Can attending, sponsoring or volunteering at events be beneficial to your business?
Hi, I’m Stacey, Ottawa’s Personal Brand Photographer and to answer that question, a resounding YES!
If you’re an entrepreneur struggling to get noticed in your industry, a great way to meet other like minded business owners and consumers is to take part as a guest, sponsor, or volunteer at local events.
To reap the benefits, the events you attend should be of interest to you and your target audience.
If you are looking to make meaningful connections with like-minded individuals in your community, there is no better way than to make yourself present and go where the action is happening.
A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to sponsor and be the official photographer for TEDx Ottawa. If you don’t know what TED talks are, you likely live in a secluded cabin up in the woods! (Just kidding)
TED is a non-profit dedicated to spreading ideas usually in the form of powerful talks in 18 minutes or less. Enough to make a solid point, but not so long as to lose your attention. They often focus on topics of interest relevant to today’s world.
It takes a village to organize a large, high profile event such as this as well as a list of sponsors and volunteers to keep all the gears greased and running smoothly.
So perhaps you’ve had your eye on a show, function, gala or event you would like to take part in. How do you get IN? Simple, you ask!
If you have a skill you think you might be able to contribute to an event or function, find out who the people on the organizing team are and reach out. You will either get a yes, or a no, but hey at least you tried right?
Of course we shouldn’t volunteer just because we hope to just get something for ourselves out of it. If you find yourself wanting to support a cause it should be one that:
- You believe in
- Are interested in seeing succeed
- Provides a benefit to others
- Aligns with your personal ideals
We’ve all written a resume at one time or another (before we became entrepreneurs) right? There’s always a section for interests, hobbies and volunteer work. Reason being, people want to get to know YOU aside from whatever your main skill set is.
Using volunteer opportunities to build your brand and meet or work with like minded people is not only smart, you are helping others in the process and getting more eyeballs on what you do!
Please take a gander at a few of the highlights from the event.
Volunteers Hard at work
Thanks for fuelling us Pure Kitchen Ottawa!
VIP Room at the NAC – Ottawa
If you look closely, you might see my logo on that board (wink)
Frank O’Dea: Co-founder of Second Cup
Keisha and Teagan Simpson: Founders of Live Life Unfiltered
Stephane Keys: Host and MC for the evening
Mathieu Fleury: Ottawa City Councillor
Steve Day: Founder Canadian National Counter-Terrorist Task Force Commander
Marcus Miller: Marcus the Artyst and Co-Founder of Math+Music
Amira Elghawaby: Journalist and Human Rights Activist
Dan Hendry: Sustainable Initiatives Coordinator
Mitchell Beer: Publisher, The Energy Mix and President, Smarter Shift
Guy Laflamme: Executive Director and Producer of Ottawa 2017
Cheryl Dowell: Curator, Grand Catalyst
