How to Host a Brilliant Blogger Event

Nov 10, 2010 by cafebebemama

As a “mummy blogger” with over a year of experience under my belt (gee, it seems longer!), I’ve had the pleasure of attending quite a few blogger events held by PR’s. When I first started blogging, the trend was more for PR’s to send out product, ask for our trial & review and then follow up with more press releases and emails. Now PR’s are becoming a bit more savvy. They’re organising blogger events to showcase their product/cause/service similar to a press event or launch for journalists. As a veteran of these events, I’d like to share my top tips for how to host a brilliant blogger event. I’m nice like that you know! PR’s, feel free to send payment for my words of wisdom!

1) Venue: Are there stairs to go up/down either entering bldg or to get to the room? If mums are arriving with children, many will have pushchairs. Position staff to assist with pushchair transitions and have a safe “pram park” for storing pushchairs and other gear. Have a look around the room from a child’s perspective. If need be, get down on your knees and crawl around. What hazards could there be? Are power points covered? Are there drapes or cords hanging down? What floor surface is available? You may want to consider purchasing interlocking foam floor squares to create a safe, soft children’s play area.

2) If you are welcoming children to the event (and you really should if you want to encourage blogger attendance) provide child friendly activites/toys/colouring supplies to keep children busy. Consider allocating a member of staff to watch over this area and give mums a chance to leave their children for a wee bit to get a coffee or network. Use your contacts to provide age appropriate toys and games for the children. This will require you to know how many children will be in attendance and how old they are.

3) Food- again, if children are present, having child-friendly food/snacks is highly advisable. Yoghurt, fruit cut into small pieces, packets of raisins, childrens biscuits/bars, small sandwiches w/o crusts + cheese/marmite/choc spread/ham are all reasonable choices. Consider drinks as well. Juice boxes, smoothies, water bottles, milk. Consider providing children’s cutlery & plates/cups. IKEA is a brilliant place for low-cost children’s feeding accessories. You may also want to make arrangements for high chairs or booster seats to allow for younger children/toddlers to sit safely and comfortably.

4) Mum Help: Babies & toddlers will need nappy changes and mums of young babies may need space to breastfeed and/or warm baby food/bottles. Consider providing a Changing/Feeding area during the event. Perhaps turning a corner of the room into it by partitioning it off or taking an unused toilet and embellishing it? Provide a changing table. If you are able to provide nappies and wipes, fantastic! This will require you to ask for nappy sizes but will be much appreciated. Provide a bottle warmer if possible and a comfy chair for breastfeeding mums. If you can’t provide bottle warmer, make available a jug w/ hot water or microwave from kitchen to help mums.

5) Nametags and intros. There will be staff that the mum bloggers won’t know. There will be other bloggers that don’t know each other (believe it or not, we don’t know EVERYONE!). Make sure that you take the time to do a brief intro of key people present at the start of the event and make the agenda clear so that all in attendance know what’s coming and when.

6) Goody bags- It’s nice to provide a little pressie to take away for bloggers who’ve made the effort to attend. It doesn’t have to be Oscar worthy but include press info, a few things for mum, a few things for child if you are able.

7) Follow Up- a quick thank you email is always great and appreciated. Also if you’ve asked for hashtag tweeting about the event or product, follow up and retweet efforts. This is achieved easily enough by creating a hashtag search on Twitter to be able to watch the play by play! Watch for posts after the event if that’s what’s required and make comments to support blogger efforts.

So there we have it. By no means a perfect list but I hope that it will help give PR’s and Brands a few key points to bear in mind when organising their next blogger event. Of course none of the above are ESSENTIAL but are very WELCOME and will go far to stand you in good stead with the bloggers you’re working with. Feel free to contact me directly if you have questions or just want to hire me as a consultant for your next event!