Event ideas

Overarching themes:

It's more work to do events that are only for the Awesome Foundation. It's easier to do events that are co-branded (especially people who already have an audience and a format).

Give yourself enough time to promote things.

Why do you have events? Publicizing the Awesome Foundation or publicizing the grantee? Or replicating by having ideas at the event? Getting more applications.

Doing things to drag people out. Very pro free beer.

Recruiting trustees who have resources like connections to press/event space.

Ideas: Art Galleries, farmers markets, museums,

What's the personality of an event?

Talk to Keith about awesome camp.

Documenting events wiki - a wiki with event ideas, a page per event, collateral (posters), who came, where it was held.

International Awesome Day City Day

Promoting other awesome events, so when you do have an event everyone else promotes yours.

If moving venues, you can do promotion beforehand. Partnering with vendors to get free frozen yogurt.

What if you pay one of the trustees to plan?

Boston doubled because there was enough to support.

Membership program? "Patron of Awesome" - Awesome Tax? Awesome member card. Awesome businesses that give a discount.

Sydney- Awesome Soup (partnered with Pausible) and sold tickets to an ideas festival and selected grants and served soup. Sunday soup network.

awesome bank accounts?

More notes from Greg!

Should we create international awesome day?

event structure

• Team up with partners always
• Piggyback on bigger events
• get a bar next to the bigger event, even if you don't officially partner
• Highlight several grant winners at once
• Nerd nite partnership? Awesome Boston is doing that.
• awesome hours in Boston
• public venue is easier, more sustainable
• having trustees with connections and resources can help a lot
• getting a speaker slash personality can be a draw
• sign up sheets at events: I want to be a trustee, I want to know

more, I want to volunteer

Many goals for events

• publicize awesome foundation, get more apps
• publicize grant winners
• live award granting
• community building

event types

• trustees and past grant winners chillaxing
• who are you trying to engage? What's the audience?

publicizing

• if you promote other orgs, they'll promote you back

socializing

• pittsburgh does sheets with three sections that people have to each

fill out section of with two other strangers to instantly pitch an awesome idea and compete for the instant win prize

• live pitch events and live finalist pitches bring along the pitchers

friends, getting you a lot more people

Greg's thoughts

• what if you did a booth at a county fair? Awesome becomes civic society.