How To Host An Event People Actually Talk About with Amy Dickinson

Everyone is saying IRL is the place to double down on in 2026 … but how do you do it?  Amy Dickinson is a TikTok creator with over 175,000 followers, co-founder of The Social Summit (Australia's only conference for creators, marketers, and brands) and host of 1800 Chatline, a comedy podcast about dating and life in your 30s that hit 50,000 downloads in under six months. Amy built all of it without an agency, without a big budget, and without ever making a single person feel like just a ticket sale. In this episode, Amy breaks down exactly how and why making people feel important is the only community strategy that actually scales. Whether you're building a podcast, planning your first event, or trying to turn followers into a real community, this one is the playbook. We chat about:  🎙️Why your first event should never try to make money (and what it should do instead) 🎙️The speaker dinner strategy that built hype before a single ticket was sold 🎙️How spotting a new CEO announcement turned into a 3-event brand partnership 🎙️Why the merch flooded feeds for weeks… and what made it a collector's item You’ll hear:  0:00 - 175,000 TikTok followers, the difference between short form and long form 7:08 - How to get your first speaker to say yes, when nobody knows who you are 9:45 - Why speaker dinner before your even changes everything 10:17 - How one personal touch turns a stranger into a loyal community member 11:56 - Why your first event should never try to make money 12:42 - What MMFI means and why it’s the only community framework you need 13:44: This is the Partnership strategy that got a 3 event deal 15:35 - The tote bag that has become an iconic all on it’s own 16:42 - How to build a content first conference that creates its own marketing  30:53 - Why 50,000 followers feels like nothing until you stand in a stadium Instagram & TikTok: @amzdicko The Social Summit: @thesocialsummit | thesocialsummit.au 1800 Chatline: @1800chatline Have a guest you want to hear from? Question you want answered? Send me a DM over at  www.instagram.com/alyciachapman_ or https://www.instagram.com/howdoipodcast  Watch the podcast on Youtube  - https://www.youtube.com/@HowDoIPodcast