[Guest Post] What To Know About Planning A Big Event

Organising an upcoming event? They can be a big headache but also a great satisfaction. Luckily, here are some tips to help you get started!

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Many of us have never planned events of any kind of scale. Anything beyond a fairly tame birthday party has me totally stumped and out of my depth. True events, not just parties, that involve teams, administrative processes, and publicity plans can be a lot to take in.

Just to begin, if you’re going to enjoy the event that you’re planning then I recommend seeking out aprofessional to plan the event for you because running a team of amateur party planners can be very stressful. It’s better to have professionals working with other professionals to deliver you the best event possible, while you sit back and enjoy the food and drinks that have been thoughtfully picked out for you.

But even if you get events planner to take over, its good to know the ins and outs of events planning so you know what’s going on, how long it ought to take, when you should be reaching out to planners, sampling foods, choosing your favourite flower arrangements etc.

The steps involved in planning an event are:

Organising your goal:

What is the purpose of your event? Is it for charity, a family reunion, a business-wide christmas ball? What do you hope to achieve at his event? Once you know the answers to these questions, you have a goal in mind.

Gathering your team:

An event planner can produce a team that will cover the venue, the entertainment, and the management. The other stuff you may need to cover yourself, such as who is going to speak, who is going to work with the planner, who is going to decide on theme, food, flowers or anything else the events team may ask for your input on.

If you don’t hire someone, you're going to need to put the whole team together, so make sure different areas of the planning are covered by good people so that it doesn’t all come down to one person.

Set a date and pick a theme:

When it comes to the date it has to be suitable for your most important guests, so check with them but remember that you can’t please everyone. Check the dates of large events going on in your area and make sure they don’t clash. You don’t want your event to be the same night as a really popular sports event, or as a really popular party.

Choosing a theme can be really important because it has to be both appropriate to your environment and your budget. The theme can be really dependent on the purpose of your event, particularly because the theme will determine the name, and the name is the brand of your event. You want to create a good name and potentially a good tagline, because its easy to advertise an event if the name is advertising in itself.

Create the ultimate plan:

Now that you have a team with a goal, a date and a theme, you’re ready to have a plan laid out. It is time to make the decisions:

- Where will it be?

- What are the activities or the entertainment?

- What is your promotional approach? Facebook, newspaper, webpage?

- Who is speaking and who is managing?

This plan is going to need to include a budget for each element of the plan and someone to manage said budget.

And most importantly, you’re going to need to plan out your administrative processes. A bit of administrative work is what makes the world go round. You need to keep track of the plan, and the guest lists and the progress - what tasks ought to be accomplished by what date. I will reiterate, an events planning company is a great thing to have. Event administration is their middle name. They can take over this highly stressful task, making the cost very much worth it.

So, if you keep in mind all of the things involved in the planning of an event and you understand the teamwork and administration involved, then you are on your way to making a great event. Remember to always keep in mind the date to ensure all tasks are completed by then and to always keep in mind the budget, because once that is gone, all party plans have to halt, which nobody wants.

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I've been to many events and proper event management can really make or break the event. Hope this post has been helpful to any of you thinking of working or are already working in the events line!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored guest article.

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