Tips for creating live training events

September 11th, 2023
by Jim LaDoux

By Jim LaDoux & Rev. Dr. Felix Villanueva

Creating a live training event is a great way to reach out and connect with your target audience, particularly if you're a church or non-profit organization. However, planning such an event requires a lot of preparation and attention to detail. To help you make the most of your next live training event, we've compiled a list of tips that has helped us successfully organize and manage live training events in the past. Let's dive in and learn how you can create a successful live training event that will leave your attendees inspired and empowered.

Fill a need and identify your target audience

The first step in creating a successful live training event is to identify your target audience and determine exactly what they need. This can be done by conducting surveys and interviews, asking specific questions about their needs and challenges. Once you have assessed your target audience's requirements and interests, it's important to tailor your content to their needs. Knowing who they are, what they like, how they learn, and what their needs are, will help make your event more relevant and useful.

Determine your value proposition and price points

The next step is to determine the value you offer your attendees. After identifying your target audience's needs, come up with a unique solution that meets their needs and exceed their expectations. Determine a reasonable price point that corresponds with your value proposition, but remember to keep your registration fee affordable.

Choose the right time, date, and venue

Choosing the right time, date, and location of your event is critical. Make sure it aligns with your audience schedule and that you allow adequate time for planning, preparation, and promotion. A venue should be comfortable, and convenient - ideally one that is within easy reach of your target audience.

Offer Multiple Ways of Learning

People learn differently, and this means offering multiple ways of learning, such as videos, transcripts, e-books, PDFs, and workbooks, helps to ensure that your audience receives the maximum benefit from attending your event. It's also a great way to keep retention high and ensure that your attendees have several ways to interact with and remember the content that you've shared.

Make a list of personal invitations and influencers

Personal invitations are always more effective than general ones. Include a pre-event kick-off with teasers that let attendees know what to expect and what they can gain from your training. You can also incentivize outreach by offering free tickets to influencers who can reach out to their networks and spread the word about your event.

Your prospect list includes attendees, sponsors, and speakers. Make a list of potential attendees and reach out to them in advance to gauge their level of interest in an event. Your speaker's list should align with your audience's preferences and provide value to your attendees. Potential sponsors and vendors can also help support your event and provide extra financing.

Create a High Conversion Registration Page

A high conversion registration page is critical to securing registrations and ensuring that your event is well attended. Offer 3-4 benefits for attending your event, and don't forget to prominently display the date, time, and location of the event.

Integrate an Auto-Responder for Improved Communication

Integration with an auto-responder helps you better communicate with your attendees. Send them a welcome message, reminders, and post-event follow-ups. Proactive communication builds excitement and anticipation around the event, ensuring that attendees remain engaged and keep your event top-of-mind.

Focus on Presentations and Q&As

The live presentation and the Q&A session are the most important parts of your event. Prepare content that's both informative and engaging, and closely align it with your target audience's needs. Every presentation should aim to deliver at least two actionable insights that attendees can use immediately. The Q&A session provides an opportunity to explore the topic further with attendees and receive feedback.

Create Quality Slides and Videos:
High-quality multimedia content will make your event visually appealing, more engaging, easier to understand, and memorable. Develop high-quality slides and video content that aligns with your message and helps support your speakers and attendees.

Follow Up with Attendees After the Event

After the event, always try to keep the conversation going. This is the perfect time to follow up with any attendees who expressed an interest in your products or services. Send them a thank you message, offer a discount, or other time-limited benefits. This helps to create a sense of urgency and prompts follow-through.

Learn to NETWORK and PARTNER with others

Networking is essential to building relationships that can help support your live event. Reach out to other organizers in your field, cross-promote your events, share resources, and create partnerships that will help you expand your reach and provide your audience with greater value.

Pay attention to logistics

Once you have a list of areas of expertise, clear outcomes, unique signature events, and a high conversion registration page, work on creating a budget, logistics, and contingency planning. Here are six steps to successful planning:

Establish a budget
Find and secure the perfect venue
Plan for travel and accommodation
Determine what equipment and technology you’ll need
Create content and schedule your speakers
Have a contingency plan

Conclusion

Hosting a live training event requires a lot of planning, but it can be an incredibly rewarding experience. By following these tips and putting in the necessary effort, you can create an event that informs, inspires and empowers attendees, and positions your organization as a leader in the field. By taking the time to cater to your target audience, you'll be rewarded with a loyal, engaged audience that will help you achieve your mission for years to come.

QUESTIONS | APPLICATIONS

What's your coaching niche?
What are your clients' pain points? Where are they stuck?
How will your clients benefit from attending?
With. whom might you partner with to host a live event?

Posted in 3 | Coach Well

Jim LaDoux

5 Comments

Add Your Comment

Danette M. - September 12th, 2023 at 7:52pm

1. What's your coaching niche? Ministry leaders (volunteer or paid staff).

2. What are your clients' pain points? Where are they stuck? Leadership development (themselves and others).

3. How will your clients benefit from attending? I can offer communication learning and doable exercises to help people grow in their abilities to recruit, development, and lead others.

4. With whom might you partner with to host a live event? In the past, I led workshops and one-day seminars through Group Publishing and Simply Youth Ministry. They did all the heavy lifting, however, and I learned how much went into live events. In accepting invitations to speak/train at various churches, typically the host has organized most of this blogs items. I work together with them to come up with a few ideas.

Carl Horton - September 17th, 2023 at 10:09pm

1. My coaching niche right now is with constituents of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. Usually it is cohorts of leaders in congregations engaging in peacemaking work. One-on-one coaching opportunities do come out of these cohorts

2. Pain points tend to be difficulty moving ministries forward and resistance from membership (and sometimes other leaders). Cohort members help each other get unstuck, often from strategies that haven't worked or difficulties mobilizing and motivating their congregations.

3. Attending these Zoom cohorts often provides accompaniment and new thinking for participants.

4. I have contemplated partnering with other similar programs in our sibling denominations to offer a more ecumenical experience for our constituents, and to offer a model for how this could happen on the local ecumenical level.

Ed Horstmann - September 19th, 2023 at 9:05pm

What's your coaching niche?

There is no avoiding the niche question! I'd like to say for the time being that I'm going to discover my coaching niche as I conduct 1:1 conversations with colleagues, seminary faculty and administrators, and independent scholars: all of whom may be thinking deeply about the perils and opportunities of being a minister in these times. I think my conversations will bring to the surface pathways I can follow toward my engagement with coaching.

What are your clients' pain points? Where are they stuck?

I have a theory that when clergy say they're exhausted they are really saying that they are disheartened and angry (emotions that can lead to deep depletion). And they may be feeling this way because their vision of the church they had hoped to serve may have very little with the church they are actively serving. The question facing them is how to reclaim the energy that brought them into ministry while they continue to face an array of challenges, AND as they become involved in that process of discovery while continuing to work in the contexts to where they are currently serving.

How will your clients benefit from attending?

By coming home to the abundance of one's energies for living well and loving deeply! I would love for colleagues to experience coaching as an awakening: a time of realization about our capacities for living into our callings.

With. whom might you partner with to host a live event?

I could see myself working with the Southern New England Conference of the UCC. But I might also develop a working relationship with seminaries, not just as a way to coach students, but perhaps faculty and staff.

Tony Myles - October 7th, 2023 at 10:27pm

My coaching niche is helpingâ€¯Ministry Leaders, Church Teams, Family/Intergenerational Conversations, and Youth/Young Adults. Their pain points include having a safe place to talk about their frustrations and dreams, along with past fatigue and future analysis paralysis that leaves them feeling stuck. I would expect they'd benefit from attending by finding new language, relational cohorts and accessible wisdom to take next steps. I'd partner with someone like Vibrant Faith or a fellow ministry partner I write/speak for to increase the possibilities.

Michelle Townsend de LÃ³pez - November 3rd, 2023 at 12:45pm

1. What's your coaching niche? BIPOC/LGBTQIA Entrepreneurs/Professionals & Ministry Leaders

2. What are your clients' pain points? Entre to market/networking & having others see value/worth. Where are they stuck? Often in accepting limiting beliefS that have been historically put out as facts and overcoming those challenges in a productive manner.

3. How will your clients benefit from attending? Learn strategies to overcome some of the limiting beliefs and get more specific about obstacles, identify specific issue and have a plan of action for at least one of their named things keeping them stuck.

4. With. whom might you partner with to host a live event? I have 4 colleagues in two areas that I have been doing some work that I could collaborate. I have done one collaboration with a colleague on 2 occassions and we both were able to receive funding, make a video and get moderately paid. We had to workshops that 2/3 full and 85% attendance for zoom training.