How to Plan an Event: The Ultimate Guide

Planning an event requires a laid down plan and a process to achieve a certain organization’s goal. It may be a tedious job if there is no checklist developed during the planning phase. Some of the best practices to follow may vary depending on the kind of event being held. Therefore, to make an event successful, it’s important to understand some of the main areas of event planning as discussed below. 

To begin with, event organizers need to fully understand the purpose of an event. Moreover, they should have adequate knowledge of the objectives and goals to achieve. This enables them to measure the degree of success of an event. Additionally, understanding what an event is about will enable event organizers to determine the amount of money and time needed for the whole process (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). For example, for a fundraising event, the main objective behind such an event is raising money. Lacking a clearly defined objective may result in fruitless efforts of making the whole thing a success. 

Another main area of event planning is understanding the kind of audience being invited to a particular event. Various organizations have different needs of their target audience. Therefore, once this has been established, it will now be important to determine where to locate them and ways to reach them. Some of the ways that may be used to reach them may include the use of social media, email marketing, advertisements in newspapers, calendar announcements and many more (Getz & Page, 2016). Again, this will depend on the kind of event being organized. Some ways may be more effective compared to others. 

Choosing the right venue for a particular event is vital for any event’s success. An event organizer should work closely with the organization hosting the event to understand their expectations and the kind of attendees expected. Additionally, a chosen venue should be easily accessible by those planning to attend the event. People should not find it difficult to locate the venue chosen by the event organizer (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). 

The appropriate time an event is going to be held is also an important component leading to having a successful event. Right timing is influenced by many factors such as days and months of the year, holidays in the calendar, location and type of event (Wozniak & Fill, 2018). For instance, when organizing a fundraising event, a fundraiser may find it appropriate to schedule this event at the end of a certain month when may attendees will have received their salary. Additionally, people should be notified about an event a few weeks or months before it happens. This will give them an allowance to confirm whether they will be present or not. 

Creation of valuable content that engages the target audience is another main area of concern. Event organizers need to work closely with a certain organization hosting the event and understand the content intended to be passed across during the event. Also, the event planner needs to organize that content in a systematic style such that it grasps the target audience attention. Good creativity when creating content may be one way of increasing the attendees’ attention (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). Moreover, having a high-profile speaker attending the event can be very effective. 

Another main area of event planning is branding. Any event that is properly branded can easily stand out. Therefore, event planners need to be creative and design an overall theme that describes what the event is about. Some of the crucial things to consider when branding an event includes creating a short, memorable tagline, brainstorming an event name conveying what the event entails and designing branding tools like logos (Wozniak & Fill, 2018). Moreover, doing this ensures that the audience keeps the event in their mind and they cannot forget it whatsoever. 

Event SWOT Analysis 

Event organizers and planners use the SWOT analysis technique to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing a certain event. This way they can achieve the event’s main objectives and goals. The main areas that event planners pay attention when using this technique include; 

Strengths 

These are the organization’s main attributes that may help it achieve its objectives when an event is held. Evaluating strengths involves going beyond the main reasons why an event is being held and focus on the macro goal (Getz & Page, 2016). The event is organized should be able to achieve the intended goals and produce investment in the organization. 

Weaknesses 

These are factors that may limit the organizers of a certain event from achieving the set goals and objectives. They may include lack of adequate finances, inexperienced working team, and lack of infrastructure, bad weather and many more. However, it’s not necessary to dismiss an event because of some weaknesses present (Wozniak & Fill, 2018). Some of the reasons making it impossible to hold an event can be dismissed and focus on the ones that can help achieve the main objectives and goals of an event. 

Opportunities. 

These are the external factors that event planners consider helpful when it comes to making an event successful. Moreover, the organizers can assess potential guests to attend the event and identify various ways of using that to make an event reach its maximum potential. Additionally, the presence of little or no competition, support by local authorities, good weather and infrastructure may be considered as some of the opportunities to explore when planning an event (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). 

Threats 

Every event may be faced by some external threats that may make it not become successful. It’s therefore important to carefully analyze any incident that may occur and hinder the event from achieving its goals and objectives. However, in the case of large events that are organized in advance, it’s difficult to identify the threats facing such event until they have been made known to the attendees (Getz & Page, 2016). 

Application of SWOT analysis technique is therefore very crucial for event planners as it offers them the opportunity to develop tactics that will help them achieve the set objectives and goals. Moreover, they can maximize the opportunities and strengths of an event and at the same time reduce the impact brought by threats and weaknesses 

Mission Statement and Outcome in Event Planning 

Mission statement and outcome are two significant elements in event planning. A mission statement can be defined as a statement that describes the purpose of an organization or a company reason for existence. Mission statement guide the direction the event will follow, spell out inclusive goals and guide for further decision making (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). Also, the mission statement provides the context or the framework within which an event strategy will be formulated. 

It is evident that many event planners don’t consider the mission statement in event planning. Despite the significance mission statement in event planning, many producers and event planners find it as an unnecessary thing to do or a waste of time. Therefore, event planners need to understand the various importance of event planning. Also, mission statement calls for the use of SMART objectives in event planning. SMART objectives state that the event should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. For instance, a specific event defines the desired outcome of the even and by when the outcome is expected (Getz & Page, 2016). A measurable event defines how much is the event likely to influence the attendees. Also, achievable describe whether the objective of the event is likely to be accomplished. Relevance stipulated the necessity of the event towards the objective of the organization and time-bound describe the beginning and the end of an event. 

A mission statement for an event enables an event planner to stay on point, save money and time. For instance, an event mission statement such as “spreading news” has no winded goals, no supercilious strategies or too wordy and is 100% about the purpose of the event (Wozniak & Fill, 2018). A credible mission statement should answer a question such as the purpose of the event, the experience the attendees should have and the strategies to achieve your goals (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). Also, an event planner should understand that mission statement is not primarily for attendees but for him and his team as a power cord to arrive at the purpose of the event. 

Example of a marketing event goals and outcome for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in US Department of Energy. 

References 

Austin, E. W., & Pinkleton, B. E. (2015). Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication campaigns . Routledge. 

Getz, D., & Page, S. (2016). Event studies: Theory, research and policy for planned events . Routledge. 

Woźniak, J., & Fill, K. (2018). Logistic Organization of Mass Events in the Light of SWOT Analysis-Case Study.