15 Types Of Business Events You Should Attend
An event is described as a meeting or public gathering for the purpose of celebration, reunion, marketing, entertainment or for business. Based on the size, context and type, it can be categorized into private, charity and corporate events.
Private events are usually for people who have a guest list of attendees they want. This may be in the form of weddings, wedding receptions or festivity gatherings.
Charity events are organized for fundraising of a project or a cause while corporate events are organized by companies to meet with their customers or for the purpose of marketing their products.
One of the ways to raise your business’s profile is to attend important business events.
In addition to holding your own events, ranging from the launch of your limited edition products to executive retreats, you should also stay up to date with the other events available to attend.
Events within your industry can come in all shapes and sizes and are held for different purposes. Attending different types of business events can be beneficial for your business, for you and your staff.
Whichever of these events you are invited to, it affords you the opportunity to meet new clients, network with your customers and also enables you to talk about your brand.
They can help your business to get the exposure that it needs and also lead to learning opportunities. Here are some of the types of events you should attend.
1. Beauty and fashion shows
The beauty and fashion industry is an organizer of one of the biggest fashion events in the country annually. Such events include fashion week for different clothing, shoes, and ready-to-wear garments. Cosmetics beauty products and made-in-Nigeria wear can also be exhibited.
An example of events that fall under this category is the Lagos Fashion Week and the most beautiful girl-in-Nigeria beauty pageant. Such an event isn’t something you should ignore if you’re in this sector of business.
Some of them, if not most, are broadcasted live. You can also make an advert placement for your business on popular blogs. Hence, you can reach a lot of audiences watching from their homes and offices.
2. Product Launch
Every day, there are new items being launched into the market. If you are a middleman in the sales and supply of these products, it will be detrimental to shy away from these product launches.
It will greatly benefit you because you will:
- Have a firsthand taste of the product
- Become recognized as a brand promoter
- Get more information about the product you are selling
- Be amongst the first to have a supply of the product when it becomes available for sale.
- Network with other suppliers of the product and also consumers.
For example, if you own a YouTube channel solely for reviewing smartphones and gadgets, you can be up to date with products from Tecno, Infinix or Samsung by attending their launch events as you get to see their products on display with firsthand experience.
See also: 14 simple trade show booth ideas that attract visitors
3. Student week
This period is usually at the end of a semester or a session and is often tagged as a time of fun and entertainment for students. However, it is the time they spend money buying new products, especially during the student fair.
This offers you the opportunity to showcase your products and designs especially if your market or target customers are teenagers and youths.
Students like keeping up with the latest designs and trends that they are interested in.
4. Cultural festivals and carnivals
Unlike the student week, National cultural festivals are organized annually. It sees people from different tribes and states going to the host location to partake in different cultural activities.
For example, the 2019 Festival of Art and Culture took place in the Oba Ovonromwen Cultural Centre in Benin City which had a huge display of different arts and crafts from different states of the country.
Other brands like Airtel Nigeria, smile 4G and smartphone retailers took advantage of this event to market their products. Also unlike cultural festivals, carnivals have a foreign theme which displays a lot of bright colours of paintings, dresses and costumes from different individuals and corporate bodies.
As a business owner, a cultural event or carnival happening near you or in your location is what you can take advantage of.
5. Seminars
Business seminars offer you the opportunity to learn new ways of boosting your services and sales. You can also learn from experts in different fields of business and entrepreneurship.
Other areas that might be helpful to you are attending seminars that talk about different types of investments, securing loans from banks or banks of industries and also managing your finances.
6. Conferences
Conferences are an avenue for brand awareness especially if you are part of the sponsors. You will be tagged as unserious when you sponsor a cause or program without showing up.
Attending these programs will not only make you visible to the audience and increase potential patronage but also help you align with other reputable sponsors of the program.
This gives you a ready-to-be-cultivated market for your products and services,
7. Public lectures and talk shows
Issues bothering human lives such as female genital mutilation, rape, women and child trafficking and reproductive health are sometimes discussed in shows. The awareness generated is usually massive.
When it becomes important for you to take advantage of these shows, the issues are affiliated with your services.
For example, always ultra will mostly be present in shows and public lectures which bothers the girl children because they are the major consumers of sanitary pads.
8. Business summits
Whatever products you sell or services you render, your business is just part of the sector that deals on the same products and services.
The business summit is an avenue or a place prearranged for business owners in the same sector to assemble to share ideas, and experiences and also discuss solutions to problems affecting the business.
For example, if you are in the fashion industry, you might learn diverse ways to increase sales in your clothing business.
Attending such business summits helps you to circumnavigate the challenges you might be having as a business owner. It is a good platform to network with entrepreneurs and a way to expand the scope of your business.
9. Business expos
Just like business summits, a business expo is an event that sees different organizations or people coming together to put up a business-to-business trade show.
Here, entrepreneurs, startups and small business owners can network with each other.
This is an event you should never miss as a business owner because you can have an up-close interaction with others such as yourself in order to grow and improve your business.
10. Leadership summit
Annually, businesses in sizes from small to large attract leaders to come together for leadership summits for a few days. Though some are strictly by invitation, while others are open to the public.
In a typical leadership summit, top managers from different companies leave their usual duties to come and give talks. They present ideas and address topics that concern those in attendance. This usually ends with some questions and answer segments.
When done properly and well, it is worth the time, effort and expense. It serves as a catalyst that speeds up the development of solutions to problems, the introduction of new strategies and the establishment of collaborations across businesses.
11. Conferences
An industry conference or seminar can be good for developing knowledge and networking with others in your industry. When attending a conference, you might be speaking or giving a workshop, but you could equally be there to observe and learn.
Taking your staff along to a conference could be a great opportunity for them to learn too. Conferences can help you to raise your profile and also keep an eye on others in your industry.
Holding your own conference is also an option, and could really position you as an industry leader and influencer.
12. Fundraising and charity events
Fundraising event gives you the platform to show support to the public by contributing to community development projects just like ekplatebiryani which provides food, clean water and many more to needy people.
This is like supporting a cause and placing yourself in the reputable books and minds of the people.
Additionally, some of the fundraising events use donor bricks as a tangible symbol of appreciation and recognition to create a lasting tribute to their supporters.
In doing so, you are increasing your market penetration. You will attract customers and well-wishers to you and also give your brand recognition locally and internationally.
Such charity events could be the supply of educational materials to local schools. You could launch a borehole in a community. You can also supply relief materials and foodstuffs to internally displaced persons.
13. Trade Shows
Trade shows and exhibitions give your business opportunities to promote your offering to potential customers or clients. It also gives you the chance to take a look at what some other businesses in your industry do. You might even be able to examine businesses in connected industries.
When you have a stand at a trade show, standing out is essential. Using a service such as Infinity Exhibits will give you the opportunity to build a custom display.
You should focus on creating a display that represents your brand. This will make you stand out among the other stands at the show.
14. Meetings
You might not think of meetings as events. However, they are a type of event that you should pay attention to. You can hold meetings for all sorts of purposes, from wooing potential new clients to updating and engaging stakeholders.
They can be an opportunity to impress people and convey important information. Meetings don’t always have to take place in boardrooms and meeting rooms.
It’s possible to shake them up and hold them elsewhere, especially as many venues have meeting rooms and spaces available. Having a meeting over lunch, dinner, or drinks could be a way to do things differently.
15. Awards Events
Getting an invitation to an awards event can be exciting, especially if you are nominated for something, or you know you will be given an award.
Even if you won’t win anything, it’s a chance to show up at an event that’s important for your industry. These types of events often involve paying for a table for your company. These proceeds sometimes go to charity.
Conclusion
Try to attend various business events to benefit from the opportunities that they may present as the case may be. Let me know what you think about this piece you just read. 😉
