MBA1695 Q&A Wednesday: Should I plan an in-person event in 2021?

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Hey oh. Welcome to the $100 MBA Show. Because your business needs you at your best. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the hundred dollar MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100mba.net if you're looking to start a business or you want to improve your business but not sure what exactly you need to have a successful one, head on over to our website 100mba.net and download our Breakout Business Roadmap. It's absolutely free and it's going to help you make sure you. Your I's, cross your t's so you don't skip any steps and avoid a lot of heartaches. Absolutely free. Our breakout business roadmap@100mba.net Today's episode is a Q and A Wednesday episode. On our Q and A Wednesday episodes I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over@omar00mba.net and I'll make sure to answer it right here on Q and A Wednesday. Today's question is from Freddy and Freddie Asks. Hey Omar, I run a baking blog and I really really want to throw my first in person event in 2021. I've always wanted to have my own in person conference for my brand and in fact, I plan to do it in 2020. But of course, COVID 19. Now that we've been through a year of COVID 19 and the vaccine is on its way, do you think it's a good idea for me to plan to do a live in person event in 2021? Would love your advice. Love the podcast. Thanks so much in advance, Freddy. Great question, Freddy. A lot of people want things to go back to normal, especially those who do live events. I actually know some very close friends of mine that do live events, big conferences. And you know, this year has been tough for them because they had to move virtually with conferences with in person meetups. They're not the same, but they had to adapt. What about next year? Is it a safe bet to throw one to invest your money and time in planning one? Well, I'll answer that question in today's episode. I'll also kind of give different scenarios when I think it's a good idea and when it's not a good idea to plan one for 2021. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

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So Freddie wants to run her own in person conference for her blog, a baking blog in 2021. Do I think she should do that? It's a big, big question. And I'm going to give you two scenarios. One, I definitely think you should not do a conference in 2021. And the second scenario, I would say with these caveats, it may not be a bad idea. So when or what scenario do I think it's a bad idea to run a conference? An in person conference in 2021. Here we go. Well, I first want to say that we are not out of the woods, okay? Even though the vaccine is on its way, it's going to take a while for most of the countries around the world's population to be vaccinated, to be fully vaccinated. And even with the vaccination they say, you know, masks, social distancing, all that stuff is still going to be in place, which makes it very hard for in person conferences. So if your conference is more than 50 people, I would say I wouldn't do it because it's going to be hard for you to find a venue where you can social distance, you know, one and a half meters away from each other with people that are like, you know, 100 people in a conference, 200. That's very tough. If you're attracting people outside your local area. If this is just maybe a local meetup or maybe just within your state or your city, I would say, okay, maybe, you know, that way you can kind of control the numbers and you don't have to worry about travel. But if you're attracting people from across your country as well as from overseas and other countries, flying and getting on a plane and, you know, traveling internationally is still going to be very difficult in 2021, which will hinder the success of your conference. There are a lot of variables that will be out of your control for your conference to be successful. Conferences are about socializing and getting to know people and high fives. You know, that's just not going to jive with COVID 19. Even as we roll into 2021, I think this is going to be a very interesting year because we're going to have to transition into maybe what is going to become our new normal. The first three months are not going to look too different from 2020. It's going to take some time as we ramp up and have everybody vaccinated. Now, if you have a small conference, a small meetup, less than 50 people, it's in a local area, you can social distance, and you're planning to do it at the end of 2021, like Q4, then I would say, okay. And even if that's the case, I would definitely make sure your venue will refund you. If you're unable to do it because of code restrictions, they have an easy system to refund tickets to your, you know, conference attendees. If whatever equipment or swag that you buy, you can use in the next year or the next time you can do the conference. I would take all these precautions. The issue with a conference is that you need a lot of lead time to sell the tickets. Especially if you are trying to sell over 100 tickets, you need to announce a venue, a date, well in advance, three months in advance, at least. And with COVID it's hard to plan. This is why my gut reaction was like, hey, if you can avoid running a conference in 2021, if you can do it Virtually, if you could do a summit, if you can do something in 2022, I would feel a lot more confident that you would have a lot more in your control to succeed. Now I've seen a lot of in person conferences pivot to doing virtual summits, virtual conferences online, and they actually did a pretty decent job. A lot of people have enjoyed online conferences because they're less expensive, they're easier to run, they're easier to attend, and it's a lot easier for you to get people to attend because there's no barrier of travel. You know, even if there was no Covid. So you're going to get more attendees, more leads, more sales, all that kind of stuff. You can make it interactive, you can make it fun, you can really do your best. And by the way, as your first time conference, doing a virtual conference online might be a good way for you to just work out the kinks. It's a good MVP of an in person conference.

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To wrap up today's lesson, in person events are a logistic nightmare without COVID 19. I've run plenty of them. I've been a part of a lot of them. So. So if you can minimize the headache for yourself when you have a lot more in your control in 2022, hopefully I would do that. Alternatively, like I said, if you can keep it local, you can small, you can social distance, you could do it later in the year. That makes things a little bit more feasible. Or better yet, run a virtual conference. Run it online. It's a great way for you to do a minimal viable version of your first time conference, Freddie. I hope that helped you and helped everyone else who's listening to today's episode. If you're listening right now and you have a question you want to ask, just email me over@omar00nba.net I'll make sure to answer right here On Q and A Wednesday. Make sure you smash that subscribe button on whatever you're using to listen to podcasts, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio. We're on every single platform. So go ahead and hit subscribe right now so you don't miss a beat. Before I go, I want to leave you with this in person. Conferences definitely are powerful. They really do build a lot of rapport, a lot of customer loyalty. But you want to capitalize on that opportunity. You want to do it right. And doing a virtual conference may not be the same, but it's actually really beneficial and it's very close to it. It will help achieve a lot of the goals you have with doing a conference and you'll learn a ton doing it. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then.

Take care.

Of what do the steam engine, electricity and AI have in common? They don't just change how we work, they transform entire economies. Where the Internet Lives is an award winning podcast from Google about the unseen world of data centers. This season we're going inside the AI revolution. From farmers using AI to analyze soil data, to researchers discovering new medicines, a new era of AI innovation is here. Listen to where the Internet lives. Wherever you get your podcasts.