Event planning can be daunting, whether you organize a small meeting or a large conference. No matter how small or large the event is, it requires careful planning and organization. To make the event as stress-free and efficient as possible, you need to plan everything from a budget to how to promote it.

Although no event is the same, each event has its own goals, budgets and audiences. There are steps you can take that will help you jump-start your planning, stay on track and maximize the success of your event.

Define your goals and objectives

Before jumping into logistics, such as speakers or venues, it is important to identify the purpose and motivation for organizing this event. This question should be answered:

What is the ultimate goal of this event?

This is the reason that motivated you to organize an event. You are looking for:

Increase sales Sponsor a product launch, brand awareness? Maybe you have multiple goals. Find out what you want to achieve and how the event can help you get there.

Next, what are your objectives?

When planning an event, it is important to identify the objectives to help you achieve your ultimate goal. Here are some examples of event objectives.

• Register 10% more than the previous event
• Revenues will increase by 25% compared to the previous event
• Preorder 100 products for the upcoming year
• Increase social media mentions/follows/reposts during the event

Once you have established your goals and objectives, you can begin creating the event’s preliminary scope. The scope should contain key information and show how you will reach your goals. Although not a set of rules, it is important to outline the details for any preliminary events.

• Dates. Time frame, e.g., In 9 months.
• Attendees. This could be a 100-person event, a 1000 person, or a 10,000-person event. It is important to consider the size of your event. Is this a local event, or are they from all over the country? As you plan, it is important to consider the demographics of your attendees.
• Location. Are you planning to hold your event in your area? Will it be held in a foreign city? You can start to narrow down the cities and venues that are most suitable for your event.
• What type of event? How are you increasing awareness about a new product or service? One-day events with a keynote speaker may be a good idea. Are you looking to bring together thousands of customers? You might be a good candidate for a two-day user conference. Are you hosting an association or internal meeting? You might consider a day of small sessions.

Set up a budget for your event

• A budget is an important step in event planning. It helps you to plan and clarify other elements. A budget can also help you avoid surprises, such as running out of decor money. It will make you more successful if your budget is well-planned and updated regularly.
• Your high-level budget and your initial scope of requirements should be considered. To better understand your budget’s distribution across your needs, you should start to map out the costs for each line item.
• Eventbrite says that “Budget is broken up by marketing and promotion (43%)), speakers and talents (32%), printed material (29%), and venues (18 %).”).
• You’ll need to review your budget as you plan. While line items are bound to change, you must keep a budget that accurately reflects any updates or changes. Planners are often able to adjust your budget to avoid exceeding your budget.

Your events team should be built.

• You may be responsible for many of the tasks in this section if you are a small event organizer. However, for large events, it is necessary to have a team that can execute the production.
• It is important to assign roles when you start building a team to ensure accountability. Each team member should report to a project manager, who will have visibility into all the details.

The ultimate event team

• Eventbrite reports that only 12% have events with teams of 10 or more people. The most common number of employees is 2 to 5 (45%). This means that individuals often wear multiple hats. Here’s how roles are usually distributed if you are among those with 5+ team members.

Project Manager

• This person oversees all the moving parts and is ultimately responsible for executing the event. Responsible for managing the budget. Drives strategy. Responsible for making high-level purchasing decisions.

Show floor/venue

• This person is the main contact for vendors, sponsors, volunteers, staff, and onsite volunteers. Security, food/beverage, photography and security are other responsibilities. They know the addresses of all outlets and remember every name.

Scheduling

• This person is responsible for developing the plan, working with speakers, and communicating the schedule to all parties. He coordinates the meetings and lives to help attendees become successful networkers.

Creative design

• Creative designers created all visual designs for printed and online materials, including registration forms, signage, collateral and schedules. They make you look great. A professional event designer might be a good choice.

Marketing and Communications

• This person or group makes sure that the right people are aware of the event. They also create offers and timing strategies to increase registration. They are also great at measuring performance.
• This team ensures that guests have all the information to make the most of the event. They develop and update the mobile event application.

Register and check-in

• They manage registration, collaborate with a software provider to produce and manage badges and generate reports.

Sponsorships

• This team member maps out booth spaces, sell sponsorship opportunities, maintains relationships with sponsors, and explores community organization relationships. They are a great team member with amazing timing and excellent people skills.

Choose your date and venue.

• These are the two most important considerations in your project plan. It is important to start looking for venues early. It isn’t easy to find a venue that is available when the event market is busy. You will need to consider seasonal factors such as travel costs and availability when choosing a venue.
• Romy, an event industry veteran and PRIME, a Vancouver-based full-service agency for events, says it is difficult to find large spaces in January. “January and February are very busy with sales conferences. It happens again in September or October.” Romy says it is difficult to find traditional venues with sufficient show floor space during these times.

Develop event branding

• Your event branding is everything. It sets the tone from the event name and theme to the website design and the onsite feel and looks. You want your event to have a strong personality. A strong brand can help you create a vision for your event and guide it in the right direction.

Plan your program

• Get your plan set as soon as you can! Are there keynote speakers? Is there an additional day or evening reserved for sponsors? Are there a few workshops or talks presented on a single track? Or can attendees choose from multiple sessions at once? These questions will help you get a good idea of the event’s overall structure.
• You don’t have to finalize the schedule before you begin promoting the event. After you’ve started to promote your event, registrations start to grow, and you can make any changes to the schedule. It is easy to update the schedule quickly on your website or mobile app using technology.

Confirm speakers, exhibitors, sponsors

• If you’re hosting a large-scale event, you’ll most likely want to get others involved to offset costs and showcase multiple voices from the industry. Speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors are common ways to add value for your attendees and can offset costs.

Speakers

• If you plan to have sessions at your event, you must identify speakers for each segment. There are two options for adding speakers:

Submissions for sessions are invited.

• Hosting an open call to submit session proposals is a great way for customers and partners to get involved. An open call requires that individuals submit an abstract of the session that describes the topic and its value proposition. Your team will then review the abstracts and select speakers. Then, they will communicate with those selected and those who weren’t.

Invite speakers personally

• In the reverse direction, if there are individuals you want to invite, they can speak at your event. When reaching out to potential speakers, give a compelling overview of the event and the audience and express your excitement about their participation in the event. Remember that invited speakers are often entitled to compensation in addition to travel and lodging.

Management speakers

• After your speakers have been identified, it is important to keep the lines of communication open. Make sure you have all the information needed to create a speaker agreement. This includes information such as presentation expectations, deadlines, available technology, compensation, and how much. Make sure you are clear about what you expect so that there are no surprises on the day of the event.
• Keep in touch beyond the initial confirmation email and speaker agreement. You want your speakers’ presentations to align with the event theme. As you create your presentations, make sure you have all the materials. Send reminders to speakers asking them to submit their final presentations.

Select your tech tools and identify them

• Technology is improving the event space for both organizers and event-goers. When mapping out your next event, you’ll want to identify your technology needs and implementation timelines. Certain technologies will need to be implemented far before the event, while others can hold off until closer to the big day(s).

Register and book tickets

• It’s easier than ever to manage attendee registrations. Eventbrite and other online platforms allow you to sell tickets quickly. It is important to choose your platform early to promote registration and direct your audience to the registration site.