We failed (a bit)
I bet you came along this kind of sentences many time:
Due to the increasing interest in the <event>, the closing date for applications has been extended to <date>!
We are pleased to announce that the deadline for application has been extended up to <date> in response to numerous requests and due to the increased interest in <event>.
I guess event organisers communicate this way that they hadn’t received enough applications because they fear to be seen insignificant, unimportant. And this might be true at some basic level. But more importantly they lose a chunk of their credibility. Because they don’t tell the truth. They pretend. And most people know/feel it.
Pretending or not telling the truth might give you a quick gain but on the other hand it puts you on a track where it becomes more and more difficult to grow because it requires more and more capacity. It will divide your focus between keeping up the illusion and developing your core activity.
Yesterday (7 May) was the deadline for application to HOLIS. We received 20 applications. This is less than we expected and we think that this is mostly due to our inability to communicate effectively and reach our target group. We are not good at it and we don’t have the capacity (but willing to get better).
This means that we extend the deadline to 21 May midnight.
APPLY NOW!
Except the number we are happily surprised with the applications. Especially with the geographic diversity of our applicant’s countries of origin.
We think those who will be part of HOLIS this year will be part of something special. We feel like HOLIS arrived to a new milestone and it’s always exciting (at least for me) to be part of something at the beginning.
The success of your product or service is based on 2 factors (well, it depends on many many more and it’s quite complicated if you look into the details but to see the big picture you have to heavily simplify things):
the value your product/service delivers / suggests to deliver
and
the effectiveness of your message / communication channels (called marketing in the old times).
So how do we know that the value of HOLIS is alright (I mean it always can be better, but it’s alright).
01
Our advisory board members believe that HOLIS is an important and relevant initiative. They are coming from leading organisations and have an immense experience. We believe them.
02
The feedback from our alumni / previous participants says that we managed to deliver significant experience and knowledge to them. This year we started the HOLIS Retreat event for our Alumni. The positive energy from those who’ve been there made it clear once again that we are on the right track.
03
The feedback from our local partners says that the solutions we delivered as a group was useful and valuable to them.
So what are we going to do to make our communication (marketing) better?
Short term
- Concentrate the communication through personal contacts, recommendations.
- We need to work more on reaching non-designers. We will try to reach university teachers, hubs, umbrella organisations of these disciplines.
- Ask our partners and alumni to make one final communication push to reach their peers.
Long term
- Rebranding: we need to find a form, text, visual, etc that better
- New website and SEO optimisation (we are very bad at SEO)
- Marketing strategy and execution (call for project work will be announced)
- Ambassadors who will help us reach out to different disciplines. This actually came from a short ideation at the HOLIS Retreat. Feel like
So once again: we extend the deadline to 21 May midnight. APPLY NOW!
And if you feel like helping us with your advice, contacts, service, funding, etc. reach out: holis@codec.network (yes, we will change our url too :) )
