Hiring an event planner can be a costly affair. If you’re planning a small event for your business or organization, professional event planning may blow up your entire budget.
What if we tell you that your event can be planned and managed without a professional?
Yes, that’s absolutely possible.
You’re already very skilled in managing tasks and projects. You need to deal with the event just like another project. Let’s also tip you off with some established strategies for planning a successful event.
1. Start Planning Early
Just because the event is not one of your core business projects, you can’t put it off till the last minute. Start planning for the event at least a couple of months in advance.
Be it an official conference or a fundraiser, you’ll need to apply the basic principles of planning and management. Have your goals clear. Identify potential challenges. Brainstorm solutions. If you plan ahead of the approaching date, you’ll be able to proceed systematically.
2. Have A Budget
Our discussion started with the topic of budget constraints. If your resources are limited, you can’t spend mindlessly. You need to plan a clear budget for all the event needs. Figure out how much you can spend on the venue, the invitations, the catering, souvenirs, etc. Reserve some amount in the budget for unforeseen costs too. Inform the team involved in the event planning regarding the budget.
3. Make Your Event Team
You might want to take the sole responsibility for the event. But keep in mind that’s not going to be easy. Establish a team and assign responsibilities. Delegate the tasks and supervise the team members.
If you’ve decided to go solo, you can also use smart solutions for event planning. With event planning software it becomes easy to connect with vendors and guests. You can even save the data for recurring events, modify the plan and execute all tasks conveniently with Smartsuite’s dedicated mobile app (android & apple store) for event planning.
4. Identify Target Audience
The audience for the event may be your office colleagues, business associates, or members of a particular community or society. You need to identify the audience and prepare a guest list for sending out invitations.
If you’re sending personal invites, you would need contact details and mailing addresses for the invitees. If you’re targeting a larger audience you’ll need to determine how you can reach them.
5. Be Mindful Of The Venue You Choose
Choosing the right venue is important. Some factors that you need to consider are:
- Cost of booking the venue
- Its size and location
- Parking facility at the venue
- Whether the location is accessible by public transport
- Whether the environment of the venue is formal or informal
6. Keep Track Of Your Preparations
When you’re planning an event, make sure to have a checklist and timeline of events. You can track the progress of your preparations against the timeline and know which pending tasks should be completed as a priority. If you realize that you’re falling behind, you can shuffle responsibilities in your team or take support from outside.
Again, an event planning software can be useful in terms of tracking progress and meeting deadlines.
7. Effective Communication
You need to ensure that there is seamless communication with the vendors for the event. If you’re entering into formal written contracts with vendors, review the terms and conditions carefully.
If you’re dealing with vendors without a written contract, you need to be clear with the instructions. Follow up with the vendors from time to time to be sure that the arrangements are in order.
8. Promote Your Event
Behind every successful event, there is a star marketer. This becomes even more evident when the event is open to the public. Your event needs to stand out and be memorable. Create brand awareness around the event on social media, if need be.
Begin promoting in advance, building excitement and interest in your target audience. You can also arrange souvenirs for the participants. Lastly, take lots of pictures of the event and share them on social media platforms.
Following these tips, you can boost your preparations for the event. Don’t stress yourself out. If you undertake the event planning systematically, all your efforts will be paid off. We’re sure your event will be an epic hit!
