Let's do this face-to-face
Practical, in-person sessions for people who bring people together
Sounds Local workshops are for people running events, groups, classes, clubs, nights, meetups, mini-festivals, and other gathering places around the West Midlands.
They’re built around a simple question:
How do we make it easier for people to find your event, say yes to it, feel welcome when they arrive, and remember to come back?
You’ll work on your actual event, group or place, using prompts, examples, pair work and practical feedback. And you’ll leave with clearer ideas, better wording, and small changes you can make before your next gathering.
For organisers who are doing the work
Sounds Local workshops are especially made for individuals and small teams holding events together.
You might be running your thing alongside a full-time job. You might be working with volunteers, or trying to make a small gathering feel more sustainable. You know your event matters, but explaining it, promoting it, and getting people to come back is just a hassle and it feels too much like marketing.
You're in good company.
Keep Them Coming Back
Getting someone to attend once is hard enough. Getting them to return is where the real work begins.
Keep Them Coming Back is a practical workshop for organisers who want to improve the journey from first discovery to repeat attendance.
We’ll look at the small moments that help people decide whether a gathering is for them:
- how they first hear about it
- what helps them trust it
- what makes it easier to say yes
- what happens before they arrive
- how they’re welcomed
- how they know what to do
- what happens afterwards
- how they’re invited back
- what might help them bring someone else
You’ll map the current journey around your own event, group or place, then spot the weak points where people may be losing confidence, getting confused, forgetting, or quietly deciding not to return.
You’ll leave with a simple Return Loop map and a short list of changes you can try before your next gathering.
This workshop is useful for
- recurring events
- community groups
- choirs, clubs and meetups
- workshops and classes
- cafés, pubs and venues with events
- small festivals and pop-ups
- coworking spaces and third spaces
- CICs, small charities and social enterprises
Digital Glue for Gathering Places
A practical workshop for organisers whose digital bits technically exist, but don’t quite join up.
We’ll look at the journey between your website, event listings, booking forms, mailing list, reminders, feedback, follow-up and evidence of what happened.
Useful if you’re juggling Eventbrite, MailChimp, Google Forms, Instagram, WhatsApp, spreadsheets, a website nobody loves and at least one login that might belong to someone who left in 2021.
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Do I need to have a fully formed event?
No. You just need something you’re running, planning or trying to make work.
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Is this only for charities or community groups?
No. Sounds Local works with gathering places broadly: community groups, venues, cafés, pubs, mini-festivals, coworking spaces, workshops, members' clubs and local organisers.
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Will I have to pitch in front of everyone?
No surprise pitching. There may be chances to share what you’re working on, but the workshops are designed to be useful without putting people on the spot.
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Can two of us come from the same project?
Yes. In fact, that can be really useful.
Organisational workshops
If you run a venue, mini-festival, arts organisation, coworking space or community project, I can also run a workshop just for your team.
This can be useful when several people are involved in the same gathering, but the journey around it has become a bit scattered.
An organisational workshop can help your team get clearer on
- who the gathering is for
- how people currently find it
- where people might be dropping off
- what the welcome feels like
- how follow-up works
- how the website, email, ticketing and social channels connect
- what needs to change next
These sessions can be adapted around your organisation, audience and current digital setup.
What you’ll leave with
Depending on the workshop, you’ll usually leave with some combination of
- a clearer map of your attendee journey
- better wording for an event listing or invitation
- a list of questions your attendees may be posing, but not to you
- practical changes you can make before the next event
- follow-up ideas to encourage return attendance
- a simple plan for improving one part of your digital setup
- more confidence about what to fix first
No giant strategy deck, o jargon, no homework that requires becoming a different person. Just practical work on the bits that help people turn up and come back.
