There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question. BUT, you do have to decide. It will set the mood for the entire event.

I do events that are very hands on and “get it done” oriented. Having a formal event would defeat my purposes. It would make people constrained to relax and get to work.

If you do an event that is geared to a very affluent group and has to do with a sensitive topic like money, it MAY be wise to consider doing a formal event.

What does that term mean? It has to do with both how people are dressed as well the way you to talk to and interact with your attendees. For some topics people will feel more comfortable with a more formal approach.

Think about this early in your event. After you decide it will dramatically affect the approach you take. Make an incorrect choice here and you risk having the folks at the event feel uncomfortable.

This isn’t the MOST important element of doing a seminar, but it is significant enough to give consideration.

The solution for any savvy seminar promoter is to make sure that their are mics in the audience for people to use for their questions.

When the events first start, you’ll have to TRAIN people to wait for the mic before they start asking the question. Within a very short period of time, everyone will know that they should wait until they get a hold of the mic before they start firing their questions at you.

When you have a decent size group of people at one of your events, you’ll want to get some hand held wireless mics for this purpose.

Corded mis will work fine, but you’ll have to set them up on a stand on one or both sides of the room and then ask people to “go to the mic” when they have a question.

Either way you do it, make SURE that you get anyone asking a question ON MIC. If not, all of your participants AT the event and those listening to the recordings will be FRUSTRATED.

Here are few things you must do if you are going to use OUTSIDE speakers:

1. See them speak. I don’t care how good they look on paper, make sure you see them SPEAK. Preferably live. They can always make themselves look good on paper.
2. Ask for references. Sounds obvious, but very few people do it. DO IT.
3. Give them the rules of the game for you/your event and make them SIGN a written agreement. I had a guy promote a competing piece of software at MY event. I almost pulled him off stage.
4. Review what they will pitch and what the price points are. Make sure they are in line with what you or the other speakers will be promoting/selling.
5. Go with your gut. If they don’t feel like the right match, don’t use them.

Do these 5 things and you’re on the right track.

I often threaten to cut off people’s ties if they show up wearing one at my events. That usually serves to make the point.

My primary concern when people are at my events is to give them the GREATEST AMOUNT OF LEARNING that time will allow. I suggest you adopt the same philosophy.

If you do your events at hotels, remember that the temperature is often unpredictable. That’s why I always encourage people to wear COMFORTABLE clothing and to make sure they bring a coat or sweater JUST IN CASE.

There have been few times when doing an event that the temperature has been “just right”. Even at a Ritz Carlton hotel!

I suggest you make sure your events are geared to learning and don’t turn into FASHION SHOWS.

Make this clear with any and all of your promotional material!

You need to start STRONG and end STRONGER!

Hopefully your entire event will be memorable, but when someone asks one of your attendees what they thought of your event, they will think back to how the event ended.

And how it started.

When you start putting your event together, think of how you will open and how you will close. There are NO two sections of your seminar or workshop that are more important.

If you’re looking for an example, go rent the video: The French Connection with Gene Hackman from back in the early 70s. Take note of how the film opens. This will give you an idea of how to start your event.

As for the close, make sure that do two things. First, give people a PLAN of ACTION for what they should do NOW to make things happen.

Second, give them something REALLY solid that you end with. Similar to how you started, hold back one KILLER idea until the very end. One that people will leave saying: “WOW, that one idea was worth attending the entire event!”

What they don’t understand is how to SELL IT effectively.

Most people think that to sell it well you need to beat people over the head with a sale message. This is FAR from the truth or the right way to do things.

My mentor told me years ago that if you give people exactly what they want at an event they will come back and PAY you for more. Even if you give out every single secret that you have when you do your seminar they will STILL think you have more to give IF they pay you directly.

This may or may NOT be true. BUT, it is the perception!

I always OVER deliver when I do my events. This ends up getting me plenty of coaching and consulting customers.

I suggest you do likewise.

When delivering your message it is GENERIC. Those who pay you for coaching or consulting are looking for you to take those GENERIC ideas and CUSTOMIZE it to their individual needs and wants.

Also, I suggest you set up a site like:

http://www.ConsultWithFred.com

When people are interested in consulting with me I use this site to separate the SERIOUS from the CURIOUS.

Remember, when people say to you: “It’s NOT about the money!” It means it IS about the money. If they aren’t willing to give you SOME money up front, they aren’t for real!

People have gotten fairly used to video conferencing and they will be delighted to hear from a knowledgeable expert in the topic that you choose.

To make this work best, do the following:

1. Make sure you TEST the equipment in advance.
2. Make sure you have your time zones right.
3. If the presenter has an offer, make sure that you have an affiliate code built in to the domain name he/she gives out
4. Make sure that the placement of this person’s material makes sense at your event.
5. Make sure that they don’t do a mere PRODUCT PITCH.

These are five of the most important things you’ll need remember when inviting someone to come in as a guest at your event via Skype or Phone.

Doing it is a great idea to provide good, high quality content and break up the monotony of doing the entire event yourself.

I suggest you take control of this process. The wrong mood can really hurt you.

How do you create the mood at your event?

There are a number of components:

What music do you play? I remember going to an event a few years ago. The seminar leader really like hard rock. So do I but it was NOT appropriate for the event.

He tried to SHOE-HORN this genre of music into the event. It didn’t work.

The music you pick to play at your event is one of the components for the MOOD you create.

Are you trying to create an event which is FUN or SERIOUS. Sure there are plenty of points in between, but your event will LEAD in one  direction or the other.

My own events tend towards the fun, not the serious. This works for ME because of how I am.

I suggest that you try and THINK about what kind of MOOD you’re trying to create at your  event and make sure EVERYTHING you do contributes to making this THE MOOD that you are creating.

It’s not as important what the mood is. It is critical that it match your content and topic.

Make a conscious choice and stick with it! Make sure everything you do contributes to that mood.

In the case of microphones, recording equipment, video cameras, it almost better to buy equipment if you think you’ll use it 4 or 5 times. Now with Ebay, you can always RESELL it when you’re done with it!

I’m not saying you should run out and buy all kinds of expensive equipment right away, but if you are going to be in this business for a while, you’ll want to OWN certain things.

I own my own amplifiers, mics, audio and video recorders as well as speakers. Since I do a lot of seminars, this makes sense for me.

I highly recommend that you buy your equipment from a reputable company that has a good return policy – JUST IN CASE!!

For years, I have been using the folks at BHPhoto.com.

They are extremely knowledgeable and will give you plenty of advise and information by phone. Just give them a call.

Don’t buy until you’re sure you’ll be doing enough events to justify it, but when you’re sure you will, BUY IMMEDIATELY. You will SAVE money!!!

For a short event, it’s fine that you give them merely a one or two page handout.

The longer and more expensive the event, the bulkier the seminar workbook should be.

I like to take the outline that I use to create the seminar as a starting point for the workbook that I create for the attendees.

At the very front of the workbook I give people a brief bio of myself and any other presenter who will be doing that particular event.

I will also include an GENERAL timeline for when things will happen. I do NOT want to give specific times. I will discuss this in detail in another one of the tips in this series.

At the back of the workbook I like to include any relevant articles or lists of resources or websites for the attendee to review.

One crucial mistake that many people make is that don’t put their name and contact information on EVERY page of the workbook. YOU will NOT make this mistake having read my advice here.

The reason is that people will makes copies of this or that page and hand it to friends or colleagues. You want to be sure that they can always find you if that happens.