This summer I went to a bunch of events/ meetups. Most of them turned out pretty good, others could have been a lot better. Next year I plan on doing my own events and I been looking out taking notes on what I should not do. Here are the event 5 mistakes event organizers/hosts make.
1) Always setting the meetup at a bar/pub
I got nothing against drinking or going to bars but it seems counter productive. When I go out to a gamer/nerd meetup its to meet new friends and do something different. If we are just gonna go drink and get drunk I might as well hang out with my lame high school friends who do that every weekend. We live in the city that never sleeps so why do the same thing every weekend?
2) Not connecting with your guests
If you’re are the host of an event you should know your guests. I can’t tell you how many times I seen the host of an event barely say anything and he expects the event to move along by itself.
3) Not keeping everyone up to date.
It is extremely important to keep everyone update to date on any little details. Time, location, activities, changes and all that need to be easy to find the event page. I seen event change almost all the details at the last min and it throws everyone off. It also helps to add your cellphone so people can contact the host directly.
2) Failing to create a social environment
Let me put it like this, If everyone is just standing or sitting looking at each other then the event is a fail. I seen this happen during tournaments. Everyone is just sitting down looking at a screen and not talking. This is a problem and getting everyone drunk is not the solution.
1) Not having a contest of some sort.
If you have over 50 guest attending an event I’d say a giveaway of some kind purely out of building hype and excitement. It does not have to be a big prize but its better than nothing. The idea is to get people motivated to go to your event and future ones.
