After conducting more than five mega community events, in this podcast, I share what goes behind a successful community event. It's a science ;) Join my Diamond membership to access my Community Events Formula - https://sidz.co/diamond
In this podcast, you'll learn:
- The importance of crafting compelling event themes.
- How to budget effectively for different event sizes.
- The role of a dedicated production team in event planning.
- The significance of meticulous event flow planning.
- Design considerations for a seamless and visually appealing event.
- Strategies for assembling and managing event crews.
- Speaker selection and preparation for impactful presentations.
- The role of music in setting the event's tone and atmosphere.
Join us as we explore the intricacies of planning community events that leave a lasting impact and keep attendees coming back for more.
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Speaker 1: I've done quite a few large events for our communities
00:00:03
Speaker 1: in the last two years. The first event I did
00:00:06
Speaker 1: for a small group of 100 and 1213 people. Then
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Speaker 1: I did an event for about 500 people of our
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Speaker 1: IH members called the Freedom is Retreat. Then we had
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Speaker 1: the third event that I did which had again around
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Speaker 1: 600 people in an event. Freedom is retreat. Then I
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Speaker 1: did a quantum retreat which had a total size of
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Speaker 1: around 275.
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Speaker 1: And then we also had another event which is my
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Speaker 1: latest FBR. We had around 606 50 people in the event.
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Speaker 1: So in this podcast, I want to share with you
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Speaker 1: exactly what goes behind planning a community event. And uh
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Speaker 1: I'm just going to list out all the points because
00:00:42
Speaker 1: it's not as easy as one would think. You got
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Speaker 1: to have a lot of elements in the background to
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Speaker 1: really make it work. So when it comes to an event,
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Speaker 1: the first thing is
00:00:52
Speaker 1: you need to have a theme in place.
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Speaker 1: So for me, the planning, the theme was always the
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Speaker 1: first thing on my mind. So freedom, this is a
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Speaker 1: retreat is an event which is for the larger community
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Speaker 1: and my quantum retreat is for the smaller community. So
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Speaker 1: freedom is a retreat. Also, I made two themes. The
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Speaker 1: first theme is called uh recharge, which happens in October
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Speaker 1: and rebound, that happens in April. So we we will
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Speaker 1: be oscillating between recharge rebound, recharge, rebound. So the whole
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Speaker 1: FBR is the name of the event. But uh you know,
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Speaker 1: depending on when it happens in a year, the name
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Speaker 1: would actually change, even the color would change. So recharge
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Speaker 1: is a green theme and rebound is a red theme.
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Speaker 1: So that way, even when we capture everything on social media,
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Speaker 1: we're able to capture the essence of both the different events.
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Speaker 1: So theme is very, very important. And when it comes
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Speaker 1: to quantum retreat, the first one was just a regular
00:01:44
Speaker 1: event that we had.
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Speaker 1: And the last quantum retreat that we had in the
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Speaker 1: year 2023 the theme was about a future city. So again,
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Speaker 1: I came up with the idea and we thought we'll
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Speaker 1: call it infinity and we, we made it, we designed
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Speaker 1: an entire city called the future city. So when we
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Speaker 1: went for just a site visit and not to look
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Speaker 1: at the hotel and find out what else is there?
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Speaker 1: The the idea just popped into my mind. Let's make
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Speaker 1: this theme as infinity. And then we thought, OK,
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Speaker 1: let's call it infinity. And then we we actually built
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Speaker 1: an entire future city. Uh The entire set was done.
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Speaker 1: So again, it was all based on the budget, there
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Speaker 1: was a much higher budget event that we did
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Speaker 1: and we built an entire future city. And even when
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Speaker 1: people entered the quantum event, I did something on a stage,
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Speaker 1: we had some visualization on the stage which were, which
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Speaker 1: was very, very unique. The entire room was blacked out
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Speaker 1: and people could only see my face. So I went
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Speaker 1: to an actual studio and I recorded wearing a green
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Speaker 1: dress where only my face would be seen so that
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Speaker 1: uh it just blends only into the screen. And we
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Speaker 1: did something really crazy in the year 2023 quantum retreat.
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Speaker 1: So the first thing is all about theme
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Speaker 1: then comes budget based on how much it is. There's
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Speaker 1: a banquet cost, there is a, you know, uh you
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Speaker 1: need to plan the production cost, which is, and that's
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Speaker 1: my third point of production team. So I have a
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Speaker 1: event production team that actually helps me put together these events.
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Speaker 1: And uh the main guy who is running this is
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Speaker 1: he is my college buddy, college friend, one of the
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Speaker 1: top DJ S in the country and he and his partner,
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Speaker 1: uh they help me conceptualize the whole thing. So I
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Speaker 1: just have a meeting with them. I give them the
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Speaker 1: idea and then they go to the background and they
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Speaker 1: work on all these different things. So production team is
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Speaker 1: a third element which is really important and then comes
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Speaker 1: the flow. So this is the flow is the most
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Speaker 1: important part of an event. Like I go from the
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Speaker 1: point of what
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Speaker 1: should happen in the morning or what should happen the
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Speaker 1: previous day. What should happen, minute to minute and I
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Speaker 1: have an entire Excel sheet where I cover uh from
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Speaker 1: start to finish. What all needs to be done are
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Speaker 1: the entry music, exit music visualizations on the on the screen,
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Speaker 1: the les so there this minute to minute flow is
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Speaker 1: something that will actually make or break an event. And
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Speaker 1: I go to that detail of planning that I run
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Speaker 1: through the floor multiple times with my crew. So that
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Speaker 1: when the event actually happens, everything is seamless because you
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Speaker 1: have seen it so many times in our head.
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Speaker 1: The fifth element of what goes into planning a community
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Speaker 1: event is a design. And when it comes to design,
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Speaker 1: I'm talking about everything else, right? From the color tones
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Speaker 1: that you're going to be having for the event to
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Speaker 1: the workbook design, to the uh all the stationary design.
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Speaker 1: So it is very, very seamless in terms of look
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Speaker 1: and feel. And I go for very high quality design
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Speaker 1: uh in every you know, touch point of the event.
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Speaker 1: And then we have the materials, design materials is like
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Speaker 1: the the badges that you have the hand tags that
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Speaker 1: you have
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Speaker 1: uh the gifts that we will be giving people even
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Speaker 1: that has to be in sync with the design and
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Speaker 1: the feel of the particular event. So that is uh
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Speaker 1: number six, number seven, what goes behind the event is
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Speaker 1: the crew? So normally what I do is I have
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Speaker 1: a crew of at least uh 20 to 25 people
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Speaker 1: when I do an FBR, which is my large scale event.
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Speaker 1: And if it's a small event of say 250 to
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Speaker 1: 200 people, a quantum retreat, uh crew size would be
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Speaker 1: less than 10, maybe around 10 or eight people that
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Speaker 1: will be there.
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Speaker 1: So what I do is I actually planned the crew
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Speaker 1: at least three months in advance. In fact, for my
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Speaker 1: next freedom visit, that's going to be happening in April.
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Speaker 1: I've already selected the crew members and we will be
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Speaker 1: having a crew meeting starting from Feb. So I normally
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Speaker 1: start my crew huddles three
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Speaker 1: months before the event. So if my event is in April,
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Speaker 1: I do a hurdle in Feb March and then we
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Speaker 1: have the April. So we have at least 6 to
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Speaker 1: 8 rounds of weekly hurdles where uh I give the
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Speaker 1: specific roles and responsibilities for each crew member where they
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Speaker 1: should be standing, what they should be. Uh What is
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Speaker 1: the intent of them being there? Uh And to the
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Speaker 1: extent of how they should be in that particular role.
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Speaker 1: I define everything into mind map. In fact, I have
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Speaker 1: a course in my diamond membership called Community Events Formula.
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Speaker 1: But I, but I also give the recordings of some
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Speaker 1: of my, you know, uh crew hurdles that we've had
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Speaker 1: where we do the planning before the event. And it's,
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Speaker 1: it's really mind blowing and this is something that I
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Speaker 1: learned on my own and I've done multiple rounds of this.
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Speaker 1: So I, I get, got the hang of this right
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Speaker 1: now and then the eighth area of what goes behind
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Speaker 1: the community event are the speakers and the topics.
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Speaker 1: So for the next FBR, I've already finalized most of
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Speaker 1: the speakers and uh I don't just pick speakers based
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Speaker 1: on how much money they're making or what I look
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Speaker 1: at their story, I look at how they've grown. I
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Speaker 1: look at their intention. I look at uh what are
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Speaker 1: they in for? You know, there are many people who
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Speaker 1: are making money but some of them may just want
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Speaker 1: to come and have the limelight and stuff and I'm
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Speaker 1: very fast to pick up intuitively, those, those things.
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Speaker 1: So if I pick up a speaker, if I actually
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Speaker 1: uh choose somebody, then what you do is you put
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Speaker 1: them through an entire speaker orientation process where every speaker
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Speaker 1: chosen two months before an event, they have to start
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Speaker 1: the preparation because they only get 15 minutes to speak.
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Speaker 1: But I get them to a training and I connect
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Speaker 1: them with one of our quantum members who is a
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Speaker 1: TEDX trained speaker who works with each speaker to bring
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Speaker 1: out their emotion, bring out their story, bring out the
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Speaker 1: essence of their journey and works with them.
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Speaker 1: And then we do the hurdles. So I have speaker huddles,
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Speaker 1: I have crew huddles I production team huddles every single week.
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Speaker 1: And all my hurdles are like, it will be like
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Speaker 1: uh 30 minutes max. Sometimes it goes to one hour,
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Speaker 1: but I try to keep it under 30 minutes. And
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Speaker 1: then finally, we have the last point which is the
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Speaker 1: gifts and merchandise, you know, the t-shirt design workbook design,
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Speaker 1: the name tag design, the hand tag design. So the
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Speaker 1: design is done by the production team,
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Speaker 1: but then getting it actually shipped from my bangalore. Uh
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Speaker 1: you know, I have, I'm working with a team in
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Speaker 1: Bangalore that does the actual work, but we send in
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Speaker 1: the design and they, they ship it to us before
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Speaker 1: an event. So all of that coordinations with my team
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Speaker 1: and when we do a large scale event like uh
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Speaker 1: freedom is a retreat with 607 100 people in the room.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's very, very uh important to make sure
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Speaker 1: that the, the crowd control and the queuing and everything
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Speaker 1: is smooth and the members have a good experience. So
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Speaker 1: I have a, a dedicated software, uh custom built software
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Speaker 1: where people can just scan and enter. So the first
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Speaker 1: event was a lot of manual work and it uh
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Speaker 1: covered up things that we had a good lesson in learning.
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Speaker 1: But now even if we do a 700 people event
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Speaker 1: within 10 to 15 minutes process, maximum half an hour,
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Speaker 1: all the registrations can get done like super fast. So
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Speaker 1: we actually figured out on how to do that.
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Speaker 1: And besides this, I do a lot of planning my
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Speaker 1: wife also, we sit and we plan the food, the
00:08:12
Speaker 1: menu exactly how and all our events are si food,
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Speaker 1: no alcohol and all that stuff. So we make sure that,
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Speaker 1: uh the variety is given to all the members and
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Speaker 1: they're given the best experience over there. And I forgot
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Speaker 1: to mention a lot of music. Another, you know, thing
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Speaker 1: that goes behind this, a community event is planning the music,
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Speaker 1: entry, music for every speaker, entry, music that dancing on
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Speaker 1: the stage, what music has to be played. I actually
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Speaker 1: map out every music track that needs to be played
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Speaker 1: before the break, after the break, before lunch, after lunch,
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Speaker 1: before evening break, before, uh, after evening break, when people
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Speaker 1: are leaving the room, I put myself in the shoes
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Speaker 1: of a participant and think about how I want them
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Speaker 1: to feel every single minute of the event. And music
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Speaker 1: has such an important role to play.
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Speaker 1: And of course, the DJ night music that I play
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Speaker 1: my own set, I do some prep on that. And
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Speaker 1: I normally play a one hour, two hours set in the,
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Speaker 1: on both the nights on NFBR. And I normally collect
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Speaker 1: hundreds of tracks, if not more than 100 2, 300 tracks.
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Speaker 1: And I pick
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Speaker 1: like the top, uh, you know, top 20 top 30
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Speaker 1: tracks that I play for that night because, and when
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Speaker 1: people come all the way travel, I just want them
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Speaker 1: to let loose completely immerse themselves in the power of
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Speaker 1: the sound and uh and just go back
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Speaker 1: enlivened and looking forward to coming back. That's when the
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Speaker 1: last FBR we have, we had around 700 people in
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Speaker 1: the room. And when I asked them to buy tickets
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Speaker 1: for the next FBR, we had over 450 people who
00:09:35
Speaker 1: bought tickets that same day. I mean, that's like insane
00:09:37
Speaker 1: conversions for a ticket sale in the room because of
00:09:40
Speaker 1: the value that people got and they knew they're going
00:09:42
Speaker 1: to be coming back for more the next time. And
00:09:44
Speaker 1: many of them had set the intentions to come back.
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Speaker 1: And as you know, all of my community events are gamified,
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Speaker 1: so there's no VIP,
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Speaker 1: there is no separate pricing for tickets, all are same
00:09:54
Speaker 1: ticket price. People are achievers who sit in the front row.
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Speaker 1: People are action takers sit in the back row and
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Speaker 1: those who get qualified for different awards they get in,
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Speaker 1: they are called Inspire and they get to speak on
00:10:03
Speaker 1: the stage. So I've given you the essence of how
00:10:07
Speaker 1: I run community events in a nutshell in this particular podcast.
00:10:10
Speaker 1: But I would highly recommend that you become a diamond
00:10:12
Speaker 1: member and go through my community events formula course to
00:10:15
Speaker 1: actually learn the nit nitty gritties of how I do it. OK.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: So if you are already in my community, that's awesome.
00:10:21
Speaker 1: If you're not go to uh internet live, go to
00:10:24
Speaker 1: Sidat rai.com. Uh pick up uh just go click on
00:10:28
Speaker 1: the link, attend my next webinar, join our community and
00:10:31
Speaker 1: then uh you can attend our next community event because
00:10:33
Speaker 1: this is not a public event. I only invite my
00:10:35
Speaker 1: community members to the event. So take care. God bless.
00:10:37
Speaker 1: Catch you in the next episode.