At a recent gathering of FOSE speakers and Federal IT bloggers, there was a lot of discussion around the tightening of budgets and the impact that has on event attendance. A suggestion was made to stop calling your events "events" or "conferences" or "seminars" and call it a "meet-up." More than just changing the name, the idea of a meet-up is a smaller, more intimate, more tightly scheduled gathering. Govies reported they are better able to get approval to attend these smaller events because of the lighter time and financial commitment.
For marketers and event planners this means really looking at your event schedule. Can you break up your big once a year event into smaller, more focused, and more frequent events? You can still get the economies of scale in bulk ordering and material creation (likely each event will need the same "stuff") and potentially you can save on venue and catering costs by moving to smaller locations (check out some of our suggestions for DC area lunch venues).
For the actual event, think more about a fireside chat format rather than stand-up presentations with power points running behind the speaker. Information typically included in more formal presentations and Power Points can be given to attendees after the event (via email re-cap, whitepaper-type format, or a slideshare). This after event reach out also gives you another touch point to reach attendees with your messages and offers.
This more informal and intimate gathering may also attract more interest among potential attendees. Imagine having to post a "sold out" sign on your events! With a smaller crowd, attendees know they have a better chance of getting face time with other attendees or speakers. They could end up sitting across from the speaker for lunch, having a meaningful conversation rather than lining up to hand over a business card and an elevator pitch with 20-50 attendees after the session has finished.
Have you experimented with smaller meet-up events? What have been the results?
Image from: http://haeckdesign.com
