Steps To Planning A Successful Event
Are you ready to plan your next big event? Here are some simple steps you can follow to ensure your event is a great success!
1. Give yourself some time to prepare for the event. Create a timeline that includes details such as invitations sent, responses received, guest announcements made, food and drink preparations made, and timelines for events leading up to the evening.
2. It’s helpful to know these before inviting guests to join in. This way you can focus on gathering needed supplies and hiring help when there isn’t much preparation work to be done.
3. Let people know how things will run during the event so there are no surprises. For example, let participants know who will be running things and which groups will organize themselves.
4. Contact guest speakers well in advance. According to the speaker agency Keynote Speaker , they suggest hiring speakers four to six months in advance.Also tell them where things will take place and what the rules are. For example, telling someone “we will eat together at 5:30” rather than having them figure it out from past experience works well.
5. People may have questions throughout the process, but hopefully, they will trust you enough to follow along.Keeping these issues confidential may hurt their feelings, but it is better to avoid keeping secrets and putting others at risk.
6. Now that you have everyone’s attention, it is time to establish some ground-rules. You can also put these in writing if you want them to be more formal.Many events don’t require any set of rules. In fact, having these will help keep things running smoothly. Others may have very specific rules (such as no talking or strict order waiting times).
7. Whatever you do, make sure people know what the rules are before they start happening. It’s annoying when you’re trying to enjoy yourself getting pulled away to hear somebody complain about how the DJ played their song too fast or how they could not hear the keynote speaker give their presentation.
8. Also try to avoid surprises (even with a joke). When people don’t expect anything, it can really throw them off balance. They won’t get to decide what happens vs. what should happen.
9. Without being too detailed, tell your story once when you are giving your presentation at the event. Tell your story in one place with all of the details necessary for it to be told again. This can mean telling the same story in several different ways (live action or video? Written word or picture?) but it also means that there should be one version of truth in play. According to Motivational Speaker , there will never be two versions of how you said something when talking about someone else; they either both helped or hurt.
10. Events can be difficult to plan if people do not understand what they should expect. When organizing events, make sure that you explain to everyone how things will run so there are no surprises. You can start conversations with questions such as “This takes place on Friday” or “Everyone needs to be here by X time on Thursday.” You can also add in exceptions like “I know we don’t have much time, but I need someone who can help me with setup or cleaning up.”
11. Let people feel comfortable trying new things, but keep them moving.Let them volunteer for things or let them ask any questions they may have. Being aware of time helps too – tell them exactly where you want them to be and when they should be there.Don’t assume they know anything; always give details. For example, say something like this: Consider use of a task manager . Even if you’re not usually tasked with planning events, there may be times when you organize one or need help from friends and family regarding an event.
12. It can be difficult deciding how to spend your time.That is why it is important to have a task manager. They help you see all the things that need to get done.You can create a task manager in many ways (e.g., using a spreadsheet); however, some good versions allow for tagging people and items so you can keep track of what needs to be done and who should do it.
13. There are two common types of task managers; one is where you maintain a list of tasks and individuals, and the other type manages the tasks within a project.In either case, doing so helps you stay organized by giving you nowhere else to look for information.
It also gives you somewhere to put those ‘things that need to be done’ that you're constantly thinking about.Write event scripts. Once you’ve got your key messages sorted, write two paragraphs based on each idea. Don’t worry about how they fit onto the page – this will be done later.
What I call ‘event scripts’ are short phrases that sum up the main points of what you want to say.For example, instead of writing a long speech about my topic, I might use a single sentence in one script to explain why my topic is important to me. Then I would include some helpful tips and pointers for people to follow if they need it.
Event scripts should always come straight from your head after you have thought them through. If you work too hard on them they won’t sound as natural when you read them.They can also seem more formal before you even speak it. That’s because they were written with formality in mind.However, there is a way to merge these different styles into one. You can still keep it simple by writing plain statement sentences without any complex ideas or phrasing.
This gets back to how you start -- with easier options first. When you brainstorm easy ways to improve things, you also get samples used to saying events out loud.This makes reading the drafts easier since you know what possible outcomes the listener could have. They feel better knowing something really good may actually happen.
1. Give yourself some time to prepare for the event. Create a timeline that includes details such as invitations sent, responses received, guest announcements made, food and drink preparations made, and timelines for events leading up to the evening.
2. It’s helpful to know these before inviting guests to join in. This way you can focus on gathering needed supplies and hiring help when there isn’t much preparation work to be done.
3. Let people know how things will run during the event so there are no surprises. For example, let participants know who will be running things and which groups will organize themselves.
4. Contact guest speakers well in advance. According to the speaker agency Keynote Speaker , they suggest hiring speakers four to six months in advance.Also tell them where things will take place and what the rules are. For example, telling someone “we will eat together at 5:30” rather than having them figure it out from past experience works well.
5. People may have questions throughout the process, but hopefully, they will trust you enough to follow along.Keeping these issues confidential may hurt their feelings, but it is better to avoid keeping secrets and putting others at risk.
6. Now that you have everyone’s attention, it is time to establish some ground-rules. You can also put these in writing if you want them to be more formal.Many events don’t require any set of rules. In fact, having these will help keep things running smoothly. Others may have very specific rules (such as no talking or strict order waiting times).
7. Whatever you do, make sure people know what the rules are before they start happening. It’s annoying when you’re trying to enjoy yourself getting pulled away to hear somebody complain about how the DJ played their song too fast or how they could not hear the keynote speaker give their presentation.
8. Also try to avoid surprises (even with a joke). When people don’t expect anything, it can really throw them off balance. They won’t get to decide what happens vs. what should happen.
9. Without being too detailed, tell your story once when you are giving your presentation at the event. Tell your story in one place with all of the details necessary for it to be told again. This can mean telling the same story in several different ways (live action or video? Written word or picture?) but it also means that there should be one version of truth in play. According to Motivational Speaker , there will never be two versions of how you said something when talking about someone else; they either both helped or hurt.
10. Events can be difficult to plan if people do not understand what they should expect. When organizing events, make sure that you explain to everyone how things will run so there are no surprises. You can start conversations with questions such as “This takes place on Friday” or “Everyone needs to be here by X time on Thursday.” You can also add in exceptions like “I know we don’t have much time, but I need someone who can help me with setup or cleaning up.”
11. Let people feel comfortable trying new things, but keep them moving.Let them volunteer for things or let them ask any questions they may have. Being aware of time helps too – tell them exactly where you want them to be and when they should be there.Don’t assume they know anything; always give details. For example, say something like this: Consider use of a task manager . Even if you’re not usually tasked with planning events, there may be times when you organize one or need help from friends and family regarding an event.
12. It can be difficult deciding how to spend your time.That is why it is important to have a task manager. They help you see all the things that need to get done.You can create a task manager in many ways (e.g., using a spreadsheet); however, some good versions allow for tagging people and items so you can keep track of what needs to be done and who should do it.
13. There are two common types of task managers; one is where you maintain a list of tasks and individuals, and the other type manages the tasks within a project.In either case, doing so helps you stay organized by giving you nowhere else to look for information.
It also gives you somewhere to put those ‘things that need to be done’ that you're constantly thinking about.Write event scripts. Once you’ve got your key messages sorted, write two paragraphs based on each idea. Don’t worry about how they fit onto the page – this will be done later.
What I call ‘event scripts’ are short phrases that sum up the main points of what you want to say.For example, instead of writing a long speech about my topic, I might use a single sentence in one script to explain why my topic is important to me. Then I would include some helpful tips and pointers for people to follow if they need it.
Event scripts should always come straight from your head after you have thought them through. If you work too hard on them they won’t sound as natural when you read them.They can also seem more formal before you even speak it. That’s because they were written with formality in mind.However, there is a way to merge these different styles into one. You can still keep it simple by writing plain statement sentences without any complex ideas or phrasing.
This gets back to how you start -- with easier options first. When you brainstorm easy ways to improve things, you also get samples used to saying events out loud.This makes reading the drafts easier since you know what possible outcomes the listener could have. They feel better knowing something really good may actually happen.
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