Blog
'Too Sexy Too Soon'
7 August 2017
Just three weeks after launching ‘Too Sexy Too Soon’ on the Events Pronto sister-site Business Axis, the event team had gathered crowd of 185 people to hear Australian activist Melinda Tankard Reist who is at the forefront of helping educate people on the link between pornography and violence. The event was supported by Safe Surfer, Woods Creative and Venture Centre – along with the 23 volunteers that helped facilitate the evening.
Rory Birkbeck of Safe Surfer says his top advice for running a successful event would be to get an expert event manager, and he credits Christine Sadlier from Creative Events for making the event a success on the night. “She stepped up involvement in all the areas she witnessed gaps and paid extra attention to detail,” says Rory. “I wouldn't recommend trying to pull together an event with only a couple of weeks’ notice, but we did it. The team of volunteers, sponsors and impassioned ambassadors created a buzz in the city that brought people to the event, because it was an interesting topic.”
Christine believes the relevance of the topic contributed a lot to the success of the event. “When Rory first approached me to assist him in bringing Melinda here to speak, he won me over because I too have kids and felt it was such a relevant topic today that I wanted to be involved and educated.” She also says they were able to pull off these events in such a small amount of time because she and Rory worked well together as a team, and had a great amount of volunteers
Here are some of the things the they did really well:
- Entry was by Koha– an approach that really reinforced the event team’s charitable intent and their commitment to helping Melinda promote her message in New Zealand.
- The event was well promoted on social media. The Events Pronto team noticed the event shared on business and personal social media newsfeeds several times over the three weeks.
- It was tempting to stay home on that cold dark night, but the reminder email that hit inboxes mid-afternoon on event-day really sealed the deal. It removed all excuses by reminding ticket-holders of the time and place then finished with a friendly 'see you there.'
- The venue carpark was a little dark and the entrance would have been easy to miss if it weren’t for the hardy traffic team who used high-viz gear and torches to wave everyone in –an important detail like this can impact attendance levels. The welcoming tone didn’t stop there. Guests were greeted multiple times on the way into the venue.
- While many people booked for the event online, a number also registered at the door. The event team catered well for this by leaving chairs stacked at the back of the room that were quietly put in place as the crowd swelled. This kept the audience comfortably packed, avoided large gaps and meant late-comers could be seated at the rear, minimising disruption.
- Some of the content was unavoidably explicit. The event team managed this well with clear warnings at the door, in the introductions and during Melinda’s own introduction. They also introduced some trained counsellors who were present. The introductions seemed to be a tactful way to ensure that attendees had someone to turn to if the content triggered a traumatic response.
Melinda’s message was sobering and its likely everyone left the event thinking about what they could do to create a healthier environment for children and that many immediately joined Melinda’s campaign movement - Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation.
The event was also in effective in highlighting the importance of the work being done by event supporter Safe Surfer, a charity which offers a donation-funded service to help families ensure their children can surf the net safely without exposure to harmful pornography.
Author: Moira Moroney
Events Pronto is the all-kiwi online booking and administration platform that takes the leg work out of managing conferences, events, courses, workshops and much more. Organisations pay a small monthly or annual fee to use the service - no booking fees, agency fees or commissions! Try it free here or call us on 07 575 6903.
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