5 tips for communicating when your event is postponed

Post­pon­ing an event requires just as much work and rigour as the event’s organ­i­sa­tion itself. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly man­age tick­et sales and refunds, com­mu­ni­cate to attract a new audi­ence, book and host artists… The list goes on! In this arti­cle, we detail 5 tips for com­mu­ni­cat­ing well if your event is post­poned, what­ev­er the rea­son. Be sure to adapt our advice to the unique fea­tures of your event, since you know bet­ter than any­one that all events are unique, and should remain so!

Sum­ma­ry

1. Inform ser­vice providers and sup­pli­ers
2. Explain the rea­sons for the post­pone­ment
3. Spec­i­fy the arrange­ments for the post­pone­ment
4. Reas­sure atten­dees that tick­ets pur­chased before the post­pone­ment will remain valid
5. Opt for the best CRM solu­tion

1. Inform service providers and suppliers

When you are con­sid­er­ing post­pon­ing your event, con­tact your ser­vice providers and sup­pli­ers direct­ly to find out their avail­abil­i­ty in terms of your poten­tial new dates. With­out their agree­ment, you will be forced to break your con­tracts — and thus have to pay com­pen­sa­tion — and look for new ser­vice providers and sup­pli­ers. The same applies to artists and speak­ers sched­uled for your event. All of these con­tacts are cru­cial and you must obtain reli­able guar­an­tees from them before send­ing out any com­mu­ni­ca­tion con­cern­ing your event’s post­pone­ment.

2. Explain the reasons for the postponement

Weath­er con­di­tions, restric­tions imposed by the author­i­ties, non-com­pli­ance of the venue, epi­demics… a large num­ber of fac­tors can lead to the post­pone­ment of your event. If this is the case for you, be sure to clear­ly inform your atten­dees of the rea­sons which have led you to find a new date for your event. The more spe­cif­ic details you pro­vide, the more like­ly it is that they will under­stand your approach and be pre­pared to attend your event on the new date you have cho­sen.

With the right CRM tool, you can eas­i­ly send tar­get­ed emails to all atten­dees con­cerned. Take advan­tage of Weez­Tar­get, our email­ing and mar­ket­ing solu­tion, and save valu­able time in prepar­ing your event’s post­pone­ment. Go to your Weezevent account and access Weez­Tar­get via the Appli­ca­tions tab: Log in.

3. Specify the arrangements for the postponement

List and detail all the con­di­tions of your event’s new date to your atten­dees, includ­ing the time, loca­tion, capac­i­ty, sched­ul­ing, acces­si­bil­i­ty, on-site bars and cater­ing, etc. Don’t for­get any­thing and don’t leave room for con­fu­sion, whether these aspects are dif­fer­ent or iden­ti­cal to those orig­i­nal­ly planned. If you don’t do this, a change could sur­prise your atten­dees at the last minute and spoil their expe­ri­ence. Why allow this to hap­pen after mak­ing such an effort to organ­ise your event’s post­pone­ment?

4. Reassure attendees that tickets purchased before the postponement will remain valid

Note that if you are post­pon­ing your event, you can ensure that tick­ets that have already been sold remain valid for the new dates. We rec­om­mend that you choose this option as it will ensure bet­ter finan­cial con­ti­nu­ity. Empha­sise that old tick­ets will remain valid — or not valid, depend­ing on your choice — in all your mes­sag­ing.  To do this, add the con­cerned tick­et types to your new check­lists. This will allow you to scan “old” and “new” tick­ets with­out effort or con­fu­sion. You should also encour­age your atten­dees to keep their tick­ets by offer­ing ser­vices or perks to those who do so (e.g. park­ing spaces, T‑shirts, bev­er­ages on site, bet­ter seat­ing, etc.).

In the mean­time, you can refund all atten­dees who request one. How­ev­er, it’s up to you to deter­mine the var­i­ous terms and con­di­tions and to com­mu­ni­cate a pro­ce­dure accord­ing­ly. Here are the aspects which will require you to make cer­tain choic­es and pro­vide rel­e­vant details to atten­dees:

• The date for com­mu­ni­cat­ing the pro­ce­dure — This can be after the date on which the post­pone­ment is announced;
• The refund claim time lim­it — Give a peri­od with a start date and an end date;
• The refund date — At the exact end of the peri­od or a spec­i­fied num­ber of days after­wards;
• The refund­ing of anony­mous tick­ets bought in per­son — If applic­a­ble, clear­ly explain how these buy­ers will be refund­ed.

Dis­cov­er all our prac­ti­cal tips for refund­ing atten­dees with Weezevent in our online help.

5. Opt for the best CRM solution

Com­mu­ni­cat­ing around an event’s post­pone­ment is an excep­tion­al sit­u­a­tion for which event organ­is­ers must be pre­pared. With Weez­Tar­get, our email­ing and mar­ket­ing tool, you can send a tar­get­ed mes­sage to those who have pur­chased tick­ets for your event.

Com­mu­ni­cat­ing effec­tive­ly is essen­tial when hav­ing to man­age your event’s post­pone­ment. Choose the right email­ing and mar­ket­ing solu­tion to stack the odds in your favour. Dis­cov­er Weez­Tar­get and seg­ment your audi­ences, send tar­get­ed mes­sages and boost your sales by click­ing on the but­ton below:

Dis­cov­er Weez­Tar­get