This is the final part of our Event Planning Checklist.  Today we will explore what should be on your checklist in the final run up to your event, starting with one week before the big day:

A week before the event and your event planning checklist should almost be complete.  Use this final week to double-check everything and get organised for the event itself.  Here is a list of things to do and check:

• Give staff a full briefing with a walk-through of the event
• Check flights/speaker travel
• Confirm all arrangements and timings with venue, including final numbers for catering
• Confirm arrangements with all other suppliers
• Send reminder email to all delegates to let them you know are looking forward to seeing them at the event
• For larger events, a dress rehearsal is advised.  If speakers are not available, a walkthrough with staff and the AV Company is advisable
• Print name badges for all of your delegates, staff, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors
• Consider how you will collate feedback.  There are many ways to do this, such as a form for people to complete on the day, an electronic survey on the day or an online survey for delegates to complete after the event.
• Make sure all your event staff know where and when they need to arrive
• Pack your equipment ready to take with you to the event – here are some of the things you will need
  • A lap top with all of your event documents saved into one folder
  • Name badges
  • Conference bags and literature
  • Stationery box – including scissors, pens, sticking tape, blu-tack, phone chargers
  • A list of important contact names and numbers – e.g. speakers contact details, key staff, key suppliers
  • Feedback forms
  • Print outs of your briefing document for staff
  • Personal items such as deodorant, mobile phone, spare cash

On the day

On the day of your event, the key thing to remember is that some of the things on your event planning checklist will not go exactly as you planned.  If things do go wrong, remember:

• To stay calm. 
• It is highly likely that the majority of your delegates won’t even notice, so don’t be too disappointed and don’t beat yourself (Don’t sweat the small stuff!)
• Try to resolve the problem; this is when an event planner needs to be at his or her most resourceful and don’t be afraid to ask for help
• If the problem can’t be solved, then consider what contingencies you have in place or if all else fails, make relevant apologies and move on.

Once you are in the right frame of mind and ‘ready for anything’ you need to consider the practical elements:

• Arrive early so that you can be completely organised before delegates start to arrive
• Ensure you have all of your pre-packed equipment  (lap top, name badges etc) either with you, or already at the venue
• Unpack all of your equipment in an orderly fashion so you know where everything is
• Re-brief all staff so they are clear about what is expected of them
• Ask your registration staff to start putting out name badges (these should already be in alphabetical order for ease on the day)
• Make sure you have a member of staff ready to welcome speakers, exhibitors, sponsors and VIP’s to the event (depending on the size of the event, you may need several people for this job)
• Reconfirm all timings and refreshments with the venue (don’t forget to schedule time for you and your event staff to eat/take breaks)
• Ensure conference bags/programmes/materials are easily accessible to give to your delegates as they arrive
• Check sound/light equipment and staging
• Ensure all presentations have been uploaded and that your AV technicians are clear on the order of the presentations/speakers

After the event:

• Evaluate the event’s success
  • Did it meet the objectives set out at the beginning – if not, why not?
  • Were budgets met?
  • What did the feedback tell you?
• Write to all speakers, sponsors etc to thank them for their contribution to the event
• Do a de-brief with staff to evaluate what worked and what could be done better
• If the event is an annual event, write a checklist for the person who will organise the event next year

Maximizing your investment

To complete your event planning checklist, we take a look at how to maximise your investment.  All too often people organise events and share powerful information that has a high value.  Whilst the people in the room benefit from this shared knowledge, many people forget to maximise their investment and share the knowledge with a wider audience beyond the event itself.

With the rise of social media come lots of opportunities to share your message further.   By using the information shared at the event you can use this to attract people to your website, promote your next event, or position you as an expert – here are just a few ideas:

• Film the event to make a show real/promotional video for your website
• Write an Article based on one of the presentations and give it away on your website in return for contact information (this will give help to build your database for future events)
• Put the PowerPoint slides from your event on http://www.slideshare.net
  to help drive traffic to your website
• Sell footage or Audio recordings from the event to generate additional income

Depending on the type of event you’re organising, your event planning checklist should consist of a number of things:

• Your room; if you are organising a dinner you may want to think about a theme or a colour scheme for your room décor.  There are plenty of companies who can help you to theme anything from your table linen to your stage set
• What suppliers do you need to book?  Here are some you might want to think about, and don’t forget that to get the most out of any supplier, you should send them a written brief and discuss what you’re looking for with them:
  • Photographer
  • Filming Company
  • Entertainment
  • Transport for delegates and/or staff
• Ensure you have sufficient staff and make sure everyone is allocated specific roles and that each person is given a written brief to follow
• Book flights/travel and accommodation for speakers and VIP’s
• Brief all of your speakers and write scripts where needed
• Confirm arrangements with the venue, including menu options, final numbers, access for set up and timings of the event
• Ensure delegates have tickets, maps, agenda’s etc
• Order conference bags and materials (if producing a conference programme allow sufficient time for this to be planned, information to be gathered, the programme to be designed and then printed – this can take around four to six weeks for larger events/programmes).
• Ensure you have all of your speaker’s presentations in advance so your AV Company can upload them prior to the event

Marketing

It is vital that you consider how you are going to get ‘bums on seats’.  Refer to part one of this Event Planning Checklist to remind yourself how important it is to make sure the content of your event will make people want to come along.  Then consider:

• Do you have a database of people to market your event to?
• Are there other people/organisations that you can team up with to attract more delegates?
• Do you have an online marketing strategy?
• What is your offline marketing strategy?
• Do you have a budget for marketing materials?
• How will people register and pay for the event? (See administration below)
• Does the event need a standalone website or online registration page, or can you promote the event and take bookings via your own site?
• Will you need to advertise the event is trade, regional or national press?
• Do you have press stories that can get your event free exposure in the press?

Administration

When writing your event planning checklist, don’t underestimate the time and money required to manage the administrative aspects of planning your event:

Speakers

You might not think that much administrative work would be required for your speakers, so please consider the following:

• Confirming speakers and writing/signing contracts
• Writing and sending a brief to speakers
• Requesting speakers photo, biography, presentation slides and travel arrangements
• Confirming hotel accommodation and travel in writing
• Sending thank you letters after the event

Sponsors

Again, sponsors do require some administrative support:

• Writing and signing sponsorship contracts
• Requesting logo’s and company information for websites and promotional literature
• Confirming what has been done in return for sponsorship income
• Sending thank you letters after the event

Delegates

This is where most of your admin time will be spent.  You will need to consider the following:

• How will your delegates register for the event?  Will they need to complete a booking form to post/fax back, will they email you, or will you take online bookings via a website?
• If you are taking bookings online, does the registration information go direct into a database, or does someone need to type up each registration?
• How will you handle payments?  Will delegates need to pay by cheque or can they pay on line via your website or online registration page?
• Who will send out invoices?  Can this be automated?
• How will you send confirmation emails/letters?  Does this need to be done manually or can you use an online registration system to automate this for you?
• Do you need to print tickets, or can you send out e-tickets, either manually, or using an online registration system?
• Who will print name badges?  Will they be professionally printed, where you will need to send a database of delegates to the supplier, or will they be printed in house?
• Do you need to do all of the administrative work yourself?  Can this be outsourced, or can you use an online registration system that will do all of the hard work for you by automating all of the admin tasks?

The final part of this Event Planning Checklist will be published next week – please be sure to drop by to find out what should be on your checklist for the week before your event.

Welcome to part 2 of my Event Planning Checklist.  Today we are going to cover aspects that can make or break your event – budgeting, expenditure and legal aspects of planning your event.

Budgeting

Even if you have what seems to be a large budget for an event, costs can soon run away if you do not manage them properly.  Each event will have some variations in what their budget will need to cover, so here are some things to think about:

Expenditure:

• Venue costs
• Labour costs (either in house or outsourced)
• Speaker fees and expenses
• Audio visual equipment, filming, photographer etc
• Marketing costs – design, print (if applicable) and distribution or circulation
• Entertainment, additional catering/drinks etc
• Event Insurance
• Event Staff (their time plus catering costs and travel)
• Items on the day: delegate name badges, conference bags, conference brochure, give aways etc

There are also many ways of raising income for your event:

• Ticket sales, consider:
  • Early bird discounting; this is a great way to attract delegates early and get paid in advance for your event.  It also is a great indicator of how successful your event will be and how hard you will need to work to fill the remainder of your seats
  • If you have members, will you offer them a discounted price for attending your event
  • Bulk purchasing discounts; this is a great way to generate more income and get more people to your events.  Three for two offers or buy one get one free can be a great way to sell out your event
• Selling Exhibition Space
• Attracting Sponsors – Sponsors do not necessarily have to give you money towards your event.  If you can attract sponsors ‘in kind’ they may help you to reduce your costs and thus help improve your bottom line
• Finding event partners.  There may be other organisations who wish to speak to the same audience as you or deliver a similar message.  If appropriate, teaming up with another organisation could halve your costs.

Legal:

You must ensure that your event planning checklists covers all of your legal responsibilities.  Each event will be different, so this list is by no means exhaustive:

• Risk Assessments – there is plenty of free advice on the internet about carrying out risk assessments and good venues will also be able to help you
• You must make sure that you are working within health and safety laws – there can be lots of lifting, carrying and climbing stepladders etc during the run up to an event; make sure your team is safe at all times
• Certain events will require specific Event Insurance, at a minimum you should make sure you public liability insurance covers you for internal events.  If you are holding an exhibition it is also vital that your exhibitors have event insurance.
• Employment law: if you are using agency staff, volunteers or temporary staff, take the time to ensure that you are operating within current employment legislation

Come back next week to read Part 3 of my Event Planning Checklist where we will be looking at organising your event in more detail.

An Event Planning Checklist can be rather comprehensive, depending on the scale of your event.  So I’ve decided to break down my event planning checklist into four parts so it’s easier to digest.  Today we look at setting objectives, finding a venue, setting a date, speakers and presenters and equipment.

Setting objectives:

Any event planning checklist should always encourage you to start with the event in mind: 

To help you to do this, it’s useful to ask yourself some important questions:

• Why are you holding the event?  Do the objectives link in to your business plan?  If so, be clear what elements of your business plan you need to achieve.
• How will you know when your event has been a success?
• What outcomes are you looking for?
• How many people should attend?
• Who should attend?
• Are you looking to make a profit, or do you have a set budget to work towards?

Finding a venue:

There are a number of organisations that can help you to find a venue for your event.  For example your local conference bureau or a national venue finding service.  Obviously the internet is also a valuable source of information when looking for venues.  There are a number of things to consider when deciding upon a venue:

• Is it easily accessible by road, rail or air?
• Will it comfortably fit all of your delegates/visitors? (You need to also think about the space required for your audio visual equipment here)
• Do you need breakout rooms, or a separate room for lunch/an exhibition?
• Cost – do you need to pay per delegate (DDR) or pay for the room hire plus catering?
• Does the venue have good ‘green’ credentials?
• How welcoming and helpful are the staff – will you find them easy to work with?
• Is there car parking?
• What is the quality of the food and facilities?
• Do you need hotel accommodation?
• Do you need to hire the venue the day before the event for set up and/or a dress rehearsal?

Set a date:

Remember to leave yourself sufficient time from setting the date to the actual date of the event.  So many people think they can achieve far too much in a short space of time and forget that speakers, suppliers and most importantly, delegates need time to plan their diaries.  Other things to consider:

• Bank holidays
• A Royal Wedding!
• School Holidays
• Clashes with other major events
• Costs – some venues will give you a discount for holding your event on a Monday or Friday or other quieter periods

Equipment:

The amount of technical equipment you will need will depend on what kind and size of event you are organising.  A good Audio Visual company will be able to advise you.  Meanwhile, here are a few things to think about:

• Do you need a simple screen, projector and lap top, or a more complex stage set with lighting and graphics
• Will you be using videos or DVD’s? (your AV company will need to know this in advance)
• Do you need a Public Performance License?
• What size PA System do you need?  How many microphones do you need?
• Will the AV Company provide the right amount of technicians throughout the day?
• Do you need an electronic badge system at the event or data readers to collect bar code information?
• Do you need to be able to take credit card payments during the event?
• Do you want to use Front, Back or Fly projection?

Speakers and presenters:

The first question you should ask yourself when deciding on the content of your event is “Why would people want or need to hear what we have to say?”  It is all too easy to attract key note speakers withour first considering what the key message is that you need to get across.  For most people time is money and your event will need to ‘hit the spot’ before they sign up to attend.

Once you are clear on your key messages and themes, and you know you have an audience for your event, the next step is to consider who is going to deliver the message for you.  This is a huge area and we couldn’t possibly cover everything here, but here are some things to consider:

• Do you need a professional presenter to hold your event together and engage with your audience?  This could either be a celebrity such as a TV Presenter or newsreader, or a professional presenter or conference host.
• Who will be speaking at your event?  Internal people from within your organisation, industry specialists, or key note speakers?  Speaker fees vary massively from a few hundred pounds to cover expenses, to tens of thousands of pounds for celebrities or specialists.  Remember, just because a speaker attracts a high fee does not mean they are right for your event. 
• Consider a speaker’s overall costs.  Not just their speaker fee, but also their travel.  If someone demands first class travel from another country, this could hike up your budget.
• Also consider how the information will be presented.  Many people have heard the term ‘death by PowerPoint’ so consider the energy levels of your audience when planning your event.  There are many ways to deliver your key messages including:
  • Panel discussions
  • Videos
  • Case studies
  • Interviews
  • Presentations – varying in length and style
  • Activities

Come back next week to check out Part 2 of my event planning checklist, where we will cover budgeting, expenditure and legal requirements.

So you’ve organised your event, your delegates/visitors are registered and you’re ready for the big day.  I don’t know about you, but I always think the event management business is like having an 18th birthday party every day of your life; Will people turn up? Do they like me? Is my party worth their valuable time? 

Of course, if we worried about this too much we drive ourselves crazy.  And to a point, we have to accept drop out rates, which can vary in my experience between 5 and 55%.  But there are ways to improve attendance at your events and here are my top eight tips:

1. Recognise the importance of feedback.  Don’t just ask attendees if they enjoyed your event – survey non-attendees also to find out what stopped them from coming.  This will give you valuable information when planning your next event
2. Keep in touch with your delegates.  If people book for your event month’s in advance, then don’t hear from you for a while, they may start to wonder if you received their booking or the event is still taking place.  Send regular emails to delegates (but be careful not to spam them) and remember to schedule an email or a call to them the day before the event to remind them that you are looking forward to welcoming them to your event
3. Another way to imrove attendance at events in to incentivise your delegates.  Give them something valuable/informative upon arrival or do a prize draw whereby you have to be at the event to be in with a chance of winning.
4. Use testimonials in your marketing literature.  This is a compelling way to make sure your audience knows they’ll be missing out if they don’t show up.
5. Upgrade key people to VIP status.  This could include fast track entry in to the event, a small corporate gift on arrival or priority seating.  If your delegates feel special from the outset then they are more likely to attend.
6. If appropriate, use a text messaging service to remind people on the day about easy parking/public transport, route diversions etc.
7. Make sure your venues are easily accessible, ideally with good transport links, free parking and disability access.  If your delegates feel they will have to fight through traffic and then stuggle to find a parking space, they are less likely to attend if something else crops up.

Getting the right people to your event can be more important than getting high volumes of people to your event – particularly if you are organising an exhibition and your exhibitors expect to do business with their potential clients. 

When organising exhibitions, I always stress that my focus will be on getting ‘the right people’ through the door – rather than focusing simply on high footfall.

So, here are my top eight ideas to get the right people to your event:

1. Build a database in advance of promoting your event.  There are lots of ways you can do this, including starting a LinkedIn group for your target audience, an opt in page on your website whereby visitors to your site get something of value of free (such as a report or white paper) in return for giving you their email address, by teaming up with another company or media group that will already have a database, or purchasing a database.
2. Start to build relationships with the right people, so that by the time you are promoting your event, they already know and trust you.  This can be done physically at networking events and meetings or on line via social networks.
3. Include VIP tickets in your sponsorship deals.  This means that when sponsors come on board they have tickets that have a finacial value to them, that they can then give to their best clients as a loyalty reward.  It’s highly likely that their best customers are the exact kind of people you want at your event.
4. Invite your own VIP’s to the event as special guests.
5. Publish a sample list of delegate names (get permission first – perhaps from your list of VIP’s) on your website.  If people see that their peers are attending, they are more likely to book too.
6. Find out who are the influencers in your market – bloggers, CEO’s, magazine or newspaper editors etc.  Ask them to promote the event by tweeting/blogging about it, or simply sharing the information with their peers at networking events
7. Put a footer on all of your emails, with your event logo, venue, date and a link to the website.  Ask your speakers, sponsors and exhibitors to do the same.
8. Make it easy for people to book and them their confirmation email/e-ticket immediately so that they know they have a place at the event.  If you offer a great service, they are more likely to tell their peers about your event.  Our online registration system does this automatically for you of course – so you don’t need to worry about having sufficient resources to respond to bookings 24/7 .

Green Events is a hot topic at the moment – and rightly so.  Here are my top eight tips for making your event more green:

Refuse:

Rather than buying bottled water and fizzy drinks for your delegates, try making plenty of iced tap water and cordial available

Refuse to print hundreds of documents (brochures, hand-outs etc.) Try using eco mags  (http://www.ecomags.co.uk) to share hand-outs/abstracts or SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net) to share presentations

Reduce:

Reduce paperwork by registering your delegates online using our Event Management 360 registration system, the free website will also save you from printing out promotional material.  (http://bit.ly/goc9vd – click for a free trial)

Reduce CO2 emissions by choosing venues that have good access by public transport

Reuse: 

If you really do need to buy branded materials for your event, avoid putting the date on goods so that they can be reused the following year.

If you have left over food, as your venue to donate it to a local charity or homeless centre

Recycle:

Ask delegates for their name badges back on departure then recycle them for your next event

Use venues and suppliers who have a strong recycling plan and recycle goods wherever possible – but remember, if you don’t use them in the first place, then you won’t need to recycle them afterwards!

Ensuring your have sufficient event staff for your next conference doesn’t need to be a problem if you are prepared to work closely with universities and develop a volunteer programme

Staffing an exhibition or conference can be costly for an event planner, however it is vital that you have sufficient people on hand to help delegates, manage registration, assist exhibitors etc.  

Rather than hire an agency to provide the event staff for you, why not work closely with your local university, particularly if they have students studying for an Event Management Degree. 

Hiring students can be troublesome.  Will they turn up?  Will they be motivated?  Will they be any good?  These are all valid questions; however I believe that working with students can be both cost effective and rewarding.  The problems arise when organisers simply invite students to ‘help out’ by putting a notice up at the University.  There is a much more effective way of working with students.  Here is my five step plan staffing an event and getting the most out students, whilst making it worthwhile for them:

1)      Contact the University that you would like to work with and meet with the Head of their Event Management courses (or similar).  Tell them that you would like to work closely with the University to give their students valuable experience in the events industry by allowing them to volunteer as a member of your event staff.  Universities tend to be crying out for an invitation such as this.  We give our arrangement a name: The Student Volunteer Programme.

2)     Via the University, invite all of their students to apply for your programme.  Make this an application process.  Ideally an online form they can complete, with a few interview style questions, such as why are they applying, what do they believe they can bring to your event, what areas do they feel they would benefit from gaining experience in?  This may sound a little long winded – but it really does work.  It means that you only get volunteers applying who would take the programme seriously.  Plus, the application process gives them a sense of pride if they are selected.  (If you only need a few students and you have time, interview them in person).

3)     Shortlist the applications and invite them to a briefing session held at the University. Invite more than you need as some will drop out at this stage.

4)     Work with the University to hold your briefing session.  They will probably give you a free class room to use and encourage the students to turn up.  At the briefing session, you can tell them about your organisation, your event and what would be expected of them if they were part of the event staff.  Use this time to get them on board, and excited about volunteering for you.  I would encourage you to let them see all aspects of event management so that it truly is valuable to them.  From setting up and registration, through to working in the seminar hall and working with exhibitors.

5)     Finally, after the event issue all of the volunteers a certificate for their portfolio.  That means that they’ve had lots of valuable experience working with you, but they’ve also got something to show potential employers when they graduate.  What’s more, if they’ve had a positive experience with you, they’ll report back to their lecturers at University, which means that they’ll be more inclined to help you again in the future.

Printing name badges were voted the number one headache for event planners during a recent survey.  We surveyed visitors to our stand at the Conference and Hospitality Show in Leeds and almost everyone said they dreaded designing and printing their name badges for events.

Visitors were asked what administrative tasks they disliked, such as registering delegates, chasing income, raising invoices, and sending confirmation letters.  When asked if they realised that Event Management 360 online registration software could do all of this for them, many of them were shocked.

Coming a close second to name badges, visitors expressed a dislike for inputting registrations into a database or spread sheet and chasing income.  Having a system that could take away the administrative burden, whilst taking online payments for events seemed heavenly to some visitors who went on to sign up for a demonstration of the system.

If you are someone who hates printing name badges, why not start a trial of Event Management 360 and put our name badge tool to the test?  Meanwhile, why not continue the debate by filling in our short online survey and tell us your biggest event planning headache:

Using LinkedIn to raise your profile and drive traffic to you and your website is a vital tool for event planner.  Here are our top ten LinkedIn tactics for event planners

1. Make sure you start with the end in mind – what do you want to achieve via your LinkedIn account?  Who do you want to connect with and why?  Do you want to drive traffic to your website or encourage people to make direct contact with you?  Do you want to carry out market research and understand your customers more, or simply win more business?  Or do you want people to sign up for one of your events, or recommend an event to others?
2. Once you know what you want to achieve, make sure you know what keywords people are searching on for your services, and use your keywords in your Headline, Job Title and Summary – this will increase your chances of showing up when people search for your services or expertise
3. Join groups and contribute to discussions where your expertise will be of benefit – don’t forget to put a link back to your website or blog
4. Connect with as many people within the industry as possible, they will help you to share your expertise and link with other like minded people – we find the best way to link with people is via the groups we join
5. Complete your profile as thoroughly as possible.  Include as much information as possible (interests, experience, education etc) and use keywords where appropriate
6. Use Linked In Applications such as WordPress, My Travel, Twitter, Slideshare and Google Presentations.  Also make sure you use the Events Plug In to promote the events your are working on, as well as to find out what other events are happening in your industry
7. Ask for recommendations and recommend others.  People searching for your services will want to know who has used you in the past, and what they say about you
8. Update your status with useful information, links to content, links to other peoples content (if your connections will find it useful) as much as possible.
9. Include your LinkedIn profile link in other places like Twitter, Digg, and other social media websites.
10. Finally, make sure you include your company URL somewhere on your profile.