Organising an event can seem a daunting task so discover a few of our top organisation tips and tricks to ensure that your next event runs smoothly! 

Running an event can seem a daunting task, even to those who’ve been running events for years. To ensure your event runs a smoothly as possible, it’s important to set clear goals, prepare a schedule, look for partners, find service providers and, in our opinion, manage your ticketing!  

Here are a few tips and tricks to ensure that you can minimise some of that necessary stress when you plan your next event and help it go as seamlessly as possible! 

Write everything down on paper first

Find yourself a piece of paper and brainstorm down all your goals for the event. By doing this, it will help you clarify what the purpose of your event is. Think about why you’re creating this event and who you’re creating it for. 

There are many events out there, from cultural to social to sports events, so you need to work out what makes your event special. What makes your event different from the rest? This will help you to identify your unique selling point (USP). 

These elements will offer you guidance in planning your event.  They’ll act as a signpost to help you avoid going in a different direction that may not benefit your end goal. Having all these goals outlined at such an early stage can also help you in the future when you may potentially approach partners and sponsors. If you have a clear and solid idea of your goals, it’ll make it far easier to communicate that message to others. 

From this point, you’ll define the visual elements of your event and help you shape the tone of the voice you want to give your event. 

Create a schedule and budget forecast 

This will become the holy grail of your event! Taking the time to plan all the tasks that need to be completed and managed throughout the planning phase until the day of your event can be incredibly beneficial. Always be open to reviewing these throughout the process, though. 

Some of the things you’ll need to plan  will include: 

• Building your teams 
• Looking for partners and service providers 
• Creating commu­nic­ation tools 
• Choosing and creating your online ticketing tool  
• Producing elements of your event 
• Looking for speakers or bands 
• Safety and other admin and legal steps, etc. 

These steps can obviously vary depending on your event: you might need more steps or sometimes less. It would help if you covered everything you may need to do in the early stages of event planning, so you know what you have ahead of you. 

Once you’ve planned and listed out all your tasks, begin to start organising your event. Event planning is notorious for being full of surprises, both good and bad, so it’s important to have a rough idea of a backup plan if not everything goes as expected. 

At the same time as creating your planning schedule, you can begin to plan your budget, looking at available funds, forecasted revenue, financial needs, etc. It’ll be far easier to begin tackling your budget once you’ve completed your tasks and expenses, and this forecast will be crucial when approaching sponsors, donors and partners. 

Contact potential sponsors, partners or benefactors 

Usually, one of the first tasks in your schedule is to research and secure potential partners, sponsors and benefactors. Their support of your event can be a huge help in financial help, wellbeing and even equipment. It can also be precious in terms of exposure. 

This process can require a lot of time and energy. The key to this is to define which organisations may be interested. You’ll need to look at which ones you can provide benefits to, as well as how they can benefit you. For example,  can you provide sponsors with links into the local community or help build up their image and reputation within certain sectors? In return, the potential sponsors can then help by being part of your event planning and the event itself (speaker engagements, product samples, etc.). 

Service Providers 

When looking for partners and sponsors, you’ll also have to start looking for service providers. Obviously, this can differ hugely depending on the needs of your event. Usually, it’s  common to have contracts with: 

• A service provider to ensure health and safety on-site and at entrances (the venue can sometimes supply this) 
• A caterer, food supplier or catering company for your teams and guests 
• Before the event, a platform to manage ticketing or regis­tra­tions (a service we can provide, click here for more details) 
• A technical provider for everything that relates to sound and lighting, internet access, etc. 

Many opera­tional roles can be outsourced to service providers. Don’t hesitate to write a specific­ation note listing your expect­a­tions and needs and issue a tender to choose them well. This will allow you to assess different proposals and prices. 

Sell your tickets 

As mentioned in the previous step, your ticketing platform is at the heart of your event. To make sure you get great attendance to your event, register to your online ticketing platform and list your event with plenty of time to market your event to make sure you see a high rate of ticket sales and registrations. 

Many options are available to support and market your ticketing, such as: 

• Creating promo­tional codes to incentivise your attendees to share or commu­nicate about your event, as well as  boost your sales 
• Promoting your event on social media with lots of insider information about your event 
• Embedding your tickets on your website 

Strong Communication 

Linked to having high ticket sales, your event’s communication should be planned to help trigger your audience to perform certain actions at certain times. The can lead to an increasingly high impact on them as the event gets closer. 

Make sure you target potential attendees using the most relevant support at certain times. For example, using social media, press, poster campaigns, partners, and media helps increase awareness around your event. Incentivise ticket sales at certain times using promotional codes as previously mentioned. You can use so many communication tools to maximise your potential audience; it’s up to you to choose which would work best for your event. 

Create a press kit for the media to talk about your event and offer interviews, testimonies and reporting opportunities for the day of the event. The local and regional press may be interested in covering your event, so it’s always good to be prepared. This strategy will obviously need to fit in with your budget. 

Spoil your attendees 

The experience you create for your attendees should be your number one priority when developing your event: 

• Make sure you remind everyone involved with your event of the essential and useful information ahead of time. 
• Create a friendly, warm and approachable atmosphere at the event itself 
• Establish dedicated spaces to relax and enjoy the event, and don’t forget about the basics such as toilets, water fountains and access for people with reduced mobility 
• Have locations where attendees can seek out additional information depending on the scale of your event. – having easy access to these facilities and short waiting times will improve the attendees experience overall. 

Brief, Communicate and Review 

Before the main event day, take the time to create a summary of all the necessary information for your attendees and anyone who might be involved in your event. Make sure everyone has all the information they need.  

Ensure any staff you have can communicate effectively throughout your event. This way, both you and them will be able to keep an eye on the event’s progress, track any feedback or handle any possible questions your attendees may have.  

Once your event is over, don’t forget to get a review from any staff you may have at the event and your attendees to discuss what worked well and what you might need to watch out for next time!