How To Avoid Low Turnout at Your Next Event
Time-tested tactics for boosting attendance
By John Franson, Kansas State University

It’s three weeks until your group’s big event. Members are sending press releases, wallpapering the campus and local community with posters, and covering the sidewalks with chalk. You’re announcing the event repeatedly on the group’s web site, its mailing list, and at meetings or to people you just met. Now everyone can sit back, relax, and let the publicity work its magic. Right? Not so fast. Getting people to attend events is harder than it seems. Many hopeful smiles vanish when fewer than a dozen people trickle into a room seating hundreds. What went wrong? Were people just not interested? Was it scheduled at a bad time? Unforeseen factors like these are all the more reason to go that extra mile in promoting an event. Here are some additional ideas for generating publicity.

Give them something to remember
A handbill that advertises your event is a great way to publicize more widely. It gives students something concrete they can keep handy and refer to, as opposed to information on a poster, which is easy to forget. Collegians can take a flyer home, mark the event on their calendar or planner, post it on a bulletin board, or maybe even show it to other people.

If there are no restrictions against putting flyers on people’s windshields, then distribute in school parking lots, at local restaurants, and in entertainment districts. Also, pass them out in heavily populated areas such as the student union and in the campus dining halls.

Set up a table in high-traffic areas to distribute information about your organization along with the flyers for the event. Try not to stare at people, they may be intimidated. When someone approaches, make eye contact, smile, and look away. Perhaps you could resume conversation with a member sitting at the table with you. Once the interested person comes up to the table, it’s safe to resume eye contact and talk to him. Collect e-mail addresses of people who are interested in your group. Later, e-mail these people a reminder. This also will help you when it’s time to recruit new members.

Bigger is better
If you want to grab students’ attention, use A-frames and banners. These promotional tools are usually put up in student unions and are highly effective because of their size and their location in high-traffic areas. In order to utilize A-frames and banners, you might have to co-sponsor the event with the university’s union programming council. On many campuses this is the organization that shows movies and sponsors events in the union.

Before planning any event, visit the union programming office to see if they'd like to enter a co-sponsorship or joint venture with your group for an event. They can help in many areas including publicity, funding, and reserving a room. This group can also put ads on the tables in the school’s dining centers.

Shout it out
If your club has enough money for advertising, there are several avenues you can explore. College newspaper and radio stations often have special advertising or underwriting rates for registered student organizations. If not, form a coalition with other groups to negotiate a reduction. Contact the respective advertising representatives in advance for information. Some large universities, with several bus routes, allow organizations to place advertisements on the sides of the buses. How can anyone not notice your ad as it loudly motors by? Contact your campus’ office of transportation and see what you can work out. Organizations can also buy airtime from local media outlets for coverage. Better yet, if you co-sponsor with your union programming council, they may foot the cost of the ads.

Spread the word
If a guest speaker has free time before an appearance, contact the college and local radio stations in advance and schedule on-air interviews. This is a terrific way to raise interest in a speaker while working in several promotions for the event. Also, hosts of campus talk shows, both radio and television, are always looking for new topics and guests. If your event doesn’t include a guest speaker but has a theme that can tie in to an interview, debate or call-in discussion, give the radio station a ring.

Leave a lasting impression
Include upcoming events in a calendar, distribute it by hand and post it on-line. Submit all noteworthy days and times to the student activities office and campus news services. In addition, submit bulletin items to college and local media and ask if they will make an announcement; stations are often accommodating to student groups. In addition, find out which reporter covers campus events and develop an open line of communication. Ask him what type of projects would generate the most coverage from the press. Section editors and writers can be a valuable resource for student leaders.

Don’t forget...
Publicizing fund-raisers, lectures, and concerts takes a lot of work, especially if it’s done right. Recruit members to help with every aspect of advertising. In the end, when the packed house is buzzing with anticipation, you will be glad that your organization put in all the extra time and effort to turbocharge the event’s publicity.

John Franson, a Mass Communications senior at Kansas State University, is the founder and past president of Individuals for Freethought (IF) at KSU. Founded in 1998, IF uses science and reason to counter dogma and authoritarianism, provides a voice and a community for freethinkers, fosters acceptance of non-theistic people, and advocates the separation of church and state. Visit www.k-state.edu/freethought/ or e-mail freethought@ksu.edu.

Contact Franson at skylights1@yahoo.com.

Copyright © 2005 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved