First off would be planning a time and a place where it would be happening! Make sure that you can use the venue or park that you would be meeting at. Secondly, get the word out there! Talk to people. Instagram, Facebook, downspike. Get the hype going on. Yea I feel like that's most of it. Have a couple of games planned out. See if you can get any pros to make a showing as that will have a lot of people show.
Agreed!! Give yourself enough time to get it done right and not half ass it. Also give the invites at least a two week notice to plan for it. Then a week before the event, spend a ton of time and energy promoting it. When you get enough people to rsvp on FB or whatever, you can show that as proof to other companies and ask for simple prizes (stickers, KUSA classic, sweets primes, KROM POPS!, extra strings, single use discount codes)
Personally, I think start small and work your way up. We're too used to huge events and I think it's nearly impossible to throw just a huge event on your first go. Start small, and learn. Work your way up.
Call up your friends and plan a day to jam some dama in the park! Make it a regular thing, and try to spread the word so more people show up every time. Once you get a good crew going, turn one of the jams into a little contest, come up with a format/tricks in advance, and then battle it out when the day comes! Simple as that. Keep it easy and it will work best!
definitely start small like everyone else said. I recently went to an event in Vacaville where a lot of people came out from all over, like Tahoe and Sacramento and Chico and such. Turns out it was actually the 3rd time this event had been going on. There were 2 other ones before then that I hadn't heard about because no one I knew posted anything about it. It wasn't until mutual contacts posting and talking to each other about the event that I heard anything about it. Making a social media account and talking to people on there is also helpful, like a specific instagram account or facebook group to talk about times, locations, prizes, etc.
I'm currently planning a dama event and its definitely intimidating. I did a survey to get some sample data about what people want to see at a kendama event, hopefully this data can help you a bit https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-DHCVL59G/ Also, I would definitely try and get a company or pros to come because that will for sure give people incentive to come, it's also really good for promotion. Another thing would be to plan as much as you can and have as much material and research ready when pitching the idea to a company or sponsor. I'm going to try and get sweets to vend at my event, I already have a local toy shop that sells kusa and sweets on board. Put in the work and your event could be a success! Good luck!
I came across this article from @Chad Covington on @Sol Kendamas website: Making a Flyer for Your Kendama Event