Right now, it’s an unknown and challenging time for everyone. Event Organizers are facing many tough decisions. If you have an event scheduled in 2020, there’s a good chance you will need to either postpone it or switch it to virtual. From the moment you realize there may be a reason that your original event plans fall through, we recommend looking at all your options and making a decision as soon as possible.
Here are some event postponement tips that can help your organization and event in the coming weeks:
Tips to help you:
- Talk to your team, vendors and sponsors: This is the time that you should talk to your team, vendors, sponsors and anyone else involved in your event.
- Review your policies: Review any policies or insurance associated with your event to see if there are guidelines you need to consider.
- Ask questions: Make sure you are asking the important questions – Can the venue accommodate the new date? Can your entertainment and staff? Put as much information together as you can to decide if you’ll be postponing, moving to virtual or rescheduling if you’ve chosen a new date.
- Communicate quickly and clearly with your attendees: If you’ve made the decision to move your event or cancel, you should communicate with your event goers as soon as possible. We suggest you do this by emailing your attendees, updating your website, social media, registration page and by resending everyone’s confirmation emails. We recommend using consistent messaging across all your communication channels and giving your team the opportunity to provide input and proofread before sending.
More Tips To Consider
- Provide options: Just because your event couldn’t happen according to your original plans doesn’t mean there aren’t other options to keep the event alive. Consider any or all of the following – creating a virtual event and sending swag via mail, offering a deferral option for next year or rescheduling to a later date.
- Keep your attendees engaged: Get creative and think of some activities for your attendees to stay engaged and excited about your brand and event. Encourage them to share their training photos, create some new limited-edition swag, or run a contest. This can help keep you top of mind and help you maintain a connection during this unknown time.
- Ask for help: The Events.com team is standing by to help you come up with the right solution for your events.
Rescheduling your event can not only lengthen your event lead time but also create the opportunity to attract some new attendees. We encourage you to pick back up your efforts of spreading the word and to focus on being louder than ever. When the world is ready to go back to (its new) normal, event-goers will be more enthusiastic than ever to participate in events and connect with others.
