Seminar – 14 Secrets to Seminar Success

Are you planning a seminar?
Do you want to get your message or information to more people?
Do you want your audience to retain more of what they learn from you?

The seminar offers a unique opportunity to convey your message, to your staff, team or your customers. 

It is a chance to inspire, engage and facilitate change in those who attend. Exciting times!

Seminar-14 Secrets to Seminar Success

1. Know the problem you are solving

Match the product, service or information to the market needs. Know

Understand the problem you are solving and be able to describe what it feels like to have this problem, in simple easy to understand terms.

2. Know who your solving it for?

Get to know who the potential customers for your seminar and who will benefit from the information your seminar is presenting.

Understand who they are, and how to talk to them in a way that they understand. The more you know about your audience the sharper your marketing and you message, which will in turn give you better results or sales.

3. Always be Prepared, Plan your seminar in detail

From concept to completion, from design to delivery, you have to plan. Fail to plan, then plan to fail. Simple as that.

4. Budget for everything your seminar needs

As an event planner you need to account for everything. Make sure you don’t have any  nasty surprises in your budget by having a thorough budget from day one.  Remember to ask for packages or bundles of services from your suppliers to deliver  more bang for you buck!  If you are going to do this seminar in a number of location, best create a team that can go with you. Training new people in every town can be time consuming and lead to disappointment

5. Get in the right space for a seminar

Choose your venue wisely!  The choice of venue will not only effect the bottom line for your event, but create a large part of the atmosphere or ambience for your event. Seminars often require a back room to store collateral, marketing material, work book or product for sale. You may also need a large crew of helpers to deliver the seminar, so you have to house them somewhere.  Think it through thoroughly before you commit to a venue.

6. Use the Web- Seminar are about getting information out there!

They have to be able to find your Seminar. There is no better way to provide information to your audience that through the internet. Even think about a short video, like this one, to promote your event

7. More than one medium for market your seminar

Try to advertise in a number of ways. See what works? good marketers try. GREAT marketers succeed through continuing to trial, and measure- remember to use S.M.A.R.T. = specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound marketing goals when planning your seminar.

8. Know the Right People to help run & promote your seminar

From set up to pack up, know everyone on the team and have their contact details on you at all times.  The best seminars are the ones where the whole team comes together and feels connected in the delivery of something special. 

Choose your suppliers carefully, and where ever possible, work with professionals. Best to engage a professional event manager who has seminar experience. Even better get one who can also double as MC or facilitator and you have a double winner!

9. Record Everything – Audio and Video

You can offer the same information again in audio or video format. It will also help you see and hear what did and didn’t work. More importantly it can become a wonderful additional revenue source, as attendees may want to buy the DVD or audio program so they can “replay” their learning over and over in the comfort of their own home or car. Ask us about our audio & video production packages and how we can bring this to reality for you.

10. Engage with Visual, Audio & Kinesthetics (VAKS)

Touch their hearts, Captive their minds! Use emotion to get your information to more people. You have to MOVE them. Use visual, audio and kinesthetics learning techniques (VAKS) to appeal to different learning modalities.  

11. Courtesy is remembered

Make the right first impression. Always, always say thank you

12. Turn on the tech talk!

Know it or have someone there who does! Music to create state changes in the audience is critical. More importantly, speakers, Trainers and teachers need to be heard! appropriate microphones need to be muted at the right time, and readily available at the right time. a good AV person is critical to the seminars success.

13. Where attention goes, energy flows, results show!

Pay attention at all times! Get them to move!  Change their physical state by getting people to stand up, interact, hi-five, share in groups or as a class. change it up!

14. Make the attendees the hero- its about them, not you!

It’s all about your audience! Give, Give, Give! (an you shall receive)