5 Key Ways to Ensure Your Event is a Major Success

Event Company: Planning an event is difficult. Period.

Event company planning and organizing a fairly small meeting involving just five participants can be quite a challenge, especially if this is your first time. Then, imagine planning a massive concert with a big-name DJ as the headliner and 100,000 attendees. Can you imagine the headache?

However, although event planning can certainly be challenging, it also can be exciting and worthwhile. Also, once you’ve got the hang of it, event planning isn’t exactly rocket science, and if you know the secrets, even planning a huge event can be a breeze.

Here, we will share those secrets, and while each event is certainly unique, in this guide we will suggest some actionable tips and best practices that you can follow for any event.

With that being said, here are some of the most important tips you can try right away in building a successful event:

1. Begin As Early as Possible

The golden rule of event planning is to begin planning as soon as you possibly can.

If your event company event is relatively large (i.e. more than 500 attendees), then realistically you should start planning the event at least four months in advance, with six months in advance being a more ideal timeframe.

Even for smaller events, aim for at least one month in advance to plan the event.

An event, as we know, can involve many different moving parts, so by planning early, you’ll get more options for different elements of the event: venue options, speakers/talents options, sponsorship options, marketing options, and so on.

The more options you have, the higher the chance you’ll be able to pull it off, period.

2. Establish Your Budget Early

We have mentioned the importance of planning your event as early as possible, but it’s especially important to estimate your budget as early as you can.

Your budget will dictate many different elements of your event, so while you don’t have to have everything set in stone, it’s important to at least have an outline of your budget estimation before planning anything else.

Some of the critical elements you should include in your budget are:

Venue: both the rental cost and required insurance. For virtual event company events, you can skip this.
Catering: all costs related to food and beverage
Decoration: pretty self-explanatory
Entertainment: speakers, talents, performers, exhibitors, and so on. Also, consider travel and accommodation costs.
Marketing: consider how you are going to promote your event and in which channels
Software: event management software, event ticketing software, CMS, and so on.
Labor costs: staff and volunteers, including their accommodations
Contingencies: very important. Plan at least 20% of your budget for contingencies to avoid surprises along the way

Once you’ve secured some vendors, make sure to also update the budget with your actual spending. This will help you in evaluating your event’s performance.

3. Choosing Your Ideal Venue

For an in-person event company event, then your venue selection can literally make or break your success.

If it’s a recurring event, then the date of the event might already be set, so your venue options might also be limited. However, if it’s a brand new event and/or if you have enough wiggle room to decide the event date, then you should consider the following factors:

Again, if this is a big event, make sure you have at least 4-6 months in advance to plan the event, the more the better.
In most cases, avoid school holiday time periods, since venues tend to be more expensive in these times
Pay attention to national and religious holidays
Check dates with your key speakers, VIP guests, and other key participants

Once you’ve decided on the event date (at least, a rough timeline), then you can start researching for potential venues.

Here are some considerations when choosing the ideal venue for your event:

Size: would depend on the number of attendees you’re planning to invite. Also, consider whether you’ll need separate rooms depending on your event type.
Location: if this is a local event, then your venue should be located near enough to your target attendees’ homes or workplaces. If you are planning to attract attendees from other cities/countries, make sure the venue is near enough to the airport and station
Parking: does the venue has a big enough parking lot and/or easy enough to access via public transport
Accessibility: choose accessibility factors like all-gender washrooms, accessible entrances/elevators, interpreters, and other factors.
Insurance: whether you are required to purchase additional insurance, which may add to your total cost
Acoustics: the acoustics condition of the venue, especially important for conference and keynote speaking sessions
Costs: pretty self-explanatory, but also consider hidden costs and possible cancellation fees.

4. Create a Written Event Plan

Once you’ve estimated your budget and have established at least a rough timeline for your event company event, then you should develop a written event plan as a roadmap for your event’s success.

Having a comprehensive event company event plan will significantly help you in managing your team and coordinating volunteers, and can also help in securing talents and sponsorships.

The event plan should cover the following elements of the event:

Venue
Logistics
Catering management
Speakers/talents
Presenters
Schedule/timeline
Entertainment
Promotion plan
Registration management (event registration software, event payment, tracking, on-site check-in)
Sponsorship plan and management
Volunteer responsibilities

Depending on your event, you can also add additional elements to the event plan, and you should also consider developing a detailed timeline/schedule to accompany the event plan.

Don’t forget all the details like required contracts, insurance policies, permits, and the logistics of each different element. If you have hosted previous events, especially with similar types, you can also use the past data and documentation in creating this event plan.

Even if your team is fairly small, or even if you are planning to run the event by yourself, don’t underestimate the importance of having a written plan, which can help a lot in juggling with different elements of the event and assigning accountability.

5. Establish Your Event Team

If you are going to plan the event solely on your own, then you can skip this one. However, it’s always better to share the load with others, even if it’s a relatively small event company event.

An event team shouldn’t be overly big, but it’s crucial to designate an Event Manager/Project Manager (if it’s not yourself) to lead and supervise the whole team.

Assign roles and responsibilities for different people in your team. If it’s a fairly small team, you can let one person handle multiple roles.

Here are some common roles in an event team:

Venue management: handling everything about the venue, including being a go-to person for speakers and sponsors when on the venue
Speakers/talents: securing talents and managing their needs
Catering: handling food and beverages
Publicity/marketing: how you are going to promote your event
Staff/volunteer management: managing the human resource aspect of your event

By assigning roles to different team members, you ensure accountability to every member of the event team, and thus, can improve productivity and increase the chance of the event’s success.

Having a reliable event management platform like se7en Friday will also help you in managing the whole team, delegate tasks, and track the progress of each team member according to their responsibilities.

Wrapping Up

While planning and organizing a successful event can be challenging, the 5 top tips we’ve shared above can be a solid foundation for you in planning your next event for success.

Above all, the secret of successful event organizing is a thorough understanding of your target attendees: the better you understand how you can deliver value to them, the more likely you can design a “perfect” event for them, and the higher the chance for success.

H/T: Eventtia

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