Minimum viable events

I organise and organised events. I keep seeing people who wanna do that too but don't start, because they don't know how. This is for you: Just get going, I'll tell you how.

What even is an event?

Events, at their core, are bringing together people with a shared goal in mind. None of that needs to be fancy or complicated: Have two or three people who wanna meet to talk about their cats?

Great, that's enough to get an event going! Yes, seriously.

It might grow over time, people may join, others might leave. The event can change the topic or the goals as time goes on, but in order to find out what's going to happen, you gotta start.

The bare minimum

To make starting easier, let's focus on the absolute minimum you got to get together:

A goal

Some place

A date and time

Some people

That's it. Everything else is a bonus.

Of course these things have to make sense for the combination of goal, people, place and time. Trying to gather professionals during working hours on a working day in a remote location needs a lot more convincing and investment from both you and other participants then gathering them after work in a conviently located place.

What's your goal?

Well, that depends entirely on what you want out of the event.

For example, when I started "Web Zurich", a local meetup group, in summer 2016, I wanted to bring together people making websites in and around Zurich to talk, exchange ideas and learn from each other.

I didn't know how to do this, I had no manual or previous experiences, but I had a goal. So that one's checked off the list.

I started a Slack community and spread the word among people I knew from the local community and in a few days, we had a lot of folks join and chat with each other. Now I asked, if we wanted to actually meet - and people were into the idea.

Where do we go?

Well, whatever works for you goal. It could be a pub, if you have a small group of people who just wanna hang out and chat a bit. It could be a park, if the weather is nice.

If, however, you plan on having presentations, some quiet place with a screen or projector and maybe a microphone and speakers, depending on the size of the group is helpful.

One thing I highly recommend, though, is to find a place that you can book. What I mean by that is: It's nice and easy to do an event in your employer's office or some other companies office. They often offer this opportunity and it's not uncommon for that to be a free place, sometimes even with free drinks and snacks! Jackpot, am I right? Except it isn't. Because they're doing you a favor, you relinquish control. If you pay for a space (and that can be by just loosely reserving a table in a restaurant) you have much more control. What if the company that hosts you goes under? Or closes the office for the holidays? Or moves away? Or fires you? Or you don't like them anymore?

You avoid all that kerfuffle by finding a neutral, permanent home.

It also takes one decision to make off your long lists of decisions to make. You know where the next event is gonna be - at the same place. Your attendees will also know this... because it's always the same place. It makes things easier especially when you have recurring events with a monthly-or-so cadence.

If you plan on doing an event once a year, this matters a lot less, but it's still a good idea to have a space that you book. That way you and the location both commit on the event.

That checks off the "place" from the list, good job! Half way there.

When is a good time?

Hah, you know the drill by now, don't you? Good timing helps with making people wanna join. So depending on who you want to have at your event, the time and date kind of matters.

For example: School holidays are likely trickier for parents to join events when they are taking care of their kids or go on vacation together.

Another thing to take into account: When you look at the year closely enough in a calendar, a bunch of months seem less attractive for events. Here in Switzerland, December is busy and then closed out by the holidays, so not a good time for events in general (I mean, there are exceptions. I have happily run events in December in the past in Zurich, so take this with a grain of salt).

A lot of events often happen in March/April or September/October, because these months are outside of bigger holidays and far away from other stressors (January/February people are often catching up with the beginning-of-year planning, budgets etc. while July/August are typical summer holiday periods).

If you are looking for a time for a recurring meetup, also be aware that "Every first Tuesday of the month" doesn't work for people who are having that type of appointment already on their calendar.

The easiest way to get going with this is to experiment. Plan your event at a date and time that works for you and should work reasonably well for the people you want to join your event, too.

Then try varying in the next event: A different day of the week. Maybe a slightly earlier hour? Maybe a little later? How would the turnout be, if we moved to the weekend?

It does depend on your audience and the local circumstances. But pick one, stick to it, see what happens.

That's 3/4 checked off the list.

How to get people to join?

Go to where the people you want to have at your event are.

That can be local places, like a community center or existing meetups, local newsletters, industry publications and websites, etc.

If others are interested in your goal and you're loud and vocal about it in places other people hang out (physically or virtually), you'll likely manage to attract a crowd.

But two things:

Be respectful about it

Don't expect a huge crowd immediately

The first point is super important. If you go to existing events to spread the word about your event, please talk to the event organisers first. Most are perfectly fine with it, but they'd like to know upfront what you're planning to do. Maybe you can even collaborate?

Maybe you can sponsor the existing event - buy a few drinks or snacks at a local meetup in exchange for putting out flyers or posters or a shoutout in the presentations goes a long way.

The other thing is: You probably won't end up with 100 people or more immediately. And that's fine - it means you don't have to book that expensive event venue, you get away with booking two tables at the local pub. Less cost, less commitment - these are good things.

And believe me: A lovely event with 10 people is so much better than a lackluster thing with 100 somewhat disengaged folks.

Consistency is key, especially if your event is supposed to be a monthly or weekly one - keep showing up, the crowd will grow if they like it.

The most important secret to making events

Care about your goal and your audience, the rest will follow. But the most important thing is: Make. It. Happen.

Make it happen, that's the key - go find some people, ask them if they wanna meet, reserve a table, have a good first event.

Take it from there, have fun.