Guideline for Event Organizers

Introduction

The purpose of this page is to have information about our Events publications.

Types of Events

The chapter organizes various categories of events:

  1. Evening Events (with presentation)
  2. Online Events
  3. Networking Events
  4. Internal Events (e.g. volunteer dinners)
  5. Special Events (e.g. Masterclass, Annual Members Meeting (AMM), International Project Management Day (IPMD), etc.)

These guidelines are for event types 1 - 4, for a special event please contact the Event Support Team in advance. The event management system has its limitations, any deviation from the standard cannot be guaranteed.

Description

To market the event we need 2 types of descriptions:

  1. A short description for ....
    Some guidelines on a good short description
    An example for a short description
  2. A long description for ...
    Some guidelines on a good short description
    An example for a short description

Imagery

  • what images can we use, what images can we not use
  • Reference to PMI brand guidelines
  • How we use Canva
  • What types of images will be produced (for social media, event mailing, website, etc.)
  • What images CANNOT be used (anything humoristic, potentially copyrighted, etc.)

Pricing

To avoid complaints due to inconsistencies all our events have standard prices:

  • Evening Events 30 - 55 CHF
  • Online Events 0 - 15 CHF
  • Networking Events: free
  • Internal Events: free
  • Special Events: individual pricing decided by the Chapter Board

To be formatted as a table

Communications

Here's how we communicate about our events:

When the event owner submit the event publication form, a mail is sent to pmo in order to prepare the event on the website. A second email is sent to the marketing team who will - without delay - work on the creation of the picture-set needed.

Marketing is responsible to perform the communications from the design to the sending as the brand must be respected and the overall publications must be adapted. Every teams (Basel, Zürich, and Romandie) must have proper slot in the calendar.

For regular events, such as Networking events and, Evening events we use the basic package. For other events, we use the "Marketing big package". 

A. Marketing Basic Package

The basic package concist of:

Comm

2 Emails

Two Emails prepared at the establishment of the marketing campaign and agreed with event owner. The dates are proposed by marketing team in order to have harmony in the posting schedules.

1 LinkedIn Post

One post on Linkedin. Date also proposed by marketing team in order to have harmony in the social media.


The text used in the emails and social media posts is the short description that was provided on the event submission form.

B. Marketing of big events  "Marketing Big Package"

The marketing for bigger events can be adapted if done in advance. It is important that marketing team receives the venue sponsors logos and their eventual requirements regarding the communications. 

Note : Be careful to not over-promise things. We are using Canva and all publications (yes, all our publications)  must be done via Canva. 

We have no possible options to:

  • use our social media like your personal account at home. 
  • to repost your personal publication on our LinkedIn.

Furthermore, we don't want (and we are not allowed) to:

  • personalise the website system notifications (reminders, cancellation messages, etc.) 
  • modify our logo with the colors of our sponsors
  • alter our logo.

To effectively promote the event while ensuring our members remain engaged and receptive, we recommend the following strategies:

  • Enhance the basic package by utilizing additional communication channels. Leverage other social media platforms, particularly stories, which remain visible for only 24 hours.
  • Make additional post on different subjet but related to the event ( post about the speaker, with a reference to our event. He/She will be presenting ... in our event on the ...)
  • Use our newsletter to reach a broader audience.
  • Explore Venues ressources/network such as the venue's company intranet, to promote the event internally.
  • Encourage personal engagement on LinkedIn by resharing our post with additional comments or creating your own post while referencing our event.
  • trial : If well in advance, we can place an article on the website with a link to our event description page.

In summary: 

We do 

We don't 

Additional post if necessary. (Please read the bold text too) 

Additional post in a copy paste mode just to feed our social media.

Use different channels as a way to increase our visiblity if we see that the success is not there.

Post Sponsors Ads in Instagram, Facebook, Youtube nor X.

Use special list to communicate for the conference subject.

Post Sponsors Ads without mentionning that it is a sponsor.

Think about the fact that if your event is not welcomed with the registrations you were dreaming of, it is maybe related to other factors than Communications such as : holidays times, not interesting subjects, venue too far from transportation, etc.

Post stories as reminders. Max. cadence of every 3 days.

Publication Workflow

Event Organizer fills in the form when they have all the basic info (Title,venue,date,...)

PMO Team sets up the event on the website, drafts imagery (3 - 5 days) and informs event organizer.

Event organizer reviews, makes minor adjustments (text only) and publishes.

Marketing Team takes care of communications.

...

FAQ

We are very strict on our Communications policy. Our members have opt-in for one or more event notification email list.
In the subscription page, it is stated that we will send one or maximum two emails per event. We got the trust of our members and we tried already once to send more. We get very negative reactions when we don't do what is stated.
About the Linkedin post, it is more useful to make the original post visible (by like, re-share or comment). An exception can be, when we realize the post is not working well (wrong design, text not appealing for the audience,...)

One activity we can try is to work with Stories on multiple other social media channels. Stories don't hurt the sensibility of people swaping on their phone and if we catch the eyes of the right audience it can help.