- by Hubilo
- October 15, 2021
What’s Event Planning?
All types of events, right from a grand corporate event to a simple wedding, need planning. Organizing events is hard as hundreds of things can go wrong on D-Day.
Simply put, event planning is the orchestration of every detail of an event – right from arranging the logistics to procuring the stationery.
As an event planner, you need to dot the i’s and cross the t’s to make sure that the event is delivered successfully. You need to work closely with the client to understand their requirements.
Based on their needs, you will be required to do any or all of the following:
- Ideate the plan
- Decide the theme
- Negotiate contracts with various vendors, hotels, caterers, and speakers
- Coordinate transportation
- Develop invitations and market the event
- Come up with the total cost taking your margins into consideration
In short, event planning is a journey where different elements of organizing, management, and promotion come together.
Benefits of event planning
It is common for mistakes to happen while conducting an event. These can take a toll on time, money, and other resources. Knowing the process of event planning helps you understand how to secure a backup for every situation without affecting the overall budget. Here are a few benefits of event planning.
1. Eliminates human errors
Event organization has a lot of variables at play. Things can easily go wrong due to human errors. Event planning takes care of all the undesirable outcomes that can arise while running an event. It ensures that the event is successfully conducted, thereby helping the client achieve their goals.
2. Saves cost for the client
When conducting an event, one has to talk to different vendors to understand their pricing and deliverables. It is difficult to find the best person who can provide quality products & services that are also cost-efficient. Event planning helps in this regard as event planners have a network of vendors who can execute quality work at a reasonable price.
3. Translates the vision to reality
Everybody has a vision of how their event should be organized. Event planning is the best way to bring that vision to life. Event planning takes every minute aspect of the imagination and brings them together seamlessly to frame a complete picture of the event.
5 stages of event planning
Planning an event effectively helps you stay away from the risks of chaos, disorganization, and failure to meet the event’s goals. To help you avoid such situations, here is a 5-stage plan:
1. Research and capture the event goals
Even experienced event planners sometimes skip this step. No matter your experience, it is important to research the type of event you have undertaken to plan. You need to talk to the client and understand their end goal. If it is a corporate event, the goal can be to network, share knowledge, or simply improve brand visibility.
Make a list of questions designed specifically for this stage. Ask about the budget, the number of attendees, date, and location. Don’t forget to document all these details.
2. Plan the event
This is the stage where you have the maximum responsibilities. After understanding the client’s needs, you need to finalize the venue and/or the virtual event platform based on the event theme, the number of attendees, and the budget. Start building a team and assign specific responsibilities to them. Remember to keep the plan as detailed as possible.
3. Start the branding of the event
If it is a personal event, this stage is all about sending invitations and intro videos to those involved. But if it is a corporate event, you need to market the event extensively, especially if the client’s end goal involves an audience outside the organization. Based on the type of audience, you need to prepare promotional material and share it on social media, email marketing, and other channels.
4. Execute flawlessly on the event day
When the day finally comes around, your primary job is to coordinate with all your team members to make sure everything is going as per the plan and the intricacies are managed. As an event planner, you have to ensure that the event is a success and the end goals are met for the client.
5. Evaluate the event
It is necessary to evaluate the event after it ends. Depending on the type of event, you can collect feedback by sharing a feedback form or talking to a few guests and getting to know their opinions on the event. This way, you can verify whether you have achieved the goals set or not and find out the scope of improvement.
Planning an event successfully
Here are a few tips that you can use to plan an event successfully:
- Understand the demographics of your target audience before deciding the theme.
- Be creative and open to new ideas.
- Keep an eye on hashtags used by participants and create content targeted towards those hashtags.
- Click as many photographs as possible and post them on social media.
- Document everything.
- Bring in sustainable and green elements into the event.
Event management and event planning: What’s the difference?
Here’s a simple rule-of-thumb: everything that happens before the actual event comes under the bucket of event planning. An event manager is responsible for everything that happens during the event.
Here are the different responsibilities of an event planner:
- Choosing and booking a venue and/or a virtual event platform
- Planning the event theme and branding
- Finalizing menu, caterers, and swag bags
- Sending proposals to vendors
- Managing budgets
- Choosing music, band, and other entertainers
Here are some of the tasks of an event manager:
- Solving conflicts during the event
- Taking care of event day logistics
- Executing emergency plans
- Managing the hired staff
- Ensuring everything is happening according to schedule
Key elements of event planning
Here are the five major elements of an event planning process:
1. Theme
An event theme is simply the overarching idea or the concept around which your event revolves. A theme not only gives your event a structure but can also reinforce the message you wish to convey through the event.
To identify the right theme, you need to find out what is trending and also loved by the target audience. Remember, a theme is one way to create a great first impression for your event.
2. Budget
A budget of an event is the total cost that the client will incur in successfully running the event. As an event planner, your job is not only to formulate the budget before the event begins but also to keep an eye on the budget (so that it is not exceeded) while the event is going on.
Remember to have an extra budget set aside for emergencies. Speak to multiple vendors and make sure to bargain and get the right price for everything. Maintain a budget sheet and monitor it closely.
3. Venue
Choose a venue that is easily accessible and is at a practical distance from public transport hubs. The venue should also have ample parking space based on the number of guests. Do prior research on the venue and know about the previous projects hosted there.
In today’s world, many event venues have shifted online. Ensure you choose the right virtual event platform if you are hosting an online event and the right hybrid event platform if your event has both in-person and virtual components.
4. Speakers
The right speakers can bring life to an event. So, understand your audience and invite someone they like to hear. It could be a motivational speaker or a subject matter expert. Get a video recording of speakers’ previous presentations and make sure they are apt for the event and good at content delivery.
5. Sponsors
If your event is a fundraiser, mega-event, or celebrity event, you need to attract sponsors who can fund the event and also benefit from the event in the form of promotions. Reach out to sponsors based on the event type. For example, if you are organizing a health-related event, then you can invite hospitals and pharma companies as sponsors.
Event Planning Software
Since there is a lot of manual work involved in event planning, the chances of human errors are pretty high. This is where you need the assistance of software to streamline the entire event planning process.
