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Planning an Event Is Not Exactly Like Making Dinner Reservations

Of course, you’ve made dinner reservations for yourself and some friends, possibly as many as 6 or 8. The hardest part is agreeing on a date, time and of course, restaurant. Clearly this takes some discussion and planning.

However, if you or the company, nonprofit, etc., that you work for wishes to hold an event, it’s quite a bit more than making those dinner reservations. Essentially you need to create a blueprint for your event.

 

For example:

Discuss purpose

A clearly stated purpose of an upcoming meeting or event with an outline of what will be discussed or take place is important for those being invited to receive and understand.  If they are uncertain of the purpose and undecided about the benefits of attending, it is unlikely they will participate.  This information should be included in your earliest communications, both internally and externally.  As changes occur, updates can be distributed.

  • What type of event will this be? A sales meeting, a training meeting? A charity gala? An executive retreat? , etc.
  • Do a SWOT Analysis at the beginning and every step along the way
  • Create a Budget – is it realistic?
  • Evaluate what would be a successful event
  • Evaluate what would not be a successful event
  •  

Determining overall goals and objectives –
According to Jen Jarmer of The Events Calendar, think of your goals as your event’s purpose. Your purpose is the big picture reason your event exists – where you want to be vs where you are now. Event goals are the reason your event exists – to inform, to include, to celebrate, to persuade, etc.…

Financial goals –
The first thought is usually one of financial goals, but that goal may be simply to break even rather than make a profit, or perhaps an organization is paying all expense for employee training or a family is paying all expenses for guests at a social function.  Your responsibility will most likely be one of controlling expenses to stay within the budget or consulting with the financial officer of your organization for approval if expenses will be higher than expected or incoming revenues less than expected according to PlannerHelper.comSponsorship goals –
com also suggests that if sponsors and exhibitors are to be part of your program, you will need to communicate what benefits they will realize from supporting and participating in your event and learn from them what their needs and expectations will be for them to commit.  This will be particularly tricky if this is a first-time meeting or event.  In that case, it will be important for them to know with some degree of certainty what organizations will be represented and who will be attending.  Convincing them will be easier if you have history from earlier events and your organization is well known and respected.

Attendee goals –
This will be one of the most important measurements of the success of the meeting or event. Meeting the goals of your attendees is significant. Again, PlannerHelper.com writes that you will want to learn all you can about the targeted audience to ensure that the setting and environment you coordinate will meet their needs and enhance the appeal of the program.  The name of the game is to have them clamoring to attend your next event or to purchase your product or to spread your message.  The time you devote to homework before you get started will save time in the long run and make it easier for you to achieve the goals and objectives of the planned activities. Discovering the elements that will make the audience feel comfortable and enthusiastic may be as simple as asking those in charge of the program content!  They may know the audience very well.  But if you are required to do research on your own, you will need to set aside a little more time to conduct a random survey or assign the job to a task force or committee to do it for you.  Use a survey to help assess what attendees really want.

Choosing the Venue

Once you have the information you need about your targeted a        audience, you will be ready to begin selecting a venue, service  providers and vendors that will help you produce the perfect event together a summary of your findings in a one-page fact sheet to       distribute to the key people who will be involved in producing the     program.  A valuable tool, the fact sheet will create an early     awareness of marketing strategies and action plans that need to be put in place and will give team leaders a head start.  As plans for the      event become finalized, the fact sheet should be updated and  if necessary to keep everyone in the loop and on track.

If you  would like more information on planning an event and how P&V Enterprises can help you, please contact us. Call 212-534-3052, email info@pnventerprises.com or fill out the form below and we will contact you within 24 hours.

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