August 30th, 2013
Published by: SandyLeveque
How To Organize Zumba Events - The Step by Step Guide
(Half of the video footage is actually from the dress-rehearsal! We had a problem with filming on the big day that I’ll explain further down!!!)
This eBook was created using the Zinepal Online eBook Creator. Use Zinepal to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub and Kindle/Mobipocket formats.
Benefits Events:
Organizing Zumba events – especially successful ones! – is a magical way to reach more people and feel good about what you’re doing. This article covers the basics to help you organize them with ease I’ve organized several Zumbathons® that raised 1000s for charity as well as a Zumba® Flashmob that broke the national record in France (the video has been viewed over 1.2 million times on Youtube!) and in this article I share my experiences of what’s worked best – for Zumbathons, Flashmobs and Demo’s. Learn from my trial and error so that you know how to run your events as smoothly as possible and how to maximize the community reach of your events.
Organize
Zumba
- A charity event puts the popular appeal of Zumba to work for a good cause.
How To Organize Zumba Events
to
Organizing
- They are a great way to inspire and connect with your students – by having them rally around a good cause or dancing Zumba in public.
Upgrade to a Zinepal Pro Account to unlock more features and hide this message.
Getting Inspired Zumba Event
of
a
I’ve noticed that sometimes Zumba colleagues are put off organizing charity events or demos because of the hard work they believe will be involved. I hear you! I’ve organized events that took alot of blood, sweat and tears ..and others that were far easier. A well-organized event, where you are not doing everything, will not only be a fun experience, it will create stronger bonds with your students and instructor friends. For example….I organized a flashmob here in France that brought together 40 Zumba instructors and just under 1000 students and I’ll never forget the sight of all those people (and so much fluorescent clothing!) filing through the park to dance together. It was truly one of the most magical Zumba® moments I’ve ever had. This is a video of the day itself:
- New people will hear about your business and it increases your visibility. - It adds variety to your schedule. - You’ll meet new instructors and can build working friendships that make organizing future events even easier.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask for Help! If there is one thing I’ve learnt from organizing multiple events is that people will be more than willing to help you – but you have to ask for help ! The more I’ve talked about my upcoming events with students, the easier it’s been to pull them together. If you’re good at what you do there’s a high chance your students appreciate you and will be happy to show you this ! I found that once I told my students about ideas I had, whether in person, at the end of classes or in my newsletter – offers to borrow equipment, find venues, organize helpers, would come flooding in. EXTRA TIP Seize opportunities ! Sometimes you’ll meet people who can help you have access to large spaces – eg. Public gyms or parks, or even shopping malls. Even if you don’t have an event lined up….ask them for their contact details ! Pretend you do have one ! It will be a thousand times easier to organize an event with someone who can secure the number one priority – a space ! And…ask the Universe to help you ! At one point I’d just decided to organize a Zumba flashmob and was researching how other big flashmobs had come together. Just two weeks later…the local authority for my city called me and asked if I’d co-ordinate a big Zumba flashmob at a sporting
Created using Zinepal. Go online to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats.
1
August 30th, 2013
event. They were organizing a big triathlon and the dates they’d chosen were nearly identical to mine. This meant we’d have support from the town hall, a huge venue, and partners. I couldn’t believe the timing ! Some people would put that down to coincidence but I don’t believe in coincidences. I know that my daily questions to the Universe, such as ‘what would it take for this to be AMAZING ?’ had helped…
Create a Collaborative Energy for Your Zumba Event It will be much more fun for the people you bring to it…and for YOU And be aware that if you’re creating an event with alot of other ZINs you’re probably go to be dealing with a few egos… including your own!!! A quick story illustrates this. When I was asked to organize the triathlon flashmob something strange happened inside my brain.
Published by: SandyLeveque
Without getting too philosophical about it I think it stems from a lack mentality – as though this is ‘the’ big opportunity…not to be missed or taken by another. When I realized that I was able to shift to an abundance mindset and not care if I was or wasn’t the star anymore The whole thing became easier to organize and ended up being a huge success So ….when it comes to the types of event you can organise there are 3 main kinds : Flashmobs, Demos and Zumbathons. Let’s start with flashmobs.
Organizing Zumba Flashmobs You’re probably familiar with the concept of flashmobs but just in case you’re not here’s a simple definition : A flashmob is when a crowd of people suddenly breaks out into co-ordinated dancing, usually one by one in the beginning part. This example from the Justin Timberlake movie is one of my favourites :
I thought I was encouraging other instructors to get involved – for months I called an instructor almost everyday and worked my way through the list of Zumba instructors in my area - some 170 Zins.
Organizing a Zumba flashmob is pretty simple really – it’s basically getting students to practice a dance routine with you and peforming it in a public place, usually somewhere surprising !
(I had to phone because by this point I was actually living in a different city).
Here’s the nuts and bolts of how to do that :
……….Yet….something was amiss.
2 months before:
I found that many ZINS weren’t overly enthusiastic about the event! We organized a briefing and only 2 or 3 instructors, my personal friends, showed up.
1) Set a clear intention for the kind of flashmob you wish to create. Big? Small? Just your students? Many students from your local area? How many people do you wish to come?
It took me a while to catch on…but eventually I realized what the problem was.
Choose whether you wish to organize the flashmob with just your students or whether you are teaming up with other instructors.
Even though I was talking about collaboration and this being a team effort, I was actually doing everything myself. I realized I was (unconsciously) trying to ‘control’ the event and position myself as the ‘star’ of it…by being the one that had brought everyone together. It was strange to realise this – because I like to think of myself as someone who wouldn’t do that! And suddenly I had to face the truth that I’d actually been functioning from wanting to be the ‘star of the show’. Add an already competitive atmosphere to the mix – Zumba had just exploded in the city and instructors weren’t getting on very well… and it was the recipe for disaster!! The cool thing is that once I became aware of it I realized ‘hang on…that’s not ME, that’s not what I wanted to create here’. And I reevaluated everything I was doing and changed my approach. I began delegating parts of the flashmob and we created a choreography video that I didn’t even appear in. This shifted the energy slightly but it did take a while to undo the damage I’d done by trying to be the star. I’m sharing this with you so that you can avoid doing the same thing, as I know this goes on in other cities too.
2) Decide when to do the flashmob – weekends are generally a good time. Make sure you give yourself enough time plan everything. This will depend on the size of what you’re aiming for. If you’re planning in advance you might as well give yourself enough time – for example 8 weeks is a good length of time, or even 3 months. I’ve found that 8 weeks works well as it’s close enough to get people into action-mode without being too close that there’s not enough time to organize everything. 3) Choose a location – somewhere where there will be alot of people ! The more unusual the location the better. If you are in a public space make sure you have permission to be there.. It MAY be possible to wing it without – a flashmob is generally only a few minutes long. But there is a considerable risk that your flashmob will get stopped within seconds of starting if you are in a public space without permission. It would be a shame to waste all that planning! EXTRA TIP :
You can pitch it as great way to drum up publicity for another event or to create an attraction – for example in a shopping centre or at a sporting event. The record breaking flashmob I helped organize was at a Triathlon event. The organizers knew that by getting Zumba on the programme they could appeal to a wider audience.
Created using Zinepal. Go online to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats.
2
August 30th, 2013
4) Organize your sound system. Speaking from personal experience here, make sure you have a good one and that it works ! Taking care of this right from the start will take a ton off your mind. Ideally you’ll want a speaker that is battery operated – so you can bring it with you and don’t have to worry about finding a power socket (hard to do outside). 5) Pick a song for the flashmob. One of the most important things you can do! Obviously It’s also a great opportunity to get your students involved and start creating momentum for the event. Ask students for their song suggestions and get a sense of what people prefer. You can even create an online survey with something like SurveyMonkey.Com. (the only caveat to this is be prepared to create choreography on any of the song choices, your students may not have the same preference as you!). If it’s a joint effort with other Zumba instructors you can all send out the survey to your respective students and either pick the selection together or have one instructor who organizes this. 6) Create a choreography for the song – again how you do this will depend on whether you’re working alone or with other instructors. Whichever it is, you’ll want to start teaching it in your classes well ahead of time. Introduce it into your classes and tell everyone about the event. Don’t wait until the week before – obviously.
Published by: SandyLeveque
telling them about a future event. Give the media a reason to feature your event in their press : eg. ‘Zumba will bring X to a standstill on xxx » Send it your local media and ask students if they have any contacts with them. 3) Organize a rehearsal. Will it be just before the event ? Or at another venue ? It’s good to know this in advance so you can start giving people that information. 4 weeks before 1) Decide on a dress code and what people should wear before hand. Ie. Will they be wearing Zumba clothes under something else ? The most exciting flashmobs are ones that take people by surprise – where everyone suddenly breaks out into dance even though they’re dressed in corporate suits or construction worker uniforms ! 2) Go the venue and create a video /photos of the spot. This will help your students understand where it is and also add variety in how you’re promoting it. People sometimes get bored of seeing the same visual over and over. Short quirky videos can go a long way. 3) Picking a running order – who will start dancing first ? Who will follow up ? Make sure you match this to the music so that you don’t have tons of people staggering their ‘starts’ when the music is doing something totally different. 2 weeks before 1) You should be talking about the flashmob ALOT by now ! Remind your students, keep them aware of it. Ask them to help promote it. 2) Find someone who can video and photography you – ideally a person for each thing. Even better – if at all possible try and get 2 or 3 videocams filming you from different angles so you have different angles to include in the video. In the flashmob video you see above we had only 1 photographer / videographer and he was not in a great position to film us when we started dancing.
7) Create a Visual for the Event : this can be a poster/flyer or image that does both. You can hire a graphic designer or do it yourself. Make sure the essential information is on there – day, time, where to meet. Organizing a flashmob is different to a regular event in that you’ll want most of your flashmobbers to know the routine already – so you’ll be promoting the event more to your existing students than new people. That said, having a poster or flyer helps to give the event momentum and it’s likely that people in your students networks will see it and your classes will still attract new people. 8) Tell your students in your newsletter and update your blog / website . The earlier they know the better, as the more excitement you can build up.
4) Check in with your soundsystem provider and make sure they are still ok with the date- particularly if you are borowing it. Organize how you will bring it or have it brought to the event. 1 week before 1) Make sure everything is in place for the rehearsal. At the rehearsal make sure everyone is clear about the running order. 2) Send out a reminder to the local media 3) Have a good cup of tea ! By this point you’ll feel the energy of the event building up and it may be pretty powerful at times ! Make time to relax ☺ 4) Check in with your photograher and video person to make sure they can still attend
6 weeks before
5) Arrange a meeting point near the location
1) Create a video of choreography that new people can use to learn it Make sure you mention the flashmob in the description and tags. Post it to your blog, social media networks and in your newsletter.
1 Day before
2) Write a press release for local media. This can be very simple and you can call it an ‘Opportunity Note’ – as you’re
• Send a reminder to your students • Check the sound system is working • Make a video about how exicted you are, share on social networks, like Facebook
Created using Zinepal. Go online to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats.
3
August 30th, 2013
• Pray for sunshine if you’re going to be outside ! • Prepare a press release that you can send out tomorrow morning. The day itself • Send a reminder to your students • Give yourself plenty of time to get ready and arrive at the location early. • Speak to your photographer and video people- make sure they are in the (correct!) position. • Greet students as they arrive and check everyone is familiar with when they’re going to start dancing.
Do the flashmob ! Have alot of fun ! And after….
Published by: SandyLeveque Extra Tip :
Get feedback from your students about how they thought it went and ask them to come up with potential locations for a future one – when they’re all fired up they’ll be happy to make enquiries within their own network). So what’s next ?
A Zumbathon! Here’s How To Organize a Successful Zumbathon I organized my first Zumbathon in 2010 and it was a real last minute operation. I got the go-ahead for a public space 1 month before the event and borrowed sound equipment from a friend that we couldn’t get to work on the day. It was all pretty stressful. Since then I’ve organized a series of Zumbathons that have been far more impactful, stress-free and financially lucrative for the charities we’ve raised money for. Take this information and run with it !
What is a Zumbathon and Why Organise One? A Zumbathon is giant Zumba event that raises money for a specific cause. It’s essentially a fundraising event that usually features several instructors and lasts between 2 – 3 hours. There are many benefits to hosting a Zumbathon, here are three main ones : You can go for a drink or food with your students and talk about how it went. There will probably be journalists who’d like to interview you afterwards (or before) – be aware of that. Create a video about the event or have someone do this. Upload it to Youtube within 24 hours – this is important as people are most interested in the event during that initial period. After the Flashmob You’ll probably find you want to do another one! Ha ! You can keep the energy of the flashmob high by doing a few things afterwards : 1) Send a message to your students thanking them for taking part – and send them the link to your video. 2) Put photos on Facebook and/or your blog. 3) Send a ‘post-event’ press release to the local media (multiple exposures to your event will help keep you in their awareness) 4) Make sure the soundsystem is returned to its owner if you borrowed it. 5) Take a long bath ! And congratulate yourself…you’ve just completed your first flashmob !
1. They are a great way to inspire and connect with your students. 2. A Zumbathon puts the popular appeal of Zumba to work for a good cause. 3. They extend the reach of your classes beyond your current students
Planning Your Zumbathon 3 months before: A Zumbathon can be a big thing to organize so make sure you give yourself enough time to make it a stress-free experience. VENUE : The first step is to find a suitable venue. Unless you already teach in a big venue find a venue that is bigger than the one you use for weekly classes. The target is to promote this to the whole community and you’ll be restricted in that if you use an 80m2 room. Look to community venues that will often lend their spaces for charity events. Think local schools, community centres or churches. You can also go to your local town hall and meet their events team. There may be big events going on that you can ‘piggy back’ on to – for example by using the stage and sound system. I’ve done this before and it made things super easy to organise. They may also lend you public space such as a garden or square.
Created using Zinepal. Go online to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats.
4
August 30th, 2013
Extra Tip: Take care to build a good relationship with them from day one as once you’ve organized an event you’ll no doubt want to organize more in the future Talk to your students and see if they can help you find a venue. You’d be surprised how much people are willing to help. TIME : Once you’ve found a venue set a date and time. Weekends work best. Check what times suit your students and what would work with the climate in your area (for example avoid scheduling it during the hottest part of the day). Two hours is a good length of time for a Zumbathon. CHOOSE A CHARITY : Decide who you will be fundraising for. This is a great thing to involve your students with. If you have a newsletter mention it and ask them to email you suggestions of local charities they are passionate about. This will give you plenty of ideas and it will enable you to see if there are any motivated people you could work with. Finding a charity ‘partner’ who will help organize this with you will greatly help with the event. For example I once teamed up with a student whose daughter is handicapped and we raised money for her illness. The student was so passionate about the event that she moved mountains to make things happen. If anyone stands out in your community don’t hesitate to approach them with your idea and take it from there. And – don’t be afraid to ask for help for other things too. When you email your students ask if anyone can help with graphic design (for a poster), or with providing any equipment you require, or even drinks/balloons !) 2 months before: Obtain permission from Zumba® for your event – go to their website to do this. Contact other Zumba instructors and invite them to co-teach the event with you. Go for instructors you feel would be fun and easy to work with. If there are many in your area you can invite them to create mini-teams and have a rotation system between the different teams. However if this is your first event keep things simple and stick to 4/5 instructors. Ensure they’ll help you promote the event. EQUIPMENT: This depends on the venue you are using. Make sure you’ll have adequate sound systems and a stage. If the event is in a public space it will also be handy to have barriers to block the area off. You’ll need a table for the fundraising team – perhaps more depending on whatever you put in place (eg. Drinks / facepainting). PROMO MATERIALS: Organize a poster for the event. Again keep things simple and make sure you tell people the essential information. Make sure the charity is clearly featured on the poster. VIDEO: Create a short invitation video with the other instructors. This will also be a good opportunity to connect with them. The video should be short (1 min-1m30) and humour is always good ! You can include clips of your class and again remember to tell people the basic information. An easy way to
Published by: SandyLeveque
do this is by including the poster in the video. Upload this to Youtube. SOCIAL MEDIA: Create an event on Facebook and invite your students as well as people who may be receptive to attending the event. Put yourself in the shoes of a new person and be sure to include information they’ll need – how to find the venue, what to wear, who can attend? Be sure to emphasize that ANYONE can attend a Zumbathon. Think about a dress code or something similar (like a theme) to differentiate the event from a standard weekly class. Include a link to the Youtube video and to your website or Zumba profile if you have one. Make sure the event is on your website / blog. SPONSORS: Work with your charity partner to find sponsors and don’t forget to think out of the box. I once worked with someone who managed to negotiate giant helium balloons for an event that looked amazing. She also organized free sodas from a local supermarket which we sold on the day to raise extra money. At another event makeup artists from Makeup forever did makeovers for girls taking part in the Zumbathon. 1 month before: Ask your students to help promote the event – talk about it every week in your newsletter and regularly on your Facebook page. Make sure your Zumba ZIN team has everything they need to promote the event and ask your charity partner to promote via the charity’s networks. Contact local press (alongside your charity partner) and tell them what you’re doing. Prepare a short press release and send it around. Again ask your students to help with this. Contact your Zumba instructor team and ask them to send you their song titles and any non-Zumba songs. Give them a deadline for this and ask them to stick to it. There’s nothing worse than scrambling around on the morning of your event trying to compile a playlist (speaking from personal experience here !). Check for any duplication in their song choices and organise a running order. You can either do this yourself or talk / meet with the team to do it. Even if you can’t co-ordinate everyone together it can be nice to meet at least one instructor and go through the playlist together. Make sure you have a clear warm up and cool down period. 2 weeks before Organize for someone to video and / or photograph the event Create your playlist and make sure you have all the music you need. Make sure your charity partner has everything they require for the big day (table, box for the money collection etc). Ensure that your equipment works and go to the venue to check if possible.
Created using Zinepal. Go online to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats.
5
August 30th, 2013
Published by: SandyLeveque
Keep promoting and reminding your students. Ask some of them to arrive early on the day so they can help you set up.
way to raise awareness of your classes without as much of the legwork involved in organising a Zumbathon or flashmob.
24 Hours Before
I’ve always been lucky with Zumba demos in the sense that most of the ones I’ve done were organized for me by other people.
• Send out a press release to your local press reminding them about the event. • Send a newsletter to your students. • Check your playlist is ok • Check the weather forecast if you’re going to be outdoors ! On the Day Itself • Arrive early and check your sound system is ok. Talk to your photographer and videographer and make sure they are in position. • Talk to your charity partner and make sure they have everything set up to collect donations. See if they’d like to make a quick speech at the beginning to thank everyone. • And then, once you’ve decorated with your students..get the music on and wait for peeps to arrive! If you’ve followed this advice the rest of the day itself will actually be alot of fun The energy of a Zumbathon event can be really amazing so be sure to set things up so you can actually enjoy it. After: • Find out how much money you raised and how many people attended.
Colleagues, shop keepers, town halls, students have seen an opportunity for a Zumba demo and have asked me to come along. I know that’s also because at the very start of creating my Zumba business I created an action plan and I knew I wanted to do regular demos. I asked the Universe to help me create these and… as the Universe would have it nearly two dozen demo opportunities came in! So what do you do if you don’t have anyone offering you a demo ? The first thing is to brainstorm potential demo spots in your area. Are there big sports shops, or shopping centres ? Or big events in the local town’s calendar ? Once you’ve identified potential areas contact them. Send them an email first and follow up with a call. Make sure you highlight the benefits to the other party of you coming along and doing a demo with a few of your students : • It livens up an event • It’s a form of free entertainment • It gives people the opportunity to do some sport (town halls like this)
• Send a press release to local media, thank your students and try to publish photos and the event video as quickly as possible. You have the energy and attention of everyone so capitalize on it while you can.
If you can borrow a sound system or have your own this is even better as you won’t need anything from them except space and for someone to announce you.
And…congratulations! You’ve completed your Zumbathon!
Another powerful thing you can do is to ask around your students – ask them in a newsletter or on Facebook. You’d be amazed at the doors that can open up.
Last but not least….
ORGANIZING ZUMBA DEMOS
I once had a student who’s husband ran an entertainment company in the area, and worked closely with the town hall. I’d been part of a big local charity event and her husband was the compere. From that date she regularly involved me in events she was organizing and I brought along several other instructors. We danced Zumba at musical festivals, cultural festivals and more charity events, including one with DJ Mams and Luis Gersao.
Putting on a Demo 1) Once you have got a date and time – check whether you should ask along other instructors. Will there be room on the stage for them and your students ? 2) Notify your students and create a Facebook event / note on your blog. Make sure they know about it well in advance. A final type of Zumba event is a Zumba demo - a short (usually) demonstration of a Zumba class in a public space. Members of the public can usually join in and they are a great
3) Decide on what songs you’ll do and make sure they’re in your playlist so that students are familiar with the moves. You’ll want to pick simple , fun , lively choreographies that
Created using Zinepal. Go online to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats.
6
August 30th, 2013
total newbies could do too – as members of the public will be encouraged to dance with you. 4) Send a press release to local media and create a short video about the demo that you can upload to Youtube and use to create more interest in it. 5) You can also print flyers about the demo and post them in the area nearby around a week before. 6) Make sure you have a group of students who will come with you for the demo ! and that they know how to get there and reach the actual demo location.
Published by: SandyLeveque
I blog with the team in the photo below - Team Have it ALL! They are an AMAZING group of people. The couple next to me (I’m wearing the red jacket) just made 44K in July (yes in July!!!!) by blogging, and are personally mentoring me. Other people in the team have made $1000, $500, $15,000 and $4000 – there are people at all ends of the scale. Because please note…joining the platform doesn’t guarantee making money – you can read average results here, they are updated every 24 hours. What I do know is that if you choose to create un-average results – even part time! (as I have been) – and are consistent, anything is possible.
7) Arrange for someone to photograph and film the event – preferably not the same person and make sure they know how to reach the location.
Read this FAQ if you have questions and this page explains the bonuses that our team has to offer.
8) Talk about the event regularly in the run-up to it and make sure everyone knows when it is !
Thanks for reading, and have awesome events everyone!
9) On the day of the demo arrive in plenty of time and check the video and photo person knows what to do. You can also send out a short press release reminding local press that it’s today. Send a motivating text message to your students and tell them’ see you there’. Ensure that the sound system is working and get ready to party !
And..to just get started.… click here!
PS. If you enjoyed this you will find these useful too: Zumba® Teacher Training Tips: Are You Teaching Or Are You Just Performing?
10) After the demo send a thank you message to your students and the demo venue. Create a video within 24 hours and publish it on Youtube. Send pictures and the video to your local press contacts and update your blog and Facebook page with them too. And…take a nice long hot bath!
The Magic of Blogging The blogging platform you are reading this on has actually enabled me to take a break from teaching weekly classes and to travel with my dog and lap top (and my Zumbawear of course). Although I love, love, love teaching Zumba, I was tired of not having any money coming in if I took time off, a break from classes or was even just a bit poorly. So I began blogging here as a means of creating passive income, part-time. In just 6 months – part time- I went from internet newbie to being able to win internet traffic contests! (read about that here). You can too! It’s pretty simple. You blog (about anything you like), share your blog and if somebody clicks on a banner around the blog, the sale is tracked to you. The ‘sharing’ part has actually helped me get better at marketing to the point where I just had to change phonenumber because I was having so many calls for my (now on hold) Zumba classes!! I know that many other people out in the world can benefit from this too. Watch this free video training to understand how you can use the internet and blogging to increase your visibility in the world, AND receive money! Created using Zinepal. Go online to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats.
7