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What is Event Planning?
February 28, 2023
Think of the last event you went to, and how smoothly it ran (or not!). You may have had to have your ticket scanned or perhaps go through security on the way in, you might have had to find your seat, and buy some food and drink. You might have had to find somewhere to park, and use the toilets. At the end, you might have bought some souvenirs or merchandise to take home with you. And if you or a companion got hurt, you might have had to seek out the first aid facilities.
Every single one of the activities listed above take a considerable amount of organising, and all can be vital to the success or failure of an event, both in financial and reputational terms. That’s why event management is often much more complex and laborious than people often give it credit for. Behind the scenes of every successful event is hard work and meticulous planning that ensures everything runs like clockwork.
If you’re looking at organising an event in the future, then it can therefore be a daunting process. This guide can help you get some clarity on the task ahead, highlighting the most important things to consider when organising an event.
The key steps of planning an event
The first place to start is to work out what you’d like to achieve. This may be to make as large a profit as possible, but the objective doesn’t necessarily have to be financial. It could be that you want to raise awareness for your cause or charity, enable people in the community to come together, or to build better relationships with people and businesses. By working this out at the very beginning, it’s much easier to make all the following decisions aligned to this core objective.
Define your overall objective
The first place to start is to work out what you’d like to achieve. This may be to make as large a profit as possible, but the objective doesn’t necessarily have to be financial. It could be that you want to raise awareness for your cause or charity, enable people in the community to come together, or to build better relationships with people and businesses. By working this out at the very beginning, it’s much easier to make all the following decisions aligned to this core objective.
Work out your budget
Whether your motivation is profit or not, you’ll need to set a budget for the overall execution of your event. This will have to cover staffing, venue hire, services from suppliers like catering and security, insurance, marketing and advertising, and countless other considerations. Defining a realistic level of budget can ensure that spending is kept in check and things don’t spiral out of control. At the same time, you can also consider where the funds are being sourced from, including whether it would be suitable to look for sponsorship from local businesses.
Recruit your team
Every event needs a team of people to cover all the different tasks and responsibilities required. In many cases, these tasks can be fulfilled by volunteers who will need to be recruited well in advance, so that you don’t find yourself short-handed on the day. However, you may also find that you need to hire paid staff for certain roles (for example, security or marketing). As well as getting these people lined up early, you will need to factor staffing costs into your budget.
Decide the where, when and who
Securing the use of a suitable venue is critical, not only as it may take up a significant proportion of your budget, but also because its size, facilities and ease of access will play a vital role in your event’s success. It’s at this stage of the process that you can line up your chosen venue on a particular date, and start contacting all the people who will be involved in the event to confirm their attendance. This could be musicians, acts, sports teams, speakers, stall holders and anyone else providing goods, services or entertainment on the day.
Market and advertise
With all the details in place, it’s time to tell the public all about your planned event. Make sure as many of your target audience as possible know what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, when it’s happening, and (if it’s for a good cause) why you’re doing it. There are many different media channels available for you to achieve this, from traditional forms like local papers, local radio and newsletters, through to social media networks (including paid advertising on those platforms).
Manage closely on the day
As the big day draws near, you may well find that you have a million and one things to keep track of. Forgetting to cover just one thing can easily impact on the success of the event, and the experiences that your attendees and guests have. This is where the countless event planning apps that are available for smartphones and tablets can be so useful. They can allow you to log all the jobs that you need to look after, set deadlines, delegate them to other people, and mark them as finished once they’re taken care of.
Follow up to maximise exposure
Don’t forget that the end of the event isn’t the end of the story. In the aftermath, you can undertake follow-up exercises like marketing and PR to tell everyone what a success your event was. This can potentially drive more revenue such as donations (if a charitable cause), help get more exposure that will please your sponsors, and encourage people to come back to your event next time.
Get event insurance with Protectivity
Whatever type of event you’d like to run, there is always something that can go wrong that is completely unforeseen. Whether it’s damage to someone’s property, injury to a person attending, or event cancellation due to forces outside your control, it’s easy for even the best-planned event to be left substantially out of pocket.
Because of this, no event should run without good-quality insurance cover in place, and this is exactly where Protectivity can help. Our specialist event insurance policies include Public Liability insurance, cancellation cover, protection for equipment, and Employer’s Liability if you’re hiring staff to work on your event. That way, even in the worst-case scenario, you can be sure your business and organisation is protected from a financial standpoint.
Take a look, to find out more about our flexible and affordable event cancellation policies.
