10 Delightful Reasons to Host a Business Event

My friend Cynthia is a business coach who specializes in helping web designers build a sustainable business that allows them to embrace work-life balance. She has an active podcast with over twenty thousand listeners and a sizeable mailing list. She’s always getting requests from her community to create an offline event where everyone can meet up.

While Cynthia loves the idea of hosting a business event, she’s also nervous. So, she reached out to a good business friend to ask for feedback on the idea. Together, she and her friend brainstormed ten reasons Cynthia might want to host a business event and Cynthia quickly realized the only thing holding her back was fear. Isn’t fear such a dream robber.

Like Cynthia, you may long to host a business event. But something is holding you back. You’re telling yourself things like, “Who am I to host a business? No one really wants to attend my event! There are already so many events my community could go to!” That is your fight or flight brain giving your negative thoughts. If you can learn to get over your fears, there’s nothing that you can’t accomplish.

But before you make the final judgement call, it might be helpful to review some of the reasons that hosting a business event can be a wonderful experience. Here are ten benefits you may not have even considered…

Reason #1: You Can Meet Up with Your Favorite People

The first and most obvious reason to host a business event is that you can get the opportunity to meet up with your favorite people. Maybe there’s a community member that feels more like a sister to you than a customer. Perhaps you’re eager to finally connect with your audience outside of a screen.

Take a moment and list the people from your circle that you’d love to meet with in real life. If you love your community and are already building deep connections, chances are that this list may be quite extensive!

Reason #2: Give Real Value to Your Community

While Cynthia loved teaching online, she couldn’t deny that hosting a business event would give incredible value to her community. You may not realize this, but your community grows and thrives from listening to you.

Kelly McCausey from Love People + Make Money explains, “You bring value just by showing up.”

Most entrepreneur bring so much more value to each encounter than they realize. You may not know it but you’re bringing a wealth of experience and expertise from past projects.

Reason #3: It Increase Your Visibility

Cynthia wasn’t expecting this, but she quickly realized that her brand also blossomed following her first live event. She got more requests to speak and also more opportunities to be a guest on other podcasts.

 

Stepping up to host your own event puts you in the spotlight and shows that you  are the expert—there’s no doubt about it! This can be both exciting and terrifying. But remember that this puts you in the way of more potential opportunities. You might be asked to speak at other events, get the chance to be featured on podcasts, become affiliate partners with others and have projects you could only dream about previously offered to you.

 

Reason #4: Embrace More Networking

The beautiful thing about an online event is it gives you the perfect excuse to network more. Maybe you reach out to a few well-known speakers in your industry or contact podcast hosts in your niche. Ask them to attend, get the word out about your event, or even come speak.

Sure, you’re likely to get a few rejections. But these conversations can also be the start of a beautiful new friendship. Maybe a well-known speaker in your niche says he can’t attend your event, but he’d love to have you on his podcast. Perhaps a leader in your industry can’t promote you but he’s in need of someone to write the foreword for his book and wants to know if you’ll do the job. The possibilities are endless!

 

Reason #5: Discover New Ideas

Holding an event can give you fresh ideas and insights into what your community needs or wants more of. For example, you poll your audience and discover that 90% of them want a session on how to leverage Tik Tok and Instagram or they ask for a speaker that can breakdown the complex system of Google Analytics.

You might use all of the new ideas you discover, or you might tuck a few back for a day when you’re feeling inspired to tackle one.

Reason #6: Educate Others about Your Business

There might be those in your community who don’t understand what you do. Maybe they joined your mailing list as part of a bundle or a giveaway. Perhaps they know friends that follow you and simply didn’t want to be left out. Whatever the reason, you need to understand that there are plenty of people in your community that really don’t know what you do or how you do it.

Hosting an offline event gives you the perfect chance to teach others about your business. You can show them not only what you do but what sets you apart from others in your industry.

Reason #7: Connect with Sponsors

Sponsors help you offset your event costs. But they can also be wonderful professional connections that can give you the chance to work together again in the future.

 

Remember that your event sponsors don’t always have to be related directly to your industry. Just make sure that your sponsor is someone that adds value to your event. When Kelly McCausey hosted her annual Love People + Make Money event, she partnered with Perky Perky, a coffee company. She knew from experience that her audience would appreciate the partnership and love being introduced to a new brand of their favorite beverage.

 

Reason #8: See Your Business through Fresh Eyes

Sometimes, you’ve worked in your business for so long that you’ve forgotten the joy and the wonder of what you do. That’s why getting to see your business through the eyes of others can be so powerful. Suddenly, you remember why you do what you do. You’re energized and excited about working on it again. You come up with new ideas to implement and see impressive opportunities for growth.

Reason #9: Generate Positive Publicity

Another great reason to host your own live event is that you can generate a lot of positive publicity for your business. This can be in the form of traditional media opportunities like press releases, newspaper interviews, and more.

But you can also combine the traditional publicity options with some new ones too. Like posting on social media, sending an email to your list and creating a branded hashtag. This approach to publicity allows you to reach a wider audience and get them excited about your upcoming event.

Reason #10: Strengthen Your Community

Watching as your people begin to connect with each other can be downright magical! You’ll get to experience the joy of seeing new connections, observe old friends revitalize their relationship, and see partnerships forming all around you.

You can also use this time to discover who your superfans are and how you can better serve them moving forward. Chances are high, you’ll finish your first event buzzing with new ideas and excited to continue leading your audience.

Hosting a Business Event Is Fun!

When it comes to hosting a business event, make choices that fill you with joy. If the idea of a multi-track event doesn’t fill you with joy, choose a single track one. If you’d rather have a small event over a larger gathering, choose that instead. Remember that this is your event, and you can create one that’s custom-tailored for you and your community!

 

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