1. Do events because you love it, not for money.

The first thing is to be selfish: do events because you want to.  Either way you probably won’t make any money even if you tried.  Also events are tough to produce/manage, so make sure it’s something that you would work your ass off for.

2. Know your event’s audience.

Before planning an event, know if you are reaching a horizontal group or vertical by answering the question “Who am I targeting?”  If you don’t know, then you have not planned your event thoroughly enough.  This question will help your event be streamlined; otherwise you will waste effort marketing inappropriately and will have a harder time selling to both sponsors and attendees.  A vertical audience is a single targeted group: developers on Facebook games or companies which use cloud computing.  A horizontal is a broader less-targeted group: small-business owners, teenagers, moms, etc…  Horizontal events can attract a larger group of people and have long-term branding, but vertical events are easier to sell.

3. Make sure your event stands out.

It would be stupid to throw an event that everyone else is doing, because then you’re just a rip-off.  Brainstorm ideas for events until you get the one you want and love.  The easiest way to brainstorm for me is to just clean out my brain of all my ideas and put them onto post-its.  Even if the ideas are stupid now, they can be developed and be great ones later, so write ALL of them down.  Also, focus on core themes to make sure you don’t go all over the place.

4. Find engaging AND smart speakers

Your speakers should have an equal mix of geeks and Jerry Maguires.  You want the extremely smart people to balance off the entertaining speakers, so people don’t get bored but also learn something.  If you happen to find speakers that are smart as hell and are very engaging, get them on board!

5. Recruit attendees who are VIPs, connectors, influencers, and passionate volunteers

You should have VIP’s, the people who are the best in their fields or influential people, there to attract more people. Connectors are also must-haves at events since they are the hubs of social networks.  Go to Meetup, Plancast, StartupDigest, and Twitter and see who brings people together for your specific topic In addition, you want a core group that will always be there for you: groupies.  These people come about when you have something that they can passionate about.  Groupies are hard to get, so if you have the luck to score some of these guys, DON’T LOSE THEM!  They will: give you feedback, forgive you for throwing some of the crappiest events in history, and have your back.

6.Use social media to market.

Usually the best and cheapest way to market is to use social media.  For distributing tickets, Eventbrite would be the best.  Email is the best tool because it allows you to be more personal to a small group of people; however, SlideShare, Twitter, Plancast, blogs, videos, and photos are all still great tools to spread the word as well.   Also while using social media, make sure to especially publicize your VIP’s. For example, if you have Guy Kawasaki talking about evangelism or if you have the Woz at your “Inside the iPhone convention”, market it!  It will bring more people in to learn from some of the best in the world.

All three had a lot to say about events and really gave me a clear picture of what to expect as a newcomer in this industry.  For me, the major takeaway from all of this was that events are works of love and it takes immense skill to develop produce, and manage one, no matter how small or large.  Overall EventTech was a great conference from what I’ve heard about the rest of the day and I’m really looking forward to the next one.

[This post is by Cass's summer intern, Ashna Ashok.  Ashna is currently a high school junior who is very interested in the startup world.  She is currently working on some crazy business ideas with her partner-in-crime.]

So of course, I wanted to figure out why, and how I could use my experience to improve my own conference in the future.  Hopefully you can learn from it, too…

30 Minute Panels

People thought we were crazy. “30 minute panels?!? You can’t say ANYTHING in those!” I now beg differ, and may in fact keep the format at all of my shows. In a 30 minute panel, the moderator has an excuse to cut off panelists who blab on too much. Everyone has to carefully consider what they want to say ahead of time, figure out THE key points, and cut through the bullshit quickly.  And if a panel is bad, well it’s over quickly.

30 Minutes of Prep

With any panel, but especially a 30 minute panel, enforce 20-30mins of prep with the panelists before hand.  I had done this before, but was tighter about enforcing it at this show.  Have a side room set up, get all the panelists in it within 20 minutes of their panel, and get them talking.  This warms them up, avoid awkward introductions on stage, and cuts right to the point.

Have Questions

Send a list of your own questions and goals for the panel to the moderator alone.  They should be the executive voice of the panel’s direction and topic, but giving them some guidelines really helps.  Make it clear these are not required, just suggestions, and most moderators will appreciate it.  If you can’t think of questions, maybe you should rethink your topic…

An Emcee with a Vested Interest in the Show

We decided pretty last minute to add an emcee, so one of the co-producers, Arden Pennell, did it.  This meant she did not stand up there making jokes or enjoying herself speaking.  She knew who the moderators were and what came next.  She was interested in keeping the room focused, the conversations flowing (instructing people to meet the previous panelists OUTSIDE the room rather than chatter inside it), and the agenda on time and topic.

The Gender Thing

Of course, being a woman’s only event with the mission statement to empower one another through our business and technical experience may have helped with the general supportive and open atmosphere.  These were some interesting observations I made throughout the day, relative to the dozens of regular tech events (IE: 75% or more male) I have attended.  I noticed them and wanted to share them as interesting; please don’t read into them as sweeping generalizations that I will apply to every woman or man I meet.

*  Punctuality. Guess who our 3 of our 4 latest speakers were, relative to the time of their panel.  3 of the 4 men we had speaking.  Now, this may have been in part to it being a woman’s only show and them not wanting to intrude, but they were actually LATE to the 20 minute prep session I requested everyone attend.  I also had a significantly higher percentage of badges released by the lunch break then I have for any other conference I have produced (about 75% relative to about 60%).

*  Panel Dynamics. People noted, and some complained, that panels were too nice and didn’t have enough disagreements on them.  This is a common stereotype/statement made about men and women: in conversation, women seek similarities, men seek differences.

*  Attentiveness. I have never had so FEW people out networking during panel discussions.  Most attendees sat in the room, laptops or even notebooks open, actually taking notes or tweeting about the event (yes, I totally spy on my attendees over their shoulders…)  This is not to say they didn’t network – in fact another criticism we got was the lack of networking time set aside: another indication that people didn’t want to leave sessions to network.  At other tech events, I frequently have quite a few bunches of networkers out throughout the day.

*  Diversity Aside from gender, this was one of the more diverse tech-themed events I have attended.  Now, I think this is partially because it was not hard tech, but business in technology.  I am also not going to go so far as to say it was “diverse” – still mostly white and asian – but I could actually count African American on TWO hands (rather than the usual one), and noted a few Hispanics, Pacific Islander, and generally not Caucasian/Asian.  Aside from race, however, the age diversity and variety of style and dress was amazing!  We had 16 – 60 represented there, and people in business suits, dresses, jeans, blouses, and tshirts, stylistic goth wear, hipster, chic, a bit punkish, business casual, and everything you could imagine!  Forget jeans and sports coats or blue shirts and khakis!

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Overall, it was an amazing event to have a part in; it has given me an incredible list of powerful female speakers to suggest at future events, and has truly shown that gender (or company level: CEO, VP, Developer, etc.) really makes no difference in the caliber of a speaker and the quality of information they have to share.  It is our life experiences, our speaking training, and our confidence that counts most.  And if you want a good panel, a diversity of business – AND life – experiences is what counts.

All photos are taken by Julie Michelle.  You can see more of her work at http://femmefotographie.com
and more Girls in Tech photos on Flickr

Media eagerly awaits each new design

This post is a bit late; I’ve been too busy working on a Halloween costume.  But it’s up, all the same

For those of you that missed it, Digital Summer was a party last Wednesday (produced by the lovely Liana Burtsava and Eliane Fiolet, and hosted by Girls in Tech and Ubergizmo) that brought together tech, photography, and fashion for one of the hottest mixers I’ve been to in awhile.  When all was said and done, they also raised money to plant nearly 1000 trees in Honduras!  Yay for good times and good causes!

But what exactly happened that made it oh so right?  While ideally I’d like to sit down with Liana and ask, here are some tips I saw that might help your next event get there.

1. Set a high standard. By making their banners beautiful and artistic, by setting a dress code, and by announcing a semi-professional photo shoot area at the event, people came, and looked good.  People want to feel pretty, and be surrounded by pretty people, and Liana and Eliane made sure everyone knew this would be an event for that.  Man, I saw people in suits that I didn’t know owned anything other than their company tshirts.
2. Keep a (pretty) line outside. This related to #1 – a line of people in tshirts and jeans is much less interesting than a line of beautiful women and international men.  Sure, people complained about the line, but really not that much.  And folks on the street asked what was going on.  Have the venue open 5-10 minutes late.  Tell the doorman there is no rush to get people in.  But be aware, this is a fine line (no pun intended), and keeping people out in the cold or out too long will breed discontent.
3. Be liberal with media titles and promotion. Make people feel important.  When I knew I’d be able to skip the line as media, it inspired me to write more about the event; to earn that privilege.   I pimped this event to numerous friends and colleagues because my logo would be up there, and I wanted people to see.
4. Unite sexy genres.  A tech mixer comes off as dull to the laymen.  Sure, he likes social media and all, but aren’t all techies just geek guys, he asks?  My most popular events have been when SFbeta teamed up with Virgance (green tech is sexy) and when we worked with Glam Media (with a name like Glam, what’s to miss?).  Liana and Eliane did this beautifully.  By working with tech bloggers, Girls in Tech,and local fashion and make-up artists, they were able to make a tech mixer that catered to women, to fashion, and to the media, without anything feeling forced.  This increased their audience without decreasing experience.
5. Free drinks. Well, media got a free drink, but otherwise, thiey didn’t do this.  But they didn’t need to, since they hit the other points so well.  Offer a free drink to every attendee at your event, and you’ll draw the crowds.
6. Hawt sponsors and partners.  Sponsors are most certainly not just for the money.  Sponsors promote the event to their clients, they give away schwag, and they get their name on everything.  If you can be picky, do it.  HP was there, showing off their awesome touch screens and mini-laptops.  There were also Coveroo iPhone etched covers going on and eye-lash extensions being added by star artists Bianca Lucescu and Candy Walker.  I dont know if either of those were paying sponsors, but that doesn’t matter.  They were a perk for attendees, and that will more than pay for itself.  Even if you don’t have sponsors as cool as these, work with them to design something engaging they can do or give away; it’ll leave them feeling more pleased with the investment, and will draw more crowds.

So congratulations ladies, on a wonderful evening!  And good luck to the rest of you; I’m sure you shall be fabulous!