Mary Carty

So many arts and cultural organisations spend an enormous amount of time organising events, from once off gigs to mammoth festivals. Event management, as we all know, is high on hand holding, needs infinite patience, tons of cash and lots of willing participants. There is nothing more humiliating than spending months organising an event where no one shows up. It’s like being in your worst nightmare, naked and exposed.  

As someone who has organised events of evey kind, it’s very important to get the most from your audience, now that you have them there. Make sure your hard work pays off. Think about the cost of acquisition for that one visitor to your museum, gallery or gig. Business folk look at this cost all the time but cultural and nonprofits seldom do. It costs you a great deal of money, time and effort every time a person walks through your door. Know how much that acquisition costs.

Think about your goals for each event and prioritise them:

1. Audience building

2. Profile building

3. Reengaging past participants

Once you have decided on the order of your goals, then you need to formulate what you want your audience to do next after they participate in the event. This is the key to keeping your audience in the marketing loop. You need ways to gather as much information as possible about each participant and bring them back to the conversation again. Otherwise, you are working really hard organising events and not profiting from them in the long run. Now make sure nobody walks away again without learning more about them.

Stay focused on your goals. Think about the whole marketing loop; your events, website, blogs, email newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn and YouTube. Make sure to connect your real world activities with your online presence. Give your audience places to talk to you, to comment and to leave reviews and testimonials. Events are wonderful, time consuming and exciting. Make sure you gain the most from them.

Image: (cc) Michael Clesle