Tips for organizing events - The 3 basic ingredients

Top 3 things to know about Event Organizing

What are the top 3 things I learned from being a volunteer event organizer for NetSquared Vancouver ? Recently I was honored with the opportunity to be a part of the NetSquared Spotlight series where I shared some of my thoughts and lessons when it comes to community organizing. Reflecting on the experience I thought I'd create this condensed post of the top 3 things I learned from being a event organizer. Here are the top 3 things I learned from the 42 events we did throughout 2013 for a record 1316 attendees.

Speaker, Venue, Marketing - The basic recipe for organizing an event

When you combine these three things together you have the basic recipe for an event and each is of equal importance:

1) Speakers

Book them ahead of time as much as you can. I would say at minimum you need your speaker to agree to the event date at least 1.5 months in advance. This is especially the case if your are looking to develop a community or run a series of themed events. At NetSquared Vancouver we literally have all our speakers planned out for the next 6 months. Doing this allows you to start your marketing much earlier as well as free up your time to focus on other aspects of your event success. 

2) Venue

You want to have this secured as soon as possible. Find venue partners who are naturally supportive or focused on the same audience as you. Since at NetSquared we cater to the nonprofit community we look towards venues that have a focus on giving back to the community. What I've learned from my experience at NetSquared is when you start working with a new venue, ask them if they could commit to  multiple events tentatively instead of only one. First, this will really help you out if you are planning a series of events as you wont have to worry about future venues. Second, your subsequent events will be much better when it comes to logistics because you can learn from your experience. Third, you can start our marketing much earlier since you will need both information about the speaker and where the event will be happening before you can begin promoting it. 

3) Marketing/Promoting

This is one of those things where you need to throw all your effort and resources into at the beginning because the closer you get to your event, the more severe the law of diminishing gets. At the very very minimum you want to invite people to attend at least two weeks beforehand. Any less than that and you will quickly find those who would have come to your event now have other engagements they need to attend to. If this is your first event ever, you want to start your marketing/promoting as early as humanly possible. Once you have invited them to your event continue to remind them about your event a week out and the day before and maybe even on the day of as well.


These would be the three key ingredients to organizing events that I learned from volunteering with NetSquared. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below or what you think is the most important thing to keep in mind for organizing events.

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By Stevie Vu

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How social networks makes us feel more loneliness

Fantastic video explaining how social networks makes us feel more loneliness.

Do you think those people with hundreds of friends, twitter followers and LinkedIn connections don't feel lonely ? Think again. This is a great video on how being in a super connected world, people are still feeling lonley even in a group.

Make time to truly stay connected with your friends.

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By Stevie Vu

Want to know when I publish my next post ? Subscribe to my blog by entering your email at the bottom of the page ! 

Does your organization have a hall of fame ? Grow your community through story telling

Photo Source: Christian Ventura

Your hall of fame

"It says a lot about an industry when it cares enough about its work (and the people doing it) to go to the trouble of organizing this story. The music industry is particularly good at this--not only do they have a hall of fame, but they have gold records, Grammy awards and multiple ways to highlight and honor people doing the work."

-Seth Godin

I wrote in a previous post about "How to build your community using story telling" and a hall of fame is a great way to implement it. What better way to recognize those who have contributed to your community success ? After all, every organization is only as good as the people they have. Highlighting your contributors and shining a light on them is a way of honoring what they have done and bringing them in as a key player in the narrative that is your success story. 

This is especially the case where the contribution is done on voluntarily. When we volunteer our time we want to know that what we are doing is making a difference. Being recognized that our efforts are valued and then seeing how they are part of the organization narrative helps us see the impact we want to make. 


Also, if you do it well you can tap into the power of story telling ! People will forget what you told them. They'll forget what you did. But they wont forget how you made them feel. This creates a personal buy-in and connection to the success of the organization because now we are recognized as real characters in the story and not just a hidden cog in the machine. It can be a very powerful way to both retain and motivate .


Not only that, the hall of fame will help define the overall story of what your organization is about. Charting the realization of your mission and vision. If you use digital story telling tools, you'll help transform these stories into shareable content as well for social media.

With those free digital story telling tools what does it cost you to recognize those who are contributing to your success ? Nothing ! 

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By Stevie Vu

Want to know when I publish my next post ? Subscribe to my blog by entering your email at the bottom of the page ! 

Amazing Vancouver food event: #DinnerPartyYVR

If you’re going out to eat for the weekend, why not make it epic? A few weeks ago I attended a never-heard-of-before local, global dinner party organized by  Social Bites,  Chimp and HomeDine. In the end I left with a smile, full tummy and unforgettable experience. From the beginning to end, the experience was unforgettable and I want to share with you what happen so you can be sure to attend the next one ! 

8 Tips for Community Managers

Community Building Discussion Notes

As a part of NetSquared Vancouver I've been helping organize and attending all the community management workshops. From all of it I've compiled a post on 8 Tips for Community Managers regarding Time management, Community Building and Story telling. If your interested you can check it out here.