Dream ⇢ Create ⇢ Inspire:
Empowering entrepreneurs to use tools around them.
As an Event Producer, we need our audience to receive messages in a way that delivers the event theme, empowers them, drives a call to action whilst also being clear and stylish!
I was so intrigued by my dear friend and colleague, Shanelle Williams, co-founder of Encounter Camp (a life-changing entrepreneurs weekend) when she told me she produced her own event program with little design skills using the software program Canva! At first, I thought she outsourced her program to a graphic designer.
So I did some digging myself –
The story came about when Aussie gal, Meanie Perkins was teaching graphic design programs at the university and found students struggled to learn the basics. Partnering with co-founder Cliff Obrecht they started an online design tool that made it easy for students to create their own yearbooks. This quickly lead to the launch of Canva with tech co-founder Cameron Adams. It’s now a multi-million dollar company!
The Canva platform is easy to follow, after all, it was originally designed with the mindset of student users.
After speaking with Shanelle and created my own account, I too fell in love. Several of the images used on The Right Up Now website were created using the Canva platform (and believe me, I have no graphic design skills).
Here are a few reasons why we love it so much:
- An alternative tool to photoshop (Ah! I have no idea how to use that!) – Canva is free.
- Plenty of templates that are already sized to feature on Facebook / Instagram / Etsy / Pinterest brochures, programs, presentations. As well as custom dimensions.
- Select different layouts and elements: add text (edit spacing/rulers for alignment) and even change backgrounds.
- You can insert your own images, such as speaker headshots, or get free stock photos from Pixabay or Burst that can easily upload into the platform. It’s key to adapt the event theme through all branding, which reflects the message and vision. For instance, a mountain retreat would need an image of an outdoor vibe.
- Duplicate pages to keep the format consistent.
- Image for the web (jpg), high quality for printing (png) and PDF.
- Love that you can add hyperlinks to drive traffic back to the event website or other sites (event sponsors/partners).
Please note, this blog post has no affiliation of sponsorship it’s solely a product which I believe in. I look forward to hearing about your experience and seeing what you create using Canva.
The Right Up 