Something that some of the organizers of the Girl Geek Dinners events have been chatting about is “Event Etiquette”. By this we mean the general guidelines and enforced guidelines to help each other enjoy the events.

One thing that seems to be an issue with most events (not just Girl Geek Dinners) is people signing up to attend events but do not turning up to them. There doesn’t seem to be any easy way of stopping this issue from coming about but the issue itself is quite a simple one. People sign up to ensure that they get to go to the event, then check their availability or forget about the events. On occasion things sometimes come up and the event is forgotten about, or people sign up just to have their name on a list.

So how can we resolve this… There are a number of different ways to do this. For paid events it’s just a case of ensuring that you charge enough to cover all the costs and cater for the right number of people. Assume worst case scenario of everyone who’s paid up turns up to ensure that there is enough space food etc.

When events are free events things change some what. People’s perceptions of the events seem to change for some reason. I have no idea why but for some reason people seem to think that if an event is free then they are free to switch and change between attending and not attending at will. They don’t seem to care about the logistics & behind the scenes work that goes on to make events work smoothly. It’s at this point that we bring in the comments about “Event Etiquette”. Event etiquette is the way that people respect each other, the events and the organization of such events to keep them free and available to all. The key concepts that we are trying to get across here are really simple and should help to ensure that those who want to attend events get to go to them.

Event etiquette is not just limited to the attendees of the events either, it is also partially the responsibility of the organizers to provide certain pieces of key information in a timely manner.

Here goes:

Event Etiquette for Attendees

  1. When attendees sign up, put the details for the event in your diaries and ensure that the date & time is kept available for the event.
  2. If something comes up that clashes with the event, make sure you un-register for the event as your place can go to someone else that does want to attend the event. (this is very important when events are over subscribed)
  3. If something comes up last minute that can’t be helped, apologize for not being able to make it to the organizers. (It lets them know that you do actually care that you missed the event and often the organizers can give info about what happened at the event if you missed it and this is the case. No apologies shows lack of care or support for the events and disrespect for those on the waiting lists.)
  4. Give feedback on the events that you attend. This helps make the events better for each subsequent event. You shape how you want your events to be run! (Feedback should be positive, negative and things that should be kept as they are.)
  5. If you think you could help to make an event better in some way then offer your advice, help and support. (especially with community run events, any help is always appreciated)
  6. If you see something wrong (like no glasses for water) don’t complain about it, find a solution (or at least help to find a solution) and do let the organizers know.

Event Etiquette for Organizers

  1. Organizers should send out reminders prior to the events reminding attendees of the details of the event including maps, dates, times etc.
  2. Organizers should ensure that attendees know what they are signing up for. No hidden agendas.
  3. Where possible the un-registration for events should be kept as simple as possible.
  4. Changes to the event details should be highlighted and given to attendees as soon as possible.
  5. Announcements of events should be in a timely manner giving people time to arrange their schedules around the events where possible.
  6. Organizers should be able to be contacted by attendees with any questions and queries about the events. (these should not be ignored)

I hope that this post will help people to understand about community events and also for people to realize that community events are run by ordinary every day people who also have full time day jobs. This means that they are doing these things in their own time for the good of others. They only have limited amounts of time to work on the events, they don’t have an entire company of resources and can’t be running the events whilst working. All that being said, really it’s amazing that any community events even exist.

Please look after each other and have respect for one another. Don’t expect the community leaders to run around after you all the time and do try to help out where you can with things.

About Sarah Lamb

Sarah is the founder of the Girl Geek Dinners & GirlyGeekdom. She is a lover of gadgets, geeky things and sport! Find out more about her on her website.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 7:49 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.