Why Starting Early Matters for Trainers
- Reduces Panic: Emphasizing this from the beginning sets up trainees for less stress and better results as the event approaches.
- Time for Strategy: Early starts allow for thoughtful planning instead of rushed, reactive tactics.
- Build Buzz: Early promotion lays the groundwork for organic growth in excitement and awareness.
- Iterative Approach: Starting early provides time for tweaking campaigns, testing, and optimizing based on early results.
- Foundation for Success: Starting early sets a good habit for trainees’ entire event marketing careers.
Key Concepts for Training
- The Domino Effect
- Logistics: Venue booking, securing speakers, catering – these often have long lead times.
- Content Cascade: Early marketing assets (even teasers) can be repurposed later
- Partnerships: Building relationships and securing sponsors take time and cultivation.
- It’s Not Just About Event Day
- Think in Phases: Pre-event buzz building, at-event excitement, post-event follow-up
- Working Backwards: Start with the event date and reverse engineer ideal timelines for key milestones.
- “Early” is Relative
- Event Scale Matters: Larger events may need a year-long lead-up, smaller ones can be more nimble.
- Audience Reach: If building from scratch, factor in the time it takes to grow organic awareness.
Training Activities
- Timeline Challenge: Provide different event scenarios and have trainees create realistic timelines working backward from the event date, identifying key tasks for each stage.
- “What If You Were Late?”: Present scenarios where event promotion was started too close to the date. Trainees brainstorm the most likely negative impacts and how to mitigate them (if at all possible).
- Early Bird Wins: Have trainees research examples of events that offer incentives for early sign-ups or create hypothetical early bird offers for an event scenario.
Training Resources
- Project Management Tools: Introduce simple tools like Asana or Trello to illustrate how to break down complex timelines into manageable tasks.
- Event Planning Blogs: Many blogs aimed at event planners will include articles about the importance of timelines and offer sample templates.
- Real-World Examples: Showcase the long promotional lead-up for major events like conferences or festivals. This demonstrates the scale of ‘starting early’ at the highest level.
Trainer Tips
- Flexibility is Key: Remind trainees that plans will need adjustment, but a strong early foundation makes this easier.
- Showcase Success: Share examples of events where starting early clearly contributed to success (big attendance, viral buzz, etc.).
- Connect to Other Concepts: Constantly tie ‘start early’ to other topics. This shows how it’s woven into the fabric of good event marketing, not an isolated idea.