// first_event.worksheet

The First Event Worksheet

Fill it out and you have a plan.

Seven decisions stand between you and a first event that works. Answer them here, in order, and the plan assembles itself at the bottom. Print it, hand it to your team, run it. From the article Your First Event Doesn't Need to Be Big. It Needs to Be Right. No email gate, no catch.

Define winning

An event trying to be both conversions and education is usually neither.

THIS EVENT EXISTS FOR

CONVERSIONS EDUCATION & TRUST

THE ONE METRIC

THE NUMBER THAT EQUALS A WIN

Size the room

Registrations are not bodies. Recruit past your number, never to it.

PEOPLE IN THE ROOM ON THE DAY

EXPECTED SHOW RATE

Enter your room number and I'll tell you how many confirmed yeses you need.

Run recruiting as a campaign

An invite is not an attendee. This number gets fought for until the day of.

WHO OWNS FILLING THE ROOM (ONE NAME)

WHY YOUR TARGETS WILL GIVE YOU THEIR EVENING (ONE SENTENCE)

WHERE THE ROOM IS, AND WHY THERE

Map where your prospects and customers actually sit before you pick a city. Location science beats venue photos.

Marketing (emails, social) and sales (personal callouts to their own accounts) are both scheduled against the recruiting timeline.

Pick the format last

Decide the conversation first. The room is a tool. Pick the one built for the job.

THE CONVERSATION YOU WANT TO HAPPEN

THE FORMAT BUILT FOR IT

Make the venue earn it

Every answer here is a lever on whether both audiences leave happy. None of them can be renegotiated after you sign.

VENUE CAPACITY

Enter capacity and your Section 02 room number gets checked against it.

WHERE DO SPONSORS LIVE

IN THE ROOM SEPARATE AREA NO SPONSORS

IF SEPARATE: TIME THE AGENDA PUTS THE AUDIENCE IN FRONT OF THEM

If the honest answer is "whenever people wander by," that's window shopping. Fix the agenda or fund it yourself.

WHERE ARE MEALS SERVED

SPONSOR AREA ELSEWHERE

SEATING WITH THE FOOD

SEATED THERE GRAB & GO

Meals in the sponsor area with seating is guaranteed traffic and dwell time. Grab-and-go somewhere else means your sponsors watch people walk past with plates.

Dedicated sponsor time is on the agenda, not left to chance. The venue has a clean check-in flow: space for the line, the table, and the first impression.

Walk the day twice

Every event is a sacrifice for everyone who shows up. If you wouldn't like an hour of it, change it now. It's free on paper.

Walked the day hour by hour as an attendee: away from work and family, and every hour earns its place. Walked it again as a sponsor: real money and real time spent, and the wins are actually reachable.

THE WIN EACH SPONSOR TAKES HOME (WRITE IT)

If you can't commit to a real answer here, fund the event yourself. Window shopping burns sponsors fast.

The content keeps its promise: nobody who was told education walks into a surprise sales pitch.

Budget honestly

The honest all-in number runs 40 to 60 percent above the first draft.

YOUR FIRST-DRAFT BUDGET ($)

Enter your draft budget and I'll show you the honest range.

The draft already includes AV, shipping, signage, insurance, staff travel, lost selling days, and the follow-up campaign.

Full payback math, one-time and MRR included, lives in the Event Calculator.

Decide if you need sponsors

Sponsor money is not free money. Every dollar comes with an obligation to deliver a real win. Treat it as a funding decision, not a default.

TOTAL COST, FROM REAL QUOTES ($)

Get quotes from 2 or 3 venues that fit the goal. Use the honest all-in number from Section 07, not the draft.

WHAT WE'LL FUND OURSELVES ($)

Enter both numbers and the sponsor gap calculates itself.

WHAT WE CAN REASONABLY CHARGE PER SPONSOR ($)

Anchored to the wins you can actually deliver, not what a bigger show charges.

MAX SPONSORS: VENUE / AUDIENCE

A 30-person dinner can't carry ten vendors. What the room holds and what the audience can absorb are different caps. Use the smaller one.

Fill the gap, price, and caps and you get a verdict.

Larger venues: the floor plan becomes a fire-marshal-approved booth map, and every expansion or change costs money. Design the map before selling a single spot.

Plan the day after

The event is the middle of the campaign, not the end.

WHO OWNS FOLLOW-UP (ONE NAME)

Every conversation gets a named next step within 48 hours. Scoped, staffed, and scheduled before the doors open.

// your_event_plan

MISSION

Answer 01 and this line writes itself.

THE ROOM

Answer 02.

RECRUITING

Answer 03.

FORMAT

Answer 04.

VENUE

Answer 05.

SPONSOR DEAL

Answer 06.

BUDGET

Answer 07.

FUNDING

Answer 08.

THE DAY AFTER

Answer 09.

GRADE IT

30 and 90 days out, against the win number above. Honestly, not on vibes.

// the_verdict

fill it out

Answer the sections above and this panel grades your event as you've laid it out: set up to win or set up to fail, and exactly what's off the mark.