Especially if this is your first time, event planning and organization for a meeting with just five attendees may be rather difficult.
Imagine then organizing a major event with a famous DJ as the headlining act and 100,000 people. Can you even fathom the headache?
But, while event planning may be difficult, it can also be thrilling and rewarding. In addition, once you get the hang of it, event planning is not exactly rocket science, and if you know the tricks of the trade, even preparing a large event can be a breeze.
Here, we will reveal these secrets, and although each event is undoubtedly unique, we will also provide practical advice and best practices that can be applied to every event.
Having said that, here are some of the most significant strategies you can use immediately to create a great event:
1. Start As Soon As Possible
The golden rule of event planning is to begin preparations as early as possible.
If your event is quite big (i.e., more than 500 guests), you should realistically begin preparing at least four months in advance, with six months being the optimal period.
Even for smaller events, you should prepare at least one month in advance.
An event, as we all know, may entail several moving components, so by preparing early, you'll have more alternatives for the various facets of the event, such as location, speakers/talents, sponsorship, and marketing.
The greater the number of alternatives you have, the greater the likelihood that you will be successful.
2. Determine Your Event's Aim and Objectives
When committing to planning an event, it is crucial to answer the most critical question.
Why are you holding this event to begin with?
What is the event's objective? In certain instances, it may be quite clear, and in others, it may not be.
You may be able to determine the sort of event you will arrange based on the event's purpose, but it will be particularly helpful in determining the event's goals.
If, for instance, this event is intended to assist the introduction of a new product, then the goals may include:
- 1,000 social media followers for the social media page of the new product One thousand social media interactions and engagements
- 1,000 pre-orders for the newly released product
- And so on.
Establish your goals with quantitative metrics so that you can assess your progress towards achieving them and reassure your team that they are achievable.
3. Prepare Your Budget Early
We have discussed the necessity of organizing your event as early as possible, but estimating your budget as early as feasible is crucial.
Your budget will determine many aspects of your event, so although you don't have to have everything set in stone, you should at least have an estimate of your budget before you begin preparing.
Among the essential items your budget should have are:
- The venue's rental fee and needed insurance coverage. For virtual events, this is optional.
- Any expenses associated with food and drink
- The ornamentation is very self-explanatory.
- Speakers, talents, entertainers, exhibitors, and other forms of amusement. Additionally include travel and lodging expenses.
- Marketing: determine how and via which channels you will advertise your event.
- Event management software, event ticketing software, content management systems, etc.
- Expenses for employees and volunteers, including their housing
- Contingencies are crucial. Prepare at least 20 percent of your budget for contingencies to prevent unpleasant surprises.
- After securing a few suppliers, be careful to update the budget with actual expenditures. This will assist you in analyzing the success of your event.
4. Determine Your Target Audience
Determining and understanding your event's target guests is also a crucial consideration to make early on.
You may define your event's target audience based on its goals and aims, or you can define the event's objectives based on your event's target audience.
Still, collect as much information as possible on your target guests, including their demographics, habits, and particularly what inspires them to attend your event.
On the other side, you should also attempt to identify any impediments that may prevent people from enrolling for your event and/or choosing competing activities.
5. Selecting the Best Location
Your location selection may literally make or break the success of an in-person event.
If it is a recurrent event, the date of the event may have be fixed, so limiting your venue selections. But, if it's a brand-new event and/or you have any flexibility in determining the date, you should consider the following:
- Again, if this is a large event, ensure you have at least four to six months to prepare it, the more time the better.
- Avoid school holidays wherever possible, since venues tend to be more costly during these times.
- Consider national and religious holidays.
- Verify the schedules of your main speakers, VIP visitors, and other important participants.
- After determining the event date (or at least a general schedule), you may begin exploring prospective locations.
Here are some factors to consider while selecting the best location for your event:
- The size would depend on how many guests you want to invite. Consider if you will need separate rooms based on the nature of your event.
- If this is a local event, the location should be close enough to the homes or businesses of your target guests. If you want to draw guests from different cities/countries, ensure that the location is close enough to an airport and train station.
- Parking: Does the venue have a sufficient parking lot and/or public transportation access?
- Accessibility: Choose accessibility elements such as accessible entrances/elevators, interpreters, and gender-neutral restrooms.
- Insurance: if you are needed to obtain extra coverage, which may increase the overall price.
- Acoustics: the state of the venue's acoustics, which is particularly significant for conferences and keynote speeches
- Prices are fairly self-explanatory, but carefully examine any hidden fees and cancellation charges.
6. Develop a Detailed Event Plan
When you have calculated your event's budget and set at least a rough timeframe, you should create a written event plan as a road map for its success.
A thorough event plan will be of great assistance in managing your staff and organising volunteers, as well as in recruiting talent and sponsorships.
The event plan should include the following components:
- Venue\sLogistics
- Catering management
- Speakers/talents
- Presenters
- Schedule/timeline
- Plan for Entertainment Marketing
- Registration management (event registration software, event payment, tracking, on-site check-in)
- Sponsorship plan and administration
- Volunteer obligations
- Depending on the nature of the event, you may add extra aspects to the event plan, and you should also consider creating a timeline/schedule to complement the event plan.
Don't overlook the necessary contracts, insurance policies, permissions, and logistics for each individual aspect. If you have previously held events, particularly those of a similar kind, you may also include prior data and documentation into your event plan.
Even if your team is very small or if you want to conduct the event by yourself, don't underestimate the value of having a documented plan, which may assist a great deal with balancing numerous event parts and allocating responsibility.
7. Develop a Powerful Brand
One of the most difficult aspects of organizing an event is ensuring that it stands out from the competitors.
Don't undervalue the significance of a distinctive and simple-to-remember event name. Determine the event's overarching topic, then generate ideas for a memorable brand name while considering:
- What is your event's unique value proposition (UVP)? What distinguishes it from other events in its niche?
- What are the event's purpose and objectives? (As already addressed)
- What are the primary aspects of your event?
- Look out the titles of other events, particularly your immediate rivals
- Ensure that the event name is simple to speak and remember, while still being distinct.
- Design a powerful and distinctive logo to suit the event's title.
- Creating a tagline for your event is optional, but you may do it if you choose. A tagline is a brief, original statement that explains what your event is about.
8. Create Your Event Team
If you will be planning the event on your own, you may skip this section. Nonetheless, it is usually preferable to share the burden with others, even if the occasion is very little.
A team for an event should not be too large, but it is essential to choose an Event Manager/Project Manager (if you're not the one in charge) to manage and oversee the whole team.
Give roles and tasks to various team members. If the team is relatively small, a single individual may fulfill many functions.
Following are some typical event team roles:
- Management of the venue includes serving as a point of contact for speakers and sponsors while on the premises.
- Speakers/talents: identifying and meeting their requirements
- Catering: managing food and drinks
- Publicity/marketing: Describe how you will promote your event.
- Managing the human resource component of your event's staff and volunteers.
By allocating responsibilities to various team members, you assure responsibility for every member of the event team, hence increasing productivity and the likelihood that the event will be successful.
A dependable event management software, such as Eventtia, will also assist you in managing the whole team, delegating duties, and monitoring the progress of each team member based on their responsibilities.
9. Obtaining Sponsorship
Create a list of potential sponsors you would want to support your event.
It is advisable to undertake extensive research on each of these businesses. Don't forget that sponsorship is a two-way street. You should also consider how people may profit from your event, rather than concentrating entirely on your own.
Strive to find sponsors who:
- Having already sponsored an event, so they understand the benefits of sponsorship.
- Has a comparable target demographic to yours; it doesn't have to be an exact match, but having common clients may certainly be advantageous.
- Provide services that compliment what your company or event offers.
- Customize sponsorship packages for customised offers based on your study. When feasible, do not be afraid to be innovative and provide unique sponsorship advantages.
10. Developing a Marketing Strategy
No matter how carefully you've prepared your event, obtaining the greatest location, a top speaker in the field, the finest entertainment, etc., if you can't get enough attendance, your event will fail.
It is essential to additionally consider how you will advertise your event, and it is preferable to break your event marketing activities into different phases:
- Pre-launch: You may begin building awareness for your event by launching “save the date” campaigns on social media, email marketing, and other channels.
- Early bird: selling early bird tickets to increase awareness and assure revenue flow.
- The announcement of the keynote speaker or the headliner.
- Further announcements: introducing more speakers, engaging session themes, etc.
- Final opportunity for discounted early bird price
- Registration concludes: the conclusion of registration
- Post-event: “thank you” marketing, mailing post-event surveys, etc.
- You may use numerous channels when promoting your event: advertising, social media marketing, issuing an event press release, email marketing, and so on.
Therefore, the optimal strategy is to develop your marketing campaign based on your target attendees' online activity, how they discover about new events, their preferred channels, etc. So, undertake extensive market research and collect as much data as possible.
