Over the past couple of months our team has had the opportunity to help clients plan and execute special events and I have been in Account Manager seventh heaven! I love to plan events. Being a natural planner and having a wealth of event planning experience from high school and college activities, I’ve gravitated towards event planning since being in the working world. I simply love to coordinate something and see it all come together on the designated day.
Always be prepared for the unexpected like the ever changing weather forecast, tip 1 for event planning!
Not everything always goes according to plan though (or does it ever?), so being prepared for the unexpected is the first tip I’d share with other corporate (or just for fun) party planners.
Time is always of the essence…right? So with that in mind I share my next tip: to always start event planning early, early, early to make sure you have enough time to plan the event itself (which is typically the easiest of the tasks) and get the right people to RSVP. For example, if your business is hosting a free event like a seminar or launch party for a new product, you most likely want customers and potential customers to attend. To obtain these crucial RSVPs, you’ll want to plan and execute a marketing campaign to get them there. Getting the right peeps in the seats is no easy task so start early! Time is always of the essence.
Tip three…say cheese! Take pictures at the event or capture a video, if applicable and appropriate, to share with guests and those who weren’t able to attend. This helps in two ways as it lets guests reminisce about the event, comment on their experience (hopefully positive!) and it connects with those who didn’t attend, showing what they missed out on. To do that you can post event pictures on Facebook, write a blog post and attach a picture, send a thank for coming email or Tweet about it.
My last tip is to have fun! Event planning can be stressful especially when things don’t go as planned, you are in a time crunch with few RSVPs or your camera battery dies 10 minutes into the event. So in light of any or all of the mishaps that might happen, enjoy your event and simply have fun!
