Hi, I’m Chris Harrison.

Do you charge for your event or do you make it free? Calculate any hard costs you have: Travel, Accommodations, Venue, Catering, etc. to determine the approximate cost of your event. Sample Event Budget Travel $1500 Accommodations $2500 Venue $2500 Catering $1000 Other Expenses* $1000 Total $8500 * Other Expenses might include paying a photographer,…

While you’re trying to nail down who to have speak, you’ll need to nail down when and where to have your event. (When you have your event will impact speaker availability.) Lesson 8 — Before you decide on where (and when) to hold your event: Research, research, research. The last thing you want to do…

Without _____, you don’t have an event. It’s damn near impossible to market a first year event without a lineup. And you can’t have an event without a venue. And you can’t get a venue without having a date. And getting speakers to commit relies heavily on when your event will happen. (!) This’ll post…

This is the first part of many. I started writing this back in May, right after Web Afternoon Augusta. I’ve been to a number of conferences as an attendee, volunteer/staff and once as a co-organizer of sorts… but this was the first time I really tried to pull a conference together as a lead organizer.…

I’m happy to announce that I’ve been selected to speak at GiantConf in Charleston, SC next summer. Over the coming months, my talk will likely evolve somewhat, but right now I plan to focus on Leveling Up: In order to grow as a designer, developer and a person we need to step out of our comfort…

Last year, I joined the Jingle Jam 10K’s Board to assist with design, marketing, and social media. And I’m doing it again this year! (It’s amazing how helping to plan a non-web event can help change your perspective on planning things.) It’s been a very rewarding challenge to work on the Jingle Jam 10K. I…