Which is more important? Choosing the location, food, presentation, and other meeting prep OR getting the right people to your event? Well of course it is the latter. But it seems that many spend much more time on the upfront prep work and much less on driving people to the event. The good news is that there are new strategies beyond sending out invitations and hoping for the best. In addition to your invitations, here are 3 ways to build attendance and keep the value buzzing.

1. Build Buzz For Your Event (ie. Give them something to talk about!)
Develop content beyond the invitation to build value in the event. Write a blog entry, include information on your website on featured speaker(s), include a video on your YouTube channel discussing the value of the event, etc. Post on your Facebook fan page. Include a Twitter hashtag like #RetirementSeminarDallas and encourage people to use it when tweeting about your upcoming event.

2.  Change Your Registration Process
Give people easy ways to share your event with others. Services such as Eventbrite let your attendees share the event with their networks as they register. You can also make available to those who have registered an article download that they can share with others who have yet to register on a topic that will be covered at your event.

3. Post Your Event Promotion
Consider videotaping your event and posting highlights on your YouTube channel or your website. Another idea is to record the presentation delivered at the event to SlideShare. Then promote the video clips and presentation to attendees to share with others and to those who could not attend. This also builds momentum for your next event.

It doesn’t matter that you’re holding an event, it matters if people attend.