Pick something already on your calendar — or easy to add.

The best Welcome Week events showcase what makes your community worth joining and are low-barrier for someone new to walk into. Don't create something special. Make something existing count.

Register your event with Welcome Week so we can add it to the national calendar and count it toward the movement.

It takes two minutes, and it's what turns your event from a private gathering into part of something bigger happening in cities everywhere.

Give your community a reason to bring someone.

Start with your super connectors- your biggest fans, your most loyal regulars. Ask them to serve as hosts: to arrive early, know the room, and make sure no one stands alone.

Then open it up. Use your existing channels to invite your broader community to join the movement and when possible, make the ask easy with a guest offer: a free ticket, a complimentary coffee, a bring-a-friend pass.

Getting people through the door is half the job. The other half is making sure they want to come back.

Five research-backed practices that turn any event into a Welcome Week event:

• Welcome people at the door — personally, not just with signage. Let them know you're glad they came.

• Use name tags — they eliminate social awkwardness and make it easier for strangers to address each other.

• Open with a question in pairs or small groups — choose something that prompts a short story, not a résumé. "Share a time you felt welcomed somewhere new" works in almost any setting.

• Keep people in small groups — large rooms are where new people get lost. Pairs and small groups are where connection happens.

• Close with intention — before people leave, ask everyone to share one thing they're taking with them. Thirty seconds. It makes the experience memorable and the connection more likely to continue.

The event isn't over when people walk out the door.

Reach out to new attendees within a few days — a message, an invite to the next thing, a simple "glad you came." That follow-up is what turns a one-time visitor into a regular.

Then celebrate publicly. Share what happened on your channels, in your community, with your people. Name the role your community played. Celebration is itself an act of connection, and it makes the next invitation easier to extend.