Where else in Singapore would you find a roomful of organisers gathered on a single evening buzzing in anticipation for and excitement of what’s to come? None other than at Backstage Pass of course, a community event by Peatix for organisers!

Held at the heart of town at vibrant co-working space, The Hub Singapore, attendees of Backstage Pass streamed in through its sliding doors presenting their e-ticket at the registration desk. Attendees had the surprise of having their mobile app synchronised with ColorSync, Peatix’s innovative and secure check-in technology that matches the flashing of a sequence of colours to determine if a ticket is valid within a specific geolocation. (Although not fully rolled out yet, more information on how ColorSync works can be viewed here.)

Now, what does it take to grow an event from the ground-up in Singapore? Precisely the question that piqued the interest of Backstage Pass attendees. Seven organisers across seven genres took the stage to share from their experience the learnings of growing global franchises locally or putting their own event idea into action. We bring you the key takeaways:

1. Meetups: William Hooi of Singapore Makers. Be purpose-driven. For Singapore Makers, the idea was not to make money out of the event but rather to bring creativity into Singapore.
2. Nightlife & Parties: Morgan of Singapore Pub Crawl. A well planned event promotes itself to an audience but forming key partnerships is important too. Look for partners in various industries relevant to your event to help keep your event fresh and do things differently to eventually scale your event to a bigger one.
3. Food & Social Good: Adrianna of Culture Kitchen. Change what you don’t, instead of just do what you love. Act on issues you care about and have a passion for. Get started on it and you’ll be surprised at the number of people willing to rally with you.
4. Sports: Su Pei of See & Be Seen 2014. When it comes to dealing with sponsors, patience and connections are key to securing them. Manpower is also tough to handle for events of a large size but departmentalising helps to divide and conquer.
5. Startups: Justin of Walkabout Singapore. Build an event around a community you’re passionate about (in his case, startups). Work with a team who’s equally passionate to get your event going.
6. Community: Richard of CreativeMornings Singapore. Know your volunteers and understand what makes them tick. When it comes to sponsors, ensure they’re aligned with the believes and passion of your community. It’s easier to work with them if they are. In everything you do for your event, do it for the benefit of the community.
7. Design & Architecture: Stella of Shophouse&Co. There are three key elements to every event: venue, experience, and people. Look for the community of people you want to impact with your event first. Approach the people, and seek their input on the experience they want out of an event. Seek for a venue that could help create that experience.

Hearing from these seven organisers about growing events from the ground-up in Singapore certainly shows that starting an event is no easy feat but one that’s driven by lots of passion for a field, cause or movement. Passion enough to pull through the challenges of event organising in Singapore to execute the brilliant events that Singaporeans come to know about and love.

Interested to see more of what happened at Backstage Pass? Check out the event timeline for Tweets and Instagram posts with hashtag #HomeGrownSG, and Facebook photo album too.

Save the date, the next Backstage Pass is slated to happen Fri 13 June, 2014. Follow Peatix on Facebook or Twitter to keep in the loop. Till then!