*This is a collaborative post
Image source Pexels
So you’ve done all the necessary planning for your craft workshop and sold your tickets. Now it’s time to actually host the event.
If it’s your first event, it is natural to be nervous! Here are a few pointers to calm your nerves and help you to prepare for the big day.
1. Wear suitable clothing
This seems obvious, but it’s easy to overlook – you want to look presentable, but you don’t want to get clay/paint/glue all over your best clothes!
Also, make sure that safety measures, such as goggles, gloves and steel toe caps are in place. Hopefully, you’ll have organised these in advance for your attendees too.
2. Get there early
The last thing you need is for your attendees to show up before you with no materials or anyone to welcome them! Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time for public transport/parking and to set up the venue.
This also avoids rushing around, which can again contribute to nerves. Take some time to run through your lesson plan to make sure you’re completely familiar with it.
Here are a few tips that may help you with a lesson plan:
- Time for introductions of both yourself and attendees, to each other
- Clearly outline the event schedule
- Allow plenty of time for breaks/lunch if necessary
- Clearly demonstrate your craft, allowing time for questions
3. Take photos during (if you can!)
If you have a spare five minutes, take time to take photos and videos of your event. Encourage your attendees to share posts about the event, whether that’s Instagram stories or a Facebook post, potentially with a specific hashtag too.
This is a bit of free promo for yourself, as well as extra marketing material for any future workshops to show new attendees what they can expect.
4. Engage your attendees before they turn up
Consider suggesting a theme before the workshop, e.g. if you’re holding a nature-themed painting class, ask your attendees to think of ideas for a subject before they arrive. You may also want to send them some inspiration beforehand, such as sending links to the work of key artists or anyone who has undertaken work with a similar theme.
Consider sending a short survey a week ahead, which can be done really easily with platforms such as SurveyMonkey. This way, you can check in with attendees’ expectations of the class and any specific goals they have, or any areas they might want to learn about.
5. Ask for feedback after the session
You may want to carry this out in the form of a physical paper survey, or a follow-up email afterwards. There are pros and cons to both – with a paper survey, you’re getting immediate feedback while the session is still fresh in their minds, as well as making sure you get feedback from every attendee. With email, you may not receive a response from everyone, but you may get more honest and helpful feedback due to anonymity.
Hosting the perfect craft event involves detailed workshop preparation. Hopefully, the tips above have given you some insight into how to make the actual event run as smoothly as it possibly can.