Seminars are a powerful way to build awareness of your company, market your products or services, and possibly create a new revenue stream for your business. Regardless of what type of business you are in, you most likely have knowledge and expertise that others would find helpful and may also encourage potential attendees to use your services.
Here is a checklist and some tips to make your seminars ‘fantastic’:
- Determine the cost of your event. This will help you decide if your content should be more informational or more sales oriented. You do not want a high price and a high-pressure sales event because you will likely discourage possible attendees.
- When scheduling your seminar, watch for potential conflicts that could reduce your attendance. You do not want to have your event on the same day or time as a competitor’s event – or even another local event that is non-related, but could attract your potential audience.
- Have a plan of how you will be getting the word out about your seminar (see this article on tips for filling your seminar or training session). How and where you market your seminar will determine the number of people you will get to attend it.
- Find a location that works best for most of your intended audience. For example, if your audience will be mostly coming in from the suburbs, downtown may not be the best location. The opposite is true as well. Don’t choose a suburban location for a seminar intended for a downtown audience.
- Consider your audience when planning the length and date of your seminar. A lunch time, afternoon or early evening seminar may work better for many downtown workers. Also, don’t make your seminar too (not enough info) short or too long (might inconvenience your attendees). Usually, a several hours should satisfy most attendees, depending on your topic and its complexity.
- Having handout materials can be a great thing, but not when you forget them at your home or your office. Knowing there is a printing place nearby or at the facility itself is great. Just have a USB thumb drive or a cloud drive with your originals on it.
- Collect as much contact data on attendees as you can. This way, you can follow up for feedback and perhaps get them to attend your next seminar. Do not be afraid to ask for e-mail addresses, postal addresses and demographic information that could help you in finding similar attendees for your next event.
- Do not forget to have the right amount of staff for on-site registration and check-in. People do not like to show up and have to line up for a long time to get in.
- Having advance registration and payment makes it simpler for people to attend without hassles. Even consider speedier e-ticketing to avoid check-in delays.
- If your seminar is longer than a few hours, plan breaks so that you do not lose the attention of your audience. Breaks are also a great way for attendees to network and compare notes on what they are learning from your session.
Having your seminar at an office business centre that has the technology and support for your seminar can really take burdens off of you. Telsec Business Centres offers seminar training rooms with a wide range of technologies built in – benefits such as Wi-Fi access, large plasma monitors, projection screens, whiteboards and flip charts. The seminar rooms can be configured to the style of seminar you are holding – such as lecture style, classroom style and even horseshoe or in-the-round style.
In addition to the built-in features of the seminar rooms, Telsec can also give you access to on-site printing (including colour printing) and binding services. If your seminar is one that requires food for a break, Telsec can help make catering arrangements. If coffee, tea or filtered water is all you require to refresh your attendees, all those are complimentary.