7 Tips for Organising a Successful GDSC Event
Is it hard to organise an event? Not really, just follow my steps and you will succeed!
I had the great opportunity to attend my first Google Developers Summit in London 2022, where I had the chance to meet extraordinary people of different backgrounds coming from different parts of the UK and Ireland.
The Summit was organised very well and this brightened my horizons, so I came up with a question: ‘How can I organise an event in my chapter, maybe just organise one session?’
I started to search online but everything seemed too unrealistic to me and then I was like: ‘Let’s try to combine what I learnt, add my experience and organise an event’. I proposed my idea to my core team members and they were more than happy to help and support me!
So here my 7 tips for organising a successful GDSC event:
- Define your goals
First thing first: Find your Why.
Try to answer these questions the best you can, and you will be either super hyped or disappointed.
- What is the purpose of the event?
- What is the content you want to deliver? (e.g. Product Development, Social Impact, Technical Education, Career Growth…)
- Who are you targeting? (e.g. Students, Industry Experts…)
- How many people do you want to reach? (e.g. 10,50,100,250,1000)
If you managed to answer all of the questions, then I can assure you that you already contribute to 40% of the organisation of the event. On the other side, if you are not feeling 100% secure then it is not a loss but instead, this ‘failure’ will help you to identify why it’s not possible to organise and what can be improved. A great suggestion that I can give is to do a lot of research on what has been done in the past and reach out to previous organisers to find out what are the good and weak points in their experiences. This will give you so many hints and I can guarantee you that you will gain your trust back.
Remember: no one is perfect, every success comes after a lot of work!
2. Plan and Teamwork
It is extremely important to plan ahead your idea. Planning alone is very hard and therefore my suggestion is to work in a team. Collaboration helps not only to divide the workload but also to gain more ideas. Once you are confident with your goals, discuss them with your core team members and ask for their opinions.
It’s very good to have a supportive team right? Find then a common path that makes everyone happy, at the end we are doing this for growing all together!
Planning can be done by hosting in-person meetings (it works for me), delegating work, and regular checks and it includes: choosing the venue, the time and all the materials needed to host a smooth event. Try to brainstorm everything, there are an infinite number of technologies that can be used. And last but not least, set realistic deadlines, and do not rush because everyone needs to be in the same boat.
3. Create budget
After the planning part is done, estimate the total costs (if any) to host the event. Typical expenditures are the venue, catering, marketing, photography and additional equipment. Be realistic with your budget and consider any hidden costs.
Contact potential sponsors that can help you financially and support you with the right decisions. Sponsors include: Google Developers, your university, your Students Association, local sponsors etc.
4. Promote the event
Good planning can give you good results but we need also an audience, right?
It might feel a bit awkward to ‘spam’ the event everywhere but there’s no other way if we want people to know what is happening in the chapter.
I strongly advise you to dedicate enough time to advertise the event. Start early, reach out to as many people as possible, use different social media channels, Bevy, and contact your school/department. Be clear and concise by highlighting the key aspects and the benefits of attending the event, design high-quality graphics and posters, and mention the incentives (more details in the next tips).
5. Offer incentives
A good way to attract people is to feature the benefits of attending your event.
It’s easy: just swap positions for a second, be on the audience side and think of what will motivate you to go to an event. It might be networking, food, drinks, SWAG or just learning more. Focus on these and write them in your advertising posts. They are a very good selling points.
6. Engage and gain feedback
It is also important to establish a good approach with the attendees by making them feel comfortable to ask questions and interact with you and with the rest of the people. Try to be friendly as much as you can, be available to answer questions and provide support.
Feedback is essential: gain informal feedback so it will help you to analyse what you did well and wrong, and discuss directly by asking for suggestions from the attendees.
7. Experience
My biggest advice is: Practice, Practice and Practice.
An event can be successful or a complete failure: that’s completely fine.
Face challenges by welcoming them. Improve yourself by recognising your achievements. Always dream big.
Learn. Connect. Grow.
