How to Build a Foolproof Event Planning Process

When it comes to planning events it takes learning a process that works best for you and the types of events that you are running. For example, running events at a business is going to be a little different than running an event and planning an event for say an academic institution. Take a look at this article from Zkipster to see a beautifully laid out event planning checklist that you will definitely need.

Here you’re going to find several different parts of different processes that you can pick and choose from to make an event planning process that works for you and what you need. Remember, most processes are a general approach and you have to tailor it to your needs. Start simple, and grow with your events as you grow as an event planner!

Sponsorship

One of the first things that you have to take into account is where is your money going to be coming from? If you don’t have specific sponsors, then what you may have instead is stakeholders.

Stakeholders

Generally speaking, you’re going to want to have stakeholders, or partners, with your event. This creates great connectivity across departments, cities, states, and even countries. This is where you want to look at your collaborative element and see who you are going to share data analysis with.

Budget

The first two steps are what you generally begin with because i a way, asking for sponsors is asking for your wishlist, not necessarily what you are going to be working with. Once you have stakeholders and sponsors secured or at least on board, you can then work to come up with a budget. This ties in with actually organizing events because, as you budget, there are several things that you have to consider:

• Decor
• Seating
• Food and Drink
• Accessibility Features
• Potential Security
• Invitations
• Event Management Software
• Rentals
• And much, much more.
  

With all of this that you have to consider, it is a wise idea to spend a large part of your process on this next step, organizing event elements. 

Organizing Event Elements

Here’s the biggie: there are more elements to an event than can be listed because it depends on how you break down an event. But what I can tell you is that it is always a good idea to use a document that can be shared among people or updated. Google has fantastic sharing capabilities, so you can break down the elements of your event and allow people to comment or, better yet, volunteer to take on specific aspects of the event!

Team Coordination

If you are using a shared document or form type of volunteer worksheet, that’s great! You can also use programs like monday to assign tasks out and group elements of your team and event together into brackets with to-do lists that make life eons easier. 

It should be mentioned that, depending on the event type, you may have to have everyone’s contact information, Slack, or even walkies. Each of these is a great way to keep up team communication. This is going to be absolutely necessary during an event.

Delegation

You may have a team ready to go, but have you planned out your delegation? Have you given specific people with special skill sets the jobs that would best highlight their success? It can be very difficult, but just as communication is necessary, so is delegation. You absolutely cannot handle every element of an event by yourself. This is why pointed and purposeful delegation is a part of the event planning process.

Marketing

You may have a separate team that does marketing or an entire department dedicated to marketing. This is where you can either utilize their creativity or make marketing items yourself to be sent outvia a mailing list or through departmental emails. 

If you have a guest list, using event software to send out mass invitations and forms is one of the best ways to market your event. If you are looking to build your guest list, use social media (Hint: verify what accounts are allowed for your business) and utilize stock images or even graphic designers from places such as Upwork or Fiverr to have a unique social media presence.

Data Analysis

This part of the whole process is one of the most important because you are looking at what physical numbers and responses are saying about your events. This can help you adjust for future events and also show your stakeholders and sponsors the success of the event through a nice data sheet.

Wrapping Up

That’s exactly it! The last step of any event process is the last meeting, where you debrief with the people that you worked with. Make sure you give people a space to speak and share their feedback. Providing a safe space for feedback is a great way to incorporate team members further into your event process. Collaboration always wins in the end, so make sure you collaborate and delegate to help your event run smoothly.