Hosting an event serves many purposes for startups.  Whether used for team building and wellness or the launch of a product or company, events are a great way to provide value and community for your team.  Events are also a strong marketing tool for your brand.  There’s no better way to expose your brand to the greater community than to promote it with a fun event so that people can interact with you hands on.

Here are some pointers to keep in mind when planning your next startup event.

Timing is everything:

• Be sure to leave at least a month (sweet spot is 3 months) of planning and promotion for your event. It will take longer than you think to wrangle high level guests, confirm with vendors and caterers and gather all the supplies you’ll need.
• Get an RSVP page setup for your event as soon as possible. Eventbrite is a great hosting site for this as they have great searchability.
• Search other events calendars and be sure not to plan your event during a big conference or competitor event.
• The best days to host startup events are Wednesdays and Thursdays in the evenings from 6-9pm. This ensures less competition from weekend social events.

Details, Details, Details:

• Providing food and refreshments is key to keeping your audience engaged and happy so be sure to have an abundance of each.  There are a few food and drink calculators out there to assist in the estimations, but you want to average at least one snack or food item and 2 drinks per person.
• You’ll need plentiful paper goods, silverware, and cups as well as ice to keep things cold. It’s best to make a list of supplies ahead of time so you don’t forget anything important.
• Create an itinerary of the evening and communicate it with your entire event team.  This ensures that you won’t run long or miss any key elements.

Communicate:

• Schedule tweets and posts for weeks ahead of time to promote the event. Set up hashtags specific to your event and share them.  Tweet your event to promoters and connectors in your community. Post it to shared events calendars.  Use all the contacts you have to boost your visibility
• The day before the event, be sure to send a final reminder email to attendees along with a detailed event plan to your staff, vendors, speakers, and anyone else involved in the event.  There’s no such thing as communicating too much when it comes to pulling off a stellar event.
• Take a ton of photos during the event and post one or two on Twitter or Instagram during the event.  Be sure to get the photos up on Facebook the following day to keep the buzz going.
• Send out thank you notes to attendees, panelists and those who assisted you.  This ensures they’ll feel appreciated and want to attend and help in the future.

Follow these helpful tips and your event is sure to be a startup success!

Abby Taylor

Abby Taylor is the Director of Events at the Somerville, MA outpost of Brooklyn Boulders, a climbing and coworking space in the Boston area. She hosts over 100 events a year for this thriving community and has over 5 years of event planning experience.

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