Picking a date is one of the big problems that needs solving early in the planning process of any event.
Today we are planning multiple one-day events throughout 2022. To find good dates, we think through these key questions:
🔑 Target audience?
Even within a industry there are subgroups of target audiences. Who are the target audience for this event and when does it work for them? Weekdays or weekends? Spring or summer?...
Booking events linked to peoples work is often ok (preferred even) to book during daytime, weekdays e.g. expos, courses, networking events. Events linked to the target audiences hobbies (which is most often the case for us geeks) need to be on weekends, red days and vacation.
🔑 Collaborators?
Who do you want to collaborate with to create the event, and when is good for them? Without them there will be no event.
🔑 Size?
If the event is planned to be big, attracting visitors from the whole country, maybe neighboring countries too, then the schedule of competing events and collaborators is very important. If the event is smaller, the schedule of competing events and collaborators is less important.
What makes an event big or small needs to relate to the size of the target audience. There are e.g. many many board game players in Sweden, but the target audience for a tournament in the board game Wingspan is maybe 100 people total in Sweden. 🔑 Venue? Even if we find the perfect date, without a venue it won't matter. The cost is also tied up in this key factor as the cost of the venue will be one of the mayor costs of your event. Most venues have periods of the year when there is less demand, which makes it easier to book (less competition) and cheaper. It is worth finding out when the potential venues are available.
🔑 Competing events? There are lots of expos, tournaments, conventions, exhibits etc. even within a specific industry, that attracts your target audience and collaborators. Even if some dates are free they might be to close to competitors events. Think about the competition, but also consider the geographical location. Competing events running the same date can work, if they are at different parts of the country. On the other hand, make sure your collaborators are not already booked across the country at that time...
When you have materialized the answers the key questions, choosing a date is considerably simpler.
One last thought, book the event with enough time not only to plan the event, but also to market it.
Do you have additional tips, did we miss something. Please comment and help us grow.
