As an event organizer, Felicity is constantly thinking about how to consistently put on great events and we were lucky enough to sit down with her to get some best practices.

Here are Felicity’s tips for creating great event content:

1. Fresh Eyes: Be prepared to look at your message with fresh eyes especially in the early days.  Who is your ideal customer?  What does he/she value?  What is he/she looking to get out of your event?  Put yourself as much in this person’s head and brainstorm their needs and how your event answers one or more of these needs.  Are they looking for entertainment or great networking or a completely different kind of experience like an 18hr. startup?

2. Benefits: What are the benefits of your event?  What will people get out of it?  Put this at the top of your event listing.  Is this THE rock experience of the century or a once in a life time tasting of vintage wines that any conoisseur would be luck to attend?

3. Competitors: What events are you competing with for your target market?  Are they offering similar events?  How is yours unique? You need to make your target confident not only that their experience with you will be better, but also a great value for their money.  Budgets are tight, and especially if they have not yet bought into other events with your company, you need to elicit confidence that they will benefit from paying for your event.

4. It’s in the title: Doing yet another social media presentation?  While certainly a timely and valuable topic, there are tons of social media workshops out there these days.  How will you grab your audience?  Create an action oriented title for your event that goes back to what your customer values. Examples: Listen First! Build revenue utilizing social media.  Open doors: The 18hr Startup Experience.  PR on a Shoestring: Generating media and revenue on a tight budget.

5. Call to action: Your audience has found your event and thinks it is interesting, but what converts them from thinking to acting? You need them to decide to come.  Have you offered a special discount?  Have you made it exclusive (space is limited type of event)?  Have you made it free but created some kind of accountabliity?  After the initial benefits you need to make sure to include a direct response statement and then repeat it at the bottom of your listing.  This provides your audience two opportunities to jump in.

Check out Outside the Cube’s calendar of upcoming events:

Related posts:

1. Event planning tips from author Judy Allen
2. PayPal X Innovate 09: Tips on hosting a developer conference

On November 3^rd and 4^th, PayPal will be hosting their first dedicated developer conference – PayPal X Innovate 09 – to unveil their open platform. There will be hundreds of developers participating in more than 35 interactive technical sessions and Code & Build Labs. To find out more about the conference and what it takes to put on an event of this size and nature, we got the inside scoop from PayPal’s Naveed Anwar, senior director of the PayPal Developer Platform.

What is PayPal X Innovate 2009 and what was the genesis of this event?

It’s PayPal’s first developer conference. On July 23 we announced that we were opening up our platform, giving developers full access to PayPal’s features and giving them the tools to build applications that leverage the great infrastructure and payment platform that we’ve established. The purpose of the conference is to gather this information and give our developers the tools and resources that they need to be successful. The community has asked for this event for some time, so we are excited to bring it to life.

Are there particular highlights that you are excited about?

We have a fantastic speaker line-up including John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, and our guest Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media. We have tracks focused on mobile, devices and new technology moderated by industry leaders and VCs.

But what I’m really excited about is seeing developers showcase what they’ve done with the beta version of our API and giving attendees a chance to share with the world how they envision transactions changing the way people think about building applications that have clear monetization models.

Apart from these great sessions we are going to have close to 200 engineers available from the PayPal platform team who are responsible for the infrastructure and APIs – real people who have worked on the product available onsite to work with the attendees to help them with during the code and build sessions.

Check out a list of these highlights and more here.

What are some of the unique things that you have to think about given that this is specifically a developer conference?

I think with all conferences, as an organizer you really have to have great content and world-class speakers. As a developer conference, providing access to real people that know the code is essential to making the attendee experience as rich as possible. We put a lot of thought into the code and build sessions. Attendees come to learn in a hands-on environment where they can get instant feedback. We’ve gone as far as to let attendees sign out rooms to host impromptu sessions and we’ve worked to set up many opportunities for attendees to demo their apps and share their work with the community through a demo pit and kiosks. We’re also working on a few surprises to really enhance the conference, so check out x.com for more details closer to the event.

Who are the sponsors and how did you attract them?

We have more than 20 great sponsors like Playspan, Sun and Zuora. We started working with our existing strategic partners to understand how we could create an event that they wanted to be a part of. We started these conversations early, focused on compelling content, and worked to make them a core part of the program, integrating them into panels and workshops instead of just having them as a monetary donor.

How big a role does social media play in this event and how specifically are you using it?

We will be using social media to connect attendees and generate buzz. We’re doing all the basics like running a Twitter account and a Facebook event page. We also spoke to the major blog influencers and focused on creating enough great content for them for them to want to blog about. Social media is key to creating and fostering a viral effect which is important for reaching potential attendees. We’re using flip cam videos to capture announcements about the conference so that people have something to share and pass on and get excited about.

We’re using the Twitter Hashtag #ppxi09 to aggregate all the tweets about the event and help attendees connect before, during, and after the event. At the event we will stream the Twitter feed so that everyone can see the buzz and chatter in real-time.

Do you have any other best practices to share with other event planners who are throwing large events like this?

Here’s my top five best practices:

1. Know your audience.

2. Define parameters, goals and metrics upfront.

3. Focus on content and make sure that your event is unique.

4. Look carefully at timing. Time your event around a major announcement and leverage the momentum.

5. Be open with the community. Gain credibility with them. It’s the community that will take your event, and ultimately your product, to the next level.

Related posts:

1. Eventbrite wins PayPal Star Developer Award
2. Star Developer Interview Video

Halloween party planning is in full swing and to help you prepare for a night free of horrors, here are some party planning tips from Tyler:

1. Tier your ticket pricing. Ramp up the ticket prices as the event approaches. This will incent people to buy tickets early and help you plan more accurately. You can tier prices by date (let people know that after a certain date prices will go up), by number of tickets sold (first 50 tickets sold are $20, then they ramp to $50), or by level of access (VIP vs. general admission).

2. Create an incentive to buy tickets online. When attendees buy tickets online, you get an upfront commitment that they are coming and you can gather email addresses to let them know about future parties that you host. You can create incentives to buy online by raising the price at the door so that online is cheaper, offering a free drink before a certain time with the purchase of an online ticket (added bonus of getting people to arrive earlier), and by creating hype around the event and instilling a fear that the event might sell out (which is completely true).

3. Run smooth entry management. The worst thing for a party-goer is waiting too long to get in. Have a separate entrance for people that bought tickets before-hand so that they can enter quickly and another line for people buying tickets at the door.

4. Brand your page. Embed images and videos into your registration page to give potential ticket buyers a feel for what type of event it will be. Here are some good examples:

Halloween International Ball

The Rise of Funkenstein

The Stay Puft Party

5. Get the word out. Use all the tools we provide like widgets and email invitations to spread the word and sell out early. Publish your event to Facebook and promote it on Twitter. Schedule emails to attendees two weeks before and then the day before to generate excitement and buzz and reminding them to invite their friends.

6. Encourage people to wear a costume. Have a costume contest and during the registration process ask what category they want to enter to get them thinking about the costume in advance. You can do this by creating custom questions in the registration process. Keep the categories general like scariest or most creative so that people who haven’t picked a costume yet can still enter.

Still looking for a great Halloween party to attend? Here are some great ones happening around the country:

techARTS – A Spooky Union, DC

Halloween International Ball, San Francisco, CA

GOTO’s 9th Annual Halloween Costume Party, New York, NY

Halloween Haunting 2009 at Lasalle Power Company, Chicago IL

GOTO Boston’s Halloween 2009, Boston, MA

Sarasota Pumpkin Festival, Sarasota, FL

No related posts.

For our readers who aren’t familiar with the term, what is a Tweetup?

Simply put, it’s an event that is primarily promoted on twitter, and allows people who have made connections through twitter to meet up and talk in person.

The majority of Tweetups are primarily social and are simply meant to connect like-minded people or those who wouldn’t normally have a chance to connect. For example recently in Boston there were a couple of Tweetups in celebration of Fashion week that connected Social media personalities with fashion consultants and local performers.

Initially, the majority of Tweetups were very spontaneous & easy to promote given the real time nature of twitter and the small amount people (tweeple) on twitter at the time.  Simply sending out a tweet to let people know that you were in the area was all that was needed for a successful Tweetup to happen. Organizing Tweetups today takes a bit more effort because there are so many tweets to sift thru on a daily basis. The Tweetups of today have be more organized and are sometimes planned months in advance.

What do you need to do to set up your own Tweetup?

Tweetup Must-Haves:

• A Location. Preferably one with wifi or a place where people can tweet from. It’s great to tie location to your Tweetup theme.

• A Theme. The biggest item to consider when putting together a Tweetup is its objective, goal and/or theme. The goal can be as simple as just getting together socially like #Roofup (largest Boston Tweetup to date 250+ people), however other creative ideas can include #BurritUp (people interested in a burrito tasting), #trustagents (book signing), #SMM09 (fashion show),  #LoveTheCool (performance based Tweetup), or #Scooterup (Tweetup to raise aware of a new scooter law in Boston).

• A Hashtag. This will be helpful for people to comment on the event and easily promote event for you on Twitter. It is also a way for people that couldn’t make the event to find out what’s happening or what has happened at the event.  A hashtag is any word or phrase beginning with the character # (without spaces ie #thisiscool vs #this is cool). Twitter has been designed to separate hashtags for easy filtering and searching.  Twitter also keeps track of and lists the hashtags that are trending (hashtags that are used most frequently) and lists them on the twitter homepage.  For more info on hashtags review @Mashable article on the best use of #hashtags.

Tweetup Nice-to-Haves:

• A sponsor. A sponsor can cover the cost of first drink, appetizers, giveaways, etc.

• Name tags. Encourage people to put their twitter handle on name tags, this will make it easy for people to tag & connect with after the event is over.

• A projector. Used in combination with a computer and a website like VisibleTweets, attendees can easily see all the tweets coming in from the event in real-time and depending on location can make a good backdrop for the event.

• Photographer/Videographer. Make sure the photographer or videographer captures twitter names on nametags, this will make it easy for people to indirectly promote the event by sharing pictures when they see themselves in them. If you can’t get a photographer, just bring a camera!

• Jar to collect business cards. This is primarily used for giveaways and to help follow up with people, but it is also a great way to take attendance and create a mailing list for your next event.

• Giveaways or Prizes. Prizes should ideally be tied to the theme of the event, for example if it’s it a movie Tweetup having movie related prizes will complement the event, if it’s a retail clothes store Tweetup it would be great to have steep discounts on clothes purchased during the Tweetup. T-shirts are also good for almost every Tweetup.

• Food/Drink Refreshments are always great for social events, and if they are complimentary, even better!

• Handouts. If there is a follow up event, you can start promoting it. You can also collected event feedback via postcards.

What’s the best way to promote your Tweetup and get people to attend?

In promotion a Tweetup organizer’s two biggest allies are a twitter following and a registration page. By nature of the event, people will tweet about it, share it with their networks and spread the word. A great Eventbrite page that has all of the information people need to know about your event (I have used at least 9 different event planning & promotion sites and Eventbrite by far is the most complete solution for an event promoter & attendee).

Although there are many Eventbrite features that I like, here are just a few of the key elements that are most important for Tweetups:

• Customized URLs/event page color scheme. This allows the event organizer to customize the event page so that it is consistent with their brand look and feel. Here is a great example http://socialmediamakeover.eventbrite.com/ which compliments http://amansworldco.com/wordpress/

• Facebook connect and Twitter integration. This is great because the registered attendees indirectly act as promoters for the event by adding the event to their facebook wall and automatically tweeting about it.

• Calendar integration. This feature is on the majority of event planning sites but it is extremely helpful especially for services like BostonTweetUp because it allows us to add events to our calendar and promote them, without needing to register for them.

• Collect custom information. It’s great to collect and display attendees’ Twitter handles on your event page so that attendees can find each other on Twitter before and after the event.

So what does Boston Tweetup do?

Boston TweetUp is an event planning and promotion service that leverages the power of social media. We provide consulting services to help organizers strategically plan and organize the before, during and after Tweetup process to ensure they are as successful as possible. On the promotion side we aggregate Tweetups in a monthly calendar and host a weekly video show that highlights upcoming Tweetups in the Boston area. After major Tweetups we send out event polls to get a sense of what the attendees thought of the event. We are aworking to make BostonTweetup.com the central resource for Tweetups, as well as being the place for new media strategic event planning and promotions, not only for the Boston area but anywhere in the world.

In the Boston area we have already started aggregating all the services and resources for Tweetup hosts.  Some of the things we are going to list in our resources section will be Tweetup friendly locations, Tweetup guides, photographers, videographers, potential sponsors, and anything else they may need.  We are also looking at a ratings system that will let the community vote for the services of their liking. We of course have Twitter and Facebook pages as well.

On a more national level, we are creating blueprints that anyone can use to create a similar service in their area.  Here are a just a few our partner sites.

• http://twitter.com/sactweetup
• http://twitter.com/NHTweetUp
• http://twitter.com/mainetweetup
• http://twitter.com/CTTweetCrawl

If anyone in starting such a service please email info[at]BostonTweetUp.com.

What are your top 3 Do’s and Don’ts for Tweetup organizers?

Do’s

1. Decide on the theme first. Once you decide what the theme and goal of the event is then everything else should fall into place.

2. Attend other people’s Tweetups. Develop relationships with other Tweetup hosts before you organize your own. They will be more inclined to not only go to your event, but help promote it for you too. An added benefit is that it’s a great learning opportunity to see how it’s done.

3. Document everything. Take pictures, record audio and video, even if you don’t end up using it. It’s much better to have and not use then to not have at all.

Don’t’s

1. Don’t forget the human element. Especially in promotion and gathering sponsors, other forms of communications besides twitter are important in building relationships and letting people know about your event.

2. Don’t change too many things once promotion begins. I highly recommend adopting the philosophy of measure twice cut once.  Take your time and think of a good theme, hashtag, custom eventbrite url, etc.  Remember once the event details have been tweeted it’s out there for the world to see.

3. Don’t neglect the details and be sure to plan ahead. Whether your Tweetup is big or small communicate this to your attendees. Let them know what to expect. Important points to cover on your event page include: Will there be food, is there parking, WiFi, is it kid friendly, is it political, will there be media present, etc. The more transparent you are about your Tweetup the better it will be for everyone involved.

See Tweetups on Eventbrite happening around the country:

Speed NeTwirking. Philidelphia, PA

FinchUp TweetUp. North Hampton, NH

Mass Technology Leadership Tweetup. Somerville, MA

Once a Month Mom Tweetup. Daytonm OH

The BIG Maine Tweetup. Portland, ME

Blog World Las Vegas Tweetup. Las Vegas, NV

Atlanta Chicks Tweetup and Networking Event. Atlanta, GA

Deep Fried Triangle Tweetup at the NC State Fair. Raleigh, NC

Lake Worth Tweetup #1. Lake Worth, FL

Bagel Tweetup 2. Bethesda, MD

Check out our Eventbrite Twitter Tutorial and this video of Joselin talking about Boston Tweetup:

Related posts:

1. NEW: The Personal Tweetup
2. How to Host a Kick-Ass Event

Here are my top five takeaways from the panel discussion:

1. Know your audience.

The first step in throwing a kick-ass event is knowing your audience. All three event organizers stressed this multiple times throughout the discussion. To attract both attendees and sponsors you have to focus on creating compelling content that generates excitement and draws a crowd, but in order to focus on the right content you first have to think about who you are trying to attract and the types of things that they would find compelling. So know your audience to create compelling content.

Once you have the content, then you can target the audience and entice them with the event details, but in order to do so you have to know where to find them. By understanding who your audience is you can uncover where they get their information. Whether it is targeting specific online communities, trade journals, or industry associations, know your audience and know where to find them.

Finally, know your audience at the event. Collect data on attendees during the registration process – collect specific information that will help you further understand your audience for future outreach. In addition you can collect information that would be interesting for the audience to know and then share it on the day of the event. Like what percentage of the audience has a blog or contributes to online reviews, or uses Twitter. The organizers stressed the importance of collecting email addresses in the registration process to help you build up a list of people that might be interested in your future events.

2. Location is everything but get it for nothing.

Location is key to throwing a great event. Think about the theme of your event and the vibe you want to create and what type of location will best support it. For example Myles chose Mighty for his SF New Tech events since it is a club with a large open space for networking. It’s entrance is an unmarked door in a big brick warehouse giving attendees the experience of an underground event where they will get to see all the coolest new tech startups.

Think about what amenities will be required, whether outdoor space would be appropriate, if you want the event to feel more like a cocktail hour (bar) or a serious meeting (hotel or conference space). If you’re on a tighter budget, you can often get free event space at a bar if you go with a cash bar and agree to give the bar the proceeds from the drinks – this works well for weekday events where the bar would otherwise have low traffic. Other budget options include using space at local companies like CNET or MySpace who will let you use their offices for free in return for a short speaking slot and some marketing visibility.

Negotiating location rates is definitely a required art – the organizers shared with us that hotels usually quote 30%-40% higher than what you can actually get them for, so don’t be afraid to negotiate. In addition you can usually get 50% off on the quote for AV equipment provided by the space.

If you don’t know how many people you will have at your event get a flexible space that can expand or contract depending on your turnout. For example restaurants with additional rooms to add or conference spaces that have moving walls or that can be set up in different configurations. For example one room set up classroom style that can fit 250 can also be set up theater-style and seat 400.

3. Speakers get as much from your event as you get from them.

In attracting speakers the first step is to find a topic, then know your audience, and then think about whom they would be excited to hear from. It will be much easier to attract speaker once you have a concrete topic or theme to help them envision how they will fit into the overall event. Collect speaker submissions and reach out to contacts that you have. Finding at least a warm intro into a speaker will go along way so once you target an individual search your network for someone who already has the connection.

Cover room and board for your speakers, but 99% of the time you shouldn’t pay them. They are not at your event to do a job, they are at your event to connect with your audience – the value should be one of reciprocity, you give them as much value for being a part of your event as you get from having them speak. You have a lot to offer them – visibility, a chance to meet your attendees, and a chance to meet your other VIPs. As Edith put it, when you reach out to a speaker, “you are giving them the opportunity to speak at your event.”

4. Get creative to sell out early.

Getting an accurate count of attendees before the event is critical yet can be one of the hardest things to do. Getting attendees to put skin in the game by charging event $5 will tremendously increase the accuracy of your RSVPs. Another tactic that Cassie shared was that a few days before the event she sends a message or posts to Twitter saying that the event is sold out, so if you aren’t planning on attending please let her know so that she can give someone on the waitlist your ticket. Another good rule of thumb that she shared was that 10 days before her event if she doubles the number of attendees that are registered that is a very accurate predictor of how many will be registered by the time of the event.

When it comes to selling tickets, stand by your price and believe in your value. Think about what you are giving attendees and what that experience is worth. To help jump-start ticket sales offer early bird pricing or send out discount codes for the first week or two of sales, then move to general ticket sales and then raise prices again for last-minute buyers. Leverage Twitter for the few days before the event to create urgency around buying tickets or registering and allude to selling out. You can do creative things like sending buyers on a goose chase to find discount codes hidden on partner websites.

Another way to drive sales is to use affiliates and incent others to market and sell tickets for you. For every 10 tickets they sell, give them one for free or give them special perks or VIP status if they reach a certain number of referrals. You can manage this all through Eventbrite Affiliate Programs. Partner with as many groups as possible for marketing and comp them some tickets in return. You can even recruit PR firms to work for free in return for access to your event and attendees.

5. Keep your eye on the prize.

On the day of a lot can go wrong, but a lot will go right. Don’t sweat the details, no one notices and if they do, people are generally very forgiving. Remember that people attend your event to have a good time, to connect with others, and to maybe learn something. On the day of the event your role has to change from operator to gracious host. People will have a better time if they see you having a great time. So most of all, enjoy your events!

Related posts:

1. 5 Tips for Building Great Content and Driving Attendees to Your Event
2. BlogHer gets creative with LobbyCon event

This year they launched a new product, the Ki Pro at the National Association of Broadcasters Show and from there embarked on a 24 city global road-show, creating events to herald the new product launch. We had the chance to speak with Shea Byrnes who was responsible for these events.

What was the purpose of the roadshow?

We wanted to launch the new product with a splash, and events are a great way to rally people around a product and generate buzz. The product we launched is in a new field for us; it’s a unique product and we wanted to have the chance to show it to as many people as possible.

Also as a manufacturer who primarily sells through resellers, we also wanted a chance to meet our end-users face-to-face and get their feedback on the new product. An event was a great way to unite us with our audience.

What was the process of putting this all together?

We started off with the overall plan of what we wanted to accomplish and what cities we would go to and then booked venues, put the website up, and sent emails out. We contacted local and national industry publications and posted on industry blogs and contacted user groups letting people know that we were coming to their town. We tapped into our local reseller network for geo-specific advice like what venue to choose, which publications to market in,, and how to get the word out at the local level.

Since we were doing this in 24 cities, there was a lot of work just to keep the events cohesive and present some consistency. We created a landing page on aja.com to unify the experience and that helped a lot.

So, how did the events go?

They were very successful. We attracted about 100 people in each city and used the events to conduct user trainings and familiarize users with the new product. A lot of our resellers really liked our approach so we are actually implementing a “seminar in a box” offering so that resellers can do it as well.

How did you measure success?

We looked at how many people we reached, the number and quality of press that we spoke with, and sales generated from the tour. On all of these metrics the event was a success.

What were the biggest learnings from these events?

First, getting to know our end users. Going into this, we didn’t really know who are customers were since we don’t get to connect with them directly since we deal with resellers. Getting to meet them face-to-face, hearing about their problems and how our products addressed them, and getting real-time feedback was invaluable.

Secondly, we learned that WOM (word-of-mouth) marketing is incredibly important for events. You have to create marketing materials that people can forward on easily, you have to connect with industry publications and other influential groups that can help to spread the word. Through these events we were able to create a tremendous amount of buzz around the product launch and achieve a greater relevancy with our customers.

Related posts:

1. Launch your product in the Spring at DEMO 09
2. SubCulture Dining: An event of the senses with the Dissident Chef

This Friday, Mashable is hosting the first ever Social Good Conference in New York City. It’s a one-day event celebrating the end of the Summer for Social Good, a charitable campaign spearheaded by the social media blog, that focused on raising funds for four charities: Livestrong, Humane Society, Oxfam, and WWF.

The conference will feature speakers from the charities as well as well as social media mavens such as Shira Lazar, Adam Hirsch, Pete Cashmore, and Randi Zuckerberg. The conference brings together activists and technologists, providing a forum for them to discover new causes and new ways to promote them. We had a chance to sit down with Adam Hirsch from Mashable to learn more about this amazing event.

How did the Social Good Conference come about?

It really came out of the Summer for Social Good, Mashables’ first major initiative in the charity fundraising space. We’ve been involved with great causes before as media sponsors or event hosts, but we wanted to do something directly ourselves. We’ve been able to partner with some great charities and use our expertise, social media, to help them with awareness. We saw the opportunity for a unique way to engage and give back to the community and it was perfect for us.

Tell us a little more about the Summer for Social Good.

The Summer for Social Good is a campaign dedicated to spreading awareness for four major organizations who affect policies and have profound impacts on the world. Social media connects people with similar interests and allows them to share information and things that they are passionate about – we wanted to tap into this on behalf of these incredible organizations. Awareness was key, we want the charities to learn how to promote and raise money online, and for people who haven’t been exploring the causes – give them a chance to find something that they can get involved with. The whole campaign ends with the conference and will bring together the social media scene with the local and national non-profit scene. 100% of ticket sales will go to the charities. It will  be an exciting group and hopefully a lot of positive change will result.

Did the Summer of Social Good involve any actual events?

Yes, there was the Hyatt4Good tweet-up tour. We did these networking events in six cities — NY, Chicago, Denver, LA, DC, and Boston. Ticket sales were donated to the Summer for Social Good fund, which goes directly to the charities. These tweet-ups connected media folks with non-profits and we raised over $8,000.

You’ve spent the whole summer fundraising for these organization, do you have any tips for other fundraisers?

You can’t just do fundraising online alone, you have to have some sort of real-time connection with your audience. An event is the perfect forum to bring together people with similar passions and interests.  When you’re trying to raise money and awareness an event can generate the kind of excitement and buzz that is really difficult to achieve online. 

Related posts:

1. 10 Social Media events happening around the country
2. Putting the social back in social media