LAOC is t1 month old

[Douglas E. Welch]

LAOC is one month old, so it is time to check in with everyone and remind you to share LAOC with those around you.

What are you planning for February? Any new ideas to attract more attendees to your events? Any new venues to share?

If you haven't already, please add you event(s) to the LAOC Wiki so we can develop a list of regularly scheduled events so we don't step on each others meetings (at least a little). There is also an area to add venues and other information that might come in handy.

Finally, let's start developing an LAOC FAQ for new organizers. What have you learned the hard way? What did you wish someone had told you when you started organizing events? What specific issues face LA Organizers?

Wishing you a great February!

Douglas

LAOC Mailing List: http://groups.google.com/group/laorganizers
LAOC Wiki: http://laorganizers.pbwiki.com/
LAOC Upcoming Group: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/15214/
LAOC Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LA-Organizers-Consortium/50008378111

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[Amanda Abelove]

Doug rules!!!!!

My biggest issue, unknown flake factor... I have an event on the 9th with 100 seats and a waiting list of 35 people and no idea who will show.

[Douglas E. Welch]

Yes, I think we have all been there. I have to remind myself that some of the best events I have had have been some of the smallest. Of course, if you are paying for people who never show, that is bad news.

For myself, lack of commitment on their part makes me look to the value I am offering and how I can increase it to a point where people are more committed to RSVPs and actually attending the event. Sure, some people are flakes, but I keep trying to serve those who are interested.

Douglas

[Amanda Abelove]

Yeah, Rally is footing the bill for this and it is a huge wild card....

[Douglas Campbell]

you'd think charging eliminates that prob - and it probably does to some degree. but I've found even at Mindshare (which is $25) there's a 5-10% no show rate. so we tend to oversell by about that much to even it out..


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Douglas Campbell
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[Douglas E. Welch]

Yes, I think charging helps, but there is also a small feeling I get that the conscientious folks are being punished because of the flakes. It is the typical " a few ruin it for all" situation.

I always feel odd about it, so I have never charged except for obvious, promoted, professional workshops or training classes, etc.

D

[Amanda Abelove]

So with 100 rsvps for a tech event with beer wine and snacks, my no show rate will likely be... 50-70%???

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 11:46 PM, Douglas Campbell <wdcam...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Jason Cosper]

On Feb 3, 2009, at 10:36 AM, Amanda Abelove wrote:

So with 100 rsvps for a tech event with beer wine and snacks, my no show rate will likely be... 50-70%???

I'm not 100% sure where you're getting that figure.  It's easy to reduce costs by using something I like to call practical pessimism.

Yes, staying on top of folks using reminders lowers the amount of folks who drop out.  You managed to secure most of their email addresses when they RSVP'ed, right?  There will still be people who are no-shows — even after a reminder — but you need to expect that.

Now, say we have an estimate of 200 people who are going to show up to BarCamp on a Saturday.  They're not all going to be there at the same time.  Sure, some folks will stay all day, but quite a few morning people have made plans for that evening.  Couple that with the amount of people showing up thru the day and you'll still have a pretty steady number.

Despite roughly 200 people being there over the course of the day, we always tend to estimate that we'll only need to feed 120 of those attendees during meal breaks.  We try to make sure that everyone there gets fed, but we also realize that we're not a soup kitchen.  If people either miss the meal completely or a few folks are gluttons who go to get seconds when not everyone has had firsts, most people won't fault us for that.

So what do I suggest?

Buy enough snacks for 60-70% of your attendees.  Don't go too overboard.  I'm not sure when exactly your event is (6 PM?  8 PM?) but if it's later, it's almost always safe to assume that people have grabbed a proper meal before your event.  If it's earlier, they run a good chance of getting something afterwards.

When it comes down to it, snacks are not a meal.  So while they're nice to have, people aren't hinging on you feeding them until they're full.

You want the alcohol to be plentiful, I'm sure.  But you need to take into account that you'll have people not drinking (i.e. "I would, but I'm driving.") on top of the flakes.  Enough alcohol for 50-60% of your attendees is probably fine.  Err higher (and maybe even add 10%) if you're throwing a mixer, but err lower if you're hanging the event off of a presentation.  Nobody wants to get up and be the jerk who gets more wine/beer while a talk/panel/whatever is going on.

Somebody can feel free to punch holes in my numbers — but that's how I'd approach this sort of event.

-jason.

[Douglas E. Welch]

Nice analysis, Jason. Thanks!

Douglas