No matter the type of your upcoming event, whether it be a business conference, wedding, a trade show or a family birthday party, you must ensure that you plan the event thoroughly, so that it exceeds your expectations. If you do not plan your event in advance, there is no two ways about it, your event will be a disaster. Why? May you ask? As Winston Churchill once said, “He who fails to plan, is planning to fail”.
The objectives of your event should be clearly highlighted before anything takes place. Essentially meaning, what are your projected outcomes from the event? In order to identify the underlying direction of your event, ensure that you outline your objectives, as this aids in the success of reaching those objectives. If you do not understand the objectives of the event, you may be wasting your time as, the purpose of the event should always be clear!
Have you taken personnel into account? Especially when you are organising a larger scaled event, different criteria regarding personnel should not be omitted from the event planning process. If you are uncertain on what “personnel” denotes, in essence, personnel are the people or staff that are involved in the running of the event. They are a vital element towards the event success. Therefore you must clearly list your personnel, indicating whether you have employed them internally or externally. Examples of personnel can include: Caterers, electricians, logistics, designers etc.
Have you chosen the location for your event? When it comes to location, you don’t just choose a place that “just looks nice”, there are so many factors that need to be considered regarding the location of the event, such as the capacity of the venue. You must make sure that your chosen location has enough space for all your invited guests. Sufficient amount of car parking should also be acknowledged. You must be able to supply the same amount of car parking spaces to the same amount of invited guests. Most guests will travel by car, some won’t, but you need to ensure that you are prepared just in case in the unrealistic scenario that all of your guests have traveled by car.
In addition to the location, you must keep an up-to-date list of who from your invited guests is attending and who isn’t. Without keeping track of who is attending and who isn’t, how on earth are you going to know how many people you need to cater for. More often than not, some criteria from the event will change between the time you have invited your guests and the day of the event. Therefore, ensure that your attending guests are regularly updated on any changing event news and contact information etc. It will be encouraging for them to know that you and your team are available to help with pre-event inquiries.
How are you going to market the event? Which marketing methods you will be using to increase awareness of your event or boost ticket sales. There are many conventional methods of marketing your event, such as through your website, via a blog, pay-per-click advertising or even through social media; each method proving very effective dependant on the nature of the event.
Finally, have you created a realistic budget for your event? Detailing your event costs and expenses for the running and marketing of the event are some of the calculations you need to make for your event budget. If the objective of your event is to turn a profit, then as the event budgeter, you must be able to recover production, marketing and operating costs and still make a considerable profit. Developing an event budget and managing cash flow pre-event, during, and post-event is quite difficult, so it is incredibly useful to have all of the major information noted down before you begin.
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