Event Management

Event management is the application of project management to the creation and development of small and/or large-scale personal or corporate events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, weddings, formal parties, concerts, or conventions. It involves studying the brand, identifying its target audience, devising the event concept, and coordinating the technical aspects before actually launching the event.^[1]

The events industry now includes events of all sizes from the Olympics down to business breakfast meetings. Many industries, celebrities, charitable organizations, and interest groups hold events in order to market their label, build business relationships, raise money, or celebrate achievement.

The process of planning and coordinating the event is usually referred to as event planning and which can include budgeting, scheduling, site selection, acquiring necessary permits, coordinating transportation and parking, arranging for speakers or entertainers, arranging decor, event security, catering, coordinating with third-party vendors, and emergency plans. Each event is different in its nature so the process of planning & execution of each event differs on basis of the type of event.

Sustainability

Sustainable event management (also known as event greening) is the process used to produce an event with particular concern for environmental, economic, and social issues. ^{Sustainability in event management incorporates socially and environmentally responsible decision making into the planning, organization,} and implementation of, and participation in, an event. It involves including sustainable development principles and practices in all levels of event organization and aims to ensure that an event is hosted responsibly. It represents the total package of interventions at an event and needs to be done in an integrated manner. Event greening should start at the inception of the project and should involve all the key role players, such as clients, organizers, venues, sub-contractors, and suppliers.

How to Plan an Event in 10 easy steps.

1. Define goals and objectives

What is the reason that motivated you to create your event? Are you trying at:

Increase sales? Promote a launch of a product? Improve brand recognition? Maybe, you’re trying to increase brand awareness? Multiple objectives? Find out what you want to achieve and what this event will assist you in achieving.

Then, what are the goals?

For any event, you plan it is important to establish the objectives that can help you reach your objective. Here are some examples of objectives for events:

• The registration rate has increased by 10% since the previous event
• The increase in revenue is 25% over the previous event
• Preorder 100 of the future products
• Increase social media mentions/follows/reposts during the event

Once you have your objectives and goals established, you can define a rough scope for the event. Your plan should include important details and outline how you’ll meet your objectives. Although it is not a definitive plan, the scope should outline the essential details of your event, including:

• Dates. The timeframe for the event, i.e. within 9 months.
• Attendees. What is the number of attendees? People event, a 1000 person, or 10,000 events? It is time to start thinking about the dimensions. Are the attendees from across the nation, or is it an event that is local to you? It’s also important to keep your guests the demographics of your attendees in mind when you make your plans.
• Location. Are you hosting an event locally? Or, is it held in a location that is not yours? Make a list of venues and cities that will work for the event you are planning.
• Event type. Are you driving the public to know about a new product? An all-day event that includes a keynote speaker could be a good idea. Gathering thousands of clients? A two-day user event could be the best option for you. Are you hosting an association or internal gathering? A day of smaller sessions could be the perfect idea.

Setting out your objectives and preliminary project scope allows you to define your event and gain buy-in from your leadership. If your company agrees with the idea, your goals and goals will guide you forward to the next phase of organizing.

2. Establish an event budget 

Making budgets is an important initial step in event planning that can help you understand the various aspects of your event. In addition, having an appropriate budget can help keep from surprise events (like having to pay for decorations or food, etc.). It is more effective by laying the entire budget ahead of time, keep updating it when you have finalized variables, and keep a close eye on the plan.

Based on your budget’s top-level and the initial scope of your requirements. Start mapping the cost of your line items to understand how you will allocate your funds distributed over your requirements.

As per Eventbrite, “Budget is broken into marketing and promotion (43 percent), talent and speakers (32 percent) and printed materials (29 percent) and venues (18 %).”

As your plan becomes more solid the plan, you’ll need to revisit your budget. Things will surely change in line, so be sure to maintain your budget according to any modifications or adjustments you make. Since you don’t want to go over the budget, it’s standard for planners to make adjustments to keep your budget in check.

3. Build your events team

In smaller events, you could personally manage a lot or all of the duties covered in this article. For large-scale events, you need an organized team to run the event.

If you’re building an entire team from the ground from the beginning, it’s essential to define roles at the start for accountability. Each team member must report to the project manager with a clear view of the entire team.

Making the ultimate team for events

According to Eventbrite that only 12percent of events have teams of 10 or more participants. The most frequent number is two to five employees (45 per cent of events), which means that many people are required to wear several hats. If you’re among those with more than 5 team members, let’s take an overview of how the roles are usually distributed:

Project Manager

Supervises all the elements as described below. This person is responsible for the organization and execution of the celebration. The budget is managed. Drives strategy. Makes the top-level purchase decisions.

Show floor/venue

The person in charge is the primary person to contact the event and the vendors, sponsors on-site, and staff and volunteers on-site security, photographers and drinks and food. They know everyone’s name and which outlets are available.

Scheduling

The person in charge of the agenda creation works with speakers and ensures that the schedule is current and distributed to the right people. Your scheduling person coordinates meetings during the event, and he strives to turn attendees into successful networkers.

Creative design

Creative designers create every visual element for printed and online materials such as calendars, collateral, registration, collateral signage, and everything else required to run the mobile event application. For a quick overview, it’s down: they can make appearances. You might want to partner with an event planning agency.

Marketing and Communications

This team or individual ensures that the right people are conscious of events. They also develop strategies for timing and offers to increase registration, manage to brand, contact registered attendees, oversee social media amplification and media relations, and send and track follow-up material. And, of course, they’re insane for measuring their results.

The team ensures that the guest is provided with everything he requires to make the most value from the event, including maps and schedules, information about speakers and ways to connect. They create and maintain the mobile app for events.

Registration and Check-In

They own the registration configurations, work with a software company, create the badges, and manage them. They also create reports and ensure your registration procedure (pre-event and at the time of an event) is working smoothly.

Sponsorships

The team member is responsible for helping plan booth locations and sells sponsorship opportunities. They also maintain relationships with sponsors and research community-based organization partnerships. They are quick and have excellent interpersonal skills.

Keep your team in order.

With the team assembled and a plan in place, you can begin to build an event plan. A plan for a project is more than a simple to-do list. It’s a thorough description of each action item that lists the owner’s dependents, dates due, and completion status. It is essential to justify each action item by relating it to your highest-level goal for the event.

Event management tools

Tools for managing projects streamline the management of events and organizations. Use these tools to ensure that all the moving parts are organized. With the capability to monitor and assign the progress of projects, a project manager will have a clear view of the progress and timeline using these tools:

• Asana
• Trello
• Smartsheet

4. Pick your venue and date 

Choosing your venue and date for your event are two major considerations that will shape the rest of your project plan. Start researching venues as early as possible. The event marketplace is crowded, so finding the time when there will be venue availability is important. When deciding on a venue, you’ll also have to consider dates for your location based on seasonal factors like travel and costs.

“In January, it’s very challenging to find large spaces,” says Romy and an experienced event professional at PRIME, an all-service event agency located in Vancouver. “January and February are heavy on sales conferences, and it happens again in September and October.” She mentions that in these times, it’s hard to find venues that offer traditional exhibit flooring.

When you begin researching and speaking with the representatives of diverse venues, you should make sure to ask as many questions as you can to ensure that it’s the right match. It would be best to look for the budget. The theme matches thematic fit, the location (is it central and easy to get around? ), Facilities, on-site staff. Are restrooms easily accessible in the entire venue? What’s the current situation regarding fire control and emergency intervention?

Tips: Once you find the perfect location, do not be afraid to bargain your rates. Half of the event planners negotiate discounts on the rates they have published. If they do, the organizers are more likely to offer free WiFi or AV. Parking is also a possibility, as per EventManager.

5. Develop event branding

From the event’s name and theme to the design of your event’s website and the on-site appearance and feel, the branding of your event sets the mood for the event. When people think about your event, you need your brand to have a distinct personality that shines. Furthermore, a well-established event brand can provide a direction and aids in steering the course for your celebration.

When choosing your event’s branding, think about how an event’s brand must represent your brand. However, it must have a distinct identity of its own. Consider how your brand’s image will appear both online as well as in person. Finally, consider the ways you can incorporate your event’s branding into specific aspects of your party.

When you think of the branding of an event, it generally involves:

• Name of the event. The first crucial stepis to name your event’s name. It will be the very first element that guests will see, and you need it to reflect the vision you have for your event.
• Theme. A name alone does not reveal the entire story. Most events have themes that bring the event into one.
• Logo, colours, typography. The brand should be consistent across every marketing touchpoint.
• Decorate the site with email, on-site signage, and much more. Each touchpoint does not need to be brand-specific. Every element must be integrated to help tell the story you’re telling.

When these branding elements are solidified, they should be used across all platforms, such as your event’s website and social media, emails, registration and tickets, and even your event application.

6. Plan your program

Create your schedule as quickly as possible! Are there key speakers? Are there additional days or evenings planned for sponsors? There will be a single “track” of workshops and talks, or will attendees have the option of choosing between a variety of sessions at an exact time? If you’re able to answer these fundamental questions, you’ll be able to provide a comprehensive summary of the conference’s program.

Don’t worry, and it’s not required to create the program before you start marketing your event. It is possible to alter the calendar once you’ve started advertising your event and the registration begins to grow. Technology permits you to quickly change the calendars on your website and the mobile app.

Your guests must be aware of what they can expect, So it’s best to have the plan in place at the earliest time possible. Additionally, the program is a crucial aspect for sponsors as well!

Other Considerations

In addition to the fundamental schedule for the event, There are various additional things to think about. If you’re planning a multi-day or even all-day duration, you have to plan:

• Food and Beverage. Do you plan to offer snacks or food?
• Other events like social events, happy hours or activities related to wellness?
• Entertainment. Will the event ended with a celebration or party?

7. Confirm sponsors, exhibitors, and speakers

If you’re planning to host a large event, you’ll likely want to involve other parties in the event to help offset costs and show the voices of the business. Speakers or sponsors, and exhibitors are all common ways to increase the value of your attendees and help be used to offset expenses.

Speakers

When your gathering is scheduled as a session, you’ll need to choose the speakers in each of your sessions. Here are two options to include speakers:

CALL FOR SESSION SUBMISSIONS

If you are part of an active community, holding an open call to submit session proposals is a great opportunity to get your customers and partners as speakers. In general, an open call will need participants to submit an abstract, which will outline the session’s topic and the value of the session. After that, your team will look over abstracts and select speakers and inform those selected as well as those who weren’t.

PERSONALLY INVITE SPEAKERS

If you’ve got people, you are thinking of, you could ask them to talk at your event. When you reach out to the speaker you are considering, please give them an appealing overview of the event and your audience and show your enthusiasm for participating in the event. Be aware that invited speakers typically receive payment in addition to accommodation and travel.

MANAGING SPEAKERS

When your speakers are recognized, make sure to ensure that you have a clear conversation. Draft a speaker agreement containing essential information, such as the expectations for presentations, deadlines for content and the technology available on-site and payment. Be upfront about your expectations before the event so that there aren’t any surprises at the time of the event!

Continue to communicate after sending the initial confirmation message and a speaker acceptance. Are you looking for your speaker’s presentation to match the event theme? Be sure to include material as you are developing the presentations. If you require speakers to present their final presentation, make sure you send reminders to ensure that each speaker receives it in time.

Sponsors

Create a list of sponsors you would like to include with you in the event. Before you contact them, conduct a little research to determine how they can benefit from attending your event. Are they customers of mutual acquaintance? Free services? Also, ensure that each prospective sponsor is beneficial to your guests. Spend the time to develop customized proposals that highlight those special benefits, and be certain to highlight the benefits in your outreach.

Also, before making contact with potential sponsors, make sure to develop sponsorship packages. The packages you create should provide various levels of price and benefits. Apart from standard sponsorship packages, Don’t be afraid to be creative and create unique sponsorships, such as:

• A sponsored lounge
• A phone and wi-fi charging station.
• Event App sponsorship
• or wellness activity sponsorship

It would be best to think about what activities and tools your guests would like to experience and which will add value to the event.

Exhibitors

Another method of bringing sponsors on board is to offer packages for exhibitors. In this case, you’ll have a space at your event that is dedicated to the exhibitors. Each exhibitor’s sponsorship agreement includes the amount of area for exhibitors to occupy, advertise and connect with your attendees.Tips: If you’re working with exhibitors, you’ll want to make sure you get attendees to meet your exhibitors. Set up exhibitor-specific time blocks to get attendees to stroll through the exhibit and get involved.

8. Identify and select your tech tools

Technology is making it easier to organize events in the environment for organizers as well as attendees. When planning an event for the future, you’ll need to establish your requirements for technology and the timeframe for its implementation. Certain technologies must be in place long before the event, while others can be delayed can put others off until the day(s).

Registration and Ticketing

The process of registering attendees is more effortless than ever before! Eventbrite and the other online platforms allow you to begin selling tickets within minutes. You’ll need to pick your platform before advertising registration and redirect your visitors to the registration page.

Productivity Technology

We’ve covered this before; however, we’ll repeat it to show how vital organizers of events need to use tools for managing projects to ensure that they are well-organized. Planning events can be quite complex; however, utilizing software for project management can help ease some anxiety. Trello will help you start on the right track with a variety of templates for event planning.

Mobile App

83 The majority of event organizers utilize an app for events.

Eventbrite, 2019

The ability to streamline your communications can enhance your attendees’ experience by using your event application. An app for mobile devices, similar to the one you can build using Guidebook, allows attendees to browse schedules, create a plan of their own, communicate with other attendees and many more. Mobile apps are useful in creating an enjoyable, well-informed setting – whether online or in person.

The app must be a part of your event’s strategy for the best results from using an app for events. Make sure every guest is equipped with everything they require in their hand to enjoy the best experience during their event.

Did you know that you can design your app using Guidebook?

Start using Builder today to discover how simple it is to use it! Start building.

Live Streaming or Recording

Are you part of a large group that spans across different nations or regions? Live streaming sessions are the perfect method to make connections and expand the audience to reach the event. Recording sessions is another method to expand the reach of your event and help the conversation go beyond the event itself.

Engagement Tools

Technology is changing how people want to engage with their guests, and events are constantly changing to meet these expectations. Suppose you’re planning to take your engagement to the next level. In that case, you might consider incorporating onsite technology such as social media walls, digital bags with swag, and event gamification tools that allow attendees to be involved during the celebration.

9. Create a marketing and promotional plan 

How are you going to attract audiences to attend your well-planned event?

Every successful event includes an advertising and marketing strategy to promote the event and generate excitement. Where do you begin? There are numerous methods to market your event, from blogging, social media, billboards, online ads and even billboards. However you select, each strategy should have become a part of your marketing strategy.

The components of an event marketing strategy:

Goals and Objectives

When developing a marketing plan, it is crucial to establish specific goals and goals. As with your event’s broad goals, establishing specific goals for your marketing campaign will ensure that your efforts work toward measurable outcomes.

Common marketing goals include:

• The number of online registrations has increased by 15% over the previous year
• Traffic x number of times to the event’s website
• Event x number of events app downloads
• The social media audience has increased by 20% more than last year

Tactics

Your strategies are the tools you’ll use to reach your objectives. This is what you’ll be using to support your marketing strategies, such as video marketing, online advertisements, social media and email marketing, as well as public relations, and more.

When deciding on the tactics you want to employ, it is important to know the target audience. Do you have an event that is targeted at young professionals? Instagram ads could be a strategy you select. If you are planning your event solely to those in the local area? Geo-targeted ads are worth thinking about.

Timeline and Cadence

When you’ve identified the best ways to improve your marketing, you need to begin creating a timeline that provides a clear view of your marketing strategies.

For instance, if you choose to employ marketing emails, it is important to plan each email you intend to send:

EMAIL MARKETING TIMELINE

Date Topics for email

4.13 Make sure to save the date

5.27 Early bird pricing is open

6.15 Keynote speaker announcement

6.26 Topic announcement for the session

7.1 Last chance to get early bird prices

8.1 Registration Closing

10. Determine your measurement 

How do you gauge the performance of your celebration? Please start thinking about the ways you’ll assess your event well from the time it happens. An excellent place to start is thinking about the goals and objectives you have identified in the first step.

Analytics and data

The number of tickets you have to sell and how did you get them? What was the price per person? What number of qualified leads did you acquire? How many pre-orders did your make? After the event has ended, here are just a few indicators you can measure.

Alongside assessing the event’s success, It is also important to examine the qualitative aspects of the event. To gauge the mood and satisfaction of attendees, You can examine:

Event surveys

Alongside the numbers, there is another method to gauge the success of your event through feedback from your guests. By conducting surveys, you’ll get a better understanding of the people’s perceptions of the event. This can aid in identifying strengths and weak areas from the event. Because let’s face the facts, even if your sale was successful, could you truly call it an event a success if people were not impressed with the event?

Buzz on social media and the internet

Have your customers been more engaged than normal on your corporate channel? Are attendees posting updates on their channels? Read the comments to see what people are posting about the event. Are they filled with praise? Did you find more than a couple of common complaints? It is important to monitor before and during your event to identify trends and information.

A comprehensive event plan

Each of these elements comes together for your event master plan. Work through each of these to create a strong, actionable plan for your event. When planning an event, you should begin your planning as early as possible. With many moving pieces, getting a head start means a smooth finish.

With a solid plan set in place and the wheels moving, The following step would be to re-evaluate your marketing strategy and then put it into practice. Keep reading the next chapter for planning an Event Marketing and Promotion to learn practical advice for creating a 360-degree event marketing strategy that boosts the number of people who register and engage.

FAQ

What is the budget allocated for emergency planning and response?

The budget allocated for emergency planning and response will vary depending on the size and scope of the event, potential risks involved, local regulations, and available resources. It should cover costs for emergency personnel, equipment, communication systems, medical supplies, and contingency funds.

How will we communicate urgent messages to attendees during an emergency?

Communication can be managed through public address systems, mobile alerts, social media updates, visual signals (like flags or lights), designated staff with megaphones, or a combination of these methods to ensure messages reach all attendees promptly.

What are the key components of our emergency action plan for this event?

Key components should include identification of potential emergencies (natural disasters, fires, medical crises), evacuation routes and procedures, roles and responsibilities of staff members, contact information for local emergency services, assembly points for attendees post-evacuation, and protocols for reporting incidents.

How will money be secured during an unforeseen emergency at the event?

Money should be secured in lockable cash boxes or safes with limited access given only to aut

What is the budget allocated for emergency planning and response?

The budget allocated for emergency planning and response will vary depending on the size and scope of the event, potential risks involved, local regulations, and available resources. It should cover costs for emergency personnel, equipment, communication systems, medical supplies, and contingency funds.

How will we communicate urgent messages to attendees during an emergency?

Communication can be managed through public address systems, mobile alerts, social media updates, visual signals (like flags or lights), designated staff with megaphones, or a combination of these methods to ensure messages reach all attendees promptly.

What are the key components of our emergency action plan for this event?

Key components should include identification of potential emergencies (natural disasters, fires, medical crises), evacuation routes and procedures, roles and responsibilities of staff members, contact information for local emergency services, assembly points for attendees post-evacuation, and protocols for reporting incidents.

horized personnel. In case of an evacuation or other emergencies that require abandoning cash storage locations temporarily; backup plans such as transferring funds electronically to a secure account or using armored services may be arranged beforehand.

Who is responsible for sending out emergency alerts and making critical decisions during the event?

A designated Event Safety Officer or Emergency Coordinator should be responsible for sending out alerts and making critical decisions. This individual must have clear authority over safety matters and quick access to communication channels to coordinate with staff members and external emergency services effectively.