How to grow an event

From 0 to Europe´s biggest Paleo Event 5

Who am I• Leon Benedens, 30 years old• Former Sales Rep at Statista GmbH

Today:

1. Event Organizer2. Kombucha Brewer3. Blogger

… not as smart as you are!

Paleo?EAT REAL FOOD

Biggest Food-Trend since the vegan-diet

What did we do?Europe´s biggest Paleo Event

• With no money• Very little experience• Little time (4 month)

• 2.500m² open area (Fair, Food-Market, Cooking Shows)

• 3.000 Attendees (2€ each)• 250 exclusive visitors for our conference (149€ each)

• = making 30.000 € with a first-time event.

Why you should plan an Event?• Making quick money? Nope!

BUT:- Get a higher level of trust much faster.- Tell your audience what you have to offer.- Scale up your sales.- Get sign ups/sales.

$$$ Then make money! $$$

Our JourneyA) NetworkingResearching & Engaging with influencers in the Paleo area (quite easy -> blogs) Build Social Capital

Meeting possible speakers/coaches in person they are your core value!

Create your own Facebook-Group (We love them!) Easiest way to get reach (help others to promote their events)

„This event is the perfect place to tell people about your idea for an event“

B) Build a team:Recruite volunteers (We had 15 people working with us!)

Our Journey#1 LEARNING: Invest in sharing and helping others

Why not helping Leo Marose? Or speaking at the next meetup?

Our Journey- Minimal viable product: Website (Possible Location, Speakers, no date

required)

- Good Wordpress Template „FUDGE“

- Marketing-Machine started …

Our JourneyGetting people to buy your tickets

A) Learning about pricing: - Always use a 3-step-Pricing (Earlybird to Lateticket, create urgency)- Always start with high prices, so you can discount

-> We sold 50% of our tickets on 3 days (prior to the end of each ticket-phase)

B) NOW leverage on the social capital you built!!

- Guest blogging? Blog interviews -> Easily creating content (no too time consuming) -> Every interview sold tickets

Our JourneyGetting people to buy your tickets

C) Speaker promo- Ask to share; offer affiliate-links (very easy with eventbrite)- Feature speaker Q&A on your channels (again interviews!)

Learning: Make it easy to share- Prepare everything so people only copy&paste

Our JourneyEmails:

- Met once a week with all volunteers- Set up E-Mail Lists (research)- Sent out 5.000+ personalized emails (that‘s hard work, not growth hacking)- Use your signature!

Templates

1. To speakers: Why you should speak2. Media Partners: barter deals, pastable content3. Personal invites

Bonus Learnings:- Scarcity works great (Early Bird, Limited tickets)

- 50% discount via e-mail for additional friend after initial sale- Remarkting via Facebook

- Exhibitors/Speakers -> Their audience is your audience

- Dont forget to make a lot of photos!

What did we achieve?… besides making moneyWe made 30.000 € -> Not enough for all the work

BUT:

- We found out which products are popular- We have a great plattform to market our own products- Paleo Products, Kombucha @ Paleo Con 2016

Whenever something happens, we know about it first.

Start Today: PLAN YOUR OWN EVENT AND MAKE YOURSELF

A LEADER