If you stand before your students to announce an event and say the words, “you can’t miss this event”, you better be prepared to deliver. While it sounds overwhelming, the process is simple.

It is understood that any event will have scheduling conflicts. That shouldn’t keep you from doing outreach events. The first step to your can’t miss event is scheduling. Gather all of your calendar resources and pick a date. You can evaluate later.

Give yourself 4-6 weeks lead time to market the event. Use every normal means at your disposal, but do not limit yourself to these. Like everyone, students have information fatigue. As you plan, challenge your team to experiment with unique approaches. It may help to identify businesses that do this well like Nike, Apple, Insurance, etc.

Be creative in your concept and execution. The concept doesn’t have to be extravagant. I’ve shared previously that our best event was a middle school black out night, and all of our promotions just said, “Don’t Miss This, Wear Black, Bring a Friend.” We had record attendance that night.

Don’t try this by yourself. Bring a team around you-your dream team and come up with ideas. Collaboration is a necessity for these kinds of events.

In the end you want students to experience F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out). If they are talking about it the next day, then you are on the right track.

After the event, do good follow up. Make sure you talk about what is coming up next week and invite students to the next step

Don’t miss the can’t miss. You may never get a second chance.