Page 9 - Merlin Evolve Winter 2020-2021

Step 2: THE BOTTOM LINE IS: THE BOTTOM LINE!
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of organisation. This is true for the vast majority of endeavours, but it has particular significance when it comes to running a successful event.
You have a clear idea of what your event is and you know why people are going to want to come it. Allied with a clear idea of who your market is, where the best place to put the event on and when the most suitable time and date would be, you’ve got everything you need... haven’t you?
Budgets
In business, one of the most fundamental elements of success relates to budget. If you exceed your budget, making a profit is impossible and even breaking even becomes incredibly difficult, depending upon what margins you’re working on. Booking a well-known headline act for your festival might be a guaranteed way to sell tickets, but if the capacity of your venue means that your tickets will have to be sky high just to cover your costs, maybe this isn’t the best option. The number of places you have available at your venue multiplied by the amount each attendee will pay for their ticket dictates your income – but don’t forget that spending the entirety of this money will mean that you can’t make any profit from the event.
That may not be an issue for you – perhaps it’s a not-for-profit event –
but it’s worth bearing in mind. Also, you only have the amount of money available that you take. If your event caters for children and concession tickets, make sure you allow for that when you decide upon your ticket prices. If you budget for selling out the venue with full price tickets but end up selling half your tickets at a reduced rate, you could well encounter problems!
Market forces
If you don’t think of yourself as an event organiser (i.e. it’s not on your business card, not just because you don’t have a business card, and is not on your CV either) phrases like “market forces” might make you want to stop reading. Once you’ve identified an audience for your event and taken into account whether your audience will be able to attend at the date and time you’ve highlighted, you’re already deep in “market forces” territory, though. It’s too late to turn back now – you’ve got to see this thing through. The only remaining element you need to be aware of is price. You might think that charging X amount for a ticket to see Y artist is very reasonable (it probably is!) but if your audience can’t (or won’t) pay that much, that
is an issue. The importance of pricing your event accurately cannot be overstated: getting it wrong will render all your hard work utterly pointless.
Collect all 6
NOTE TO SELF:
Video is the king - get something on the web site ASAP.
Speak to Scott.
Social Media
Is it getting to enough of our customer base? How do we evaluate its effectiveness?
SPEAK TO MARKETING.
PODCAST?
Is it something we need to consider?
Feedback suggests they work well on social media.
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