5 More Essentials for Creating & Filling Your Successful Workshop or Seminar (Part 2)

Just to get everyone up to speed, here are the first ” 5 Essentials …”  from my previous article which you can read by clicking here.

1. Provide great value in both content and context.

2. Always under promise and over deliver.

3. Give away as much as possible and then give more.

4. The presenter never steps in front of the room without someone in back running the show.

5. Always provide participants with a next step.  Often that is enrolling in your next event.

If you do these things, you have a good chance of success.  If you want to take it a few steps farther, here’s some other things you can do.

1. Polish your content, especially the first three minutes of your event.  That begs the question of when your event begins.  I say it begins when the person makes a commitment to show up, but we’ll save that conversation for #2.

For the sake of this step, let’s go along with what most people believe and pretend that your event begins when you step in front of the room.  In that case, what happens during that first three minutes is critical because you only get one opportunity to make a first impression.

The main issue here for most people is that those critical first few minutes are when you as a presenter are generally not at your best.  You’re usually getting a feel for your audience, more nervous and trying to find how you will pace your presentation.

A lot of people step in front of the room as if they were stepping in front of a hostile group, and they try to win them over with a joke or an apology.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I’m not really a public speaker but …”  Not the best first impression as you’re setting yourself up as someone who can’t deliver the goods.

I recommend that speakers / presenters create a “canned” very rehearsed first three to seven minutes and not deviate from it until they are extremely comfortable in front of the room.  Actually, for most people, never deviating from it is best. 

2. Realize when your seminar or workshop “really begins.”  Over three decades producing and managing events, I have found that the event begins … (drum roll, please) when the participant commits to showing up.  For Biznik events, that’s generally when they RSVP that they’re coming.

That, however, is not much of a commitment in our busy society, and people often change their RSVP or just don’t show up.  So, the more rigorous a commitment you can create, the more likely it is that people will show up.  In our culture, that greater commitment is generally financial.  People who pay even a minimal $5 in advance are much more likely to show up.

The reason this concept of when an event begins is so important is that events actually do begin for people the instant that they commit.  This is very obvious in the personal growth field when “miracles” begin to happen once a person makes that commitment to attend a workshop. 

I’ve seen it time and time again.  Someone doesn’t have the money for the workshop, but pays the deposit and fills out the registration form.  The next day, they receive “unexpected” money in the exact amount of what they need to pay the balance.

3. Remember that the workshop is NOT ABOUT YOU.  Almost all of us want to believe that the information and wisdom we are sharing from the front of the room is “god’s gift to the world” and that we’re the so very special for sharing it.  From the view of your audience, however, nothing could be farther from the truth.  They want to know WIIFM - what’s in it for me.

So, you’ve really got to demonstrate that it’s about them and not your from the get go.  One way to do that is in that critical first few minutes.  Rather than start with “Hi, my name is Joe and let me tell you a little bit about how this came about” (or some version of that), I coach presenters to have the first thing out of their mouth be a question about the audience.

You’ve seen it dozens of times at good workshops when the presenter says, “How many of you _____?   And how many of you _______?”  A good presenter gives people a second or two to consider and actually make the physical gesture of raising their hand.  Then, they’ve got a bit of “skin in the game” as well as a sense that this will be about them and not you trying to force feed them your ideas.

4. Let somebody else be the logistics person.  You want to position yourself as the “expert” on your topic rather than the person who knows where the bathroom is located.  Accordingly, it’s good to have someone else step in front of the room at the designated start time. (4.1 bonus.  Always start on time, even if it’s only to have someone step in front of the room and say, “Traffic is really bad today, and we know that several people are late.  So, we’re going to be formally starting in five minutes.  In the meantime, just for those of you who make the effort to be here on time, I’m going to - ______.” Then, provide those in the room with some special little bonus.)

The person who does this logistical introduction for you handles all the necessary logistics for the workshop so that people feel comfortable.  If you don’t have somebody to do this, consider asking someone who shows up early (hopefully somebody you know and trust) if they’ll help you out and do this.

In any case, participants need to know where the bathrooms are, when the breaks will be, when you want questions, etc.  They also need to be reminded to turn their cell phones to off or vibrate.  Then, that person can introduce you as the “expert,” thereby giving you more creditability and allowing people to know who you are before you even show up.  Simply doing this allows you to do #3 much better because you’ve been introduced so you can more comfortably start with your audience participation.

5. Always have some form of evaluation at the end.  Schedule it into your timeline script for the event.  (5.1 Bonus.  Create a timeline script for the event.  It will be most effective if you use the standard three act format found in most stage plays and Hollywood movies.)

The evaluation can be a form (short with check boxes and space to write comments) you ask people to fill out or a series of questions you ask from the front of the room to confirm that people got what they came for.  In either case, you’re doing three things.

1. You’re showing participants that you care about their experience.

2. You’re gathering feedback that will help you in your future events.

3. You’re helping participants to affirm in their own minds the value that they received during your workshop - thereby, setting them up to enroll in your next event or buy your product or whatever “next step” you’re offering them.

4. Another bonus.  If your evaluation is a written form, you’re giving them yet another opportunity to give you their contact information or the contact information for others who might be interested in your work.

Click here to read Part 3 of this series and learn another 5+ Essentials.

So, now you have ten (or twelve) Essentials for creating successful events.  Since I’ve been producing, presenting, marketing and facilitating live events for decades, this list could go on forever.  If, however, you simply adhere to these 10 or 12, you will succeed.  And, if you need help with your event, drop me a note.  ssieden@gmail.com or check out my website http://www.ImagineLiveEvents.com/