Event planning is harder than you think. There are so many elements that go into planning an event like sponsor coordination, journal organization, seating, name tags, speakers, presentation, and of course, the look and feel of the event.
When things run smooth, everyone thinks it was a breeze to coordinate the effort. However, more times than not there is an event planner handling the snafus like not enough seating, unhappy guests, speakers running late or worse, never showing up. These event planners make sure that no one is the wiser and that the event runs as if everything was perfect.
Still, even with professional event planners at the helm, many businesses and organizations have misconceptions about event planning.
Here are the top five:
If You Build it, They Will Come
In addition to creating a fabulous event, if people don’t know about it, they won’t come! Marketing is a vital component of every event. Besides invitations, it’s important to send press releases to calendar editors of local newspapers, bloggers and online journalists. Further, tweet it out to your community once a day for several weeks prior to the event. Get a local radio station to sponsor the event and have public service announcements run every day two weeks prior to the event. The important thing to remember here is, if you build it and they don’t know about it, they won’t come!
Everything Will Go Just as Planned
Murphy’s Law was created for events! If something can go wrong, it will go wrong. Create a staff plan and have each person accountable for a specific task throughout the event. For example, at HJMT, we have someone in charge of registration, the problem desk/area, speakers and program, the caterer, and photographer, and more. These people are set in these stations to make sure that things do go as planned.
There’s No Need to Double-Check
The attendance list is important. People get offended when their name or company name is spelled wrong. They also have no tolerance for being placed at a table that doesn’t have enough seats. Make sure to check, double check, and triple check the seating arrangements, the spelling of names and company names, the amount of people at each table, etc.
The other night I was at an event and was given a table card. When I went to the table, the name on the table was spelled differently than the place card. I wondered if it was a typo or if there was another table. I asked the host and she told me it was a typo. When I went to sit down, someone told me he was sitting there. I quickly realized there weren’t enough seats at the table, and I was upset. Make sure your guests walk away from the event with a smile instead of a frown.
The More Speakers, the Better
There are so many events that I go to where it feels like there are more speakers than guests! People don’t want to sit and listen to so many speakers. The shorter the program the better! When people attend events, they generally go to network and build their database. They aren’t going to hear long-winded speeches after long-winded speeches. Keep your program short and quick. Make sure to tell your speakers know how much time they have to talk and have someone up by the podium monitoring the time.
After the Event, There’s No Need for Follow-up
This is one of the biggest misconceptions about event planning. Many people think that once the event is over, that’s it. However, the event is just the start to building relationships with potential sponsors, funders, etc. Make sure to call everyone when the event is over and thank him/her for coming. Look through the list and see who you should get together with after the event to secure your relationship even further.
Event planning takes months of preparation and planning to organize an event, and then once it’s planned and here, it takes time to coordinate the logistics of the event. Finally, remember follow-up after the event is the key to building lasting relationships.
