This is a guest post by Sian Downes, founder of Strawberry Lemonade Events.
Like everyone since March last year, I’ve been sat thinking of ways trying to support the team, our clients and also what I hope for the event industry going forward.
I’m not always the most tech savvy person, but the pandemic has seen me take hold of a lot of new opportunities such as podcasting during lockdown 1.0 and over Christmas I had really big success with LinkedIn Stories.
In this article...
Clubhouse, developing relationships & finding speakers
Clubhouse really could be the tool we didn’t know we needed and I am loving it! So for those who haven’t signed up yet, please do as it has a wealth of top innovators using it. I feel it’s a great way to connect with people who perhaps you wouldn’t get access to normally.
And that actually is useful for two reasons, firstly it of course helps you develop relationships and to listen to potential speakers you might want to use. Also, understand where the conversation around events is going post pandemic. Secondly, how to make events more sustainable, how as event profs we want to protect ourselves from our own pandemic (burnout) and how the appetite in certain sectors will be so strong, for example 18-25 years old’s and festival culture. The list in endless.
Delegate packages & advertising
What I have also thought a lot about is how as event planners we can use Clubhouse to make attractive delegate packages. It’s basically the networking solution we needed to make exclusive packages for sponsorship.
We all know that logos on slides and screens doesn’t cut the mustard these days and how many times have we been mulling over how to monetise virtual events.
I’ve already heard that Clubhouse is getting ready to add a paid feature to rooms , so charging for access. A feature many are already familiar with, such as conferences and black tie dinners etc.
That’s why I feel Clubhouse really needs to be part of your marketing mix and sponsorship offerings. It’s also a great place to build your profile. Many platforms feel saturated while Clubhouse is fresh (but rapidly growing) and therefore it’s your opportunity to build that base, garner that influence and get sector specific about the events you are interested in.
Focusing on key areas
For us here at Strawberry Lemonade Events, we have a fairly wide range of events and interests. I want to narrow down on Clubhouse, so I’ve chosen to focus on a few keys areas;
- Entrepreneurship: So for me, it’s always interesting to listen to people doing cool things. I’ve been following Dom McGregor formerly of Social Chain, so it’s been great to be hanging out in smaller rooms with him. I’ve even spotted Grant Cardone (full on American property guy if you haven’t heard of him) chatting away and I think, how else especially right now would you gain an opportunity like that to speak to someone like him?! I saw a tweet from someone saying they messaged Guy Kawasaki and he replied back in 11 minutes! So the knowledge, access and most importantly enthusiasm is there right now!
- Events: Pretty self explanatory. What people are thinking going forward. What agencies and planners want to do and gauging a timeline of when we think big events will come back. Strawberry Lemonade Events run the Edinburgh and Liverpool Yoga Festivals so we are very keen when people can get back to the mat.
- Subscription Boxes: We run Party in the Pos, so listening to people like Stefan from Subbly is super interesting and helpful.
- MotoGP: a personal passion of mine and an area that Strawberry Lemonade Events really want to work in more. So we are building our contacts and working out how we can connect with those who want to improve the fan experience for those attending races.
Going forward
I hope Clubhouse stays. I really liked Meerkat but does anyone else remember it? I hope to be able to include Clubhouse in virtual Events packages and I hope to hang out with more cool events pros!!
Sían Downes is the Founder and CEO of Strawberry Lemonade Events, an event management firm which specialises in corporate events, fan engagement and also operates Party in the Post- a monthly subscription party box service.