Kristine Lauria, guest speaker of Backstage Pass Vol. 1, curates thelist.sg – a listing of interesting and unique events in Singapore with a following of over 3000 people. She also organises community events like walkaboutSG and failcon. Impressive! Considering she’s only been in Singapore for a short span of 2 years.
Yet, the old adage “good judgment comes from experience and most of that comes from making bad judgments” rings true. Believe it or not, Kristine had some hard knocks back in the day at PBwiki (now PBworks). Her first event had literally no attendees! But if her recent events are anything to go by, she has moved far and beyond those days with a “never say die” attitude.
In her talk on “The Art and Science of the Audience”, Kristine’s passion for events clearly shines through as she animatedly provides us with tips on how to kick-start a kickass event:
1. Getting Started
Seed the idea
– Ask for the opinions of friends, partners, and on social media.
– Establish key partnerships – there are already people doing what you’re doing so help each other out.
Publicise
– List your event in advance. Do not depend on famous names or established brands to drive the marketing and ticket sales for your event. Be proactive.
– Put up more tickets than your expected attendance. On average, 75% will turn up.
Generate excitement
– Use every tool (i.e. blog, social media, email, PeaTiX) in your marketing toolbox to build an audience. Creating an identity in your online presence is important and sets you apart.
– Get RSVPs early to build social proof and make going to your event look more exciting!
– If you’ve only got a few sign ups at the start, do not freak out. It’s normal. Most people sign up only a week before the event.
– Follow up with event goers and have a valid email for them to keep in touch with you!
2. Grow your audience
– Identify and reach out to influencers in your target audience – they could act as a mouthpiece for your event.
– Have a testing phase to understand what is interesting or engaging to your community with tools like MailChimp, Facebook insights, and Twitter Analytics.
1. A/B test, or test alternative, subject lines in your EDMs or on social media.
2. Push information out at different times.
In doing so, you’ll soon be able to gain an understanding of who your audience is and what they want. Take note, your community might not be who you expect them to be! If so, find out what it is you’ve done to attract this group of people and allow your assumptions to shift to reflect your community.
3. Engage your audience
Inject your personality on online media, and find out the tone of the audience and reflect their voice. Be responsive to your audience!
4. Always show the love to your community
Find a way to giveaway free tickets, get more sponsors, and so on.
Given her success with thelist.sg, we can be sure to take it from Kristine that these tips work, albeit not hard and fast rules. So head on out there, get back to the drawing board, experiment, and let some magic happen! We’re excited to see what brews in the events scene.
Remember to keep a look out for Backstage Pass Vol. 2! We’ll be keeping you posted so watch this PeaTiX space.
Image Credits: Kristine Lauria
News Flash!
Backstage Pass – a community event for event organisers – is back!
You can now sign up for the second session on “Crazy Concepts – From Ideation to Execution” featuring Florian Cornu of Secret Cooks Club and Khee Shihui of OH! Open House. Register here now for early bird tickets.
