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Top Tips for Improved Attendance At Your Next Event

By Peter Kray posted 07-24-2019 02:25 PM

  
Construction industry professionals are busy people, with details to address and deadlines to meet. Which means that if you want them to attend your event, you better offer them something they feel they just can’t miss.  Jillian Tipton, executive director of the CSI Akron-Canton, Ohio Chapter, has created a series of successful events over the past year, utilizing the CSI Dynamic Chapter Program (DCP) approach, and a lot of face-to-face meetings to create a series of compelling, well-attended events.  Here are just a few of the “Better Event” tactics she has seen work: •	Make Your Event an Actual Event: In June, Tipton took advantage of the nearby Goodyear Blimp hangar at Wingfoot Lake in Akron, to take chapter members on a private tour of the facility, where they got to enjoy touring a living history of the brand, including viewing the current “Spirit of Akron” blimp, one of their most iconic airships. “People don’t want to keep meeting in the same old place,” Tipton said. “They want to get out and do something different, that they can’t do anywhere else. And this was a perfect opportunity to do that.” Following the tour, attendees were invited to dinner where they could discuss what they saw and learned in a relaxed environment.   •	Limit Attendance: Scarcity tends to create demand, and for the Goodyear tour, a cap was placed on attendance and event publicity started several months in advance. It was also available to members-only. She said that once reservations were available, “It sold out in 24 hours.” •	Community is a Resource: Tipton said the chapter “very rarely holds events in our office,” focusing instead on tours, golf tournaments, happy hours, and business lunches, to encourage a relaxed environment where members feel free to network. “Professionals are looking for that community, where they really feel engaged and involved,” Tipton said. To that end, she and the Akron-Canton Chapter Board of Directors have been contacting local architectural firms, where members can participate in ‘meet-and-greets.’ “Getting in front of those individuals who really make decisions can be a huge benefit,” she said. “Even if we just buy some pizza and donuts and sit around and talk.” At the root of it all, Tipton said what she really wants to do is remind people that CSI is an organization for “everyone in the construction industry, where being collaborative creates mutual benefits.”
Construction industry professionals are busy people, with details to address and deadlines to meet. Which means that if you want them to attend your event, you better offer them something they feel they just can’t miss.
 
Jillian Tipton, executive director of the CSI Akron-Canton, Ohio Chapter, has created a series of successful events over the past year, utilizing the CSI Dynamic Chapter Program (DCP) approach, and a lot of face-to-face meetings to create a series of compelling, well-attended events.
 
Here are just a few of the “Better Event” tactics she has seen work:

  • Make Your Event an Actual Event: In June, Tipton took advantage of the nearby Goodyear Blimp hangar at Wingfoot Lake in Akron, to take chapter members on a private tour of the facility, where they got to enjoy touring a living history of the brand, including viewing the current “Spirit of Akron” blimp, one of their most iconic airships. “People don’t want to keep meeting in the same old place,” Tipton said. “They want to get out and do something different, that they can’t do anywhere else. And this was a perfect opportunity to do that.” Following the tour, attendees were invited to dinner where they could discuss what they saw and learned in a relaxed environment.

  • Limit Attendance: Scarcity tends to create demand, and for the Goodyear tour, a cap was placed on attendance and event publicity started several months in advance. It was also available to members-only. She said that once reservations were available, “It sold out in 24 hours.”

  • Community is a Resource: Tipton said the chapter “very rarely holds events in our office,” focusing instead on tours, golf tournaments, happy hours, and business lunches, to encourage a relaxed environment where members feel free to network. “Professionals are looking for that community, where they really feel engaged and involved,” Tipton said. To that end, she and the Akron-Canton Chapter Board of Directors have been contacting local architectural firms, where members can participate in ‘meet-and-greets.’ “Getting in front of those individuals who really make decisions can be a huge benefit,” she said. “Even if we just buy some pizza and donuts and sit around and talk.”

At the root of it all, Tipton said what she really wants to do is remind people that CSI is an organization for “everyone in the construction industry, where being collaborative creates mutual benefits.”

Want to learn more about how DCP can help you create events that cannot be missed?  Email chapterrelations@csinet.org.
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