Eichler Faire Draws Astounding 400+ Attendees

With the Eichler Remodeling Faire (Mountain View, Calif., May 16, 2009), Keycon president Ron Key took a chance. He believed that a fun and informative event on a sunny afternoon would attract a modest number of Bay Area Eichler homeowners seeking remodeling advice and solutions. He was wrong. There was nothing modest about it. More than 400 hundred showed up (exact figure to come).

Several days before the Faire, event planner Judy Nakamura emailed me. “Dave, Can you give me an update on the registration numbers? We need to submit a final guarantee to the caterer today,” wrote Judy. We had 160 individual registrations, and knowing that many people who register for a free event don’t attend, I told her the truth: I had no idea how many would ultimately appear. So, we guaranteed BBQ for 125 adults and 25 children. Oops. Fortunately, Absolute Barbecue Company kept the burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and drinks coming. They were amazing.

The Eichler Remodeling Faire would not have happened without Ron Key’s vision and his relationships with construction and design partners who participated in the event. At the same time, it would not have been possible without two social media powerhouses, the Eichler Network and Eventbrite.

With the Eichler Network, Keycon was able to pinpoint event marketing to the 7,000 South Bay and Peninsula Eichler households. The promotions included ads in the Eichler Network annual Home Maintenance Directory, an ad/insert card combo in the Eichler Network’s CA-Modern Magazine, and a followup postcard mailed to the magazine’s recipients.

Eventbrite provided a complete event landing page and registration system, which allowed us to present all the event details, “sell” tickets (even though this event was free), collect customer data, and communicate with ticket “buyers” via scheduled email reminders. Perhaps more importantly, using Eventbrite rocketed the Eichler Remodeling Faire to Google’s top five results for “Eichler Remodeling.” Eventbrite also enabled attendees to share information about the event with friends and neighbors. I was pleasantly surprised to see that bloggers and other event sites took notice as well.

The Eichler Remodeling Faire
Producer: Keycon, Inc.
Event Logistics: Judy Nakamura, EVENTS
Content and Marketing: Dave Kalman, Terrella Media, Inc.
Media Partner: The Eichler Network/CA-Modern Magazine
Web Platform: Eventbrite

Photo gallery (Copyright © 2009 David M. Kalman, taken with a cheap point-and-shoot camera that shall remain nameless.)

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