Network Event SOP

Business Whangaparaoa hold quarterly "formal" network events usually in mid to late-February, May, August and November.

It has become a tradition to make the first one a breakfast meeting at Red Beach Surf Life Saving Club from 7 am to 8.30 am. This is catered by Greg from Krave Ltd (the resident caterer for the club). Greg's contact email is kraveltd@xtra.co.nz. The cost for the latest breakfast (2024) was $23 pp and this includes a buffet breakfast served at 7 am and includes the urn (make sure Greg has turned on when you arrive early) and tea and coffee. No juice so bring along a cold 2 litre orange juice.

The other three events for the year are evening events, held on either a Wednesday or Thursday evening from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm.

Marketing and management time allowance from Business Manager: 15 hours

Timings for the events are approx as follows -

Network Event Timeline

You may want to source all speakers for the year at the start of the year or you can look at doing this as you go approx 3 months before the event date. Timeline -

• Source speaker
• Source venue/catering (some venues we use in-house catering and others we source separately) - catering costs we usually allow approx $350 + GST (however we appreciate food costs have escalated over the last year or so)
• Get from the speaker -
  • A photo
  • A short bio on themselves (you'll use this, or some of it in your speaker intro on the day)
  • A title for their talk
  • A short blurb about what they will talk about
  • Check if they will need a screen/laptop for a presentation
• Once you have all the above first create a billboard and event banner in Canva (there are templates)
• Then set up a registration form on the website through "Fluent Forms Pro"
• Then set up an event in the online BW calendar
• Seek Sponsors - we should already have the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board as an automatic sponsor so try to source 2 other sponsors @ $450/$500 + GST each. Here is a standard sponsor sourcing email template you can use if you wish.
• Once you have sponsors get their logos and add to the billboard, event banner and list and link in the online event
• Set up a Facebook event to share and link to the online calendar event for registrations
• Add details in your next newsletters to both members and non-members

Promote the event, so prior to the event -

• Put in approx 3 x newsletters
• Share across social media channels
• A few days before you may wish to do personalised emails to some you know usually come as often this reminds them and you can pick up 3-4 more attendees
• Over the weeks prior to the event monitor the attendee form and as you see registrations invoice them and use Xero email template

The week before -

• Confirm with the venue/catering/speaker
• Ask if the speaker would like to put out any flyers/information, if so offer to collect it so you can put on the tables/chairs
• Confirm with sponsors and pick up any banners/flyers/etc to put out/up
• If the speaker needed a screen/laptop make sure this is organised with them or the venue
• Again check payments and if need by do any follow ups (we do prefer if people pay before the event)

On the day -

• Make sure you have all banners/flags/flyers to put out from the speaker and sponsors
• Take the event box. In the box will be member cards/brochures and small member pull up stand (we display member information at all these events regardless of whether the member attends or not). There are also various other potentially useful items!
• Take 2 x BW flags and pull up banner
• Export your attendee form and make easy to read for ticking off attendees, add any other attendees that may not have registered, eg speaker and take a printed copy with you
• Write out name tags before heading to the venue (just to save time - not essential)
• Put together MC talk and take a copy with you - you can use this MC Talk template
• Make sure you have a bottle of wine or box of chocolates as a thank you for the speaker and any other items you need to bring as extras (eg juice at breakfast event)

Allow approx 1 hour for set up and -

• Arrange the room and seating as you need
• Put any information from speaker and sponsors either on chairs or tables
• Set up Members table and put out cards/brochures
• Put up flags/banners/pull ups, etc
• Put out name badges

After the event -

• Pack up
• Gather any invoices to be paid (eg catering, etc) and arrange payments with Treasurer
• Complete any reimbursement forms for yourself (eg for the speaker gift, juice, etc), attach receipts and send to Hubdoc for processing by Treasurer - you can use this Reimbursement Form Template
• Go through and follow up any attendee payments not yet received
• Email a thanks to the speaker
• Download or obtain any photos of the event
• Complete your event report template
• Add a copy of your report to the template for the next Executive meeting when you send out Agenda, Minutes and Reports

If you're organised then now go to your history page for events for the year and add any sponsors at the top, event details and a gallery of your event poster and photos.

You should also go to your Annual Report and copy and paste your event report into this ready for the end of the year reporting.

Templates included in this process -

• Standard sponsor sourcing email template
• MC Talk template
• Reimbursement Form Template
• Event Report template

Suggested venues

• The Archer is good as you can book out the conservatory, it has a screen (x 2) for presentations and there is in-house catering
• The BeerSpot is also quite good - book the nook at the end of the bar. The acoustics aren't the best but not bad. Screen but it is around the corner. Catering from the food truck outside so it depends on who it is as to the type of food. You can usually find out beforehand who it will be and contact them directly.
• Paraoa Brewing again good for in-house catering. Again acoustics aren't the best. You are better to get a mic and speaker set up as with The BeerSpot also
• Manly Bowling Club is a great venue. Cost is $200 + GST and there is no in-house catering so you have to organise and this is additional. Keep in mind club nights, etc. Same for all the above bars keep in mind nights with events, eg quiz nights
• Stanmore Bay Boat Club again a cost like the bowling club. They do have a caterer you can use but the costs are separate. Again keep in mind club nights.
• Weiti Boat Club is an excellent venue but their costs have increased and you also need outside catering and to pay for a bar licence and a bar man. Priced themselves out of our range at our last discussion.
• You could perhaps consider some restaurants on a quiet night (eg perhaps a Tuesday?)