Behind the Scenes of Organizing an Event

For the past week, I’ve been heads down preparing for the Olive Tree Writing Club’s Open Mic and End-of-Season Party. Our final OTWC event before we break for the summer.

Since starting the community three years ago, I’ve hosted over 80+ events. Over time, I’ve learned there are two main components to any event: getting people to come and crafting the event experience.

Getting People to Come

The guest list is the most important part of any event. You could throw a simple gathering, but if the right people are in the room, it’ll still be a memorable night.

One benefit of running OTWC for a few years is that we’ve slowly and intentionally built our distribution. At this point, I don’t stress about whether people will show up, we’ve built enough trust and momentum that I know they will.

For the open mic, I sent out a bunch of personal invites. I have many members’ numbers saved, so when we announce an event, I’ll shoot out texts first. It’s the most high conversion thing I can do but also the most time-consuming.

Then I share it on our community WhatsApp and our email list. Our email list has a few hundred people who’ve been to OTWC in the past, so the open and conversion rates are strong.

I actually love writing those emails too. I treat them like mini blog posts. Sometimes I reflect on what OTWC means to me, or I share behind-the-scenes stories, or lore about the club. For the open mic, I wrote about a friend who started a design club inspired by OTWC, and how seeing his season-end party motivated me to host one of our own.

Ideally, we’d also post to Instagram (that’s how many people discover us), but I didn’t have time for that this round.

The Event Experience

Once people arrive, it’s all about the experience.

Every detail is an opportunity to inject your own style and flavour. Everything from the pre-event messages, to the day and time, to the event page design, the venue vibe, the schedule, whether or not there’s alcohol, the music, the snacks, the lighting, all of it contribute to the holistic experience of the event.

I love sweating the small stuff. It’s those thoughtful touches that make OTWC events feel so unique.