not get a single lead from the same event just because the concept of the exhibition is not suitable for his business.

ADVICE: I do not encourage you not to listen to the advice of your friends, but I want to pay your attention that it is crucial to analyse why the event was or was not effective for your friend and only then make a decision based on your own business goals.

Mistake №3. To pay extra attention to big names. 

Sometimes companies choose events only because of majors’ participation (Gazprom, Shell, Total, bp, etc). Nevertheless, it is important to comprehend whether it can bring potential outcomes for your business. For example, sometimes local end users are more willing to come to an agreement in a short period of time while big players are obliged to follow tons of bureaucratic issues. Thus, to get a quick return of investment it is better to concentrate on local players in the list. 

ADVICE: check the list of participants properly and pay attention to smaller end users to get rapid results.

Mistake №4. Not to check the list of participants at all. 

As I’ve mentioned above, when you determine your aims and your target audience, it is crucial to examine lists of participants before registration to an event. Do not rely on a word of an organisers, scrutinise the lists and then make a decision.

ADVICE: do not hesitate to ask event organizers to provide you with participants’ list in case they didn’t offer it themselves. If the event is still far away and it is not possible for organisers to perform a complete list, ask for previous years data to assess the audience of an event in general.

Mistake №5. To send wrong people to an event. 

Companies often nominate sales managers as representatives at events, believing that it will bring more benefit. However, occasionally potential clients may ask for specific technical information which is accessible only for technical specialists. As a result, a sales manager may not handle an objection and lose the potential client. On the other hand, sending the delegation of technicians may not work quite well too as they are not able to pitch a client and close a deal.

ADVICE: create a well-balanced delegation consisting of sales or marketing managers and technical specialists. If there are a lot of decision makers from potential clients on the board, it is better to consider your decision maker to join the delegation as it may speed up the process of negotiations.

Making №6. To measure potential effectiveness of an event by number of participants. 

It is a delusion to think that the more participants the better. For example, if 1000 people are gathered at an event, this does not guarantee you fruitful participation. It is much more difficult to search for a client in a vast number of participants when at the same time it is easier to navigate among hundreds of people. Again, examine the participants' lists properly and try to count the number and percentage of potential clients.

ADVICE: do not focus on quantity but pay attention to quality of the audience. Sometimes it is better to join smaller events with 50 potential clients on the board rather than to try finding the same number of prospective partners at a huge expo.

To sum up, it is important to highlight that there is no matter to chase the number of events or participants. If you correctly assess your abilities and goals, organize your event calendar avoiding mistakes, assemble the right team and work at the event as productively as you can, then you will definitely reach your target.