The Make Money & RV Virtual Summit was my very first event! Planned out of necessity both mine and for the RV community I was growing over on my website. It was scheduled to be 5 full days with a mix of interviews and pre-recorded seminars.
I had no idea what I was doing, beyond the fact that I had confidence in event planning and project management. But I was just driven and determined to get this event launched, make a big impact, and help a ton of people find the answer to the biggest community question being asked, “How do you Make Money & RV?”
Let’s talk about the event basics…
Make Money & RV Event Basics
- Number of Days: 5
- Number of Speakers: 35
- Number of Video Sessions: 40
- Free Ticket: Included 24 hours
- Paid Tickets: 4 options
- Registered Attendees: 5000+
- Sponsors: 3
- Planning Time: >60 days
- Team Size: 1 Host/Planner
- Event Tagline: Don’t Wait For Some Day! Learn How To Make Money & RV.
- Audience: RVers looking for information on how to make money traveling full-time, part-time or seasonally.
- Description: 5 day virtual event featuring over 2 dozen RVers! Learn about workamping, remote jobs, small business and location independence. Enjoy helpful advice, tips, insights and resources from fellow RVers who are making money on the road! Use this information to find the ways that are right for you!
- Goal: It delivers fresh, helpful content from dozens of lifestyle speakers and RV influencers who want to help you learn how to make a living on the road while RVing full-time, part-time or seasonally!
Make Money & RV Event Details
This event was so much for put together.
Event though I was incredibly stressed after loosing my day job, I still appreciated the process of planning the logistics and seeing everything come to fruition.
And as with every event, regardless of in-person or virtual, there was a lot going on behind the scenes.
So let’s talk about that a little..
Behind The Scenes
Okay so I already mentioned the was my very first virtual summit and I had no game plan for how it was supposed to be planned and organized. I just played to my natural strength of being able to form a plan to get from Point A to Point B and filled in the gaps when I noticed them.
Soon after making the decision to host the event, I started writing outreach emails fro speakers as well as sponsors. I knew from the beginning I would need money for Facebook Ads, and sponsorship was really the only way that was going to happen since my cash flow had just been obliterated!
I came up with a list of people to reach out and some basic sponsorship tiers. My main ask for speakers was to sit for an interview about how they made money on the road, but I also allowed them to record something on their own if they preferred or felt compelled to cover an additional topic.
First Things First
My main website was built on WordPress, but I didn’t really want to build all those pages (for speakers and sessions) but I also didn’t want to just host the videos inside a Facebook group either. So I did some research and found a company called HeySummit that offered an all-in-one platform that seemed promising.
I decide to use HeySummit and never looked back. The company was really new back in 2019 and they were really still building out features and finding their way. But I was just happy to have any features or help that allowed for me to cut some of the leg work out of technical logistics so I setup my account and started filling in each section of the backend to get everything pulled together.
As I confirmed speakers and sponsors, I loaded their information into the backend of HeySummit and just went on a hope and prayer that the system would preform the way it was intended… because to be honest, I did not have a back up plan.
Adding In Special Sessions
I added in 2 special sessions for this event. One was a Keynote by one of the leading experts in the community on remote work, Camille Attell. I contacted her a little earlier than 1/2 way through my speaker pitching and asked if she would participate. Her sessions jump started the event.
The other special session was an Exclusive interview with 2 big influencers in the community. They had just taken some time off after having their first child and it was their first interview post-birth. I knew I wanted to have them on and also spotlight the session because their audience was much larger than mine and just the name associate would give us a bump in registrations.
Popular Sessions
- Workamping Jobs at Camp Gulf
- Create Passive Income though Product Creation
- Earn Money From Anywhere-Remote Jobs for RVers
- Building & Managing a Fully Remote Team
- The Young Living Lifestyle Opportunity
- Your Remote Work Resume and Job Search
- Top 10 Workamping Employers
- RV Maintenance? Just Fix It Yourself!
- Three Ways You Can Make Money Podcasting
- Travel Nurses Living the RV Life
- Tax Considerations for RV Entrepreneurs
- How To Use Pinterest To Increase Your Blog/Website Views
- How Creating Digital Products Leads To Income On The Road!
- Copywriting: The Answer for Mobile Income.
- Making Money Through Blogging & Freelancing
- RV Jobs at Hersheypark Camping Resort
- How Escapees Supports RVers
- Can You Really Make Money With a Blog?
- How to Find a Job in a National Park
- How To Create an Etsy Printable Business
- Virtual Assistants Bring in Big Bucks!
- Building a Powerful Affiliate Program Where Everyone Wins
- True RV Entrepreneurs: An In-depth Talk with Heath & Alyssa
- Beginners Guide to Starting a Subscription Box Business
More Event Details
So for this event I offered a 24 hour replay period on all the recordings. Funny story is that HeySummit built in this feature for me, because I accidentally marketed this setup without confirming their system could be setup this way…
Everything was pre-recorded. We had no live chat boxes, but we did have a Facebook group where I published a small amount of update about the event and a few graphics.
There were no live panels and no live welcome calls or wrap ups. The event was pretty basic but it converted pretty well and provided me with the income I needed to push forward!
Lessons Learned
- Always double check your tech platforms to make sure thy can do what you think they can.
- Underpromise and overdeliver.
- Over pitch your speaker list and be happy if more than expected say YES!
- Don’t be afraid to pitch sponsors even on your first event.
- Interviews are the easiest way to get the sessions completed.
- Have a plan for email marketing during your event and stick to it.
Final Thoughts on Make Money & RV
Looking back on this event, I’m still extremely proud of what I accomplished.
Not only did we have over 5K people attend the event, but we hit $10K by Day 1 and that opened my eyes. If I could produce this amount of content in less than 60 days and actually monetize it form the start- what else is actually possible in the world of online business???
For my first virtual event, overall I was super pleased with the email growth, community growth, the content created and of course the cash that was brought in!
It opened my eyes to the amazing benefits of virtual events and I’ve never looked back!
