Planning an event needn’t be a nightmare or a headache if you follow some essential tips on planning and organising. Here are our tips to ensure that come to the big event, you are still standing and can make the most of all your hard work.
1 Plan Early
As soon as you know you are hosting an event, some jobs can not wait. It would be a shame to get so close and run out of money, so set realistic goals and carry out some preliminary enquiries before rushing too far ahead. Once you have sorted your location you should look at the services and equipment you will need. Set a budget and where possible have a contingency of at least 10% for unexpected costs or price increases. The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on event safety will help ensure that the event runs safely.
2 Make a Timetable
Once you have a countdown and timeline in place, you will see how busy you are likely to be and can plan further help and services in good time.
3 Book Essential Services Early
This is especially important. After all, you don’t want to be open and ready to go without essential facilities in place. Event facilities hire companies can get booked up early for essential services such as toilets, welfare units etc., so it’s vital to make early decisions and ensure you choose a reliable company for your event facilities hire. You don’t want to be without essential services on opening. An experienced and reliable event hire facilities company can help you decide on the number of facilities required for your expected capacity and offer you a range of facilities to meet the likely demand.
4 Enlist Help
Delegate specific jobs or event management areas, hand over responsibility, but don’t take your eye off the ball. Ensure you keep in touch and get regular progress reports and updates from anyone you have tasked with handling event decisions. Break tasks into critical areas, such as venue logistics, facilities, catering, guest or entertainment booking, advertising, ticket sales, parking, and other relevant areas. Of course, you need to trust those you delegate to; your event’s size will determine how many people you will need to involve.
5 Share The Plan
To ensure that the assigned duties and actions of others do not clash, it’s a good idea to create a shared document between organisers that can be updated, edited and commented on to ensure a cohesive approach to the event and decisions taken.
6 Don’t Forget Parking
Ensure adequate arrangements for parking, staff, and event facilities and consider access for equipment when parking is being used. Ensure you have clear instructions and directions in place to keep vehicles and pedestrians in the area safe. Then it’s time to consider how your guests and visitors will arrive and ensure that you can safely accommodate the number you are expecting and what will happen should more people turn up to ensure site safety.
Do Your Research
Of course, your event will be unique, but it is a good idea to make some exploratory visits to similar events to see how well or poorly they manage the issues and situations that you will face and learn from them. Planning an event should be fun, so it’s essential to have a good idea of what it entails before you get involved in professional event management to help you keep the inevitable stresses to a minimum. You should aim to make the day or days fun for the visitors, those staffing the event, and yourself.
Follow our tips, and ensure that everything is in place early on the big day and you are sure to be relaxed enough to have time to participate and enjoy your own event.