You’ve thought of your event idea, outlined the concept, and created your mood board (Pinterest, we love you). Now what? It can be tempting to quickly hire an event planner, but the truth is, there are foundational items that we need in order to execute your idea and run your event effectively and efficiently. 

1. Goals and Objectives For Your Event

Before you start planning any kind of event, the first thing to do is define your event goals and objectives. Many people dive right into planning without even considering this crucial bit of information. Don’t make this mistake! Simply understanding the “why” of your event can make the difference between a dud of a party and a memory they’ll be sharing forever.

Here are some key questions to consider when you are setting and defining event goals and objectives:

• Why are you having this event?

• What are your stakeholder’s goals and objectives?

• What are the key things you want an attendee to walk away with?

• How will you specifically measure your success along the way?

Your event goals should align with your brand’s overall marketing, as well as the company’s mission statement, brand pillars, and current overall strategy. If you don’t know how to create this, get in touch with us to create your brand playbook.

2. Budgeting For Your Event

Especially as a first-time event host, it can be hard to gauge how much money you should be allocating to your event. Obviously, the first step is identifying what you have available to spend, both from within your own organization and including contributions from sponsors. If you’ve hosted the event before, you have something to work off of--but make sure you take any location changes into account. A bottle of water in Tulsa is not the same price as a bottle of water in NYC, so your event won’t be either! 

3. Ideal Event Speaker List

Sourcing the right speakers for your event is one of your biggest challenges. It involves research and curation, as well as a certain amount of luck. When choosing your speakers, be sure to find people that have similar values and align with your overall brand and audience. We recommend ranking your ideal speaker’s list to make it easier for us to do our research.

4. Project Management System For Your Event Planning

Prior to even contacting an event planner, you should have a project management system set up such as Airtable (our personal favorite!), Asana, Trello or similar,  that will allow for a streamlined process of communication throughout the event planning process. Email threads do not count!

5. Sponsorship Deck For All Event Budgeting and Support

Unfortunately, money doesn’t grow on trees. If it did, you could just plant a few seeds and take what you need to finance your next conference. For your very real event, you may wish to seek financial assistance from other companies. You should have at least an outline of your sponsorship deck, including pricing and available items to include in the packages.

6. Active Social Media For Event

Social media allows you to engage with your audience in creative ways that boost attendance before the event, and make for a more interactive experience onsite. Building a social media presence takes time and very specific skill sets. We have people who can help, but if you are on a tight timeline, it’s imperative that you have an active social media presence prior to launch. You can have the most engaging speakers, the best venue, and amazing offerings, but if no one knows about it, you’ll have an empty event. 

7. Tentative Guest List/Audience For Your Event

You should know your audience. Having an acquisition strategy for attendees, along with an ideal attendee profile, is a key element of your event strategy.. Events are created for the audience, so if you are not sure who you want to fill your seats, start creating a tentative list of people who would support your event. 

In order to plan your events strategically, you need to start early. It isn’t about throwing something together at the last minute--trust me, attendees can tell when you do that. Your content, your entertainment, your date, your location – everything needs to align with the original strategic objectives The tasks above are the foundation on which your event will be built. Without them, you run the risk of a disjointed and ineffective event from the start. Our advice is to start early! Of course, if you are not sure where to start, schedule a call with us to go over what your first step should be!