EDWARD THE MEETUP EVENT PLANNER- EXTREMELY SHY MEETUP
STORY SUMMARY
Extremely Shy back in May 2012 was a relatively new club on the meetup platform in Vancouver. Recently celebrating its one year anniversary, the group found itself struggling to have events on a weekly basis due to lack of active organizers and ideas. Membership was plateauing due to limited events for new members to join and limited opportunities for members to build community. Upon joining the Extremely Shy's event organizing team, fresh ideas that were avoided in the past such as a BBQ event for 60+ people were introduced and carried out; resulting in massive membership inflow and great platforms for community building. Success of the first large event led to consideration of other large ideas that were once deemed 'infeasible'. Motivated individuals were recruited to help out with the event resulting in development of planning skills, marketing skills, communication abilities and sponsorship coordination. Today Extremely Shy meetup is the #1 most active meetup group in Metro Vancouver with over 5400 members and 7+ events happening every week.
CHALLENGE
Extremely shy was plateauing in membership and in member engagement in the Spring of 2012. Events were small, infrequent and uncertain of its long term feasibility due to limited popularity and demand. While there were attempts of revitalizing group engagement through multiple outings at restaurants and recreational activities, but it was not realized that the group member's individual spending level was a big limiting factor to the group's engagement and that there was a need for affordable and engaging events. The group's financial situation was bleak being half a year behind its operating expenses requiring the group's chief organizer to finance the group's website at his own expense. During that summer, Vancouver Foundation released a report indicating Vancouverites being lonely with a significant percentage having trouble forming new friendship outside of their cultural group.
STRATEGIC PLAN
Two items were challenged in the group: Event planning structure and social norms & expectations within the meetup. Instead of approaching from a 'supply perspective' where events were blindly chosen and organized with little certainty of filling up, I took initiative in conducting 'market research' on the group members as well as niche market analysis on related meetup groups within the social events niche. Using these key information I started organizing monthly mingler events that were high in demand, producing a series of financially sustainable events inspiring the leadership team that large scale mingler events are possible and is the future direction for managing a large group.
Prior to my arrival, most events were put together without much structure often causing some attendees to feel left out or without sufficient support to integrate into the group. With my arrival, I set myself out to add value to the general membership through writing short article guides on networking and communication, a feature that is not found in any other groups.
EXECUTION
Through conducting online questionnaires and seeking opinion of many people at events over a period of two few months, I've determined different needs within the group with the largest need being more opportunities for individuals to get to know the other 1999 members in the group; thus the decision to start large scale minglers came out. For a group with none of the members that has hosted a large scale BBQ, extensive calculation and research were conducted by comparing with similar groups and adopting what has worked for them. Following the success of the first event, we moved on to making the minglers a monthly feature within our group helping many new member integrate well into our community.
RESULTS | STATISTICS
The large scale minglers has induced engagement from the general population making us the #1 most active group by October 2012 and doubling group membership over a period of 8 months since joining. The large scale events allowed new and existing members to build better face to face relationship with each other as well as with organizers building cohesiveness and giving members incentives to organize or attend more than one event every other week. As of today, Extremely Shy has over 7 events happening on a weekly basis and a membership base of 5400 members.
LIST OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS ORGANIZED
The following events were headed up by me with the support of a few other members of the Extremely Shy event support/leadership team. All of my events have the following core values:
-Affordable and Financially Sustainable (Events should not be expensive but at the same time break even)
-Community (Connection be built amongst attendees as well as with the local community)
-Meaningful (We donated to the blood bank as a group to make a difference while having fun and community)
INFOGRAPH OF EVENTS ORGANIZED
2012 End of Summer BBQ Event (65 Attendees)
Expanding our Capacity- Going Against the Grain
Extremely Shy has never organized an "in-house" event due to the risk adverse nature of its most active organizers. This in turn has resulted great ideas being turned down before they were put into more thought. Because of the perceived complicated nature of predicting attendees, balancing costs and logistical needs for an "in-house" food event, most gatherings took place at restaurants where planning and logistical work was provided by the restaurant at the expense of group capacity, affordability and flexibility. Very often these events would price out many members and can only allow small number of attendees resulting in high turnover. This all changed when I joined the group and decided to challenge this issue.
A great amount of preparation was done leading up to the group's first in house and large scale in house event including an extensive 'market research' and 'studies of similar events' to determine the feasibility of the event. After determining event location, fair pricing, break even point, estimated attendance and a contingency plan, a team of event support was recruited from chefs, greeters and activities coordinators.
Overall the event went very well with a record attendance of 65 attendees. It was the first event to have in house programming, an organized schedule, activities and prizes. Dozens of first time attendees who often were waitlisted at other events were able to come out, mingle and build lasting connection with one another. This event has been a precursor to inspire and prove the Extremely Shy community that by pushing our limits, affordable in-house mingler/networking events are possible with dedication and sufficient planning and collaboration.
2012 Thanksgiving Pot Luck (60 Attendees)
Doing the Unthinkable- Trailblazing in the Group
With thanksgiving approaching, I learned a large portion of our group's membership celebrates thanksgiving in two ways: Alone (Living far from family) or not at all (New to the country or never had one before). Recognizing the need from the meetup group for community and connectivity, I decided to organize a Thanksgiving pot luck celebration complete with a turkey for members.
Unlike the last mingler, October marks the beginning of the rain season which requires events to move indoor; making planning and budgeting more complicated with room rental. Making the situation more challenging, most rival groups do not both doing indoor in-house events due to high rental costs and risks of not breaking even.
Instead of admitting a dead end, I persisted in this avenue, studying opportunities and exercising creativity to determine a way to make Extremely Shy's first financially feasible indoor mingler. Through complex cost analysis and effective marketing, we were able to host a successful Thanksgiving pot luck for 60 attendees complete with turkey, and icebreaker activities.
"Thanks to Ed & everyone for organizing such a huge event to include so many people and the great food and carving the turkey and the improv entertainment." -Al, Attendee
2012 Halloween Costume Mingler (82 Attendees)
Developing an Effective System
An event planned around inviting Extremely Shy members to dress up and meet other members has attracted a record high attendance of 82 attendees. Members participated in icebreaker activities from human bingo to group competitions that requires team building at their respective tables. Lasting connections and friendship have been made amongst the members. A vast variety of catering made possible with effective planning and food coordination.
For the main component of the event, attendees were introduced to the organization Stand up for Mental Health, an organization that erases discrimination and generalization of mental health consumers through training them as comedians and performing at public events. Sponsors such as Vancouver Bakery, Baguette & Co were was introduced to the attendees through dessert samplers donated to the event. Over $120 in prizes were given out.
"Thanks to all organizers for the good evening. I enjoyed it, had fun and met new people. Thank you again!" - Lenka, Attendee
2013 Lunar New Year Mingler (80 Attendees)
Introducing Multicultural Aspect to the Group
With the monthly mingler events becoming a norm within our group more and more new members are receiving a smooth transition into the group reducing membership turnover. In an attempt to transform these monthly gathering to the next level, we decided to put on our first culturally themed event, Lunar New Year Celebration.
An events team for this celebration was hand picked and formed with each member taking on a role from prospecting food suppliers to preparing prizes and inserting chocolates into red pockets. Attendees were wowed by a nine course Chinese dinner followed by a martial arts presentation from a talented member within our group. The 80 guests discovered more of Vancouver's cultural diversity as well as getting to know one another.
"It was great! And totally different that I was expecting from 'Extremely Shy' group :P (yeah, it was my first time). Thank you all, for organizing and being there!"
- Peter M. Attendee