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Event Planning Checklist: Part 4

Posted on: June 22nd, 2011 by Emma No Comments

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

Event Planning Checklist: Part 3

Posted on: June 15th, 2011 by Emma No Comments

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

Event Planning Checklist: Part 2

Posted on: June 8th, 2011 by Emma No Comments

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.

Event Planning Checklist: Part 1

Posted on: June 1st, 2011 by Emma No Comments

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.

How to Plan a Successful Event and Save Money!

Posted on: May 13th, 2010 by Tony No Comments

Event Planning software….the facts

If you have ever laid awake at night thinking about the event or conference you are planning, then this article about the facts of event planning software is for you.

When you have planned events in the past, how many calls have you taken from delegates who either haven’t received, or can’t find their confirmation, tickets, directions, VAT receipt; and there’s only a few days to go?

How often have you been given a tough time because of errors in a group booking or had to pull in extra admin staff to cope with the volume of administration because your event is so well subscribed?

Having an event run smoothly and successfully for your client is what all event planners dream about. The client relationship though can at times become a touch tense when they are constantly on the phone to you checking
on bits of detail. You would only be human if you, like many others had found yourself thinking, “Wish they would let me get on with my job!”

If any of this sounds and feels familiar, then you be pleased to know help is at hand for you. What’s even better is that this is help that can also save you money. Event planning software is the answer.

So why would you consider using event planning software in the first place? It’s a sensible question.

Let’s get down to those facts.

Fact 1

8 out of 10 people now search online for services. If you are marketing an event or conference, having an online presence for your event is a must.

Fact 2

The more you can automate the process the better. Putting delegates in charge of their own registration and providing them will all the info they need reduces the risk of organiser errors. Allowing delegates to pay online gives them added convenience and for you better cash flow. Imagine the cost savings this could make.

Fact 3

Communication, even with today’s technology, can still be a challenge.
Clients nowadays want up to the minute feedback and data on how their event is doing. How many delegates have booked how much money has come in etc. As an event planner, I know how time consuming this can be. We want to create an amazing event as well as keep our clients happy. I know how it is I have been planning and running events for over ten years and this is one of the real challenges.

The fact are you need to get on with planning the event and communicate with your client so what better way than to use software where your client can access all the information, when they want, anywhere in the world at any time of day or night!

Fact 4

You have a client budget to manage and a business to run efficiently. You know the admin costs involved in registering delegates, taking payments, printing invoices and name badges, creating reports. I won’t go on, you get
the message. You also at the end of the day need to make a profit!
Event management software can streamline and reduce all these costs and make savings on every event you carry out.

Fact 5

Investing in event planning software is a convenient way of running a professional event planning service, where you and your client can stay informed saving you time and money.

Posts Tagged ‘event management software’

Event Planning Checklist: Part 4

Event Planning Checklist: Part 3

Event Planning Checklist: Part 2

Event Planning Checklist: Part 1

How to Plan a Successful Event and Save Money!

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