People sometimes wonder how I manage to plan, manage and arrange our London Girl Geek Dinners. All I can say is what I do and why. Hopefully this information may be helpful to other people who want to organise their own events, or maybe even other girl geek dinners around the world.
Firstly I choose a date that I think will be a good one for an event, i.e. a date that doesn't conflict with any other developer or techie type events in my case. Then I start figuring out a venue that has the required maximum capacity, food and equipment. At that point I give the venue a quick ring and find out if the venue is free. If it is I ask the manager if they would put in a reservation for me, numbers to be confirmed a week or so prior to the event. Then it's time for me to start with the real marketing of the event.
Marketing... right... first things first...a catchy title... something people will remember! In my case it was London Girl Geek Dinners (reason: techie, fun, location and expectation of the type of event described!). Then I write a blog post about it... stating the venue, directions, date and time and any other information that I have about the event. If I have managed to get a food deal for people then I request that they bring the cash for the food on arrival. (it seems to work best that way for us) I then post the event on our website & update our wiki and send an e mail out to our mailing list. At first there wasn't one so i did a few cheeky e-mails to friends and bloggers that i knew and a few a listers ;) (ask nicely and sometimes they do help you out!)
Sponsors... well this one is an interesting one... sometimes we get people/ companies sponsoring our events and in return for covering a specific cost i.e. food or alcohol and in return we add their details in out marketing and on the website and if we can manage it on the name bages as well as make an announcement at the event to thank the sponsors. A pretty good deal i think for them! Cheap advertising to 50+ bloggers ;)
Finally and importantly, speakers/ theme. We usually try to give every event a sense of direction, be that tech marketing, women in technology or even open mic night. This helps people to have a reason to come, so not only is it intelligent round the table discussion, it is also a learning excercise and a networking opportunity. Why would people not want to come along ;)
I hope that gives a brief insight into how these things are put together! It's really not all that much hard work, honestly! ;)
posted @ Friday, March 10, 2006 8:00 AM