You are a natural entrepreneur. Successfully making your way to the top. You are in your zone of genius, and living life wildly.

What more can you ask for? An event planner, perhaps?!

Adding value is one of the single most important things you must do in order to have a successful and memorable event. There’s no skimping out here.

Of course you’ll want to know what’s important to your attendees. What’s valuable to you, may not be matter to the next person. Chances are, your audience profile is similar, and you can gauge pretty easily what they’re looking for.

No matter what you do, however, consider adding value at every stage of your event.

Here are just 9 ways you can add value before, during, and after your events.

Before Your Event

1. Reward attendees who buy their tickets early. Offer discounted tickets, share exclusive giveaways, or offer a VIP experience for the first 10 who sign up. The idea is to have a strong incentive to encourage people to register early. Done right, it’s a win-win for everyone.

2. Keep attendees + partners informed. Share details often. Not sure what to share? Provide information about the venue, location, and the surrounding area. Get people pumped about your event. Be sure to have an open line of communication with your event partners (i.e. speakers, sponsors, etc.) Consider planning out your email campaigns, as well as leveraging your Facebook groups and event page to announce exciting updates.

3. Get attendees excited + set everyone up for success. This goes hand-in-hand with number 2. Engage and communicate with your attendees. Have a poll to to discover what kind of topics they want covered, or what they want for entertainment.

Prepare everyone for what to expect, what to bring, even what the weather will be like. Be sure your speakers and sponsors know how they’ll be connecting with attendees, and provide them with a media kid that will make it easy for them to promote the event to their network.

During Your Event

1. Offer an element of surprise + support. Get creative and delight your audience with a surprise special guest, unannounced events, a flash mob that breaks out during the lunch hour. Think outside the box, or include a traditional element in an unconventional way, like an award for the craziest dance moves, or the recognition for attending the conference with kids in tow – I’ve seen it, I’ve done it.

Consider working with sponsors to host a charging station, chair massages, a breastfeeding room, or a lounge area. What you come up with will depend highly on your group’s needs. Think about practical ideas your attendees will appreciate because you put in that extra thought and care. Simply, put in yourself in their shoes.

2. Provide a variety of ways to have fun while learning. Selfie stations are still all the rage. Provide a step and repeat wall or fun branded signs throughout your event space that encourage attendees to snap and share.

Consider interactive tools or apps that will help attendees navigate your event, or play a fun game.

3. Create unique opportunities for networking and connecting with others. Building relationships is one of the main reasons people attend events. Sprinkle in intentional opportunities for people to connect on a deeper level. Make it fun, with ice breakers like a networking scavenger hunt.

After Your Event

1. Always ask for your attendee’s honest opinions + feedback. And, always thank them for it. It helps if you create your survey ahead of time. Look at your activities and offerings, and determine what you want to measure.

People are usually willing to provide feedback, and their feedback helps you plan a better event every time. Let attendees know their ideas matter.

Offer an incentive for attendees to share their thoughts quickly, and immediately after the event. For example, they can be entered into a contest to win a ticket for the following year.

2. Share valuable post-event information. If your event had presentations from speakers, make the slides and/or audio recordings with attendees.

Photos never go out of style. Attendees will want to share their experience so tag away, or send a link to attendees to where they can view and download any images.

Sidenote: Make sure you have permission to do so from your photographer.

Continue the conversation online through your Facebook groups or event apps.

3. Always express gratitude. Always thank your guests for attending. If you want to go the extra mile express your thanks with useful and meaningful swag. Send an email, give shoutouts on social media, and let them know you’re excited to see them at the next event.

Your Turn

How are you adding value to you attendees? What other ideas can we add to this list?

If you have an event you need support with let us know by emailing us at mail to: celebrate@angelagraceevents.com.