Developing a Community: 5 Crucial Steps to Hold a Successful Event

It’s been around 5 months since this idea of creating a new community has been brought up at Blink, and it certainly has been one with great stories. After first being appointed as the main organizer, I feel like me, as well as the community, have come a long way to the point where it deserves an article on this topic.

Background

Let me start by providing some background on Blink itself: Blink is a coworking space located in Roppongi, Tokyo, and offers a global workspace shared by companies from various industries. With 45% of its members being of foreign nationality, the atmosphere inside the building is certainly not something you see very often in a homogenous country like Japan. Not only that, it is also used for internal and external events, where it partners with third party organizations to host events of multiple topics.

So why is a coworking space trying to create a community?

Blink values the connection between people to a degree where you don’t see in other places. We truly believe that one link between two people could lead to thousands of opportunities that are yet to be seen; however as our business model only targets business professionals, we wanted to create a place, an opportunity where even the students, the youths, and the young professionals could participate together with the veterans of different industries. That is when we decided to build a completely new group, BlinKonnect, a place where people from various age groups and occupations could come together to learn, network, and enjoy together through monthly events inviting proven mentors with various topics.

The Strategic Phases when Creating an Event

Now that the introductions are out of the way, let’s go over the processes required in planning an event, and the possible roadblocks you may come across. Here’s an overview of what I will be talking about:

1. Search Phase
2. Preparation Phase
3. Marketing/Promotion Phase
4. Event Day
5. Post-Event Phase

The Search Phase

No event is possible without a speaker (in the case for BlinKonnect), and so this is where you have to search for a credible individual that could provide content that can catch the attention of many. The more influential, the better, as that would help in the later process of the marketing/promotion phase, which I will go in detail later on. Now, searching for the perfect speaker is not easy, so this will depend on how large your network may be. Focus on expanding your network first, and the potential speakers will gradually appear. Two advices I could give that I felt are helpful, are joining numerous networking events that gathers professionals, and using LinkedIn. In Tokyo, many events are being held across the city every week, so find yourself an interesting topic, and go over there to make some new connections, and you may find a great speaker that is experienced in the respective fields. The other advice, using LinkedIn, is partially correlated with my last point, as you can use this to create and keep new professional connections in this platform, and not only that, you can search and contact various professionals and potentially invite them for your event, all without meeting them before. If you have a strong LinkedIn profile, it could prove to be useful for you in many ways, however there’s too many to list, so I will leave that for another article.

The Preparation Phase

Congratulations! You now have a speaker willing to offer quality content for your event. Now, you have to set up the date, time, and brief your speaker with what you hope to achieve with your event. It would be wonderful if you can provide a document listing the 5W2H of the said event to the speaker, to allow him/her to be aware of every detail regarding what you are planning. One key point that I would like to emphasize, is the importance of communication with your speaker. Discuss, discuss, discuss. No amount of communication is enough, and I learned this the hard way. As I mentioned earlier, talk about your goals, discuss the schedule of the day of the event, go over the topics that will be discussed…, no preparation is enough. Is the scheduled day of the event far from the present date? Great, you have more time to go over your plans with the speaker. Without ample communication, there could be some misunderstandings that could happen between you and the speaker, and it could lead to a decrease in the overall quality of the event, so be sure to never forget this point.

The Marketing/Promotion Phase

You’re doing great if you’ve reached this point! Building the base of your event is now completed, you’re ready to start spreading the word to the public! As for what I do, the main platforms I use to advertise are LinkedIn, Facebook, Meetup, and Eventbrite. Going back to the point I mentioned earlier, by having a speaker with an impressive following, it will help greatly in this step, as you will instantly have hundreds of exposure within a matter of minutes. However, do keep in mind to create a Facebook event page before asking your speaker to promote.

Creating an Event Page (What kind of page would catch YOUR interest?)

When creating an event page, try to think from a perspective of a potential attendee in the specified target, what would make that person stop scrolling and click on your event listing? I’ve realized that inputting the main lesson/topic of the content as a title is very effective. Also, be sure to make the cover image something that stands out, one that can catch the attention of many. In the description, be sure to be straightforward, and include what the people can gain out of the event. Once your event page is done, share it in as many Facebook groups as possible (be sure to only share it in groups related to your content), ask your network and speaker to share it on their feed, promote it in other platforms (as many as you can find), and be sure to be active in the posts inside the event page. Try to think that with 1 share = 300 reaches, and as such, this is the most effective way to bring awareness to your event. Meetup is a great platform to use if you are trying to make a community, however it does require a monthly fee so be aware. One more point I would like to make, is that it is NOT necessary to use money for advertisements to make people come to your events, as I have never used in my events, however it definitely could help to gather more people in your target. In my first event, I was only able to bring in 3 people for my event, however in my latest, I was able to gather 30+ attendees, all with no extra costs for advertisements. I’d like to recommend Eventbrite for payments of tickets (if you will be taking fees), as it allows for an easier check-in and keeping track of your expected attendees.

Event Day

The day of your first event has finally arrived, you may have felt that it arrived very quick, or very slow, but what matters the most is that you have prepared for a very long time, right for this moment. Regardless of the number of participants, I would like to emphasize, albeit being very cliche, that what matters the most is the quality of the content, not the quantity of the attendees. If you have great content, people will remember your event and spread news about it, resulting in more attendees in the future, so don’t worry! Just keep calm, and remember that you’ve prepared well for the next few hours, so you’re going to be fine. Go over the event with the speaker shortly before starting, and then off you go! Try to stay calm no matter what happens, as if the organizer becomes nervous, it will spread to everyone. Just believe in the effort you’ve poured for that moment and you’ll be fine! Also, don’t forget to speak to every single attendee and build rapport with each participant.

Post-Event Phase

The more time you spent preparing for the event, the more fulfillment you get from a successful night. However, don’t relax just yet, as there is just one last thing to do. Thankthe speaker for their time and thank the attendees for participating, while also asking for feedback! This would be a great chance to learn where to improve, and hopefully offer a higher quality event in the future! Be sure to post photos from the day on SNS, and get ready to plan your next great event!

Last Words

I’ve learned more than I would have ever expected through creating this community, and I am very grateful for the Blink team to offer me this opportunity. Throughout my attempts, I’ve made mistakes, but each failure taught me valuable lessons which allowed me to challenge myself even further, to the point where I can now share my experiences like this. Thank you for reading, and see you in the next event!

Thank you to all speakers, members, and individuals affiliated with past BlinKonnect events, every event is made possible with the help of every one of you!

If this article has caught your interest, do check the group over here, and if you hope to be a speaker for the community, let me know, and we can create something wonderful, together.

By Asama Toyozawa, community host at BLINK