 Hi everyone. Welcome to our TechSoup 30. How to plan your first non-profit event? This is the first in a series of non-profit event webinars that will hold over the next few weeks. My name is Susan Hope Bard and I'm going to be your host for today's event. You are in our learning management system in TechSoup courses inside of our TechSoup 30. So our TechSoup 30s are a series of webinars 30-minute quick events. You can watch them at your leisure at any time. So you can just go to the month and the week and the topic and you can watch the recording, access all of the resources that we have available for you. Sometimes there's a downloadable PowerPoint or resources where you can further your learning on that particular topic. I will be adding some resources and chatting those out today during Ali's webinar about the first how to really host and build your first non-profit event. So Ali, I am ready to turn it over to you. You ready? Alright. Hi everyone. Thanks Susan. My name is Ali Vizdekin. I'm the Interactive Events and Video Producer here at TechSoup. I'll be talking to you today about how to get started with hosting some of your events in a few easy steps. So let's get rolling. Let me just share my screen with you all. There we go. So like I said, this is meant to be a general overview of where you should start and how to think about planning interactive and engaging events. This is only the beginning, so please do come back for a future event to go into more detail on some of these sections. So whether your events are fundraising, educational or perhaps celebratory gatherings, we'll go through some of the basic considerations you should have when thinking about planning and preparation. So together today what I'd like to do is discuss the who, what, where, when, and why's of event planning. I personally think that event planning can be easy and fun if you put the time and effort to think things through beforehand. And so hopefully you'll have fun in the process as well. Let's start with the why. So you decided to host an event, which is great to hear. Events can be a very rewarding and interactive way to engage with your community. The first thing you need to ask yourself at this point is why do I want to have an event? So if you are actually in the process or even thinking about proposing to plan an event, you really need to sit with thinking about your event's main purpose and think about the type of event you want to host. I'll ask you to share out some of your ideas at the end, but really think about what would be your goal. Are you trying to raise money? Are you trying to rally support for a cause? Are you trying to celebrate a milestone? Do you have a campaign to promote engagement around? You should have a clear objective for hosting your event. So otherwise you might put in a ton of work without a whole lot of return for your organization. So this thinking about why really becomes a cornerstone from which you plan the rest of your event. Let's go into the who. Who is your audience? If you know that a specific segment of your audience is particularly engaged with one issue area, market your event to them, get them in a room. Are these your biggest supporters, ambassadors, or donors, or perhaps they're some of your board members? Really thinking about the audience will help you cater your event to that audience. When you identify who you want to be in the room, it becomes much easier to program material to their interests, needs, or desires. So for example, many of the slides that are in this stack are pulled from a storytelling event hosting guide that I wrote. And this slide in particular lists some of the questions we ask of some of the members and participants at our events, just really to get to know them a bit as well as kind of get a sense of their levels of experience with storytelling so that once these folks are all in a room, we know how to cater their experience and program to their levels of interest. These are also really good conversation prompts during the event, by the way, which I'll get into a bit later, but better knowing your audience makes it easier to prompt a collective action to take. And it's really this collective action that should be the backbone of your event. It's really the reason for your event. The why and the who inform the what, where, and when. So once you have a reason or that main objective for your event, plus the audience in mind, you can really start begin programming and planning the run of show for the day of your event. So for example, typically for a tech soup event, we begin by budgeting or budget considerations because after we know how much money we have to spend, then you can go down the line and secure a location, nail down a date, recruit expert guests, invite a co-sponsor, for example, to provide food and drinks, if that's something that you wanted to offer, and then begin marketing and promotions. Now, the run of show on the day of really, really depends on the type of event you're hosting and how you want to frame your events. So the question I asked at the beginning, which was, you know, like what sort of events can you see you when your organization running, the day of will really depend on what that main objective is. So for example, if we take one of our storytelling events, we do everything in the leading up section on the slide that we just went through. And then on the day of what we do is we go through a checklist that includes, you know, for example, setting up a table with name tags and a sign-in sheet. We make sure that all the technology is in order and running. So that means if you're going to use laptops or a projector or, you know, everything from making sure the Wi-Fi works, make sure all those tech pieces are working and are in order. We also make sure that if we did have an event sponsor for the food and drinks, for example, that we would have created signs that give thanks to the sponsor or shout out thanking them, as well as, you know, putting up signs that mention any social media hashtags to follow or whatever that call to action is you want them to take, make that front and center, make that visible somewhere in the event space. So once you are considering framing your event, you should really think about engaging the audience in activities that heighten their senses and really aim at connecting them to specific tools or actions, like I mentioned. Like I mentioned earlier, for example, having a set of conversation and discussion starters or prompts is a really excellent and engaging way to narrow down the focus of the conversation and really just to get people talking to each other. I mean, one of our main objectives at TechSoup is that one-on-one connection to peers and colleagues and, you know, really amplifying the learnings from the group. So also think about innovative ways to incorporate opportunities for spontaneous storytelling at your event to capture the engagement. So you can consider, for example, prompting audience members to update their Facebook status in unison with a specific message or perhaps you want everyone in your audience to create a quick video story on Instagram, whatever that is, have them pull out their phones, create and tag their story using a common hashtag in real time. So really what I'm getting at is that the more interactive, the more engaging your event will be, the more memorable it will be, and the more likely the individual's in attendance will be to take that action that you set out for them to take. And don't forget to document your event. You know, you have the opportunity of having all of these engaged individuals in a room together. Take photos. Follow the hashtag you created. See what people are saying and sharing and maintain that conversation online. Remember, at the beginning, you would have collected the emails of those in attendance from the sign-in sheet at your table. So make use of that. Send out a follow-up email. If, you know, you have their social media postings and social media handles from the interactive posting experience, keep in touch with them. Keep the conversation going. So I asked you guys at the beginning to think about what sort of events you are interested in hosting, are those fundraising events, are those networking opportunities, are those related to campaign engagements, are those end-of-the-year festivities or celebratory events? Share those out in the comments. And Susan will let me know. In the meantime, there are some helpful resources from TechSoup that you should check out. The event hosting guide for one that I mentioned and the checklist that I spoke about that we use internally here at TechSoup, both of which will be downloadable from, we have an annual storytelling campaign that we engage in annually. And on that contest page, the Storymakers contest page, we'll have those two downloadable. So look for that to go live next month. The event guide in particular includes prepackaged resources, many of the conversation starters that you saw in this presentation and suggested activities meant really to capture kind of the maker spirit experience that we hope to cultivate during those face-to-face meetups. We encourage two tracks of engagement, one that's more workshop style hands-on and then the other, which is more discussion-based, put on by a panel. Or we oftentimes have a slide deck made to hand off. But both of the tracks are meant to, like I said, capture the maker spirit and really spark the creativity of the guests and the members in the audience when it comes to your event. And really, like I said earlier, it's about getting them to take a specific action that you would have identified for your event. And then we have our social media starter kit, which can help with your own promotion efforts. It is a really helpful guide in taking a look at how to strategize your social media promotion and marketing efforts. It's downloadable and Susan will chat out the link to that. And then if you're looking to host an event but still aren't quite sure how to pull it off, Network for Good has a really excellent event management tool that can be helpful to you. Susan will share the link out to that as well. So, if there are any questions, I would be very glad to take those from you. I'd like to also see what you have in mind when it comes to creating your own events and maybe we can start an engaged discussion in the comments. So please take the opportunity to chat some of your ideas and maybe where you are in hosting an event. And I would love to speak to those. Thanks, Allie. It does look like I have a question here about what exactly would be your first step. We talked a little bit about thinking and thinking on how to approach your first, but how did you do your first nonprofit event? When you got started, maybe here at TechSoup, I think it would be helpful to understand how you got started and maybe even some of the lessons learned and what not to do because that's often as helpful as the things to do. Yeah, both of those are really great questions, Susan. Okay, so how I personally have run events for TechSoup specifically is I pinpoint a topic based on what I want from the community. So for example, let's take storytelling because a lot of the events that I program are around storytelling. If my primary objective is for TechSoup members to be in the same room and meet each other, I'm going to create a space for them to do that. And that will be the primary objective of my event. So the thematic focus of that objective would speak to that. So I would have, for example, a meet and greet. I would create an agenda that includes a meet and greet. Turn to your neighbor and introduce yourself. Tell them about the organization that you're from. If that's the level of engagement that I want, it'll be baked into the program that I'm putting together. Now, some of the tips that I would give, just from experience, I do think it's important to on one hand procure sponsorships for food and drink because oftentimes it's a draw. It'll get more people in the room if they know that that is available, especially if it's open to the community, which a lot of our events are open to the community. However, if you're not very strategic in your outreach, if you're not in control of who will walk into the door, sometimes you'll get random people at your events that have found your listing on whatever event hosting site that you put your event on, whether that's Eventbrite or Meetup.com or wherever you sent your promotions out to. On the Internet, you'll have people coming into your doors that you don't necessarily know or have control over. I would really make sure that if you are opening your event up to a certain degree, try to have a certain sense of control over where you're posting your event. Bye. Great. Thank you. And that's kind of the lesson learned, right? Sometimes the folks that may not be as prepared to enter the event as you had hoped. And sometimes those folks get those random messages. And I think you spoke a little bit about having a plan, a social media plan to promote the event and other types of promotion. Have you found that there are certain channels or certain social media channels or even print channels that work better for getting these folks to come to your events? Yeah. I mean, the two that I mentioned just a second ago, Meetup.com and Eventbrite are really good in, they're not only event hosting websites, but they're good in promoting events as well. And that's outside of your circle of influence. So meaning, to a certain degree, you control the promotion to, for example, your members, your community, like that outreach, you're in control of your social media channels. Then you can widen that pool by researching other relevant communication threats on social media. So like on Facebook, for example, what sort of groups are working in the space that touches upon your event topic, for example, send a message to the group leader or post on that Facebook groups wall, or on Twitter, you can create lists based on segmenting the audience and the conversation. You can message the list. You have, to a certain degree, the ability to segment your audience and invite the people that you want to invite. Obviously, the more traditional means of marketing, email marketing, newsletter marketing, those are all very effective and direct means by which to invite and share your members. You can also, depending on the scale of your event, for example, if it's an end of year or celebratory event, and you're going to, for example, host a gala, you may, and you want to invite your board members or quote unquote celebrities in your community, you may want to go the traditional way of sending paper invites, or you can even think about publicity. If your event is to that degree in your community that warrants or the impact warrants, media publicity, who can you get involved, who do you know, do you know, can you get yourself on TV or in the newspaper or, you know, whatever, only you define the scale of your organization's event, but depending on how you're framing your event, the outreach, there are so many different ways to do outreach, effective outreach. Thanks, Ellie. Another question as we lead into the other event topics for the next few weeks, such as, you know, Facebook live events and other like in person like meetups and we'll talk more specifically about the needs of those particular style events, you've talked a lot about the pre-production of an event, right, like the planning of it, and one part of that is developing an agenda. Do you have any tips for folks in terms of creating an agenda that encourages, you know, interaction or, you know, less passive and more active and interactive interactions, I guess I would say. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, once again, it depends on the objective of your event, you know, if your objective, one of your objectives is interactivity or engagement, you know, a few of the suggestions I mentioned in the presentation, which, you know, were collectively, spontaneously take a specific action, so whether that is post a status update on Twitter or Facebook or, you know, take a group selfie and post it to Instagram or, you know, for example, for our storytelling events, maybe the exercise is an exercise in putting together a creative story and publishing it to YouTube using your smartphone or, you know, I can imagine that for example at a fundraising event in the event itself, you can program opportunities to allow people to donate, you know, like you have 30 seconds to maximize this time and let's see if we can exceed this goal and really kind of, you know, funnel people towards that action that you want them to take. One last question, how do you measure the success of your event when you're planning it? Yeah. Well, all events should be measurable. Your goals should tie to measurable outcomes. So again, it kind of depends on the type of event that you're putting together. I know Susan, you love that. You know, like if it's a fundraising event, for example, the success of your event can be measured depending on the criteria that you put in place. If that success looks like dollar signs, then obviously the more you get your members to donate, the more successful your campaign is going to be. If your measure of success is the number of people that walk through the door and not the amount of money that you raise, but just bringing that community of people together, then your measure of success is something completely different. It's important to have whatever your measure of success be, be communicated internally to all internal stakeholders and all parts of the team and management so that, you know, someone doesn't come to you and say, this was a fundraising event and, you know, we didn't hit X dollars in their mind, you know, they saw success as something else. But perhaps maybe that's not how you were thinking about it as you program the event or plan the event. So communicating that to internal stakeholders and management is also an important key for success so that everyone's on the same page and working together towards whatever goals and objectives you set forward. Thanks. That was a perfect answer, yes, because measuring outcomes is important. And as you move to create different types of events, whether it's like a Facebook live, which we'll be talking about later on this month or in August, or like Allie was talking about our story makers campaign, it's important to set up your objectives in advance so you can measure them and then iterate on that event, especially if it's your first time, you are going to learn from your mistakes. And I think it's okay. And I know Molly, our social media manager, and Allie both agree with this. Sometimes you have to do things a couple of times to really get it right. And that's why collecting the data helps you then iterate on what you did and what things you could do better or differently. And to that end, I did want to share my screen with you, Allie, if you had any other comments before I shared my screen, okay. I wanted to let folks know that are on the webinar today that, and there's going to be a little bit of tunnel vision for a second. And you're seeing our live event, but within TechSoup 30, everyone should know that you can view all of our past events and our upcoming events. Just by clicking on the module, I've curated April and May so that all of the events are under one module. But you can simply click on the tab or the module. We have the recording for you, any sorts of templates or resources. We've posted everything in the course. So I want to remind folks that this course isn't just for the individual live event, but it's an ongoing curated series to help you. And we also do ask that you complete our survey at the end because then that helps us know what we can do differently or better. I will be posting a recording of this event right here. We have some time today or this afternoon, and then resources that Ali has provided to us will be in this final column. And then our survey, you can complete the survey right here in. It's been embedded in the module. We do want to have your feedback so we can continue to provide content that's relevant to your nonprofit or library. So I encourage you to do that. I also encourage you to chat with us in the platform. Some of you already know because we've been exchanging private chat. I was able to chat with some of our attendees today. But you can also chat with other learners in the platforms through our news feed. And you can also communicate directly with us here that manage all of these courses and give us feedback. One other quick thing I did want to showcase because Ali is our video production manager, and she is phenomenal. And all of the stuff that she's put together for the Storymakers campaign has come to fruition in a course that she worked very hard on. And it's a free course. So any of you that are interested in digital storytelling, if you go to our Storymakers course, you can register for the course. You could take a pre-course assessment to kind of assess where you're at right today. And then you can take the modules of pre-production, production, post-production, and then learn about all of our resources for creating those compelling digital stories. And in October, Ali will be hosting the Storymakers campaign event. And we hope you join us then. So I'm going to stop sharing my desktop. And I want to thank everyone for their time. And I also want to thank Ali. She is producing videos every day. But she found the time to put this together. And her and our social media team will also be delivering some additional content on other special events in the coming weeks. And our friends at Caravan will also be here to talk about events that they host. So we hope to see you then and have a great rest of your week. Bye-bye.