We recently had the pleasure of talking with Oliver Skehan, Digital Co-Ordinator at Pieta House, a charity for the prevention of self-harm or suicide.  They are also the organisers of Darkness Into Light, a 5km walk/run that finished just as dawn is breaking.

How long has Darkness into Light been running and what is its purpose?

Our flagship fundraising event, Darkness Into Light, has been running since 2009 and it continues to go from strength to strength. This year, what can only be referred to as a phenomenon, took place in the early hours of Saturday, May 10th.

As the name suggests, Darkness Into Light is about hope, first and foremost, and solidarity, secondly. The majority of those who attend have been touched by suicide in some way, shape or form and it’s their chance to come together, remember those who have passed away but also to look forward in the company of people who feel as they feel. It also affords our wonderful supporters the opportunity to contribute financially and in turn raise much needed funds to support the work we do.

How big is it now, and how much did you grow compared to last year?

In 2013, Darkness Into Light was staged in 20 venues while this year an estimated 70,000 people turned out for the dawn walk in 37 locations across Ireland while two new international venues, London and Sydney, attracted a few thousand people too.

What were the biggest obstacles you faced in running the event this year and what did you learn from them? 

The biggest obstacles I faced were the scale of the event itself in terms of the amount of people who wanted to take part and support us and the public’s insatiable need for more information and, at times, the requirement to relay the same information over and over again on different forums.

I learned that when an event is as big as ours there’s a need to delegate from start to finish and that making registering for an event such as ours as easy as possible is imperative.

How important was Eventbrite in helping you to scale the event so rapidly?

Due to the scale of the event we were staging and the amount of registrations taking place over a prolonged period of time, we needed a ticketing platform that was reliable, flexible and easy-to-use.

The fact that nearly 40,000 people registered for Darkness Into Light online using Eventbrite is proof in itself that the platform served its purpose very successfully and enabled our supporters to sign up in huge numbers for an event that is very close to their hearts.

From a personal point of view, once I got the hang of the system, I found it to be a very able tool, one that I used every day, as I tried to keep track of registrations.

Furthermore, any difficulties I may have encountered from an admin perspective were gladly dealt with by the Eventbrite support team who were always on hand to patiently shine a light on the darker corners of the system.

What’s the one Eventbrite tool / feature you couldn’t live without?

The Attendee Search facility in ‘My Events’ or Find Attendees facility in the ‘Event Dashboard’ as I used both of these functions every single day for nearly a month to find attendees and edit the details they had submitted, in particular their email address before resending them a confirmation email.

One of the questions we get at Eventbrite the most is how to promote your event and reach a bigger audience. How did you find your community? Any tips you’d suggest for reaching a bigger audience? 

Pieta House adopt a fairly old school approach when it comes to marketing our events and fundraising in general but last year and even more so, this year, we utilised social media effectively to inform people as quickly as possible about information related to the event and the inevitable changes that come about in the run-up to the morning. If you want to reach a bigger audience, social media is a no brainer due to the immediacy of it and the fact it costs little or nothing to make a huge impact over a designated period of time.

What was your favourite moment from this year’s Darkness Into Light?

I could lie and say my favourite moment was the day after it was over but in fact it was the morning of the event itself. Being in the office from two in the morning for an eight hour shift doesn’t sound appetising but through the medium of social media it allowed me to experience the experiences of others and get an insight into what the event really means to them.

Any advice to other charities running participatory events like Darkness Into Light?

Yes, plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead!

Where can people go to learn more about Darkness Into Light and the work of Pieta House?

To learn more about Darkness Into Light people can go to dil.pieta.ie and to learn more about the work of Pieta House our website www.pieta.ie is the best option.

Outside of this we also have a very strong social media presence, evidenced by the fact we have nearly 150,000 likes on Facebook www.facebook.com/pietahouse  and over 15,000 followers on Twitter twitter.com/PietaHouse