Today I’m sharing an exciting event that I experienced while in Costa Rica attending AFest. You read that right. There is an event called Afest (formerly Awesomeness Fest).  While visiting this tropical location with friends, we listened to world renowned speakers, coaches and visionaries speak about how to change the world and our businesses. These leaders, thinkers and doers like CEOs, best-selling authors, award-winning artists, entrepreneurs, and world-class speakers came from 52 countries to attend the four-day event. I was there to learn and network with the attendees, but my event planning hat was on and I want to share 4 event planning tips I learned – including daily highlights.

4 Event Planning Tips

When the event was over, I surveyed some event attendees and here’s what they had to say about their experience. Feel free to use these ideas for your events too.

1. Franziska loved the variety of events during the day. There wasn’t a lot of downtime and the event was never boring because there was always something going on, and something for everyone.
2. Joey raved about the event app that the organizers created that included regular updates and a news feed that made it easy to communicate with other event attendees. She also said the event was memorable because the event host was amazing.
3. Richard looked at it from a logistical standpoint and appreciated that the Westin hotel staff was prepared for 300 people descending on the hotel within hours of each other.
4. Christo said the event host set the stage by introducing the speakers with passion but also emphasized their achievements which gives them credibility.

For me, it was really important that we contribute to the area in Costa Rica where we were staying. The event organizers planned a “Pay It Forward” day (they call it ‘Give Back Day’ but IMO there’s nothing to give back!) with a local community centre and 50 event attendees volunteered by playing games with the kids, painting a mural, building a garden and a covered play structure, and the DJs showed up to teach the kids how to spin and to create ambiance for the hard working volunteers. If you’re ready to change your events and experience a little of Afest with me, watch today’s video. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.  What are two event planning tips that you use to engage attendees that has them talking about an event for weeks, months or even years? Please share your ideas in the comments. Links to other sites, videos or posts will be deleted because they come across as spam. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for sharing! P.S. As promised in the video, here’s the #afestamigo form. It reads:

1. The first thing you’d notice about me is _________________.
2. You wouldn’t know this about me unless I told you, but _______________.
3. This is my first time at (insert event name)…I’ve traveled from ___________ and am here to do some sweet, sweet _________________!
4. I probably packed too many __________, and now I wish I had brought __________________, but I am feeling _____________ about __________________ and know in 4 days I’ll be ____________ for _______________