14 Event Marketing Strategy Questions You NEED to Ask Early

I mentioned in an earlier article how the Gas Can event on June 24, 2016 was “half empty” at best. After the event, I posted on Facebook about how difficult it is, once you’ve produced events, to sit in the audience and not re-produce an event with major production problems.

While writing an article poking holes in the Gas Can program would be easy, however, it wouldn’t have much value for you.

Instead, how about a list of 14 event marketing strategy questions you can use the next time you or your organization plan an event? It’s one way of passing along our conference production experience and lessons to all of you.

14 Event Marketing Strategy Questions You NEED to Ask Early

If you’re planning a conference, ask all of these questions in plenty of time to do something about them!

1. Have you seen the speakers you're putting on stage?
2. If you haven't seen all of the speakers, have you at least seen some of them to know where to place the strongest speakers?
3. For the speakers you haven't seen, do you have an idea of what they are planning to speak about so you can arrange them in a way that there is continuity (and not a violent and uncomfortable swing in tone and subject) between each segment?
4. To boost networking, have you designed name tags so peoples' names and companies are bigger than the event name (since people know where they are, but don't necessarily know other people)?
5. Have you planned to start the event with your second biggest moment?
6. Have you planned to end the event with your biggest moment (especially if you’re planning a next event in this series of events)?
7. Have you made it easy for attendees to create and share social media content about the event?
8. If you're attempting to create a legitimately curated event (meaning you are deliberately challenging the audience's patience and tolerance for variety in disparate segments), have you figured out how to provide a few cues to tie the pieces together so attendees don't walk away feeling as if the program was a random jumble?
9. Have you scheduled a rehearsal and made sure you're absolutely confident with what and how every speaker is going to do (and whether every presenter should still be on the agenda)?
10. Have you made sure you have a monitor in the front of the stage so presenters don't have to keep turning away from the audience to see what the current slide is?
11. Have you satisfied yourself that presenters have strong enough diction, volume, and speaking styles so the audience will be able to understand what they are saying throughout their presentations?
12. Have you tested the sound system well in advance and made sure it will work for all the elements of your program?
13. Do you have someone knowledgeable about the sound system and the venue running the sound?
14. Is the stage lit properly so the audience can see (and photograph for social sharing) both the presenter and the slides

Yes, you need to be able to answer "Yes" to all these event marketing strategy questions. - Mike Brown

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