Think about this for a moment… you have an event coming up and the event has no disputable theme. The event speakers are competent speakers and there is an expectation that the audience will find them uplifting and maybe even motivational. But when you think about it, you just know there’s something missing. And there is…
These days people have begun to value their time more than ever. Go back 20-30 years and if your company put on an event, people we be happy to go. They didn’t have the pressures or distractions we have today, where people and devices alike call on their attention. But what does this mean for event coordinators and managers?
Aligning events to growth needs
While people want to be educated and feel they are growing with the organisation they work for, they also don’t want just any old kind of growth. They want specific growth and they want their time to be valued.
This is important for event managers to know, because when people down tools and go to the event you have organised, they want the time they invested to have been worth it. This means event managers need to consider how they make sure that the time away from the desk is both useful and practical for the employee.
There are two parts to this challenge:
1. Aligning the event agenda to the needs and wants of the team/ organisation – Sometimes the purpose of an event isn’t clearly defined. Other times the event looks a little random to the attendees because it doesn’t line up with any other objectives
2. Ensuring attendees understand the benefits of attending – One challenge event organisers tell us they face is getting buy-in from their teams.
Both these challenges can be easily addressed.
Firstly, ensure events you put on are in alignment with a 12-month organisational plan. For example, if the company wants to ensure the best mental health for their team as the organisation grows, create a calendar that educates and supports the team on different aspects of mental health. That way the team will then associate the mental health events as part of the business’s growth plan and see it as part of working for a company that genuinely cares.
Secondly, if every individual event about mental health is given a clear purpose in line with that 12-month goal, it helps the team identify with the event even more.
We suggest that every individual event has a strong, disputable purpose that has been clearly thought through in line with the 12-month objective. You can find out more about creating successful events check out our guide.
By doing the above the organisation will get a better ROI from your event speakers, event outlay and the time employees have away from their desks.
Meanwhile, the team will connect better with the idea of going to the event and therefore absorb the content at another level, because they see the purpose in the event. Also, when an organisation communicates benefits and raises curiosity in the teams about an event there is a stronger sense of being cared for, respected and thought about.
Getting buy-in then becomes a marketing exercise. Taking the time to clearly show the team why the event is important may just require a bit of care in how the event is positioned with employees. If the event is HR led it’s a good move to enroll a bit of help from the marketing team to help the team see the benefits and how it supports them. People in marketing have a way with words and they get the business culture too, so they can be great resources when it comes to getting buy-in.
Getting ROI from the event
By having a clear and disputable event purpose, and by getting greater buy-in you are already half-way to getting more success from your events.
The other part is making the ideas from the event stick.
We suggest an organisation takes the investment in events a little further, so that the organisation implements the key outcomes from each event, making the people and the organisation stronger for doing so.
You can find out more on this topic of getting ROI from your event speakers, and using your company events to make ideas stick here.
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