Do you want to change the world? Make it a better place?
You can do that one person at a time, locally. Or you can think big!
One way to think big is to hold global events. Of course, you can’t force people from other countries to attend but there are a few things you can do to make it easier for people to attend from around the world.
Global events are amazingly powerful! I once did a webinar that had people from 97 countries registered!
Here are a few techniques you can use for global events.
What time is it?
Have you ever missed an event because you weren’t sure of the time zone? Perhaps you thought it was 1pm your time, but it was 1pm in another time zone, so by the time you logged into the webinar, it was over.
That has happened to me more than once!
When you announce the time of your event, include more than one time zone. Then add a link to timeanddate.com’s Time Announcer page. Here are the steps:
- Go to timeanddate.com’s Time Announcer page,
- Complete the form you see there with the name of the event, its date, the time, and duration.
- Click Show Result. You’ll see a page with times in cities around the world.
- What you really want is the URL of that page, so copy it from your browser’s address window to the Clipboard.
- In your announcement, link the words “See the time in your time zone” to the URL you just copied.
It will look something like this:
Ellen’s global event
Date: Saturday, June 14th
Time: 11am PT / 2pm ET (See the time in your time zone)
Go ahead and click the link! All the information is in the URL, so the website creates just the information you need on the fly.
Your global attendees will appreciate the fact that you thought of them!
Keep track of your attendees’ country
Usually you ask only for a name and email when you register people for a webinar. But you can also ask them for their country. Because I usually have a global audience, I often include a space on the registration form for the country. that’s how I knew that I had people from 97 countries in the webinar I mentioned earlier.
Then, keep track of the countries and mention the results! At the beginning of the second webinar in the series, I announced, “I want to tell you something amazing! We have people registered for this workshop from 97 countries!” People were pretty impressed (so was I) and they felt like they were part of a BIG community.
Something else you can do is to get on the webinar a little early and start talking or chatting with others who have logged in early. (You may want to cut this out of the recording, because after the fact, it’s a little boring for people to listen to.) Ask them where they’re from, what they do, and what they’re hoping to get from the webinar.
This is a good technique in any case. In fact, it’s a great way to find out more about your attendees, whether in a live or an online event. Once you have some information, you can announce — after the official start time of the event — that people are here from this and that country. (You can announce which state or province people are from when people are only from your own country.) Again, this helps people feel like they’re part of a wider community.
Offer free recordings
Obviously, not everyone will be able to attend your event live. It might be the middle of the night where they live. (Plus some people will be busy at that time and others will forget.)
By offering free recordings, everyone can participate. Getting the recording posted can sometimes be time-consuming, depending on whether you want to edit it and on the webinar system you use. But once you do get it posted and send out an email with the link, you’ll reap a number of benefits:
- Many more people will hear your webinar
- If you’re selling something, your sales will increase
- People will appreciate the time you took to make the event accessible to them
Clients anywhere
When you have a global audience, you can have clients from anywhere. A couple of years ago, I was invited to speak in Trinidad. I had one day free during the week and send a personal email to the people on my email list with a Trinidad domain name in their email address. I got a response and was able to give a training session in person to someone on my subscriber list who lives in Trinidad.
How cool is that?
Do you have a global audience? How have you expanded beyond your local area? Leave a comment and share your techniques!