(ThyBlackMan.com) Hosting a community event is a great thing to do. Not only do you get to have people from all over your area coming and socializing at your event, but community events are often great at raising money for some cause or project. If you’re relatively new at hosting community events, you are probably feeling a little overwhelmed at all that you have to do to ensure it goes well. If you want to improve your next community event, follow the suggestions below, and you are sure to have a better final product.
Get The Word Out Early
One pitfall that many community event organizers fall into is that they don’t give themselves enough time. You need to start planning early if you want your event to be a success. Starting your planning 
early will help you to not only make sure that you have everything you need, but also round up volunteers, and give everyone in the community enough time to fit it into their schedule. If you wait too long to let people know about the event, they are more likely to have other plans, and then you’ll have less attendees and less volunteers to help you run it. As soon as you know you are going to have the event, start letting people know, and then fill in the details as you go along.
Find Local Sponsors
To make it a true community event, you should bring in some local businesses and organizations to act as sponsors. You’re going to need money to run your event, and having local businesses chip in in exchange for some advertising is a great way to fund it. Or, if you need food at your event, talk to local restaurants to see if they could cater at a discounted price. Locally owned businesses are usually more than willing to help out a local event, so reach out to them early and see who you can get.
Give Out Free Stuff
Who doesn’t like to get free stuff? At your event, look for ways to give away things that will make the experience more enjoyable for the guests. This could include things like having a raffle, or contests that award prizes. Or, if there is a theme to your event, put it on a t-shirt and give these away to everyone who comes. This is not only a cost-effective way to make the event more fun – there are some great vinyl options when it comes to making t-shirts – but it helps to make everyone there feel like one big group, and let’s them take home a souvenir.
Find Other Ways To Make It Fun
Besides giving away free stuff, you should look for other ways to make the event fun. If your event is fun, people are more likely to stay longer, and to come back if you host the event again. Some options include hiring a local band to play music, organizing some games for everyone to play, or putting on some other kind of performance. Give people a reason to come, and advertise these events when promoting. You want everyone to have a good time, so think about who is going to be attending this event, and what they might enjoy doing.
Come Up With A Way To Keep In Touch For Future Events
If your event is successful, you’ll likely want to have another one in the future. Rather than going through the same trouble to market it again next year, you could lessen some of the load by reaching out to people who attended this year’s. To do this, you’ll need to collect a way to contact your attendees, so you can reach them when the new event is scheduled. Consider asking everyone who attends for their name and email address, or their phone number. You could also create a group on Facebook, and ask everyone who attends to join it. Now you have a list of people who liked your event, who are likely to come when you host another one.
Planning Is Key
To improve your community events, you really need to plan ahead. By thinking of ways to get people involved, how to fund it, how to make it fun, and how to keep in touch with everyone, you give yourself a great chance at not only throwing a good event this year, but for years to come. Hopefully the above list was able to provide you with a little inspiration, and your next community event will be a hit.
Staff Writer; Charles Hall
