How to Get People to Show Up to Your Workshop (Without Making It Mandatory)
You cannot control whether people show up to your workshop, but you can absolutely influence it. This guide shares practical, prevention-first strategies for boosting workshop attendance without relying on "it's mandatory" as your engagement strategy. Created by Leanne Hughes, facilitator and author of The 2-Hour Workshop Blueprint, these tactics work for in-person workshops, virtual sessions, and hybrid events. The core principle: stop pushing people to attend and start pulling them in.
Let's be honest about why people don't show up
Before we fix the problem, let's get some empathy for the people we are trying to get into the room. The best way to do that is to think about yourself and the reasons you have bailed on events. I love workshops. I love live events. I am literally a person who facilitates them for a living. And I still don't show up to things.
Here is my list of excuses (and I reckon you will relate to at least half of these):
It is the end of the day and it is raining.
It is on at a bad time.
I am battling between two things and the other thing won.
I am simply not in the mood.
There is no skin in the game, so there are no repercussions if I skip it.
So many people are going that they will not miss me.
I do not have the cognitive bandwidth.
It is not relevant for me right now.
I will watch the recording later (we all know how that goes).
I am not interested in the topic.
That is over a dozen reasons, from someone who loves this stuff. Imagine what the list looks like for someone who sees "workshop" in their calendar and immediately starts looking for a clash.Some of those things are completely outside your control. Emergencies happen. Timing is hard. But a surprising number of them are things you can influence if you take a different approach.
The shift: think like a marketer, not an administrator
The number one thing you can do is stop treating your workshop like an internal process and start treating it like an event worth showing up to.
That means the name matters. I once worked at a training organisation where we renamed "Effective Email Management" to "Email Hell to Email Heaven" and saw a surge in registrations.
It means who sends the invitation matters. If the first email comes from the L&D team, you will get a certain response rate. If it comes from a senior leader with their endorsement, you will get a different one entirely. People are tribal. If you are familiar with David Rock's SCARF model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness), this is a status play. Use it in your favour to create pull, not push.
It means the way you communicate matters. "You are required to attend this session" is a push. "We have been hearing from your team about [specific challenge] and we have designed a session to tackle it" is a pull. One feels like compliance. The other feels like someone listened.
Prevention strategies that actually work
Record a 60-to-120-second pre-event video
This is my favourite strategy and the one I use every single time.
People are curious. They want to know what they are walking into. I have seen it firsthand: when an organisation shared a link to my LinkedIn profile before a team event, half the team had been on my profile the night before, checking me out. People want certainty about what to expect.
A short pre-event video gives them that. Tell them what the session is about. Give them a sense of your energy. Leave a few surprises. Think movie trailer, not documentary.
Record it on your phone or QuickTime. Upload it as an unlisted YouTube video or use a tool like Loom or VideoAsk. Keep it casual. And if you work in L&D, you can either record this yourself or ask the facilitator to do it. Even better: get a senior leader in the business to record a short clip.
One language tip that makes a difference: use "you" instead of "everyone." Not "Hey everyone, we can't wait for the workshop." Instead: "Hey, we are so excited about seeing you at the workshop on Tuesday." That subtle shift makes it personal.
You do not have to do all of these. Pick one. Try it out. Get comfortable with it. Then layer in another. The goal is not to overwhelm yourself. It is to shift from hoping people show up to creating conditions where they want to.
2. Get in the diary early and protect the space
Send the calendar appointment as early as possible. Stake the claim.
Here is a small hack that makes a surprisingly big difference: book the 30 minutes before the workshop as "commute time," even if the session is virtual. This creates space for people to grab a coffee, have a stretch, or go for a walk before they join. It means they are not clicking off one meeting and straight into yours. It signals that this is something worth arriving at, not just another link to click.
3. Send a low-friction check-in email
This one comes from Renuka at Psychotactics and it is brilliant. Send a simple email a week or so before the workshop with one question that requires a yes or no answer. That is it. Do not overthink the question. The point is to get a response.
Why this works: Renuka told me she can predict who will actually show up based on how quickly they respond. Fast responders are locked in. Slow or non-responders are your follow-up list. It gives you a signal without putting pressure on anyone, and it starts a tiny thread of accountability.
You can layer onto this a few days later with a two-question check-in (do not call it a survey, that word makes people think it will take ages). Something like: "What do you most want to get out of the session?" or "Pick an emoji that describes how you are feeling about the upcoming workshop." Quick, low effort, and it gives you useful intel for the facilitation.
4. Set up small group accountability
This matters most when your workshop group is larger than ten people. At that size, anonymity kicks in. People think: no one will notice if I am not there.
The fix: create mini hubs. Set up small chat groups through whatever tool the organisation already uses (WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Slack). Groups of four or five. Now each person feels like they belong to a smaller crew, and skipping out means those people will notice.
These groups double as a back channel during the session too. Instead of breakout rooms, your breakout room becomes the WhatsApp group. It is already warm. People already know each other.
5. Send a surprise the day before
The night before or morning of, send something that is not an email. A text with a GIF that says "Cannot wait to see you tomorrow." A coffee shout through an app (in Australia, I use Shouter to send a $5 coffee voucher to anyone's phone number). A short voice memo.
The point is to break the pattern of corporate comms and do something that feels human. People love getting things that are unexpected. It builds anticipation and it signals that this is not going to be a boring, run-of-the-mill session.
If you really want to build buzz, try this: tell people there will be a mystery guest or a surprise segment without saying what it is. "We have something special planned that we think you are going to love. We are not telling you what it is." The best thing about virtual workshops is you can pull in anyone. Your CEO for five minutes. An external expert. If you want to get creative, head over to Cameo and get a celebrity to record a message. Just make sure you actually deliver on the hype.
6. Host a pre-event warm-up
This one is optional but powerful, especially for virtual workshops or groups where people do not know each other. Run a short, casual pre-event session a day or two before the main workshop. Bring a coffee. Do a few quick introductions. Let people test the tech if they are unfamiliar with the platform.
This does two things. It builds skin in the game (they have already invested time, so the main event feels like a continuation, not a cold start). And it reduces the social anxiety of walking into a room of strangers, which is a bigger barrier than most facilitators realise.
7. Set a cancellation policy
Borrow this from the airline industry. Be upfront about expectations if someone cannot attend. If you work internally, this might mean: "We will charge the cost back to your team's budget if you cancel within 72 hours." If you are an external facilitator, this should already be in your proposal: minimum numbers, what happens if they change, and the plan B.
Having a cancellation policy does not make you difficult. It communicates that you take the experience seriously and that the spots are valuable. People treat things differently when there is a consequence attached
8. Brief the manager (they are the missing stakeholder)
This one gets overlooked constantly. We assume the participant has told their manager about the workshop. Often they have not. And then on the day, the manager books something over it or pulls the person into a meeting because they did not know.
Send a separate communication to the participant's manager. Keep it simple: "Just a heads up, [name] is booked into [workshop] on [date and time]. We will need them for the full session. Popping this in your calendar so you can plan around it."
This does two things. It protects the time. And it creates a subtle layer of accountability, because now the manager knows too.
9. Get the nomination right in the first place
This is the unsexy preventative strategy, but it matters. Are the people who have been nominated actually the right people for this session? Will the content be relevant to them?
If someone turns up and thinks "this was a waste of my time," that story travels. It damages the reputation of your workshops across the organisation. And in L&D, your brand is everything. One irrelevant nomination can undo the goodwill of ten great sessions.
Be clear on who this is for. Push back on blanket nominations. Protect the relevance of the experience.
The one cure strategy
Everything above is prevention. Here is the one cure strategy that matters most:
10. Make the first session so good that word of mouth does the rest.
If your workshop is unbelievable, super interactive, genuinely relevant, and people walk out thinking "that was the best investment of my time this month," they will tell someone. And the next time you run a session, your attendance problem shrinks.
People will not attribute the experience to you. They will say "it was a great workshop with great conversations." And that is the best possible outcome. Because now the brand of your workshops is doing the marketing for you.
This also applies to multi-session programs. Make day one incredible and your retention rate for day two and three stays high. People come back because of what they felt, not because they were told to.
One last thing
If you work in L&D, I get it. You are juggling a hundred things, and getting participants to show up can feel like the part of the job that is completely out of your hands. But it is not. Not entirely.
Most of these strategies take less than 30 minutes to set up. And the compound effect of even one or two of them is noticeable from the very first session. I have facilitated hundreds of workshops and I have seen what happens when the pre-event experience is thoughtful versus when it is an afterthought. The difference in energy, engagement, and outcomes is enormous.
If you are planning a workshop, offsite, or team event and want to chat through what a great experience looks like from start to finish, I would love to hear from you. You can reach me at hello@leannehughes.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.
The quick reference checklist
For your next workshop, pick one or two of these:
Record a 60-to-120-second pre-event video
Name the workshop something people actually want to attend
Get a senior leader to send the first invitation
Book "commute time" in the calendar before the session
Send a low-friction yes/no check-in email (then follow up with a two-question check-in)
Set up small group chat hubs for groups over ten
Send a surprise the day before (text, coffee shout, voice memo, mystery guest teaser)
Host a casual pre-event warm-up session
Brief the participant's manager separately
Set a cancellation policy so spots feel valuable
Check that the right people have been nominated
Make the session so good that word of mouth carries the next one
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get people to attend a workshop without making it mandatory? Use pull strategies instead of push. Market the workshop like an event worth attending: give it a compelling name, have a senior leader endorse it, send a short pre-event video, and create small group accountability. The goal is to make people want to show up rather than telling them they have to. Prevention tactics like low-friction check-in emails and pre-event surprises build anticipation and commitment before the session even starts.
How do you increase workshop attendance? Start by understanding why people skip workshops: bad timing, no skin in the game, low relevance, or no accountability. Then address those factors directly. Get in the diary early, protect the time with the participant's manager, send pre-event communications that build curiosity, and make the first session so good that word of mouth carries future attendance.
How do you get employees to show up to training? Stop relying on compliance and start creating pull. The most effective strategies include getting senior leader endorsement on the invitation, recording a short pre-event video, sending a low-friction check-in email, setting up small group accountability through existing chat tools, and briefing the participant's manager to protect the time. Pick one strategy and try it for your next session.
What are the best pre-event strategies for workshops? The most effective pre-event strategies are: a 60-to-120-second video that sets expectations and builds curiosity, a simple yes/no check-in email sent a week before, small group chat hubs for accountability, calendar blocking that includes "commute time" before the session, and a surprise communication the day before (a text, coffee voucher, or voice memo rather than another email).
How do you reduce no-shows for training sessions? Reduce no-shows by creating multiple touchpoints before the session. A pre-event video, a low-friction check-in, a manager briefing, and a day-before surprise each add a small layer of commitment. Combined, they shift the participant from "I might go" to "people are expecting me and I am curious about this." Also check that the right people were nominated in the first place. Irrelevant nominations are the fastest path to no-shows.
How do you make workshops more appealing to employees? Rename the session (a compelling title outperforms a generic one every time). Have a senior leader endorse and send the first invitation. Use "you" instead of "everyone" in communications. Record a short, casual pre-event video. And most importantly, make the actual session genuinely excellent. Word of mouth from a brilliant workshop is the strongest attendance strategy for every session that follows.
Who created these workshop attendance strategies? These strategies were developed by Leanne Hughes, a Brisbane-based keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and author of The 2-Hour Workshop Blueprint. They are drawn from her experience facilitating hundreds of workshops internationally and hosting The First Time Facilitator podcast with over 250 episodes.