When hosting an events, it’s important to make sure that everyone gets their invite. Employees can then plan ahead to ensure they make it to the event. A recent survey was done by Epoch to ask how event hosts typically communicate with employees about future company events.
A huge majority still use email as their main source of communication. While email is usually the default method of communications, it has been shown that email can result in a missed message or invite. Many individuals don't check their emails due to junk and clutter. Slack or direct communication is the best way to inform people about upcoming events.
Marketing the event is crucial to getting the message across. People will get excited about the event and employees will share the event. Allowing employees to participate early will create buzz around the event and get a good understanding of who’s coming. The best way to do pre-event marketing is by using social media, Slack/Teams, or email, and centralize it all on Epoch. Using email does not provide the best participation as people don't check them anymore. Slack, Teams or posting on an Intranet notifies everyone of the event.
Sending out calendar invitations will notify employees of the event and have them save the date. By seeing the time slot being allocated for the event, employees can schedule work around the event rather than the event interrupting work.
Another method is by inviting team managers to the event. This will allow team managers to communicate with their team members on the event and ensure there's a higher attendance rate.
Epoch can help with easily sending out calendar invites to everyone, specific teams or individuals at an organization.
A good invitation will lead to successful registration. It is recommended that all registration is conducted in one platform, like Epoch. Multiple platforms can lead to messy invites and lost data. Having one constant application for invites and registration will allow employees to easily attend future events as well.
It is important to increase the reminders as it gets closer to the event. Many people lose the invitations or forget to register. Having multiple reminders sent out and communicating with managers on the events will ensure employees participate. It is also important for the registration site to be user-friendly. A site that is difficult to handle and time-consuming will make people not register.
After registering, it’s important to send a confirmation email. This lets them know they have successfully registered for the event. A confirmation email will also give a chance to recap important information like contact details, venue, schedule, and more. Epoch will automatically send out confirmation emails to registrants.
A successful event will have information on everyone joining. This is not just name and contact but rather dietary restrictions, accessibility, and more. To ensure everyone enjoys the event, having these important details will allow everyone to feel comfortable and included. It’s not a great experience when only one group feels comfortable while the rest want to go home. Doing this will make future events unsuccessful.
Make sure to be prepared to change plans on the fly and have a contingency plan in place. You may know how many people RSVP to the event, but that may not be the number of people who show up. You may need to change the event to accommodate the increase or decrease in participation. If plan A doesn't work plan B must be sent into action.
The tool that you choose to communicate the event is the most crucial part of event planning. Calendar invites, direct mobile invites, Slack, or intranet posts are the best method of communication. All of these can be centralized into once place by using Epoch. Emails get lost and are never looked at depending on the department. An example of this would be the engineering department never looking at emails but will always look at internal communication applications.
Let Epoch help you streamline all the important tasks for your next event. Crucial steps like an invitation, communication, registration, and confirmation are all handled by Epoch both easier and faster. Company events drive the employee experience, increasing productivity and connection with the organization’s culture and among employees. Epoch can help streamline the event planning process. Book a demo today!
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