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Shannon Kilkenny

How to Attract New Clients with Seminars and Workshops

Face it ladies, we can all use a new or different form of marketing, promotion and/or publicity. I’m a true believer in multiple venues for getting my name and product out to my potential customers and clients. One avenue I have found that works for me is planning and implementing seminars and workshops. This great marketing tool also gets me out of the house, away from my computer and face to face with my customers and potential clients. Who is the perfect candidate for leading a seminar or workshop? Anyone who has a product or service to offer and wants more clients and customers – is that you? This brief overview shows you the benefits of seminars and workshops and helps to get you started with development and designing ideas. First, let’s define seminars and workshops. With this understanding you will be able to decide which fits you and your marketing plan.

A Seminar tends to be more instructive with a lecturer speaking to an audience about a specific topic. Seminars typically handle a larger audience with this structure. You can have hundreds of participants – just listening with little to no interaction.

A Workshop tends to be more interactive, more of a hands-on learning. It is usually a smaller group because of the activity structure. Typically workshops cater to a smaller group where you might break out and work in even smaller groups throughout the allotted timeframe.

So What is in it For You? There are a number of benefits to harvest with these types of events.

1. Exposure and Name Recognition – You can reach a large audience base. It is a way of introducing your name and business to potential clients and customers. It is said that a person needs to hear your name 5-7 times before they will buy from you or use your services. This is an excellent outlet for word-of-mouth marketing.
2. Establish Credibility – When you lead workshops or seminars, people automatically look at you as an expert. They are more likely to trust what you say. You build trust and a reputation as well, so make sure what you say is true. Offer them a solution.
3. Generate Leads – These leads are priceless. If they attend your event or contact you for more information, a solid connection has been made. I have a list of everyone who has taken my class or come to my workshop, purchased my book or made an inquiry of any of the above. And when my next book comes out….I have a list of direct leads.
4. Selling Opportunity – Seminars and workshops can create a multi-stream of income. First you can charge for the workshop (not always appropriate). Second, sell your product and your services – possibly repeatedly (back of the room sales).
5. Learn your market – Learn needs and desires of your audience. After each event you will have learned more from your participants and can then transform your curriculum to cover those new issues. You can incorporate that information into your next presentation or you might get new ideas and create a totally different seminar or create a new product. Evaluations forms are priceless.

Sometimes these results aren’t noticed right away, because the client isn’t ready at the moment. But they will remember you when their need arises. And if they keep seeing your name out there…when they are ready, they will come to you.How to Develop a Workshop or Seminar

Let’s do a quick test to see if you are a candidate to create a workshop or seminar by going through the next 8 steps. See what you come up with and decide whether or not you have something worthwhile to give. And of course you do or else you wouldn’t even be reading this article.

1. Define yourself: Write down your profession or the special knowledge you have – keep it simple at first. For example:

Profession: Attorney, mortgage broker, chiropractor, business consultant, event planner, writer, accountant, financial planner, etc.Knowledge: Health care, web design, coaching, event planning, vitamins, teacher, real estate, organizer, etc.

1. Define your services and products: Write down what your services or the products you have to offer such as coaching, consulting, teacher, trainer, books, newsletters, classes and/or workshops, etc.
2. Get specific: What information or skill do you have and would want to share with others? If you’re a mortgage broker, maybe you specialize in 1st time buyers or are creative with financing and work with people who own and want to own multiple income properties. Or you’re a chiropractor and you specialize in young children or pregnant women or sports injuries. Or you’re a tax account and you specialize in real estate or small businesses or an attorney who specialized in creating trusts and financial planning…..You get the idea.
3. List Potential Topics: Out of the list above, list some topics you could teach and train others.
4. List your target audience: Who would be interested in what you have to offer. You need to get specific here. When it comes to marketing, knowing who these people are will save you time and money.
5. Bring in Others: List others who you might want to create an alliance with you and work together on a combined curriculum. Find someone with additional knowledge or complimentary knowledge or a product that would enhance your event.
6. Prepare an agenda: Take everything from above and begin working on the details. This will ultimately begin the process of designing your agenda/curriculum. Make sure you have a compelling topic and offer a solution!
7. Write an enticing course title: With the information you’ve written down, start creating a title. Don’t be surprised if it changes often until you find the right one. And you will know when you have it.

By following the above steps you have developed the shell / template for your workshop or seminar. Keep going to the design stage if you have discovered you have great topic and program to use as a selling tool.Designing a Workshop / SeminarRemember that the ultimate goal is obtain the benefits that we spoke of earlier! You want to present a quality image of you and your product or service. What you are looking for are new clients and you want quality clients not just quantity. Think of your workshop or seminar as a sales call for a large number of potential clients.

Create an Agenda – Make sure your topic and/or presentation is gripping and solutions based. People don’t just buy products and services….they buy solutions. They have problems and they want you to provide the answers. How does your service or product provide a solution? What answers do you have to a problem? These are the topics and issues that you want to present. What I can do for you! If the complete solution involves a third party – bring them in. With the right collaboration you are able to offer participants more solutions in one setting. Be specific and avoid topics that are too general. Unless the workshop is just a teaser to other things such as an all day course or a series of coaching sessions, etc. I give workshops for the Learning Annex and only have 3 hours to teach Event Planning. There is not nearly enough time to explain it all….So the participants want to buy my book as they leave for the rest of the story!

Know Your Audience – Select the right target audience and prospects. These are the people who need your services and products – they need a solution that you can provide. Are they individuals, small business owners, women, parents, students, people in career transition, people in pain – emotionally or physical, new home buyers, somebody having tax problems, financial investment needs, the corporate sector, the list goes on and on. Clarifying your audience will help you effectively communicate your solution in your invitation and ultimately your presentation. Find out how to reach your audience. Will it be through email, flyer, phone calls, invitations, etc. What will work best for your situation? Network for leads – always be on the look out for potential clients. Make sure you get everyone’s business card and put it in your database right away.

Attract your Clients – Create and deliver an attractive invitation that demands action. Craft something that will entice them to come to your event. Use the AIDA principal for the invitation: Attention – Grab the readers’ attention

Interest – Generate interest

Desire – Create the desire within them to keep reading or phone

Action – Tell them what to do. Act Now, Buy Now, Phone Today, Buy This book!

Once you have a presentation whether it is a seminar or a workshop, you can recycle it. No need to reinvent the wheel. So the initial time it takes to create the presentation will pay off over and over again.

Obviously there is a lot more to planning a workshop or seminar than what is written is this article. For a comprehensive understanding of planning events of any kind, order my book The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning by going to www.successfuleventplanning.com

And for those of you out there who think you can’t possibly present a workshop or seminar – because of a fear of speaking in front of a group. I’m here to tell you I was there! But I started out speaking with small groups and then worked my way up. But fear of public speaking is a whole other article! In fact…it could be a great workshop topic for one of you ladies. Plan well, plan often and expect success.

Shannon Kilkenny

Every event whether it’s a meeting, party, seminar, conference, charity event, or your high school reunion will have common threads regardless of what it is, where it’s held, when or why it is happening. The following common threads are found in every organized event. Make sure you plan each of the following steps thoroughly and you are guaranteed success.

1. Plan Your Vision: Your vision is the main reason and focus for having the event? It is a combination of your goals and objectives.

2. Set the Goals and Objectives: A goal is the general purpose of the event that provides a road map for the planning process. An objective is a measurable, attainable target that contributes to the accomplishment of the goal. An event can have one or multiple goals and objectives.

3. Select a Site: Location, location, location! Every event needs a site! Pick the location to match and support your vision, goals and objectives.

4. Create Promotion/Marketing Materials: You must get your message out. You need to get the basic information to the right people in the right amount of time so they know when to show up, where to go, and what to do when they get there. The message could be as simple as the date, time, and location via the telephone or as complicated as a multi page brochure for a multi-day conference with numerous events combined in one event. Or perhaps some major TV advertising and sophisticated website design for online registration.

5. Identify Your Participants/ Guests: Without them, you would not have an event. Whether they are invited guests, paying participants or required attendees, people will be coming to your event. Know your audience and target them carefully.

6. Create the Agenda/Timeline: Whether it is written down or planned, every event has a timeline. There is always a starting point and a finishing point. This is detail outline of the activities. What is happening from hours before the participants arrive to the follow-up when the event is complete. And it is the schedule of what is actually happening throughout the event. The agenda can be two types. The one the participant receives and follows and the one that the people working the event receive and follow. This tells people where to go, or what to do when you get there.

7. Establish a Budget: Money comes in and goes out. With some events no obvious money will be coming in, such as a wedding or company social. Create a budget nonetheless to make sure not too much money goes out. For larger events, budgets are a must especially when profit is one of you objectives. Without a budget it is hard to set guidelines and measure results.

8. Select the Food and Beverage: It may be a pitcher of water and mints at a one day seminar, a sit down dinner for 10,000, an all day concert where vendors will be brought in to serve the public, coffee and doughnuts at the morning sales meeting and/or soda, cookies in the afternoon for an all day conference, or appetizers served during a 3 hour cocktail party for 700 people. This is a wide and general segment of an event and will vary widely depending on the vision, goals, and objectives and of course, money.

9. Arrange for Transportation: You may need to transport 800 people from 10 hotels to the meeting site twice a day or it could be just getting yourself to the site on time. You may need to arrange the travel needs for the entertainment, speakers, and VIP’s, including picking them up at the airport. Or this may include contracting with an airline for discount airfare or negotiating with rental car companies for special rates to offer to your participants.

10. Hire Staff/Volunteers: This could range from checking in your participants for your workshop, or 100’s of volunteers at a conference or sporting event. It could be the caterers, musicians, florists, cleanup crew, equipment setup, valets, ticket takers, MC’s, speakers, or the balloon lady. It almost always takes more than one person to successfully coordinate an event.

Shannon Kilkenney

Planning for the Environment – Changing the Way We do Business

At any given moment there are thousands of business meetings and special events going on with millions of guests traveling to and from different locations throughout the world. The event and hospitality industry is perfectly situated to have an extraordinary environmental and ecological impact by planning events with better awareness and by greening up their decision making process. Green planning is a responsible way of doing business that includes energy conservation, minimizing consumption of natural resources, reducing waste, reusing resources, recycling, and using earth-friendly products.

Green meetings and events are not main stream today but will be mandate before we know it. Times are evolving rapidly in that direction and event planners, venues, suppliers and participants are responding. They are beginning to follow ecological practices and implementing environmentally friendly processes and programs into the way they design their events. The more an event planner requests and ultimately hires green services, the more suppliers and vendors will begin to incorporate green practices as well. They will have to keep up with the times and the requests of their clients.

These suggestions listed below are for you if you gather people for any reason what-so-ever! It doesn’t matter what type of event you plan. Whether you are coordinating a special event, planning a corporate event, are part of the team planning conventions, involved in conference planning or business meetings and seminars. Maybe your are in charge of planning a company party, a sporting event, grand openings, a reception, a charity event or a fundraiser, or have volunteered to do your daughters wedding or son’s school play or bake sale. You might be planning festivals, rock concerts, reunions, retreats, or book signing events. Or perhaps you are just having the family and friends over for a holiday get-together. The list is endless – thousand of events are being planned as you read this! ALL of them could use environmental practices.

Listed below are a few simple choices you can make today as you plan your special event or corporate meeting that will make an immediate difference with little effort. Do just one or do them all. The more you integrate into your planning practices the easier they become.

10 Easy Steps to Put into Practice Today

Here are ten simple steps that you can take right now to lessen the impact of any event:

1. Create Standards. Establish environmental standards in writing and get buy-in from your clients, the organization’s management and/or your clientele. Share your standards with suppliers, vendors, speakers, and participants.
2. Use Technology. Use new media and electronic technology to cut down your paper needs. Create an informational web site, offer electronic registration and confirmation, and advertise using the web and use various forms of email. Create podcasts, webcasting, and video streaming to alleviate travel for and accommodate those who cannot travel.
3. Choose a Local Destination. Picking a local or close venue will reduce distances traveled by speakers and participants. Choose the host city that is the closest to participants’ locale. Choose a venue and hotel that are near the airport and within walking distance of each other or close to public transportation.
4. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Ask your hotel or event venue to provide visible, accessible reduction, reuse, and recycling services for paper, metal, plastic, and glass. Also if food is involved in your event, ask them about their composting regime or give away programs.
5. Volume Up. Have the food and beverage provider serve sugar, salt, pepper, cream, and other condiments in bulk dispensers. Use volume serving verses individual packaging. If you are using hotel rooms, find a venue that does not use individual shampoo and lotion bottles rather large dispensers. Also one that that offers a linen reuse program.
6. Use Less. Be aware of what you use and how you use it whether it is food or product. When you order food or drinks for any occasion, try to order only what you will be using. And think about your give away items, are they really necessary. These are just a few areas where using less will help.
7. Eat Healthy and Locally. Plan meals using local, seasonal produce and free range meats. Include vegetarian meals and order only what you need. Also use local flora in your decorating and keep the flowers in pots verse cut so you can use them as gifts and prizes.
8. Use paper wisely. Published all printed materials on recycled paper using vegetable-based inks and print on both sides of the pages.
9. Save Energy. Coordinate with the event venue to ensure lights, audio visual equipment and air conditioning will be turned off when rooms are empty.
10. Spread the News! Tell participants, speakers, and the media about your success. You will be surprised. Green efforts are contagious.

Some of these suggestions may seem obvious and they are, however, if you were to make the changes listed above, you would be way ahead of the game in becoming an environmental planner. The bigger event you produce the more these suggestions matter. For more information on how you can become more environmental, the Chapter Planning for the Environment in my book, The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning. Visit my web site at www.successfuleventplanning.com to purchase the book.