Whilst I have been researching and writing my ebook, Seminar Blueprint, I have been absolutely amazed at how little information there is out there on the subject of actually organizing seminars.
You can find plenty of information on public speaking at seminars, creating presentations for seminars, there are hundreds of consultants and companies to organize your seminar but I did not find one really in depth bit of information on actually organising your seminar. I think the largest I found was a 4 page write up, which although it had most of the main headings there was probably on average 2 paragraphs to each.
Then I got to thinking, whilst I was looking at a great website about creating presentations, this is all very well but what good is a great presentation if the person doesn’t know how to organize a seminar or workshop in the first place, what good is a great presentation if there is no-one there to see it or when you get there the venue is awful.
What will people remember you for in this scenario, the great presentation or the awful venue? I am sure we would all like to think it would be for the great presentation, but invariably it will be for the awful venue. This will then have a knock-on effect with people not booking with you again, and after that comes the inevitable “word of mouth”. At another conference those people who are no longer booking with you are telling the other delegates “whatever you do, don’t book with so and so, it was awful”
You want people to book with you time and time again; you want the “word of mouth” to send people to your events not keep them away, so you really must research well before you start booking a seminar. Check the venue and the speakers amongst other headings you need to be 100% aware of these before you even think about organizing an event.
Another one is, how many people can you get in touch with that are actually interested in the subject you intend covering at the seminar and how many of those do you think will actually book 1%, 5%, 10%…..
You need to be able to gauge this before you book the room, no point in booking a hall for 200 if you only anticipate 5% of a 1,000 list!
Once you have organized 2 or 3 successful, professional events you will get people booking time and time again, as soon as you let them know of one that is of interest to them, at other events they will tell people “one to look out for is so and so, brilliant events”.
I get very frustrated when people say to me that the setting up is the easy part, well please take note here that if you don’t get the set up right nothing on the day will be easy.
So please remember if you are looking to start a business running seminars, looking to expand a current business by including a couple of seminars, always research every step thoroughly until you are able to do it on auto pilot.
Jean Wilkinson
www.seminarexpertinabox.com