HOW TO: Host a Networking Event
Last year, I had the random idea that I wanted to host a “professional” get together. Many of the events in my career field are quite expensive to attend. Don’t get me wrong, they are great! They just don’t always fit in my budget. Luckily, I live in Chicago, where there are tons of other people around! I decided I wanted to host a drawing event as a way to connect and so I set out to planning. I have to say, it was a huge success by my standards! I’m very happy with how it went and wanted to share a little “how to” in case others want to host a similar event.
Step 1: Find where you’ll host the event/ decide a date
The first thing you need to do after deciding to host an event, is decide where it will be. This will set the foundation for the rest of the planning. I utilized a website called Peer Space and browsed many different spaces. It was a bit scary to decide on a location, as I was only estimating the number of attendees at this point. Luckily, I found one that wasn’t * too * expensive if things ended up falling through. Afterall, I was putting down my own money to fund this event at the start. If I wasn’t able to find people to actually come, I didn’t want to end up with a thousand-dollar hole in my pocket.
I planned the event to be two hours long from 7-9pm so I booked the room from 6-10pm so that I could set up ahead and clean up afterward.
Step 2: Plan the event details
What will happen during the event? What can participants expect? It was important to think through and plan out exactly what participants could expect. Especially since I was charging for the event, I wanted people to have information about what they were paying for. Below, you can read my event description to get an idea for what I offered.
Step 3: Create an event invite or ticket
Since I would be putting money down for the event space, food and drinks for attendees, and some printed items, I decided to ticket this event but keep it at a very low price to ensure it remained accessible. I didn’t want to make money off the event, just hoped to get close to breaking even on the event space (which I did). I utilized Eventbrite since it was an easy way to market and ticket the event. I ended up pricing the tickets at $12 which covered Eventbrite’s fees and my estimates for covering the peer space I’d rented.
Step 4: Market the event
I marketed the event simply by posting it everywhere I could think of:
Eventbrite natively markets your event to people in your area
I linked it on my Instagram account (where I have friends who are in the biomedical art space) and asked people to repost
I put it on my main posts and stories multiple times leading up to the event. It wasn’t very scientific but it’s what I was capable of.
My alma mater UIC also re-posted the event information which I believe helped since a lot of current students attended!
I linked the event on my LinkedIn posts and also directly linked it to pages for UIC school alumni
I directly told people I know. I also asked if they could tell anyone they worked with who might be interested.
** What I would do differently: I would do everything listed above, but I think I’d directly reach out to organizations whose members might be interested in attending so they can also spread the word.
Step 5: Prepare for the event
There were a variety of additional things I needed to prepare in advance:
1. Since I marketed the event would have scientific still lives, I needed to procure a variety of sciencey-looking objects to place together on the day.
Luckily, I have friends who own cool bones, bugs, and plant objects and was able to borrow things and use what I had. I also encouraged people to bring additional objects if they’d like.
2. Next, I wanted to make a Wimmelbuilder as a group because this was a dream of mine. (If you don’t know what a Wimmelbuilder is, it’s a “Where’s Waldo” art style piece).
To make this a reality, I created a template for a building in Adobe Illustrator.
Next, I printed off two versions of it. I cut up one of the templates so that each room was its own piece of paper.
On the complete template and each room, I wrote the same numbers so that I could remember which room went where.
Last, I created a power point to display on my iPad at the event to explain the activity so I wouldn’t have to fully explain it to each attendee.
3. Create conversation starter cards
I looked up ice breaker questions and created little cards with prompts in case people didn’t know each other.
4. Last, I needed to get all the food I would serve at the event.
I got a variety of finger food that could sit out such as cheese, crackers, fruit etc.
Soda and sparkling water
Plates, napkins, silverware
*I also cut up a bunch of the food and prepared it ahead of time
Step 6: Remain flexible and keep calm
The day before my event, it was announced that a huge storm would roll in with high winds, tornados, etc. A lot of participants reached out to me that they were nervous about attending due to the inclement weather.
Before immediately panicking, I had to do my own research and confirm the weather forecast. Next, I reached out to the event space I was renting from. Thankfully, they let me change the date completely for free. I then reached out to all participants via Eventbright and via other social channels to let people know that the event would be postponed and rescheduled.
I never expected something like this to happen when I planned the event, but I’m thankful it all worked out. I wanted to include this here because it’s a very real possibility that a similar situation could occur to other event planners.
Step 7: Attend and host the event
Now all that’s left to do is attend your event!
6PM SET UP
I put all the chairs and tables out where I wanted them (they were all folded up upon arrival)
Set up the still lives on the main set of tables
Set up the Wimmelbilder station
Set up tables in the back with food and drink area
7PM EVENT TIME
Greet people as they come in
I knew most people coming so I didn’t scan tickets but you could do that if you feel you need to
Take pictures of the event
Pro tip: I wish I’d asked someone else to take photos throughout the event for me! I didn’t get many since I was busy
Make sure people know what they can participate in/ show them where food is throughout the event
Don’t forget to spend some time chatting with people/ participating too!
9PM WRAP UP
At 9pm, I let people know the event was ending so to wrap up whatever they were doing since I’d need to tear down.
Next, tear down, following event space cleaning requirements
I was super lucky and many attendees helped me tear down/ pack up so it only took about 15-20 min to tear down, although I’d budgeted 1 hr
Step 8: After the Event
THANK everyone who attended! I sent out an email afterward to all attendees thanking them for coming. I also had planned to make a “networking packet” to get each other’s contact information for future projects. However, after I sent the Google form to create the packet, only one person had filled it out so I don’t think this part of it was a success and didn’t end up sending it out. Lastly, I compiled our completed Wimmelbilder and sent it out to everyone! This was a small/ silly part of the event but it was so satisfying for me and truly a dream come true haha.
Things I’d Change Next Time
I would tell more organizations/ clubs about the event so they could post the event information on their pages/ “market” to their members.
I would ask someone to be a dedicated “photographer” at the event. Nothing fancy, just someone who will take a few photos for you to remember your event. I wish I had a few more!
The networking packet didn’t work out. Instead, I’d just invite people to share their social media/ connect on LinkedIn during the event.
Ask event spaces ahead of time if they have a policy for weather events. I got lucky the one I booked was understanding, but that may not always be the case.
I would put a policy in my initial event description that if the event has to be postponed for any reason, I cannot provide refunds. Luckily, people understood that since I’m just an individual, I couldn’t do that but I would still protect myself by including it right away in the future.
The two-hour event time honestly felt too short to me. Many people didn’t even come until the second hour and it really felt it was rolling by the end and I wished it wasn’t ending so soon. I think in a future event, I’d do 3 hours instead to allow people time to chat, draw, and eat.
There you have it! I’m so happy with how it went. Maybe I’ll start thinking ahead and have a fall event this year… :)
