Hey everyone! Sorry for the disappearance. Due to COVID-19, we haven’t been able to write a new article that would be coherent enough to post. But we’re back and we’re here to talk about event planning! Now there’s a lot that goes into creating and managing an event; it even gets extremely complicated. But we’re going to break It down for you in this article by categorizing it into 5 different steps. Keep in mind though, that even if we do put it into simple steps, that there is still so much that needs to be done when organizing the event.
Here are the 5 C’s:
- CONCEPT
This is when you develop the concept for the event. Why is this event happening? Is it to educate? To raise funds? To inform? Is it a funeral rite? A wedding? An award ceremony? There are so many different types of events you can make, and that’s the reason you need to know the why; to know exactly what the event is trying to achieve. Once you’ve learned this, you move on to the who. Who is invited to this event? Who is the event being held for? Are there major stakeholders? Guests? Long-time customers? Figuring this out will help bring together the creative elements, as it would be easier to understand what type of event should be done. Are there guest speakers you’d like to invite? Performers? Activities? Will there be catering?
These all need to be figured out before the planning begins. The next steps are to figure out there when and the where. These two are easy to figure out as it’s just a matter of scheduling and talking to potential venues, checking places out that you would like to have the event. But the final step is the what. The what is what the event itself is. This has to match with the needs, wants, and desires, and expectations of the audience, while combining with the why, who, when, and where.
- COORDINATION
This is the planning stage, where you begin to organize everything and everyone involved with the event. But where do you even start with planning an event? After having the concept, here are the different things you can sort out:
- Developing a theme
- Budgeting
- Establishing timelines
- Selecting and reserving venues
- Planning for food
- Selecting speakers
- Arranging equipment
- Coordinating transportation
- Contingency planning
With all of these potentially going into the planning portion of the event, make sure that you are keeping track of all the fine details that you believe would make your event great. Designate these different tasks to other members of your team so that everyone can have a part in planning and coordinating. The best way to ensure everyone is on the same page is creating a schedule and discussion area (on WhatsApp, Telegram, etc) where everyone can consistently communicate where they are.
One of the first tasks that needs to be complete is to reserve a date and venue weeks in advance. The reason for this is because you need to stay flexible in case something prevents you from choosing the desired time and location. There will be a few things that are out of your hands, so its important to remain flexible throughout, and that includes with choosing a day and place. Once that’s done, you need to sit down with an accountant or a bookkeeper to create a budget and to make sure that you’re not going over it. This is one of the most important aspects that goes into creating an event – making sure you don’t go over the budget.
- CONTROL
This is the most neglected and overlooked stage in event creation. This stage is when you need to put control measures in place in case anything happens that could potentially throw off the event. You should use this stage to compare process vs the actual plan, if the resources are working with the schedule, if everything is within the budget, and what still needs to be done in perspective to the timeline set up. You should be checking in on the venue and the set-up to make sure that everything is on track. Along with checking the set-up, you should be checking in on suppliers, managing relationships with the vendors. These are crucial because if you can’t get along with everyone in your team, then your event is bound for failure. Communication is key and if you’re not constantly communicating with everyone around you, the event is bound to fail.
This stage is also for creating solutions for various potential problems, and having back-up plans in case the initial plan didn’t work out. Planning for any changes that could happen will put you on top of what you need to do. When you consider the worst-case scenarios and create efforts to tackle them, you’ll make sure the event runs smoothly no matter what. One last thing to consider is the budget, and what you’d need to do if the budget is running low, or if there were any unanticipated costs.
- CULMINATION
This is the day that the event is happening. This day is when you show off all the planning and effort you’ve put into preparing this event. You need to make sure that everyone involved in making the event has access to the venue before the event starts, so that set-up and rehearsals can be done. Like in Coordination, you need to have a communication plan with everyone involved. There are several activities that are involved with this step such as:
- Team management
- Supplier/vendor coordination
- Crowd control
- Security
- Frontline management
- Backend management
- (We cannot stress this enough) COMMUNICATION
All of the above will determine how much the attendees will enjoy your event. Your best bet is to make an itinerary that everyone can follow. As the event is going on, you need to make sure that everyone is following the itinerary to the tee (if a speaker is meant to go on, make sure they’re preparing 10 minutes in advance).
You need to be on alert during the entire event. Control is like riding a bike, and culmination is managing to go in a straight-line while being prepared for contingency or back-up plans that need to be put in place. Don’t forget that something will go wrong with your event, whether it’s a big issue or a small issue, it will happen. But there’s no need to panic if you’ve prepared in advance for something like this to happen. Especially when the wrong thing happening is communicated to you in a timely matter, and you can work well under pressure then you’ll be more than okay.
- CLOSE OUT
This is when the event is ending and the attendees have all gone. Here are the different things you need to check on as you’re closing down:
- Review and evaluation
- Reporting
- Quality improvement
- Reward and recognition of team members
- Formal termination of contractors where applicable
- Payments given to those that were promised
Of all of these activities though, the first one you should have is the review and evaluation with your team and the client. The client needs to approve of how the event went before moving on to things such as quality improvement and payments. Once you’ve had a word with your client, you move on to your team and telling them what they did well and what they could improve on, as this helps for them to understand how it really went. This is also a good opportunity to ask your team how you did as the events manager, so that you could improve on how you manage future events. Along with asking your team about how you did as a manager, reach out to the other players that had a hand in helping you with your event (vendors, performers, etc) and ask them how they enjoyed the event and what could be better next time.
Don’t forget the most important last step, which is cleaning up. One way to keep a good relationship with venues is to ensure that the event will look like it never happened, and that you understanding cleaning up after yourself is just as important as the event. Once the event is completely over, it’s time to take a look at it overall. See if you’ve achieved the goals you had set out, and how you can use what you learned moving forward.
Thank you, as always, for reading, and we hope to see you again in two weeks to read the next article.