5 Tips to Determine Pricing for Your Events

 

An empty hall is probably the most disappointing part of hosting an event. Apart from the fact that you will probably lose money, your invited guests get to speak to empty chairs, and you might lose credibility with your sponsors! This can happen for both free and paid events. But for paid events, you might want to consider that your ticket pricing may have something to do with those empty seats.

So, here are some tips to help you determine the price of tickets for your event.

How do You Determine Pricing for Your Events?

1. Recognize that the event determines the ticket pricing

This might seem obvious, but it is way deeper than this. This goes beyond understanding the objectives of your organization but also the motivation of your intended audience. What is in demand at that particular time in that particular location? In a place like Nigeria with a high unemployment rate, a job search-related event might actually sell, but the organizers have to put in mind that the majority of your attendees will be unemployed, so might not be able to afford high ticket prices. Low ticket prices mean you will almost certainly get a full house and bigger revenue. But charging a low ticket price for an event for seasoned professionals might pass you and your organization off as non-credible and so might lead to low turnout. In summary, it is important to recognize how people view your event and this will determine how you price your tickets.

2. Have a Financial Objective

Unless you run a nonprofit organization, it is important to create a financial objective which is knowing how much revenue you hope to make from the event. This will help you build your budget as well as know how much to set for ticket prices. The normal process is to divide your total budget by the number of estimated attendees to get a price for each ticket. But there are other factors to consider that might give you additional revenue like sponsors and exhibitors so all the revenue burden doesn’t fall on the attendees. It is also important to note that your potential attendees are comparing your prices with similar events in your industry, so it is important to know your competition and their pricing.

3. Have Ticketing Options

This is common, especially in events that all classes of people enjoy like sports and entertainment. Football clubs have ticketing options so their fans in all steps of the economic ladder can buy. This is also common in music concerts and comedy events where there are tickets for the affluent and tickets for the ordinary man. Offering one ticket option can discourage a particular class of people and this can lead to the planner not getting maximum revenue. If it is priced too high, you might get few affluent people in your event and if it is priced too low, you might get lots of ordinary attendees but won’t be able to raise enough money to cover the cost as the affluent might not take your low-ticket event seriously.

4. Keep Data of Past Events

If you have hosted events before, it is important to juxtapose their financial successes. Compare data by calculating each event’s rate of return and then look closely at differences in ticket sales. Note the steps you took to that ensured maximum revenue in a particular event and this might help planning for your next event easier. Feedback from your attendees is also a way to plan ahead. Get personal information of your attendees and try to get their thoughts if the amount spent on the tickets was worth it. This can give you a clue on how to price your next event.

5. Monitor Your Ticket Sales

From the moment you start selling your tickets, it is important you monitor sales to know how you are performing. If you notice any discrepancies or notice sales are falling short of expectations, do not fret. Investigate what went wrong and act on it quickly. For instance, if the problem is affordability, you can offer a discount or a promo to raise demand. Monitoring sales will also help you collect data for future events.

 

Samuel Ejedegba

A Simple Guide To Finding The Right Speakers For Your Events

 It’s easy to find yourself attracted to big names when you’re looking for speakers for your events or conferences, almost like they’re shiny objects or something. But I’ve been to enough conferences (as both an attendee and a keynote speaker) to learn that organizers can put themselves into some pretty bad positions by getting distracted by celebrity and not thinking through the right speakers for their events.

Bill Lee, the VP of client development at Eagle Talent Speakers Bureau, a company that advises and supports organizers in selecting the best speakers for their events, brought up a good point when I connected with him about the process. He said, “It seems like everyone and their grandmother is a ‘speaker’ these days ... but the fact is, not everyone has the background and, frankly, the personality or communication skills to speak and truly engage an audience for an hour or more.”

When you select someone to speak to your audience, you place your audience’s trust in you onto that speaker. You need to do everything you can to avoid destroying that trust because once it’s broken, it’s hard to rebuild.

To maintain trust and host an event with speakers your audience will love, here are seven questions you must ask yourself when selecting the potential speakers:

1. Are they going to deliver something your audience won’t find elsewhere?

It frustrates me when I speak at events and run into people who never change anything about their speeches. Look, I get it. They probably spent days in front of their mirrors at home practising over and over until they really nailed their speeches. But why should someone attend your event if he or she can just sit at home wearing pajamas, eating a bowl of Cheerios on the couch, and watching the same speeches on YouTube? Ask your prospective speakers exactly what they’ll deliver to your audience to keep them engaged.

2. Are they too cool to stick around, or do they care enough to make the effort?

When I was a younger speaker, I learned something from my friend Jay Baer that changed the way I approached my future speaking engagements. It’s a simple practice, really: Stick around with your audience afterwards and humanize yourself. Audiences often put speakers on pedestals, and that puts those speakers in a position to make attendees feel special. There are only so many speakers can do in 45-minute keynotes, but they can make a difference by chatting one-on-one or in small groups afterwards. Ask whether your speakers are willing to stick around to connect with your audience.

3. Do they go out of their way to be helpful?

If you think certain speakers will automatically draw thousands of attendees to your event just because you book them, think again. I’ve seen organizers rely on a speaker’s fame to attract an audience for ticket sales, and those conferences go under because they don’t market effectively. However, if the speakers you invite offer to go above and beyond to help you attract attendees — by spreading the news with their networks and getting other influencers involved — you can more easily justify the cost of booking them and getting them to your event.

4. Does their content connect with the goals of the event?

It’s great when presenters give amazing speeches that get everyone pumped up for a while ... but then what happens? Your speakers have to be able to connect the content of their speeches to your goals for the event because aligning those goals and tactics is what will make your event successful. The best speakers will ask you what that success looks like, and they’ll marry their content with those goals. (If entertainment is what you’re looking for, you might want to go the “Blue Man Group” route.)

5. Are the content and delivery of their speeches authentic?

I quit using podiums when I speak because I tried walking through the crowds a few times and heard feedback that my audiences felt it was more authentic that way. And I felt the connection, too. Audiences want to connect with speakers; they want people who will be real and share honest stories and present themselves naturally. I’ve seen people decide to become speakers one day and start speaking with no real-world experience at all. But the best ones have true examples of failures and successes and share their knowledge and real experiences in an authentic way. There are actors out there who pretend to know, and there are teachers who really do. You want the latter.

6. Are they flexible?

Your speaker room is not Mariah Carey’s ready room, and your speakers shouldn’t expect to be pampered. I’ve seen some well-known names make ridiculous demands, and they end up becoming more trouble to host than they’re worth. Think of it like dating: If your first few interactions give you the impression they’re divas, just cut ties. Those problems usually only get worse, so pay attention to your gut feelings about those signals.

7. Can you count on them?

I spoke at BOLO last year, after an agency executive let the organizer know three hours before his speech that he couldn’t make it because a big business deal arose. Maybe it’s the Midwest values in me, but if you commit to something and others are counting on you to follow through, then you do it. If you absolutely can’t, do everything you can to help fill the position. The right speakers for your event will be there when they say they will, and they’ll offer solutions or backup speakers to step up in case of emergency.

When it comes to speakers for industry events, the most well-known speakers aren’t always the right ones. As you evaluate your options and select people to speak at your next conference or event, ask yourself these seven questions. Your audience will thank you.

 

Culled From Forbes