The event that no one came to

Photograph by Stefano Borghi-Cartier
Photograph by Stefano Borghi-Cartier

If you have ever been involved in organising events, then you’ve probably been there, unless you have been super fortunate or you run always the world’s most amazing events.

I perhaps have not and I have had a few ‘no shows’ or events with just a fraction of what I expected as a turnout.

Two things, I have always enjoyed even the smallest events, OK when no one comes it’s a little harder conversation wise.

Most importantly, no one died. The world didn’t end. I learnt and ran another event.

The learning is to make your event as focused as possible on providing something worth people exchanging their time for. It is what will be useful to them, not you.

It is about creating and offering value.

A glass of free orange juice, some crisps and a chance to network has been done. Done to death.

Be bold, be different, and realise that it is not about the number of attendees, it is to make sure the event was valuable enough to get the attendee(s) back to the next one and telling others what a great event it was.

No matter how many come to your event, keep going, but keep making it the best you can.

Patience, perseverance and a value to others from the event are three things to not lose sight of.

It only comes in black

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Henry Ford famously said ‘you can have any color you like, as long as it’s black’.

He only made black cars as the paint dried faster, so more could be produced. It also made the whole process that much more simple and productive. Thus more profitable.

We do not want mass anymore and the internet has allowed us to seek out and promote to the weird that we all possess.

Now you can get pretty much anything you desire.

That has created a new challenge. Finding your customers in the mass of choice and shades of grey. No more black and white means having to create something truly remarkable and different that customers really want.

Don’t go for safe, bland, mass and homogenised. It’s been done.

Small is the new big. But it is no easier to be a small shot than it was to be a big shot.