3 Signs That Your Event Will Fail

Do you know the early warning signs that your event is destined to fail? Here are a few to look out for.

If you’ve ever played Jenga, the popular wooden blocks game, you know that nail-biting moment when you watch the wooden tower sway. It heads one way, and then the other and you know it’s only a matter of time before it topples. Your turn comes up and you gently slide out a brick. Then the next person does the same. And with each brick, you wonder when is this beautiful tower going to topple? You swear it will happen with each one.

Events can be the same way. If you watch carefully, you can see them growing more and more unsteady, wobbling, faltering. The sooner you can recognize the signs that things are about to go from bad to worse, the better. If you recognize it early enough you can correct it.

Sometimes it’s not as obvious as you think to know if your event is failing though, so watch for these early indicators.

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#1 The Ideal Avatar Is Undefined

See above. If you don’t know who you’re trying to target, figure it out before you do another thing. Seriously.

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#2 Your Marketing Is Not Specific Enough

Every event has an ideal attendee. You should not be trying to recruit everyone. If you’re not talking to that ideal attendee, your event will fail. Don’t be afraid to exclude certain groups. It can help you provide stronger sessions. For instance, if you’re hosting a marketing conference are you helping small businesses or Fortune 500 companies? Their marketing departments look very different. If you want to target both, you better have separate learning tracks because they definitely don’t have the same needs.

#3 You’re Not Asking for the Right Feedback

Exit surveys for events can be largely ineffective because of the questions they ask. “How would you rate this presentation?” is an incomplete question. Someone who sat through a morning of terrible sessions might rate the current one very highly. You might get that response and think the speaker is extraordinary and ask her back. In reality, she was just better than the rest of the blah that morning.

A more effective question would be, “Could this topic have been covered better” or “What is the likelihood you would you refer someone to this session?” Also, take the time to analyze the results against past results with similar topics. Does this area always seem to rank higher than others? This could be because so few people understand it that they give it a high ranking.

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Don’t be the last to know if there are issues plaguing your event. Watch for the early warning signs while there’s still time enough to do something to address them and take action.

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Know more about creating profitable events by

downloading this free resource: 29 Profitable Online Event Ideas