There are many facets to running a successful event including preparation of content, scheduling speakers, venue hire & setup, agenda creation, coordinating sponsors, organising catering, promotion, ticketing, and registration. Within each facet, there are numerous tasks required to make things run smoothly on the day, and many of which often require different skill sets to complete. The sheer volume of varied tasks required can be quite daunting, and often scares many small businesses off the idea of hosting their own events. But events are one of the best sales tools you have at your disposal, so what should you do?

One option is to outsource as much as you can to organisations that do this all day every day. However, it is rare that you will be able to outsource the entire thing. For example, you might leverage an event management company for components related to running the event on the day, which includes things like room setup, registration & catering. In my experience, those organisations don't typically get involved with the initial promotion of the event by marketing to your existing customer base and engaging new prospects via social media; those sorts of activities might be done in house or outsourced to a separate marketing agency. Likewise, creating content as well as coordinating speakers & sponsors are other areas that often require a different set of resources that are usually found inside your own organisation. In addition to the project management required to coordinate the multitude of outsourced providers involved, another factor to consider is the cost of outsourcing - it can add up, especially if you plan on running multiple events. So how do you find the balance of not biting off more than you can chew, but also keeping costs down?

This is where technology comes to the rescue... 

Customer Consulting Group recommends for clients to leverage an event management software application called Zoho Backstage. It helps you create memorable experiences with everything you need to succeed including website building, ticketing, event promotion, attendee registration, and more. It makes many of the tasks associated with planning an event simple. So simple that you might think twice about outsourcing elements of the overall event. You can still leverage external help where required but having a centralised point where everyone collaborates gives you a much greater chance of avoiding those unexpected mishaps. Below is a short video that gives a high-level overview of the capabilities, and we are always here to help you learn more about how you can leverage tools like this to Find More Customers and Nurture the ones you already have.