How to get a standing room only crowd for training, part #3

Get a team

If one leader is good, two are better. Half a dozen is even better. I recommend putting a planning team together to help promote the event. Give everyone a job. Have one person in charge of ethnic churches. Someone else in charge of small churches. Someone else in charge of email. Still another person in charge of social networking. Meet once a month. Serve burgers. Brainstorm. Pray. Get them fired up.

WIIFM? Factor

Everyone is listening attentively to radio station WIIFM: What’s in it for me?

Tell people specifically how the event will help them accomplish goals that are meaningful to them.

I saw this recently after I did a talk on Technology and the Sunday School. It was a last minute change and the people did not know about the topic ahead of time. There were told it was a Sunday School conference, “Please come.” Come for what? What is in it for me?

If we could have gotten the message out ahead of time: “Come hear how you can use modern technology to win our world to Christ. There has never been a time to be a Sunday School Teacher. How to use Facebook, Email, Logos Bible Software, and other tools to reach people, study the Bible effectively, worship and do all things Sunday School better because of technology.” (Is that a run-on sentence? I get a little that way when I get fired up!)
The conference was on a Saturday and I stayed over Sunday to preach. One lady heard what I had spoken on and came running up to me afterwards—pen and legal pad in hand. “I got to know what you said. Give me the bullet points” If only she had known ahead of time she would have been on the front row with her legal pad taking notes.”

This is one mistake we are correcting with our All Star Sunday School Training Events. I thought with such a how powered list of speaker we wouldn’t need to tell people the topics. We could work that out last minute and people would come just because of the name recognition of the personalities. Name recognition is important, as we will see in a moment. But, it is also important to tell them specifically what benefit they will derive from attending.

Time is the new currency. Time is the most precious commodity of the people we serve. They will only give it up if they know they are going to get something useful in exchange.

Josh Hunt

Author, Good Questions Have Groups Talking

P.S.

In case you didn't get the word, I am publishing Good Questions to Kindle. Check them out on www.amazon.com. I'd love to have your positive review on one of the series.