We recently had a great discussion in our private Ops Boss® Coaching Facebook Group about the best way to organize a client event around “Photos with Santa”. You can use these same ideas to do “Portraits in the Park” or “Easter Bunny Pictures” in the Spring. Thank you to the following Directors of Operations and Business Owners for some great info: Michelle Chenevert, Jerrica Kontos, Ellenmarie Foga, Tanya Niederman, Alexis Thompson, Brittany Allen, Tieghlor Melton, Katy Haluch & Holly Petracca!
10 Tip For Organizing Client Event Photos With Santa or Portraits In The Park:
- “We did portraits in the park with the jotform scheduling tool. People would pick a 15 minute time slot. We advertised their photos would start within that 15 minute range. We let 3 people pick the same timeframe which was great – some would be early, others would be late and they all knew it wasn’t an exact start time. Snacks or other activities help while they wait. I highly recommend an FAQ page on registration site and via email. Helps with expectations.”
- “We do this every year & it’s our best event! We do 8-10 “slots” in every 30 minute increment. It’s a great flow & people are never waiting that long as folks trickle in during that 30 min slot. We also have items like a coloring table, etc in a separate foyer area before walking into the photo room.”
- “We’ve done multiple ways. We did family photos with 5-10 minute slots through sign up genius. I think we spaced them 10 minute increments but the actual sessions were like 5 minutes each. Just preface it when you’re checking people in and on marketing it’ll only be a couple minutes so they don’t expect a full photo session. We also used to do an event that had 20 vendors for people to shop and then get in line with Santa. We had it down to a science with the line so it moved pretty quickly and it was similar to like the mall type photos and we had one person with the family’s name on a dry erase board so the photographer would snap a picture of that right before their couple of photos so they’d be easy to find. That was for a public event so I would recommend if you did public just send out a link to everyone who registered for the event and they can find their own photo cause you won’t know everyone.”
- “We’ve done two different formats. When our event was in the 100 to 400 person range, we used pagers like they have at Panera. We would run the pagers from the Santa station to the check-in station. I think we had 30 or so? And we would page 10 families at a time so the line wouldn’t get too crazy. When the event grew (we’re now at 800+ attendees), we included a link to sign up genius with the invitation so a family could reserve a 10 minute spot. This worked really well, and even if someone missed their slot or forgot to sign up, it spaces it out enough that we can usually get them into the line without a problem. Our event runs about 4 hours and a lot of families with older kids just opt for our family photo booth instead of Santa, so it works out well.”
- “We do Easter bunny photos. We have a sign up for the event and they can take the photos whenever they want. We don’t do specific time slots. Sometimes the kids have to warm up to the bunny!”
- “We do 10 minute time slots for the reservations and the photo does a 5 – 7 minute session! We use a jotform or a calendar sign up tool for scheduling!”
- “Our local fire department does them for special needs children and the organizer does a sign up genius for 30 min slots with 5 min in between (just because kids get overwhelmed).”
- “My sister did sports photos and she would do a 15 min slot and allow 5 kids to sign up and whoever got there at the time got their photos in order of arrival.”
- “We do Santa photos at our pie event. While we do have people sign up ahead of time, we do not do a specific time slot per Santa’s request. So if we have any wait times, we have a food truck and things being passed out. The line includes small tables with “leave a review here” or follow us info. It’s a relaxed feel, people can go up to Santa more than once. Some kids go back for a story, it’s cute.”
- “We used to do an exclusive 15-min time slot and each family would get 2-3 finished photos. That got cost-prohibitive and time-consuming. We are going to try a first-come, first-serve open-ended process this fall and see how that goes – based on a suggestion in the past from this group.”
To learn more about the details & best practices of running productive client events all year long, sign up for our October 23rd class: LOW COST, HIGH RETURN CLIENT EVENTS with Coach Jerrica Kontos.
Driven by her event plan, 67% of the business’ closed sales were generated from client events in Jerrica’s prior role as DOO of a real estate team and independent brokerage. Jerrica also has 7 years of nonprofit experience (before joining real estate) with a focus on event planning and development! Join Jerrica on a deep dive into the secrets of hosting successful and profitable events BEFORE you build your 2025 Client Event Plan!
What’s in store for you?
Insider tips on what makes an event a hit
Strategies to measure and maximize your ROI
Ways to make event planning seamless
Guidance on securing sponsorships and setting up registration
…and so much more, including case studies and templates for immediate execution!
Expect a session brimming with energy, invaluable insights, and actionable takeaways. Ready to elevate your events and see your business soar?
October 23, 2024 – 12-3 pm EST / 9 am – 12 pm PST
Great for Ops Bosses
, Agents, and Small Business Owners!