Planning For Next Year's Event? Get These Things Right First.
We know this statement is fact. We can also testify that poor planning leads to poor execution, which results in an inefficient use of talent and resources. Event managers must efficiently plan productive and potentially lucrative events. There is no time or money to waste. So let’s discuss how we can avoid poor event execution.
When planning this year’s upcoming events, you should consider these key components:
Determine your ideal target audience
Set measurable goals to determine your event’s success
Establish your internal and external key stakeholders
What kind of resources do they need in terms of man-power, access to a suitable venue, and of course access to a sufficient budget
You may also consider whether or not this is a repeatable event that has been successfully executed in the past. If so, is there a blueprint to follow while incorporating lessons learned from the past.
Let’s take a closer look at these components.
Audience
Who is the intended attendee?
It is easy to fill a room. What is difficult is getting the right target audience in the room. Knowing who your audience is and what value they expect to inherit from your event is going to allow you to strategize around how to best utilize your resources to create their dream event. Top event planners broadcast their brand message while simultaneously imparting a substantial, undeniable merit. Leveraging marketing tech systems to build the Ideal Customer Profile list and working with executives to craft messaging is the best place to start. But, if your event succeeds in reaching your intended audience and providing value, how are you measuring success?
Measurable Goals
How will you measure success?
Modern day marketing programs are not launched without a measurable way to attain its goal. What does success look like to your team? Is it the number of attendees your event garnered? Is it sales from a product introduced during the event? Top of the funnel generation? Maybe it’s brand awareness. You need to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about what factors would determine success for your company. Then establish a protocol to track the measurement and which division/personnel is involved in tracking this data and deciding if goals were met.
Stakeholders
Who is needed to organize the event?
None of the key components mentioned above can come to fruition if the right people aren’t involved. Let’s think about it this way: a train cannot move forward without a conductor to steer it. It also cannot pull into the station safely if the stationmaster is not there ensuring that the path is clear of obstructions. Equally, an event will not and cannot happen if the key stakeholders are not included in the process. Sit down with your team and discuss who needs to be present to make this event a success. You should take it a step further and also consider what resources these stakeholders need access to execute upon the event plan.
In terms of execution, there are necessities that will prove to be indispensable for each and every event, no matter the theme or audience such as:
Man-power
An appropriate venue and venue management
Event management software
Third parties
Event budget
Keep your stakeholders content and productive by guaranteeing their access to the event resources mentioned above.
The best event planners also give thought to creating a repeatable process. Effective use of data from repeatable events can streamline your event planning process. Your team has already done the hard work of creating successful repeatable events and processes. Utilize these valuable resources by analyzing the data from those events, improve upon them and repeat them! Therein lies your blueprint to event planning success.
Let’s summarize and identify major takeaways.
Major Takeaways
You’re planning events for the upcoming year. You don’t have time for procrastination. Start now. Don’t shortchange the planning process. Plan to plan, then plan some more. Remember, planning is required for a strong foundation. Your plan needs time to breathe and your team needs time to wrap their heads around the work that needs to be done to create a dream event.
Budget. Budget. Budget. Event budgeting goes hand-in-hand with event planning. Budgeting is a powerful component of the foundation for a successful event. If it isn’t discussed, documented, and referenced it can often be a major roadblock in the execution of your plans.
Another important point to keep in mind is that people are valuable resources too. Identify your key stakeholders early in the planning process. Alongside identifying the key-stakeholders, identify what resources they need access to to make the event a success.
Establish measurable goals. Reverse engineer the event by looking at what KPIs you’ll measure during the event and post-mortem. Use those KPI’s as stepping stones to guide your event planning process.
Last, but certainly not least, give considerable consideration to your audience. Know what group of attendees your event stands to serve, what value they expect to derive from the event, and let those factors serve as guideposts as you seek to deliver your brand message in a way that aligns with their needs.
There you have it. In the most simple terms you should plan extensively and identify your target audience early in the planning stages. Craft your story in a meaningful way that imparts value to that audience. To execute that, make sure all the key-stakeholders are in place, ensure that they have access to all the event resources and event budgets they require to pull off a truly amazing and purposeful event. These major components will serve as the building blocks to lay a strong foundation upon which you can build a successful, repeatable event.
References:
https://www.wildapricot.com/articles/how-to-plan-an-event