Admission:
You can charge an attendance fee for a CEC activity. Tickets can be no more than $100 USD (including any third-party ticketing process fees) and should go towards CEC local activities and operating costs.
Selecting people to invite:
Consider inviting your local entrepreneurs, researchers, professors, sustainability change makers, business local leaders and investors should be the inspiration centers of your CEC events. Selecting, inviting, and inspiring them to attend the session will be your main initial task. So, how do you find them?
- Write to sustainability departments in your local universities and research centers
- Invite sustainability/circular consultant and experts in your city
- Reach out to incubators, co-working spaces and event spaces to ask for sustainability/circular enthusiasts
- Research local sustainable/circular businesses and charities
- Search your professional and social networks
Search the above resources on a regular basis, the more people know about your events the better they will be, as your network will find your events more engaging and useful in terms of networking.
Feel free to also set up awareness events to raise profile of circularity among those that are not into sustainability already. But when doing so, specify the target audience clearly to avoid disappointing any attendee.
Once you have your prospect list, do a first round of email invites to 50 of your top choice attendees. Give yourself a designated amount of time for replies and send another round to the following 50 choices. Take into account that the attendee ratio is usually 50% of those that registered for free events. Example: if you have 50 people registered for your event, most likely you will have 25 attendees turn up on the day.
If you see that it is 2 weeks ahead of your event and it is still not full, contact patricia@CircularEconomyClub.com so that the CEC Support team can help to promote the event online and make sure your session reached its maximum capacity.
Invite your attendees, example email:
Long emails do not get read, so keep it short and inspiring.
“Good morning,
I hope this email finds you well. I am delighted to invite you to attend the [EVENT TITLE] by [CEC YOUR CITY], happening in [DATE and HOUR].
[Include 2 clear sentences that describe the purpose of your event and what the attendees will get from it.]
I believe your presence would be a critical addition to this CEC event. Please access [YOUR CITY PAGE ON CEC WEBSITE] for more information, and feel free to have a look at the wider CEC community via the CEC Facebook and CEC LinkedIn groups.
Looking forward to welcoming you at the event.
Best wishes,
[Name]
[LinkedIn]”
Once an invitee accepts your invitation, check if they have already registered via your Eventbrite page.
- If they have, invite them to share their CE interests in the CEC Facebook group or CEC LinkedIn group.
- If they have not, ask them politely to sign up via your Eventbrite event.
Send all registrants a reminder email 3 days ahead of the event, for example:
“Dear all,
This is a quick reminder that the CEC (YOUR CITY) (YOUR EVENT) will take place on (DATE and HOUR) in (VENUE and ADDRESS). Once you arrive at the main entrance (GIVE SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS). For any questions on the day please contact (PHONE NUMBER).
Please have a think about circular economy initiatives that have been taking place in our city and the surrounding region and bring them to the session to discuss with other circular economy professionals and enthusiasts.
Look forward to seeing you soon,
Name
(LinkedIn profile)”
Rejecting an application
Chances are, you’ll receive an application from a prospective attendee that you’ll have to turn down because your session is already full. You can use this reply:
“Dear [Name],
Thank you so much for your interest in attending the CEC [YOUR CITY] (YOUR EVENT).
The event received a high number of interest and unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate you at this time. We are sorry to miss your presence this time!
I will put you on the waiting list and make sure to let you know if space becomes available. In the meantime, I encourage you to keep track of the event outputs via this page (LINK TO YOUR PAGE ON CEC) and to attend to future CEC [YOUR CITY] events.
Thank you so much again for your interest and see you in the future,
Our kindest regards,
The CEC [YOUR CITY] Team
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