Z_Definitive_Guide_to_Running_a_Successful_REIA_Meeting_Reduced_size

RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL REIA MEETING
sure the workshop is a success and that people stay in the room for
the entire duration of the event. This means you should consider
providing lunch to everyone that attends. This will ensure that the
audience stays there and gets everything the event is designed to
provide for them.
When I first started speaking, I did a Saturday workshop where we
broke for lunch at noon and told everyone to be back in the room by
1:00. Sure enough 1:00 came and only about 20% of the people
were back in their seats. Come to find out, every restaurant in the
area was packed. Getting food took forever. Then for everyone to
pay their checks took even longer. We were finally able to get
started again when everyone got back to the room, but the clock had
ticked all the way up to 1:45 before everyone was ready to go again.
Not only that, but some people were so frustrated with lunch taking
so long, they figured they missed too much of the meeting so they
didn't even come back.
Nowadays, we include lunch into the cost of the Saturday workshop.
This is such key factor in the day that I've been known to buy lunch
for an entire room of audience members just to get them to stay
there. If I have 100 people in the room and lunch costs me $1,000,
that can be recouped with just one sale of a home study course. But
if I lose five people because lunch took too long... you get the idea.
Secondly, if your REIA meets on the first Monday of every month
and you want a nationally recognized speaker to come do a Saturday
workshop as well, that's a pretty long stretch for a speaker to stay in
town to serve your REIA. Most speakers don't want to stay in town
by themselves that long, and may decide to make two trips. Some
speakers don't want to make two trips since this comes with two
complete travel schedules, two sets of airline tickets, hotels, etc., so
some of them will tell you they will do one meeting or the other.
Another option is to have the Saturday event 2-3 weeks after the
monthly meeting. This gives you time to promote it more to fill the
room.
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