Advice on holding seminars required

[jasonatbbi]

Hi All,
I am new here so please let me know if this post isn't in keeping with the norm.

We are thinking of holding a free seminar in the autumn and I wanted to hear from anyone with experience of doing the same.

My main questions are:

Do you try to ascertain the types of topics people want to learn about before planning the event, or do you simply choose the area you want to talk about and announce it?

Do you make it a blatant marketing exercise by covering the walls in your advertising and using the seminar to extol the virtues of your company, or do you try to impart knowledge in as useful a way as possible in the hope that people like what you've said and ask about your services?

If the majority of answers say survey your audience to decide the topic before starting, is it acceptable to run the survey in this forum?

Thank you all in advance for your help.

 

[david rushton]

You should have a fair idea of the topics you could cover from your past dealings with customers, and what they struggled to understand or asked questions on.

Events like this have to be based (in my opinion) around what topics the audience would probably find beneficial.

To answer your other question, I don't see anything wrong with letting the audience know about your company, but that should come second to delivering something useful to them.

Hope this helps...

 

[JohnNash]

When I've attended seminars the ones I've picked have been when there have been changes in laws / regulations etc around business that are just too time consuming (and mainly irrelevant for small businesses) to go through. Changes to data protection act was a good one recently (at Gorvins in Stockport who put on quite a few) and people seemed to love the opportunity to quiz some legal brains for free at the end!

I would suggest to pick areas of general ignorance that leave companies open to financial penalties, or mean they are missing huge opportunities.

Nothing wrong with branding the room heavily and I'd always be expecting to take away a small presentation pack with the slides, any supporting documentation, and contact details. However, use the presentation to show your knowledge not to sell your company. Perhaps 60 seconds at the start would be expected, but the presentations I remember and businesses I respect the most have been ones who have been prepared to share their knowledge rather than just saying "I know this but you don't, but if you pay me I'll tell you!"

Good luck!

 

[JRT]

Would you charge for seminars?

I read somewhere on here about someone offering something for free, then changing it to £1 and the conversion rate doubling.

What does everyone think?

 

[Law101]

Hi there,

When I have held seminars in the past I choose a topic that I know clients have had trouble with recently or some change in regulation / law / new product etc. At the end of your seminar you could ask people to give feedback and also ideas as to other topics that they may find useful for future seminars.

In respect of the way that you hold the seminar I have found that talks which involve the audience are much more popular; for example I held one on how to run a disciplinary procedure and asked local drama students to act out scenarios that led to audience participation. This did take more time and effort in terms of writing scripts etc. but there was no additional cost and the turnout was at a maximum level.

As for cost, I don't believe there is a right answer. I would however urge you to make pre-registration a necessity.

In terms of trying to sell on the day, how about placing a brochure on every chair for people to take away? Also speak to as many people during registration and after the event. Finally, call all attendees within the following week. They have only attended because they are interested in the subject matter so each person is a potential client / customer.

A bit of further advice - I think that the time of the day for holding seminars is equally important. I find that early morning seminars (say registration at 8am) attract the most people as it does not eat into too much of their working day.

Best of luck. I personally think that seminars are fantastic ways to market your skills and knowledge.

 

[JohnNash]

Would you charge for seminars?

I read somewhere on here about someone offering something for free, then changing it to £1 and the conversion rate doubling.

What does everyone think?

I heard similar where someone was offering a free consultation but got little take-up, then started charging and it got busy. They concluded that people must have thought free was too good to be true.

It may be the same with seminars, perhaps people would think they were going to get something useful if they had to pay £10 (£1 seems a little low!) rather than being sold to if it was free.

I have to say though, I've never paid to go to one and unless it was someone who I really wanted to hear, I doubt I'd pay to attend.

 

[JRT]

I heard similar where someone was offering a free consultation but got little take-up, then started charging and it got busy. They concluded that people must have thought free was too good to be true.

Yeah we're offering a free computer health check and people seem a bit wary.

I'm thinking about doing a seminar type event for my customers, theres no reason to think that they'd just work for business to business is there?

 

[JohnNash]

I'm thinking about doing a seminar type event for my customers, theres no reason to think that they'd just work for business to business is there?

I suppose finding the time for consumers will be the main issue, at least for B2B you know the working day is generally 9-5 so breakfast seminars work well. When it comes to individuals I presume you'd be conducting them in the evening when you are competing for their time with a large number of other activities.

Have you thought perhaps about being a guest speaker at a local education college where they run evening training courses? That might be a good captive audience.

 

[jasonatbbi]

First of all - a big thank you to everyone. I only joined this forum yesterday and I'm very pleased with the way everyone is so keen to help.
Turning to the points raised - We have had some lengthy debate about whether or not charge and I personally think we should. The powers that be think free is the way to go but I will show them these comments and hopefully bring them round.
I like the idea about introducing the company for a set part of the presentation - The attendees will surely accept that.
As for the topic itself, we are still unsure whether to canvas local businesses or simply choose what to go with. Any more advice on choosing a topic will be gratefully received.
Thank you again everyone for all your help so far.

 

[JohnNash]

As for the topic itself, we are still unsure whether to canvas local businesses or simply choose what to go with. Any more advice on choosing a topic will be gratefully received.

How about providing a list of your key services and USPs on here? Might highlight areas that people don't know enough about and perhaps therefore point you towards a subject.

 

[jasonatbbi]

Sorry to everyone who has contributed to this discussion for not posting my own reply sooner - I had to take a few days off.
In reply to JohnNash's request for a list of our services, I wouldn't like people to think that I had come on here to simply promote the company, so I'll hold off on a complete list for the time being.
What I can say is that there are 10 of us dealing with all kinds of marketing issues and I personally am interested in websites and technology.
What I would probably most like to talk about is the rise of mobile phone use to view the internet and the options for business owners this throws up. The main question for businesses (as I see it) being whether to (one) do nothing, (two) get a mobile version of their website set up with a mobile domain, (three) get an App created or (four) use either admob or iAd to advertise on mobile sites or within Apps.
Anyway, thank you again to everyone who has contributed to this discussion.

 

[JohnNash]

Nothing wrong with a bit of self promotion!

With regards to the seminar topic, I think you have it there with what you're interested in, sounds perfect.

The majority of our business, for example, comes via our website in the first instance so without a doubt the mobile internet and / or mobile apps are something that worry me slightly as it isn't something we offer. I know some of our competitors have already got some products to market.

I think a lot of people would be interested to learn more about projected usage figures, most popular uses for mobile internet at the moment, successful apps, and then options for what to do next.

As well as advertising, it would probably be worthwhile touching on the possibilities of using location based apps like FourSquare or Gowalla.

I would be interesting to me anyway! What do others think?

 

[jasonatbbi]

Thanks for the reply John.
I hope you don't mind but I've just done a quick check and your mobile domain is still available.
If you were to register the officesupnorth mobile domain, you would automatically get a new version of your site, optimised for display on mobile phones. That means that instead of just seeing the top left corner of the screen and then having to pan left, right and up & down to find information, visitors would see a shrunk down logo, the company phone number (which is interactive and can be touched to dial from the phone in use straight to you), and the rest of the content as a single column.
Plus, if the visitor prefers the normal site, there's automatically a link at the bottom of the page to go there.
The added benefit is that you protect yourself against other people buying the name and then putting their own content on the site.
As for the statistics you mention, for our customers (for whom we run site analysis reports), it is very clear. No one had any hits from mobile devices until November last year. Since then, on every site we monitor, the growth has been exponential. Right now around 1.5% of all site visits come from mobile phone users and the number is increasing everyday.
With internet-enabled phones set to outnumber PCs in 2013 - the trend can only continue to rise.
Securing a mobile domain now really sets you up for the future - when 10% of your hits are coming from mobile devices you want to be ready. It also safeguards against missing out on the name - speculators, particularly in China, are currently buying these domains at an eye-watering rate.
John, as I have said in previous posts, I am wary of being seen to be advertising on this forum but being as this is a topic you seem interested in, would it be ok to give you a call?

 

[JohnNash]

Jason,

Yeah, feel free to give me a call. Around this afternoon with the exception of 2:30 - 3.

The number on the website is the best to use.

Thanks,

John