6 Things to Consider to Organize a Successful Event
Organizing a successful event takes a whole of time, planning, and work. From the venue to the menu, there are many details to take care of. Some of these are things that people won’t notice but are incredibly crucial to the success of an event. That’s why event organizers need to be meticulous and systematic.
Even with years of experience, event organizing can be overwhelming, with so many tasks to juggle, but the pressure can be mitigated with ample time and preparation. If you’re organizing an event and looking for advice to make your plan a success, check out these event organizing tips
Set Your Goals and Objectives
Before organizing an event, know why you’re doing it in the first place. Are you raising awareness for a cause, gathering funds for a campaign, or promoting a brand?
Setting clear goals and objectives before diving into the planning process will help ensure that your event will achieve its purpose. The goals and objectives you established will also serve as the basis to evaluate the success of your endeavor.
It also helps to set a quantifiable metric to judge whether you’ve achieved your goals or not. You can set a specific amount you want to gather for a fund-raising event or the number of attendees you want to reach for a trade fair or conference.
With clear-cut goals and objectives, you know the direction you’re heading, so your next steps will be more guided and purposeful.
Create Your Team
Organizing an event needs a whole lot of attention to detail, but what it needs more is a reliable team of people ready to do their jobs. One person can’t do all the work that’s required in planning an event, so you must recruit trustworthy and competent workers or volunteers to help with every step.
In the team, there should be subcommittees assigned to take care of specific tasks, like managing the venue, arranging the entertainment, promoting the event, and looking for sponsors, etc.
Every member should also have their assigned roles. This makes delegating work easier and creates accountability among the members.
Establish Your Budget
An event plan will not come to fruition without a budget. Money is necessary to rent a venue, arrange for food and drinks, hire staff, and do a host of things needed to organize a successful event. If you have the funds, then your next step is to determine how much is needed for this and that. Every expense should be outlined in a budget plan.
A budget plan is essential to ensure proper allocation of funds and promote transparency and trust in the organization. Aside from the usual expenses of event organizing (e.g., venue, marketing, equipment, and labor costs), you also need to prepare allowances for miscellaneous expenses. You can’t plan for everything; the best you can do is to prepare for the unexpected, which, in this case, means setting aside emergency funds.
Check out this guide on how to budget for an event.
Give Yourself Enough Time
Planning an event is not an easy task, but it can be less overwhelming if you have plenty of time to get everything in order. Ideally, you should start planning and preparation four to six months before the scheduled date.
When setting a date for your event, consider statutory and religious holidays and school holidays, as well as the season. Many people may be traveling or may not be willing to venture out during certain days of the year. Find the perfect timing; whenever that may be, make sure it’s several months away.
Make Your Event Stand Out
The success of an event depends on many factors, one of which is the amount of attention it gathers. More often than not, the purpose of an event is to gain people’s attention and participation. As such, making the event stand out is an essential job of the event team.
You can achieve this by creating and putting in action a publicity plan. Your plan should include the use of different channels to reach your intended audience. Examples of these channels include social media, email, and press and media groups.
Branding also helps set your organization or event apart from others. Invest time and thought in coming up with name and tagline for your event that will catch the attention while conveying the message or purpose of your event. Design a logo to visually reinforce your brand and imprint it on people’s minds.
Consider getting custom packaging for your event materials and giveaways to showcase your logo and promote your brand and capture people’s attention.
Put Everything into Writing
You can use a spreadsheet, notebook, or anything to record all the details of your event. The important thing is that you put everything into writing. Writing things down has many benefits. For one, you don’t have to worry about forgetting something since you can consult your notes at any time.
Writing also helps organize your thoughts, so you can think more clearly and systematically and are less likely to overlook certain details. You can also share your notes with your team members to ensure that everyone is guided and is on the same page.
