Reduce Stress With Our Ten Tips To Success

Planning an event is always stressful as there are so many things that can go wrong. Take a look at our top ten tips to creating successful, hassle free events.

Make your plans as early as possible

Ideally aim for at least four to six months planning for large events. Smaller events can take at least a month in planning. Make sure that all vendor contracts are completed several weeks before the start of your event.

Be flexible

Accept that nothing will go exactly as you expect. Some changes will be necessary. It might be location, the time or possibly the style of event. Be ready to adapt at short notice and preferably, have some fall back plans prepared in advance.

Negotiate

Whatever the event, there will be unexpected costs. Allow for those extra costs in your budget. Negotiate with every participating business, and keep within budget. Know your maximum budget and stick with it, aiming to pay up to 10% less than a vendor’s original proposal.

Delegate

You cannot do everything yourself. You cannot be everywhere and responsible for every single decision. Break up the event into activities such as registration, transport, catering and give responsibility for each activity to a specific member of your team. They can take care of the details, and just report back as and when necessary.

Create an events document for sharing

Have a central document highlighting all the various aspects of the event, budgets, responsibilities, personnel, timings, floor plans, vendor contracts. Make it accessible to everyone on the team. They can refer back to it whenever they need to, and put in updates whenever available. It keeps everyone in full possession of all relevant information on the progress of the event, and makes it easier for you – as the overall organiser – to keep tabs on progress.

Prepare a back up plan

It is inevitable that something will go wrong at some point. A vendor or supplier may suddenly drop out due to circumstances beyond their control, a team member may fall ill, the chosen location encounters problems such as flooding or electricity cut offs, a key guest may not arrive on time. Work out which are the most important aspects of the event, and have a backup plan ready for immediate use if necessary. If several problems occur, decide which is the most important and drop unimportant issues to allow you to focus appropriately at short notice.

Run through the event

Do a quick run through of the event at least two weeks before it takes place. Hold a team meeting, and discuss any issues that are arising. Follow up with a run through at the venue. Make sure there are copies of every document – just in case something gets mislaid.

Take photographs

Arrange for a photographer to take photos of the event, ready to be added to your social media. Ideally include images of all the attendees.

Social media

Don’t ignore social media. Encourage participants to post tweets, tag it and post Facebook entries both before and after the event.

Recap immediately

Memories are better when you go over an event immediately it has taken place. Call together your team, check out what has worked, what didn’t and make appropriate notes ready for the next time. Don’t forget to follow up with all attendees, and any queries that they may have made.