I went to the combined business after hours that three of the local chambers put together as part of the festivities. It seemed to be reasonably well attended, and there were lots of booths filled with exhibitors. Some were new, some old standbys I had seen there before were missing, and most of the folks I talked to said the foot traffic on the day had not been overwhelming.
The event has evolved from year to year -- the first year they tried to sell out a big arena with big speakers like Donald Trump and Rudi Juliani, at a big ticket price. The crowd was embarassingly thin. The next year they brought in smaller names, cut the ticket price, still did not get great attendance. This year they actually charged local vendors for the speaking/workshop spots -- and one speaker I talked to said he had no -- zero -- attendees for his scheduled spots.
I've recently run into the challenge of trying to promote an event, get people to make a time and money commitment to attend and learn something -- and at times I've been successful, and other times taken my lumps.
Is there a secret or trick? Is this just an impossible task given the demands of people's schedule today? I know of high-priced to free events, promoted with a big budget or small, that have struggled.
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