On 17th-19th September 2021, we held our second ever Entrepreneurs Marketing Conference, EMC 2021.
If you weren’t there, I’ll get into what you missed pretty soon, but first, it’d be impossible for me to speak about EMC 2021, without talking about the story behind it…
The Event That Almost Never Was…
Let’s skip back to March 2020. We’d just held our inaugural live event, EMC 2020, after year’s of hard work, community building, content and planning.
The event was a sell-out and went down as a massive success with everyone that attended.
But, as we were celebrating the event, sharpening our newly discovered knowledge and preparing to take our businesses to the next level, a pandemic swept across the world.
Businesses that relied on a physical address closed – shops, restaurants, in-person services, live events – and the rest of us looked on from our homes, stuck indoors with our computer screens, Amazon deliveries and banana loaves.
With patience, the worst subsided – and we were finally able to plan EMC 2021.
The original date for EMC 2021 was February, but as it approached, it became apparent that it would be impossible.
We cancelled, rescheduling the event (and informing all those who had bought tickets) to May. Tickets were sold based on a May conference with the hope that the grip of the pandemic would loosen.
Our second date was cancelled, and again, those who had bought tickets were told to reschedule. This cost us in refunds, deposits and staff time.
We moved the event’s intended date again, this time to September, booking these dates in the knowledge that the government’s guidelines could change at any moment.
It wasn’t until the end of June that we got the go-ahead with our September schedule for EMC 2021.
At this point, we only had a small percentage of tickets sold – those who had pre-ordered, were worried about a live event, irritated with the changing calendar, or unsure about our ability to hold down the date (with the climate as it was).
Despite all this, we asked for a 500 seater capacity from the event’s venue (as previously agreed). They told us no, that they were under guidelines from the government too, forcing us to settle for 350.
Fewer ticket sales would normally mean a smaller budget, but it was too late for us to go back on anything – we’d made promises.
But this isn’t the end.
For a paid event of this magnitude, it would normally require 16 weeks to properly market and sell out all tickets. We only had 8.
The very last ticket to the event was sold on 6th September – 11 days before the event that almost never was.
Never In Doubt, Right?
Einstein Marketer is a lucky business, but I’ve always been a believer that good luck is easier earned than found.
The work that we’ve put into building an amazing community of people like you (yes you, reading this) is what made EMC 2021 a reality.
We are blessed to have such an inspiring community of entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, creators and business owners around us, that we knew this event would happen – no matter what guidelines we’d have to fight against.
You – whether you came to EMC, are one of the 1000s who read our blog every day, or are members of the Einstein Marketer studio – are what made this happen.
Thank you.
A Few Extra Thank Yous
It goes without saying that EMC 2021 could never have gone ahead without the amazing hard work of Mat Wilson, CEO Einstein Marketer – it was and still is his vision…
…but it would also be impossible to ignore the hard work of his team (and volunteers) who helped, a few of those names include:
- Helen Oxtoby, Office Manager, Einstein Marketer
- Marco Trinidade, Sales, Einstein Marketer
- Craig Wilson, Sales, Einstein Marketer
- Billy O’Brien, Videographer, Einstein Marketer
- Adam Davies, COO, Einstein Marketer
- Harry Ballantyne, Media Buyer/Social Media, Einstein Marketer
- Charile Wilson, Media Buyer, Einstein Marketer
- Kyle Meredith, Media Buyer, Einstein Marketer
And of course, all the speakers who showed up and provided massive value to our attendees!
The Good News
A post like this can’t end without a look into the future.
EMC will be back in October 2022. It will be bigger, better, meaner and provide even more value to our amazing community.
Our next event will hold a bigger capacity, but we know that tickets will sell out even faster next year!
To ensure that you don’t miss out on tickets, and to receive early-bird offers (before the price increases!) sign-up to the EMC 2022 priority list now.
Tune back into the blog soon, for take-aways, videos and value from EMC 2021.
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