Every Spring, Summer and Fall the festivals and conventions pop up like new sprouts in the garden. It's too bad the organizers keep making the same mistakes until they poison the ground. So, if you are thinking about doing a festival or convention to get the word out, maybe I can save you from yourself and some of the glaring mistakes people running festivals make.
First of all, you might want to consider drugs. You are going to have to have a smile and sunny disposition for at least one to five days of interacting with the public and business owners. You may need drugs. I am serious. However there are a few things you can do to make the going a little easier.
Number one, do the math.
Here you have a visitor to your event. This person will interact with how many people and talk about your event, before and after. If they have a good social media vibe..maybe 500 and it will die and they will move on to the next topic within a day or two. Half of what they say will be dismissed as: "Oh, you know them...always something wrong..." It may even make people curious to attend just to find out what all the fuss was about.
Here you have a vendor. That vendor will interact with at least 25% of the people coming through your door. Next weekend, they will be probably be at another event and then another, all within your type of enterprise. Within a year, they may interact with thousands of people and hundreds of other vendors. They are an "authority" whether you like it or not.
Now, which one do you want to keep happy?
Let's do some more math. Before you can open the door to your event, you have to pay for the venue and advertising. Who provides the solid basis at a premium price for that? Your vendors. Advance ticket sales for events are notoriously low and fickle and the general public is more likely to ask for a refund two months later because they stubbed their toe and couldn't make it. Vendors know they aren't getting a refund if they don't show. Whether you like it or not, your vendors are the foundation for your event financially.
Finally let's consider your speakers who usually turn into Drama Queens at the last moment. You are paying them to speak and they are promoting themselves, not your event. Logically, where should they be in the equation? One thing speakers fail to grasp is that if they screw up, they screw themselves. The audience is going to blame them, unless you do something like put them in a place no one can hear them.....Then the sympathy will shift fast and you may have to deal with an unhappy mob.
So, one might ask why are vendors shown so little respect at events. I don't have an answer but I do know that many events have gone by the way side as the economy has shifted simply because your vendors are not going to spend precious dollars at an event that is uncomfortable, unprofitable and at which they feel unwelcome and unappreciated.
Your vendors are the front line in dealing with your attendees. I have seen an event go from everyone having a good time to in the crapper faster than an Indie 500 wreck when the person running the event got a stick placed up a dark moist location and became the event Nazi and ran through enforcing "rules" no one had ever seen. I have seen a conference that will never happen again do so by someone coming in and announcing the vendors were not welcome to participate in a public event being held in a public location where the general public could walk up and join in. One might point out the vendors were to busy to take a hour and join in the event anyway. It's the thought that counts.
Your vendors are also who the general public complain to about your event, so you might want to stay on their good side just to gather information.
What are the number one complaints about events? Let me give you the top five:
1. No Place To Sit.
People get tired at events. You have vendors who don't show. Create little seating areas in empty booth spaces for your visitors. Have extra chairs. You can actually rent them and they will deliver and pick up.
2. The Bathroom
Please, people drive at least a half hour to and from and will spend how long at your event? Everyone is going to visit the bathroom. If you have to, hire someone and buy extra toilet paper, but maintain the bathrooms. Do not hold events in locations with inadequate facilities. It will break your event.
3. Parking
This is another big one. Take the Orlando Convention Center and below it, the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center. By the time you hike from the parking lot you are tired and by the time you hike to the door of the event you are exhausted and then, you have miles of event. Why are there all these open spaces when people are trying to get from their car to the event??? I, even though in good shape, have crossed events at Orlando's main convention center off my list. Ft. Lauderdale has the unique problem that a commercial height van or large SUV cannot get into their parking lot because the CEILING is TOO LOW. They are off my list as I have to park on the roof and climb over a curb to do it. In other words, scout your location well and look at it from the point of loading and unloading and people getting from cars to event. I exhibited at one event where everyone had to load and unload using ONE elevator and they actually wanted to close the event and 5, we couldn't pack up before 5 and they wanted us out at 5. Teleporter anyone???
4. Noise
Yes, I mean noise. Never hold an exhibition in an auditorium. Auditoriums are designed to have excellent acoustics and that means sound carries. I attended one event, which couldn't even open the doors the next year, in an auditorium that was so well designed you could hear every word anyone said at the other end. Everyone had a splitting headache within an hour. No attendees returned for the second day. Add that to the fact they also had speakers with microphones. People, sheets do not dampen noise. They do not make effective barriers for anything. Never allow drumming in an enclosed space where people are trying to talk. Never allow speakers to control the sound system as they will try to drown out everyone else. Never allow a microphone to be used in a booth at an event. I saw an event lose most of their exhibitors because of a cookware demo booth with a microphone. They also never opened the doors again.
5. Temperature
You can't please everyone but when people are sweating, you had better have air conditioning if it is an inside event. Trust me on this one....95 degree weather, rain and 100% humidity will guarantee no vendor will ever buy a booth again and no one will ever buy a ticket. If it isn't an inside event, you had better have ice and water available because people go nuts when they dehydrate. The last thing you ever want is someone passing out at your event and having to call 911. Take a hint from Disney and Universal, they have drinks in huge tubs of ice for sale and they know people are going to take the ice. They let you take it because they don't want you passing out in the park.
The rules are simple. Put yourself in the vendor's shoes and ask yourself how you would like to be treated. Walk through the event before you rent the location and look at it from the attendees' point of view. Have you made your vendors and events inaccessible? Is your event turning into a marathon? Are people going to be ready to kill someone by the time they get from the parking lot? If it is an all day event, is there food and drink available? If you depend on restaurants, have you made certain they are open? Network with them, folks. Get fliers and maps from them. Find out if they deliver.
Look at your event as your home and your are entertaining. Everyone is your guest. Your goal is to please everyone. Believe it or not, your event is secondary to the experience of those attending it. I don't care if you have the world's most beautiful location and the best speakers in the Universe, if everyone is physically miserable at your event, they will not come back! If your vendors are miserable, your attendees will be just as miserable. If everyone is comfortable and having fun, your location can be ugly and your speakers mediocre. People will come back and bring their friends. The key is comfort.
