One of the most popular things in a community are community gatherings of all kinds. A time and place where you can meet people with similar interests, careers or simply fellow neighbors. And there is one significant trend – online communities go offline. 58% of respondents of the industry study conducted by CMX ran communities that had both online and offline components and there is a clear interest in taking online communities offline. If there is nothing but a virtual bond between people it will be easily disrupted. That is why community managers around the world are thinking about how they can create a vivid, in-person environment. The best way, how to connect people face to face is to organize a meaningful event with a clear goal. Do you want your community to learn something new? Do you want to boost connection creation among your community members or do you want to create an impact? Yes, there are many types of events, so let's have a look at them!
Leisure
Meetup
Meetups are a very efficient way of how to gather people with the same interests and skills. There should be a theme of every meetup, for instance, scrum masters meetup, startup meetup, b2b marketing meetup, community meetup, etc. We highly recommend dividing meetups into 2 parts. The first part is educational. Experienced people can share their experiences with the audience. The second part is more about networking and fun.
Party
Every party is about fun. Don't forget to design this event considering your target group. Do you know that your community loves sports? Order table football for your event. Do you knowthat your community loves music? Order a music band or prepare a great playlist.
Mealtime
Everybody knows that people love food! They love to chat with a sandwich in their hand. Andbecause food connects people, there is an endless list of options, which type of event is great to organize, for example, community breakfasts, lunches, afternoon teas, dinners, etc.
Tip! Don't forget that you don't have to pay for everything. The main purpose to come is not that community members will have a full belly, but that they have an opportunity to meet new people and to talk to each other.
Education
Conference
Organizing a conference from the ground up requires a tremendous amount of forethought and data gathering. You should start planning the conference at least six months prior to the date and there are hundreds of questions to be answered. So consider all the pros and cons. Every event begins with a vision, but youll need to transform your vision into words and numbers in order to measure costs and make informed planning decisions. First, you need tostart with the basics like who, what, when, where and why.
Workshop
Because the quality of the educational workshop is always determined by your audience satisfaction, heres rule number one: never start with your own goals. Instead, invest your efforts into clarifying how you can help your community find answers to the questions they have. This context should be really helpful in terms of goal setting. You can create a poll in your spaceflow app!
Tip! When you organize a conference or workshop, the number of activities can behuge and time-consuming. In case that there is no professional event managementteam at your company, don't hesitate to collaborate with a professional marketing or event management company. It saves you a lot of time!
Sports
Indoor sport
Table football, darts, ping pong. These funny games entertain and connect people. Having these games in your space makes the working environment more relaxed and fun. In case you don't have any of those in-house, you can order it for a special event. People love competitions and challenges, so don't forget to award a winner and afterward promote the winner in the spaceflow app!
Matches
Sometimes it is great to change the environment. Outdoor or indoor games can help to create an informal atmosphere, which is so important for successful networking. Rent a football pitch or tennis courts and have fun with your community!
Tip! One of the core values of every community is to help each other. Each community member can help another. It is nice, and in this world more important than ever, to think of people who need help. You can use this opportunity to organize some beneficial activities during your sports event. For instance: participants can pay a registration fee, they can buy a beneficial t-shirt or they can buy a beneficial drink. The profit from these activities can go to a local children's home, hospital or to a retirement home.
3 Tips
Set a clear goal for your event!
Before you start to do your first steps in event organizing, answer this question: how can i find out whether the event was successful? Set meaningful kpis you will have great data afterward and it will help your motivation!
Put your clients first!
You organize your event for your clients. Do you really know what they might like? Do not hesitate to ask them before the event. Communication before the event with your participants is crucial! Keep them informed.
Don't forget to collect feedback!
With any type of event, it’s essential to follow up in order to receive feedback and improve the selection and quality of your events. You can find 15 ideas to collect feedback at events here.
