Thrive Lounge

August 15, 2018

Vision Boards

How Much Does It Cost To Host A Vision Board Party

Thrive Lounge

August 15, 2018

Vision Boards

I'm going to let you in on a little secret... I hate event planning!

Even though I love vision boards (and I firmly believe you get much more value by doing them with friends) the entire planning process ends up being a pain in the butt.

Luckily, I love getting friends together for events way more than I hate event planning so I have accumulated a ton of great lessons learned on my event-planning journey.

In this post, we're going to talk about the absolute worst thing in event planning: The Costs.

Planning The Event

Marketing

The goal of any event is to put people in seats. While your event has the best of intentions, your message won't reach anyone if you don't sell tickets.

Here are a couple of options you can use for your marketing:

Social media ads
Email advertising
On-site advertising (like a local website or event website)
Influencer marketing
Affiliate marketing

On occasion you can find a listings website that will allow you to post your event for free, but it's not likely you'll see many sales from there. However, you might also throw money at advertisers - and still not see a huge return on your investment.

Marketing is tricky - and it will take your time, your money or both.

Event Planner

For my last event, I reached out to an event planner to help me with the organizing, décor and making everything happen. That meant that all I needed to focus my time and energy on was making sure that people came in the door and I had butts in seats.

Someone else would worry about what type of décor was at the event, what food and drinks we had to offer and coordinating schedules. Most importantly, the only thing I would have to worry about on the day of the event was looking good.

The Event Site

Venue

Your venue will typically come with a price tag unless you're hosting it at home or you get your event location sponsored. The venues I've worked with typically charge by the hour and you typically get what you pay for. That means, if you want that beautiful rooftop overlooking the city, it's going to cost you five times as much as that co-working space that rents out their medium-sized meeting room.

Furniture

Venues will typically come with certain types of furniture already there -- if you want anything fancy (or even if you need some additional chairs) you're going to have to get that yourself from a different company.

Moving Truck

If you have to move a lot of furniture to design your space to your liking, you will have to order a moving truck for everything. (This is something we didn't consider for our first event and it definitely bit us in the butt!)

Decor

Many party hosts like to add a special touch of inspirational quotes around the room. I personally like to have a mini photo booth where people can grab a few props and take some pics.

Food and Drinks

No event is complete without food and drinks so this one really goes without explanation. Along with the food you're going to need cutlery, napkins, plates and cups.

Presentation

I'm going to be honest here, you can't go out to the store and buy a box of chicken and then leave the box out for attendees to pick out their breast or thigh. You have to put in a little more effort than that.

Get serving trays to present the food in a way that looks appetizing. You might need a water dispenser for the beverages.

Entertainment

Having speakers at an event can raise the perceived value of the event. (That means you can charge more.) Speakers will also be able to connect with the audience, share stories and inspire them to work towards their goals in the new year.

Gifts & Giveaways

Whenever you host speakers (especially if you're not paying them) it's a great idea to give them gifts as a special thank you for speaking at the event. You don't have to go crazy, but a nice $10 coffee mug that follows with the theme of the event will do.

Materials

Vision Board Materials

Unless you're hosting a party where you've told people to bring their own magazines and poster boards, you're on the hook for providing those. You'll also need about 1 glue stick and pair of scissors for every 4 attendees.

Printing any Workshop Materials

Depending on the layout of your event, you may have some handouts or worksheets. All of these will have to be printed and brought with you to the event. If they're writing things down, you'll also need enough pens for each person.

Event Agenda

If you're hosting a formal event, you'll want to make sure each attendee has an agenda. These don't have to be expensive. You can get beautiful and reasonably priced agendas from Etsy. You could also design them yourself on Canva if you want to remove the cost all together.

Vision board parties and events can be incredibly fun and super inspiring to your guests. I hope this list of costs will help you in the planning stages!

xoxo

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party?

Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.
Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts.
Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

Thrive Lounge

August 1, 2018

Vision Boards

Planning The Perfect Vision Board Party Agenda

Thrive Lounge

August 1, 2018

Vision Boards

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

The goal of every vision board party that was ever created is to help people get clarity on their goals and walk away with ideas of what they want out of life - and how to get there. The best vision board parties will help people make new friends, build their network and believe in their vision more than ever before.

This is all driven by the way you set the event up. As the host, you get to choose how you want your event to flow, here's some tips on how I structure the agenda for my vision board parties.

Time To Mix and Mingle

Any good event gives enough unstructured time (where there are no activities scheduled) for people to walk around, randomly lock eyes with others and spark up a conversation. This is the opportunity for random people to become acquaintances.

Food and Drinks

By setting out the food at the beginning of the event, people will naturally gravitate towards the food and entertain themselves. I'm a huge fan of making new friends in the drink line. (Hey handsome guy, do you come here often?)

Activities & Ice Breakers

Some people are more inclined to sit in the back of the room and not really talk to anyone. (Full disclosure, I used to be one of those people.) Plan to have a few engaging activities to get the entire room familiar with each other and ready to tackle a larger goal.

Speakers

Depending on how you set your event up, it could be a great idea to invite someone to speak. It's great to bring in your speaker right after networking and an ice-breaker or two.

Your speaker will bring the audience back into focus by sharing an inspirational story or message that your audience can identify with. (That's why it's super important to choose the right speaker for your audience.)

Vision Board Tutorial

Even though a vision board seems straight forward, it's always great to give a quick reminder of what a vision board is and how to create one. I will usually bring my vision board from the previous year to show it to attendees and walk through exactly how they can create a vision board that changes their own life.

The tutorial will get your attendees primed to switch gears and start creating.

Time To Build Vision Board

Your attendees will need a minimum of one hour to get started building their vision boards. This is time for people to start looking through the magazines and pulling their top quotes and images to design their life.

Side note: During my tutorial, I always tell people it's OK if they don't finish their boards at the party. It's most important that people get the idea of the vision board and feel empowered to go home and create one.

Share Your Vision Board

If you have a small group (6-8 people), you could ask each person to talk about the goals they put on their boards and why. This is a great experience for everyone that attends because they get to know more about each other - and that part may foster more long-lasting friendships.

Mix n' Mingle

If there's still time (and people aren't too tired or too drunk) give about a half hour or so for some last minute mingling. Throughout the event, you've given people several chances to learn about each other. This is their last chance to act on the things they've learned about the other people in the room. If they have similar goals, they could become accountability partners. If they have already accomplished something that someone else in the room is striving towards, they can swap tips.

The agenda you set for your vision board party will make all the difference in the experience your attendees have. Give them just enough time to engage with the people around them. Encourage them to think about their goals and how they can contribute to the goals of others.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party?

Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.
Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts.
Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thrive Lounge

July 25, 2018

Vision Boards

What Kind of Food Should You Have At Your Vision Board Party? List of Do's and Don'ts

Thrive Lounge

July 25, 2018

Vision Boards

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

My favorite thing about vision board parties is that you don't really need much to have a successful event. Once you get a bunch of people in a room and ask them to talk about their goals, the party pretty much hosts itself.

If you want people to be super comfy and ready to enjoy the endless inspiration around them, make sure they aren't hungry. (That pretty much works for any situation, right?)

For a vision board party, people are mainly there for the artsy craftsy creator time where they're fingering through magazines and building the boards so you should keep that in mind when selecting your food options.

Here's a short list of things you should consider while choosing the food for your vision board party.

Decide On Your Event Layout First

As the host, the layout of the event is totally up to you. You can invite speakers to talk about their life experience and inspire the group, you could also have different activities that people can do or conduct a workshop on how to build a vision board.

Think about where the food will come into the agenda because this will contribute to the overall flow of the event.

Eating Before The Creation

If you structure the event so that the good comes first, your attendees will have time to talk before creating the boards. This creates a networking or community oriented vibe to your event. People will start chatting and getting to know each other far before they start working on their vision boards.

Eating During Creation

At some events, people are encouraged to chat, eat, drink and be merry. If you plan on having people work on their vision boards while they eat, then you'll just want to make sure the foods aren't too messy.

Do's

AT least One Salad

I really don't do salads, but some people really like them. Make sure you're serving all of the people that are in attendance by having at least one salad option.

Have a Dessert

OK - this is totally my thing because I LOVE a good cake or pie, but I think it's totally necessary. Working on your goals for the new year is a big deal. Give people something for their sweet tooth at the end of all that networking, collaborating and creating. :)

Cover the prevalent food allergies

You don't have to hit every random food allergy in the world, but definitely make sure you hit the more frequent preferences: gluten, dairy, vegetarian and vegan. It could also be helpful to ask people what types of allergies they have when they RSVP that way you have a good idea of how much you need to supply at the event.

cater to the time of day

The time of day you're hosting your event should provide direction for what types of food to provide.

For a morning/early afternoon event, you should provide more breakfast-friendly foods like pastries, fruits, yogurts and granola. For a lunchtime event, you can easily provide finger sandwiches, cookies and chips. If you're hosting an evening vision board party, stick with foods that give a dinner party feel like wine and cheese or charcuterie plate and other light snacks with a more savory feel to them.

Don'ts

greasy/messy foods

At our first vision board potluck, one of the attendees brought barbecue chicken. As delicious as it was, we had a difficult time eating and building magazines at the same time. We were constantly cleaning our hands and then cleaning the napkins off the tables. It's a huge distraction from the reason you came to the party - creating your vision.

smelly foods

I'm a giant fan of all things fish, crabs, shrimp and mussels but the smell can really take up an entire space. Be conscious of the food you're serving at your event. Make sure that people don't leave with their clothes smelling like white wine and garlic shrimp.

Heavy Foods

We've all had that after Thanksgiving feeling where we finish eating grandma's sweet potato pie and mac-and-cheese and turkey with a side of ribs, stuffing and gravy. All you want to do is head to the bed and rest for the rest of the week.

While food is a necessity at an event, don't feed people so much that they start to feel drowsy. You won't get nearly as much conversation between guests who are full and tired.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party?

Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.
Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts.
Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thrive Lounge

July 11, 2018

Vision Boards

How To Snag A Top Speaker For Your Vision Board Party

Thrive Lounge

July 11, 2018

Vision Boards

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

You can honestly host a vision board party anyway you like. You could invite your friends over for some wine and have a small party or you could host a large-scale event with speakers and sponsors - the whole nine.

If you're looking to host speakers at your vision board party, it's going to take a lot more effort than calling up your besties but the reward can be huge.

Why Have A Speaker At Your Vision Board Party?

Your attendees want to spend time thinking about their goals for the new year and feel inspired to take the next steps in their journey. As the host, it's your job to help them get there.

A speaker can add a element of inspiration through experience and mentorship. They can talk about the challenges they've been through and how they got through them. Encourage people to continue pursuing their goals. Speakers can also answer burning questions that the audience may have.

Consider your target audience

There are a million speakers out there that can speak on a billion different topics, but you want your speaker's message to resonate with your audience. You have to know who your target audience is to be able to get a speaker that will will be able to connect with them.

First, know what their goals are.

If you have an audience of small business owners, an influencer talking about breastfeeding and healthy eating for new mothers may not resonate perfectly with their goals. However if you have an audience full of pregnant women, they will be highly receptive to that message.

Focus to the audience you are catering to to find a speaker that has a message for that person.

Who would your target audience be interested in seeing?

There are often some speakers that get people super excited, and then there are other speakers who people aren't as excited to see. Try to balance that line of popularity with a very strong message. If you have a larger audience you can simply ask them who are they interested in seeing tell you.

Who can help them Reach their goals?

Sometimes the person your audience wants to see is super popular but their message couldn't really help them reach their goals.

For example, you could invite Cardi B to your vision board party and a lot of people would show up to see her but they may not get the message that you hoped for at the end of the day.

Your speaker cannot be selected based on popularity alone, they have to have a message that your audience can take away to reach their goals.

Panel versus single speaker

Speakers can appear alongside four to five others and answer questions from the host. On the other hand, you can have a single speaker doing a workshop or keynote talk. Both options are really great options based on how you set up your event and how you want your event to flow.

If you have a host to ask questions or you want to ask questions yourself, then a panel might be a great route to take. Panels are great because you get several different viewpoints on one question and opportunity for people to be able to see themselves in different panelists.

A single speaker can be equally as effective if the audience and the speaker are both very targeted so you know that speaker's message is going to totally land with the theme of the event and with the audience is hoping to see.

Getting in contact

Getting in contact with influencers and popular speakers is easier than you might think. Once you decide on the speaker, simply go to their website and go to the contact page. Most speakers will have their email or contact forms available on their site.

Your first email

When you send your potential speaker an email, give them information that helps them understand who you are and who you're catering to.

Here are a few examples:

where the event is and what kind of event it is.
who the target demographic is so they can assess whether it's a good fit for their brand.
show that you know a bit about them and have specifically chosen them based on their credentials (show that you’re not picking a name out of a hat).
the next step in the process and gives them a link to learn more about the event.

following up

When you hear back from the potential speaker about your event, make sure that you follow up with them in a timely manner. Offer a few times to hop on the phone with them so that you can hash out the details and they can ask you any questions they might have.

Paid versus Unpaid

When you start to contact speakers, you will find that many speakers have a speakers fee available on their website or will quote a speakers fee when you contact them.

If you do not have a budget for your speaker, that's okay. Some people are happy to speak at your event without a fee however you may want to give him a few things to make your event worth their time and effort.

Here are a few examples of things you can offer instead of a speaker's fee:

Emails to your list
Advertising on social media channels
A table to sell products at your event
Complimentary tickets to event for friends and family
Access to the full event video

Once you secure a call with the speaker, this is where you talk about all of the offerings you have.

Make working with you easy

From the moment someone agrees to be a speaker at your event, make it super easy for them to do what they do best: speak.

Be Available

Whenever they send you an e-mail always respond within 24 to 48 hours. That will give them the confidence that you are professional and put them at ease with working with you.

Provide a social media promotion kit

We would all like for speakers to be excited about creating fun posts on social media for our event, however speakers are very busy so that doesn't always happen.

If you want a higher chance at getting a speaker to promote your event, make it incredibly easy for them by providing a social media promotional kit.

Your promotional kit will have cut-and-paste social media templates that they can easily post to their channels and provides all of the images that you've already created to promote the event.

Day of show list with to do's and contacts

A lot of moving pieces can be distracting on the day of the event. As the host, you don't want to be running around trying to take care of everything last minute. (At that point, your main concern should be looking fabulous and having a good time.)

To ensure everyone knows exactly what to do (and minimize how many people are asking you questions) provide them a "day of show" itinerary. This is basically a list of what to do and expect when you get to the venue.

Creating this list is a little bit more work up front, but will come in handy when you are able to welcome your guests without having speakers and advertisers asking a million questions.

Having a great speaker for your vision board party can enhance the day of the event. You'll have a professional there for people to ask questions and get more clarity in their goals for the year.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party?

Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.
Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts.
Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.