There’s nothing more helpful than the location of the event, yet many fail to include this vital piece of information when they issue an invitation.
Not including the location seems to be a new ‘thing’ There’ll be a clickbait headline ‘Don’t miss out on a day of inspirational talks from key industry speakers’ with a date and no other option but to click on ‘Book your place’ to find out more. Then a landing page where you get to scroll through the speaker profiles and blurb about the sponsors, eventually being funnelled into a registration process only to discover it’s…on the other side of the world.
A virtual event or happening in the real world?
Your audience could be anywhere so it makes sense for events to happen online. Oddly it’s often clear about how to register for a webinar, in a way that makes the organisers of real world events appear a bit furtive. A physical location seems to make them come over all coy.
Why not be explicit about the location? The Secret Cinema is built on the big reveal – you don’t know where it will be held and hotly anticipate the location, which changes each time. Even they give a rough proximity – Central London for example.
A rough indication of which continent would be a start, even better you could provide a map with directions.
Include a map
Create a map by dragging a map marker onto Google maps or similar. Check that it is in the right place – I say this after adding 200+ location to a world map for a client and know there can be surprises – zip/postcodes don’t always line up accurately. Google maps are not infallible and there are others mapping apps.
Plan for all devices
Don’t assume everyone’s using the same technology either – not every device automatically maps a location. Most businesses use email calendars which don’t support this feature. Many people still use diaries, yup I know; mobile devices haven’t yet achieved supremacy. Give the full address of the location to help people find it quickly.
Be sure to include all the relevant information in your invitation: date, time and location. Do you send event invitations? Perhaps you can shed light on why the location is increasingly a mystery.