Blog - Digital Marketing Agency, Niswey

50 tips to Hosting Badass Events by Karen Hartline

Written by Priyanka Tuteja | Sep 11, 2015 8:19:59 AM

Simply put, Karen Hartline’s ’50 tips for hosting badass events’ is a recipe to organize awesome events and take your brand to the next level. So buckle up because you are about to learn some really interesting and useful tips as we give you a complete rundown of Karen’s talk at INBOUND15.

Karen started off on a really promise-ing note.


And gave us an interesting perspective.

Set your event up for success with these tips shared by Karen.

On Pre-Event Planning

This is step one.


Get your priorities right, from the very beginning.


Work with checklists and templates.


Use Boomerang to remember to follow up.


Have a plan for everything, even content uploading.


Prepare for surveys.

On Team Involvement and Collaboration

Work strategically.


Utilize in-house resources.


Use Google docs for team collaboration.

On Managing Speakers and Their Sessions

Create a speaker wishlist.


Ascertain topics that would add value.


 Don’t make your panel facilitator do all the work.


Get clarity to market the speakers and their sessions well.

Don’t make’em pay.


Know what they’ll talk about.

On Managing Sponsors

Be strategic about lead generation for sponsors.


Don’t go for pay-to-play.


Respect your attendees’ privacy.

On Organizing Food for the Event

Don’t let a stringent catering budget limit you.


Go with variety.


Be fancy.


But keep it simple.


Make’em snack.


Pay attention to your clients.


And to your vendors.


And while you do all this, don’t forget to listen to your own stomach.

On Event Venue

WiFi is a must.


Yes, cat cafes!


Make it worth their wait with some music.


Save space, keep a coat check.


Think ‘outside’ the box.

On Event Networking Engagement

Pre-event speed networking.


Have room for discussions.


Try not to make it all about business.


Get speakers to network as well.


Build engagement with Q&As.

On Event Branding and Marketing

Use essential items for branding purposes.


Power it up with branded charging stations!


Use hashtags not profiles.

On Emergency and Backup Planning

Have an emergency kit in place.


Have your playlist offline.


Ideas, not problems.

On Shaking Away That Stress

Use safe words.


Puppies therapy.

Post Event Planning

Plan ahead, make your next big announcement.


Think: The end.


Express gratitude, genuinely.


Debrief, debrief and debrief!

Some Hacks to Make Them Go ‘Wow’!

Create an experience.


Personalize to delight.


Offer stress relief.


Be unique in your approach.

The Big Takeaway

Visualize the event from an attendee’s perspective.


There’s also some good news. Karen’s talk rocked so hard that there would be an encore.


We’ve gotta hand it to Gabbi Hall and Alex Plaxen who made it super easy for us to curate these amazing tips and tricks. If you have been missing out on live sessions at INBOUND15, worry not, you can get a gist of all these talks and more at https://www.niswey.com/inbound15/.
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