Hi
I organise events for a freelance coaching team, such as workshops and CPD. So far I have:
Sending calendar invites (one person said she hadn't been invited to something she accepted)
Sending out a word document with a reminder to organise, which I send out regularly.
I also send reminder emails.
These details have been uploaded to a platform for future access.
I also feedback regularly to the company owner.
The person who onboards the team and allocates work is also copied into this information
I still get many emails repeatedly asking for the same thing over and over.
The team even send the part time HR/other team members questions that then get sent to me.
I know that many of the team might be neurodivergent and some have admitted how far behind they are on core admin.
It feels like they're dumping this on me... apologies for the rant
I hope this doesn't come off as rude, however, it sounds like this is part of the job you signed up for. It's par for the course for anyone involved in the professional development world to be asked the same question(s) repeatedly. Most people don't want or think such events/activities are worth their time and/or attention. They are usually multi-tasking during such events and basically just "showing up" but are not actually present. They often just ask for any documents, slides, etc. afterwards so they can say they got them, maybe peruse them, read them, etc.
Another thought, again take it for what it's worth: based on your post; you seem to be judging these people without perhaps understanding or incorporating their perspective on the context. I am going to bet these folks have many other priorities and asks of them. Which, with all due respect, are all probably far more important and urgent (especially since they are likely being measured upon hitting those targets) than what you are presenting. Not that your work and materials aren't important, because they are, but a client needing an immediate reply, a conflicting call/meeting that is impractical to reschedule, a critical slide deck or document they need to work on and finish before EOD, their kids' school calling for something, etc. are just always going to win. Sometimes they just have to make a choice to pick a higher priority ask of their time.
I say this all because I am guilty of all of these kinds of things and I am sure many professional development folks were irked by me and my asks of them.
Now that is all well and good, we might have a bit more sympathy for the folks but that still doesn't help you (maybe a tiny bit but probably not much). Some tactically useful tips and tricks could be:
- Using text expander (or similar tools [even if just copy-paste from a text file/word doc]) to provide pre-canned responses to common questions. Makes responding to such requests much faster & streamlined.
- Repeatedly send the information out after the fact to folks via multiple communication streams (e.g. email, Slack/Teams, internal portals/boards, etc.). Everyone has their own communication preferences and casting a wide net can help reduce some missed hits (i.e. the black hole of email).
- Generalize the resources, if possible, so you can provide a common link / self-service solution for folks (i.e. a shared Google Drive folder where the contents don't need to change/aren't session specific). Might be considered a little lazy but rarely are things required to be personalized. Even client specific shared drives can work, especially if you present the same material many times throughout the year/etc.
- Ask folks for a brief survey in terms of the event logistics: Was the time slot a good time for them?, Did they find the length appropriate?, Would they like a longer Q & A section? Would they like to send questions in ahead of time or pre-read materials?, etc. Keep it ideally, short and to the point, maybe 5 or less yes-or-no questions with a single optional open ended "any additional comments/feedback" question at the end. The time slot might just be during most folks busy time.
- Try presenting events around common lunch times. Include an offer for a free $25 food stipend for all attendees at the end of the presentation or something (free food gets a lot attendance).
- Maybe host a duplicate version of the event at different times on the same day (or different days in the same week). Sometimes that helps folks in their schedules or if they need additional material and would normally ask ... instead they have the option to attend the event again very soon.
I know it's frustrating but hopefully this helps and makes dealing with such common requests easy and painless. You might even be able to make lemonade from the situation by being using the above tricks and making it appear that you are so responsive and helpful that folks relay the positivity to the CEO/etc. and so forth.
