Biznik - Business Networking that Doesn’t Suck » Hosting Your Very OWN Biznik Event, Part 4

Hosting Your Very OWN Biznik Event, Part 4

Posted in About Biznik by Lara Feltin on September 29th, 2006

You can sign up for membership on Biznik and post a profile online, and you can lurk at the bottom of the membership directory hoping that new work simply drops in your lap. But if you want to be proactive about building your business and become a member of this community, then you need to participate - get out there and meet other Bizniks fact to face, learn about them, share your wealth of resources, find people to collaborate and partner with, and hire each other.

Hosting a Biznik event is perhaps one of the most participatory things you can do inside Biznik. If helping to create a community of like-minded indie business owners that you’ll want to hire, be hired by, refer to friends and hang out with isn’t enough - there are also benefits to you, the host, like

Giving something of value - which motivates others to give in return.

This whole Biznik thing is taking off in Seattle. We’ve got over 800 members here and as many as 50 show up for happy hour events.
Giannina Silverman commented on a
blog post that Dan gushed in right after this week’s phenomenal happy hour event in Seattle.

“I literally feel that if I miss an event, that I’m taking a big gamble and missing the opportunity meet someone brilliant. Biznik events have SUCH an amazing energy, I think I’m addicted!
If only you could bottle it and sell it!”

The thing is, we have bottled it. We built a web site and the online tools for gathering the Bizniks together in your area and getting them all to meet face to face at an event. As far as selling it goes, the price can’t be beat. It’s FREE to join, list a profile and start participating. And it’s FREE to host a non-fee event in your area like a happy hour or a discussion. And if you want to make a little money for yourself from a Biznik event, we only ask that you be a supporting member at $10/month (a new requirement launching Oct. 1), and that you share 1/3 of the proceeds with Biznik.

I hear from a lot of folks that they’d like to host an event by they have some questions. I attempted to answer those questions in this blog series: ‘Hosting Your Very OWN Biznik Event’. PART 1 answered the question: What exactly is a Biznik event?. PART 2 talked about exactly what kind of event YOU can host, and PART 3 goes over the web form and gives tips on choosing a date, a venue, a time and a title.

This post will address, What to include in your description, What to charge, How to select the number of attendees, Cancelled RSVPs and wait list, Pre-event communication, and Post event follow-up.

PART 4

So you know that Biznik events are put on by members who have something to share with the community. You know what qualifies and what doesn’t. You know WHY you’d want to host one and what exactly YOU’LL get out of it. You understand the 95/5 rule. And you’ve thought about all the different things you have to offer that could somehow be worked into an event. And you’ve looked at the tools and see how easy it is to add an event online. Now.

What should be included in a description.

Who are you?

Introduce yourself and be sure to establish your credability. If you have 8 years of experience at Microsoft or an Ivy League graduate degree, mention that. If you’ve only been self employed for 2 years, what did you do before that?

Who’s the event for?

Do you have a particular audience in mind? Who is that. Would your event be of interest to all Bizniks, be sure to state that.

What are you offering?

This is a great time to state your intention. If you’re new to giving presentations, the best thing you can do for yourself is to state an intention. It’ll make it much easier for you to stay on track during your talk and will guide what kind of support materials or handouts you’ll want to bring with you.

If you’re not ready to make a presentation, but would like to lead a discussion on a topic of interest - state that too. “My intention is to pull together a group of Bizniks I haven’t had a chance to meet yet and talk about this great book I just read called The Rise of the Creative Class. Come join me!”

How is your material useful?

If you’re teaching a class or presenting some material, then state what attendees can expect to get from the event. Give them an idea of what they will walk away with. But be flexible and be honest. If your event veers from your topic and at the end of the evening you find that you may not have met the expectation you stated, be open about that and consider inviting attendees to contact you after class and meet you for coffee to get some unanswered questions answered.

What else makes the event useful?

If nothing else, plug Biznik. Educational Biznik events and the smaller discussion gatherings are a great way to meet new people and establish more intimate connections than the widely attended and noisy Happy Hour socials.

Solicit feedback from members who cannot attend / invite a wait list.

Until we can build a tool that will make it easier for members to bookmark events that interst them even if they can’t attend or add their name to a wait list, consider adding the following line to your description field:

If you are interested in this event, but can not attend due to a scheduling conflict, or if the event is already sold out, please drop me an email. This will help me decide whether or not there is enough interest for me to offer the event again in the future.

What to charge.

Membership in Biznik is free and we have no required dues. But Biznik is a business with operating expenses and one of our sources of income is through events. Biznik takes 1/3 of the gross fees collected. If you believe Biznik is providing a valuable service and wish to help support us, then please consider the event fee as a fundraiser not only for yourself and the event expenses, but also for Biznik.

The only thing we ask from members wishing to make some money from a fee-based event is that they be a supporting member of Biznik. Supporting Membership costs $10/month or $100/year.

Thus far we believe that Happy Hour social events in public venues and some discussion events like ‘book club’ events should be free. The social happy hour event is often someone’s first taste of Biznik, RSVPs are not required, and members are encouraged to invite others they’d like to introduce to the Biznik community.

Educational events are different. We’re a business networking group and with few exception, one of the reasons we’re here is to grow our businesses and make money. Part of the Biznik Manifesto reads: “We believe that money is a good thing.” That being said there is a fine line between participating through gifting the community with your knowledge and expertise and chalking up an event as a marketing expense, and giving away your valuable time and service for free. When choosing a price for your event consider the following:

- Ask those RSVPing to make a commitment. If your event has a limited number of spots available, then by asking a minimal fee of $5-$10, you’re asking for that person to make a commitment. Until the summer of 2006 all Biznik events were free. When we began charging $5 for some of the events that might otherwise be free (like Radical Self-Promotion: How to Host a Biznik Event that Delivers Value, Builds Community, and Grows Your Business, we found that the no-show rate went from 40% down to 10%.

- Respect for the host’s time and materials. As we’ve talked about earlier, Biznik events are marketing opportunities for the host. We’re all in business here and our time is worth money. You’ll want to weigh the value you’re receiving from marketing to the people who attend your event against the value of information you’re offering your attendees, and factor in the value of your participation in the community by sharing your expertise and knowledge with others.

- Strategy. We live in a capitalist economy afterall. If your events have drawn large crowds or sold out quickly, then you might want to consider raising the cost of a future event. On the flip side, if your target audience is those in their first year of busieness with a limited income (like a class entitled, ‘How to Get a Business License’), then you may want to make the event affordable to those who would receive the most benefit.

Likewise, consider your position in the community. Are you a new member? Have you been to many events and met many other Bizniks yet? Face recognition goes far in this crowd. If you’re new to Biznik and have not made a name for yourself in the larger community, you might need to lower your price in order to attract a larger audience. After a couple successful events, members will start talking about you to other members. Dominic Canterbury is a great example. Last spring he and Chris Haddad hosted a free event called, “The Top Ten Marketing Mistakes.” They had room for 20 people and the event filled almost instantly. Within a few months, they were charging $20 for the event. This summer Dominic hosted a four-part marketing seminar for $200 and seven people attended.

Selecting the number of attendees.

If you require RSVPs for your event (and you don’t have to for a social happy hour event) then you must list the maximum number of attendees. We recommend over selling your event to accommodate for a 10% no show rate. That means that if your venue can accomodate 10 people, list the maximum number of RSVPs at 11, and if it can accommodate 30, then make the number 33. This will ensure that if your event is a sell-out, you’ll be able to fill all the seats.

Biznik requires that all events have at least 3 people in attendance. If the date of your event approaches and only one or two people have RSVP’d, we may contact you about rescheduling or changing something like the lowering the fee.

Communication before the event.

An email reminding attendees of the event is automatically sent to all on the RSVP list at 4am on the day of the event.

Hosts may use the tool to send a bulk email to everyone who RSVP’d to their event. You may want to welcome them a couple days before the event, or request submissions of samples (like an example of their business branding), or remind them to bring something like a blank notebook.

Cancelled RSVPs and a wait list

A credit card is required for RSVPs to fee-based events. Credit cards are charged 24 hours before the event. Biznik does not issue refunds. A member may cancel their RSVP online at any time before the event begins, but members must cancel within 24 hours if they wish to avoid being charged for the event.

I know that many people email or call the host when they need to cancel their reservation. While a nice courtesy on their part, only the person logged into the member’s account can cancel a reservation. You cannot cancel an RSVP for them. Please direct them to the event’s page and ask them to cancel their reservation themselves.

If you successfully anticipated the popularity of your event, your event will sell out. Consider collecting a wait list of names of people who were unable to get a reservation, then contact them if a spot becomes available. (We are building a tool that will automate all of this and ease the burden of the host, but in the meantime…)

Follow-up after the event

Biznik events are marketing opportunities for the host, so come prepared with marketing materials (business cards, brochures, handouts) in addition to follow-up materials. If you’d like to offer all event attendees a free 1-hour consultation or $20 off your service, consider printing up little cards or coupons that people can take home to remind them of you and your services later.

A comments tool has been included on every event page. Comments may be left both before and after an event, and by RSVP’d members only. Check back to your page after your event to take part in the discussion. Many hosts will post their support and presentation materials here too.

We’re looking forward to seeing more events outside of Seattle.

If you live in an area where there are a handful of other Bizniks, invite them all to a happy hour. If there’s only one or two other Bizniks in your town, why not see if they’ll meet you for coffee and you can talk about other people you know who you could be inviting to join Biznik and discuss what kind of event you’d all be interested in.
Glennette Clark hosted a happy hour social in Washington DC and 9 Bizniks showed up. She’s hosting another next month.

Dan and I are here to help with the process. Please drop one of us a line if you’d like to start a dialog.