What No Events?!! What Do We Do Now?!

We keep calm and build communities! 20 years as a conference producer, I cannot tell you the number of times i have started a new cycle of an established event only to find that we hadn't been in touch with the sponsors, speakers and delegates since the year before! Why is that? Are we running so fast, from event to event that we totally forget that we need to build relationships?

CV has forced our industry to stop and think. We need to be identifying the communities that sit around the events we deliver. Who are they, what do they want and how can we better serve them, over and above the transactional event-by-event approach that we currently offer?

We need to take a longer term approach. Instead of 1 huge all singing all dancing annual event, it might be a series of engaging, informative 'interactions' over a 12 month period. Its a whole mindset shift i know, but its been necessary for a long time. Re-think and re-define. Build and engage your event community, tribe, network, group. but engage them and give them what they want. That will:
1. Bring value to your audiences and amplify your activity
2. Attract better speakers
3. Deliver a stronger proposition for sponsors

Building communities is the way forward without a doubt!