I’ve received a few emails from folks asking about my motivation for starting the DC Flacks happy hour, how I organize it, get folks to show up each month, and if they can copy the format in their town. Well, sure! And I’m happy to help! Here’s how DC Flacks came to be (feel free to plagiarize as much or as little as you want):

I like talking to strangers. Dave and I moved to DC last May. I was new to this city and needed a way to meet my fellow public relations and public affairs pros. So, I declared a happy hour and folks actually showed up. At first, there were just a handful of us. Then Twitter word-of-mouth took over; we had 40 folks in January and nearly 60 in February. Out of my purely selfish desire to meet new folks, DC Flacks was born. If you like talking to strangers, you’re gonna do great as a ___ Flacks host/hostess.

I heart Meetup.com. I had accompanied Dave on various adventures of the Nashville Photography Meetup that he founded back in 2006, so I was familiar with the concept. You don’t have to use Meetup to organize your happy hour, of course, but if you want to, here’s how:

  • Make sure you’re not recreating the wheel–do a good search to ensure Nashville Flacks, Jacksonville Flacks, Chicago Flacks, etc don’t already, in theory, exist.
  • Create an account–think of a name (it’s totally fine for you to use the DC Flacks format), pick a background color and get out your credit card. Meetup charges an annual fee. You can solicit sponsors later, but you’ve gotta pony up the cash on the front end.
  • Set the tone–DC Flacks is successful because there’s no pressure. You show up or you don’t. There’s no program, no sign-in sheets, no business card bowl. You just slap on a name tag and order a brew. No big whoop.
  • Pick a location, time and date for your first happy hour–this is the exciting part! Just don’t forget to check events calendars in your town to ensure you aren’t booking your event on the same night as hockey/NBA/football/Disney on Ice/U2 concert. Learned that one the hard way. Also, you want a location that is not going to charge you an alcohol minimum or room fee. This needs to be a no-pressure thing for your guests AND you. Oh, and be sure to book your next happy hour soon after your successful event to take advantage of the after-glow. DC Flacks meets monthly.

I let the flacks do the talking. To build momentum for your group, you’re gonna have to promote the heck out of it. I’ve blogged, Tweeted and Facebooked about DC Flacks religiously. It also has it’s own Twitter hashtag, #dcflacks, a Twitter list and a LinkedIn group. The fun part is that after a while, folks started carrying the promotional load with me. They may not always refer to DC Flacks correctly or cite its proper origins, but at least they’re talking about it. The same will happen for you, so resist the urge to correct them or get too greedy with name recognition. The point is getting folks to show up, not collect kudos.

Hope this (rather long) tutorial helps! Please don’t hesitate to shoot me a note if you need assistance or encouragement. Email me at Margie (at) Flackrabbit (dot) com.

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