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Preparation
Whether you’re running a business meeting, a party or a major conference, do not start planning any event until you are thoroughly prepared. Before you book venues or invite speakers, you’ll need a comprehensive blueprint and water-tight strategy for the event.
Define what you hope to achieve
It’s important to work out what you want to achieve from your event and to stick to it. Develop an event outline to help you to work out your objectives and refer to it continually throughout the event process.
In the event outline, detail the primary and secondary objectives of the event and how you are going to achieve and measure them.
Be prepared
The Boy Scouts motto had a point. One of the most frequent mistakes made by new event planners is to launch into the ‘planning’ before they’ve done the ‘preparation’, leaving themselves vulnerable to budget blowouts, double-booking, lost tasks and mixed messages.
The problem is that if you are not thoroughly and strategically prepared, as your event develops and evolves, you are likely to find you have already locked in dates, places, venues and people that later become inappropriate or impractical.
Preparation governs planning
For example, creating a timeline will force you to work backwards from your proposed event date and build in all the necessary lead-times for each activity. Knowing that it will take printers three weeks to deliver your invitations will dictate how early you need to confirm the design, and how much time you are able to give your guests to RSVP.
Developing an accurate budget - and allowing flexibility for unexpected expenses - will enable you to prioritise how and where you will spend your money. Knowing just how much the venue and catering cost will govern your decision on the type of entertainment to engage.
Resources
We've created some resources to help you in the preparation of your event every step of the way:
