Events are complex, yet (with a little creativity and lots of careful planning) can become memorable, successful and enjoyable experiences for everyone, including you – the organiser. My top-ten event-planning tips are designed to help events organisers to focus on what they must do to deliver consistently great events.
They are based on some fifteen years’ experience as an events manager and my observations, these past few years, of some other great events managers with whom I have worked.
Here are my top-ten tips on ‘How To Organise A Successful Event’
1. Process:
Events management is a process: where do you start when you are organising an event – at the beginning or somewhere a little further along the way? Do you have a logical process which you follow for every event? This process needs to work, not just for you, but also for everyone working with you.
The process needs to be logical and to include research, design, planning and production tasks.
2. Purpose:
Do your research: Before you get stuck into organising your event, do you know whether anybody else (other than you and your team) considers it to be a good idea? You must first conduct some formal or informal quantitative and/or qualitative research, to identify needs, and then find an event to match.
Ultimately, you are trying to reduce the risk which you are taking, through delivering an event which your customers actually want. At this stage, too, you must decide what the purpose of the event is – why hold an event? This information will inform all of your decisions from this point forward.
3. Presentation:
It’s design time: Having established that it’s a good idea, it is now time to create a blueprint for your event: what is it going to look like, feel like, the programme, theme, activities, promotion: in other words, the ‘how’ of delivering an event which will meet your intended audience’s expectations.
After you have created your outline event design plan, it is always advisable to do more market-acceptance research: do potential audience members like it? Recheck the figures and see whether it is still feasible, given the available resources.
4. Planning:
You simply cannot spend too much time planning your event. With definitive answers to why, who, what, when and where, it is time to source and contract everything you will need to make your event a success.
What services do you require? What sort of expertise do you need? What type of organisational structure do you require? Your event project plan will identify critical dates; these will dictate the tempo of your decision-making.
5. Place. Your Event’s Venue:
There are some fantastic venues available, so do think creatively about your venue choice. A great venue really sets the tone and sense of occasion for your event. A thorough evaluation of the venue and what it has to offer must be undertaken, to determine whether it is a good match for your event and organisation.
How many people can it accommodate? Will the proposed audience like it? How flexible and accommodating do you think the venue’s staff will be? What services and facilities can the venue offer you?
6. Programme:
The programme can make or break an event. It is one of the vital components of your event – it’s the reason why your audience is there, so it must be good. The programme outlines what the audience is going to do, listen to, watch and take part in.
It has to be interesting, engaging and enjoyable. If you want your audience to remember your event, for all of the right reasons, you need to establish how your audience is really going to get involved in your event.
7. Participation:
Audience members always want to feel part of the events which they attend; when they do, they can get a very real sense of engagement – something stirs inside! When this happens, they leave events with great memories and a strong impression of the host organisation.
Events managers must think about how they are going to involve their audiences and what they are going to take part in, learn about, experience, try out and problem-solve.
8. Promotion:
Your planned event may be the next big thing, but, if your promotion misses the mark, your event will fail. Your promotion must seek to draw people to the event: to excite them to buy, enquire, to talk to you and/or to join.
Your promotion must provide a compelling reason for attending, promising a rewarding, entertaining, informative, exciting and not-to-be-missed event. You will undoubtedly have to use a mix of promotional media to get the message to your audience.
Do you know how your audience typically finds out about events; if you don’t know, don’t guess - find out.
9. Production:
Making it happen. Event managers must understand what needs to happen on the ground to ensure a successful event. Operational plans must detail all arrival times, staffing levels/roles, contractors’ build times, arrivals’ sequence, event-opening times and, of course, must not omit the all important risk assessments and event management plans, plus health and safety.
10. People:
Your people, your team and you: Events are hard work, so you will need a committed team around you. Consider also your external team members: what qualities do you require from them? Match talents to tasks.
Events are a service, so the attitude of your team members, all of them, will be instrumental in creating that high-quality event experience which your audience will remember. What do you know about your audience: Who are they? What do they do? Where do they come from?
If you don’t know who they are, how can you provide for them? Events managers require bags of energy and a real passion for their work; if you spread infectious enthusiasm, your staff will respond and guests will really enjoy being around those who love what they are doing.