Kidding! There are 9 bazillion steps to pulling off an Event …

Lets just pretend there are only 6, for sake of a short read. We will all acknowledge this is not all encompassing and generalized.

1. Develop Event Goals and Objectives

2. Complete Needs Assessment

3. Determine Event Requirements

4. Budget

5. Monitor Event Milestones

6. Post Event Analysis

In the words of Simon Sinek “Start with Why“. Why do you want to have an event? What are the goals and objectives, what do you expect to get out of the event as a company (more sales, brand recognition)? What do you expect to get out of the event as an attendee (training product knowledge experience satisfaction)?

Who is going to be there and why?

What is happening? When will it be?

Where will it be held?

Why is your event happening?

A needs assessment starts with this question “What do I need to meet the events goals and objective?” Plot out the nice to have vs. need to have. This is a great starting point for your planner. What’s a Planner? This can start as chicken scratch on a napkin, notes on your iPad, an excel spread sheet, or an event planning application.

Is your goal to drive more people to your booth, and the objective, to make more sales? Than you need a way of telling people your selling your product, a place to sell, product to sell, people to answer questions, register of some kind, and the people to buy.

Is your goal to achieve brand awareness and objective to create hype? Than you need a method to drive people to your event, a venue, people to see your brand, your people to speak about the brand, something to remember the brand by (an experience, gifts, swag…)

Is your goal to celebrate, and objective to award your team? Than you need to tell your team, a place to party, your team in attendance, a venue, awards, of course food, and a bar!!

What does your event require and need to meet your goals and objectives?

Let’s say, your stakeholder want to drive more business to you booth for more sales. The event needs a plan to entice people to your booth, an element of interest, products to sell, a team to answer questions about the product, info sheets, a way for people to purchase your products.

Begin elaborating your event planner with more needs

• Who will be there (attendee list or team list)

• What will they do there (event goal an objective statement)

• When will they be there (team agenda or add to ROS)

• Where will they go when (team agenda or add to ROS)

• How will they get there (attendee agenda, transportation schedule)

• 
  

How much did you say? Use historical data as a base line for your budget (if you have it). If you started your event planner you have a list of or needs and requirements to meet your goals and objectives. Next to each need listed item, place an estimated amount, later you can make another column for the actual amount.

Consideration for budget;

• Do your home work on previous event you may have facilitated

• Shop around, get multiple quotes from vendors

• Are you giving gifts? Consider a vendor who can also ship to recipients

• Add a Misc column for tax, shipping/freight, and a just in case dollar amount to buffer your budget of 1-2% of your overall budget

• Catering can be expensive, you can do a Buffett style dinner, considering Covid you may have to budget more for individual pre packed meals

• Hotel, venue space, meeting rooms…

• Staffing

• Decor

• Printed material, badges, signage…

We all have milestones we like to celebrate. An event milestone can be close ended, or open ended. Certain tasks cannot begin until another ends. 🔶

Start and end time of the entire project, Key deliverables, approvals, meetings, milestones can be each date something is executed.

Consider the actual time a teammate can work on your project. Often a team mate has their own job and can help and provide 40% of their time. Allow for just in case timing, what are allowable time allowances, which time frames cannot allow delay?

An event is 90% planning, 10% execution. have a post event meeting with your event team, as soon as you can after the event. Getting fresh information really helps the lessons learned objective

• Overall how did the event go?

• Did you meet your event goals and objectives?

• Did you stay within budget?

• What worked, what didn’t?

• lessons learned (for next time)

Thank you for taking the time to read through this, if you read the entire article or just the bullet points, thanks again! I hope this was helpful and educational, my primary purpose is to be of service.