Listen Here!

Episode Description:

Have you ever been to an event that feels, simply, 'thrown together?' This week, Beth is making sure your events feel intentional.

After a very relaxing Thanksgiving break, Beth is back to share her tips on how to prepare, and what to bring with you, for your first meeting with an event planner, to ensure that your event has a purpose and draws the right crowd.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Podcast:

The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram

Host:

Beth Lawrence LinkedIn

Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram

Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips (15 minute episodes or less) on how to optimize your life and work.

Episode Transcript can be found below:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Type A+ podcast. I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. Whether you actually celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional sense, or if you simply celebrate the time off being with your friends, being with your family, and spending time alone. On self-care.

Hope it was wonderful for everyone. This week we're going to get a little bit more topical into my day-to-day, which is my event planning business. A lot of folks ask me what you should bring to your first meeting with an event planner. So, Most of my clients are corporate or non-profit entities. I have done weddings in the past, as you know, if you've listened to my weddings episode, this will really be about corporate events, but there are some implications that apply to any type of event that you're doing.

So the number one thing that I always talk about with events is goals and objectives. You have to have a reason for having the event, right?

Gone are the days, especially post-pandemic. Gone are the days when you put a title and a description and a time, and a place on Eventbrite, you throw some food out and people show. Now you have to really understand not only what you want to get out of your event, but what you want your attendees to take away from your event.

What do you want them to know about your organization? Do you want them to leave with more connections or a more well-rounded education on a topic? Do you want them to leave having explored a new city?

So the first thing is knowing your goals and your objectives, and understanding that you are planning for your attendee’s goals and objectives just as much as you're planning for your own.

The second piece obviously is a budget. I have done many, many creative events with either no budget or very little budget, but it's always easier to plan an event if you have an idea of your budget and are honest with yourself.

If you have $2,500 to spend on your event. Then you have $2,500 to spend, and you can work within the parameters of what you have to find the perfect venue and possibly find some food sponsors and things like that. If you have $25,000, you're obviously going to be looking at a number of different opportunities for venues, for partnerships, for sponsorship, there are many different ways that you can build a budget and bring money in for an event aside from charging your attendees, but if you don't have an idea of at least what you're working with initially, it's very, very difficult to plan your event.

Number three. Active social media, especially if you are looking to plan a first-time event, it's very, very crucial that you have active social media or active newsletters.

You have some sort of community and eyes looking at what you're doing. Even if you have an Eventbrite page that has 5,000 followers, that is a great tool to begin spreading the word about your event and creating a community around what you do. Fourth is the ideal speaker list. Having an idea of the types of folks that you want to speak to at your event, even down to their job titles, where they work, and what stage they're in their career.

It's really helpful to know who you consider an expert and who your attendees will consider an expert because that way we, as event planners can start to think about our network, look into our Rolodex, and fill out your speaker grid Beautifully.

Five is a tentative guest list or audience. It kind of goes hand in hand with your active social media, but it is a little bit different, right? We know that if you have a hundred thousand followers on Instagram, not all of them are gonna come to your event. Presumably, not all of them will even click on the link to buy tickets for your event, but you should know who your event audience is and who you are trying to attract, which goes back to goals and objectives.

Now if you have an event that's coming up quickly and you just realized that you needed help, make sure that you have all of the things that I mention. But it's also really, really wonderful to have a sponsorship deck created with the levels of sponsorship as well as the inclusions in each level of sponsorship.

It's also really great if you have a project management system. If you have a project management system in place, it makes it a lot easier for an external event planner, freelance event planner, or professional like myself to come in and really see at a glance where you are in the event, the gaps that need to be filled in, and what we're missing in terms of the picture that you want to paint for your attendees.

So those are quick seven things that you should bring to your first meeting with an event planner. If you have a meeting with an event planner and you don't have some of these things, that's okay. Just be honest with them. Many event professionals are used to it. Planning first-time events or planning a first-time in-person event.

You know, for example, after three years of a pandemic, there's always going to be nuances. There are always going to be things that are unexpected, but the more prepared you can be when you come to meet with your event planner, the better off you'll be in the end. Thank you so much. I hope that this was helpful, and we will be back next week on the Type A+ Podcast.