Hosting an event can be energizing and fulfilling. It can build community, keep your regular clients happy, and even bring in new business. But events can also be draining and disappointing, especially when you spend a lot of money on supplies and promotion and nobody shows up. There are, of course, no magic bullets for packing a room, but there are a few steps that’ll improve your odds—and at the very least cut down on your trial and error.
 
For the purpose of this article, we’re going to assume that your event is not a meet or a group workout or even an open house, but rather some kind of presentation or discussion or demo.
 
1: Figure Out Your Goals
 
You already know that the best goals are ones that are specific and measurable, so applying that to your event instead of your training should be easy.
 
First, try to put your finger on your express purpose for hosting an event. Are you trying to draw new faces into your gym? Keep your regular clients happy by giving them information that’ll help them with the goals without having to have a million one-on-one conversations? Establish yourself as an authority in a new location? It could be a combination of the above or something else entirely, but try to get clear on it. Write it down, even.
 
Then, find a way to quantify what you’d consider a successful event—whether it’s the number of attendees, number of email addresses you collect, number of people who sign up for free consults, etc. You may want to write down goals that are harder to quantify, too, like the level of discussion attained or quality of questions asked or overall vibe.
 
2. Get Specific
 
To meet your goal, you’ll want to make sure to specifically tailor your event to the type of people you’re trying to reach. If you’re organizing an event for folks who are brand new to fitness, that will probably look entirely different than one catering to fellow experts. There are a lot of different ways you could hone in on the group of people you’re trying to reach, but if you can visualize a couple of people that meet the general description of the type of person you’re trying to attract, it’ll make planning the event a lot easier. You’ll also be better equipped to make all of the many decisions that come up with organizing an event (location, timing, duration, marketing/outreach strategy, etc.) if you can keep the people you’re trying to reach in mind.
 
If someone else is presenting in an event you’re hosting, or if your event is at someone else’s gym, you’ll want to have a lot of discussions about these things to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
 
3. Settle on An Idea
 
Coming up with an idea for an event is a lot like coming up with a topic for an article. One good strategy is to make a list of what people are always asking you questions about. Do you have a slew of athletes who need help with recovery? Are you always fielding questions about macros and meal planning? Do people ask you for book recommendations so they can learn more about mental training? You can host an event to fill a gap in what you’re currently offering, or to go into more detail about a topic where you’ve only been able to skim the surface.
 
Once you’ve jotted down some ideas for possible events, reach out to some of the folks you’re trying to get to come to your event. You can do this by sending out a survey to your email list, posting the question on social media, or just talking to people one-on-one. Ask them which topics they’d prefer, and what they’re looking for. You can even ask them what type of event they want—whether they’d rather attend something hands-on or lecture style followed by Q&A.
 
4. Fill in The Gaps
 
Before digging into any more planning, try to brainstorm some of the things that could potentially go wrong with your event. Then try to address all of those in advance. Excited about presenting on a topic but have a certain area you’re not as comfortable discussing? Find someone who can fill in the missing pieces and ask them to co-present. (Bonus: there’s a good chance they’ll help promote the event as well.) Are you asking people to invite friends and family members? Make sure you post a map of your location and specific instructions on how to get in if they’re late and the doors are locked. Limited in equipment you want to use? Cap the number of attendees.
 
5. Do A Test Run
 
If you’re presenting on something new, it can be helpful to grab a handful of your friends (or better yet, a few of your clients) for an abbreviated version of your presentation and ask them for gentle feedback. If that’s not possible, run through your presentation at home. (Your pets won’t mind.) Even better, take video or audio so you can watch or listen to yourself and decide what parts to change or scrap. You may end up adding video clips or interactive exercises between sessions if you think you’re rambling for too long. You may switch out some of your more boring slides with animated GIFs. You may decide you need notecards after all. Better to learn this in front of your friends (or all by your lonesome) than during the real deal.
 
6. Decide on A Location
 
Usually this’ll be your own gym, but there are times when this doesn’t make sense—like if there are too many things going on the day you want to host your event, if you want to reach out to people at a different location, or if you don’t have your own gym yet and are coaching out of multiple spots. Just make sure the place you pick has the type of atmosphere you’re looking for. Sometimes you can work out a deal where you can use the space for free in exchange for letting members of that space attend your event for free or at a discount. Added bonus if people are already in the space right before your event starts, so they could be convinced to stick around.
 
One potential drawback to hosting an event at someone else’s location is that your liability insurance policy may not cover you, or you may need to get the space to sign some paperwork, but depending on the type of event you’ve got planned, this may not be an issue at all. Just something to think about.
 
7. Spread the Word
 
The best way to publicize an event varies from city to city and gym to gym, but there are a couple of benefits to using Eventbrite and/or creating a public event on Facebook. Both have some degree of social spread, depending on the settings you use. With Eventbrite, people can share events they are attending with their friends, so it’s good advertising. Eventbrite also shows people which events their friends have signed up for, and it allows you to easily email everyone who signed up. If you have different categories of tickets, it helps track what types of tickets you sold. Facebook has the benefit of allowing you to invite everyone and their brother to your event, which is a quick way to spread the word. Ask people to help spread the word on social media, too, and make it easy for them to do so.
 
It’s always a good idea to go beyond just Eventbrite and social media, though. Make sure to email your clients, and to remind them about the event in person. Put up flyers. Have other people put up flyers. Fill out the calendar listings for your daily newspaper(s) and free local weekly (if there is one where you live). You can even send a little information about your event to local media. And if there are email lists or online groups that share this type of information, make sure to get in touch with them.
 
8. Get People to Commit
 
Whether you choose to charge or not is ultimately up to you. One benefit of charging is that you can get a clear sense of how many people are actually going to attend—people are far more likely to skip an event if it’s free, even if they signed up, than they are if they paid for it (especially if tickets are not refundable). But you may not want to charge people if they’re regular clients, or you may want to have a charge but offer free passes to your athletes and even their friends. Even if you don’t charge, having people register in advance will allow you to send them reminders and make it less likely that they’ll just bail. You can even send them a survey in advance asking if they have specific questions they want you to cover—they’ll be more invested, and you’ll have new ideas on how to tweak your talk.
 
9. Create Content to Promote the Event
 
Put out some relevant teaser content—a quick video, a blog post or series of posts, even a chart or diagram—and remind them about the event at the end: how to sign up, what else you’ll cover. If you want, you can put a few ad dollars in to make sure your content is widely seen, but the goal is to make it good enough that people will want to share it organically. Remember that not all of the content has to be yours—some of it could be relevant articles or posts you’ve seen that the people you’re trying to reach also may have come across. Just add some of your thoughts when sharing and let people know that they can get more information at the event.
 
10. Prepare
 
If you sent out pre=event surveys (step 8), look at the responses you received. If the questions aren’t completely out of left field, you can make additions to your presentation to cover them. Create objectives for what you want people to do or know by the end of your event, and consider listing them out. Put together any handouts or supplementary material you want to use.
 
Logistically, it’s SO important to double and triple-check everything in advance to make sure all the chairs are available, to test the projector with your laptop, or to figure out which tables you need and where.
 
 
11. Go Get ‘Em
 
Believe it or not, the actual event is the easy part! Pop open a bottle of Paleo champagne afterward to celebrate. (Shhh, it’s just club soda.)
 
 
12. Get Feedback
 
Post-event surveys are a good way to do this, but just talking to people will work as well. Ask them what they thought of the event, what questions they still had on the topic at hand, and what other topics they’d be interested in, in the future. There may be some ideas for a “part 2” session you hadn’t thought of. Make sure to collect names and email addresses, if there are people you don’t know who showed up.
 
If you want to go above and beyond, reach out to just a few attendees a few weeks after the event and ask how things are going and if they have additional questions. It’s not only a way to provide even more value but can help you keep your finger on the pulse of what people are working on or having trouble with in the industry. This can help you plan your next event.
 
How you thought things went is also super important. Jot down any observations and thoughts for what went well, what didn’t go well, and what you hope to change going forward. Make sure to go back to your original set of goals, too. Write down how you did compared to what you’d expected or hoped for, any reasons why, and what you can change going forward to overcome similar challenges.
 
That way, your next event will be even better.