A key part of our vision is to build the engagement movement across the UK. This means supporting the development of the movement in regions, cities and towns and across industry sectors. The aim is that everyone who has an interest in building employee engagement in their organisation can contribute and have their voice heard, no matter where they live or who they work for. Our most popular event has been our regional ‘Engagement Workshop’ which provides the evidence for good employee engagement and introduces the ‘Four Enablers’. You can download and customise these materials to use at a private event within your organisation, or to run a public event, or as part of a broader development or learning day. The only requirements we have are that you credit Engage for Success for the materials, and you do not profit from using our materials. You can find the materials here, together with the guide to running the event.

1. Event Toolkit
Practical guidance for
running an event.
April 2016
Anne Wilsdon

2. WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS GUIDANCE?
Contents
• Introduction
• Running a regional event
• How can EFS support you?
• Suggested content
• Some exercise ideas
• Event Marketing
• Following your regional event
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3. INTRODUCTION
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We are a growing, dynamic, voluntary movement promoting employee engagement as a better way
to work that benefits individual employees, teams, and whole organisations.
Our vision: We want everyone working in the UK to want, and be able, to give their best each day, so
that each day is a great day at work, and that workplaces in the UK are thriving, growing and
developing through the commitment, energy, creativity and sustained high performance of the
people that work in them.
Our aims: We want to grow awareness about the power and potential of employee engagement,
encourage people to think more about it, and to provoke them to take action where they work.
Our values: We want to be an inspirational force for change both in the UK and internationally. We
aim to be inclusive, practical and accessible.
Our activity:
 We connect like-minded people, communities, experts and leaders.
 We drive forward thinking about employee engagement, and provide evidence, case studies
and points of view about how it drives performance and productivity to achieve
organisational and individual growth.
 We provide practical tools and ideas.
Our invitation: We invite you to join us in championing employee engagement in your organisation,
whether UK-based private, public and third sector, whether a small business, medium sized firm or
FTSE 100 company, whether providing a local or national service. We welcome you to join us
whatever role you play in your organisation.

4. RUNNING A REGIONAL EVENT
What do I need to think about?
• Your invite - EFS can support you in setting up an Eventbrite page to register
attendees
• A venue to host your event – free if possible. Consider tapping into other
networks with similar purpose and values.
• A projector and screen
• An opening speaker – someone engaging who has a good story to share!
• An invite list in mind, and access to local networks of people to advertise your
event
• Think about your session – will you need flipcharts, pens, any other props etc
• The commitment to help organise your event and feedback the outcomes to the
wider practitioner group
• Facilitators to help you with some of the activities, including welcome / reception
• Energy and enthusiasm!
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5. SUPPORT IS ON HAND….
 EFS can share learning from previous events and be on hand to support you
when planning
 Provide space and support on the Engage for Success website for you to
add your event to our calendar
 Use our extensive marketing and communication channels to advertise
your event
 Provide relevant video clips & resources e.g. intro of the 4 enablers
 Provide advice and guidance from others in the movement
 Provide consistent PowerPoint slides, information and resources
 The freedom to shape your local networks and follow up activities as you
choose
 Peer support and case studies on engagement
 Share our passion and energy to get you buzzing before your event!
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6. Event Costs
 Where possible EFS try to organise free events. That entails finding a free venue, and free
refreshments. These logistical issues can be difficult but here are some ideas which may help:
 First of all ask members of our community, if they have a free venue they could offer
 We can also ask our subscriber list if any of them can help with a venue in a particular location on our weekly
newsletter
 We can approach out Taskforce members to see if they can help with a venue
 We could work in collaboration with another organisation for example in the past few months we have worked
with CIPD, and Change Management Institute to organise events.
 You may want to consider sponsorship for an event, though be careful that this is not to endorse a particular
product or service, but rather to provide something which we need. Often Universities or colleges provide cost
effective meeting rooms, and we can offer to showcase or highlight research they have carried out on engagement
in return.
 If all else fails we would consider a small charge for tickets to the event, but just to recover our costs e.g. venue
hire, rather than to create a revenue stream.

7. SUGGESTED RUNNING ORDER
We want you to own your event and bring your own creativity and ideas to make the event
a success, but here are some ideas or pointers…..
• Welcome everyone - domestics
• Introduction to Engage for Success
• An Overview of the four enablers of Engagement
• An Interactive Session to get people thinking about engagement and committing to take
action
• Time for reflection and what has been learnt.
• A call to action – how can you get involved in Engage for Success
• Networking time
If you would prefer more information please contact anne@engageforsuccess
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8. EXERCISE IDEA
This activity increases knowledge and awareness of the Four Enablers of Engagement
identified in the original Engaging For Success report. It should be high energy and
somewhat chaotic! It’s a great opportunity for people to share success stories and pick
up tips from other organisations.
• Write one of each of the four enablers at the top of a flipchart in a corner of the
room
• Have a briefed facilitator on each flipchart to manage the conversation and make
notes
• Show the Four Enablers video, and brief people about the exercise – they are going
to visit all the flip charts and discuss the Enablers
• Attendees talk about best practice in their organisations, barriers to that enabler
happening, tools for overcoming difficulties, share ideas and suggestions, practical
applications of the enablers, different interpretations
• Ensure someone is circulating, reminding attendees they can move around the 4
flipcharts
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9. EXERCISE IDEAS CONTINUED
Your One Key Engagement Challenge
The objective of this exercise is to give people a chance both to give and gain support from
their peers to tackle engagement challenges
• Split into groups as established in the exercise above (max 8)
• Allocate a facilitator to each table
• One person in the groups goes first, and takes 1 minute to state their primary
engagement challenge
• Each person on the table offers advice, help and a suggestion for improvement, or
sympathy
• The person whose challenge it is, cannot respond to the feedback, just listen
• When the whistle blows, it is the next person’s turn to say their key engagement
challenge, then listen to ideas, suggestions and feedback
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10. EVENT MARKETING
• EFS can help you to create an online registration page for your
event on Eventbrite – this link can then be used in all social media
channels
• Your event can also be entered to the Events calendar of our EFS
website
• Consider creating an hashtag# for your event and encourage
attendees to tweet during the event
• If possible take photos of your event which can be used for
marketing post event
• Encourage attendees to join our mailing list by clicking on the link
on the top right hand corner of our homepage
• Ensure the community manager is aware of your event so that it
can be marketed on our weekly newsletter and social media
channels
• Consider tapping into other networks who have the same purpose
and values
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11. FOLLOWING YOUR EVENT
Write up the feedback and key themes and share some photos from your event
to send to anne@engageforsuccess.org This is a great way to raise the profile of
your engagement community to others in your area
Encourage people to connect to Engage For Success via social media
Agree follow up actions for your region, arrange to meet colleagues, make a date
Keep in touch with your new connections via LinkedIn, the website, email and
phone calls
Let you know how it went and how we can best support you in future events.
We are here to help!
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