[00:00:00] Today's conversation is a little short one about what time you should turn up for an event. How early is too early, how late is too late, and when you're setting your times for your event, are you considering. Your audience and their behavior patterns when it comes to their preparedness to arrive at your event.
So I'm sitting in a car park right now waiting to go inside an event, and the reason I'm waiting is because it's five past nine in the morning. The event start time is nine 30 in the morning and. That's too early for me. Like 9 0 9 0 5. The difference between 9 0 5 and nine 30 is, that's too early for me as an organizer.
I know the people in the room are [00:01:00] still doing final touches. They're still doing those extra little bits and pieces, and if they're not doing that, they're taking 10 minutes for a deep breath, a quick cup of coffee, rub their feet before they open doors to let you in. So they're having either, they're either having that little moment where, because everything's organized and well done, and they're having just that little moment, they might be having a little briefing with each other, little team briefing, a little rah rah.
You know, imagine, um, you know, a band and crew right before they go on stage, they all have, you know, they all have a little, uh, ritual that they do, right? So maybe the people inside this event right now are doing that little ritual. Alternatively, if they're, if it's not. If it hasn't gone as expected, um, they could be running around, uh, trying to fix last minute issues that are coming at them.
So for me, you know, 30 minutes early arrival, that is too early. At the [00:02:00] same time, arrival on time is, I'm not really a, I'm, I am an early arriver. Um, I don't really like arriving on time. Um. Because I feel like I miss out. I miss out on being able to kind of scope the room, scope the event, see who's there, sort of, uh, you know, figure out what's going on before the room gets too full, before it gets too jam packed.
So I'm a 15 minute early arriver. Um, and so I will go into this event. At 9:15 AM because by then I expect that everything that can be done has been done and they are ready to receive guests. And ideally, I like to be one of the first guests. I like to see rooms. At their best, at their cleanest. I like to meet people at their highest energy levels, all of that kind of thing before they're flustered, before anything kind of happens.
Um, if I waited until nine 30, it's probably gonna be crowded. There'll be a bottleneck at the registration desk. Issues [00:03:00] will have arisen. People will have arrived that may not have registered, and the organizers will start to. Um, you know, potentially run around trying to fix challenges and that's not the kind of energy that I wanna spend my time in.
Um, but also I don't wanna be late. So people who arrive really late to events, again, 15 minutes. Late is okay, I think 15 minutes late. Um, you know, there's traffic issues, there was issues getting kids off to school. Maybe you couldn't find the right shoes or like what I've done in the past and arrived at events either with different shoes on, um, or at one particular event I arrived with no shoes on and no shoes in my car.
Um, that's a story for another time, but I am someone who loves to live barefoot and I generally have a handful of pairs of shoes in my car ready for any scenario. On this occasion, I had cleaned my car out and um, I had no shoes. I had no shoes to go [00:04:00] to a workshop and I had to go buy some, but that's a funny story.
The buying the shoes is a funny story, which I'll share next time. So. Um, if I was 15 minutes late, I'd be okay with that too. I'd feel comfortable walking into the venue 15 minutes late. It's still, uh, everyone's still arriving. Again, it's not the right energy that I want, but it's probably less energy than all the people that arrived on time.
Um. And I'm now at the back of the room. I'm now, so, you know, sort of surveying everything from the back of the room. If I was half an hour late, I would be full of apologies, arriving half an hour late to an event. Proceedings have already started. Typically, um, there's already. The formal acknowledgements are happening.
The leader of the organization is typically speaking, so the highest of the hierarchy is on stage making their presentation. And you are disrupting the situation. If you are arriving half [00:05:00] an hour late to the start of an event, you are typically disrupting the proceedings. And I don't wanna be that person.
I don't wanna be the person in the room who is disrupting things. So. Um, they're my little tips, I guess, um, for how I feel about the times that I arrive at events. But the other thing I want you to think about is your audience. So who's coming to your event and are they typical early arrivers? Are they typical on time arrivers, or are they typical late arrivers and.
Sometimes it's a little bit hard to figure this out, but let me share with you, if you are doing an event for a mature audience, and I mean a fairly senior audience, mature, mature audience, um, a consumer event, maybe perhaps you're doing, uh, like a superannuation seminar or, um, maybe you're doing an open day for.
A local aged care facility or something like that, that [00:06:00] demographic of person will show up half an hour early. So make sure you are ready 45 minutes early, make sure you've done the rituals that you need to do, and you are ready 45 minutes to an hour earlier than you anticipate doors to be opening because like I say, this group, they will show up early.
And they will show up exponentially early. Uh, in my experience, they, they always turn up at least half an hour early. Sometimes they'll turn up an hour early. So if, if you can't have your room ready that early, obviously, um, that's not always possible. And plus I don't, you know, there's a start time for a reason.
Um, and you don't want people there for any longer than they need to be there. But for this particular demographic, for example, have somewhere where they can go. So one particular event that I do, there is a section of this audience that turns up really, really early or they get the time wrong. So the event is normally, you know, 1145 for a [00:07:00] 12:00 PM start.
And, um. People read that and their brain says, okay, this starts at 1145. I'm gonna get there at 1115 or 1130 just to make sure I'm not late. Now that's 45 minutes, um, to 30 minutes earlier than I want them there. So what I do in this particular occasion is, uh, every venue that I do this event in, I make sure there's a space, uh, like a, a public coffee shop or some sort of.
Area where I can guide them to and encourage them to go and meet other people who are coming to this event and get a coffee. Or if it's an evening event or a lunchtime event, maybe get a wine or something like that. But I always try and have an area ready to, um, send those early arrivals to. So number one, I can continue my setup and, um, getting ready for my event and I get to do my rituals.
But number two, they're not. They're not, um, standing on a street corner waiting to get in. They're not hanging around. [00:08:00] Weirdly at the registration desk waiting for me to finish setting up. Um, and they're not standing there talking to me while I'm trying to do all the things that I'm trying to do. So think about your audience.
Is your audience someone who maybe arrives late? Perhaps you need to make sure that your program, for example, has built in extra time. So even though it's. You know, like my event 1145 for 12:00 PM start, uh, maybe that's what you advertise, but you don't actually start until 1215 or 1230. And I know, like, I know for me that, that it annoys me that, um, as an early arriver or an on time arriver, I don't get rewarded.
I have to wait for the late arrivals. But at the same time, I think. A late arriver is going to disrupt the event. They're gonna disrupt the, the mood, the vibe, the energy that's happening in the room. So let's make room for them. Let's make room for them. People are late for all sorts of reasons, um, and rarely are they intentionally [00:09:00] late.
Um, so let's make room for that. So think about your audience, whether they are early arrivers on time, arrivers or late arrivers, and accommodate either the space or the program to make sure that that fits in. But that's it for me this morning. It is now nine 15. I am gonna hop outta my car and go into this event and I can't wait to see what the day beholds for me.
I'm here for a few hours. It's my local community, um, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what is ahead for me. Alright, have a wonderful day everybody, and I'll talk to you next time. Cheers.
