Your first small event: ten people and one good question

I've been putting this lesson off, because events are where new community managers tend to overreach. The first instinct is to plan something big: a launch party, a panel, a speaker people have heard of. Please don't, not for your first one. Your first event has one job, which is to let a handful of members meet each other and leave wanting a second one.

Keep it small and short

Aim for eight to twelve people and one hour. Small enough that everyone speaks, short enough that nobody checks the time. Online and in person both work. If it's online, make cameras optional and say so in the invitation.

Give it a shape

• Arrival (10 minutes): greet every person by name as they come in. This is your most important job all evening.
• One opening question (20 minutes): something everyone can answer, such as "What was the first community you belonged to as a kid?"
• One topic (25 minutes): a single question your members care about, not a presentation.
• Close (5 minutes): thank people, say when the next one is, and ask one person to help you host it.

Invite people one by one

An event post on its own gets you a few clicks on "interested" and two attendees. A personal message to fifteen people saying "I'd love you to be there" gets you ten. It's the same lesson as your first ten members, and it works for the same reason.

Afterwards

Post a short recap within a day, with a photo if people were happy to be in one and the date of the next event. The recap is really for the people who didn't come. It's how they find out they'd be welcome next time.

This week: pick a date, write your opening question and send five personal invitations. Share the question in the comments and the rest of the cohort will help you sharpen it.