It can be easy to brush past the intricacies of event planning. Book a venue, schedule hosts and guests, organise catering – simple, right?
While you can essentially collect each puzzle piece fairly seamlessly, what makes an event truly successful is your strategy. Just like your marketing strategy, your lead acquisition and your budgeting, planning ahead, stating your goals and knowing your intention will greatly influence the success of any event. If you’re preparing an event, whether a conference, a private function or a networking event, a strategy is critical. Here are a few factors to consider when preparing your event strategy.
Set the intention/goal
Why are you hosting this event? Is it a networking event? Is it to get more engagement in your product or service? An awards ceremony? This is the most important part of your event strategy. If you don’t know the intention of your event the likelihood is neither will your guests.
Organise a timeline
Start a set-up and planning schedule that includes selecting sponsors, staging, audio-visuals, etc. You should also be scheduling talent, any panels or performances and how exactly you hope to run the event. Remember that your event schedule may change as you put all the pieces together, but a general framework will keep you on the right track.
Prepare budget
Budget is the biggest factor to plan for, as it will help ground you in your ideas. You might have a fantastic vision with grand ideas across the team, but you should understand the reality of your event, and what ideas are essential to your goals and what might need to be reconsidered.
Establish a target audience
You probably want to gain the intrigue of a diverse group, but the reality is that not everyone is going to be interested in your event. Whether it’s an internal occasion or external, understand exactly who your audience is, what their goals are and how that goal matches with your event’s goal.
Marketing strategy
So, you know your audience – how will you let them know about your event? And how will you make sure they go? Determine what platforms will get the attention of your potential guests and start building a strategy that leads them to an RSVP.
Understand measures of success
All elements of your event should be measurable so you can determine the success of planning, of engagement and overall event success. Set some measures that pair with your goals, budget and timeline to reflect on post-event.
Implement a great event strategy with AVisual
We can’t all be experts at running events, so if you’re looking for support, consultation or just equipment hire, reach out to the team at AVisual today. We have an experienced team that work with you to create the perfect event strategy, set up or event and manage all lighting, sound and visual setups required. Partner with AVisual to make your event a success. Call us on 1300 AVISUAL.
