What makes you attend an event?

I have a confession to make... I am not someone who regularly attends community or public events (aside from those I organize of course!). In my "real" life, I am the kind of girl who goes to bed at 8:30pm, wakes up at 5:00am, and if I am not careful, can be an awful recluse. While I love hosting and entertaining, and love parties even more, I feel like I am more the planner than the attendee, which sometimes means I don't have any natural insight into why people do or do not attend an event. So I am going back to basics and asking anyone reading this to let me know why.

Why do you attend one event over another? What is it that makes you excited about an event happening in your community. What are the factors that push you to purchase a ticket, leave the house, and do something?

Last night, we held our first family friendly Outdoor Movie Night of the summer. All of the technical factors should have made it a well attended event... we had awesome weather, we used the same model for date and time as we did last year, we added an amazing band for some pre-show entertainment, we advertised the same way as worked in the past... and yet our attendance was down from last year's attendance at the same time. Do not get me wrong, it was still an awesome night, and I am confident we improved on the experience of our attendees. Feedback was positive, and I am really looking forward to the next one (which is August 8th by the way!). So if you did or did not attend an Outdoor Movie Night last year, and if you did or did not attend last night's movie - WHY? I would love your input on how to make this a fun experience!

I have felt very strongly about holding events that create experiences in and for this community, and I know there are so many others in Creston right now working to do the same. I know there are some events that are annual sell outs, and some events where ticket sales are a huge struggle. I am always hearing feedback about the lack of things to do in Creston, so on the surface, it appears the event market is not saturated, however, it could be that the events happening in the community just aren't appealing to the people of the community. In speaking to other businesses and groups creating events, from fundraisers, to concerts, to ticketed dinners, the perspective from the organizers is that if people don't attend, then the events can't happen. My experience has been that Creston is not the kind of community that pre-purchases tickets for things, and even the normal incentives on pre-sale tickets don't quite work here, but without pre-sale tickets, it can be very hard for businesses and non-profit groups to justify holding an event. 

I have been super fortunate to have been able to organize many events, most of which have been more successful than I could have hoped. I strive every day to create events that bring joy to people, because that is what brings me joy. I have also had events I have had to cancel, sometimes in the early planning stages, sometimes later, because the cost risk is just to great. 

I would love to get input from the community, and from people outside the community, so that we at AM Event Coordination can improve our offer, and create events that are truly an experience for our target market - YOU. I love creating these events, I love bringing them to life, and seeing people enjoy them. Seeing little children in the jammies, snacking on popcorn while spending quality time with their parents at one of my Outdoor Movie Nights is a true joy for me, and I would be sad if I was not able to continue creating that kind of experience for people. Or if non-profit groups aren't able to use events as a fundraising tool because of a lack of attendance. I know there are others out there, very specifically in Creston, working to bring awesome events to life for the good of the community as a whole. So help us to bring this town to life! Let me know your thoughts, either by responding to this post, or by emailing me at ameventcoordination@outlook.com, or if you see me somewhere, let me know what kind of events YOU want to see here! If you know me, you know that I can't hear an idea and not run with it, so let's chat!!