We know it’s not rocket science – in fact, submitting your event couldn’t be easier since the lovely team at Creode built us a wonderfully user-friendly event submissions form. But we also know that you haven’t seen what an event page on our shiny new website will look like, and that might throw up a few questions.
So here are a few tips on how to get your event submission form bang on first time, so we don’t have to chase you for extra info!
What’s in a name? Well, quite a bit actually. We’re expecting to include over 200 events in the September Programme, so your title needs to stand out and clearly tell the audience what they’re signing up for.
Here’s how: get straight to the point, avoid generic titles and don’t be afraid to be funny – tech is a serious business but your event name doesn’t have to be.
Think of the event title as your first chance to make an impression on potential attendees. If the title’s a snooze-fest people might assume the same about your event, and though a snappy name alone won’t guarantee good attendance, it certainly doesn’t hurt!
The event description is your opportunity to tell the audience what unmissable content you’ll be bringing to LDF, and why attendees should want to book a ticket. For maximum impact, we’d recommend keeping it to a few paragraphs and being as creative as you can – a single sentence description just isn’t going to cut it!
Our advice? The best descriptions frame the question and give the audience a taste of what to expect from the event – from topics covered to featured guests.
When it comes to guests, your event description should give more detail on the value each speaker will add to the discussion – why should someone want to come along and hear them speak? We’d recommend featuring a speaker bio, any relevant accomplishments or accolades and a speaker image where possible, too.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and given the various ways your chosen image will be used throughout the Festival, that picture has got a lot of talking to do! So, opt for something eye-catching that communicates the focus of your event, visually.
The image you choose needs to be hi-res, and no-text. Say it with us now: hi-res and no-text. Photos only, people. If you send us a graphic, or a photo with a logo stuck on it, we won’t be able to add your event to the website.
The event info – including, Event Title, Date & Time, and Host name – has been hardcoded into the event page and will overlay whichever image you select (see below), so save yourself the hassle of having your graphic rejected, and choose a photo that communicates the theme of your event instead.
If you want to include your logo or those of any hosting partners, you can email these to us and the team will make sure they’re added into the body of the event page.
If you’re looking to have a branded graphic created, feel free to use this on your Booking Page and in your Marketing activity. But when it comes to the LDF website, you’ll need to go with something a lot simpler. The focal point of your event image should be aligned to the right where possible, to avoid distracting from the important event info on the left hand side that is built into the page design. And remember: hi-res, no-text – the same goes for the mobile version, too.
Dimensions: Desktop – 2000 x 800px / Mobile – 800 x 600px
We’re open-platform, baby! So in addition to planning and hosting your event, as the organiser you’ll also be responsible for managing the booking process.
This means you’ll need to create a booking page and provide us with the link during the submission process. We’ll then add this link to your event page on the LDF website, so we can encourage sign-ups by directing potential attendees straight to you.
Please don’t add a dud placeholder link to your submission form, we won’t be able to approve the event until we’ve seen a live booking page – and make sure you double check that the date and time listed on your booking page matches the time chosen on your submission form!
You’ll need to select which areas of the digital sector your event is most aligned with from a list of 19 possible categories (Healthtech, VR/AR, Data etc.). This is to ensure that when your event is sitting alongside 200+ others on the website, our audience is able to filter through to find content that’s relevant to them.
We’ve limited selection to a maximum of three categories in order to minimise spam – that’s people listing events as tech categories they’re not, under the misguided assumption that more people will see it – so choose wisely and make sure the right people find your event.
Arguably one of the biggest perks of our shiny new website is the clash-finder feature. When inputting your event details on the submission form, you’ll be notified if another event covering the same tech categories has already been submitted for the same time (yes, Creode really are that clever!).
With a programme this big, some overlap is inevitable, but not all schedule clashes are made equal. A Healthtech event and an event on Cyber Security going head to head might not have a huge impact on either one’s attendance, but two Fintech events vying for the same spot could prove damaging for both. And though the clash-finder is an advisory feature – we can’t actually make you change your event time – it’s been created in response to feedback we’ve received from hosts in previous years, and to enable everyone to maximise their sign-ups.
With that said, the categories are broad by design so if you’d like further clarification please drop us an email and the team will be able to advise on how detrimental the schedule overlap in question might be.
The Event Submissions Form will be live until Wednesday 18th August at 5PM, so you’ve got until then to get your event details to us. All events should be submitted via the form, and any received via email or after the deadline won’t be included in the Autumn festival. So don’t be late, and make sure you have all your event details ready before you submit the form.
You can submit as many events as you like (the more the merrier!) but each new event should be sent as a separate submission. That means that if you’re delivering the same session twice, it needs to be sent in as two separate forms in order to ensure it filters into the relevant schedules and the right people find your event.
Your event won’t be included in the September programme until it’s been approved by the LDF team – and the team will only approve the event once we have all the information we need to feature it on the website. Once your event has been approved, you can begin to promote it, so it really does pay to get the form right the first time.
The form fields are mandatory because we need this information to build your event page on our website, not because we’re trying to make your life harder. If you’re keen to submit your event ASAP but still missing a few bits and pieces, please get in touch with the team and we’ll be able to advise further.
