Be prepared.
Heather Stamenkovic, marketing leader of GE Lighting & Electrical Distribution has spent the last six months organizing a seven-city, cross-Canada training event. Over 1,000 people will have attended the training when it is finished in fall 2008.
“We have never done something of this scale,” she says “and it took a lot of time and patience to pull all the pieces together but so far so good!”
The GE Nela on the Road 2008 event consists of one and two-day training sessions scheduled from May to October and focuses on learning product cost savings, application strategies and environmental awareness.
Whether it’s a one-day training event, a new location party, launching a new product, or celebrating a company milestone there are details upon details that need to be addressed before an event takes place. But there are several things you can do to make this process easier.
Doing your research first, giving yourself a lot of time to plan and involving as many people on the team as you can to help with the specifics of the event are all important and imperative steps to the organizational process Stamenkovic says.
“Making sure all the details are covered, and there’s a million of them, is one of the hardest parts of organizing an event like this one,” she explains.
Stamenkovic emphasizes how important an agenda is to this organization process.
She suggests having a clear, focused outline of what you expect to happen on the day of the event. Once you are closer to the exact date of the function a final, fine-tuned agenda can be laid out with specific timing and details. This will keep you and the attendees organized. Make your agenda easy to read and always include scheduled breaks and meal times to allow for phone calls or checking email if you are organizing a training event. Designate clear times for special speakers or entertainment at product launches or new building openings for example. And try to stick to the final schedule as closely as possible.
“Things ran so smoothly because we had the agenda,” Stamenkovic says. ” It allowed me the time to meet with our clients instead of running around making last minute decisions or checking that everything was in order.”
By making an agenda early in the process you are also forced to define the topics that will be covered. Make sure these topics are relevant, informative and interesting. There’s nothing worse than going to an event or training session that has nothing to do with you or your business.
Avoid information overload. “You want the information to stick,” explains Stamenkovic “so don’t try and jam too much into too little a time frame.”
Your keynote speakers or trainers should entertain, not just relay this information. You want to create a lasting impression, a good lasting impression.
“Our key trainer is funny AND knowledgeable,” says Stamenkovic. “We had great feedback from the attendees that this was one of the best educational seminars they had attended because he was so entertaining.”
Registration and RSVP can be one of the hardest parts of the planning process Stamenkovic explains, because you can never determine if you will get too many or too few people at an event. Don’t take it personally but expect that only 75 per cent of the people who signed up will actually show up.
Make it easy for people to sign up or RSVP, she continues. Whether it’s by fax, email or online registration make sure your sign-up process is clear and concise and doesn’t take longer than a couple of minutes to complete.
Offering food is always an added benefit and motivator for attendance – as are give-aways and prizes.
“People like to feel special and know they are getting something concrete for their time,” she says. “Unfortunately it’s not always just about learning or the product launch, it’s about what they will get at the party.”
Stamenkovic also suggests sending an email reminder a week before the event, or making confirmation phone calls for attendance and always following up after an event with a call or email.
“Don’t let anyone fall through the cracks or all your hard work will be for nothing.”
The GE Lighting Learning Day’s have been so successful, Stamenkovic is now planning the next set of cross-Canada Nela on the Road training sessions for fall 2008.
Lisa Kember is president of Mississauga-based Hyperactive Communications.
