Have you ever wondered how your favourite writers manage to keep their muse nearby and create a big pile of stunning pages that you read voraciously? Believe it or not, there’s no big secret to their success my friend.
They just sit there and write. The same applies for event organising. If you have a new event on your plate and don’t know exactly how to approach it, pick up your knife and fork, take a seat and start this tasty adventure with the best steps to event planning.
Why should you plan an event?
Just as brevity is the mother of wit, planning is definitely akin to effective event planning. If you don’t want any stressful experiences, queues at the check-in counter, someone placing the buffet in the wrong place and not knowing what to do about it, simply purchase a notebook and keep all the key processes outlined on paper.
The planning process that gives birth to the top-notch management of events involves three rules. To reach success with the core event management planning steps, learn how to plan an event checklist.
Event planning checklist
One of the key steps to planning a successful event is the creation of a useful checklist, which will be your starting point in making events run more smoothly.
- Write down your event planning checklist,
- Give it a good structure.
- Consider local government requirements,
- Set a budget,
- Brainstorm, create a vision of what you want to achieve with the event,
- Choose the location and rent the venue,
- Find sponsors/vendors, contact the media,
- Start marketing/promoting the event
- Connect the dots. Talk to everyone, whose help you need,
- Solve all technical issues,
- Take care of licences, permissions,
- Develop contingency plan for events,
- Include risk/time/waste management and others,
- Use Gevme to optimize the workflow,
- Use event planning templates.
Outline all the aspects you need to work on and set the perfect plan to make your event shine.
Event planning templates
You can find useful templates on the web and use them in your event planning practice. There are various templates to use:
Event marketing plan checklist template:
Event year schedule planners:
Complex non-profit event schedules:
or attendees lists for planners, etc.
You can find a plan template relevant specifically to your event based on your budget, event format and other parameters with Gevme.
10 steps to planning your event
While paving the way to well organised events, stick to these steps for planning an event, which are a good algorithm for your actions. They will save time and allow for more successful event planning, in comparison with spontaneous or intuitive organisation.
Here are the key steps for how to plan an event successfully:
#1. No rock and roll without a goal
We certainly won’t be the first to say: “Don’t start planning an event without setting a goal.” This golden rule is a must for those who want to have a great start—and an even greater end result—to the event. To simplify the process, split the objectives into categories. This way, you’ll be able to approach several issues at the same time.
In case you get lost on the way to your target, look through the tips on SMART goal setting.
#2. Organize a team
Shared tasks are easier tasks. Don’t hesitate to assign responsibilities to your team members. Our suggestion is to outline the key aspects that must be attended to, including entertainment, venue management and sponsors. Make someone from the team responsible for each of these. Indeed, if everyone strives to be the best piece of the puzzle, imagine what a gorgeous picture you’ll get in the end!
#3. Become a timing maestro
You have to make friends with a calendar if you want to escape schedule changes and holdbacks. Give yourself enough time for preparation and getting everything settled. Set deadlines to better enable team performance and let the countdown begin!
#4. Brand your event
Out of all stages of event planning, this one is incredibly important for your client. To enable high brand recognition, you have to make your event stand out. Start by brainstorming even the craziest ideas. Capture them all and then think about what will match the theme of your event in the best way.
NB: The most memorable aspects of your show should include a tagline and a logo. That’s what really counts when considering planning an event steps. That’s what you have to do perfectly.
#5. Every master needs a master plan
Build your own event planning manual from scratch by establishing a working solution (plus a backup solution) for the venue/registration/entertainment/promotion/volunteer management and any other relevant aspect. Also, see how to plan an event template. Again, don’t forget to double check whether you have at least one dedicated team member standing behind each of these spheres of responsibility. Treat your business plan for an event as your guide for seamless attendee engagement!
#6. Rule and govern
To successfully achieve event planning, you must be a manager with a thousand vigilant eyes. Unless you have a reliable assistant to simplify your administrative tasks, of course. Consider a “how to plan an event” template to assist event planning processes like payments, contact list integration, reporting, registration, etc. Minimising technical work gives you more space for creativity. If you want to learn about the eight other aspects of the event lifecycle, check them out here.
#7. Establish partnerships & sponsors
Identify corporate partners and community organisations that could provide you with assistance in making progressive steps when planning an event. Think of each solution imaginable: from the venue rental to volunteer help. Also, don’t forget to identify how your sponsors can benefit from supporting you in order to boost engagement.
#8. Make a publicity plan
Even if your event is well-recognised, don’t rely on word of mouth alone. Start with an announcement notice on your website and stay connected all the way through the post-event “thank you”.
#9. Budget it
One of the most hard-to-ignore stages of planning an event is aligning your needs with your actual budget. To handle this wisely, think of any sources of external funding from sponsorships/donations and then assign a realistic cost to the rest of the items.
#10. Determine evaluation process
The last item on the list of steps for event planning (which is, actually, not last): establish a working system to monitor your success. This process must be done during the goal setting stage. Make sure your progress is scalable!
Top 5 event planning tips
To get the most out of your event organisation, add these five tips to your planning strategy and see where they take you!
KEEP CALM
No matter what’s going on in your head, and no matter how many glasses a waiter has already broken, stay calm. As an event planner, you set the tone for the overall atmosphere. In other words, if you stay positive and calm, there’ll be no place for anxiety during the event! Only by keeping a cool head are you able to find a logical solution to any problem.
KEEP FUN
It doesn’t really matter how serious the topic of your event is. A bit of fun is always big plus From all the experienced event planners of the world: don’t skip the entertainment part.
STAY PURPOSEFUL
How about giving a homework assignment to your attendees? People want to contribute to an event. If you use this secret, you can make the whole audience even more excited about coming to the event. Simply give them a task to complete before the event. Purposeful events always attract more attention.
STAY ENGAGING
Take a lot of time planning and considering the speaking portion. There’s nothing that impresses more than engaging rhetoric. If you have a few stunning speakers at the event, it will almost always be a success.
STAY SPECTACULAR
Gatsby-style shows will never go out of style. To plan an event that’s pure pleasure for attendees, make good use of lighting techniques, work on the musical accompaniment and consider other clever mood boosters. Impress your guests!
How does Gevme ease your work?
When there are effective apps/tools that speed up and simplify your event management processthrough new online technologies and solutions, why not use them?
The Gevme cloud event registration and management system provides event planners with top-notch event planning guidelines,with features and tools for successful event planning and organisation.Professional onsite check-in solution access to control systems is available via the Gevme platform for any event type.
With Gevme, you can plan an event checklist easily because there is always an expert team with solid event management experience at your disposal.Besides,this resource provides onsite apps that work very quickly (it takes 1-2 seconds to checkin). It does not require any Internet connection, is suitable for events of any scale, will protect against fakes and repeated passes, and can collect all possible statistics in one place.
By using the AREA Framework, Gevme drives more attendance to events through online avenues. The AREA Framework (AREA stands for “Attract. Register. Engage. Attend.”) provides event planners with a set of easy and proven methods that can be adopted to boost attendance at events and increase your ROI. People can get to the registration form directly by clicking on it, and it can be tailoredto mobile devices as well.
GEVME offers high-tech apps and tools for both onsite and online event planning, as well as any other operations related to large-scale event management. The company provides a more progressive event check-in process solution for event planning steps,checking tickets and printing badges, event promotion, follow-up ideas and so much more.
Contact us for emergency event planning help.
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