First event of institution

Summary

Whether organizing a small meeting or orchestrating a large conference, event planning is a huge task! Every event, no matter how simple or complex, requires detailed planning and organization. From establishing an accurate budget to promoting your event, there are a number of components you should start to consider early on to make the process as stress-free as possible.

Full Description

Before jumping right into the logistics like venue or speakers, you should spend time identifying the purpose and reason for planning this event. You should answer this question:

What the ultimate goal for this event? 

This is the why that spurred you to plan an event in the first place. Are you looking to:

Drive new sales? Support a product launch? Increase brand awareness? Or maybe, you have a combination of multiple goals? Determine what you are looking to accomplish and how this event will help you do that. 

Next, what are the objectives?

In planning any event, you should identify a set of objectives that will support your ultimate goal. Here are a few examples of event objectives:

• Increase registration 10% from the last event
• Increase revenue by 25% from the last event
• Receive 100 preorders for upcoming product
• Increase social media mentions/follows/reposts during the event

With your goals and objectives in place, you can create a preliminary scope of the event. Your scope should offer key details and point to how you will achieve your outlined goals. While not set in stone, you should lay out preliminary event details including: 

• Dates. Your time frame for the event, i.e. in 9 months.
• Attendees. Will this be a 100 person event, a 1,000 person, or 10,000 person event? You should begin to think about size. Are your attendees coming from around the country or is this a local event? You’ll also want to keep your attendees’ demographics in mind as you plan. 
• Location. Is your event local? Or, will it be hosted in a destination? Start to create a shortlist of cities and venues that make sense for your event.
• Type of event. Are you driving awareness of a new product? A one-day event with keynote may make sense. Bringing together thousands of customers? A two-day user conference may be right for you. Hosting an internal or association meeting? A day of small sessions could be a fit. 

Building out your goals and preliminary project scope enables you to frame your event and get buy-in from leadership. If your organization is already on board with the event, your goals and scope help move you along into the next stages of planning.