 So thank you so much to all of you joining us today. Another episode of The Nonprofit Show. If you joined us in the chitty chat, you already know how amazing these ladies are. We have both Jessica and Kendall. They're sitting in the right alignment on the video, but in this photo, we actually have Kendall to your left and then Jessica to your right. And they come to us from Personalized Solutions. And thank you both for joining us today and being on this webcast. Today's show is about five reasons, five. I'm sure there's way more, but we're gonna narrow it down to five that nobody attends a bad event twice. But before we dive in, I wanna give so much gratitude and extend our appreciation to all of these presenting sponsors you see on the screen. So many of these companies have been with us since March of last year. And so, you know, we've said this before and I'll say it again, because it's worth repeating. We are coming up on our 300th episode. Woo! And it's just been such a joy. You know, I also shared then the beginning of the pandemic, showing up for the show really was a labor of love. But now it has become my ritual that I love waking up to because it really gives me that environmental scan and environmental analysis of what's going on in our sector. So it's been really great. And I'm grateful for Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy and let her have a little break today. She's been working hard. So Julia, I hope you're enjoying your morning off. I'm Jarrett Ransom, also known as the Nonprofit Nerd CEO of the Raven Group. Whew! So with that, I'm excited to nerd out with both of you, Jessica and Kendall, to talk about bad events and why nobody attends a bad event twice. So what, tell us, tell us about this. Like this has been a year of, you know, such tumultuous times, right? Like really navigating. I know that word P, the pivot word was like the year of 2020. What have you seen as professionals in this nonprofit space, in this event space, you know, when it comes to events, what have you seen done well and what have you seen done extremely poorly? I think if we're talking about digital virtual events, it's really hard to reference that many that have really done anything well. They might have brought in a lot of money, but having an enticing and engaging user experience on the other end is a really, really difficult feat. So to anyone who's successfully done that, we applaud you. However, we are so glad that in-person events are back because that is what your donors deserve. They want to be out front center, getting to know you, your organization. And I think that the nonprofits that have gotten back into the event swing on this like front end of 2021 are really, really seeing the benefits. And so we applaud them for being trailblazers and just going for it because every dollar counts, every event counts. And as we know, fundraising is how you bring in the money to fund your mission. And if you're not fundraising, your nonprofit's not going to survive. So we've actually seen some where not being able to fundraise, not being able to have events or being afraid to do anything has caused the demise. Yeah. So many early on I've seen Kendall, like they're like, we're just going to hit that pause button, you know? And I'm like, how long are you going to push that pause button? Because it's time to like take your finger off. We crave connection, right? And to your point, Kendall, it's like donors deserve in-person events. They want this, we crave this, we yearn for this. And I understand some communities are still not in that place to do that. But there are ways maybe to really engage your donors in events so that they're not a bad event. And they do attend over and over and over again because the point, right, Kendall, or both of you really, is that we want to bring them in, not only for one event, but we want to keep engaging them. Absolutely. Which is why we always say nobody attends a bad event twice. You really have to take a lot of thought and care when planning. So let's get into the first reason why people will not attend. Our first one is the preconceived expectation of an event. They know what they're getting into. They know exactly what they're going to get. There's going to be a paddle race. There's going to be somebody speaking who maybe isn't ideal for the organization. Maybe it's they're honoring somebody, but it's not a very creative way. It's a very bland, it's very dry. It's a PowerPoint that they're reading to you versus it being an engaging conversation. And so people know that, right? That's now associated with that organization. And if there's no change up to it, you're not really driving new people to come. You're just going to get the same people coming because they know what to expect. They know they can go and have breakfast, lunch, dinner, at set event. And they can chit chat with their table the whole time because whoever the speaker honoree is, doesn't matter to them. They're there for the meal. They're there to write a small check. They bought their ticket. So they're really there for the social aspect versus the tear jerker getting involved, taking it to the next level. They already know what they're going to do and you're not going to change that. And doing the same event year after year, you're going to attract the same people. Isn't that like the definition of insanity? Right? You're doing the same thing over and over and over again. Okay, that is fascinating. So that was really reason number one is they have this preconceived notion of, dare I say, like what the rubber chicken circuit looks like, right? And you're like, I'm done. I'm not attending anymore events. So talk to us about then reason number two. What does that look like? Reason number two is lack of engagement. So it can be on a lot of different fronts, but we're always thinking about for the donor experience, how can we engage them, but then re-engage them to get to that next level of being a donor, right? So you walk in and you might not know that much about the organization. We're here to educate you, but then we're also here to give you a reason to really want to be involved more, whether that's inviting people to come to the next event, whether that's being a champion of this organization, maybe it's getting a corporate sponsorship. But when you are unable to take someone from that first step point to those next tiers, that is where you're realizing you're not engaging with your audience. And a lot of the points from number one are applicable here. There's many reasons for that, but a lot of people don't plan an event with this in mind. And that is a problem. So I agree that is a problem. And I want to say that you too rock stars and that comes from like the bottom of my heart because I can't say the other word I want to say, right? But like rock star experts in this space and you do what I would consider like some alternative events. So they're not just, you know, black tie dinners, but you're doing like cycling classes and you're doing, I don't know, I'm gonna say you do this stand up paddle board things. Like you do some really cool events. And so what I've seen in my 20 plus years is, you know, people will come into an event, like let's say it's a spin class, right? Or cycling. And so I might engage my girlfriends to come with me because I support the charity and I want them to support the charity, but really they're just coming to spin and the organization doesn't engage them for future relationship building. And so they're like a one and done event attendee. Yep. 100%. And we see that a lot. And honestly, that's why we believe in micro events such as spin classes, boxing classes, Kendra Scott partnership, Kendra Scott partnerships, all kinds of stuff like that because these are little intimate opportunities where you can really engage in a smaller setting. There's very low to no overhead involved. And it's a great lead up to that really big event. If you are having a gala, if you're having a huge top golf tournament with 500 people, whatever it might be, it's good to have little things that get people excited and amped. So you're picking up supporters at these little micro things and then bam, you have a sold out event. So everyone always asks, what is your recipe for being able to sell out the last 37 events you planned? And that is a huge, huge part of it. Wow. So I'm thinking of this, right? Like in our sector, we talk about a friend raiser and a fundraiser. So are micro events friend raisers or are they fundraisers? We call them our friend raisers because we're inviting our friends, our networks. It's not a formal sit down, have a meal, learn about the organization. It's come because a portion of your purchase is being donated back or it's the cost of the class is going to the charity. So you're spinning, you're boxing, you're jazzercising for a good cause. We don't jazzercise for a good record. However, I'm gonna have one thing to that. It's a friend raiser, but it's also a fundraiser because we are raising money. It's a great opportunity to be selling merchandise. Every nonprofit needs to have a really great line of merchandise. Do small batches, keep it fresh, keep it ever changing. It's a great revenue driver and those micro events are the perfect place to be selling things like that. But fundraising should be fun. The word fun is in the entire name of it. So, I mean, if you are a fitness enthusiast, this is perfect, you're gonna have fun and you're gonna be doing good and what more do you want in your day? And the people we find that we do in these small micro events are a different demographic than what would traditionally go to a gala or a really formal dinner. Because they weren't invited necessarily to that formal gala, but now that they know they're on the list and they're like, you know what? I might only be 28 years old, but this is a great organization and I'm gonna show up and this is gonna be my first gala and now you've engaged them at that higher level. I love this. So, that was reason number two. Moving to three, like I'm sure again, I said earlier, like there's more than five. So, we're all ready in that midpoint. So, we're all kind of intermingled, but number three is poor logistics. Now, I love everything about logistics operations. So, for me, it's your check-in, it's your seating, it's your food, it's your staff. It's, do you have check-in prepared for 500 people? How many people do you have on your registration row so that you don't have the line wrapped around to valet to get people in? They don't wanna wait, it's hot. They wanna get in, they wanna get to the action. So, waiting 45 minutes just to pass through the door is unacceptable. Seating, not knowing where people are seated, having them come back up and go, well, I don't know where I'm going. Whether or not you told them. And not knowing who you can ask. A lot of times you go to an event, someone's looking for something and they have no idea who's a volunteer, who's staff. Who's running the deal. If you even work for that, they're just looking for someone who looks like they might know what's going on. So, how do you rectify that? Name tags. I'll show you. Uh-oh, she's moving. She is moving. We are fortunately cozy in our office right now with all the event goodies. Depending upon the color of our outfit, we have double-sided so that we look super official. You know we're the people with the answers. That's like the backstage pass. It is. 100%. And I'm usually told I walk with some authority. So, most people are just looking for me. It's the red hair, it's not the walk. Because I'm hustling and bustling everywhere and I never eat. I'm always moving. So, usually I'm the one to find, because I also have a phone and a computer and a name badge. Yes, but honestly there's little things that all non-profits can do to simplify that process and that's one of them. That is logistic. So, a detailed person that can get all of these, dare I say like ducks in order, I don't know a better term for that, but really make a master roster to know like in alphabetical order, like hey what's your last name? I can find, oh you're at this table, whether you're looking for the logo, you're looking for a number. Love that, yeah. And then where to go when they're not feeling like, well they told me at check-in, but now I can't find anybody. Like that's a poor reflection too. Well they didn't know who I was, they didn't care, I'm not coming back. Right, so that would probably be another reason, but really moving into how the organization has prepared logistically to manage the event. So reason number three, moving into four. All right, I'm about there. Yeah, reason number four. This is a good one, this is a good one. It's a small one, but it's important and it's dismal food. Dismal food, everybody talks about gay lists having rubber chicken dinners, right? It's so hard for hotels to mass produce a quality meal. However, it's not impossible. You need to be really, really conscious of the fact that someone didn't just drop $500 on a ticket to attend your event so they can eat food that's worse than a cafeteria. They just didn't. Or to have to go get dinner afterwards. 100% and that happens all the time. Yes, I'm gonna give that. I did a dinner and then I literally was like in third course, right? And they were all little tiny little, I would call them tapas. And then I was like, I'm going to need to stop somewhere on the way home. And you're thinking that during the event. So now you're not engaged in the event because you're listening to your stomach going, I know I need to eat and this wasn't enough. And that's honestly why we shy away from doing the big galas. Not that they're not effective, but you can have an event that's large scale and the food can be on point. The venue can be interesting and there can be a really cool theme. We're planning a murder mystery dinner party for a non-profit and that's coming up. We can't give you too many details, but it's gonna be really, really cool. The client's an NFL player and he's like, I hate galas. He walked into the meeting and he's like, you never want to do this. I hate the food, I hate the experience. They're boring. I've been to a hundred million of these things. And we said, okay, we can reinvent and still be able to make that level of experience. So that would be a number four. I feel like that murder mystery is coming back. I do know that there was a virtual component of that happening in the last 18 months. I've seen it online, but now you're telling me you're incorporating this into like a micro event for a non-profit? Micro is a micro. It's gonna be about 400 to 500 people, I would assume. I don't think that's right. I think it's a two night deal. Yeah, we're probably gonna end up having to split it up to where we have two back to back nights to choose from and it's seated and we have orchestrated it in a really cool setting. That sounds fun. Yeah, that's the whole point, right? It sure sounds fun. It's the only way to get people engaged of like, oh, I've never been to that event. Just on sheer curiosity, people will buy it at the same time. We've also got great Gatsby Valentine's Day next year, which is going to be epic. Who doesn't want to dress up in a great Gatsby environment and have just a really, really cool night benefiting an amazing cause? I can't think of anyone. I mean, I would. Sign me up, put me on their email list. So that was reason four and so dismal food, whatever you do, do not have dismal food because that is one of the five reasons that people will not attend your event again. So five, I feel like we're wrapping up on five. I know we have time so I've got a couple of more like up the sleeve questions. I'm going to just shoot over at you but talk to us about reason number five. Five is your run of show. How the event's gonna go from the time you have everybody seated in their chair. Is it running late? Are you keeping it on a timetable? Warning people, 10 minutes till the program starts, everybody needs to be in their seat, those little reminders. Are you able to control the crowd? Right, if somebody's speaking but there's a whole herd at the bar that's louder than all get out, it's affecting the person speaking. They can't hear themselves and it was terrible. And then it goes into it's hard to engage everybody because all he's hearing is this in their ear and they're trying to engage a room of 200 but they're so distracted by the chitter chatter. Is it, is your AV equipment good? Can the audience hear you? Are you mic'd up but it's cutting in and out? How is your equipment? Did you look at that and test it prior to? Again, those are deal breakers. If people can't hear you, they're gonna talk over you. And then the other one is that we had within that is the speakers that you're having if you're honoring somebody, are they prepared? Is it an interview setting? Does it feel rehearsed or is it off the cusp? Kind of like this. Do they have good speaking skills? A lot of nonprofit leaders are terrible public speakers. So if you're a nonprofit leader and you're not a great speaker, practice, get a coach. No, no, no, don't even worry about practicing. Just get a coach to guide you through it because it makes all the difference and it transforms your skill set from here to here in a very short amount of time. And with leading a nonprofit, time is the most valuable thing that any of us have but especially you guys, so invest in that. And if you're a good speaker, it's gonna be engaging and it's going to change people's expectations of that event. And it's going to bring in more money for your mission. Yeah, and the individuals will then attend again. They're gonna come back because it was, oh my God, they had such a great speaker. I could hear them. People paid attention. I knew what was going on. Oh my God, we got out on time. I could get to my next meeting on time. We understand everybody's time is valuable and if you're running 45 minutes to an hour late, they're now an hour late to work if it's a breakfast. They're now an hour late home or the Uber wasn't available. That has happened to me where I was sitting at a breakfast. It was a breakfast model event and the ask and the speaker was supposed to start at a certain time. We had not gotten to that yet. And unfortunately I was not even the first one to leave. Like other people had started to exit and I felt so horrible, one, that I was going to be one of them, but two, that the organization did not use the capacity in the room to make the ask at the right time because they were not, to your point, Kendall, they were not on track with that run of show. Which is so important. So those are our top five. Wow. So a lot of these, and thank you. So very helpful and again, I'm sure we could go on forever because you ladies have seen a lot in your like professional time of running events, attending events too, I'm sure. But talk to us about, so like there's, what are you seeing? I wanna ask, what are you seeing now when a lot of communities are craving that connection? They are wanting to do events. I feel like so many of our communities are opening back up to that possibility. Some may do in-person with a hybrid approach. Some may do virtual with, I don't know, like what are you seeing as we continue to move into the recovery phase? And we're like the middle of May now for 21. So I will talk on this for a second. We have offices in Washington DC, Dallas and Scottsdale. Dallas and Scottsdale, 100% in-person, no restrictions. Everybody's ready, events are selling out. We don't have to worry about anything. It's fantastic. People are ready and they're showing up and they're spending the money and they're excited to be doing so. Washington DC, decimated, no events happening. The virtual things people are burned out on. So in the middle of the pandemic, people were still paying attention. Holiday season, they made a little bit of money. They kept it moving now because they're still so shut down. We're not seeing that one coming back. I wouldn't expect until 2022. So it really is very market dependent. Same with our nonprofits in California, San Francisco, Orange County. Orange County wants to get back, but they're not able. San Francisco, it's gonna be a while. So it's so politically driven, unfortunately, and that impacts these nonprofits in such a major way. I would say the best way to counteract if you're in a community where you aren't able to do something in person and you know people are Zoom fatigued to the max, really, really double down on your email marketing skills. Do different things that you can engage people and maybe it's a virtual 5K where through this weekend, everybody's running. We just need you to take pictures, make a small donation, use this hashtag, use this hashtag, engage in a different way like that. Get people outside moving, doing things. Do not ask them to sit in front of a screen and listen to you talk any longer. Right. Yeah, that's a really valid point. We had a guest chime in, and at least it was probably during when you were sharing Kendall run of show, this individual says, depending on the event and industry, but it says she, I'm assuming Lynn identifies female, but I went to a trade show in Puerto Rico. Critical Care Medicine was the trade show where the staff wore scrubs so that they were easily identifiable. Well, there you go, that makes sense. That makes sense. So whether you have that backstage pass or you're in scrubs, I do think that is a great point. Thank you to our guest for sharing that personal experience and example, because I do think there's so many ways that we can't identify yourself. What you showed us, Kendall, was perfect because that is easily identifiable. Now, do you have volunteers wear that as well? Yes. We've got our videographers, our photographers. We've got kids typically are dressed specifically, but we make sure they have name tags on, saying, I am so-and-so, right? Not I am, but they typically have one imprinted, great. So that it's really, really clear who is doing what. If you're a photographer and someone's like, hey, could you grab a picture of us? Okay, I don't feel awkward asking you because I know that you are in fact a real photographer for this event. Last switcher there. I'll snap that picture, you know? Yeah. What do you think are some things in 2020 that now, again, Jessica, I know you said there wasn't a lot that really went well, but what maybe were some of those silver linings that we had to do by default in our event space that we might carry into this year and maybe even to further, right? So like, what are some of the things that maybe either of you have seen that did work well that we will want to continue to incorporate? Sure, we did, in November, when Arizona started opening back up, we did kind of come back and engage a lot of people as we did this, we did a dinner series and we did a two nights in a row. So it was the same concept with nights, different locations, but because of COVID, we had number of capacities versus being able to get as many people. So one space, we could only have 50 people. So, okay, fine, we'll engage those 50 and then the next night we could have 150. So we still wanted to engage 200 people before the year was out and we managed to do it over a multi-night series but we were still able to touch those people, keep it within the parameters of what we were allowed to do, whether that being the actual site or the CDC or the organization itself, but we could deal with the mask situation, we could have people mingling and being socially distant. And as long as it was, and if they opted to not comply with that, that was on them, but we were still able to sell out multiple events towards the end of the year as things were starting to kind of calm down. Also, outdoor fitness events, they were incredibly successful. People left what, you know, unfortunately in our summer months in Arizona, we're doing them really early in the morning or you're doing them at like eight o'clock at night, but people were still excited to get outside. You can spread out as much as you want, you're doing something great for your body, you're getting fresh air. That was a win. Another thing that I saw a lot of nonprofits either do really well or do really poorly was they doubled down on getting their social media together, getting their email lists together, getting all of these loose ends that kind of, they play a really big part in a high functioning organization, but if you're mid to lower level and you're just trying to get everything done and keep it moving, a lot of people are kind of sleeping on some of these things, if you will. So we saw a lot of people up their game. That pause button, right? Well, thank you for sharing your top five reasons why nobody attends an event twice. We are coming up on the end of our show, but I wanna thank Julia Patrick for creating this wonderful opportunity and platform, the nonprofit show. I'm Jarrett Ransom, the nonprofit nerd, but before we leave, I wanna make sure that you all know how to reach personalized solutions. So again, we don't have much time, so I'm gonna ask for short, quick answers, but I would love to know one you're hiring. So I saw, what are you looking for? Where is this person? Dallas, business development leader. We need someone with a great network, loves networking, likes events and is really someone who is highly, highly social. Applications close on May 13th and interviews are in person on May 17th. In Dallas, perfect. You have a podcast, where do we find that and who do you feature? And what are you looking for? PlaythroughUnited.com, where can they find it? We are on Spotify, iTunes, any of your favorite podcast streaming sources. YouTube. Yes, if you want to see the video form of the podcast, it is on YouTube at Personalize Solutions. Okay, and you're looking for guests, you're looking for nonprofit leaders? Always looking for people involved in nonprofits to help share the nonprofit's mission, share some impact stories within the organization. Hopefully you are looking for something that we can help try to connect you with, whether it's donors, volunteers, objects we've had where they need donations of certain items so that we can help push their mission further. Exactly, we love executive directors and founders and marketing directors, if your organization is big enough to help one. I love that. And where do you work? What is your geographic reach and scope? We work all across the United States, so no boundaries. Yay, I wanted to make sure we got all that in there. I know it was like back to back to back questions, but reach out to Jessica and Kendall. I tried to make you a celebrity name there. Jessica Kendall, I don't know. Right, so reach out, personalize solutions, they're phenomenal. If you are interested in being on their podcast, I was on their podcast, so you can find my episode on all of those platforms they just mentioned, and then hopefully you too will be interested in joining them. Thanks again to our presenting sponsors without you, we cannot continue these conversations. Again, coming up on our 300 episode, I cannot believe that every time I say it, it just shocks me. So it's coming up in June next month, which will be here soon. I know, thank you. And thanks to again our presenting sponsors, because really you have helped us take this webcast beyond our wildest dreams. If you haven't heard it yet, there is going to be a second show or second channel, if you will, called Fundraising Events TV. So my co-host, I know, we'll have to get you ladies on that as well. My co-host Julia Patrick will be that co-host as well as Jason Champion. That will launch in June. So this is just a little teaser so that you know what's coming up. And thank you again to all of you for joining us. Thanks to Jessica and Kendall, everything that you do for our nonprofit sector. So honored that both of you would spend some of your day and time with me today. So I appreciate you joining us. Love it. Yeah, well, thank you. We'll have to have coffee or lunch soon, and I'm serious, like put me on those email lists because the murder mystery that, you know, all does some a lot of fun. So thanks again for everyone tuning in. And we will see you tomorrow. Until then, stay well, so you can do well. Thanks so much, everyone.