You still have time to create events that will impact your business in 2024 – here’s how.
2024 came in quickly and business has not stood still. In fact, the marketing, advertising, insights and tech industries have continued to accelerate conversations around innovations in tech, a cookieless world (that’s finally actually happening) and more, especially with CES already occurring this month. For some, this pace can be overwhelming, and it may even feel as though so much is already in motion that ideas for your own plans might seem unachievable – even though Q1 is not yet complete.
Fret not, however, because there is still time in 2024 to pull off your own hosted events – in person and virtual – even for the first half of the year. How is this possible? By taking a four simple steps, you can plan and execute successful events in 2024.
- (Re)Understand your target audience
- Clearly define your target audience and understand their needs, wants and the challenges & opportunities in front of them. If you haven’t re-examined these aspects of your target audience in the last six months or more, take another look as much has changed, quickly. Plan your approach based on what you’re trying to do and where your audience’s mindset may be at this point in their year. For example, if you’re seeking to educate, use the Spring and Summer when workloads are generally lighter and save hard business development conversations for times when strategy and budgets are being decided (typically late Summer/Fall).
- Keep it simple and strategic in the first half of the year
- You can still execute events in the first half of the year, but focus on creating small, strategic activations that will drive results with key targets. Single and half-day events with some content, food & beverage, and a creative activation are absolutely achievable.
- Plan for something big in the Fall
- If you do want to make a bigger splash and host a larger event, plan for late Summer/early Fall, when many businesses will be focused on strategy, planning and budgeting for the next year. Create your own hosted single or multi-day event or build an activation on top of another industry tentpole event happening in that time of year (like Advertising Week New York, ANA Masters of Marketing, TMRE, etc.).
- Stay true to your brand + messaging
- Ultimately, having a clearly defined brand platform and messaging framework, and pulling those through to all aspects of events and activations, will create the opportunities for success by bridging the needs/wants of your target audience with the education and value proposition your solutions provide. If you haven’t re-evaluated your brand platform and messaging in a year or more, it’s time to review and refresh.
If you’re looking to execute events in 2024 and still need help, reach out to our team of seasoned experts who will help guide you to event success.