By mfgday.com
If you’re contemplating hosting a Manufacturing Day (MFG Day) Event, you probably have a lot of questions, ranging from “What is a Manufacturing Day event?” to “What sorts of resources are available to help me make my event a success?”
Here are some step-by-step instructions to help guide you through the process. Even if you don’t follow this order, the tips below should give you a leg up as you start planning your MFG DAY event.
- THINK ABOUT THE TYPE OF EVENT YOU WANT TO HOST: Most MFG DAY events are plant tours. During a plant tour, a manufacturer opens their shop to show their audience what they do. Sometimes, though, manufacturers that are close by to one another decide to collaborate and create a sort of “manufacturing community” in their industrial park or even a mini expo to showcase manufacturing companies in their area.
Manufacturers aren’t the only ones, though, who can host MFG DAY events. Lots of technical colleges, for example, hold educational fairs for their students and invite local manufacturers to set up booths or speak about their operations.
- DOWNLOAD THE EVENT PLANNING KIT:
Each year, MFG DAY updates its event planning kit, or “Host Toolkit” In it, you’ll find practical tips for organizing your event, including suggestions such as forming a planning group, sending out formal invites, and scripting your event to insure your audience is engaged.Most of this stuff you probably already know, but the Host Toolkit provides you with a useful checklist and a series of templates designed to make the planning process a bit easier — and to make your MFG DAY event a success.
- CREATE A HOST ACCOUNT ON MFGDAY.COM:
Even if you haven’t worked out all the details for your MFG DAY event, you should take a minute to create a Host account on mfgday.com. First of all, it will give you access to a dashboard that includes planning and promotional resources. Second, it will give you a chance to preview the event registration process so you can gather all the information necessary to register your event.
- REGISTER YOUR EVENT: Once you’ve created a Host account, you can use the “Event Management” tab in your Host dashboard to add your event to mfgday.com. Click on the “Add Event” button to start the three-step process.
In the first section of the event registration process, you’ll be asked for basic event info, such as the date, time, address, and type of even you plan to hold.In the second section, you’ll designate how people will be able to register for your event. They can do it through mfgday.com or via a third-party site such as Eventbrite. Alternatively, you can choose to make your event open to everyone without registration — or to designate it private.Lastly, you’ll be given the option of enhancing your event listing by adding your logo, your website URL, and links to any social media profiles. If you don’t have any of this information available the first time you run through the event creation process, you can always save your work and come back later to update your event listing.
- PUBLISH YOUR EVENT:
Once you’re satisfied with the information you’ve provided about your event, you can publish it to mfgday.com. This will add your event to the map, as well as create a landing page for your event on the site. If you plan to promote your event, you can use this page’s URL to share information and drive registration.
