How many kinds of “events” can you come up with?
Brian Morrissey mentioned a “pivot to events” in his most recent post, which I link below.
There are several interesting things about this.
First, you can get very specialized with events. Niches are where it’s at.
Second, events are less dependent on platforms. As you know, I think publishers need to be as un-reliant on platforms as they can manage to be.
Third, they can be a very significant source of revenue. For some publishers, events are their major source of revenue.
But that got me thinking, what is an “event”? The word is almost as broad as “media.”
Broadly speaking, we’re talking about a planned gathering of some sort that brings together like-minded people around a specific topic or purpose.
What might that be? Here are some ideas. Please submit your own.
- Conferences, symposiums, and summits. This is probably what you think of by default when you think of events. There’s a keynote speaker, panels, breakaway sessions, PowerPoint overload. All that stuff. But there can also be events within events, which will be obvious as we go through the list.
- Webinars, although I’ve been told that the word “webinar” turns people off, and I did an article a bit ago about other words to use. Webinars are virtual events conducted over the internet, with a presentation, Q&A, etc.
- Workshops, or training, either online or in person, with a focus on building skills, although you can also do this sort of event around estate planning, or things like that.
- Dinners/Galas/Awards Nights: They can range from simple networking opportunities to formal events where you honor achievements or celebrate milestones.
- Lunch-and-Learns are an interesting mix. It’s usually an informal lunch with some kind of presentation, which might be a live podcast, some training, a brainstorming session, etc.
- Happy Hours/Networking Mixers are my favorite, of course, and I think there are a lot of untapped possibilities here. A brewery in my town rents out its tasting room for companies that are hiring. You could show a quick video about a new product, get feedback from a user’s group, and so on.
- Product Launches/Promotional Events. Obviously a lot of these can overlap. You can do a product launch at a happy hour before a live conference.
- Press conferences are probably out of the reach of most of my audience. I think you need to be fairly big before the press cares about your new product, but maybe I’m wrong about that.
- Along those lines are Media Expos and Fairs, which are events where media companies can showcase their latest innovations, technologies, and offerings.
- A film screening might be an interesting way to introduce a new video podcast. At a happy hour.
- Roundtable discussions are small, focused conversations about a particular topic. They’re fairly popular at conferences, but I think you could do them in conjunction with a lunch or dinner.
- You can do Charity/Fundraising events if your business has any charitable ambitions.
- Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Events. If that’s not a thing now, it soon will be.
As I said, you can mix and match among this menu of options, and what you choose will depend on your audience, the type of products you offer, and other factors.
I encourage you to think about your own niche and your own market, and imagine how you can create events for them. Even if it doesn’t become an amazing new source of revenue, it can build community and enhance retention and renewal.
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