MBA1769 Will In-Person Events Still Be Viable in 2021 and Beyond?

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Heyoo. Welcome to the Hundred Doll RMBA Show Practical business lessons every single day with our 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 Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my partner back in 2014 and in today's episode you will learn Will in person events still be viable in 2021 and beyond? There's no doubt that COVID 19 has changed our world. Many parts of the world are still in lock, while some other places around the world have eased restrictions. And getting together in person for an event may be possible, but is it still the attraction it once was? Are people going to be inclined to even go to these live events anymore? We've been out of habit for 12, 13, 14 months now. If you're thinking about running a live event meetup get together of some sort for your business, for your audience. Should you put one together? Should you sell it? Should you even attend or buy tickets to one? Is there an opportunity here for you to expand a revenue stream with live events? We get into all that and more. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

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The last time I went to a live event in person event was January of 2020 nearly 14 months ago. And of course ever since we have been doing all events whether as attendees or as hosts of events online and the world has kind of Gotten used to it? Are in person live events dead? Are they the attraction and the value they once were. Many people can't wait to get back to in person events. But it's easy to say that when it's not a possibility. In places like Australia, for example, where things have really eased, you can have large events and large gatherings because the COVID situation in Australia has been under control. But despite that, there hasn't been a rush of big events. People still are not super comfortable with being in a room with 100 people. It's just not something we're used to anymore. We have this thing in the back of our mind thinking, well, maybe I can get sick. It's even subconscious, even though the government is allowing people and it's safe. And there hasn't been a Covid case in the state for 40 days. But habits die hard. So in my opinion, from what I've seen and what I've read, when it's going to be possible to have live events again, there's going to be an easing in. But what has really started to emerge is smaller events, smaller meetups, smaller groups like 20, 30 people. People are comfortable with that. People feel like that's like a party. It's not really a big event. So if you're thinking about starting an online conference or event in 2020, maybe at the end of 2020, then think small first. Make it exclusive, make it a dozen people, make it 20 people. And if you sell out and you have some a capacity to expand it, to sell more tickets, get a waiting list and pitch to the waiting list. I do believe that larger conferences and events will come back. And it all depends on what's happening in your state, in your city, in your country. Some countries are way off from being fully vaccinated or 70% vaccinated. It's not looking until mid-2022. And we're talking about modern western countries. Other countries are looking like they'll be 70% vaccinated towards the end of 2021. People are going to be more willing to travel, but will they be willing to travel for business? People are more likely to travel for pleasure first. Because if 2020 has taught us a lesson, it's that you can actually do a lot of business online. You can do all your business online. You don't need to actually fly to another country or another state and attend a conference to do business, to network to, to meet people. So the initial travel will probably be very slow to ramp up now come 2022 and it's safe again. To congregate and meet with people, with hundreds of people at a conference, things might begin to go back to the way they were, but there's a lot of question marks still out there. It's not like everything just goes back to normal, day and night, or even in the course of a year or two. If you study what has happened in the past with other types of infections and diseases and vaccines, whether it's smallpox or polio, it's almost impossible to eradicate the whole problem. Right? It's eradicated the disease or the virus, I should say. So there are gonna be people that don't get vaccinated and we'll pass it on to other people that don't vaccinate as well. And scientists have said that this can mutate to different strains. And we've already seen this already in the last year. Now, I don't want to turn this episode to some sort of doom and gloom type of lesson, but I want to give you some clear advice when it comes to running your own event and attending events. Number one, if you're going to run your own event, start small. People feel comfortable in smaller groups. If it's totally okay, please, of course, abide by the rules of your land, of your country. If it's safe and you can do it in a safe way, go ahead and start small. And if you're going to plan an event, it takes six months to start planning. So even if you plan an event right now, we're talking about Q3, Q4 of this year. See this as a minimal, viable experiment and then move on and see if you can go bigger next year when things are even safer, hopefully. Right? If you're attending an event, ask yourself, can you get the value of this event elsewhere? Now remember, there is a cost involved whether you're traveling, whether there's hotels, accommodations, we've talked about this in past episodes, and of course, your own time. One of the things I actually enjoyed about 2020 was I didn't have to travel that much anymore for work. Traveling for conferences is a huge, huge expense in terms of time effort, time away from the office, time away from my team, and of course, expenses. Instead. I attended a lot of online events and got a lot out of it and networked a bunch. I'd probably say I got 80% of the value that I would get from an in person eventually with an online event, but spent or invested about 20% of the price monetarily. Time, attention, effort. So for me, that's a win. I will go with that. All day long. I personally am thinking twice and three times before and attend another conference because I get a lot of awful online conferences. I'll go to local meetups. I'll go to local events in my neighborhood, in my city. But traveling to another country for an event or traveling to another state, I don't think so. To me, it's just not worth it unless I feel like I'm going to meet some incredible people that I've been wanting to meet for some time. I want to network. I want to work with things like that. You need to make an evaluation for yourself. Is it worth you going? Are you just going to socialize and that's okay? Be honest with you. I'm going to socialize. I miss people. I'm an extrovert. I want to go ahead and do that. If you feel like it's going to be safe for you and your family, of course, because you know you're going to go and come back, then go ahead. But be honest. In terms of the ROI you're going to get for your business, this is a business trip. Are you going to get deals or connections or meet people that you can't meet otherwise? If you can answer that honestly, good for you.

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To wrap up today's lesson. Whether you're going to be running an event or attending an event, open up a spreadsheet and cost it out. Get practical. Write down all the pros you'll get by attending or running this event, and all the cons. Create a P and L. You know, profit and loss how much you're going to spend, how much you're going to gain, and let the numbers do the talking for you. Okay, now that we've gotten some perspective away from conferences, we can be objective about what it does for us and our business. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe so you don't miss a beat. We're on every podcast app, Apple Podcast, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, Overcast. Hit subscribe and never miss an episode. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the reasons why I encourage you to run a small event first is by running a small event, you get the feeling and you go through all the motions and all the steps of running an event, and you get to figure out. Is that something you enjoy doing? Do you actually enjoy pulling off an event? It's a lot of work, actually. I've done it myself a few times. There's a lot of things to consider, but it's a good way for you to dip your toe in and just say, hey, this is something I really like. I love it. I want to do it again or I can't stand it. It's not worth all the time and effort. If that's the case, it's good that you only did a small event, meaning small investment, small time, small group. You gave it a shot and you learned a huge lesson. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in. Tomorrow's episode Q and A Wednesday I'll see you then. Take care.

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