If I have one pet peeve, it’s when people assume that all event work is just party, wedding, concert, or convention organizing. I don’t know about you, but I am typically faced with family and friends asking “What do you actually do?” and no matter how great of an explanation I give, the conversation typically concludes with minimal success. Therefore, within the following text let’s do our best to lay out types of events that you typically see around various business sectors.
Event Types
Just about anything that involves meticulous planning, coordination, guests, and a bit of chaos can be classified as an event. The term “event” is such a broad label. It is very important to identify and choose which sort of events you specialize in so that you are able to market yourself properly, prepare, and provide yourself with enough lead-time to piece together all of the moving parts of the project that is a new event. Yes, weddings, general parties, concerts, and conventions are events as well but there is so much more that gets overlooked. Time to break it down!
Conference
Let’s start with conferences. Even “conference” is another broad term that can change based on a person’s perception. Recently I found myself saying “I manage tech conferences,” thinking this was an accurate portrayal of my current position but was faced with the other person’s assumption that a conference is a trade show where companies set up booths and essentially try to sell their products to attendees, similar to what a career fair might look like. While this person was not incorrect, it is not the sort of conference that I am specialized in organizing.
In the tech industry we typically see conferences that consist of educational content where attendees come to learn something new from the speakers on stage. During such an event it is not uncommon for new products or services to be revealed for the first time to the local audience as well. The schedule also includes time that has been set aside to encourage attendees, including speakers, to connect with the sponsor representatives that are on hand. Conference sponsors are encouraged to set up tables where they can give away branded swag as well as recruit or share their company’s vision throughout the entirety of the event itself. Besides technology other industries where you may see this sort of conference setup include medical or healthcare, other sciences, and agriculture where ongoing education is crucial to success.
On the other hand, putting together a trade show sort of conference makes much more sense in different settings. For example, industries such as construction, trade or commerce, as well as pharmaceutical may not necessarily attend an event to learn something new but they seek opportunities to network and potentially purchase products or sell their company’s new products and services. In this setting you may also see new products hitting the market but the focus of the conference as a whole is quite different.
Meet-up
Another huge aspect of events are those that are smaller, more intimate. Here I will classify them as a meet-up. This could be something as simple as getting a group of strangers from the internet together to take your beachside yoga class for $10 on a Saturday morning. Alternatively, using the tech industry as our example once again, a meet-up is another place to learn something new and where a speaker may share about their most recent project or discoveries. Meet-ups within the tech industry are typically free events to attend, although some may differ. At tech meet-ups, you may also see a business sponsor the event. A sponsor can provide their office as a venue, provide food and refreshments, or provide the speaker(s)/content and have the added bonus of networking and recruiting attendees. Meet-ups in this instance are particularly crucial for tech where there are countless sectors within the industry and each micro-event highlights the ability to learn new information (but in a much more relaxed setting). Meet-ups truly are a community building tool across industries that are advantageous to individuals and businesses alike.
Workshop
The final type of event we will outline are workshops. Depending on the company or even geographical location you may also see a workshop be called “course” or “training.” The goal of this type of event is to gain a new set of skills in a formal student-teacher setting and is typically paired with a certificate upon completion. While you may not consider workshops as an event in the formal sense, I urge you to do so as it is a very important tool in the post-graduate workplace.
Workshops differ entirely from conferences and meet-ups for a multitude of reasons. In comparison to a conference, a workshop is not meant to be a time for networking or selling someone your product or service. No, the time in which a workshop takes place you see an expert instructor in a classroom setting (virtual or physical) to which they lead a lecture and/or activities for their rather small audience. You may even see that workshops can be included as an individual part of a conference. Where we see meet-ups as generally free and informal, workshops are quite the opposite. While not completely rare, it is uncommon for a recurring workshop to be free or remain free indefinitely. Instructors charge their fee to be able to continue innovating their works and providing students with the most relevant information. Likewise, where a meet-up is likely only a couple of hours during a single afternoon or evening, workshops can be anything from a single day to weeks or months long.
In recent years we have seen an amplification of companies offering workshops where people can sharpen the skills they already possess or learn something entirely new at varying costs. The market for workshops is quite literally endless. One thing is for certain, we should never stop our educational journey and workshops are a key in doing so. Workshops single handedly span global industries all the while keeping to a pretty standard format.
Food for Thought
To overview, we have three distinct event types (conferences, meet-ups, and workshops) that we can pinpoint throughout various sectors and industries alike. Each has its differences and their own use case as well. Being able to identify which event type works best with your company’s goals will be a crucial part of your planning journey. Not all events will provide you with the same outcome.
You may be thinking, “Allyson this is all well and great, but where do I go from here?”
I am here to tell you not to fret! In upcoming articles I will share the methods I use to contain the madness that is event organization.
You can read part two of this Event Organization article now.