You may draw more people to your health fair by calling it something else. The term “Wellness Day” seems to have replaced “Health Fair” for now, but think about your audience and the activities you’ll be offering. You may draw more people overall if you have a “Women’s Wellness Day” and a “Men’s Retreat” than if you have a “Wellness Day” for everyone.

You might ask your main speaker or facilitator if you can use the title of his or her presentation or book as the title of your event. If it’s catchy, and matches the interest of your target audience, it may work for you. The other activities and events can appear on the program and perhaps draw some people who might not be drawn to the main event, but don’t give them all equal billing. Something that meets a perceived need of your audience should stand out.

Don’t be concerned if your publicity for the event leaves something out. A busy, crowded poster with a lot of small type looks academic and makes the event look less fun than a catchy poster based on the standards of entertainment, a grand opening, or a celebrity appearance. If the poster does not advertise that there will be “Free Cholesterol Screenings” or a “Computerized Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire,” don’t worry! Once you get people to the event, then you can hype those opportunities. A “Free Cholesterol Screening” probably won’t draw many people, unless they’re retired—and having a really slow day. You could probably draw more senior citizens with a good bridge game! If you want to approach people with dietary advice, they’d probably like to learn how to cook “Healthy, Gourmet Meals in 20 Minutes” with “Free Samples.” If the speaker is “Chef Pierre,” author of Gourmet Meals in Minutes, all the better.

Athletic Events

We’ve seen the marathons and fun runs. Be creative. For example, how about a “Prediction Run?” Everyone hands their watch over at the beginning of the event and writes down how long they think it will take them to walk or run three miles. The person who comes in closest to their predicted time is the winner. That way, anyone can win. They’ll predict anything from 21 minutes to an hour. Once when I did this, the last person in was the winner at 59 minutes, 49 seconds—just 11 seconds away from her predicted time of one hour. The Prediction Run rewards self-knowledge rather than the usual “fastest person wins again” story.

Find out what will work for your audience. Do they want to run? Or would more people come to a session of “Outdoor Play” or “New Games?”

Performances

Studies show that when entertainment is integrated with a message, it enhances the message. People remember more of the message and they remember it longer. The entertainment, however, has to in some way convey the message in itself.

For example, Ann Jillian sometimes performs with piano accompaniment within her speech or in a performance the night before which helps draw people to the speech.

A large medical society was interested in fighting obesity in it’s county, and they brought in Richard Simmons to kick off a week of activities. Richard does not give lectures per se, but he does what he calls an “Aerobic Concert.” He leads a large public aerobics class and delivers his message as he goes. The exercise is geared for all levels. It’s a performance, not a lecture.

Since I was a professional stage magician before I took up speaking and started the National Wellness Speakers Bureau, I include entertainment in my own speeches. At some events, I perform a full show in the evening, and give my keynote the next morning.

There are other presenters who promote wellness values through their use of theater. Patch Adams and Susan Parenti provide a great example with their “Magic Elixers of Life” show. If the entertainment level is high, the audience laughs, has fun, and gets a wellness message at the same time.

Lectures

Lectures depend on an excellent speaker and either a great title and description or a celebrity name to get people in the seats. Here’s a secret: If you hire a speaker whose name isn’t a household word, advertise as though the speaker is a household word! We provided one sponsor with a great speaker whose small, self-published book was in very few bookstores and who had never appeared on national television. All she had to promote herself were a few good photos and a Ph.D. The sponsor billed her all over town as the person to hear. They even put her photo on billboards and the sides of city buses! As far as the public was concerned, they were going to hear “one of those people who had a PBS special on something to do with the mind-body connection.” If you advertise your speaker as an unknown, they’ll stay unknown!

Now, there’s another part to this secret: The speaker has to be really good, or you have egg on your face. And the topic has to be really hot. Right now, for example, realizing your full potential, using amazing powers of the mind, and finding balance and spirituality in your life are all more popular than just staying healthy. You and I know it’s all the same, but we have to understand the public’s thinking and entice them.

Gathering Information

You can use a questionnaire to gather information from a sampling of your target audience. Part of the questionnaire can be a list of topics that they rate by interest. Be creative and read between the lines when you look at the results.

If your people are asking for “Financial Wellness” or “Family Communications” instead of “Diet and Exercise,” you might consider changing the name of your event. Instead of “Wellness Day,” “Managing Your Money/Managing Your Life” or “How to Talk to Your Teenager” might be closer to your target audience’s perceived need and more representative of the program you decide to offer. You might also see a concentration of interest in a certain area and expand the list of topics to include more offerings in similar areas on a follow-up survey.

A questionnaire is not enough. Meet with as many groups as you can within your target audience, asking them what kind of program they would attend. You don’t have to stop when you think you have enough input, because you are already doing your promotion of the event, and you are gaining ownership of the event from your potential audience.

On a college campus, will the students be interested? Sometimes programming boards make a conscious decision to vary the types of programs that are offered so that many people will have at least one program that greatly appeals to them, and also to provide education and exposure to programs outside of the mainstream. That's a great idea. But the unusual program which seems to have a limited appeal should still be promoted as a major event for the whole campus.

Ask questions to see what events actually do draw a crowd in your community, and learn from that. I am not suggesting that you give them a “Beer and Brat Fest” and call it a health fair. I am suggesting that you look at the general type of activity that draws (lectures, celebrity appearances, exercise options, athletic events, entertainment, parties, etc.). I’m also suggesting that you learn from your research about what I call the “Traffic Flow” of your target audience. What venues are familiar to them? It’s usually better to have events at locations that people can find and that are known for having successful events, than to find a technically “better” location that people have to find on a map and travel some distance to reach.

Ask what months, weeks, days of the week, and hours seem to work best for getting your audience? It’s an Aikido approach. Go with the flow and put wellness in their path, rather than asking them to explore a new topic in a new place at an inconvenient time.

Exception! The event could be all about going someplace special. If it’s a “Men’s Retreat” or “Women’s Wellness Weekend,” having it in a really beautiful location that people want to visit could be a draw in itself.

Scheduling the Event

If your audience consists of students, stay away from exams! Is your event on the same night as the World Series? I performed on one campus during a major at home basketball game. The audience actually doubled halfway through my show as soon as the game was over. Cross check calendars with everyone on campus, and the TV Guide!

If you are planning an event for a hospital, learn what other hospitals in the community are planning, and when. If you bring in a speaker who has been in town recently, will that help or hinder your attendance?
The best insurance that you will have a good turn–out is to schedule the program as part of a larger event or series so that you will have a built–in audience. Some of the best wellness programs have been for after banquets or on executive retreats, or as part of a Freshman Orientation, Parents’ Day, Homecoming, Winter Weekend, or Lecture Series.

Plan your events well in advance so that you will have time to follow the rest of my promotional suggestions.

Celebrities and Hot Topics

If you evaluate your event by attendance, how do you get people in the seats? All the elements must be in place: researching your target audience and community, selecting the right program, the right speaker, the topic, venue, date, time, ticket price, incentives, advertising, publicity, tie-ins, promotions timetable, getting key people on board, ownership of the event, a phone tree, and word-of-mouth.

Often the client believes that a celebrity name will draw a crowd. This is not always true. There is nothing more disappointing in programming events than to hire an outstanding speaker for a good–sized chunk of the budget, and then have poor attendance. The biggest mistake is to spend a lot of money on a celebrity, and then leave nothing in the budget for advertising. The name will only draw if people know that the person is going to be there. Small announcements containing the celebrity name won’t do the job.

Lesser known names are capable of drawing numbers if they are promoted properly and their topic is hot. If you have done your research, the topic itself becomes the draw if you advertise it properly.

Choosing Speakers

The materials you’ll need to select a speaker include literature on the background, education, and topics the speakers cover. After you have narrowed your selection down, you may want to obtain videotapes and audiotapes of the speaker. I recommend that speakers supply a 5-10 minute video because committees usually watch videos together, and they don’t have time to watch the whole presentation.

Audiotapes can be a full hour in length, because committee members usually listen to those alone—probably in their cars. Now they have time to get to know the speaker’s presentation more fully, and they appreciate the positive messages while they drive to work!

It’s a kind courtesy to return tapes to speakers. They can pass them on to other potential clients, and replace them with newer versions if you find yourself considering them again in a year or two. Keep the printed materials in your file, however, for future consideration.

Speakers may not have videotapes or audiotapes, but it is not necessarily a reflection on their ability as speakers. Another way to help make your choice is to talk to people who have heard the speaker, and maybe who have hired the speaker. Now you can find out how the speaker delivers on the job.

Use the materials at hand, and talk with people who are familiar with the speaker. Then make sure the decision is your own. Often committees are comprised of different elements, and strong personalities can throw the decision out of balance. If you’re the one who will be seen as responsible for the performance of the speaker, make sure you get what you want.

Finding Money

Sometimes, you want to bring in a speaker or program that is out of the range of the budget which you directly control. There are creative solutions to this problem!

Many speakers charge a fee that is the same whether they give one, two, or even three presentations in the same day as long as they are scheduled close together in time and location. You can network with other organizations in your community to find out who might be interested in the program you’re offering. Check with the speakers bureau to find out which speakers are open to giving a speech not only to your group, but to another group in the same town on the same day at no additional cost.

Also, you can sell the educational value and/or the entertainment value of some speakers and programs to draw from more than one budget within your institution. At colleges, for example, while Health Services may have a small budget for health education programs, the program you’re considering may be of interest to Student Activities which will have a larger budget for entertainment. The academic lecture series may also be well funded.

Creating Titles for Your Presentations

Presentation titles should change to reflect the interests of the culture. Some titles are too far ahead of the culture, and most readers will miss the point. It’s OK to be cutting edge, but you need to pull people in off the street with something they understand and that interests them.

Other titles seem behind the times. Look at how quickly anything that used the terms “Y2K” or “millennium” seemed old. One year, and we had enough of it!

Here are some principles we can follow for creating titles:

1. Fun. One of the benefits of a wellness presentation is that it’s a positive approach to health. The title should promise some fun. It does no harm if just reading the title brings a smile. Years ago, I called one of my presentations “All Stressed Up and Nowhere to Go.” OK, you didn’t fall off your seat, but it’s a “smiler.”

2. Familiarity. The title “All Stressed Up and Nowhere to Go” reflects another principle of good titling. It’s not a bad thing if people think they’ve seen or heard the title somewhere before, or if it sounds like something familiar or is a play on words.

3. Catchiness. Titles can get attention if they present a unique point of view on a topic. That’s why we see titles like “Why Wellness Programs Don’t Work.” On closer examination, it turns out that the presenter is not recommending that we discontinue our wellness programs. He is simply going to show us what sometimes makes programs ineffective, and how we can avoid those mistakes.

4. Enticement. We don’t want our unique point of view to put off potential audience members. Alternative medicine is controversial in some institutions, so we might avoid a title like “Alternative Medicine: A Better Answer.” We might also avoid “Alternative Medicine: A Dangerous Fad.” Instead, we can attract and entice believers and skeptics alike with a title that reflects the content of any good presentation on the subject. The title I created for this topic is “Alternative Medicine: Myths & Realities.” It suggests an incisive examination of both sides of the issue.

5. Wording. What terms do we use in our titles? For example, do we call the new medicine “Alternative Medicine,” “Complementary Medicine,” or “Integrative Medicine?” (Don’t call it “Complimentary Medicine”—it’s usually not free.) My current favorite title for this topic? “Alternative Medicine.” Why? Because people have heard of it! If you need help with your titles, go down to the news stand and look at the phrases that are used on magazine covers. They’re written by professionals who are in a head-to-head competition for attention in a crowded marketplace.

When you get your audience in their seats, then your speaker can tell them that the best approach to health care is not turning exclusively to alternative remedies, or even pursuing a complementary approach, but integrating modern Western medicine with holistic remedies, the healing practices of other cultures, preventive care, and a wellness lifestyle in pursuit of achieving maximum human potential. But don’t bother preaching or trying to fit all that in the title of your presentation—the point will be lost.

Employ the principles of commercial advertising. Use professional quality graphic designers and copy writers. Do not simply “announce” your event.

Use a graphics department to create your own promotional literature with your own distinctive look. Speakers and vendors may provide photos, graphics, catchy phrases, and layout ideas, but it is important to give your event a unified look and to make it fit the culture of your audience.

A poster to advertise an alcohol and other drug awareness event to college students should look more trendy and commercial than a poster advertising a spirituality workshop for senior citizens. A poster to draw senior executives to a resilience seminar should look more corporate and serious than either of those. Keep your target audience in mind and make your promotional literature appear in style and graphic quality on a par with advertising for movies, TV shows, concerts, major author and celebrity appearances, or whatever other event catches the eye of your target audience.

For colleges and universities: Print the date, place, and time information on the supplied posters, or design and print your own poster using photos and art work from the media kit. You can use students who are graphic designers if you don’t have a professional available. All posters should look slick and professional. The information should not be scrawled on the poster with a Magic Marker! If you must dabble in graphic design yourself, then learn about it. Study books like Roger C. Parker’s Looking Good in Print and Design Yourself! by Kurt Hanks, et al.

If you can't print the information, then at least use good computer graphics or an excellent lettering person to put down the information once, and photocopy it onto sheets which can then be pasted onto the supplied posters. The key here is to keep everything catchy, punchy, clean, brief and simple. Get the posters up in high traffic areas at least two weeks before the program date.

Distribute and post fliers in addition to the posters. Hand them out between classes and in the cafeterias. They will get wide distribution, and can be kept by students as a reminder. Tent cards in cafeterias are also a good idea. All of this printed material can be the best in the world, but it will do nothing unless it is distributed widely, to the right people, in the right places, and two to four weeks before the event takes place.

Media Kit

Your speakers bureau or speaker should send you good promotional materials. You need at least two 8x10 glossy photos, a sample news release, fliers, and supplied posters or art work for designing your own advertising pieces. A videotape which can be shown on business television, a campus TV station, or in the Student Union will round out the complete media kit. Spend some time with the materials to figure out a publicity angle that will appeal to your campus.

Wording

Early in my career, before I realized the importance of being clear with my clients about the importance of the words and images used to promote my presentation, I would sometimes arrive at a college campus and see publicity material describing me as giving a "Magic Show" with pictures of rabbits, hats, stars, and magic wands. The problem was that I did “mind reading” and illusions—but almost no sleight–of–hand. And the magic was combined with an educational message about self-empowerment. So the rabbits never appeared or disappeared and I didn’t wear a top hat. Children went home and talked about the show to their parents who then realized that they should have gone themselves!

It’s just as much of a problem if I am doing a presentation for alcohol and other drug awareness and the promotion basically says “Come see how you’re fooled into making bad choices.” Usually when you’ve hired a professional public speaker, that presentation is going to be highly entertaining and positive. It will cover broad issues that will help audience members make their life better. Make sure the promotion advertises a really positive good time and not a warning about some risk or danger.

Advertising creates confusion when accurate words and images are not used. Talk with the speakers bureau or your speaker to get suggestions on appropriate wording and images if you are doing your own writing and designing to advertise the event.

Displays

Prominently display elements of the media kit in high traffic areas of a company, community, or the student union if you have a suitable marquee. Make banners to display on the day of the event, or the day before, in high traffic areas.

Announcements

Make announcements about the performance and workshop at other events for several weeks prior to the appearance. Close to the date of the event, make announcements over the PA system in public places, such as cafeterias.

Encourage managers or professors to talk about the event in their meetings or classes, especially if the topic is related to their field. Give them enough information to get their interest. At colleges, how about writing announcements in the corner of the blackboards in the classrooms? Where can you get to people in other unexpected places?

The Internet

If your organization has a web site, add one or more pages about the event. Put useful information on the web, such as the speakers’ biographical information and a schedule of events with location, date, time, and cost. When your key people want to judge whether they will recommend the event to their constituency, or want to disseminate information to others, they can simply download information from the web site.

Television

Ask your speakers if there is anything on their videotapes that your local television station can air as part of your promo. If you have your own television station, such as business TV in a corporation, or closed circuit on a university campus, use brief video clips as promotion before the event.

Even if a speaker lives far away, he or she can make “appearances” on the radio by phone. Arrange these interviews to take place the week before the event—just as audience members are planning their schedules and will be able to remember your event. Even the busiest speakers are often quite willing to give you their time in this way.

Key People

These are the people who are in a position to get people to your event simply by recommending it. Some may even be able to require it!

They have credibility within certain groups. For example, at a university, a professor can recommend your lecture, and possibly make it part of the course curriculum. Compose letters featuring the speakers’ credentials and benefits of the program customized to various departments, such as psychology, sociology, health education, philosophy, or religion. Greek organizations can support certain types of events, such as alcohol awareness, because they need to provide a certain amount of educational programming to their members. They will definitely come as a group!

In any community, a Yoga, Tai Chi, or other movement teacher in the community with a big following can suggest that his or her students attend a wellness day. Physicians, chiropractors, nurses, and other health care providers can recommend the wellness event to their patients.

Publication Schedule

Photos get more attention than copy alone. Request good photos to promote your event. If you send a press release and an attention-getting photo to your newspaper, and they only publish the photo with a caption, that is better than if they published an article without a photo.

Send photos and a press release to the local newspapers a few weeks prior to the event. They will decide when to run it. However, don’t wait that long to submit press materials to other publications. There may be professional or employee newsletters, magazines, and free calendar listings of events that have a deadline as early as six months before the event.

It’s important to be found in all the places where people are used to looking for “what’s going on” in town. Many of those places are free, but have an early deadline. Some of the most effective advertising is free. Look for all the free calendar listings you can find in campus and city newspapers, and use them!

Don’t underestimate your ability to get national media interested in your event. They will most likely be interested in covering the event itself, and the coverage will be released after the event. This may help to build awareness of your entire program and organization, and draw more people to your next event. However, you may generate more interest in your current event by spreading the word that “CNN is going to be there to cover it” (if it’s true).

Workshops

Ask whether your speaker will give a workshop before the main lecture to a select group of employees, or an interested class, or open to all. Promote the workshop with the same techniques used to promote the major event. Word of mouth from the workshop will bring more people to the main event. If it's the workshop that you are trying to get the large audience for, then schedule the lecture the night before.

Gimmicks and Tie-ins

It's fun to brainstorm and come up with promotional ideas such as buttons, T–shirts, giveaways, printed napkins in the cafeteria, balloons, and sandwich boards. These can even be used to tie in the event with an overall theme, but don't put too much time or money into this at the expense of any other forms of promotion.

Phone Tree

Once, a client told me she wanted to cancel an event two weeks before its performance date. She was worried that not enough people were signing up or buying tickets. When ticket sales are slow, the reason is often easily identifiable. Maybe there is something else huge going on at the same time as their event that they didn’t know about when they originally set their date. Sometimes they didn’t check all the possibilities for competing events, and sometimes a competing organization withholds information and springs the major event on the public.

Some nervous clients find out at the last minute that their promotion is not appealing to their target audience. In that case, they either missed a step in their research, or their promotion did not accurately convey the content of the event.

In my example at the beginning of this section, instead of cancelling the event and losing the money and time already invested (and disappointing the people who have bought tickets), the client allowed me to coach her in one more technique. This is the time for a grass roots effort. I call it a phone tree.

Get as many people as you can on the phone calling as many people as they can. First ask questions. Did you know about this event? Why did you decide not to go to it? It’s a last minute “market research” blitz. With the information gained, quickly switch to a sales pitch for the event. Attempt to turn each of the people you call into “key people” who can recommend the event and bring others with them. Attempt to identify people who can come in groups—members of a class, Greeks, a senior citizen center—you name it. If you already took this step, you are repeating it with more information about how the event has been misperceived or with whatever correction is necessary to get the turnout. In the case I mentioned above, when I coached the committee on this technique, the event was successful.

Stay in Charge

Create your own checklist and timetable. Delegate, don't abdicate. After you have assigned a task to someone, check to make sure that it gets done properly.

Take pride in your ability to create enthusiasm for your topic, and in having a successful series of entertaining and informative programs that are well attended by your community, your employees, or your students.

Travel and Accommodations

Usually, speakers arrange their own travel. If you want to make sure that no mistake is made causing a last-minute, expensive airline booking, check with the speakers bureau or the speaker several weeks in advance of the engagement to ensure that air travel has been arranged.

Make sure that you know exactly when speakers will be arriving. It is usually best to have someone who knows the area pick them up at the airport and drive them to their hotel and to their engagement. You don’t want a speaker lost in a rental car trying to find your location. If the airport is some distance from your town, however, the speaker may want to rent a car. It is still a good idea to escort the speaker to and from the actual engagement.

Book the hotel room for the speaker yourself. It’s best if you get a room close to the engagement, so that the speaker can get back and forth conveniently. Make sure that you convey the hotel information to the speaker and receive the speaker’s flight information well in advance of the engagement.

Technical Requirements and Introduction

Identify a professional sound and lighting engineer to act as the technical person for any major presentation. Provide a professional quality sound system and microphone, and pay close attention to any other technical requirements of the speaker or program you are offering.

Find someone who is experienced in front of audiences to introduce your speaker. Often the speaker will provide that person with a written introduction. Don’t deviate from it. Introducing the speaker is not the time to improvise or give a speech. Let the professional speaker guide you in setting the proper tone for the event.

Cancellations

One rule that I follow is to make sure that there is at least one backup flight that will get a speaker to a date in case the first flight cancels due to weather or a mechanical problem. Once in a while that is impossible because the speaker has more than one engagement in the same day.

If a speaker or other resource person or group cancels at the last minute due to illness, a family emergency, a missed flight, or inclement weather, you need a backup plan. Have local people identified who can provide an alternative program in an emergency.

This works less well if the speaker or program you’re offering is drawing an audience because of the name recognition, authorship, research, or unique skill that the speaker is providing. One advantage of working with a speakers bureau is that they can usually find a replacement speaker of equal or better value on short notice. Speakers are comfortable pitching in at the last minute for the speakers bureau when they know that it’s an emergency. The bureau has a large database of suitable resource people and can usually reach them in a hurry.

Accounting

These three tips alone could save several phone calls and mailings:

1. Find out whether your speakers and other consultants use their own names or company names for tax purposes, and get their Social Security numbers or Federal ID numbers in advance of the event. Supply your accounting department with that information early, so that there will not be a paper chase later, and the speaker can be paid in a timely fashion.

2. Find out prior to the event exactly what documentation your accounting department will need such as a copy of the contract, purchase order, or invoice for fees, and exactly what receipts or invoices they will need to reimburse the speaker for travel expenses.

3. On the day of the event, when you give the check to a speaker, also have them fill out a W-9 form and give it to your accounting department.

Evaluation

In my experience, a speaker has four “people” to please at an event. First, he must please himself. He knows whether he did a good job or not. Second, he has to please his audience. Their laughter and applause is a good measure of success. There may also be audience evaluations. Third, he has to please the person who hired him. And finally, sometimes there is a fourth person who the speaker may not meet, but he is the person who is responsible for evaluating the speaker and reporting on the event. The speakers bureau and the speaker may only hear from that person long after when we read a written evaluation.

To help ensure the success of an event, let your speakers know what is expected of them. Get a better match to your expectations by discussing with your speakers the criteria on the evaluation forms.

Sponsor Information

Another important step that is often overlooked is to let your speaker know as much about your audience and the culture of your community as you can in advance. This will help your speaker customize the presentation for your event.

We wish you all the best in your endeavor to promote health, wellness, and continuous learning about human and organizational potential. It’s important work.

About the National Wellness Speaker Bureau

The National Wellness Speakers Bureau is a resource for speakers and consultants who provide educational, inspiring, and entertaining programs on health promotion and human potential. Through its alliance with the National Wellness Conference in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, the bureau has access to over 20 years of experience with hundreds of educators and presenters.

You can learn more about the bureau on the Internet at:

www.workandwellness.com

Or call us at 612-925-4090.