How to Plan Your Meet-up

An in-depth how-to on how to plan for a successful HUG.

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Step 1: Meetup prep 45 days out

Determine Meetup Venue:

  1. Select a date and time for your upcoming HUG meetup and begin looking for a meetup location in your community.
  2. The goal is to find a free or very low cost meet-up location, but we understand that this is not always possible. HubSpot will supply you with a quarterly financial stipend for meet-up expenses. We encourage you to network with HUG members to see if anyone in the group has suitable office space for your meet-ups. 
  3. Location ideas:
  • Offices
  • Schools
  • Hotel conference rooms
  • Breweries
  • Coffee Shops
  • Restaurants

Create Your Meeting Agenda:

  1. Determine your meet-up topic(s). We recommend you reach out to your attendees to learn what they are most interested in learning about!
  2. Who will be giving the presentation? We encourage all HUG leaders to present and be the primary speakers at their meet-ups. Presenting content at your HUG will showcase your expertise and position as a thought-leader of inbound marketing and HubSpot best practices in your area. Depending on timing and availability (at least 5 weeks notice), you can request that a HubSpot employee attend your meet-up to give product demonstrations or presentations! Eligible HUGs are allowed a HubSpot guest speaker 1-2x per year, based on location, avg. group size and availability. *Note we cannot guarantee we'll be able to send a guest speaker to requested meet-ups but will try our best to accomodate. 
  3. SUBMIT YOUR PRE-EVENT FORM. This form is MANDATORY for all meet-ups. This is also how you request a speaker, and email promotion for your event.
  4. Create your meet-up agenda. Here is an example of a HUG agenda.

Establish a Promotion Plan:

  1. Determine how you are going to promote your upcoming HUG. HubSpot sends out emails on the 1st and 15th of every month to promote up-coming events that you have submitted. Beyond that, we encourage you to have your own promotion plan.
  2. HUG promotion should include all promotion avenues, including as social media, blog posts, email marketing, and utilizing other marketing resources in the community. 
  3. Review the How to Promote Your HUG guide for more ideas. 

Step 2: Tell us About Your Meetup

Create your Registration Page:

1. Create a registration page for every meet-up so members can sign up. Use your HUG's HubSpot account to create a registration page via the landing pages tool. If you would like to also promote your meet-up on the free service Eventbrite, you can embed the Eventbrite registration widget on your landing page. 

2. Once you have your registration page set up, you will set up the follow up materials for members to receive after they register. This includes:

  • Confirmation email (include date, time, location, topic)
  • 2 event reminder emails : 1 week before and 1 day before
  • Reminder emails reflect content from your registration page (date, time, location, topic)

3. If using Eventbrite, they will set up a confirmation email and reminder email automatically. These emails are customizable and we recommend you review the email copy.

4. Using your HUG's HubSpot account, we recommend creating a workflow to manage the registration process for your meetups.

Tell Us About Your Meetup:

1. Alert us of your meetup via this form so HubSpot can add it to the meet-up calendar and send out promotional emails. Be sure to also update your HUG profile using this form.

Section 3: Promote Your Upcoming HUG

  • Use the event-in-a-box kit for event promotion ideas
  • Post your proposed agenda to your linkedin group.
  • Promote discussion around the suggested topics. Perhaps a member will have something they want to add or contribute?
  • Send an announcement to your LinkedIn group member base.
  • Ask them to rsvp so you can get a good headcount.
  • Promote your hug meet-up on social media
  • Ask your speaker to record a quick promo video with you via video conference

Deliver a World-Class HUG

1. Practice at least 3 times before the HUG meet-up. Practicing makes for an excellent public speaker.
2. Have a guest speaker? Have them send you their presentation 4 days before so you can review and request edits if needed.  

Double check your event details

1. Create name tags for attendees. You can either print these off or write them out ahead of time.
2. Do you have all the equipment you need for the event? Does the room have audio & A/V? Do you need special cords or adapters for Macs vs. PCs?
3. Confirm with all vendors a few days before the event, such as the venue location, food and beverage, to make sure everything goes according to pan. 
4. Is there adequate signage at the venue so members can find the meet-up? If not, print out some signs and bring tape.

Greet your guests

1. Have a dedicated "greeter" at the door welcoming members as they arrive. 
2. Be sure to check your members in as they arrive.  Store their name and email so that you can share it with us in an excel document later on. 

 

Following your HUG

Following every HUG, please submit your post-event form.