After conducting more than five mega community events, in this podcast, I share what goes behind a successful community event. It's a science ;) Join my Diamond membership to access my Community Events Formula - https://sidz.co/diamond
In this podcast, you'll learn:
- The importance of crafting compelling event themes.
- How to budget effectively for different event sizes.
- The role of a dedicated production team in event planning.
- The significance of meticulous event flow planning.
- Design considerations for a seamless and visually appealing event.
- Strategies for assembling and managing event crews.
- Speaker selection and preparation for impactful presentations.
- The role of music in setting the event's tone and atmosphere.
Join us as we explore the intricacies of planning community events that leave a lasting impact and keep attendees coming back for more.
00:00:00
Speaker 1: I've done quite a few large events for our communities in the last two years. The first event I did for a small group of 100 and 1213 people. Then I did an event for about 500 people of our IH members called the Freedom is Retreat. Then we had the third event that I did which had again around 600 people in an event. Freedom is retreat. Then I did a quantum retreat which had a total size of around 275.
00:00:27
Speaker 1: And then we also had another event which is my latest FBR. We had around 606 50 people in the event. So in this podcast, I want to share with you exactly what goes behind planning a community event. And uh I'm just going to list out all the points because it's not as easy as one would think. You got to have a lot of elements in the background to really make it work. So when it comes to an event, the first thing is
00:00:52
Speaker 1: you need to have a theme in place.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: So for me, the planning, the theme was always the first thing on my mind. So freedom, this is a retreat is an event which is for the larger community and my quantum retreat is for the smaller community. So freedom is a retreat. Also, I made two themes. The first theme is called uh recharge, which happens in October and rebound, that happens in April. So we we will be oscillating between recharge rebound, recharge, rebound. So the whole
00:01:18
Speaker 1: FBR is the name of the event. But uh you know, depending on when it happens in a year, the name would actually change, even the color would change. So recharge is a green theme and rebound is a red theme. So that way, even when we capture everything on social media, we're able to capture the essence of both the different events. So theme is very, very important. And when it comes to quantum retreat, the first one was just a regular event that we had.
00:01:45
Speaker 1: And the last quantum retreat that we had in the year 2023 the theme was about a future city. So again, I came up with the idea and we thought we'll call it infinity and we, we made it, we designed an entire city called the future city. So when we went for just a site visit and not to look at the hotel and find out what else is there? The the idea just popped into my mind. Let's make this theme as infinity. And then we thought, OK,
00:02:10
Speaker 1: let's call it infinity. And then we we actually built an entire future city. Uh The entire set was done. So again, it was all based on the budget, there was a much higher budget event that we did
00:02:20
Speaker 1: and we built an entire future city. And even when people entered the quantum event, I did something on a stage, we had some visualization on the stage which were, which was very, very unique. The entire room was blacked out and people could only see my face. So I went to an actual studio and I recorded wearing a green dress where only my face would be seen so that uh it just blends only into the screen. And we did something really crazy in the year 2023 quantum retreat. So the first thing is all about theme
00:02:48
Speaker 1: then comes budget based on how much it is. There's a banquet cost, there is a, you know, uh you need to plan the production cost, which is, and that's my third point of production team. So I have a event production team that actually helps me put together these events.
00:03:03
Speaker 1: And uh the main guy who is running this is he is my college buddy, college friend, one of the top DJ S in the country and he and his partner, uh they help me conceptualize the whole thing. So I just have a meeting with them. I give them the idea and then they go to the background and they work on all these different things. So production team is a third element which is really important and then comes the flow. So this is the flow is the most important part of an event. Like I go from the point of what
00:03:30
Speaker 1: should happen in the morning or what should happen the previous day. What should happen, minute to minute and I have an entire Excel sheet where I cover uh from start to finish. What all needs to be done are the entry music, exit music visualizations on the on the screen, the les so there this minute to minute flow is something that will actually make or break an event. And I go to that detail of planning that I run through the floor multiple times with my crew. So that when the event actually happens, everything is seamless because you have seen it so many times in our head.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: The fifth element of what goes into planning a community event is a design. And when it comes to design, I'm talking about everything else, right? From the color tones that you're going to be having for the event to the workbook design, to the uh all the stationary design. So it is very, very seamless in terms of look and feel. And I go for very high quality design uh in every you know, touch point of the event. And then we have the materials, design materials is like the the badges that you have the hand tags that you have
00:04:27
Speaker 1: uh the gifts that we will be giving people even that has to be in sync with the design and the feel of the particular event. So that is uh
00:04:34
Speaker 1: number six, number seven, what goes behind the event is the crew? So normally what I do is I have a crew of at least uh 20 to 25 people when I do an FBR, which is my large scale event. And if it's a small event of say 250 to 200 people, a quantum retreat, uh crew size would be less than 10, maybe around 10 or eight people that will be there.
00:04:56
Speaker 1: So what I do is I actually planned the crew at least three months in advance. In fact, for my next freedom visit, that's going to be happening in April. I've already selected the crew members and we will be having a crew meeting starting from Feb. So I normally start my crew huddles three
00:05:11
Speaker 1: months before the event. So if my event is in April, I do a hurdle in Feb March and then we have the April. So we have at least 6 to 8 rounds of weekly hurdles where uh I give the specific roles and responsibilities for each crew member where they should be standing, what they should be. Uh What is the intent of them being there? Uh And to the extent of how they should be in that particular role. I define everything into mind map. In fact, I have a course in my diamond membership called Community Events Formula.
00:05:40
Speaker 1: But I, but I also give the recordings of some of my, you know, uh crew hurdles that we've had where we do the planning before the event. And it's, it's really mind blowing and this is something that I learned on my own and I've done multiple rounds of this. So I, I get, got the hang of this right now and then the eighth area of what goes behind the community event are the speakers and the topics.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: So for the next FBR, I've already finalized most of the speakers and uh I don't just pick speakers based on how much money they're making or what I look at their story, I look at how they've grown. I look at their intention. I look at uh what are they in for? You know, there are many people who are making money but some of them may just want to come and have the limelight and stuff and I'm very fast to pick up intuitively, those, those things.
00:06:23
Speaker 1: So if I pick up a speaker, if I actually uh choose somebody, then what you do is you put them through an entire speaker orientation process where every speaker chosen two months before an event, they have to start the preparation because they only get 15 minutes to speak. But I get them to a training and I connect them with one of our quantum members who is a TEDX trained speaker who works with each speaker to bring out their emotion, bring out their story, bring out the essence of their journey and works with them.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: And then we do the hurdles. So I have speaker huddles, I have crew huddles I production team huddles every single week. And all my hurdles are like, it will be like uh 30 minutes max. Sometimes it goes to one hour, but I try to keep it under 30 minutes. And then finally, we have the last point which is the gifts and merchandise, you know, the t-shirt design workbook design, the name tag design, the hand tag design. So the design is done by the production team,
00:07:17
Speaker 1: but then getting it actually shipped from my bangalore. Uh you know, I have, I'm working with a team in Bangalore that does the actual work, but we send in the design and they, they ship it to us before an event. So all of that coordinations with my team and when we do a large scale event like uh freedom is a retreat with 607 100 people in the room.
00:07:37
Speaker 1: You know, it's very, very uh important to make sure that the, the crowd control and the queuing and everything is smooth and the members have a good experience. So I have a, a dedicated software, uh custom built software where people can just scan and enter. So the first event was a lot of manual work and it uh covered up things that we had a good lesson in learning. But now even if we do a 700 people event within 10 to 15 minutes process, maximum half an hour, all the registrations can get done like super fast. So we actually figured out on how to do that.
00:08:06
Speaker 1: And besides this, I do a lot of planning my wife also, we sit and we plan the food, the menu exactly how and all our events are si food, no alcohol and all that stuff. So we make sure that, uh the variety is given to all the members and they're given the best experience over there. And I forgot to mention a lot of music. Another, you know, thing that goes behind this, a community event is planning the music,
00:08:33
Speaker 1: entry, music for every speaker, entry, music that dancing on the stage, what music has to be played. I actually map out every music track that needs to be played before the break, after the break, before lunch, after lunch, before evening break, before, uh, after evening break, when people are leaving the room, I put myself in the shoes of a participant and think about how I want them to feel every single minute of the event. And music has such an important role to play.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: And of course, the DJ night music that I play my own set, I do some prep on that. And I normally play a one hour, two hours set in the, on both the nights on NFBR. And I normally collect hundreds of tracks, if not more than 100 2, 300 tracks. And I pick
00:09:10
Speaker 1: like the top, uh, you know, top 20 top 30 tracks that I play for that night because, and when people come all the way travel, I just want them to let loose completely immerse themselves in the power of the sound and uh and just go back
00:09:24
Speaker 1: enlivened and looking forward to coming back. That's when the last FBR we have, we had around 700 people in the room. And when I asked them to buy tickets for the next FBR, we had over 450 people who bought tickets that same day. I mean, that's like insane conversions for a ticket sale in the room because of the value that people got and they knew they're going to be coming back for more the next time. And many of them had set the intentions to come back. And as you know, all of my community events are gamified, so there's no VIP,
00:09:51
Speaker 1: there is no separate pricing for tickets, all are same ticket price. People are achievers who sit in the front row. People are action takers sit in the back row and those who get qualified for different awards they get in, they are called Inspire and they get to speak on the stage. So I've given you the essence of how I run community events in a nutshell in this particular podcast. But I would highly recommend that you become a diamond member and go through my community events formula course to actually learn the nit nitty gritties of how I do it. OK.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: So if you are already in my community, that's awesome. If you're not go to uh internet live, go to Sidat rai.com. Uh pick up uh just go click on the link, attend my next webinar, join our community and then uh you can attend our next community event because this is not a public event. I only invite my community members to the event. So take care. God bless. Catch you in the next episode.