This question was asked on LinkedIn by a small business owner.
If registration is a deterrent, do you really think those folks would be valid prospects? Unfortunately, they don’t have enough trust for you or your company to give you any contact information. If you want to attract quantity with no assurance of quality then continue with no registration and you will be sure to get freeloaders.
For potential clients, request registration asking for a commitment. Dollars are a great symbol of commitment. How do we treat free events compared to paid admission events.
Free events, are not valued. After all, there is no investment. Think of the events you attend. Let’s say time is not an issue; you have lots of it – what a dream! If you get an invitation to a free event, how much background checking do you do before you commit? You read the description on the invitation, go to the website and you show up. You might take 2 minutes to do this. When you decide to watch the “American Idol” instead of the event, there is no consequence to you.
Another invitation rolls in with an interesting topic. The cost is $1000 for a half day program. What kind of background check will you do to evaluate your investment of time and money? …Much more than before. You are not only reading the description and linked website, but you are googling and binging the heck out of the presenter, company and topic. Is this person a guru of this topic? You scan through articles, white papers, Facebook fanpages, YouTube, and LinkedIn profiles. You google his/her name and with “scam” and “fraud,” just in case. As you are researching for 30 minutes compared to 2 minutes, you know much more about the presenter and the company. If you decide to attend, you now have sufficient background and will be mentally prepared to get more value from the seminar. When you pay $1000 you are not going to miss it, but also at this point, if it were complimentary, you would be more committed because of your thorough research.
As a presenter, would you like to have an audience who has done their homework so you can go straight to the gold instead of answering routine questions that are already available online? Now you can show why you are the guru if your audience is already engaged knows your experience. The audience is warm. You will walk into the presentation with credibility, instead of having to build it from scratch.
This profile is short and doesn't convey much information.
The small business owner who asked “Why should I use pre-registration for my event? “ may not have established credibility to attract his desired clientele. His online presence is lacking, for example his LinkedIn account is sparse, his blog isn’t really running (starter page) and his website is “old school”, plus his posted picture doesn’t contribute to his credibility. He could be brilliant in his field, but the information available online s does not reflect that image, but he can update his image. ReturnOnImage
Let’s say the $1000 limits the audience to a tiny audience of none. Here are a few alternatives to avoid the lack of commitment, lack of research, lack of seriousness of non-prospects feeding on freebies.
If you want to put on a free seminar, then try these ideas:
Because you now have an email list, you can contact your audience. This will save you from catastrophes that would damage your reputation. Mother Nature, construction, politics and can throw off your event and you must be able to contact your potential clients.
Here are examples of items you can share with your audience:
Without pre-registration, how will you be able to relate, accommodate and understand the audience’s needs? An audience of veterinarians, tattoo artists, chemical engineers, jugglers, car mechanics and actuaries is an audience you want to be prepared for. If you knew the broad variety of careers and industries represented, then you can take time to use examples to speak their language. The values, nomenclature, preferences of this crowd will be 360 degrees. I don’t know about you, but I would not to have a surprise audience like this. The chances of relating to the audience and making the information relevant in terms they are comfortable with are slim. However, if you knew this weeks ahead of time, you can plan for it.
When you set expectations from the very start, you boost your chances for success. In an email or other communication, you can share the following:
“This seminar is for CEOs of Fortune 100 companies and the topics will not deviate from this market. If you are not a CEO from one of these companies, you are allowed to attend, but you will not be involved in asking questions.”
“We have had an overwhelming response to this seminar and we want to let you know the room will be set with 100 chairs, even though we expect many more people. If you want a chair, then arrive early.”
“After the program, we will send out a survey and would appreciate your feedback. You will receive a copy ofThe best 7 ideas to build your business – fast as a reward for your time.”
For breakout sessions, commonly, you will have no forecast on the head count. This makes it challenging to set up the room effectively. Your venue will want the headcount and room set up nailed down 3-5 days before the event. At this point you are gambling.
Setting up an effective seating plan when the range of the audience is between 10-150 is difficult. Your event may look wimpy, or like a failure if you are set for 400 and only 16 people show up. The event can look successful if you have standing room only with 80 people in a room meant for 40. However, the audience will not be comfortable or accommodated with such a drastic disparity in expected attendance .
The room environment is extremely important to the comfort of your participants and the success of your event. To set the room properly, you must reduce the unknowns by using pre-registration and offering perks for following directions. There are many ways to avoid this problem. TheMeetingMaximizer I post articles bi-weekly.
Think about the breakout sessions. How many handouts have been wasted by printing too many or the angered participants who didn’t get a handout? Were there extra give aways and swag bags that were unnecessary? Extra food, extra coffee, extra cups, plates, etc. The venue arranged for 4 wait staff instead of 2 that you needed. Each staff person, each fork, cup and cloth napkin has a price. Of course, it depends on your venue, but you could be saving loads of money by planning and using your smarts. Think of all the money you could save. With planning, you will make you look like an expert.
Using the pre-registration to contact your attendees, you can show your style, personality, knowledge, approachability, and expertise. Relationships is what it is all about. By using the ideas mentioned, you can have a following before the seminar and people will be excited to shake your hand and take a picture with you .
Using pre-registration allows you to get a pulse on your audience and accommodate their needs before, during and after the program.
