“When going into battle, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets in the right place at the right time” (Tom Peters, who never went to battle but worked many years at McKinsey)

I’ve always loved logistics. Many people are scared of it, but for those who love to make sh^t done - there’s nothing more satisfying than the small things no one wants to deal with. Coordination, talking to vendors, planning schedules… just give me more.

So here’s the second post in the “Events for Every Time” series, and this time: logistics!

1. Hot take: People don’t really care how high-quality the food you ordered is. Small sandwiches or pizza == sophisticated finger food, at half the price. The only thing that matters is making sure everyone has options: insist on a kosher place, with a vegan option and a gluten-free option. Extra nice to provide alcohol-free beer for pregnant attendees.
2. Drinks must be cold. The easiest way to ensure cold soft drinks is to order them from the catering vendor. Cold beer is a bit more complex: if it’s a relatively small event, order from Wolt. If it’s an event of 100+, the easiest is to rent a beer tap.
3. If you start organizing many events, prioritize working with regular vendors you can trust. After three events you’ll start chatting on WhatsApp, and it’s much more convenient to reach out to them on short notice without worrying about quality/arriving on time/sending receipts.
4. No gatekeeping! Partial list of vendors I’ve worked with in Tel Aviv and had a great experience. Venues: HaAchim Restaurant, Beit Zionim America, Meet In Place, Enav Culture Center; Pizza: Domino’s; Beer: Havitush, 123 Alcohol; Design: Ruth Flowers.
5. Keep hot feedback - write notes for yourself during the event about what the actual schedule ended up being, how many people showed up, what food and drinks ran out and what remained, which parts of the content the audience was most interested in. This way you’ll improve the next event.
6. Chairs are the enemy! Couches create a casual atmosphere and are therefore friends. Important to remember that movement in the space helps create conversations. Standing tables and multiple food stations in different parts of the space do a good job.
7. Make sure it’s easy for people to arrive and enter. Send arrival instructions, if it’s complicated then also a video. Hang a sign, brief the security guards at the entrance, make sure the entrance door is open. Already mentioned in the previous post - be at the entrance!
8. Announcing the event about a month in advance is really enough. Open an event on Luma/Partiful and manage registrations through it. If you open on Eventbrite - keep in mind there are tons of scrapers running on it analyzing “what events are happening today in X.” Great if the event is open to the public, bad if targeting a specific closed community. Don’t ask how I know.
9. Sponsors: a whole Torah, but in short - organizations love to budget events that give them value. Brand connection, audience they’re interested in getting to know the organization, agenda they’re promoting. They’re not doing you a favor by giving money, rather you need to make sure they understand the value for them - work on it.
10. You don’t really need to worry about bottle openers. One in three guys has one on their keychain.