So you’ve decided you want to put on an event this year for your business — but you’re not entirely sure what kind of event. To be fair, there are a lot of options out there, and not all of them will make sense for your business or your specific goals.

How exactly do you begin to determine the format for your next event?

Let’s dive in.

Set Your Event Goals

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times — the first thing you need to do when planning an event is to determine the goal (or goals) you want to achieve from this particular marketing activity.

After all, events are expensive AF, so you really need to figure out what a good return on investment (ROI) would look like for your specific event and business model.

There are a lot of different goals you can choose to aim for — common ones include:

• Increased registrations for building the sales funnel with lead generation
• Driving revenue from ticket sales
• Creating brand awareness for new customer exposure
• Retaining and incentivizing your customers or employees
• Engaging with a remote team
• Strong attendance rates
• Encouraging social and digital engagement

In the end, you want to be able to see how well your event measured up to your goals to quantify if it was successful or to identify what could have been improved.

Determine Your Audience & Event Format

Much like selecting the right goal(s) for your event, you also need to know what audience will be interested in attending your event. Understanding your target audience also means getting some clarification on what they like or don’t like and where they’re most likely hanging out; this is helpful for your event marketing strategy.

Will your audience be most likely to attend your event if it’s in-person, online, or a hybrid version that includes elements of both?

If you do decide to do it in person, where will it be located to entice attendees to come? If it’s going to be online, what platform is the best for your attendees to understand and utilize?

Getting clarity on your intended audience will help you make some important decisions early in the event planning process.

Set a Realistic Budget

You won’t know what type of event you can throw if you don’t have a budget in place to guide some of your decisions. Sit down and determine where you are comfortable allocating your budget, and this will quickly uncover what you can (and can’t!) do within reason.

→ AddEvent Pro Tip: Looking for a cost-effective solution to up your attendance rates without breaking the bank? AddEvent’s add to calendar buttons and links are a fantastic tool that has been proven to enhance attendance rates by up to 200% and significantly reduce attrition — here’s why.

Research the Type of Event You’re Thinking of Selecting

There are three event classifications to consider: business events, social events, and personal events.

Each of these types of events is used for its individual purposes, with business events focusing on professional objectives, social events for interpersonal interaction, and personal for celebrating milestones or close connections.

Chances are, you’re not looking to host a personal event for your business, which means the type of event you’re looking for will fall under the business or social category.

Decide on the Event Format

Let’s take a look at all the different types of business and social event formats you can potentially choose from.

Seminars and Workshops

These types of events are often focused around a single objective: attendee education. Businesses commonly use these to offer their customers a hands-on learning experience about their products or services.

This type of event can easily be brought online as a webinar or virtual training session and can be highly valuable in retaining and activating loyalty in new or existing customers. These events can be hosted as independent events or tagged onto a conference or trade show as an added benefit for attendees.

Conferences, Trade Shows, and Expos

Conferences tend to be much larger-scale events, with lots of speakers, panelists, and networking opportunities spread throughout. Typically, a conference will last anywhere from a day to three or four days. They also often pair well with trade shows and exhibitions so attendees can visit with representatives from various companies all in one place.

These events are a great way to hit the check mark on those business goals you’ve already set — brand awareness, lead generation, and thought leadership will be some of the most popular goals to hit for this event format.

And, unless your organization specializes in hosting conferences and trade shows, you can choose your level of participation — maybe start one year with a simple trade show booth and work your way up to featuring keynote speakers from your organization or sponsoring specific portions of the event in the following years.

Internal Off-Site Meetings and Team Building Events

If you’re looking for a way to strengthen your team and build loyalty among your employees, you may want to consider hosting an off-site meeting. This is especially important for fully-remote teams to get into the same room to better get to know each other and collaborate in real-time.

AddEvent is proud to host multiple off-site events every year so its entire team can come together and work on some fun projects, all while having just a little bit of fun, too!

Festivals

If you’re looking to host more of a social event, festivals are a great option that can come in all shapes and sizes! Think music festivals, art festivals, food and beverage tasting experiences, and so much more. Typically, a festival will be held in an outdoor location and happen over the course of a few days to really give attendees a complete experience. Get creative with this one, and find some out-of-the-box ways to excite and delight your guests!

Immersive Events, Product Launches, and Pop-Ups

In case you missed our article about how experiential marketing plays a pretty significant role in engaging your customers, we’ll repeat ourselves here. An immersive event is the perfect opportunity to try something new and see how it’s received!

Do you remember when people would camp outside of Apple stores days in advance of a new iPhone release? Take a page from their marketing team’s book, and instead of just rolling out that new product with only a digital marketing strategy in place, consider hosting an in-person product launch with live demonstrations, prizes, and giveaways to entice people to join.

There’s no right or wrong way to execute an immersive marketing event, so it’s another opportunity to try something entirely different than what you’ve done in the past.

Remember that in the end, the sky is the limit (but only if your budget agrees!) so you can branch outside of these common formats if you so choose.

AddEvent is also here to help you make the most of your next event, no matter what it might look like. Whether you need to share your events with add to calendar buttons or links, collect RSVPs, or embed your calendar or event directly into your webpage, we have a solution that will meet your next event’s specific needs!