Thanks to the pandemic, the world has experienced drastic changes in life and livelihood, especially for events and those who plan them. Concerns about in-person interactions and large group gatherings raised a unique challenge for event marketers. With all that going on, event planning this 2021 can feel both overwhelming and incredibly demanding.
While many things remain uncertain, it is necessary to embrace the new mode of event planning by enrolling yourself in online event planning training.
This guide will point you in the right direction.
The Scope of Event Planning
Event planning is encapsulated in the organization and management of all logistical details of an event. Events vary in complexity, purpose, and size. Due to changes in everyday health and safety protocols, events can vary from in-person, virtual, or hybrid.
Event planning includes all the work that comes with event marketing, venue sourcing, event branding, event sponsorship, event management website building, and a whole lot more.
Your Guide to Successful Event Planning this 2021
Unsure how to handle your first event this 2021? Here is a general guide of the basics and best practices for successful—and socially responsible—event planning. You can also reach out to Niramit Creations for better event planning and management services.
1. Define Your Goals and Objectives
As per Carlo Parentela, establishing tangible objectives and realistic goals is the first thing you need to do. This guarantees you an event optimized for success. Start by answering the question: What is the purpose of this event? What are you trying to achieve?
When you define your goals, make sure they are measurable. This ensures you and your team can actually achieve them. A sure sign of a vague, undoable goal is the fact that it cannot be easily quantified or tracked.
2. Create and Establish a Budget
Setting a budget is crucial for the overall agenda and is best discussed before you begin to plan out the event you should be very clear on it when you hire events company singapore and discuss your requirements with them. Typical expenses include renting out the venue, sourcing and preparing the food, providing the entertainment, and purchasing or renting equipment.
Before making any big changes, don’t forget to set aside emergency funds for any unfixed costs you might encounter. This will keep you from going too much off track.
3. Organize Your Team
The pillar to every event is an organized team that handles every detail. When planning an event, make sure to set a clear role for everyone in the team. Create an accountability system. Pick an event chair and designate subcommittees of individual chairpeople, especially for big tasks like venue management, entertainment, public addresses, publicity, sponsors, and volunteer management.
For instance, if you need urgent transportation in a specific area at, around, or en route to the venue, let’s say a bus rental in Regina, you should know who to contact first. This gives you a level of organization and control just by knowing who to contact when things get shaky.
4. Create a Master Plan
Once you have everything laid out, from costs to timelines, it’s time to create a master plan. This will keep you on track and help you communicate the plan effectively to your team, committee members, and volunteers. Remember, creating your master plan encompasses all aspects of the event, before, during, and after.
5. Set the Date and Book the Venue
When setting the date and venue, ensure to give yourself enough buffer time before the date of the event. This will give you time to come up with alternatives, research possible holidays ahead that might alter your budget, and verify availability with key participants (VIP guests, presenters, speakers, drone videography services, etc.).
When you nail down the date, book the avenue and consider the size, accessibility, parking, insurance, AV, and additional expenses.
Once everything is set, you can now start booking external staff you might need right away in your area of operations—especially if you’re dealing with large events like corporate catering in Toronto businesses. Then you can begin to advertise your event.
6. Establish Sponsors and Partnerships
Sponsors and corporate partners help the success of your event in several ways. They assist you in spreading the word, increasing participation, and even defraying expenses.
When trying to establish partnerships and sponsorships, consider looking for corporate sponsors and partnering with organizations in the local community. Either can assist you in funding the event in a lucrative, win-win relationship.
7. Brand the Event
With all the effort you and your team put in to make the event a reality, make sure it pays off by positioning the event to stand out. Choose themes that are compelling and timely. Brainstorm event names that will intrigue people, create catchy taglines or easily recognizable hashtags to advertise the event online, and design a logo to represent your event. This will help set up expectations, build anticipation, and set the tone of your event.
8. Go Public
Get people in the door by going public! Promote your event on blogs, newsletters, social platforms, and the like to increase awareness and remind people of the event. Official website announcements, social media countdowns, email blasts, printed invitations, and news media press releases can all help you kick off the excitement.
Bonus Tips
Now that COVID-19 has enforced a new level of caution on all manner of public events, consider executing your events in virtual or hybrid form with these tips.
A. Think Virtual
Allow the option for your participants to attend the event either in person or online. Although logistically challenging, this is now the trend for obvious reasons. The show must go on, and every event planner and marketer needs to keep up.
B. Brush Up on Your Tech Skills
With a virtual or hybrid event, you need to leverage technology as much as you can and brush up on your tech skills to provide participants with a smooth-sailing and engaging event. With the help of event management rental software, you can leverage technology as much as you can and brush up on your tech skills to provide participants with a smooth-sailing and engaging event.
C. Venue Matters
With government protocols in place to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, choose a venue that is convenient for attendees to travel to and where safety measures are well established. Make sure the venue is big enough to cater to your expected number of participants in compliance with social distancing.
The pandemic has proven that life must go on. Pulling off public or personal events in a responsible manner helps maintain social equilibrium and community well-being. Whether you’re just getting started or have no idea how to start event planning this 2021, this guide will help you to score big despite the pandemic.