By Mihaela Tudorică
Event planning tips
Knowing how to plan a corporate event can be a tricky endeavour. It takes time, imagination and excellent planning skills to cover all the details and stick to the budget at the same time. Here is how to avoid some mistakes that can compromise the goal of your event.
1 – Going over budget
Budgeting is a critical part of the event planning process. Sticking to the budget you’ve been allocated is not an easy task. The highest costs appear due to travel expenses, food and beverage, venue selection and hiring top-notch speakers. However, there are some things you could do to cut costs.
- Venue selection
Choose a meeting location that is close to most of your participants. In other words, try to reduce participants travel distances, which could also mean cheaper flight tickets.
- Food and beverages
Avoid sophisticated lunches and go for lighter versions. Buffets are varied, so they are a great options to satisfy everyone’s tastes, including those with food allergies.
- Speakers
Don’t go overboard with your speaker selection. Its not always that price = quality. Scout for new talents who are able to conquer the minds and hearts of your audience. You’ll be amazed, but the market of public speaking is full of them. Make sure your event is varied, with a mixture of speakers, activities and time for networking.
- Printing
Go digital as much as you can. Eliminate printing, photocopying, handouts.
- Leverage live streaming
Offering live streaming is a great way to cut costs and to guarantee that everyone is present.
2 – Poor scheduling
No matter how well-prepared you think you are, you should check, double-check and then check again! This is important for all of the arrangements for your event, from venue bookings to travel arrangements.
- Always follow the protocols and procedures
If you’re asked to organize a meeting at a completely new location, do your research. Not inspecting sites before the event can be very risky. Scoping, and communicating with stakeholders removes a lot of the pressure associated with events.
- Always track changes
Most of events will have changes in plan, for instance participants changing their flight options. You might also need additional seating capacity. Therefore, use technology to keep track of minor or bigger changes. Azavista’s event management platform provides change management features that allow you to effortlessly track, monitor and export registration changes.
3 – Miscommunication
Communication plays a key role in events. Therefore, communicate early, communicate often and communicate well, both with your team and your attendees.
- Be a team player
Communicate to all team members important times and dates and any respective changes. Keep everyone in the loop.
- Respect your attendees
If a certain speaker fails to attend the event and you know it in time, communicate this detail to your audience. When you do not communicate changes, your attendees might be disappointed. They want to know precisely who is speaking about what and exactly when. Give them what you’ve promised in the agenda or let them know about changes.
4 – Poor recruiting
- Working with freelancers
Take care when you choose freelancers, as they might be inexperienced and event planning can quickly grow out of control without experienced event managers. Check their background, recommendations and previous work. Also, pay attention to people who have been out of business for a long time.
About the author: Mihaela Tudorica is an inbound marketing content creator at Azavista, a company specialized on event management software, based in Amsterdam. She is focused on blogging and marketing offers. Before Azavista, Mihaela attended University of Amsterdam, where she studied “Social media and digital culture”. Her areas of interest are websites, social platforms and search engine optimization (SEO). Mihaela works for Azavista, a web-based event management platform that provides planners with all the essentials to more efficiently handle their meetings and events. With Azavista, from just one consolidated interface, you can handle event registrations, email marketing, budgeting, supplier procurement and more. Azavista also offers a native event app, as well as an advanced analytics solution and VAT refund services especially for the travel and event industry.
“Image source – Flickr , usage under Creative Commons license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)”