Three Signs it's Time to Cancel Your Event

              This year, due to a large Tourism convention taking place the same day as our scheduled Southeastern Ohio Tourism and Business Expo, we received too few registrations to, in good conscious, move forward with the event in 2017. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused, but we strive to ensure the event attracts enough visitors to be worthwhile for our exhibitors. We do hope you consider taking part in 2018, as we will begin planning that event in the summer.

            The GCCVB hosts many events throughout the year and one very important part of event planning is knowing when to cancel an event. After putting so much time and effort into organizing the details and spreading the word, it is difficult to decide to not move forward. Here are a few signs that means it is time to cancel the event.

1. Your Location Isn't Flexible. Sometimes in order to move forward with your event you need to change your dates or even the location. For example, our expo was/has been at the University of Rio Grande Lyne Center. Unfortunately, due to the busyness of the University a date change was not possible.

2. Timing is Off. It is usually best to keep an annual event the same time each year. But sometimes you just can't make the stars align. When you work in such a large industry, like tourism, there are always many other expos and conventions that are hosted around the same time. The AAA Great Vacations Travel Expo and The Heartland Show are two of the biggest shows that pull CVB's and tourist attractions from our area. And when one event is pushed back they all are. Which is exactly what happened to us. The AAA show was moved back and thus causing The Heartland show to be the same weekend as the Southeastern Ohio Tourism and Business Expo.

3. Meeting Expectations. If you see a poster for a Bake Sale and it turns out just to be two cookies and some broccoli you're going to be disappointed as well as confused. When you advertise your event to offer something and you were unable to provide enough of that it might be time to consider cancelling. You want to meet the expectations of your exhibitors and your guests, if you can't then proceeding with the event could change the future expectations for all. 

       Sometimes cancelling your event is the better choice. It doesn't mean that you weren't good at event planning, just that the stars weren't aligned. It is always important to consider how much time you have to cancel so that the degree of inconvenience to your exhibitors is slight. Remember, event planning isn't an exact science and knowing when to cancel an event is an important arrow in you event planning quiver.