Recently I hosted my first-ever retreat, which happened to be my first in-person event since before the pandemic started! The Connect & Conquer retreat was the first of many retreats, set up with a group of content creators here in the Maritimes and I am beyond words over how amazing it was! 

There was a mix of women from business owners blogging solely about their business to social media influencers. With 12 women in attendance with such different backgrounds, one thing was in common—a desire to grow and plan for the future. 

Throughout the weekend we literally saw light bulbs and stars coming from people’s minds and faces as they saw what possibilities could happen for their businesses, brands and projects.

And there was plenty of, you guessed it, social media content! 

Going to a live event, as your comfort level allows, creates the perfect space to put out dynamic and relatable content for your audience. 

Here’s how to take advantage of your next event:

Things you can do before the event:

• Follow the other attendees

• Follow the hashtag

• Follow sponsors

• Build connections and engagement before attending the event

Content you can create from a live event: 

While you want to make sure you have time to enjoy and absorb what’s happening around you, here are some things you can plan to include in your social media while at the event!

Static Post: 

You can create multiple static posts for your social media platforms. It could be on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. These could be in-the-moment posts or posts for the future. You can use these pictures for weeks or months to come! 

A perfect example is this carousel post by Jenna Macdonald, the voice behind “There’s a Shoe for That” family and travel blog:

Stories: 

Stories are the quickest and easiest live event content to create and because it’s video, all the platforms love them! You can take multiple videos for stories in the moment or save it for a later day! 

The wifi wasn’t the greatest during our weekend retreat, but that didn’t stop any of us from taking hundreds of pictures and videos for future use! Many have been used for stories on Instagram/Facebook or later turned into Reels.

Reels: 

While the algorithm changes frequently, Reels are still the best thing you can do for your Instagram feed. Consider taking video while at the event and storing it on your phone to edit into reels afterwards. 

A perfect example is this one from Heather Clarke, a writer living here in beautiful Nova Scotia. She had an idea for a reel and wrangled everyone into participating over the weekend to edit it into this perfection at the end of the retreat: 

Podcast recaps: 

Podcasts are a great way to recap the event and your experience with it. Your biggest takeaways and what you will do with your learnings in the future. Heather Deveaux is an Instructional Designer, Course Creator, and Coach—as well as one of the sponsors of our retreat!—and she used her podcast the following week to talk through the top takeaways she had. 

Blog Posts: 

Blogs are another great way to recap the event and your experience with it, what you learned and, if applicable, as a way to thank the sponsors, in-kind, etc. 

This is a great way to share with others about your experience and to help build excitement and anticipation for another event/retreat.

Tag Accounts: 

Think of the power in numbers and working together to grow all of our feeds. By tagging other accounts and businesses, you’ll reach a larger audience overall.

Think outside the box

At the end of the day, the best thing you can do is try to think outside the box. One of our attendees was from Staycation Apparel, who brought the softest shirts for everyone to wear. While she didn’t make money from the product, with 12 women traversing the colourful backdrop of Cape Breton in the Fall, what they DID get was a massive amount of quality content. 

Have an Airbnb or inn? You can actually act as a HOST of live events, as business owners slowly get small groups together again. While half of our stay was provided by Tourism Cape Breton, the Inn on The Intervale actually provided the second night for us! And while we would be talking about them anyway because they look like the setting of a hallmark movie—they also had content created for them the whole weekend long and all week since we’ve been home. 

Thinking about how you can take advantage of a live event for your business is the first step in making big moves for your business as we get back to some semblance of normal! 

The takeaway of the day

My biggest takeaway from hosting my own retreat and seeing the content creation as it happened is that pre-planning for your business will always help you in the end. Can you change your mind? Yes! But you can always build and come back to what you wrote down and what you planned. 

Planning more than one day at a time makes you think big picture and not simply day by day. During this event, we focused on our long-term goals how we hoped the next few years would pan out—but, if you missed the event and want to get your social media planning in order as soon as possible, make sure to check out my Social Media Content Planner! 

My next retreat in early 2022 will focus on this planner with a group of 8 lucky people, so make sure to pick up your copy to get an invite before it’s released to the general public!