I’ve been to quite a few meetups lately. They are fun affairs and most have been great opportunities to meet new people, see old friends and promote my brands. From my experience at these events, I’ve come up with a list of 10 things someone hosting one of these events should and shouldn’t do. See if you agree with some of these suggestions.
1. Do get the word out, but don’t count on RSVPs
Make sure you tell people well ahead of time about your event. Don’t wait until a week before the event to start posting it on Facebook or putting it on Twtvite or Evite. People often make plans months in advance and your best chance of people attending your event happens when you announce it early. 4 to 6 weeks in advance will give people plenty of time to put your event on their calendar before it gets booked up.
Post the event to multiple sites, but if you are requiring prepayment or RSVP, be sure all your postings link back to the payment/response site. Better yet, offer discounted prepayment as well as payment at the door in case people don’t see the link.
Even if you do get a lot of people indicating they are attending, unless they’ve prepaid, you can count on nearly half those people not showing up and about 30% of the people who said, maybe, to show up. It seems that’s just the nature of online responses and the topic of a future post.
2. Do explicitly tell people the cost of admission
If you are charging for your event, make sure that is shown on the invitation and S-P-E-L-L-E-D out. If admission consists of bringing a bottle of wine, a dish of food, or anything other than cash, make sure that is explicitly understood. Don’t assume everyone just knows that’s the deal. And if people show up empty-handed, offer an alternative such as paying cash or pointing them to where they can get wine, food or whatever is required. If all else fails, just let them in. NEVER turn people away. It’s better to make an exception than to lose a potential customer or online friend.
3. Don’t forget your full address (or date, time, etc)
It’s amazing how many invites forget to specify the city and state, as if everyone being invited lives in the same town. Be sure to include the city and state so that people from other areas can quickly see where the event is happening and know how to respond. It’s really frustrating to read about an event I get an invitation to, only see a street address and become disappointed when I find that it’s in another state or country. Same goes for date and time.
The Wine Blogger’s Conference was over a month ago and I’m just now getting around to posting something. I know, lame, but in my own defense, I have over 1.5 hours of video from that weekend and I just haven’t had time to go through all of it. Heck, I’m still going through it and hoping to get more content up in next couple of weeks.
I’ve never been to Walla Walla and I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the way they handled the influx of alcoho…er, I mean, bloggers that descended on their small town. Everyone was friendly and accommodating. From all the activity that occurred on Friday and Saturday, you’d think the town was hoppin’ all the time, but I was told by a few people who stayed there Sunday evening, that it was very quiet after the hordes left. Which is how I would expect a small town to be. Anyway, here’s a short little vid of my highlights from the weekend in Walla Walla. Did you know Rod Stewart was also in town that weekend?
Some notable wines that I enjoyed over the weekend were: read more…
I must have perused several cookbooks before I decided that I just had to come up with my own version of a ham and bean soup that had everything in it that I felt was needed. After I finished making it, I decided it was a little too thick and hearty to be just a soup. So it became a stew. To soften the skins of the beans, I soak them overnight in salted water. The longer they soak, the quicker the beans will cook.
(Serves 6)
1 lb. (about 2 cups) cannellini beans
4 cups water
4 cups low sodium chicken stock
ham hock or shank with 1/2 to 1 lb meat attached
1 medium onion diced
1 celery rib sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 carrot sliced 1/4 inch thick
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium russet potatoes, boiled and mashed (about 2-1/2 cups)
8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. italian seasoning
salt and ground black pepper
Soak the beans overnight in 2 Tbs. salt dissolved in 4 quarts cold water. Drain the beans, discarding the liquid and rinsing well.
Add beans, water, broth, bay leaves, garlic, ham hock and all vegetables except carrots to a 6 quart stockpot. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium heat uncovered for 45 minutes until beans are almost tender but still firm inside. Skim any accumulated fat from the surface. Remove ham bone and meat from pot and allow to cool. While meat is cooling, stir in the mashed potatoes, tomato sauce and carrots. Remove the meat from the bone, trim off any fat, dice the ham into 1/2 inch cubes and return to pot. Simmer on low heat for 15 – 20 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and stir in italian seasoning. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Serve with a loaf of rustic bread and a nice Chianti.
