Ask the Organiser: London Young Charity Professionals
We spoke to Mary Dobson, Founder of London Young Charity Professionals, a London networking group for young professionals in the charity sector.
How long have you been running the Charity CEO Speaker Series events and what do they involve?
We started running the events in March this year, and we’re holding one a month now. Each event follows the same format – attendees are offered a glass of wine on arrival before the charity CEO speaker for the event talks for around 20 – 25 minutes.
The topic of the CEO presentation is their five greatest failures. Following the presentation, we move to a Q&A session which is chaired by another prominent industry figure and lasts for around 30 minutes, before finishing with networking time over drinks and canapés.
Each event so far has been sold out.
Where did the idea for event series come from?
We were already doing monthly networking drinks with the group, but we thought there was an opportunity to do something more focused. I realised that I already had connections to several prominent charity CEOs through social networks, and I quickly found that these senior industry figures were keen to be involved in the events, which has been incredibly exciting!
In terms of the idea of asking CEOs to talk about their failures – we felt that this was different to other events out there, and easier for young attendees to relate to. In a way it makes the presentations more human and allows attendees to take away real learnings, as well as being inspired by hearing from leaders in the sector.
What are your plans for events for the rest of 2015?
We’ll continue to run the events every month, with holiday breaks in August and December. We’ve already got amazing CEO speakers and Chairs lined up for the rest of the year, finishing in November with Mark Goldring of Oxfam. And we’ll still be running our monthly networking drinks events.
What are the biggest challenges you have faced in running your events and what did you learn from them?
It can be difficult to find the time to focus on the events when you have a full time job already! I’ve been lucky to have the support of our speakers, chairs, venues as well as our network of supporters like Guardian Jobs, Blackbaud and Harris Hill (plus Eventbrite of course!) – which make organising events a lot easier.
Do you have any tips on how to make sure you reach the maximum audience and sell-out your event?
I’ve found cross promoting the CEO speaker series events at our other networking events works well. I always hand out fliers for the CEO events including a discount code, plus I run competitions to win tickets to the next events, which creates a bit of buzz.
Obviously social promotion across Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook is key to spreading the word too. I also encourage attendees to bring a colleague who may be interested next time, which they tend to do, so the events are definitely gaining momentum as we run more of them.
What is your favourite Eventbrite feature and why?
I find it hugely helpful that I can copy an existing event so I can take the formatting without having to re-create the whole event. At the event – the mobile check-in is great for getting people into the event quickly and easily, and I love that as many people as necessary can check guests in at the same time.
What are you most excited about for the Charity CEO Speaker events for the rest of 2015?
As we hold more and more events, I’m expecting a lot of repeat attendees based on the great feedback we’ve had so far. The cumulative wisdom that we’ll be able to gain from each of the speakers is amazing – we’ve heard so many insights already.
By the end of the year, our young attendees will have gained a huge amount of useful advice to put into practice. I’m really excited to be among those learning and benefiting from each of the charity CEO speakers.
To learn more about London Young Charity Professionals and the Charity CEO Speaker series visit the links below.
Website:www.lycp.org.uk
Event page: http://theinspirationals3.eventbrite.com
Organiser page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/london-young-charity-professionals-7754446801
Twitter: LondonYCP