Sukhpreet Kaur, Lovely Professional University Unit 7: Planning for Events and Event Proposal Unit 7: Planning for Events and Event Proposal Notes CONTENTS Objectives Introduction 7.1 Key Factors in Planning an Event 7.2 Steps to Planning an Event 7.3 Planning to Produce an Event 7.4 Event Market Research 7.5 Steps involved in Event Planning 7.2 Tools used for Event Planning 7.6 Full-Featured Event Planning 7.1 Pre-wedding Arrangements 7.2 Main Wedding Day Arrangements 7.3 Post-wedding Arrangement 7.4 Event Strategic Planning 7.1 Planning to Plan 7.2 Confirming Validity, Reliability and Security 7.5 Role of Event Planner 7.6 Preparation for Event Proposal 7.1 Writing an Event Proposal 7.2 Proforma for Approval 7.4 Event Proposal Guide 7.7 Corporate Event Planning Ideas and Tips 7.1 Procedure that leads to precise conference Contd. LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 147 Event Management Notes 7.3 Conference Planning Checklist 7.9 Birthday Party Planning 7.13 Further Readings Objectives After studying this unit, you should be able to: Know the need of planning Discuss the key factors in planning in event management Identify the planning procedure Explain the elements of event proposal Describe the preparation of event proposal Introduction Whether you call it event planning, event management, event marketing, conference management, meeting planning, or conference planning, it’s not an easy task. It requires a lot of thinking and expertise.1 Event Planning The first and foremost thing to do while planning an event is to know about the client’s expectations. When a client first approaches you for assigning a task, sit with him and find out what he wants and how he wants it.
Keep in mind the fact that the client has a very hazy idea of what he wants. He expects you to change that hazy idea into a reality. So, you first need to strike a good rapport with him. Once you know his expectations you can start giving your inputs.
Since you are a professional event planner he is bound to believe that you have a better knowledge about these things and will respect your judgment.1 Key Factors in Planning an Event 1. Check the feasibility 2. Is the event a good idea? 3. Are we in the right community? 4.
Who would be the spectators? 5. About the venue 6. About the media of advertising 7. Fund stream 148 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY Unit 7: Planning for Events and Event Proposal 7.2 Steps to Planning an Event Notes The first step to planning an event is determining its purpose, whether it is for a wedding, company, birthday, festival, graduation or any other event requiring extensive planning.
From this the event planner needs to choose entertainment, location, guest list, speakers, and content. The location for events is endless, but with event planning they would likely be held at hotels, convention centers, reception halls, or outdoors depending on the event. Once the location is set the coordinator/planner needs to prepare the event with staff, set up the entertainment, and keep contact with the client. After all this is set the event planner has all the smaller details to address like set up of the event such as food, drinks, music, guest list, budget, advertising and marketing, decorations, all this preparation is what is needed for an event to run smoothly.
An event planner needs to be able to manage their time wisely for the event, and the length of preparation needed for each event so it is a success.3 Planning to Produce an Event Following steps are involved in producing an event: 1. Do Market Research. Prepare Event Plan. Thoroughly Test market your event plan.
discuss your event plan with other people to know their opinions and suggestions. Get organizers for your event. Prepare your Event Calendar.4 Event Market Research Following steps are involved in event market research: 1. Determine your business potential through SWOT and Competitors’ analysis.
Determine market for your intended event. Do the target audience research 4. Prepare Market Research Report 7.5 Steps involved in event planning Following five steps are involved in Planning an Event: Why (i. event objective) Why you want to organise the event? What is your purpose of organizing the event? What do you want to get through the event? What What you are going to do in the event? (i.
decide event name, event profile, event highlights, program menu, Food and beverage menu, Guest Profile, Service providers, Entry Information, Promotional Campaign and event budget.) LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 149 Event Management Notes When When you are going to organise the event i. date and time? Where Where you are going to organise the event i. venue? Who Who will be your organizers, sponsors, partners, clients and the target audience? How many target audience you are expecting to visit the event and why? How to get Organizers for Your Event? 1. Tell about yourself and your company.
Specify Why you are worthy of Sponsorship. Give your event plan details. Notes Event Calendar It is an ordered list of activities which are needed to be executed in order to produce and market the event. These activities are of three types: pre-event, at-event and post-event activities.
Following steps are involved in preparing an event calendar: 1. Create a list of pre-event, at-event and post event activities. Set deadlines for each event activity. Assign event activities to individual team members 7.2 Tools used for Event Planning Planning a successful conference or meeting takes time and forethought, and are encouraged to begin early.
As the demand for resources is high, It is recommend to begin planning an event as soon as possible. To ensure an event is executed correctly, an event planners need some basic information such as: Department/Agency/Organization name Key contact/meeting coordinator's name, address, phone number, and email Bill to contact name, address, phone number and email Preferred date(s) of your event Nature of your event Estimated attendance Goals for your meeting/event Technical support needs Food service/catering requirements Preferred location(s) (classrooms will be assigned based on size and needs) 150 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY Unit 7: Planning for Events and Event Proposal Room set-ups/configurations Notes Parking needs Need for overnight accommodations Need for registration services Need for professional meeting planning services Free tools make planning events easier than ever. From the first stages of planning through post event followup, there are tools for every detail. The following list offers a taste of some of the best resources out there.
You can think of it as a toolkit for planning events of all shapes and sizes. Let us know in the comments what your experience is with these tools and what others you've found helpful for organizing events in the past.1 Invitations For most events, invitations are an important step. Whether it is an internal company meeting, a birthday happy hour, or your next city-wide tweetup, there are endless invitation platforms available. Each is unique and works best for different scenarios.com is a slick tool for finding common, free meeting times for a group of people.
It allows you to easily overlap the different schedules of a group of people that needs to meet. Each person selects their availability and a simple color coded calendar shows everyone what the obvious meeting time should be. It works perfectly for small groups, but obviously, with the more people you add to the equation, the lower the chances you will find that perfect meeting time when everyone is available.com is an easy, simple, and quick invite tool based completely on Twitter. What it lacks in long term event planning resources, it makes up for in ease of use.
It takes just seconds to set up an event, includes all the necessary details, and makes it incredibly easy for people to see who is attending, RSVP, and spread the word to their network through Twitter.2 Organization Tools Events can overload us with information and logistics, from planning the location to organizing information for attendees. Fortunately there is a tool out there for pretty much every organizational task you'll come across. Whether you need to work with people around the world to plan your event or you just want to gather resources for your attendees in one, easy-to- find location, there is an online resource designed for the task. Wikis: For events that are organized by multiple people or in multiple cities by volunteers, a wiki can provide an easy communication and organizational platform.
Barcamps and Social Media Clubs have launched quite successfully using wikis for planning and organizing. They offer immediate engagement for people interested in your event and when someone is able to get involved right away, they become a champion of the event. Wikis are one of the best tools for this. Google Maps: If your event involves multiple venues or a city that is away from home for your attendees, consider creating a custom Google map as a visual guide of useful places and addresses.
For people that have concerns about the area, especially looking for the right hotel, this can be a great resource. LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 151 Event Management Notes Slideshare: It is a must use site if your event utilizes presentations at all. Especially if you have multiples presentations. Create an account for your event and gather all the presenters' presentations in one place.
These are commonly featured on the front of SlideShare.net, which offers added promotion for you.3 Online Marketing It is getting pretty easy to plan and market an event entirely online these days. Marketing your event to the masses is probably the most wide open category for online event planning tools. Almost any social network or community presents marketing opportunities. Find the one that fits your event and target audience the best and try to use the tools creatively.
Facebook Events offers an "invite your friends" feature that is one of the easiest share opportunities online. Consider making your Facebook event stand out by marketing a chat or livestream of the event instead of the event itself. This allows people that may not be attending the physical event to participate in the invite process and promote for you. Ustream: Livestreaming of events is becoming more and more common, and streaming your content for free is a great marketing tool.
But Ustream and other livestreaming services (Justin.com) are more than just video feeds. You can use them to do things like interview speakers beforehand to generate buzz, and emphasize the chat features that take advantage of Twitter and Facebook, sending their interactions with your content to their networks.com allows attendees to champion your event with very valuable real estate: their avatars. The site lowers the barrier for people to be able to support your event in a very visible way. Send them to the site, they select the avatar they want and through Twitter OAuth they are given a new avatar in seconds.
There are two main options: provide an overlay such as a logo in the corner or replace the avatar completely with a full image advertising your event.4 Communities, Connecting If you have multiple or repeating events, you need to try and organize the community that will inevitably form around them. These resources range from loose affiliations that allow you to browse groups to more complete social networks. Many groups will start on the lower end of the scale, say a Facebook Group or Meetup.com, and evolve over time into more of a complete social network of their own.com is built to help people form grassroots offline meetup groups. Groups are $72 a year and come with a nice set of community and invite tools.
There is a large built-in community waiting for groups to form around niches in which they are interested. Email notifications are sent to Meetup.com users when a new group in their area is created around a niche that they have expressed interest in.