Are you thinking about setting up an event planning side hustle? Check out this event planning checklist to keep up with everything you need for a great event.
Organizing a corporate event can be a way to demonstrate new product lines, meet new industry contacts, and to improve existing skills.
Planning one isn’t for the faint-hearted, however. Organizing a big event takes time, money, and a lot of preparation to get it right.
So how can you start planning a large event without making mistakes? By having an event checklist to follow, step by step.
And that’s exactly what we’ve got for you. Here’s our ultimate event planning checklist for you to make your next event successful.
What Do You Want to Achieve?
Before you start preparing an event plan, you should first decide what it is you actually want to achieve with your event.
Do you want it to serve an educational purpose? Is it promotional — for your business and its products? Or is it more for recreational purposes, as a treat for your colleagues?
Deciding the purpose can help you as you head into the planning stage. You can figure out rough figures for your attendance, as well as understand (at this early stage) what sort of venue you might need.
Confirm Your Budget
With an idea of your goals in mind, the next decision to make — and potentially the most important — is the size of your budget.
Without a firm idea of how much you can spend, you can’t decide on a venue, catering, speakers, or any other requirements for your event.
If you’ve organized an event before, great! Your figures may not be too dissimilar, and this can help you plan your budget much more effectively.
If you haven’t, you may need to do a little bit of research. It’s better to overestimate than underestimate.
If you’re unsure how big your budget should be for your event, don’t worry. There are event budgeting guides available that can help you narrow things down from a financial perspective.
Check and Decide a Date
If you have a budget, the next decision on your event planning timeline is deciding on a suitable date.
Your date can have a big impact on your preparations. If you decide on a date that’s unsuitable for your business requirements or it’s around major vacation periods, you’re not going to get the attendance numbers you need.
You might also find that your budget is impacted with reservations for venues at higher rates. Try to pick a date that’s a reasonable period into the future, to give you breathing space to prepare.
Find a Suitable Location
With a date decided, you can start to look for a suitable location for your event. You might want to keep it local, especially if you already have local connections with venues near your business location.
If you want to travel a little further, consider the impact this might have on accommodation and travel for your colleagues and for yourself.
Don’t just pick the first venue you find. Speak to, and visit, a few locations and get quotes for your event. You also need to check they have availability on the date you need to book!
Consider an Overall Theme
With some of the physical and practical elements out of the way, you can start to think more about your event itself. Choosing a theme “sets the scene” for the purpose of your event.
It can be used to excite your potential event attendees and generate publicity, it can link elements of your event together (from the speakers to the catering), and it can help you as you start to plan the rest of your event specifics.
Once you’ve decided a theme, you can think about the fun stuff, like an event musician! Discover more about how to find a musician for your corporate event the right way.
Further Event Planning for Events and Speakers
At this stage, you should be ready to start sketching out the nitty-gritty details.
Corporate events often use speakers to help bring in outside voices from their industry. If this is what you want to do, start thinking about names in your industry you can approach to run a session.
Speak to industry contacts about the possibility of sponsoring your event. It might not be for any financial benefit, but big names attached to your event can help generate greater interest through brand recognition.
Need some exciting event planning ideas? This event planning advice guide should prove useful.
Ramp up Event Marketing and Confirm Attendance
You should be thinking about event marketing from the beginning. Let your staff, customers, and clients know the date and specifics of your event as you confirm them.
As the event date gets closer, you should ramp up your event marketing efforts. Build a website for your event with an easy form for users to guarantee attendance (as well as to help you build an email marketing list for the future).
With an idea of potential event numbers, you can be sure you don’t order too much food or merchandise. As the day gets closer, continue your marketing efforts with an appropriate social media campaign. Don’t forget the email reminders either!
Final Event Preparations
Before your event happens, you need to confirm everything. Share responsibilities with your team to ensure nothing gets missed.
Everything from the caterer to the tech support has to be arranged and ready for the day. Do you have somebody to hand out the event passes and confirm attendance on arrival? Do you have backups for speaker no-shows?
With your event checklist in hand, you can keep your preparation on track. Don’t stress, don’t panic — follow the plan, and let everything come together.
The day before the event, do a final run-through with your staff and any relevant vendors to be sure no detail gets missed.
Make Your Event Successful with This Event Planning Checklist
Every good event starts out with a clear and successful plan of action. With so many things to organize and put together, an event planning checklist can help alleviate some of the stress that planning a large event can cause.
Our advice? Stick to your plan.
Confirm a budget on paper, organize your event specifics, and confirm attendance before your event happens. Make sure everybody is following the same plan by distributing a copy of your checklist to all parties involved in your event setup.
Check out some other business strategy articles for more ideas and strategies.
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