Having organised loads of events, there are many ways your event can go “off the rails”, but I believe these 3 areas are the most important areas to get right.
1. START WITH A COMPREHENSIVE EVENT BRIEF
Before you start planning any kind of event, the first thing to do is to develop a comprehensive event brief. Many people jump straight into the planning and this is where mistakes happen. The event brief is the bridge between your original idea of putting on an event and the starting block of truly designing your event with touchpoints and the outcome you want.
The first thing you might like to identify is why you want to host an event and what is your goal or the outcome you’re hoping to achieve.
If your event is a corporate event then look to relate your event to the overall business strategy and mission as well as your marketing strategy. Organisations that have a clear strategy and objectives increase their chances of producing events that provide a good return on their investment.
2. NOT MANAGING YOUR BUDGET
Another thing that can impact your event is a budget “blowout”. Mis-interpreting your budget and not managing it well can have significant financial implications.
A budget is essential for tracking the financial health of your event. Your budget should include fixed costs and variable costs such as catering, beverages, accommodation amongst others. Remember to include your entourage or event crew in your catering costs. Throughout the event planning stage, keep an eye on how you’re tracking against your allocated budget. Ensure that you are putting the correct costs into the budget, and don’t forget to include the relevant taxes (e.g. GST). Always ask suppliers if their prices include taxes or not. Finally, as things change in your budget, remember to update your budget as you go!
3. POOR EXECUTION ON THE DAY
So, the day of your event has finally come all your planning has been finalised, and you are ready to make the event happen. In order to execute effectively, you need to be across every aspect of your event. You need to be a master of communication by talking to your team and suppliers openly and professionally, and have the ability to solve problems, as not everything necessarily goes according to plan. As the event manager, you need to be able to think quickly and effectively to solve any challenges that arise. Events commonly can go for multiple days with long hours, sometimes a whopping 14 hours, so an event manager needs to have stamina to stay focused throughout to avoid making errors.
Finally, when you get the production of an event right and the client or your management team is really happy with the outcome. The job satisfaction is emotionally rewarding and the praise and wonderful feedback is motivating!
For more great tips on how to make your next event extraordinary, check out our blog posts.
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